Email Marketing RulesWhat XMail’s Launch Could Mean for Email Marketers
Posted on January 9, 2025
Among the new developments to watch in the email space in 2025 may be the launch of XMail, an email inbox platform from X. On Dec. 15, X Owner Elon Musk said on X that XMail is “on the list of things to do.” In a separate post, he indicated that XMail would focus on the “universal” features of email.
Let’s look at some of the issues surrounding this potential launch.
A Year of Campaign Subject Lines: Inspiration from 2024
Posted on January 8, 2025
A catchy, yet descriptive subject line for your email or title for your SMS or push message can give your campaign a sizable boost. One way to stand out and be more relevant is to have a hook that’s connected to a holiday, season, or occasion—like the nearly 1,000 we highlight in our 2025 Content Calendar Assistant.
To inspire you, we’ve pulled together some of our favorite subject lines from 2024 that do just that. Here’s a month-by-month rundown of our faves.
The Last Word on December 2024
Posted on January 3, 2025
A roundup of digital and email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Elon Musk Xmail Teaser Poses New Threat For Billions Of Gmail Users (Forbes)
8 Email Marketing Trends to Watch in 2025 (Mailjet)
Emails featuring Top Email 2024 (Email Love)
5 Email Marketing Goals for 2025 (Email on Acid)
Understanding Unsubscribes: A Fresh Perspective for the Holiday Season (Only Influencers)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
This is the kind of shady stuff that makes me want to unsubscribe extra hard. 🙄
— Chenell Basilio (@growthinreverse.com) December 3, 2024 at 6:27 AM
Conference networking pro tip: Create a QR code with your contact info & tattoo it on your body 😂 #marketing
— Ann Handley (@annhandley.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 7:06 AM
Noteworthy subject lines
Goldbelly, 12/27 – 🎉Your New Year’s PARTY in a BOX!🎉
Forever 21, 12/5 – NEW: Saweetie Party Styles ❤️
YETI, 12/20 – Ring It In With Rambler® Barware & Free Bottles
Crate & Barrel, 12/20 – Are you ready for New Year’s Eve?
Macy’s, 12/29 – Here’s 25-40% off to help you crush your health goals
Forever 21, 12/27 – New Year Activewear 💪✨
Crate & Kids, 12/27 – Toys everywhere? Up to 20% off The Get Organized Event →
DSW, 12/12 – It’s your year in review!
Quiksilver, 12/29 – Year In Review: Customer’s Favorite Gear
Allrecipes Dinner Tonight, 12/27 – Our Most Popular Side Dish of 2024
Overstock, 12/22 – These Were the Best-Selling Rugs of 2024! 👀
Urban Outfitters, 12/25 – 🥁 and our best sweater are…
Allbirds, 12/2 – Very Last Call For Up To 50% Off 🥵
Gap Cyber Monday, 12/2 – You’ve hit it big. Your cart’s already 50% off.
Redbubble, 12/2 – 🚨 HOURS LEFT for Cyber Monday Up To 60% Off
Superdry, 12/2 – Extended for 24 Hours: Up to 70% Off Ends Tonight
REI, 12/5 – More oops-I-missed-Cyber-Monday deals
Bed Bath & Beyond, 12/5 – 12 Days of Gifts STARTS NOW ✨🎁✨
Urban Outfitters, 12/5 – ✨ deal of the day ✨ 30% off BDG denim
Goldbelly, 12/5 – 🎄The Greatest Christmas Foods on Earth🎄
Michaels, 12/4 – 🕎 Get 50% off Hanukkah décor and hosting essentials to brighten your celebrations 🕎
Google Home, 12/12 – Psst Chad… still holiday shopping?
Uncommon Goods, 12/17 – Still have stockings to stuff?
Crate & Kids, 12/17 – “Oops, I forgot _____ gifts!”
Target, 12/20 – 5 days ‘til Christmas, there’s still time to find great gifts.
vineyard vines, 12/22 – VERY Last Chance For Holiday Delivery! 🗣️
Chubbies, 12/22 – Holiday Crisis Averted: The Perfect Gift in Seconds
Uncommon Goods, 12/27 – 10 things to gift to yourself
adidas, 12/12 – adidas sneakers so good you may just gift them to yourself.
Huckberry, 12/17 – “F*** the price.”
DSW, 12/22 – Is this $10 yours?
Banana Republic, 12/11 – It’s velvet season
Gap Email Exclusive, 12/18 – Just in: The Paddington Bear Collection + order by tomorrow to get gifts by 12/24
Disney Store, 12/26 – 🌊 New Moana 2 arrivals just sailed in
Gap, 12/25 – GAP x DISNEY SWEATS
Gap, 12/5 – Introducing: Gap | Star Wars
Columbia, 12/5 – Members shop new STAR WARS™ gear at 8:30 am PST!
Big Lots, 12/27 – Store Closing: Save Big Before It’s Too Late!
Neiman Marcus, 12/23 – Neiman Marcus Joins Saks Global
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Is Email Marketing’s ROI Sky-High or Irrelevant?
The Most Wonderful (High-Stakes, High-Volume) Time of the Year [Infographic]
Email Marketing Developments in 2024 & Their Ripple Effects in 2025
Year-in-Review Marketing Campaigns: Don’t Drop the Ball
Email Marketing’s Future and Beyond
Posted on January 2, 2025
Named a 2024 Contributor of the Year, I chat with CMSWire about a range of issues that will be critical to marketers this year and beyond, including:
- The future of email marketing
- Balancing personalization & broad appeal
- Improving customer journeys via email
- Email metrics and insights
- Overcoming common email marketing challenges
Happy Holidays!
Posted on December 25, 2024
Wherever you are, whatever you celebrate, my family and I wish you all the best this holiday season. See you in the New Year, EmailGeeks!
Is Email Marketing’s ROI Sky-High or Irrelevant?
Posted on December 17, 2024
For the better part of the past two decades, email marketing’s return on investment has hovered around 40:1, according to a variety of sources. For instance, a recent Litmus survey of more than 2,000 marketers found that email marketing’s ROI is 36:1. That means the average brand can expect to earn $36 for every $1 they spend on their email marketing efforts.
Compared with other channels, email marketing’s ROI is typically near the top of the spectrum, up there with brands’ investments in their website and organic SEO. Email marketing outperforms SMS and push marketing, as well as search, social, and other digital advertising. And it blows away the returns seen with traditional media channels like direct mail, TV, and radio.
This ROI hierarchy has been in place for a long time. Given that, you might expect for brands to be perpetually eager to invest more in their email marketing programs, especially as they gain more AI capabilities. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Instead, brands are deprioritizing marketing and shifting budget from higher-ROI owned channels to lower-ROI paid channels, according to Gartner’s 2024 CMO Spend Survey. That seems like a poor strategy, both short-term and long-term, so why are brands doing this?
Let’s explore possible reasons why brands aren’t more drawn to email marketing’s high ROI.
The Most Wonderful (High-Stakes, High-Volume) Time of the Year [Infographic]
Posted on December 13, 2024
For B2C brands, the holiday season is everything they’ve been working toward. All the relevance and value they delivered earlier in the year has fostered the loyalty their customers are bringing with them into November and December—and into the Cyber Five heart of the holiday season.
In the infographic in this post, we highlight some of the strategies brands used to connect with their most loyal customers across their promotional marketing channels, including email, SMS, web push, and mobile push. Brands know that revenue per message is highest during the Thanksgiving-to-Cyber Monday period, so they took advantage of high buyer intent by pushing message volumes well above average non-holiday levels.
Email Marketing Developments in 2024 & Their Ripple Effects in 2025
Posted on December 11, 2024
While there will undoubtedly be new out-of-the-blue developments that shake the email marketing industry in 2025, marketers already have to contend with a slew of developments that took root in 2024 and will become more of a force in the year ahead. Let’s look at what some of those developments are.
The Last Word on November 2024
Posted on December 6, 2024
A roundup of digital and email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Apple AI Notification Summaries Exist; Rarely Useful, Often Hilarious (The Verge)
Google May Soon Let You Create Email Aliases in an Effort to Fight Spam (Android Authority)
What DMARC Policy Should Senders Use in 2025? (Email on Acid)
How Marketers Are Spending Their Money in 2025 (We Asked 11,093 Marketers) (Neil Patel)
Apple and Google Could Face a Competition Probe over Their Huge Mobile Ecosystems in the UK (CNBC)
Google Is Inserting Search Links into Webpages in the Google App Now (The Verge)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
Great recap of where we are with AI today.
“enterprise adoption is still very early: mostly low hanging fruit kind of use cases: chat, search, code, or easy to deploy applications. For anything more company-specific or industry specific: consultants are the big winners so far.” https://t.co/sddgQlA0Pu
— Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer) November 10, 2024
Email Marketing thoughts:
1. Having your promotional emails land in the promotions tab is NOT a bad thing.
2. Sending to severely unengaged contacts WILL hurt your deliverability.
3. Bad deliverability? Moving providers isn’t an elixir.
#emailgeeks #ecommerce #marketing #BFCM #emailmarketing
— Greg zakowicz (@gregzakowicz.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 12:33 PM
Noteworthy subject lines
IKEA Family, 11/7 – 🦊🐝 Welcome to the magical Swedish forest! 🍄🌲
Burlington | Home D., 11/12 – Start the season with holiday décor savings!
vineyard vines, 11/4 – Last Call For 30% Off Holiday Family PJs
Michaels, 11/1 – 🎄 Celebrate Savings: The Great Big Tree Spree Starts Now! Up to 70% off!
Big Lots, 11/5 – Santa’s Secret: He Shops with Us for the Best Deals! 💯
Bass Pro Shops, 11/1 – Your Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide Is Here
Uncommon Goods, 11/4 – 10/10 gingerbread people recommend our gift guides
Uncommon Goods, 11/15 – Need a gift for that impossible-to-shop-for person?
Uncommon Goods, 11/30 – This year’s *best* bestsellers 🏆
Urban Outfitters, 11/4 – the styles on everyone’s list…
REI, 11/2 – The perfect gift 🤝 under $25
kate spade, 11/9 – Gifts under $100, right this way
Macy’s, 11/3 – Beauty advent cals mean you *can* give everything 💄
Redbubble, 11/19 – Bring their favorite anime worlds to life
Bed Bath & Beyond, 11/7 – ⏰🚨📢 LAST CHANCE: Up to 50% Off Early Black Friday ⏰🚨📢
Wayfair, 11/14 – 📃✏️ Check it off your BLACK FRIDAY list ✅
Priceline.com, 11/14 – Your Black Friday Preview (!!!)
Home Depot, 11/19 – Here & Now: Black Friday Savings
Macy’s, 11/22 – Don’t wait! Black Friday deals are ALREADY here
Target, 11/22 – Early Black Friday Deals start today!
MoMA Design Store, 11/19 – Black Friday Starts Early! 20% Off
NFLshop.com, 11/22 – Black Friday Deals >> Save 25% On Official Styles
vineyard vines, 11/22 – 40% Off EVERYTHING For Black Friday ⚫
Big Lots, 11/22 – Black Friday Friday: 50% Off ALL Cookware! 👩🍳🔥
Superdry, 11/22 – Black Friday Came Early: Up to 70% Off
REI, 11/29 – Opt Outside with us again on Black Friday
Cards Against Humanity, 11/30 – Diamond Potato is here
IKEA Family, 11/1 – 🦃 Save now, skip the holiday stress later! 🎄
Goldbelly, 11/5 – Pre-Order for Thanksgiving TODAY! 🦃
Crate & Barrel, 11/12 – Is your kitchen ready for turkey day? 🦃
Allrecipes Dinner Tonight, 11/1 – My Favorite 3-Ingredient Thanksgiving Appetizer
Williams Sonoma, 11/5 – Thanksgiving HQ: roasters, thermometers & more
West Elm Sale, 11/24 – Your living room sofa and guest bedroom all in one
Crate & Kids, 11/5 – It’s almost “play indoors” season. Prep your playroom →
Big Lots, 11/4 – $49.99 Heated Blankets—Yup, you read that right! NEW DEALS!
Levi’s, 11/12 – Outerwear for inner joy!
Sarah from Lonely Planet, 11/2 – It’s time to book your winter vacation
Petco, 11/5 – Stock up on your dog’s food before the holiday rush!
Tumblr, 11/25 – Congratulations, Max. 🎉
Gap, 11/13 – Introducing: Our heaviest hoodie
adidas, 11/2 – Ultraboost 1.0: All comfort. All energy.
Forever 21, 11/7 – NEW: Wicked Collection 🖤
Forever 21, 11/14 – JUST LAUNCHED: Peanuts Collection
Clinique Online, 11/19 – A gift after Live Chat? Yes please!
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
AI Summaries for Email: Design Impacts on Marketers
How to Identify & Create More Great Customers
Good & Bad Reasons to Consider Switching ESPs
Year-in-Review Marketing Campaigns: Don’t Drop the Ball
Posted on December 4, 2024
As we approach the new year, some brands will be sending year-in-review campaigns—and perhaps should be, too. These typically include detailed information about how your customers engaged with your brand over the year, with an eye on how they got value from that engagement.
They’re the most popular with service- and entertainment-oriented brands, but they are a possibility for a host of other brands with regular interactions. And while year-in-review campaigns are the most popular in the email channel, brands can also promote these in SMS, push, and other channels by hosting the campaign online.
Because these campaigns involve a lot of personalization, they’re more complicated to produce than the typical campaign. Their high level of personalization also prompts a number of questions and concerns. Let’s look at the biggest ones.
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
