What is email fatigue and how to overcome it

Imagine opening your email inbox only to find it flooded with messages that you quickly ignored or deleted. Seeing this cluttered inbox is frustrating. Now imagine how your customers might feel when they receive too many emails from you. 

Overwhelmed and disengaged. Isn’t it?

Email fatigue is more than just frustration and annoyance. It causes email burnout and compels your subscribers to eventually unsubscribe from your list. This will certainly damage your brand’s relationship with your subscribers and adversely impact your email marketing performance.

In this post, we will explore the main reasons for email fatigue and share actionable steps to fight it off.

What is email fatigue?

Email fatigue is when your subscribers feel overwhelmed or become disengaged with your email marketing campaigns. This is often caused by the frequency or repetitiveness of marketing emails that often cause email overloads, leaving your subscribers tired and annoyed.

They no longer open, read, click, or even respond to your emails. Their inboxes are constantly overflowing with emails, ads, newsletters, and other messages. This sheer volume of emails leads to lower engagements and higher unsubscribe rates. 

Email fatigue or email burnout can negatively impact the overall effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. Hence, recognizing the signs of email fatigue among your subscribers is important. Some of the most common signs of email fatigue include –

• A noticeable decline in the number of subscribers opening your emails. 
• A decrease in the number of subscribers clicking on the links.
• A growth in inactive subscribers.
• A spike in the number of subscribers opting out of your email list.
• A higher number of spam reports.
• A lack of response from your subscribers.

These signs are indeed bad news for email marketers. Now is the time to hit pause and reevaluate your email marketing strategy. Remember, recognizing email fatigue is only half the battle. To address it effectively,  you need to understand why it occurs.

Why does email fatigue occur?

Everyone wishes for the dopamine rush from a clean inbox. It gives a rewarding sense of accomplishment to subscribers. However, an influx of emails can be quite overwhelming as they won’t be able to keep up with reaching inbox zero. Here are a few reasons why this happens.

• Too many choices, too little energy – Every email requires your subscriber to make a decision. Whether to open it, read it, engage with it, or simply delete it. Although this seems like a small decision to make, they add up over time, leaving your subscribers mentally drained. 
• Emotional burnout – Constant email notifications create a sort of pressure in the minds of subscribers. Email inbox feels like an ever-growing to-do list that needs to be addressed. This adds to stress and may cause anxiety.
• Information overload – Juggling between work emails, promotional messages, newsletters, and so on can leave subscribers feeling mentally fried. Thus, making it harder for them to prioritize emails and respond to the important ones.
• Anxiety from expectations – The pressure to respond to emails promptly and the fear of appearing unresponsive can cause anxiety.
• Fear of missing out (FOMO) – It instills a worry about missing out on important information and develops a habit of compulsive checking of emails. Thereby, causing mental strain.
• Reduced downtime – There is no escape from emails. As they are accessible round the clock, subscribers tend to check emails at odd hours. This unknowingly builds a culture of being constantly ‘ON’. 
• Lack of social cues – As emails lack non-verbal cues like facial expressions and tone of voice, your message could be misinterpreted. This could cause increased stress in deciphering the intent of the sender. 

Email fatigue happens when subscribers are overwhelmed and mentally exhausted. Hence, you must invest in smarter strategies to turn your emails into something that your subscribers actually look forward to.

Why it’s important to address email fatigue?

Before exploring the strategies to reduce email fatigue, let us understand why tackling this issue is important for your business and subscribers. Ignoring email fatigue can lead to –

• Decreased engagement – Subscribers may ignore or delete your emails. This results in lower open rates and click-through rates leading to lower engagement.
• Higher unsubscribe rate – Overwhelmed subscribers are more likely to opt out of receiving messages altogether. 
• Increased spam complaints – Frustrated subscribers may even mark your emails as spam, which can damage your sender’s reputation. It may also compel email providers to flag your future messages and deliver them to junk folders.

13 ways to overcome email fatigue

There are plenty of ways you can reduce, eliminate, and prevent this problem of email fatigue. Here are a few strategies to minimize it on your end.

1. Clean up your email list

Review your email list regularly to remove inactive subscribers and invalid email addresses. You may also take out the subscribers who don’t engage with your emails. A clear email list will ensure that your email campaigns are always rightly targeted. In other words, it is designed for an audience who is genuinely interested in your content. This ensures better campaign performance with an increase in open rates and reduced risks of emails being marked as spam.

To clean up and build your email list, analyze your engagement metrics for identifying subscribers who are inactive or disengaged from the last 3-6 months. Send an email to these inactive subscribers asking them if they still wish to remain subscribed. If you don’t receive a reply from them, don’t hesitate to remove them. 

You can also use email verification tools to identify invalid or fake email addresses and remove those subscribers to build a healthier audience for your campaigns.

For example, Cuisinart, a kitchen appliance and cookware brand sends out an email to disengaged subscribers asking them if they would like to continue receiving emails. 

2. Segment your audience

Categorize your target audience into smaller and more specific groups based on factors like age, location, interests, behavior, and so on. This will help you send relevant messages tailored to each group instead of blasting your whole email list with the same messages. 

Email segmentation improves your engagement rates and makes your campaigns more impactful. To create segments, you can group subscribers into categories based on –

• Activity and engagement levels. For example, highly engaged, inactive, and more.
• Actions like past purchases, abandoned carts, and so on. 
• Preferences and lifestyle choices.

For example, Airbnb leverages demographic and location-based segmentation to send emails featuring curated stays, recommendations, and activities based on the customer’s geographical location. 

3. Leverage email personalization

Personalization helps you combat email fatigue and foster strong relationships with your audience. It makes your emails feel like they are written exclusively for just one person and not the entire list. 

Today, including the subscriber’s name in the email message is no longer enough. You need to introduce personalization in different aspects of your email to build a tailored experience for your subscribers. You can do so by including dynamic content in your email message. For instance, recommending products based on past purchases, sharing content that is aligned with their interests, and so on. You can also send emails to subscribers based on specific actions like abandoned cart reminders, promotional offers, and more. 

For example, Netflix sends personalized suggestions to its subscribers based on the shows and movies they have watched.

4. Write engaging subject lines

Subject lines are the first thing your subscribers see the moment your email lands in their inboxes. They are the key determinants of whether your emails will be opened or ignored. Hence, your subject line should grab the attention of the readers and make them want to know more. 

Here are some tips to help you write catchy subject lines.

• Keep it concise (usually around 50 characters) to ensure they are easily readable, even on mobile devices.
• Personalize your subject lines by including the subscribers’ names. 
• Create a sense of urgency using phrases like ‘last chance’, ‘limited time offer’, and more to encourage your subscribers to act quickly.
• Ensure that your subject line clearly conveys the value you are offering in your email.

5. Create compelling email copy

Writing clear, persuasive, and engaging content that resonates with your subscribers is the key. Your email copy must speak directly to the readers while addressing their needs or preferences. It must offer the right information and encourage the readers to take action towards achieving certain goals. 

Remember, when your content speaks directly to your subscribers, they are more likely to take action. For instance, signing up for an event, completing a purchase, and so on. The email message reads like it was just meant for them, making them feel a strong emotional connection toward your brand. 

Here are a few tips to help you write engaging email copy.

• Highlight the value by informing subscribers how they can benefit from your offer. 
• Avoid writing long paragraphs filled with unnecessary fluff. Keep your copy simple and straight to the point. 
• Incorporate AI agents for storytelling to make your email copy more relatable. Maintain a conversational tone.
• Include a strong call to action guiding the subscribers to take further steps.

For example, Klaviyo uses concise email copy that highlights the key takeaways of the event. This certainly gives a rough idea about the event to the subscribers while convincing them to register for the same.

6. Pay attention to email design

Email design also plays an important role in creating a seamless experience for subscribers. The visual layout and overall presentation of your email content ensures that your message is easy to read and renders correctly across various devices. This includes colors, fonts, images, CTAs, and so on.

A good design captures the attention of your subscribers and communicates your message clearly. It enhances engagement and encourages clicks as subscribers can conveniently view your message and understand what action they need to take. Remember, even the best email content can be ignored by subscribers if the design is cluttered and your message is hard to read.

Here are a few email design tips to design professional-looking emails.

• Ensure that your email design is mobile-friendly as 59% of email users check their emails on mobile devices.
• Keep a clean layout with ample white space to ensure your emails are easy to read.
• Use your brand colors, logo, and other design elements to add personality to your emails.
• Don’t overwhelm your subscribers with too much textual content. Balance it subtly with different visuals like images, gifs, or videos.
• Use contrasting colors for CTA buttons to highlight them.

For example, Canva designs visually stunning emails having clean layouts and bright colors that align with their brand image. These emails also have clear CTAs that guide subscribers in taking relevant actions. 

7. Discover the best email frequency and timing

You need to get the frequency and timing right to keep your subscribers engaged without making them feel spammed. Too many emails might overwhelm them and too few emails might make them forget about you. Hence, finding the perfect balance helps your emails get noticed. This can significantly boost your open and click rates, ensuring the success of your email marketing campaigns.

To send emails at the right time and deliver value consistently, track your email engagement analytics and identify patterns in subscriber behavior. Understand when they open and interact with your emails. Based on these insights, you can experiment with different email frequencies and sending times to see what gets the best engagement. 

You can also schedule emails based on subscribers’ local time zones if your audience is spread across multiple regions. 

8. Give subscribers the ability to customize their preferences

Give your subscribers the flexibility to customize their email preferences. Let them choose how often they wish to hear from you. Allow them to choose the topics and format of your emails. By offering them control over the email type, content, and frequency of emails, you deliver a more personalized and enjoyable email experience for subscribers.

Create a user-friendly preference center that allows subscribers to adjust content categories, email frequency, and delivery formats. Include a preferences link in every email that they can use to modify their settings whenever they want. 

9. Use automation to trigger emails

Leverage automation to automatically send emails to your customers based on their actions or specific triggers. For example, customer onboarding emails, transactional emails, cart abandonment reminders, and so on. 

Email automation helps you deliver the right message at the right time, without requiring any manual intervention. You can tailor these email messages to specific subscriber behaviors to ensure timely communication with customers. For example, sending a reminder email about products waiting in the cart when a subscriber abandons his cart. Leveraging tools like Hevo Data can help automate and streamline your email workflows by integrating data from multiple sources, ensuring your email campaigns are data-driven and highly effective.

Here are a few tips to make the best use of email automation.

• Start with basic triggers such as signups, purchases, birthdays, and more to keep subscribers engaged.
• Use customer segmentation to send automated, personalized emails to a certain group of subscribers.
• Set up behavioral triggers to automatically send messages to subscribers upon completing specific actions.
• Do not hesitate to test different email delivery schedules to determine the optimal email delivery times.

For example, Archie, a coworking space management tool sends a series of welcome emails to familiarize their customers with the product.

10. Diversify your email campaigns

Create a healthy mix of different types of emails rather than relying solely on one format or purpose. Instead of sending only promotional emails, you can consider including newsletters, product updates, personalized recommendations, guides, or even surveys. This keeps your email campaigns fresh, engaging, and relevant to your subscribers. It helps you maintain your subscriber’s interest and curiosity in your email campaigns without coming across as pushy and overly promotional.

For example, Spotify balances promotional emails with engaging newsletters, relevant updates, special offers, and more. It sends promotional offers to fans on the occasion of new launches. Similarly, it sends end-of-year emails i.e. Spotify Wrapped emails that summarize subscriber’s listening habits. 

11. Invest in re-engagement sequences

Re-engagement email sequences help you win back inactive subscribers.  It is a subtle way of telling your inactive subscribers that you miss them and remind them of your brand. These emails typically aim at reigniting your subscribers’ interest in your brand and encouraging them to take specific actions. For instance, making a purchase, revisiting your website, or updating their preferences.

You can achieve this by offering a discount, a fresh look at your services, or simply a friendly nudge to log into their accounts. 

Re-engagement sequences help in reducing churn and can potentially increase conversions as they offer you a second chance to connect with your subscribers. 

12. Gather subscriber feedback

Seek feedback from your email subscribers to understand their preferences, expectations, and pain points. Use surveys, polls, or direct questions in your emails to capture their inputs. Remember, feedback provides insights into what resonates with your subscribers the most and what might be driving them away. It’s like having a heart-to-heart with your audience. It shows your subscribers that you genuinely care about their experience, building trust and loyalty.

For example, Shopify, an eCommerce website builder sends feedback requests to subscribers about their experience with the platform and its new features. 

13. Monitor email engagement metrics

Track and analyze the KPIs that showcase how your audience interacts with your emails. By doing so, you get real-time insights into how your audience feels about your emails. Some of the common metrics to track include open rates, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. You will gain insights into what is working well for your email campaigns and what is not. Monitoring metrics will help you gauge and offer answers to the following questions – 

• Did your last subject line make people curious enough to open the email?
• Are your subscribers clicking on your CTAs?
• Are you losing subscribers after certain types of email campaigns?

Besides, you can track advanced metrics such as read time, heatmaps, and engagement over time to gain deeper insights. These metrics provide data-driven feedback on the effectiveness of your email campaigns and help identify areas for improvement.

By consistently analyzing engagement metrics, you can – 

• Understand what content resonates with your subscribers 
• Determine the best email frequency and timing
• Spot and identify red flags indicating potential signs of email fatigue early on. 

Thus, ensuring your campaigns remain relevant, engaging, and impactful at all times.

Here are a few tips to help you measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

• Leverage an email marketing platform like GetResponse to track and analyze engagement.
• Track core metrics like open rates, CTR, unsubscribe rates, spam reports, and more on a regular basis. 
• Monitor other engagement metrics by subscriber segments to understand which segments are the most and least engaged.
• Test your subject lines, email content, CTA, and more to optimize them for better results.
• Use these insights to refine your email marketing strategy.

Wrapping up

Email fatigue is real and so are its consequences. However, it shouldn’t be treated as a challenge. It offers you an opportunity to rethink and revamp your email marketing strategy. You can build solid campaigns that resonate with your audience and foster strong connections with your subscribers. 

To make things easier, here is an actionable checklist to help you combat email fatigue like a pro.

CHECKLIST TO FIGHT EMAIL FATIGUE LIKE A PRO
#1. Core Strategies
	🧹 Declutter your email list	Remove inactive subscribers.
	🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Segment your audience	Send targeted emails based on behaviors and preferences.
	✨ Personalize content	Use dynamic fields like names or past interactions to tailor messaging.
#2. Content and Design
	💌 Write irresistible subject lines	Keep them short, clear, and engaging.
	📜 Focus on value-driven copy	Offer actionable advice, exclusive deals, or insights.
	🎨 Design smartly	Ensure mobile responsiveness, clean layouts, and engaging visuals.
#3.  Email Preferences and Timing
	⚙️ Empower subscribers	Allow them to set email preferences.
	⏰ Experiment with frequency and timing	Analyze when your audience is most active for better engagement.
#4. Email Marketing Software
	🤖 Leverage automation	Trigger emails based on user behavior, activity, or milestones.
	📱 Prioritize mobile optimization	Test emails across devices for the best experience.
	📊 Monitor engagement metrics	Track open rates, CTR, and more to fine-tune your email marketing strategy.
#5. Additional Tips
	🔄 Re-engage inactive subscribers	Create thoughtful win-back campaigns.
	💬 Ask for feedback	Use surveys or polls to understand what your audience wants.