A Simple Email Strategy for 2026

Breanna Owen (00:00)

I need you to kiss your emails goodbye. Yes, I said it. Kiss your emails goodbye.

Before you hit send, I want you to keep it super simple. K-I-S-S.

There’s a saying that’s been around for a long time in the marketing and business world. You’re probably familiar with it. You’ve probably heard it a time or two. It’s this premise that we — as business owners, as marketers, as content creators — need to be dumbing down our content because people are stupid, because people are dumb.

I don’t think that is entirely accurate.

On one hand, sure, people don’t know as much as you know about your area of subject matter expertise. That’s kind of the whole point — you know more because this is what you do day in and day out. You’re really good at it. If they knew what you knew, would they really need you? Now, caveat there — even as I say that, I’m like, well, obviously yes, because what we can do well for other people we can’t always do for ourselves. But there’s still that point: in general, your audience doesn’t know what you know. That’s what makes you the expert.

So yeah, I don’t think it’s fair to call them stupid or dumb. But they are overwhelmed AF.

We are in an age of information overload. It is proven that our brains are processing an overwhelming abundance of information at any given moment. And doing like a true Line 1 ten-minute rabbit hole — my personal chart is a 5/1 Generator — I looked at several different articles in a really short period of time, and one of them mentioned a 2025 study estimating that people process and encounter hundreds of thousands of words per day.

Studies have also been done on how much information our brains process at any given second. Now, not all of that information do we consciously take in — it’s not like you’re aware of the millions and billions of thoughts happening in every single nanosecond. But it all feeds into this idea and the premise that we’re overwhelmed. We have so much going on. There’s so much information coming at us. People are asking us so many things. And we only have so much capacity to handle it all.

So again, I don’t think people are dumb and stupid. But I do think it is important for us as marketers and as business owners to keep the information we share as simple — and dare I say succinct, because I know that isn’t always my giftedness — as possible.

I found something that listed out some of the measurable effects of information overload. What happens to us because of all of this? Some things include reduced decision-making abilities, reduced willpower, inability to focus, reduced critical thinking capacity, and disassociation.

Yes. All of these sound familiar to me. I don’t know about you.

And all of this has to do with your emails. All of this has to do with the inbox.

I’ve had multiple versions of this same conversation this week, which tells me it’s more than a coincidence. And I was really excited to bring this to you today.

It all started for me on Monday when I was having a conversation with my church, of all organizations. A few weeks ago, they announced that the church had swapped email service providers. In that process, they started hearing that their emails were landing in spam or not being delivered at all. So they asked their congregation to search for them in the inbox and add their email to contacts.

All of my brain wires were raised and paying attention — because I am an email expert. This is what I do. This is what I talk about. And I knew immediately, even though they hadn’t said these words, that they were talking about their sender reputation.

When you switch email systems and email service providers, the server from which your emails are sent also changes. I think of it like moving across the country. Where you once were, everybody knows you. You have history there, you have a reputation. But when you move, those people don’t know you — and you have to build your reputation from scratch. When you swap email systems and servers, you are essentially having to rebuild your reputation.

Oh my gosh — this is a whole other conversation that maybe needs its own separate episode. If that’s something you’re interested in, let me know. But my point being: I was able to say, hey, you’re talking about something different, and just saving an email address isn’t going to do it — but I’m willing to have a conversation with you if you’d like my insight and advice on how to navigate this.

Which led into a really great conversation with our amazing admin Jess about a lot of different email things for the church in particular. One of the things we talked about was how currently the church sends out one email a week, on Sundays. There are other things that come through — hey, there’s a new baby, let’s put a meal train together — but by and large, it’s one weekly email with everything in it.

One of the things I mentioned to Jess was how it might seem a little counterintuitive, but if the church were to shift to multiple emails a week with less information in each one, I would actually open and read their emails more. Because there’s so much information in the one email they send that a lot of the good details are being missed. It goes back to the idea of less is more.

Her response was really fascinating to me. And I don’t think she’s alone in this thought process. I’m so grateful she was willing to say it out loud, because now I get to bring it to you. Because I have a feeling somebody listening — if not you, maybe somebody you know — has this same feeling.

She said part of the reason they only send one email a week is because they don’t want to add to the noise of the inbox by sending multiple emails.

Okay. Yes. Let’s talk about this.

What Actually Makes the Inbox Noisy

Because first of all, the inbox is already noisy. That’s like saying you don’t want to make the ocean more wet by dumping a bucket of water in it. The ocean is already wet. And second of all — do you know what actually makes the inbox so noisy? Having to filter through emails that don’t matter.

So if you are sending an email for the sole purpose of sending the email — to check “send email to my people” off a to-do list — please don’t. Save us all and don’t do that.

I was talking about this with a business peer this week. When we were talking about this, she put it like this — and I’m going to paraphrase. The idea being: you are wasting my time and costing me money when I have to read an email, especially a longer one, just to find out it doesn’t matter to me. Or when I’m reading an email trying to figure out how it matters or what I’m supposed to do — that takes extra mental energy and mental capacity. And for a business owner, that’s money. So just tell me directly what you need me to know, and I can decide what to do with it from there.

Ain’t Nobody Got Time for Unnecessary Emails

Part of the reason this conversation feels so timely right now is because it’s summer. And depending on your audience, this might look slightly different for them. But especially being a mom with kids home from school, I have real, teeny, tiny, microscopic pockets of time to work with. Any sort of heads-down focused work time is essentially non-existent for the next three months or so. I have never been in my inbox less than I have been these past few months. I will skim the sender column once or twice a day to see if there’s anything really personal and really pertinent. But otherwise, I just don’t have the time, energy, or mental capacity to be reading all of the emails coming through — even if they are really great emails.

Maybe your ideal audience isn’t in summer mom mode — especially if you’re listening to this in the middle of winter. Sorry for the loss of the warmth and the sunshine and the flowers. But that’s not my point. My point is: it doesn’t matter what season of life or rotation of the earth they’re in. Ain’t nobody got time for unnecessary emails right now. We are just in that day and age.

Micro Stories and Email CTAs That Convert

Now, before you start thinking I’m saying things I’m not — don’t be putting words in my mouth here. This is not me hating on storytelling emails. Tell stories. Storytelling is the oldest form of communication for a reason. But this could be a really good season for you to try working with micro stories. How can you take a story and condense it into a few sentences? How can you distill it down to the single moment that matters?

I think we’ve gotten so focused on the storytelling aspect of email marketing that we’ve really neglected the CTAs. Your stories are great. Your CTAs are soft. How can we shift this a bit — a little less story, more emphasis on: clear, kind, direct. Here’s what I want you to do now.

I tell my clients and really anybody who will listen that the best CTAs are easy and obvious. Tell them exactly what you want them to do next, why they’re doing it, and what’s on the other side of it. Click here to download this. I’d love to talk more — here’s a link to my calendar, grab a time that works for you. The more I have to think about it, the less likely I am to take action. Clear is kind. Clear is kind.

A Simple Email Strategy for Every Send

So as you’re sending emails this summer, here are a few friendly reminders. Take them if you’d like. Leave them if you hate them. That’s fine too.

One: Save your time and your sanity.

If you cannot think of a good reason to send the email — and to be fair, there are a million good reasons to send an email: you have something to say, something to share, a launch going on — then yes, send it. Send the email if you genuinely want to.

But if your primary reason for writing and sending it is because you feel like you have to? Then don’t. Please don’t send it. Go do something else instead. Seriously —

I mean this as an email expert. Don’t send the email.

Two: When you do go to send your email, KISS it goodbye.

Before you hit send, keep it super simple.

Why am I sending this? What is the point?
Why does it matter to the receiver?
What do I want them to do with this?

That last question becomes your CTA. And there are lots of options — click here, register for this, buy this thing, sign up for the waitlist.

But sometimes your CTA is: forward this to a friend.

Sometimes your CTA is: just enjoy. I’m sending this email because I hope it brightens your day.

Lovely.

Thank you for setting those expectations for me as the reader. I’m not going to try to read between the lines and figure out what I’m supposed to do with this. I can quickly decide — do I need my day brightened right now? This’ll be a quick little lift before I keep moving on. I love that for us.

Three: Practice those micro stories.

If you’re inclined to include a story, I have caught myself thinking, how do I add a story to this? And then realizing — I don’t want to.

Why can’t I just say, hey, I have five quick tips for you. Here you go. One, two, three, four, five. Why not? I’m going to start doing that more.

Four — or five, I don’t even remember what number we’re on: More frequent emails with fewer things per email.

A lot of the time when I talk to people who feel overwhelmed by email, it’s because they have so much to say that it becomes one really long email.

And it’s like — you can just send each one of those things as its own email.

Just the one thing at a time. Make it real short. People will love you for that.

And when you’re sending more frequently, you’re creating that top-of-mind awareness in your people’s inbox.

Not to mention — I know I appreciate the reminders.

Anytime somebody follows up and says, so sorry to be a nag, so sorry to bother you — I am very intentional about saying: you are not bothering me, you are not nagging me, thank you so much. I needed the reminder. I appreciate this greatly. I’m so glad you did.

Because people are well-meaning, but we get distracted. Life happens. More frequent deposits of a lesser amount each time really can add up to more in the long run.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention Human Design in this episode at all.

Your Human Design tells you how. Some of this is what — what do I say, how do I do this, what does this mean for me? Well, that is your Human Design. It’s how you are wired to create and connect and show up in somebody’s inbox in a way that feels good to you, is sustainable to you, gets you genuinely excited about it, and lands well for the receiver.

I have a whole list of ideas I’m really excited to talk to you about on this podcast — and one of them is on how to add value to your emails based on your Human Design. Stay tuned. That one is coming soon, maybe even later this summer.

But as I mentioned, I do have four kids home for the summer, and having consistent pockets of time — let alone quiet time for recording a podcast — is again virtually non-existent.

I do want to continue showing up and recording, but I don’t know what that’ll look like. So thank you in advance for your grace and your patience as I navigate this season.

With that said — I would love to hear from you. What’s going on with your business? What’s going on with your emails? What questions do you have about Human Design? As my business coach would say: questions, concerns, snide remarks. Send them my way. Email me directly or send me a voice note on Instagram. I’ll link both in the show notes for you.

Whatever your emails, whatever your summer, whatever season of life and business you’re in right now — go own your mark.