Happy New Year!
I accomplished a lot in 2025, going through plenty of ups and downs.
I launched 3 products, bounced between clients and agencies, started working hard on list growth, began building a great business partnership with a friend, and much more.
We’re now 2.5 weeks into 2026, and I hope things have gone well for you so far.
Which brings me to the topic of this newsletter…
Easy email marketing wins you can lock in this year.
You’ll learn 9 of them below. A few take only a few minutes, meaning you can knock them out in a day. Others require a bit more effort, but are straightforward.
You can get all these done by early February. Let’s get started…
1. Create ONE Reusable Broadcast Template
One of the first things I do with new clients is create a broadcast template.
This lets me send a “mostly plain text” email with some branding instead of a pure plain-text email — saving me time on designing each email.
Your template doesn’t have to be fancy. Just needs some light branding and formatting:
- Logo with brand color background at the top
- Greeting line (such as “Hello [FIRSTNAME]”) and a signoff/signature block
- Footer with unsubscribe/other buttons at the bottom
- Light margin editing/font selection so emails are nice to look at
Knock this out in 5-10 minutes, and you’ll never need to do it again (unless you want to edit it).
2. Implement 2-3 High-Leverage Email Flows
I count 18 flows on my internal “flows to fix/implement” checklist…
But you don’t need the entire lifecycle to see potential results ASAP.
Trying to do everything at once usually stalls progress. It’s better to implement 2-3 high-leverage flows — those that reliably drive ROI with minimal complexity.
Everything else is more advanced and can come later.
If you don’t have any flows in place yet, start with these:
- Welcome: Intros the brand, sets expectations, leads to the first sale.
- Abandoned Cart: Recovers high-intent revenue from skeptical or forgetful customers.
- Abandoned Checkout: Catches hesitant buyers on the verge before they vanish.
If you have those three core flows, layer in these three to retain more customers:
- Upsell/Cross-Sell: Sells a complementary product to secure a repeat purchase.
- Replenishment: Nudges customers to reorder consumables at the right time.
- Winback: Saves lapsed customers, earning you another sale.
These work largely without thinking about them. And each of the ones listed here (besides the Welcome Sequence) are easy.
Even a few of the basics will give you more financial room to work with via mostly passive revenue.
3. Implement or Enhance Your Post-Purchase Flow
The Post-Purchase Flow turns a one-off buyer into a repeat customer and, eventually, a loyal advocate who comes back routinely (often without your input).
3-4 emails (besides shipping/order confirmation) works for a “minimum viable flow” if you lack this. You can build on it later.
Focus on the basics:
- What to expect
- How to use the product
- What comes next
- Feedback/reviews
If you already have a Post-Purchase Flow, small enhancements go a long way:
- Spice up shipping and order confirmation emails
- Find natural upsell or cross-sell opportunities
- Add light personalization, such as making a repeat customer branch
Onboard new customers properly, and you’ll cut churn and gain profit.
4. Audit Your Last 30 Days of Emails
Look at the last 30 days of emails you’ve sent and ask three questions:
- What did we send?
- Why did we send it?
- How did it perform?
- What did we not send?
You’ll often spot gaps immediately — missing holiday/niche-themed opportunities, long stretches without communication, or an overreliance on promotions.
You may also notice emails that existed out of habit rather than intention.
This audit helps you lay the groundwork for future email planning, even when little data is available.
You have a record of what you’ve done, so planning and sending new emails (see the next section) isn’t totally alien.
5. Build a Simple 90-Day Email Marketing Calendar
A simple 90-day calendar is enough to remove one of the biggest sources of friction:
Deciding what to send each week.
No tech setup or copywriting yet. Just note the sends in a spreadsheet.
Each month gets a sale. Mark those days (holidays work well).
Outside of that, plan a few value emails a week. Mark those.
Don’t send at all currently? Start with 1-2/week. Thus, you fill out 12-24ish rows in your spreadsheet.
Already send? Up your cadence by 1 email/week. Monitor your opens, clicks, and deliverability stats.
If everything looks good, you’re likely making more money…
And all you did was add a weekly email or two.
(Note: Section 4 — Auditing your last 30 days of emails — makes this easier.)
(Another note: Grab these email templates to save time and mental energy once you get to writing the emails.)
6. Set Up Basic Segmentation
Some overcomplicate segmentation to sound smart (marketers) or due to confusion/worry (brand owners).
Advanced segmentation strategies exist. The keyword is “advanced.” If you’re wading into email, these five segments cover 80% of what you need:
- “Never purchased” subscribers: Educate and reduce friction to first purchase.
- Engaged (180 days is a good start): Your main segment for mailing content + offer, launches, and promotions.
- VIPs (top 10-15% spend & 2+ orders over all time): Special deals, early access, exclusive tips, etc.
- Flow exclusion segment: Exclusion segment to prevent customers in flows from getting overwhelmed or double-mailed with irrelevant broadcasts.
- Purchased in the last X days: Exclusion segment to prevent recent buyers from getting more emails about products they just bought. Optional.
These take 10 minutes to set up. Then, you can stop sending the same message to everyone…
Which results in better engagement, higher conversion rates, happier customers, and emails that feel intentional.
7. Clean Up Your Opt-In/Signup Experience
Many people get on your list via your lead magnet/incentive. Minor opt-in form(s) tweaks can lead to significant improvements in subscriber quality and quantity.
For example, I once caused a healthy bump in subscribers and new lead revenue by adding a testimonial to a client’s opt-in pop-up.
Some actions to consider:
- Improve the headline so it clearly answers “Why should I join?”
- Test a new incentive to boost signups, reduce freebie seekers, and/or improve margins.
- Reduce friction by eliminating unnecessary fields, simplifying choices, and streamlining design.
- Collect zero-party data such as goals, preferences, and usage to enhance personalization.
- Clarify what emails to expect to avoid surprising subscribers and reduce unsubscribes.
Don’t test everything at once.
Isolate one variable at a time (note that a new incentive may require new headline/button copy). If performance improves, keep the latest version and test something else.
Now, a total revamp may be in the cards if your opt-in performance is in the toilet.
This is situation-dependent, so it’s up to your judgment (unless you hire an expert to look).
One other note:
Ensure you have paths to subscribe in your header and footer. Don’t rely only on a pop-up.
8. Make Sure To Fix Technical Errors
I’ve seen clients who had flows entirely set up, yet were mystified — the flows were making no money!
Not “making a little bit, but should be earning more.”
I mean $0.
Lo’ and behold, the flow is literally turned off.
Or, in other cases, a filter or split was set up wrong… excluding everyone from the flow.
Earlier, I said flows work while you’re not thinking about them. But you can’t set and forget them entirely.
Do a once-over of all your flows and other things. Check for and fix these errors.
Then, do this audit quarterly/monthly. It pays to keep things working and fix issues ASAP.
9. Remove One Thing That’s Not Working
The past 8 wins were addition. But sometimes, the fastest win comes from subtraction.
Look for one thing to remove:
- Kill an underperforming flow email that doesn’t drive revenue or engagement
- Remove a confusing offer that creates friction or decision fatigue
- Downgrade your ESP plan if you’re paying for unused features/volume
- Remove unused tools or integrations that add complexity without ROI
Less clutter means clearer messaging, stronger performance, more efficiency, and easier execution.
Trim the fat so the things that do work have more room to perform (while you save money in many cases).
Consistency Beats Complexity
You don’t have to overhaul everything at once. Momentum is better than perfection.
But some of these — creating a broadcast template, setting up basic segments, removing something — take as few as 5 minutes…
Meaning you could knock out several in a single short, focused session.
The others?
Set specific times to knock them out one by one. The sooner you do so, the stronger you’ll start 2026. I bet you could get them all done within 1-2 weeks…
And even faster if you hire the right help. Reach out below/by replying to me if you prefer professional help.
What I’m Focused On This Year
First, I’m on the lookout for 2 brands to go deep with. I’m talking long-term engagements where we’d find and pull all the levers needed to help you fight churn, keep more customers, and grow sustainably over the long-term.
Aka more of a “partnership” than a “project.”
I am also focused on growing my Substack and, by extension, my personal email list.
Furthermore, I’m building some new products and resources.
On the products side, I have a calendar planning workshop in the works. It’s a bit in limbo, but a good chunk of the assets are done.
As for resources, I am building a library of guides, checklists, etc. to solve specific problems for copywriters and business owners. I’m currently finishing up a guide to the basic front-end and back-end automated email sequences.
What To Do Next
- Share this article with someone who might find it helpful (or entertaining).
- Subscribe to my Substack to get these in your inbox every Friday.
- Get my free eBook using the form below to learn the 5 things stopping you from turning “one-and-done” customers into repeat buyers.
- Grab my 21 best email templates/frameworks.
- Reach out to me if you have a sizable email list and make less than 20% of your revenue through email.