In the age of TikTok and text messages, email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways for brands to engage with customers. But with every company on the planet fighting for space in each customer’s inbox, marketers need to do everything they can to ensure their email marketing efforts pay off.

In its 2025 marketing benchmark report, Acoustic—makers of customer engagement tools—examines the latest trends in email marketing and what teams are doing to cut through the noise and make their messages stand out in increasingly cluttered inboxes.

According to Meetal Patel, senior director of customer marketing and success programs at Acoustic and author of the report, marketers may be underestimating how well their emails are performing in a crowded digital landscape.

“We thought engagement would have declined due to oversaturated inboxes but were surprised to see steady open and click-through rates,” Patel says, adding that she uncovered six key themes in her research.

Theme #1: Deliverability is critical.

Success with email marketing starts with deliverability. If messages never reach the inbox, what’s the point? Historically, teams reviewed deliverability after seeing numbers decline, but by then the damage was already done. “One tip is review deliverability on a more regular basis,” Patel says.

According to Caroline Henno, Acoustic’s Account Director, Professional Services, open rates per domain can be a strong indicator of inbox placement. “You want to see a high and consistent open rate across top domains,” Henno shares in the report. “A lower open rate for one domain might indicate a deliverability issue, such as spam placement.”

Theme #2: Privacy remains a top priority.

Marketers are laser-focused on providing more personalized and unique experiences to drive engagement. Doing this requires data.

As more and more privacy laws come on the books—think CCPA and GDPR—marketers should think about adopting privacy-first strategies. In addition to protecting customer data, marketers can respect privacy by implementing double opt-in mechanisms to ensure that subscribers genuinely want to receive communications.

Theme #3: Increased focus on data quality and list hygiene.

One way to increase deliverability is by building quality lists full of folks who actually want to read what you have to say. “A quality list means fewer unsubscribes,” Patel says. “It helps protect the sender’s reputation. By consistently removing subscribers who don’t engage, you can ensure you’re talking to people who are interested in your brand.”

To build trust, Christy Lee McCray, Associate Account Director, Professional Services, at Acoustic, recommends making the unsubscribe process “quick and easy.” “Unsubscribes should be processed in a timely manner and subscribers should not have to browse multiple webpages or click on various links to unsubscribe,” she says.

Theme #4: Using AI and automation to cover more ground.

Marketers who use automated, trigger-based sends—e.g., when someone purchases a product or signs up for a newsletter—are seeing more engagement. “When marketers use automation for email marketing campaigns, that drives higher engagement,” Patel continues. “This remains the biggest shift we saw.”

Patel also says AI-powered tools are helping teams personalize outreach at scale, helping marketers save time while ensuring their messages resonate.

Of course, when using AI, proceed with caution. Not only should marketers make sure AI-generated content is personal and authentic—not robotic—they should also be mindful of how many messages they send out.

“Be thoughtful about your automation, make sure it’s always relevant and timely content, and take measures to be mindful of frequency, for example, suppressing contacts who already took action,” suggests Alex Soto, email marketing and deliverability specialist.

Moreover, “sometimes sending less is more,” Henno says. “Sending too often dilutes your engagement metrics. You may think that every time you hit the send button, you’re guaranteed to make more revenue. But there’s a tipping point, beyond which you drive subscribers to unsubscribe, report spam or ignore your messages. If left unchecked, these issues will eventually cause deliverability problems and lost subscribers.”

Theme #5: First-party data is becoming table stakes.

By using first-party data to inform email marketing efforts, brands can increase the chances that messaging that truly resonates arrives at the best moment, Patel says.

“First-party data collected directly from customers helps drive more click throughs and fewer bouncebacks,” Patel explains. “Having this type of data is helping to drive personalized content and higher conversion rates.”

Henno recommends using dynamic content to personalize emails based on preferences—like promoting the brand’s app only to customers who haven’t downloaded it yet. She also encourages marketers to personalize email content with localized offers, adjust send times based on time zones, and use regional testimonials to create more effective campaigns.

Theme #6: Segmentation is the key to personalization.

To personalize outreach at scale, segment your audience into like-minded groups—for instance, by industry, by purchases or by persona—to ensure each message is relevant to the recipient.

“B2B companies often have an audience that includes decision-makers, influencers and stakeholders who play entirely different roles in the buyer journey,” McCray says. “Understanding each of your personas and their unique roles will allow you to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.”

Once you’ve segmented your list, you can begin testing which types of content resonate most with each group. “Be creative with your email and test subject lines and preheaders to see what performs best with each segment, conduct A/B testing and experiment by using emojis in the subject line (in moderation),” says Brady Hartman, Account Director, Professional Services.

Marketers Move Beyond Email

While email remains a critical marketing channel, teams are increasingly adding other channels to the mix—like SMS and mobile push. You might want to test these, too. Just know they’re more intrusive than email. Ask for consent, don’t lean too heavily on either and make it easy for recipients to opt out.