What is an email marketing strategy?

An email marketing strategy is a plan brands use to build relationships and sell products via email. As part of their owned marketing strategy, an email strategy helps marketers create and send targeted emails to a list of subscribers to drive sales and increase brand awareness.

Components of an effective email marketing strategy

Email marketing is a highly effective digital marketing tool, with an average return of $36 on every dollar spent. To achieve success with email marketing, you need a well-crafted and clear strategy with these components:

Email compliance 

To protect consumer privacy and prevent spam, various regulations have been introduced to govern commercial email communication, such as:

Email compliance regulations require obtaining explicit consent, providing easy opt-out options, and including accurate sender information in your emails. Non-compliance may result in hefty fines, tarnished brand reputation, and potential legal consequences.

Email verification

Email verification validates the authenticity and accuracy of email addresses in your mailing list. Sending emails to invalid or non-existent addresses can lead to high bounce rates and affect your sender reputation and deliverability. 

Clean your email list regularly so you’re only sending emails to engaged and interested subscribers who will not mark them as spam.

Use double opt-in to make it easy for people to confirm their subscription, and make sure your list consists of only valid email addresses.

List segmentation

Email list segmentation divides your subscribers or target audience into smaller groups based on the following shared characteristics:

  • Demographics like age, location, or gender
  • Interests and preferences
  • Purchase history
  • Website activity
  • Engagement level

By creating targeted segments, you can deliver personalized messages that resonate with each group. For example, you can send a promo code only to people who abandoned a high-value cart or a product launch email specific to people who viewed a certain product page on your website.

This level of personalization boosts open rates, click rates (CTRs), and conversions.

Personalization

Personalization uses subscriber data to customize your content for different market segments. Besides addressing subscribers by their names, personalize your emails by:

  • Sending targeted offers and promotions based on purchase history or browsing behavior
  • Suggesting related products to frequent buyers or subscribers who have abandoned their carts
  • Including personal recommendations, reviews, or testimonials from customers with similar interests
  • Using location-based targeting to offer deals or promote events
  • Sending birthday or anniversary messages with discounts

Email design and layout

Your email design is important for accessibility, engagement, and converting subscribers into customers. Use a clean, professional, and mobile-responsive layout that aligns with your brand’s visual identity. 

Consider font size, colors, images, and whitespace to create a positive user experience. Use shorter paragraphs and bullet points for easy scanning, and add relevant visuals or videos to break up text. 

Call to action (CTA)

CTAs are the links or buttons in your email that encourage subscribers to take a specific action. They could be “Buy Now,” “Sign Up,” “Learn More,” or any other action that aligns with your goal. 

Place CTAs above the fold to draw attention and use action-oriented words to motivate subscribers to take the next step.

Automation

Email automation is sending emails automatically based on online behavior. Automation saves you time, sends more relevant messages, and moves people down the funnel. 

Common automation flows include:

A/B testing

A/B testing, or split testing, helps you compare two or more email versions to see which performs better. You can test:

As consumer preferences and behavior evolve, A/B testing helps optimize your email marketing strategy for better results.

Analytics and performance tracking

Analytics and tracking offer valuable insights into your email marketing strategy performance. The table below outlines key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and describes what each measures.

KPIDescription
Click rate (CTR)Percentage of subscribers who clicked a link within your email out of the total number of emails that were delivered
Conversion ratePercentage of subscribers who completed the desired action, like a purchase
Bounce ratePercentage of emails that weren’t delivered to the recipient’s inbox due to a variety of reasons
Unsubscribe ratePercentage of subscribers who opt out of your email list after receiving an email
Return on investment (ROI)The measure of profit return generated from your email marketing efforts compared to the cost 
Open ratePercentage of subscribers who opened your email 

How to create a results-driven email marketing strategy

To create a successful email marketing strategy, follow these steps:

1. Select a reliable email automation platform

Email automation platforms power your email marketing efforts by helping you create, send, and track emails. They centralize subscriber data, segment your audience, personalize emails, automate workflows, and provide performance analytics. 

Choose a platform that:

  • Collects, imports, and organizes email addresses from your sign-up forms
  • Provides pre-built email templates and drag-and-drop editors for easy design
  • Offers segmentation, personalization, and automation features
  • Integrates with your ecommerce, CRM, or other marketing tools
  • Supports A/B testing and performance analytics

2. Create an email list 

An email list contains email addresses of subscribers who have consented to receive emails from you. Follow these steps to grow your email list:

  1. Add a sign-up form to your website’s homepage or product page
  2. Use pop-ups, flyout forms, or static forms to capture visitors’ emails
  3. Run social media campaigns, contests, or giveaways that ask for email sign-ups 
  4. Offer incentives—including discounts, special deals, or freebies—to entice sign-ups

3. Set clear goals and objectives

Your email marketing goals should align with your overall business objectives and be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). 

Here’s what effective emails can do:

  • Promote new products or services
  • Increase brand awareness
  • Drive website traffic
  • Generate revenue
  • Improve customer engagement and retention
  • Collect feedback or customer insights

For example, if your goal is to increase sales by 20% in the next quarter, send promotional messages with strong CTAs to drive conversions.

4. Segment your target audience

For successful email marketing initiatives, group subscribers with similar traits, interests, behaviors, or demographics into segments and tailor messages based on their customer journey. 

Examples include:

  • New subscribers: Send welcome emails introducing your brand and products.
  • Active subscribers: Send promotional emails to drive sales.
  • Inactive subscribers: Send re-engagement emails to remind them of your product benefits.
  • Previous customers: Send product recommendations or loyalty rewards to encourage repeat purchases.

5. Create compelling content and CTAs

Your email’s subject line, preview text, layout, visuals, body copy, and CTAs should entice subscribers to open, read, and take action. Use action-driven words, showcase products or services, evoke emotions, create a sense of urgency, and personalize the content for each segment. 

Your CTAs should be straightforward, easy to find, and drive traffic to your website.

6. Monitor and analyze performance

Track and analyze your email marketing metrics regularly to measure success. Compare performance across different customer segments, subject lines, or visuals to identify what motivates your audience. 

Based on these insights, tweak your strategy, experiment with new ideas, and continuously optimize your marketing messages for better results.

Build a winning email marketing strategy with Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform that makes it easier to make money from your email marketing strategy. With Klaviyo AI, you can send messages—at scale—that convert at a higher rate because they’re sent to the right people at the right time.

Klaviyo features include:

  • Campaigns: Design email campaigns to launch a product, announce a sale, or share valuable content.
  • Flows: Automate your email marketing efforts with 60+ pre-built templates to welcome, win back, or reward customers.
  • Segmentation: Group people based on their actions, attributes, and preferences to send targeted messages that resonate with them.
  • Personalized benchmarks: See how your email campaigns perform against similar brands in your industry.
  • Reporting: Get real-time data into click rates, revenue generated, top-performing segments, or flows to optimize future campaigns.

Ready to create a data-driven email marketing strategy? Sign up for Klaviyo and send emails that drive conversions, engagement, and brand loyalty. 

Additional resources