Email Trends & Insights

In the State of Email survey, something surprising stood out: over 70% of marketers said they didn’t know the ROI of their email programs. But here’s the kicker—email was still ranked as the most effective marketing channel. So, if ROI isn’t the go-to metric for email success, what are marketers actually measuring?

This points to a big shift happening in the industry. Marketers are starting to see email differently—not just as a tool to drive immediate sales, but as a way to build meaningful, long-term relationships. Email is evolving from being purely about conversions to becoming the ultimate relationship-building channel.

Here’s why this matters: research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that 95% of your audience isn’t in-market right now. They’re not ready to buy today or tomorrow—but that doesn’t mean they’re not valuable. If you’re only measuring email success by how many sales or leads it generates, you’re leaving out 95% of the people you could be connecting with.

That’s where lifecycle marketing comes in—and why it’s going to be a huge focus in 2025. Lifecycle marketing is about playing the long game. It’s about recognizing that every email you send can do more than just sell—it can nurture, educate, and create positive experiences that keep your brand top of mind for when people are ready to buy.

Think about it this way:

• For new subscribers, email is how you introduce them to your brand and start the conversation.
• For people who aren’t ready to buy, it’s how you stay relevant by providing value—whether that’s useful tips, inspiring stories, or helpful resources.
• For your loyal customers, it’s how you keep the relationship strong with personalized recommendations, insider perks, or just a “thank you” for sticking around.

Email is uniquely suited to do all of this because it’s direct, personal, and flexible. Whether someone’s just discovering your brand or they’re a repeat buyer, email lets you meet them exactly where they are.

And as marketers embrace this shift, we’re seeing a broader range of success metrics come into play—things like engagement over time, how customers feel about your brand, and their lifetime value. It’s not just about who clicked “buy now” anymore; it’s about creating connections that last.

So, why does this matter for the future? Because this shift means email is no longer just a tool for quick wins—it’s becoming the backbone of lifecycle marketing. It’s how brands can build trust, nurture relationships, and stay connected with the 95% of their audience who aren’t ready to buy today but will be tomorrow.

In 2025, this relationship-first approach is only going to grow. The brands that embrace email as part of a bigger lifecycle strategy are the ones that will win—not just in sales but in loyalty, retention, and long-term growth.

1. The market share of nextgen platforms will continue to grow at the expense of legacy marketing clouds.
   1. Second generation ESP platforms built on top of relational databases have entered the “replacement stage”, with buyers perceiving that innovation has stalled or stopped and they are starting to sound and look the same.
   2. Nextgen ESPs are more and more being seen as leading in innovation and new features & functionality.
   3. Brands will increasingly leverage the data provided by loyalty programs to improve targeting, email personalization, and product recommendations.
2. Interest in using AI for specific email marketing tasks (automation and personalization) will grow but not in the areas most vendors focus on (generative AI).
   1. Advanced predictive tools will make hyper-personalization more accessible and relevant, allowing marketers to craft individualized messaging at scale.
3. Mobile will play an increasing role in messaging, particularly mobile push, even among brands that don’t think of themselves as mobile-first.
   1. A rich source of first party user data, adding to the profile information marketers have on customers.
   2. Push messaging allows marketers to leverage real-time data by deploying dynamic, behavior-triggered messaging that can reach users in real time.
4. CDP adoption will slow down, or even pause, as more buyers struggle with ROI from their existing CDPs, and the CDP-capabilities baked into nextgen CDPs are more broadly recognized.
   1. Both CDPs and nextgen ESPs are built on NoSQL database foundations.

Predicting the future is a tricky business, especially after a year reminiscent of the COVID era. Economic and political uncertainties caused many companies to hesitate and pull back on investments. However, this period of stagnation can't last forever. Companies that fail to adapt risk being overtaken by their competitors and missing out on evolving customer demands.

As we look ahead to 2025, I believe marketers should focus on two key areas: technology that enhances their marketing efforts and strategies for optimizing production.

Technology Solutions

The email marketing technology landscape has seen minimal change since the early 2010s when ESPs like Responsys and ExactTarget were battling for dominance. During that period, businesses recognized the value of integrated channels, robust reporting, and third-party services. The industry was maturing, and the platforms evolved accordingly. However, following the acquisition of these companies, innovation within the ESP space stagnated. The recent emergence of generative AI solutions has revitalized the industry, with leading ESPs embracing this technology to accelerate marketing objectives.

In 2025, we anticipate a surge in investments aimed at enhancing technology partnerships. Companies will raise their expectations, demanding seamless, efficient solutions that facilitate goal achievement. Marketers will seek expanded capabilities, smoother cross-channel integration, and swifter, more intelligent targeting and messaging solutions.

However, this heightened demand necessitates expert guidance to navigate platform migrations and drive innovation. The conventional "lift and shift" approach will prove inadequate. Marketers must fully leverage emerging technologies, processes, and data access to stay ahead of the curve.

Production Optimization

When adopting a new platform, it's essential to adapt processes accordingly. Even on existing platforms, teams should regularly evaluate their workflows to identify areas for optimization. In the past, we observed that marketers were utilizing only a fraction of a platform's potential. This trend persists, even as the core functionalities of different Email Service Providers (ESPs) become increasingly similar.

We've also noticed a shift towards tactics that prioritize speed over best practices. For instance, the resurgence of image-only emails, which disregard established ADA guidelines, is concerning. We speculate that this trend may be driven by a perceived faster production time or a lack of awareness among designers regarding ADA compliance and best practices.

Moving forward, we anticipate that companies will conduct tech audits to uncover underutilized features and functionalities within their existing platforms. This approach aligns with the "do more with less" mentality. We predict that companies will focus on expanding capabilities, accelerating production, and fostering stronger customer relationships by emphasizing the fundamentals of platform optimization.

I predict more evergreen welcome automations to emerge in replacement of one-off campaigns. Meaning that Email and Lifecycle Marketers will look to take the brunt off of their one-off campaigns, and move towards leveraging more automation where their welcome flows span beyond the traditional 30-day period.

By implementing evergreen welcome automations, you can nurture and build relationships with your new audience in a more scalable manner than continuously developing one-off campaigns.

I expect some brands to lean into these, extending their shelf life from 30 days to 6 months, where they can repurpose content such as blog posts, case studies, guides, or onboarding emails to help nurture and activate their new subscribers.

When these evergreen flows are done well, they are highly personalized and geared towards nurturing the subscriber towards a specific goal. They ultimately alleviate resource constraints upon completion from the marketing team as they are highly scalable.

The new year will bring new challenges and opportunities for marketers. There was a lot of change with email marketing in 2024 that will need to be fleshed out and implemented better in 2025.

What do I think will be trending in 2025 for email marketers? I am glad you asked. I would say that AI is going to jump from the pan to the fire, privacy is going to evolve further, and deliverability will continue to evolve and become critical for email success.

AI Will Evolve and Become more Mainstream

Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionize email marketing, offering unprecedented opportunities for personalization and efficiency. By leveraging AI, marketers can enhance customer engagement through tailored content, predictive analytics, and automating processes and strategies.

Using AI enables marketers to deliver more personalized and relevant email campaigns, fostering stronger connections with their audience and offering better results.

Key Applications of AI in Email Marketing

1. Customer Segmentation: AI analyzes customer behavior and preferences to create precise segments, allowing for targeted email campaigns that resonate with specific groups.
2. Personalized Content Creation: AI can generate customized email content, including subject lines, preview text, body text, and images, ensuring each message aligns with the recipient's interests and needs.
3. Predictive Analytics: By examining past interactions, AI predicts optimal send times and content types, enhancing open rates and engagement.
4. A/B Testing: AI streamlines the testing of different email elements, identifying the most effective versions to maximize campaign success.
5. Sorting, Formatting, and Analyzing Data: Tools like ChatGPT will allow marketers to analyze campaign data and format information (normalizing names from all caps, etc). This will be more efficient than working in spreadsheet spreadsheets.
6. Email Previews and Summaries: Apple and Google are leading the way with providing users with previews and summaries of emails they receive. This will make preview text irrelevant and users will be able to take a sneak peak into the content of your emails without opening them.

To effectively integrate AI into your email marketing:

• Define Objectives: Clearly outline what you aim to achieve with AI, such as increased engagement or higher conversion rates.
• Gather Quality Data: Collect comprehensive customer data to train AI models for accurate analysis and personalization.
• Start Small: Begin with specific AI applications, like personalized subject lines, and gradually expand as you become more comfortable with the technology.
• Monitor and Optimize: Continuously assess AI-generated content and strategies, making necessary adjustments to align with your marketing goals.
• Create content that can be easily summarized by AI so that the email previews and summaries will entice subscribers to open and read your email.

By embracing AI, you will be able to craft more engaging, personalized, and efficient campaigns, positioning themselves at the forefront of the industry's evolution.

Deliverability Will Become Mandatory

Ensuring your emails land in your subscriber's inboxes is becoming increasingly challenging. With major providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft blocking billions of unwanted emails daily, it's clear that maintaining strong deliverability requires more than just hitting "send."

1. Email Authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) will be more important than ever in 2025. Email authentication verifies your identity as a sender, protecting against spoofing and phishing attacks. Notably, there's been an 11% increase in DMARC adoption compared to previous years, highlighting its growing importance.
   MarTech Cube

For those that are not authenticating their emails, they will find that their emails will be sent to spam or worse, not delivered at all.

Not only do you need to authenticate your emails, the engagement with your campaign will also affect your deliverability. Mailbox providers monitor how recipients interact with your emails. High open rates, click-through rates, and low spam complaints and unsubscribes signal that your content is valuable, enhancing your sender reputation.

Providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft have introduced stricter bulk sender requirements, including maintaining spam complaint rates below 0.3% (three per thousand) and implementing one-click unsubscribe options.

Non-compliance can lead to emails being sent to spam.

People Want Privacy

Consumers are tired of being tracked and having data about them collected. They are fighting back. Email providers are pre-opening emails, diluting open rates, and more and more people are turning to disposable email addresses.

Here is how to adapt to a privacy first world:

1. Opens Are Dead: Since email opens are not as accurate as they were just a few years ago, it is now time to shift to click rates, or click to open rates. This should be your new North Star. You will also want to use clicks (or non-clicks) for your re-engagement campaigns.
2. Identify Disposable Email Addresses: Determine if you want to add disposable email addresses to your campaigns or not. You can use an email verification service like Kickbox to identify disposable email addresses (along with other categories like deliverable, risky, role addresses, and undeliverable).

By doubling down on AI, keeping those emails flowing to the inbox, and embracing the fact that people like their privacy, you will be sure to have a successful 2025. Oh and also make sure to follow everyday email marketing best practices!

Accessible Email

With the introduction of the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and its forthcoming enforcement on 28 June 2025, there’s no doubt that email copywriters, creatives and coders sending emails to recipients in the EU will all be working hard to ensure that their emails are accessible, and conformant with WCAG 2.2, to levels A and AA.

None of this should be new of course. Indeed, 2025 marks my 10 year anniversary of practicing accessibility, talking about accessibility (since the Email Design Conference 2015, London) and writing about accessibility, industry-wide. Since then, many others have embraced and implemented it into their emails. There will, however, be many who have not yet done so, and will now be under pressure to ensure they both conform to WCAG and comply with the EAA.

AI-Driven Inbox Behaviour

While already implemented in the USA, the introduction of AI inbox technologies driven by the likes of Apple Intelligence and Yahoo AI Assistance will be seen and experienced more globally throughout 2025. Therefore, it will be a year of discovery as email marketers, copywriters, creatives and coders begin to understand the impact of AI in the inbox, how their content is reworded and reworked, and how to work with it.

Email Design

Email design best practices are often informed by skill, knowledge and experience, and sometimes A/B and multivariate testing. However, there is another tool that email designers can turn to in 2025 to enable them to make design decisions. Science. Behavioural science.

Behavioural science enables us to understand how our recipients think, and why email design best practices such as the use of typography, imagery, iconography and white space work to make our emails easy to read and easy to engage with.

As such, behavioural science and the insights it provides will be a tool well worth reaching out to in the coming year, to help email designers to make informed design decisions and conduct constructive conversations with their stakeholders, based on scientific facts rather than subjective opinions.

The biggest trend I foresee is in email deliverability — a shift towards better understanding and managing who is on a sender's list. Most deliverability issues stem from poor list hygiene, and the future will prioritize smarter, targeted list growth strategies to reduce these problems.

1. Smarter List Growth

Marketers will focus on quality over quantity, using targeted ads, sign-up forms, and AI-driven methods to attract the right subscribers, ensuring higher engagement and lower risks.

2. Improved Tracking

Tools will evolve to track where subscribers join lists, providing insights to optimize acquisition sources and filter out problematic leads. Or at the very least better dashboards, to compare, for example, UTM with email statistics, and better ways to attribute profits or successful goals within the whole email ecosystem.

3. Advanced List Management Tools

Innovations will offer deeper insights into subscriber activity, with features like automated hygiene checks and engagement tracking, even for those not using full-fledged CRMs.

4. Increased Awareness

Deliverability will no longer be a hidden technical challenge but a critical focus for marketers, driving education and strategy shifts across the industry. The more it becomes a problem for senders, the more senders will invest to learn and maintain their sender reputation.

As email marketing evolves, deliverability will take center stage in ensuring campaign success. The future lies in cultivating smarter, healthier email lists by leveraging better tools, improved tracking, and a heightened awareness of sender reputation. By focusing on quality over quantity and understanding subscribers on a deeper level, marketers can build stronger connections, reduce risks, and achieve sustainable growth in their email strategies.

Deliverability isn’t just about reaching the inbox—it’s about reaching the right inbox.

My prediction: In 2025, inbox providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Apple will create more controls around the inbox experience which email senders will have to navigate.

Three trends will continue from 2024 into 2025

#1). Inbox providers will summarize email content for subscribers

In 2024: In an attempt to help streamline the inbox user experience, Google and Yahoo introduced features which summarize the content of your email. This experience is similar to how Google summarizes your search results prior to providing the user with links to the source information

These email summaries can include:

• Images of your content
• Key offer information (offer amount, offer start date, offer end date, etc.)
• Other promotional content

From an accuracy and relevancy perspective, email summaries are a completely mixed bag, with Google and Yahoo often summarizing random parts of your email as “key” content for your subscribers. Email summaries can also spoil the surprise of what’s inside your email content (for example, that oh-so-secret deal in the body of your email is now highlighted prominently before a subscriber ever opens your email).

In 2025: More inbox providers will introduce more features to help “summarize” email sender content, both good and bad. Google and Yahoo will introduce additional features which attempt to better “summarize” contents of emails.

What does this mean for email marketers? For the largest inbox providers (e.g. Apple, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), email marketers should include code in their emails to help inbox providers summarize their content appropriately. Luckily for email marketers, inbox providers already have some tools to help out.

Google has provided documentation on how to control email previews in Gmail, with what they describe as “email annotations”. Rather than having Gmail decide what content is most important to summarize, email marketers can control whether Gmail displays deal annotations, product carousels, or a single image preview.

Outside of these features, email marketers should be focused on ensuring their contents are “accessible” for inbox providers to appropriately summarize content. Often neglected accessibility standards such as including alt-text on all images should be top-of-mind for marketers to not only help human readers but also help guide AI summaries of our content.

#2). Inbox providers will organize emails on subscribers’ behalf

In 2024: A short decade ago, Gmail introduced tabs to their inbox experience, organizing content into “primary” vs. “promo” content for users automatically. The email marketing world was in an absolute frenzy. History is repeating itself, with Apple introducing nearly identical capabilities for Apple Mail, causing a similar irrational hysteria.

In the Apple Mail inbox, users can now find four tabs:

• Primary: Emails from people you know and time sensitive emails
• Transactional: Receipts and order confirmations
• Updates: newsletters and social media notices
• Promotional: sales and marketing emails

Apple Mail tab organization isn’t perfect. Senders are gaming the system, just like with Gmail, to try to land in the primary tab (like creating “time sensitive” emails that aren’t really time-sensitive). However, email marketers have yet another new tabbed experience to think about beyond Gmail.

In 2025: Inbox providers will attempt to organize content in more than just tabs. Rather than viewing your inbox in tabs with all emails sorted by date received, I predict inbox providers will begin to prioritize the most important messages in an inbox based on an individual’s engagement with the sender. I’d expect Gmail to take the lead here, as they’ve tended to be first movers in inbox innovation.

What does this mean for email marketers: Make sure subscribers on your list are engaged with your content.

If inbox providers prioritize content based on engagement rather than simply date received, emails to less engaged subscribers could get buried in an increasingly cluttered inbox. Examine your list targeting and segmentation practices heading into the new year. Make sure you are regularly cleaning your list of disengaged subscribers and focus on serving the audience that matters most - the audience that engages with your content.

#3). Inbox providers will continue to mandate new deliverability standards for email senders

In 2024: Google and Yahoo in partnership announced and began enforcing new deliverability standards for email senders. These new deliverability standards are really just forcing basic email hygiene for email senders, ensuring senders

• Allow subscribers to unsubscribe with one-click
• Keep spam rate below 0.3%
• Process unsubscribes in two days or less
• Authenticate emails

In 2025: Expect other inbox providers to follow Google and Yahoo’s lead. Rumors have been floating around all year that Microsoft will roll out similar deliverability standards. Don’t be surprised if Microsoft and more niche inbox providers decide to adopt the same standards.

What does this mean for email marketers? Make sure your ESP is ready to help you comply with these deliverability standards - particularly authenticating your emails. If not, consider a switch to another ESP to ensure your content reaches your subscribers. After all, if your email message doesn’t land in the inbox, what’s the point of sending the email?

Email Marketing Isn’t Dead—It’s Thriving in 2025

"Email marketing is dead." It’s a claim I’ve heard since I began my career in email marketing 15 years ago. Every year, with unwavering confidence, a new blogger or industry report declares that email marketing is on its last legs. The main culprit behind these "death threats" is oftentimes the rise of social media.

But social media itself is facing challenges—algorithm issues, censorship, and government scrutiny. Consider examples like TikTok being banned or Meta’s revelations about government agencies influencing online discourse. These developments have created a climate where email marketing is not only surviving but thriving.

Where Does Email Marketing Stand in 2025?

How can businesses leverage email marketing to nurture relationships, drive sales, and adapt to innovations like AI? As an email marketing consultant, here are my recommendations for 2025:

1. Your Email List Is Your Most Valuable Asset

Your email list is one of the few assets you truly own in today’s digital landscape. Social platforms can disappear, change their algorithms, or limit your organic reach overnight. For instance, businesses posting on Facebook now reach only about 3% of their followers organically. Social media has become a "pay-to-play" environment, requiring ad budgets to reach audiences.

In contrast, email marketing gives you complete control over your message and visibility. With average delivery rates hovering around 99%, email remains one of the most reliable communication channels. Focus on delivering valuable, engaging content that your subscribers will look forward to, and you’ll see returns at a fraction of the cost of social media.

2. Curate Emails Worth Reading

Treat your subscribers with care—they’re not just an audience but your business's lifeblood. Avoid last-minute, generic email blasts. Instead, take the time to craft messages that provide value and engage readers. Whether it’s educational content, special offers, or storytelling, thoughtful emails build trust and loyalty over time.

3. Emails Drive Traffic, Not Transactions

Emails don’t close sales directly—they guide customers to the next step in the journey, whether it’s your website or a landing page. Keep this in mind when crafting your campaigns. Understand where each email fits in the customer journey, and design your content to seamlessly lead readers to conversion points.

4. Use AI as Your Creative Catalyst

AI won’t take your job, but those who know how to use AI effectively might. Think of AI as the first brushstroke on a blank canvas—it helps you overcome the hardest part: starting. Use AI to generate ideas for subject lines, email copy, or even campaign concepts, but always refine its output to reflect your brand’s voice and personality. AI is a tool, not a replacement for your expertise.

5. Get Personal with Your Subscribers

Personalization is more critical than ever. Generic emails like, “You left something in your cart” are a good starting point, but they lack personality. Instead, adapt these messages to your brand voice. For example, “Looks like something caught your eye—ready to make it yours?” adds a human touch that stands out in a crowded inbox.

6. Simplify Automation and Add Value

When setting up automation, start simple. Automate the emails you frequently send manually, such as welcome series or post-purchase follow-ups. However, don’t fall into the “set it and forget it” trap. Regularly test and refine elements like subject lines, calls to action, and content tone.

For instance, instead of sending a generic browse abandonment email like, “We saw you looking at product X,” take a softer approach: “Check out this week’s trending products,” and include the item they viewed. This not only avoids the "big brother" vibe but also positions the product as popular and desirable.

7. Integrate Email and Social Media Strategically

Social media remains a valuable tool, but treat it as a top-of-funnel strategy to attract and engage audiences. Use email marketing as the middle and bottom of your funnel, where you nurture subscribers, build relationships, and drive conversions. Together, these channels create a balanced marketing ecosystem.

In Conclusion

Email marketing isn’t just alive—it’s evolving. By prioritizing your email list, creating meaningful content, leveraging AI, and personalizing your approach, you’ll position your business for success in 2025 and beyond. Social media may dominate the headlines, but email is where real connections and conversions happen.