An email marketing campaign succeeds when it draws insights from broader marketing successes and failures. Whether you’re launching a fresh strategy or fine-tuning existing campaigns, there’s immense value in reflecting on what worked—and what didn’t—over the past year.
2024 Marketing Successes and Flops
These lessons can guide you in making your campaigns more engaging, inclusive, and effective. Before launching your next email marketing campaign, take a moment to check out these examples.
What Worked
Grana’s Personalized Product Recommendations
Grana used personalized product recommendations to boost sales and engagement. By using data from customer preferences and shopping habits, they sent targeted emails suggesting items that matched each person’s style.
This made their emails feel more relevant, encouraging customers to make purchases. It showed how important it is to customize content for each user, leading to better customer satisfaction and higher conversion rates.
HelloFresh’s Engaging Recipe Newsletters
HelloFresh focused on creating newsletters that not only promote their meal kits but also provide useful content like recipes and cooking tips. This type of email builds value for subscribers by offering more than just sales pitches.
Their emails kept customers engaged by offering new ideas and making meal prep fun. The result was higher open rates and strong customer loyalty, as people looked forward to their weekly recipe inspiration.
Glossier’s 5Cs
Glossier’s email marketing success comes from focusing on these 5Cs: Consumers, Content, Conversations, Co-Creation, and Community.
Glossier sends personalized product recommendations and exclusive content with launches and giveaways. Their emails are simple, product-focused, and match their minimalist style. According to a case study by Omni, Their email strategy resulted in open rates of 30%, click-through rates of 15%, and impressive subscriber retention at 85%.
Sephora’s Loyalty Program Updates
Sephora sent emails about their loyalty program, offering personalized rewards and special offers. By keeping customers informed about their points and rewards status, Sephora kept their audience engaged and motivated to make more purchases.
The emails made subscribers feel appreciated and encouraged them to keep coming back. There are 70% of consumers who participate in paid loyalty programs, and nearly half of non-members would pay for one if the value is right, as per Deloitte research.
Lyft’s User-Specific Promotions
Lyft personalized promotions based on users’ travel habits. For example, they sent special offers to frequent riders, offering discounts or rewards for their loyalty. This made the emails feel more personal and valuable.
Targeting specific user behavior enables Lyft to increase engagement and makes customers feel like they are getting something extra, which leads to higher conversion rates and more rides.
What Didn’t Work
2024 Black Friday Emails
Many brands, like Spanx, sent Black Friday emails with catchy phrases like “Happy Turkey Day! Eat Up & Slim Down!” While this might sound fun to some, others found it off-putting, especially on a holiday focused on enjoying food.
Mixing messages about eating and slimming down in the same sentence can seem tone-deaf and insensitive. When sending promotional emails, it’s important to keep the tone appropriate and sensitive to the occasion, like Thanksgiving, to avoid alienating your audience.
Various Brands – Common Email Issues
In 2024, several e-commerce brands faced email marketing issues, like broken personalization tokens that made emails start with “Dear [user name],” making them feel impersonal. Other problems included missing CTAs and incorrect audience segmentation, sending the wrong emails to the wrong people.
Also, sending too many emails overloaded subscribers, causing unsubscribes and frustration. Some companies also faced issues with transactional emails, like order confirmations, ending up in spam folders.
Focusing on what worked and avoiding common pitfalls can improve your future campaigns and drive better results.
Email Marketing Trends Heading into 2025
Here’s what you can expect with email marketing as we gear up towards 2025:
Hyper-personalization
In 2025, personalization goes beyond just using a person’s name. You should create emails that feel tailor-made for each subscriber by understanding their behaviors and preferences.
Advanced Automation
Automation is becoming more sophisticated. Instead of generic sequences, you can set up real-time triggers that respond to customer actions, like sending tailored product recommendations after a purchase.
AI Integration
AI is transforming email marketing by helping you understand which elements of your campaigns are working and which need improvement. It can assist in content creation, campaign management, and scaling your efforts efficiently.
AI-powered Summaries
With features like AI summaries, you can distill lengthy emails into bite-sized highlights, making it easier for recipients to grasp key information quickly.
Interactive Elements
Fusing some interactive features like quizzes, polls, and GIFs can make your emails more engaging. These elements encourage recipients to interact directly with the email, enhancing their experience.
Mobile-First Design
With more people checking emails on their phones, designing emails that look great on mobile devices is essential. Responsive and accessible designs ensure your emails are easy to read and navigate on any device.
Email List Hygiene
Keeping your email list clean and up-to-date is absolutely key. Inactive subscribers can significantly drag down your open rates; therefore, it’s important to regularly clean your list and focus on engaged customers. Consequently, engaged lists lead to better performance and ultimately a stronger return on investment (ROI).
Data Privacy and Security
Data privacy is critically important for email marketing to avoid penalties and reputational damage. For example, the CAN-SPAM Act requires accurate sender information, clear opt-out options, and truthful subject lines, with fines of up to $51,744 per email for violations. Similarly, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which applies to businesses collecting data from California residents, mandates transparency and the right to opt out of data sales, with fines of up to $7,500 per violation.
Remember, a well-planned email marketing campaign not only drives results but also strengthens customer relationships. By keeping these lessons in mind, you can plan for even more successful campaigns in 2025.
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