Email in 2025 Featuring John Peters, Campaign Monitor
Please welcome John Peters!
John Peters is the deliverability manager for Emma and Campaign Monitor and has been working in the email compliance and deliverability sector for nearly 10 years. He’s contributed to various blogs and presented at industry conferences like M3AAWG and Deliverability Summit.
John brings an incredible depth of knowledge when it comes to effective email marketing, and it’s clear from his answers; he truly values the customer experience and believes email should revolve around recipients for more success. He’s provided very detailed and thoughtful answers, so it’s best you read them for yourself, trust us.
How do you see email fitting into the marketing mix in 2025?
We live in an increasingly interconnected world and emails are an integral part of our daily lives, both personally and professionally. It’s expected that in 2025 emails will continue playing a significant part in the marketing mix as the number of global email users is expected to grow to 4.6 billion with an estimated 376.4 billion emails sent and received daily. That’s an impressive number of emails; however, it doesn’t necessarily translate to an increase in users’ time and capacity to engage with email content.
Email’s role in marketing will need to evolve along with advancements in technology, like the increased use of AI, and reactive consumer behaviors. Here are a couple of examples:
- Increased personalized and targeted campaigns: Consumers expect to receive content that is personalized and targeted to their specific interests. Marketers could use AI and large language models (LLMs) to generate personalized subject lines and body content while leveraging AI’s capacity to analyze large customer datasets to also achieve send time and email cadence optimization on the individual customer level. This capability would enable marketers to better identify customer preferences, behavior patterns, and buying habits to increase engagement and return on investment.
- Omnichannel integration: Marketers can already combine SMS and email marketing, like using emails to promote long-form content and including a link to a web landing page and opting in for SMS notifications. Similarly, they can use SMS to send more time-sensitive offers and updates, again linking to a landing page or a signup form for regular updates via email. Analyzing and combing multiple data sets will allow a marketer to tailor their message and select the appropriate marketing channel based on their customer’s behavior, preferences, and demographics.
In 2025, we can expect email to work seamlessly with other marketing channels, like social media, SMS, and websites, where emails serve as a link between them to drive traffic, nurture leads, and reinforce brand messaging. To stand out in recipients’ crowded inboxes, marketers must continuously innovate, embrace emerging technologies, and deliver personalized, relevant, and valuable content. This approach ensures their message cuts through the “noise” and creates a meaningful connection with their audience.
What about email do you see as a nice-to-have for now, but feel will be considered table stakes by 2025?
As technology advances and consumer expectations evolve, certain features that are currently “nice to have” may become fundamental requirements for successful email marketing strategies by 2025. Here are a few examples:
Real-Time Reporting and Website Data Integration: Real-time reporting capabilities, including website data integration, are set to become a crucial aspect of email marketing. Marketers will no longer settle for delayed insights and generic metrics. Instead, they will require reporting tools providing immediate visibility into email campaign performance that combines website engagement and conversion rates. Armed with this valuable data, marketers can make data-driven decisions, optimize their strategies, and refine their targeting to achieve improved results. The ability to track, in addition, the impact of email campaigns on website metrics will further enable marketers to deliver data-driven strategies and maximise the overall effectiveness of their campaigns.
Advanced Automated Workflows: While
marketing automation and
dynamic content have gained significant traction in recent years, they may soon be considered an essential feature rather than a luxury. By 2025, marketers could rely heavily on sophisticated automation tools making use of machine learning algorithms to enable timely and highly personalized email communications at scale and at a fraction of current resourcing. This could include automated workflows triggered by specific user actions at every stage of the user lifecycle, from acquisition, conversation, retention, re-engagement, and finally removing dormant “
ghost” contacts.
It’s challenging to precisely foresee the future of email marketing in 2025, as technological advancements and shifting customer preferences will determine the distinction between “nice-to-have” and “table stakes.” Nevertheless, we can expect significant growth in the availability and utilization of data, with marketers leveraging data-driven insights to make informed decisions. The proliferation of AI tools will play a crucial role in combining and analyzing vast amounts of data, enabling marketers to curate personalized experiences and deliver targeted communications that resonate with their audience.
What do you hope or wish to see change within email by 2025?
I hope to see a continued focus on ethical email marketing practices with a focus on user consent, data privacy, and treating inbox placement as a privilege rather than a right.
One key aspect of ethical email marketing is obtaining direct and explicit
consent from recipients. By implementing opt-in processes requiring individuals to actively confirm their desire to receive emails, marketers demonstrate respect for the end user. Furthermore, promptly honoring opt-out requests and providing easily accessible unsubscribe links is essential in building trust and maintaining a positive reputation with subscribers and mailbox providers. Adhering to these practices not only aligns with ethical principles but is also a requirement under many legislations like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CASL, the Australian Privacy Act and others.
Honesty and authenticity are also core principles of ethical email marketing. By delivering on the promises made when users signed up for a mailing list and avoiding deceptive tactics, marketers can build trust and credibility. Providing accurate information, avoiding misleading subject lines, and delivering content aligning with subscribers’ expectations further contribute to a positive user experience.
Respecting the frequency and timing of email communications is essential to maintaining a positive user experience. Avoiding excessive emails leading to subscriber fatigue and frustration is key. This approach safeguards the sender’s reputation with mailbox providers leading to more inbox placement and ensures email recipients view the brand as considerate and respectful.
By embracing ethical practices, email marketers can forge strong relationships, drive engagement, and foster brand loyalty. Ethical email marketing not only benefits recipients but also establishes the sender as a responsible and trustworthy entity in the industry. Striving for ethical practices leads to better engagement, higher conversion rates, and long-term success in email marketing. Ultimately, by prioritizing user consent, data privacy, and respectful engagement, marketers can shape a future where email marketing is valued, effective, and ethical.
