Email marketing in 2025 is all about being smarter, not just louder. It’s no longer enough to simply send an email and hope for the best. To consistently land in your customers’ inboxes – and keep them engaged – you need a strategic, data-driven approach. From maintaining a spotless sender reputation to crafting hyper-personalized, timely content, every detail matters.  

In our webinar New year, new strategy: How to reach your email marketing goals in 2025, our VP of Product, Darryl Bolduc, and Associate Account Director, Christy Lee McCray, shared strategies that you can use to step-up your email performance this year. Keep reading to explore their insights and be sure to watch the full instant webinar replay. 

Make sure your emails make it to the inbox 

It’s essential to monitor your email performance, including spam rates and IP reputation. Staying below the spam rate threshold is crucial to ensure your emails reach the intended inboxes. Regularly reviewing these reports and making necessary adjustments will help maintain a healthy sender reputation and improve deliverability rates. 

Google and Yahoo have a very clear list of sender regulations that senders have to abide by to get emails into the inboxes. It’s no longer a given that your email will land in the inbox – you have to earn it. Here are a few things that can help with deliverability:

• Clean your list(s)-periodically by investing in list hygiene tools to remove spam traps, duplicate emails, invalid, or bad email addresses from your list. 
• Add your send list volume to your content calendar. This ensures you’re hitting the mark with consistency when it comes to volume on a day-over-day, a week-over-week, and even a month-over-month basis. 
• Add BIMI. This does require an update to your DNS records and some extra assistance from your IT team, but 2025 is the year to prioritize this if you haven’t already. Not only will it boost your deliverability and your sender reputation, but it’ll also help your logo stand out (right next to the “from” address). It elevates your brand identity, and ultimately, gives you an edge in a crowded inbox.  

Personalize email content: Make it relevant and timely  

Subject lines and preheaders, as the first points of engagement, should be short, compelling, and personalized to increase open rates. Use A/B testing to try various approaches and identify the most effective strategies. And don’t forget to make the most of the “from” address, which can help you build trust and provide extra context for your customers. Strategically planning the timing and frequency of emails maximizes engagement and minimizes unsubscribe and spam rates – and make sure you’re continuously testing to ensure you’ve identified the right quantity and frequency of emails to send each part of your list. 

Once the email is opened, the content must immediately capture attention and build from where the subject line left off. Great content and design go hand-in-hand; pairing headers with eye-catching visuals or GIFs engages readers and encourages them to scroll to read the full message. The call-to-action (CTA) is crucial for driving your customers toward the next step, so position your CTA above the fold and use engaging copy to enhance effectiveness. The design and content of your full email should have a clear hierarchy to guide the reader. This is becoming increasingly important, as the content hierarchy may also determine just how accurate AI generates the summary of your email in inboxes with providers like Google, which uses Gemini.

Genuine, personable communication can enhance your brand’s appeal. This begins with a solid understanding of your audience, and involves not just demographic data, but also behavioral insights that reveal what your customers truly value. Simple techniques like holiday greetings, thank-you messages, and occasional discounts can help you build strong relationships with your customers. And if you send out newsletters, tailoring those to specific audiences can help to avoid content overload and improve engagement – focus on what each segment of your audience wants or needs to know. 

Finally, optimizing the post-click experience is as important as the email itself. The goal is to convert the recipient’s interest into action, such as making a purchase, signing up for an event, or downloading a resource. Once your customer clicks, make sure that the form field is pre-populated with available data to streamline the user experience and increase conversion rates. Every detail, from the ease of form submission to the relevance of the landing page, contributes to the overall success of the email campaign. Focusing on these elements enhances the experience and helps to achieve higher engagement and conversion rates. 

• AI Tip: Customers expect tailored experiences that speak directly to their interests and needs. AI and machine learning can significantly enhance your ability to deliver personalized content. AI can help analyze large datasets to identify patterns and preferences, enabling you to craft messages that are more likely to engage your audience. From selecting the right imagery to generating compelling subject lines, AI can be a powerful ally in optimizing your email campaigns. But don’t forget there’s a human opening this email on the other end who is connecting with the written content, so make sure the tone is natural and conversational. 

Automate to improve email performance  

Automation enables you to streamline your processes, ensuring that your messages reach the right audience at the right time.  By consistently delivering relevant content, you can increase open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement, which are critical metrics for the success of any email marketing campaign. Automated workflows manage everything from welcome emails and birthday messages to cart abandonment reminders, and re-engagement campaigns. These tools ensure timely, targeted, and relevant communication with your audience. By automating emails to be triggered after a customer completes a specified action, you maintain a consistent flow of communication, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to engage with customers is missed. 

Build trust through compliance  

Compliance with email marketing regulations is essential. Laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the CAN-SPAM Act establish strict guidelines for email marketing practices. Adhering to these regulations protects your brand from legal issues and builds trust with your audience. This involves obtaining explicit consent from subscribers, offering clear opt-out options, and being transparent about data usage. Prioritizing compliance fosters a positive relationship with subscribers and maintains a reputable brand image. 

Success with email means constant evolution 

Keep researching to stay ahead of trends, testing, and optimizing to improve your email campaign performance. The most successful 2025 email marketing campaigns won’t necessarily be the brands with the biggest budgets, it’ll be the brands that are investing in deeply understanding their customers’ needs and delivering personalized content in the right moments.  

For even more insights, watch the on-demand webinar replay, New year, new strategy: How to reach your email marketing goals in 2025.