BY Kathy Crosett
Are your accounts getting everything they can from email? New Litmus research hints that too many marketers are not investing enough into the email marketing customer journey. Here’s what you can do to help your accounts fix the problem.
What Do Marketers Need to Accomplish with Email Marketing?
In the State of Email 2025 report, Litmus analysts studied over 20 million emails. The world of email marketing is rapidly changing, especially with the impact of AI. Email continues to be a widely used, cost-effective marketing tool. But there’s room for improvement.
Marketers still want to increase engagement rates. And 25% want to improve benchmark metrics. To meet those goals and to increase open and click-through rates, the content should be high quality and personalized.
Which Emails Do Consumers Want?
In mapping out the email marketing customer journey, marketers categorize the types of messages they send. Engagement messages, focusing on product news, are most popular at 63%. And 58% of businesses use sales and discounts as the reason for reaching out through email. Not surprising, these types of emails also generate the best ROI.
But there are other ways to stay in touch with clients. And interactivity matters. Marketers don’t find it easy to incorporate interactive elements. But 35% are including interactive buttons. For 13%, surveys, quizzes and polls have become part of the email campaign.
Content
Consumers will click on offers and information that interests them. This behavior means marketers must emphasize content production. Around 20% of businesses use outside talent to develop the email content they need. And this practice includes hiring out the need for artwork, etc.
How to Improve the Email Marketing Customer Journey
According Litmus findings, marketers want to better serve customers by streamlining the email production process. Until recently, some marketers required up to two weeks to roll out an email campaign. But adding AI tools can save marketers time. In addition, using dedicated email specialists can streamline the process.
Customer Segmentation
To improve engagement, marketers also segment customers in email campaigns. For this strategy to succeed, your accounts must collect data. With this first-party data, your accounts can personalize email communications.
You can assist your accounts by advising them on which email service provider to select. Deploying the right service is critical because they must be able to use the data. And if they’re overwhelmed by the thought of managing the email marketing customer journey, sell your services to them.
Many marketers find the following personalization strategies to be most effective:
- Demographics or preferences
- Dynamic content
- Personalized subject lines
Diving into Segmentation
26% of surveyed marketers noted that interest-based segmentation is highly effective. For example, athletic footwear shoppers are 63% more likely than all other adults to be fans of women’s sports, according to AudienceSCAN by AdMall.
Marketers could develop a promotion with a local women’s sports team to sell discounted game tickets to shoppers who buy new footwear in person. This type of email can be highly targeted. Using the right settings on the service provider platform will allow your account to measure success. And they can also establish themselves as a supporter of a local team — another way to strengthen the connection with their target audience.
Email Types
The type of business vertical your account operates in makes a difference. The Litmus research shows that retailers prefer to use email as “a brand awareness channel.” While tech companies believe email is an effective “lead driver.” Talk with your accounts about how to use email based on their business vertical.
How to Measure Success
The typical marketer allocates between 5% and 15% of the marketing budget to email. They also monitor their metrics. Nearly 30% measure the click-through rate, and 24% track conversions.
Litmus analysts found that 17% measure “revenue generated from email campaigns.” They reported that marketers with a focus on revenue generation are often most successful in developing an email marketing custom journey.
Email performance can be linked to investment. But your accounts can excel by adeptly incorporating efficiency and technology. Around 47% of businesses allocate less than 25% of their team to email. Not surprisingly, pro email users, those with an ROI of 36:1 and higher, assign more of their team to email marketing.
Conclusion
When the email marketing customer journey is intentionally designed and properly measured, your accounts benefit. Too many businesses let their email marketing campaigns drift. With the right focus, these messages can deliver great results.
Image by Cup of Couple on Pexels.
