Whether you’re emailing 500 CEOs or 50 niche decision-makers, the rules have nevertheless changed. Buyers are now more informed, more privacy-aware, and much less tolerant of irrelevant, poorly timed, or even aggressive outreach. This, along with GDPR tightening, inbox competition at an all-time high, and AI personalisation raising expectations, the businesses that succeed are the ones that respect the recipient and by putting them first.

At Go Live Data, we work with many SMEs, scaleups, and corporate and enterprise teams every month and the same issues keep coming up. So here are the biggest mistakes we see (and how to avoid them before they turn your email campaigns into a nightmare).

1) Don’t frighten prospects with irrelevant outreach by using intent data

The fastest way to lose trust? Email someone about something they don’t need, at a time they’re not considering a purchase or signing up to a new insurance deal, so rather than blasting the entire database, it’s important to use intent signals such as behaviour and browsing patterns, sector trends, and potential timing ‘triggers.’ For example, if a business is actively researching recruitment tools, that’s when they’ll want to hear from HR-tech providers, and preferably not six months down the line. Relevance, therefore, is essential to any email marketing campaign.

2) Frequency matters – and it’s rarely ‘more = more’

One of our biggest principles at Go Live Data is the ‘Frequency Rule’: whereby the sweet spot for outreach is little and often, as opposed to constant and demanding. Too many SMEs think ‘keep sending until they respond’ – but that’s exactly what puts you as a business on the unsubscribe list.

A good rule of thumb to follow?

• Awareness phase – is every 10–14 days
• Warm lead nurture – weekly works – providing the content adds value
• Sales follow-up – should never more than three attempts without a response

If the recipient isn’t replying, it’s not because you need to send more emails – it’s undoubtedly because you're sending the wrong ones.

3) Educate before you sell

The best performing B2B emails in 2025 aren’t the ones selling anything, it’s those that are teaching and educating the recipient. SME buyers want insight and if every email is an ask, e.g. “book a demo,” “schedule a call,” “act now,” you become unwanted noise.

Another of our principals that we advise others to follow suit with, is to flip the ratio: 80% useful, non-sales content vs 20% invitation, next step, or offer.

This way you are starting a conversation, one that will engage the recipient, build trust, and eventually result in becoming a new client.

4) Personalisation is more than using someone’s first name

‘Hi John’ isn’t justified anymore as personalisation, however, behaviour-based messaging is, along with role-specific insight and timing-based offers and services. Real personalisation sounds more like: “We’ve seen an increase in  retail hiring – here’s the data behind it and what it means for your region.” That shows actual understanding over a message that’s automated, generic and doesn’t relate to the recipient.

5) GDPR is the framework for trust

Many SMEs still see compliance as a reason not to communicate with their target markets. In reality, GDPR is what protects your reputation. If you’re sourcing data responsibly, emailing ethically, and making opt-out effortless, you’ll build more trust and form better relationships with your contacts. It’s less about conducting email marketing campaigns, and much more about emailing carelessly.

6) Measure the right metrics

Opens and clicks are useful, but they’re not impactful nor do they mean a huge amount in marketing terms. What does matters is, the number of replies you received, how many conversations got started and how many deals were influenced by an email or, a series of them?

SMEs that track outcomes instead of simply looking at the vanity metrics, will spend less, convert more, and waste far less time.

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