Receiving an email can feel like the modern-day equivalent of getting a letter through the post. It arrives directly in your inbox and, when the campaign is properly planned, it may contain information or offers based on your interests.
That direct connection is one of the reasons email remains such a valuable part of digital marketing.
When it is permission-based, relevant and genuinely useful, email marketing can help you build customer relationships, encourage repeat purchases and generate measurable results.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the practice of sending newsletters, promotions, offers or useful information to a permission-based list—or to recipients covered by another lawful email-marketing exception.
Unlike a general social media post, an email can be tailored to a particular audience. A retailer might send product-care advice to existing customers, while a service business could send a helpful checklist to people who requested a quotation.
Understanding your target audience allows you to segment subscribers and deliver content based on their interests, previous purchases, location or stage in the customer journey.
Here’s an example of some email marketing I found in my inbox this afternoon.
The aim is not simply to send more emails. It is to deliver the right information to the right person at an appropriate time, creating opportunities to increase brand awareness, website visits and conversions.
Is Email Marketing Still Effective?
Email marketing has been part of the digital landscape for decades, but it remains an effective channel when campaigns are properly targeted and measured.
According to Litmus’ 2025 State of Email research, for every $1 spent on email marketing:
- 35% of surveyed marketing leaders reported returns of $10–$36.
- 30% reported returns of $36–$50.
- 5% achieved returns of more than $50.
However, 21% did not measure their email marketing ROI at all. This demonstrates both the potential value of email and the importance of connecting campaigns to genuine business results.
Email can also complement other channels. Someone might first discover your business through search or social media marketing, then join your mailing list and eventually make an enquiry or purchase after receiving a relevant email.
However, sending an email does not guarantee that it will reach the inbox, be opened or attract a click.
The DMA’s 2025 Email Benchmarking Report, based on 2024 campaign data, recorded:
- An average delivery rate of 98%.
- An average open rate of 35.9%.
- An average unique click rate of 2.3%.
Open rates should be interpreted carefully because privacy features such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection can affect their accuracy. Clicks, enquiries, bookings, purchases and revenue usually provide stronger evidence of genuine engagement.
Email Marketing Compliance in the UK
Before building an email list, UK organisations must consider both the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) and UK data protection law.
The rules can differ depending on who you are contacting, how their details were collected and what you intend to send.
Consent and the Soft Opt-In
You will normally need consent before sending unsolicited marketing emails to individual subscribers.
Consent must be:
- Freely given.
- Specific and informed.
- Separate from other terms and conditions.
- Demonstrated through a clear positive action.
- Recorded so that you can show when and how it was obtained.
Do not use pre-ticked consent boxes or make agreement to receive marketing a condition of completing a purchase.
A suitable consent statement could say:
☐ Yes, I would like to receive occasional emails from [Business Name] about products, advice and special offers. I understand that I can unsubscribe at any time.
In some circumstances, a business may rely on the “soft opt-in” instead of consent. To qualify, you must:
- Have collected the email address directly from the person.
- Have collected it during a sale or genuine negotiation for a sale.
- Only promote your own similar products or services.
- Provide a clear opt-out when collecting the address.
- Provide another simple opt-out in every subsequent message.
For example, a bathroom retailer that collected a customer’s email address during a vanity-unit purchase might use the soft opt-in to promote matching taps or bathroom accessories. It should not use that exception to promote an unrelated insurance product or another company’s services.
B2B Email Marketing
PECR generally allows marketing emails to corporate subscribers, including limited companies and limited liability partnerships, without prior consent.
However, sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individual subscribers. UK data protection law can also apply when a business email address identifies a particular employee.
If you are unsure whether an address belongs to an individual or corporate subscriber, following the stricter individual-subscriber rules will reduce the risk of breaching PECR.
Every Marketing Email Should
Every marketing email should:
- Clearly identify the business responsible for the message.
- Provide valid contact details.
- Include a prominent and straightforward unsubscribe option.
- Allow people to unsubscribe without creating or accessing an account.
- Avoid misleading sender information or subject lines.
If someone opts out, stop sending them the marketing covered by that request. Maintain a suppression list containing enough information to prevent the address from being accidentally added back into a future campaign.
You should also record when and how consent was obtained, what the person was told and which type of communication they agreed to receive.
Your privacy notice should explain why email addresses are collected, how they are used, how long they are retained, which service providers process them and how people can exercise their rights.
Avoid purchased or scraped email lists unless you can demonstrate that every recipient provided valid consent covering your business and its intended messages. The soft opt-in cannot be transferred through a third-party mailing list.
UK charities should note that a separate charitable-purpose soft opt-in took effect on 5 February 2026. It only applies where all the relevant conditions are met and qualifying contact details were collected on or after that date.
Consult the ICO’s electronic mail marketing guidance when developing your process.
Email Marketing Starter List
New to email marketing? Follow these steps to get your first campaign off the ground.
Create a Permission-Based Email List
Before starting a campaign, you need a properly maintained email list and an appropriate legal basis for contacting each recipient.
Providing an email address for an order, enquiry or download does not automatically mean that someone has agreed to receive marketing.
Give people a genuine reason to subscribe. This might include:
- A useful guide or checklist.
- Practical monthly advice.
- Event updates.
- Early access to new products.
- A first-order discount.
- Industry news or original research.
Explain what subscribers will receive and how frequently you expect to contact them.
For example, an independent café could offer a downloadable guide called “Five Ways to Make Better Coffee at Home”. The person requesting it could then separately choose whether they would also like to receive the café’s monthly recipes, event news and special offers.
Keep evidence of how each address entered the database. A smaller list of interested subscribers is more valuable than a large database of people who do not want to hear from you.
Make a Plan
Create a realistic schedule for your email marketing strategy and stick to it.
Your schedule might include one promotional message each week and an informative newsletter once a month. Alternatively, subscribers could receive an email when you publish a particularly useful article.
A new subscriber sequence might include:
- An immediate welcome email delivering the promised guide or offer.
- A practical advice email two days later.
- A customer story or frequently asked question after five days.
- A relevant product or service invitation after seven days.
After completing the sequence, the subscriber could move into a monthly newsletter instead of continuing to receive frequent sales messages.
Consistency can build familiarity and trust, but avoid overwhelming people with unnecessary emails. The appropriate frequency will depend on your audience, industry and the value of the information you provide.
For a seasonal campaign example, see our Black Friday marketing tips and plan your emails around the wider promotion.
Establish Your Goals
Setting goals will help determine your email frequency, content and calls to action.
Are you trying to bring more visitors to your website? Informative emails containing useful resources or new website content may work well.
Do you want to generate immediate sales? A promotional email containing a relevant, time-limited offer may be more suitable.
Are you promoting an event? Registrations and confirmed bookings will be more important than the number of people who opened the announcement.
Choose a measurement that reflects the purpose of each email. Useful performance indicators include:
- Delivery and bounce rates.
- Clicks and click-through rate.
- Completed enquiries, bookings or purchases.
- Revenue generated by the campaign.
- Unsubscribe and spam-complaint rates.
- Subscriber growth.
- Repeat purchases and long-term customer value.
A welcome email, product launch and customer survey serve different purposes and should not all be judged using the same metric.
Creating Content for Email Marketing
You have built your list and established your goals. What are you actually going to send?
What Do You Want to Say?
The value of your email is often the deciding factor between a subscriber continuing to engage and choosing to unsubscribe.
Every message should answer a simple customer question:
Why is this useful to me?
Your email might:
- Help someone save money on a planned purchase.
- Explain how to solve a common problem.
- Announce an event that matches their interests.
- Provide useful instructions after a purchase.
- Share relevant news or original research.
- Introduce a service that complements something they already use.
For example, a local hotel might email previous guests with a short guide to upcoming events in the area, followed by relevant accommodation availability.
A retailer could send care instructions for a recently purchased product before suggesting suitable accessories.
These examples provide value first and introduce the commercial message in a relevant context.
Sending emails simply to fill a space in the calendar will quickly become repetitive. If you have nothing helpful or meaningful to say, wait until you do.
Keep it Short and Sweet
The content of your email is not the only thing you need to consider.
Most subscribers will scan an email before deciding whether to read it properly. Use:
- A descriptive heading.
- Short paragraphs.
- Clear spacing.
- Lists where appropriate.
- One obvious next step.
Ensure the design works properly on mobile devices. Use readable text, descriptive links, meaningful image alt text and sufficient colour contrast.
Important information should not appear only inside an image.
If the subject requires a detailed explanation, include a concise summary and direct the reader to the full article on your website. This approach can connect your email campaigns with your wider content marketing activity.
Avoid Clickbait
Most people can recognise clickbait immediately.
A subject line should be interesting without misleading the recipient. It should accurately describe what they will find after opening the message.
Avoid:
You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!
Use:
Five Common Email Mistakes—and How to Fix Them
Avoid:
URGENT!!! Open This Now!
Use:
Offer Ends Sunday: Save 15% on Bathroom Furniture
The improved examples communicate a clear benefit while setting an honest expectation.
A misleading subject line may attract an immediate open, but it can also damage trust, increase unsubscribes and create spam complaints.
Use a Call to Action
Every email should have one clear primary action.
That action might be:
- Reading an article.
- Downloading a guide.
- Booking a consultation.
- Viewing a product range.
- Registering for an event.
- Completing a purchase.
The same call to action can be repeated where appropriate, but adding several competing buttons can distract the reader and weaken the message.
Use specific wording such as “Download the checklist”, “View available rooms” or “Book a consultation” instead of a vague instruction such as “Click here”.
A clear email and landing page should work together to support the desired action. This is also an important part of conversion rate optimisation.
Segment and Automate Your Emails
Avoid sending every campaign to the entire database.
Subscribers can be grouped according to:
- Interests.
- Location.
- Previous purchases.
- Website activity.
- Engagement.
- Customer status.
- Stage in the buying journey.
For example, an SEO agency could send Local SEO advice to businesses interested in attracting nearby customers while sending Shopify optimisation tips to ecommerce subscribers.
Both groups receive information relevant to their needs without increasing the total number of emails.
Automation can also deliver messages when they are most useful. Common examples include:
- Welcome sequences.
- Abandoned-basket reminders.
- Post-purchase instructions.
- Review requests.
- Event reminders.
- Re-engagement campaigns.
Klaviyo’s 2026 ecommerce benchmarks reported an average click rate of 5.58% for automated flows, compared with 1.69% for standard campaigns.
Results will vary between industries and audiences, but the figures demonstrate the potential value of timely, behaviour-led messages.
Protect Email Deliverability
Even a well-written campaign cannot perform if messages do not reach the inbox.
Authenticate your sending domain using SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Remove invalid addresses, monitor bounce and complaint rates and avoid repeatedly contacting subscribers who never engage.
Use a recognisable sender name and keep the content consistent with what subscribers originally requested.
Never buy engagement, hide unsubscribe links or use misleading subject lines. A smaller, healthy list is better than a large database that damages your sender reputation.
Test and Improve
Email marketing should improve over time.
A/B testing allows you to compare two versions of one element, such as:
- Subject lines.
- Preview text.
- Calls to action.
- Images.
- Email length.
- Offers.
- Sending times.
Change one main element at a time. If you alter the subject line, design, offer and call to action simultaneously, you will not know which change affected the result.
Record your hypothesis, test conditions and outcome. Apply useful findings to future campaigns rather than treating each email as an isolated activity.
Industry benchmarks can provide useful context, but your own historical results will usually offer the most relevant comparison. Focus on steady improvement and actions connected to genuine business goals.
In a Nutshell
Email marketing remains a valuable way to develop customer relationships, increase website traffic and generate sales.
Its effectiveness depends on permission, relevance, deliverability and accurate measurement.
Build your list responsibly. Be transparent about what subscribers will receive. Segment messages around genuine interests, include a simple unsubscribe option and measure actions that contribute to the business—not just opens.
If you need help putting your email strategy into practice, our email marketing services can support your next campaign.
