Email Marketing | 2025 Guide
In addition to copywriting and design, effective email marketing requires testing, measurement and automation to get the best results. In this article, we'll cover all the basics of email marketing to help you get started
Receiving a physical, handwritten letter from a friend is rare, but receiving a promotional email that you genuinely like is even more unusual. It's not because email is no longer effective, but because it's overloaded and often poorly implemented.
Every day, more than 150 billion emails are sent and marketing experts claim that email marketing is currently one of the most lucrative marketing platforms available. Marketers record an average ROI of 36 dollars for every dollar spent on email when they send personalised, well-written and targeted messages.
What makes email marketing such a lucrative endeavour? Let's delve into the details you need to understand the concept of email marketing and become an expert in increasing company revenues.
Every day, more than 150 billion emails are sent and marketing experts claim that email marketing is currently one of the most lucrative marketing platforms available. Marketers record an average ROI of 36 dollars for every dollar spent on email when they send personalised, well-written and targeted messages.
What makes email marketing such a lucrative endeavour? Let's delve into the details you need to understand the concept of email marketing and become an expert in increasing company revenues.
1
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a marketing strategy that directly promotes a company's products and services through emails. Email marketing allows you to bypass an advertising intermediary and send information directly to your target customers.
In a society where it is increasingly difficult to succeed with organic social media marketing and where digital advertising spending is on the rise, having your own distribution channel to communicate with customers is extremely important. The cost per click on Facebook increased by 13% in 2022 compared to 2020, while the average organic reach of a post on a Facebook page is only 5.2%! This means that having 1,000 followers on your Facebook page usually results in reaching an average of just 52 people!
The history of Email Marketing
Engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email test in 1971. A year later, Larry Roberts created the first email management system, allowing users to choose, forward or reply to emails. In 1978, Gary Thuerk sent the first email message which reportedly resulted in 13 million dollars in sales. In 1989, AOL started with the famous catchphrase ‘you've got email’.
Email became widespread in the 1990s and remains virtually unchanged in its current form. In 1998, Internet Mail was created by Microsoft and eventually evolved into Outlook.
The introduction of HTML in 1998 was a significant achievement for email marketing, as it improved the visual appeal and user experience of emails. Marketers were able to include fonts, colours, graphics and images as the speed and accessibility of the Internet improved. In 2009, adaptive emails were introduced to ensure that emails were optimised for desktops, mobile devices and tablets. Later in this article, we'll explore the reasons why this is important.
In a society where it is increasingly difficult to succeed with organic social media marketing and where digital advertising spending is on the rise, having your own distribution channel to communicate with customers is extremely important. The cost per click on Facebook increased by 13% in 2022 compared to 2020, while the average organic reach of a post on a Facebook page is only 5.2%! This means that having 1,000 followers on your Facebook page usually results in reaching an average of just 52 people!
The history of Email Marketing
Engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email test in 1971. A year later, Larry Roberts created the first email management system, allowing users to choose, forward or reply to emails. In 1978, Gary Thuerk sent the first email message which reportedly resulted in 13 million dollars in sales. In 1989, AOL started with the famous catchphrase ‘you've got email’.
Email became widespread in the 1990s and remains virtually unchanged in its current form. In 1998, Internet Mail was created by Microsoft and eventually evolved into Outlook.
The introduction of HTML in 1998 was a significant achievement for email marketing, as it improved the visual appeal and user experience of emails. Marketers were able to include fonts, colours, graphics and images as the speed and accessibility of the Internet improved. In 2009, adaptive emails were introduced to ensure that emails were optimised for desktops, mobile devices and tablets. Later in this article, we'll explore the reasons why this is important.
2
Is email marketing still effective?
Despite sensationalist claims that ‘email is dead’, it is in fact becoming increasingly crucial for companies. It's one of the most cost-effective tools that also generates an impressive ROI. It's an excellent platform for establishing direct connections with your audience, increasing traffic to your blog, advertising your latest offers, sharing valuable content that leads to a purchase, etc.
Let's take Substack as a case study. The paid email newsletter platform has disrupted the media industry, which previously relied heavily on social networks, by allowing freelance writers to grow their audience through email on a large scale. Substack's number of paying subscribers went from 11,000 to over 500,000 in a period of three years. The expansion speaks for itself.
The next example is Morning Brew, a daily morning business newsletter that Insider Inc. bought with a cash payment of around 75 million dollars. In just five years, they've amassed a readership of over 2.5 million.
With countless options for designing, splitting and creating emails, let's explore how you can successfully manage an email marketing campaign.
Let's take Substack as a case study. The paid email newsletter platform has disrupted the media industry, which previously relied heavily on social networks, by allowing freelance writers to grow their audience through email on a large scale. Substack's number of paying subscribers went from 11,000 to over 500,000 in a period of three years. The expansion speaks for itself.
The next example is Morning Brew, a daily morning business newsletter that Insider Inc. bought with a cash payment of around 75 million dollars. In just five years, they've amassed a readership of over 2.5 million.
With countless options for designing, splitting and creating emails, let's explore how you can successfully manage an email marketing campaign.
3
Types of email marketing
Emails have a purpose that goes beyond simply sending a single message to promote something specific. Marketers often develop automated email sequences that are triggered by actions, time and behaviour. These processes use various email schemes, which can be divided mainly into these four groups.
Email newsletters
These send news, updates and educational material on a regular basis to maintain constant interaction with your email subscribers. This method allows you to grow your email list and stay in people's minds without sending a sales pitch.
Acquisition emails
Acquisition emails are sales-orientated emails, offering valuable information to persuade potential customers to buy from you. The main aim is to accelerate the progression of leads through your conversion funnel with a highly personalised and focused approach.
Retention emails
Retention emails are designed to re-establish contact with inactive potential customers or individuals who have not had contact with you for some time. Retention emails have the potential to arouse interest or prompt a potential customer to make a purchase when the time is right. They can take various forms, such as:
Emails that bring back inactive users;
Use upselling, renewal and cross-selling emails to increase sales with your existing customers and increase their frequency of purchase;
Emails aimed at retaining customers can increase usage and satisfaction with the product.
Promotional emails
Promotional emails are effective in publicising attractive offers or new product options to encourage potential customers to buy or subscribe to your offers. It's a tactic that can help promote additional products to your customers through upselling and cross-selling.
Email newsletters
These send news, updates and educational material on a regular basis to maintain constant interaction with your email subscribers. This method allows you to grow your email list and stay in people's minds without sending a sales pitch.
Acquisition emails
Acquisition emails are sales-orientated emails, offering valuable information to persuade potential customers to buy from you. The main aim is to accelerate the progression of leads through your conversion funnel with a highly personalised and focused approach.
Retention emails
Retention emails are designed to re-establish contact with inactive potential customers or individuals who have not had contact with you for some time. Retention emails have the potential to arouse interest or prompt a potential customer to make a purchase when the time is right. They can take various forms, such as:
Emails that bring back inactive users;
Use upselling, renewal and cross-selling emails to increase sales with your existing customers and increase their frequency of purchase;
Emails aimed at retaining customers can increase usage and satisfaction with the product.
Promotional emails
Promotional emails are effective in publicising attractive offers or new product options to encourage potential customers to buy or subscribe to your offers. It's a tactic that can help promote additional products to your customers through upselling and cross-selling.
4
How to create an effective email marketing campaign strategy?
While sending emails is easy, successfully managing an email marketing strategy is anything but. You need to figure out methods for gathering the appropriate email addresses, creating suitable content and distributing it to the right recipients in a timely manner. Here's how.
To create a successful email marketing strategy, you need to start with the challenging task of creating loyal followers. To begin with, if you don't have a current email list, you should start gathering some email addresses using the methods described below:
Step 2: Separate and focus on your specific audiences
Now that you have a target audience, it's important to make sure you're communicating the right message to the right people at the right time. Using CRM software in this situation can be beneficial, as it allows your sales team to access additional details about a lead or customer's demographics, treatment and position in the sales funnel. In the end, segmented audiences increase open rates and ROI, allowing you to specifically address your challenges. Here are five simple ways to divide your audiences into segments.
Step 3: Create ideal email subject lines
Writing an email requires creativity and technical knowledge. Sometimes your cleverest email subject lines may not be as effective as a simpler, more straightforward approach. Fortunately, email marketing involves a lot of A/B testing, which makes it an extremely iterative process.
Effectively composed subject lines can have a direct impact on your email open rates, which are crucial key performance indicators. While there is no universal method that is best for all individuals, here are some factors to consider:
If you're having trouble, consider using an email subject line tester or creator to help you through the process. I realise that copywriting can be a challenge!
Remember the pre-header that follows the subject line in your inbox. Likewise, it should be created as an extension of the email subject line to compel readers to open your message.
Step 4: Incorporate the components of an effective email user experience
What can be done to turn a decent email into a great one? Follow these guiding principles.
Make sure it's easily readable. Can someone quickly flick through your email and understand the information in just a few seconds?
Make sure your website is able to adjust and display correctly on multiple devices. Are your emails readable on mobile devices? Is the subject line between 25 and 30 characters long, with a pre-header, concise text and fast-loading images?
Make sure you have a concise CTA. Do you have a specific request? Are you trying to publicise a blog article? Encourage readers to install an application? Make sure your call to action is the centrepiece, whatever your goal.
Step 5 involves testing emails and optimising your click-through rate
Many email marketing platforms offer A/B or multivariate testing tools to test various versions of an email. Here are the main ways to evaluate them:
Step 6: Use automated email marketing
Automated email marketing involves sending emails in a certain order, according to a set of rules, to encourage recipients to take a specific action.
For example, if a person subscribes to a newsletter and wants to know more about it, you can send a series of automated emails leading to a downloadable resource that prompts them to fill in a form with additional personal data. Sales teams have the ability to automate follow-up emails depending on whether the recipient has opened the email or not responded within a specified period of time.
Advantages of using email automation
Different types of email marketing automation tools
The email software industry is vast, expanding and highly complicated. In the chart below, it's clear that email technology can range from guaranteed email delivery to all the recipients on your list to sophisticated email design tools.
Email software is a type of software that allows marketers to send a sequence of emails at specific times to individuals on their mailing lists. They often provide personalisation, design tools and tools for running complex workflows. The extent of and access to these features vary depending on the size of the company and are charged accordingly. The following list presents the most popular email automation software categorised by company type and size.
- Step 1: Create a list of email addresses
To create a successful email marketing strategy, you need to start with the challenging task of creating loyal followers. To begin with, if you don't have a current email list, you should start gathering some email addresses using the methods described below:
- Create sign-up forms on your website or blog to receive newsletter updates, discounts or exclusive content updates;
- Install a pop-up that appears when visitors try to leave, asking them to provide their email address in exchange for a special offer;
- Provide valuable content, such as an ebook or an exclusive webinar, in exchange for their contact details;
- Implement a viral marketing strategy that encourages users to provide their email addresses for a chance to win a prize or get exclusive early access to your next product. Applying a visual evaluation system can improve performance through gamification.
- Convert your social media followers by directing them to a squeeze page that offers value and collects email addresses.
Step 2: Separate and focus on your specific audiences
Now that you have a target audience, it's important to make sure you're communicating the right message to the right people at the right time. Using CRM software in this situation can be beneficial, as it allows your sales team to access additional details about a lead or customer's demographics, treatment and position in the sales funnel. In the end, segmented audiences increase open rates and ROI, allowing you to specifically address your challenges. Here are five simple ways to divide your audiences into segments.
- Break it down by sector. Where do you work? What is your income? Main difficulties faced by the company?
- Divide by the size of the company. What is the company's organisational structure? Who are the key decision-makers?
- Break it down by geographical area. Does the email need to be adapted to a specific region? What language do you want the email to be in? When should we send this email for maximum effectiveness?
- Divide according to the stage of the funnel. How close is this segment to finalising a purchase? When was the last time we contacted them? What stage of the sales funnel are they in?
- Segment based on user behaviour. Has a visitor accessed your pricing page? Has he registered but not accessed the product in the last day? Is a user logging in less frequently?
Step 3: Create ideal email subject lines
Writing an email requires creativity and technical knowledge. Sometimes your cleverest email subject lines may not be as effective as a simpler, more straightforward approach. Fortunately, email marketing involves a lot of A/B testing, which makes it an extremely iterative process.
Effectively composed subject lines can have a direct impact on your email open rates, which are crucial key performance indicators. While there is no universal method that is best for all individuals, here are some factors to consider:
- Be concise. Use 9 words and 60 characters or less;
- Eliminate unnecessary words and feel free to bend the rules of grammar if necessary;
- Be careful not to make spelling mistakes to maintain credibility, as trust is crucial;
- Personalise the subject line with the name of the person or company;
- Avoid using capital letters;
- Create interest!
If you're having trouble, consider using an email subject line tester or creator to help you through the process. I realise that copywriting can be a challenge!
Remember the pre-header that follows the subject line in your inbox. Likewise, it should be created as an extension of the email subject line to compel readers to open your message.
Step 4: Incorporate the components of an effective email user experience
What can be done to turn a decent email into a great one? Follow these guiding principles.
Make sure it's easily readable. Can someone quickly flick through your email and understand the information in just a few seconds?
Make sure your website is able to adjust and display correctly on multiple devices. Are your emails readable on mobile devices? Is the subject line between 25 and 30 characters long, with a pre-header, concise text and fast-loading images?
Make sure you have a concise CTA. Do you have a specific request? Are you trying to publicise a blog article? Encourage readers to install an application? Make sure your call to action is the centrepiece, whatever your goal.
Step 5 involves testing emails and optimising your click-through rate
Many email marketing platforms offer A/B or multivariate testing tools to test various versions of an email. Here are the main ways to evaluate them:
- Evaluate each important variable individually to observe greater results. Testing a large number of elements together will make it difficult to determine the cause of performance changes;
- Make sure you have a specific key performance indicator for testing purposes. For example, would you like to measure open rates, click-through rates or bounce rates? Select an option sequentially;
- Make sure your emails can be viewed on different devices by using an email testing tool such as Litmus;
- Carry out the test with a randomly sampled audience that is large enough to be statistically significant. Survey Monkey offers a complementary tool for evaluating the success of your A/B test.
Step 6: Use automated email marketing
Automated email marketing involves sending emails in a certain order, according to a set of rules, to encourage recipients to take a specific action.
For example, if a person subscribes to a newsletter and wants to know more about it, you can send a series of automated emails leading to a downloadable resource that prompts them to fill in a form with additional personal data. Sales teams have the ability to automate follow-up emails depending on whether the recipient has opened the email or not responded within a specified period of time.
Advantages of using email automation
- Improved personalisation: automation improves connections with your audience by allowing you to automatically personalise messages according to website activity or email engagement;
- Production at scale enables marketing teams to increase the volume of emails without duplicating tasks. Developing a series of emails based on a group of reusable and verifiable guidelines demonstrates successful scalability;
- Increase customer loyalty by automating follow-up messages and sending enticing offers to encourage repeat purchases.
Different types of email marketing automation tools
The email software industry is vast, expanding and highly complicated. In the chart below, it's clear that email technology can range from guaranteed email delivery to all the recipients on your list to sophisticated email design tools.
Email software is a type of software that allows marketers to send a sequence of emails at specific times to individuals on their mailing lists. They often provide personalisation, design tools and tools for running complex workflows. The extent of and access to these features vary depending on the size of the company and are charged accordingly. The following list presents the most popular email automation software categorised by company type and size.
- Small and medium-sized businesses: MailChimp and Moosend;
- B2B (Business to Business): AWeber, Sendinblue, Zoho Campaigns, Drip are examples;
- Companies that are commonly used in the sector are ActiveCampaign, HubSpot and Constant Contact.
5
Real examples of emails to motivate you
Once you've created your email marketing plan, take a look at these top examples for inspiration for your campaigns.
Spotify Wrapped remains one of the most effective content marketing campaigns ever. The Spotify experience is excellent, and their promotional emails are equally impressive. They offer an attractive layout with personalised data that piques the audience's interest. There's a noticeable call to action that entices the reader to see their data wrapped up on Spotify. The content is transparent, brief and to the point.
Spotify Wrapped remains one of the most effective content marketing campaigns ever. The Spotify experience is excellent, and their promotional emails are equally impressive. They offer an attractive layout with personalised data that piques the audience's interest. There's a noticeable call to action that entices the reader to see their data wrapped up on Spotify. The content is transparent, brief and to the point.
Make your emails more engaging the way Chick-fil-A does with gamification.
Chick-fil-A publicised a new menu offer through a word search email. Unlike Spotify's vivid and colourful email, they stayed true to their brand identity to create a fun, cheerful and engaging email to introduce their new summer peach drink.
Chick-fil-A publicised a new menu offer through a word search email. Unlike Spotify's vivid and colourful email, they stayed true to their brand identity to create a fun, cheerful and engaging email to introduce their new summer peach drink.
6
FAQ
- What is email marketing?
- Why is email marketing still relevant in 2025?
- What are the main email marketing trends in 2025?
- How can I segment my mailing list effectively?
- What are the best practices for writing good email marketing?
- How can I increase the open rate of my emails?
- What is email marketing automation and how will it work in 2025?
- Which metrics are most important for evaluating the success of an email marketing campaign?
- How do I make sure my emails don't land in the spam folder?
- How can artificial intelligence (AI) improve email marketing in 2025?
7
Summary
Main Steps for an Effective Email Campaign:
- Define Your Objectives;
- Segment the Contact List;
- Create an Attractive Subject;
- Develop Relevant and Personalised Content;
- Use an Attractive and Responsive Design;
- Include a Clear Call to Action (CTA);
- Run A/B Tests;
- Choose the Best Time to Send;
- Monitor and Analyse Results;
- Adjust and Improve Your Future Campaigns.
Marketers are capitalising on one of today's most lucrative channels, with more than 150 billion emails being sent every day. Based on their understanding, email marketing requires more than just attractive visuals and persuasive writing, as it also involves a strategic combination of analysis, experimentation and automation to achieve the desired results.
A thorough examination of email marketing reveals many technical elements, such as deliverability, inbox positioning and sender IP management. We'll discuss in our next article how to avoid being labelled as spam by sending highly relevant emails to the appropriate audience. When starting out, it is advisable to seek the help of a professional specialising in email, such as an agency, a consultant or a freelancer, to ensure that all aspects are covered.
Now that you know how to create a successful email strategy, it's time to start building one for yourself. Regardless of whether you're creating email newsletters, emails to win new customers, emails to retain customers or promotional emails (or a combination of all of these), remember to test consistently!
Our digital marketing agency is happy to help you grow and promote your company.
A thorough examination of email marketing reveals many technical elements, such as deliverability, inbox positioning and sender IP management. We'll discuss in our next article how to avoid being labelled as spam by sending highly relevant emails to the appropriate audience. When starting out, it is advisable to seek the help of a professional specialising in email, such as an agency, a consultant or a freelancer, to ensure that all aspects are covered.
Now that you know how to create a successful email strategy, it's time to start building one for yourself. Regardless of whether you're creating email newsletters, emails to win new customers, emails to retain customers or promotional emails (or a combination of all of these), remember to test consistently!
Our digital marketing agency is happy to help you grow and promote your company.
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