You hit send. Then you wait. Opens trickle in. Clicks? Meh. Unsubscribes? More than you’d like. You didn’t cut corners. You proofed, segmented, tested. Why is performance dropping?
It’s not you — it’s your email strategy. The playbook that worked in 2020 is collecting dust in 2025. The “Hi, {First Name}!” intro? Weak. The once-a-month batch-and-blast? Ghosted. Inbox algorithms are stricter, your audience is savvier and privacy updates have changed the game.
But email isn’t dead; it’s far from it. The best marketers are getting more from email than ever — by adapting. Let’s unpack three high-impact tactics that drive true engagement and explain what to leave behind in your archive folder.
Email:
See terms.
Focus on the why, not the open rate
Open rates used to be the first thing you checked. Now, they’re the first thing you should question.
With Apple Mail Privacy Protection and other privacy features, open rates have become noisy. Your numbers may be inflated and your insights may be skewed. And if you’re still optimizing based on opens, you’re building strategy on shaky ground. Instead, look at what people do — not what they may or may not have opened.
Start with behavior. Which pages are subscribers visiting? What content are they clicking on? Are they returning to key parts of your site? These signals say far more about engagement than an email open ever could.
Map campaigns to lifecycle stages. A subscriber in onboarding is in a different headspace than someone you’re trying to win back. Their intent and needs are different, and your emails should reflect that.
Set up event-based triggers. Don’t send emails because it’s Thursday. Send them because someone downloaded a whitepaper, viewed a pricing page or started a trial but didn’t complete onboarding. Those actions signal intent — and they’re your best opportunities to meet subscribers with relevant content.
Actionable tips
- Replace open-based triggers with behavior-based ones: Skip the “opened email but didn’t click” logic. Use meaningful actions like “visited pricing page,” “clicked demo CTA,” or “watched product tour.” These signals give you a clearer path to conversion.
- Use pre-send and post-send testing: Before you hit send, check your email’s deliverability with tools like Litmus Spam Testing. After the send, monitor inbox placement. Don’t assume an email was seen because your ESP says it was delivered. Know where it landed — and how it performed.
- Layer in intent data from your full stack: Pull behavioral signals from your website, product and CRM. Combine that data to segment based on recent activity and intent. Someone browsing your solution pages is more ready for a CTA than someone who just signed up for a newsletter.
Track what matters. Prioritize actions. Build your strategy around behavior, not guesses. Your engagement will thank you.
Dig deeper: 3 high-impact email automations you need to drive revenue
Personalization ≠ {First Name}
You’re not fooling anyone with “Hi, %%First_Name%%.”
Personalization has evolved. Subscribers expect more than a name in the subject line — they want messaging that reflects who they are, where they came from and what they’re trying to do.
If someone joined your list after scanning their badge at an event, they don’t need another generic nurture sequence. They need a clear explanation of what your brand does and why it’s relevant.
They’re further down the funnel if they downloaded a deep-dive case study. They’re ready for a product comparison or a proof-of-value email.
Context is everything. That includes the lead source and the lifecycle stage they’re in. A new subscriber needs education. An existing customer might want advanced tips or account-specific updates. A churn risk? They need a reason to come back.
Personalization also has to scale. You can’t manually create one-off emails for every persona, stage or segment. That’s where dynamic content comes in. The right tech stack lets you tailor content blocks inside a single email based on who’s receiving it and what actions they’ve taken.
In 2025, savvy marketers use AI-powered analytics to effortlessly scale personalization. AI tools can quickly segment users based on behaviors, predict optimal send times and dynamically adjust content, making messaging consistently relevant at scale.
While personalizing at scale, don’t overlook compliance. Regulations like GDPR and CCPA are here to stay. Ensure your data collection practices are transparent and your subscribers know exactly how and why their data is used.
Actionable tips
- Build modular email templates with dynamic content blocks: Use tools like Litmus Personalize or your ESP’s dynamic content features to create reusable templates. Drop-in blocks that swap based on attributes like role, industry or last product interaction. Design once, customize everywhere.
- Set up campaigns for three core lifecycle stages: Start with onboarding (to guide new users), retention (to deepen engagement) and win-back (to re-engage cold leads). Build messaging around their mindset, not what you wish they cared about.
- Personalize send times based on behavior: Look at when people open and click. Then, schedule future emails to match their typical engagement windows. Most ESPs support send-time optimization — it’s a simple setting that makes a big difference in visibility.
The goal isn’t to appear personal. It’s to be relevant. When your email reflects your subscriber’s intent, history and preferences, it doesn’t feel like marketing. It feels helpful. That’s what gets clicks.
Newsletters are back — but not how you remember them
Subscribers still read emails daily — so are you sending something worth opening? Newsletters work when they’re intentional, focused and feel like they’re coming from someone who understands the reader, not from a content calendar that needed to fill a slot.
What doesn’t work? A five-topic scroll-fest trying to please everyone. It gets skimmed, ignored or archived before the first click.
Instead, design newsletters that feel curated. Choose one or two topics, make the content scannable and use visual hierarchy to guide the eye. Better yet, give subscribers a chance to participate. Add a poll. Ask a quick question. Let them self-select what kind of content they want more of.
Interactive elements turn newsletters into two-way conversations. That’s how you stay top-of-mind without being annoying. That’s how you earn loyalty, not demand attention.
And yes, newsletters still matter for B2B. They keep your brand in the inbox in a way that feels less transactional and more human. Use them to educate, share insights, offer something useful and skip the hard sell.
Dig deeper: The biggest email newsletter mistake B2B companies keep making
Actionable tips
- Use interest-based signals to adjust your sections: If a subscriber keeps clicking on thought leadership but skips product updates, change their future layouts. Use email behavior to determine what to feature and what to remove.
- Test layout variations with interactivity: Try adding polls, carousels or a “pick your favorite” content block. Watch engagement metrics to see what encourages clicks and scrolls. Keep what works. Cut what doesn’t.
- Create a feedback loop: Ask subscribers, “Was this helpful?” Use sentiment trackers or a simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down to learn what’s landing. Use that input to evolve your content over time.
Bonus: What to stop doing immediately
- “Click here” links are vague, bad for accessibility, and don’t help scanners. Be clear. Use links like “Explore the report” or “View customer stories.”
- Design-heavy emails with no fallback text: Big, image-only emails break across clients and devices. Always include live text. Always have a plain-text version.
- Sending without authenticating (SPF, DKIM, DMARC): Unauthenticated emails are at higher risk of being flagged as spam — or not delivered at all. It’s non-negotiable in 2025.
- Ignoring accessibility: Low contrast text, tiny fonts, no alt text, missing header structure — all limit reach. Accessible design is intelligent design.
- Sending to cold lists at the end of the quarter: Desperation sends hurt your sender reputation. High bounce rates and spam complaints drag down deliverability. A smaller, more engaged list will always perform better.
Make your emails helpful, trustworthy and something subscribers look forward to. That’s how you win the inbox in 2025.
Rewrite your playbook, reconnect with your audience
Email hasn’t lost its edge. It’s just evolved. What used to work — opens, name tags, generic blasts — has been replaced by innovative, intentional strategies. The inbox is more competitive. Your subscribers are more selective. And the bar for relevance is higher.
If you treat email like a tool for meaningful connection — powered by behavior, context and trust — you won’t just beat the algorithm. You’ll win the inbox.
If your email strategy feels stuck, it’s time to update the playbook. Focus on what your subscribers actually want, and make every send count.
The post 3 high-impact tactics to drive email engagement appeared first on MarTech.
Source: martech.org – All rights belong to the original publisher.
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