THE EMAIL CULTURE
A community-driven approach to escalating revenue and business growth through email.
Welcome to The Email Culture! 👋 We started this community to bring people in the email industry together to share ideas, experiences, lessons learned, and things that actually work. As a little welcome gift, we’re sharing our playbook, Revenue Acceleration Through Email, with practical ideas to help you get more out of your email marketing.
Every week, expect fresh thought leadership, important email industry updates, three practical resources worth your time, and real questions answered by email experts. But the real value comes from all of us contributing. Share what works, ask questions, and exchange ideas to help the email ecosystem grow stronger together. We're glad to have you with us!
THE BIG IDEA
Why the Inbox Never Sleeps - and Why That Matters for Marketers
The inbox never sleeps, but effective email marketing is about relevance, not sending more messages. As inbox competition increases, marketers must prioritize segmentation, behavior-based automation, and personalized content to improve engagement and reduce unsubscribes. AI helps optimize send times, predict customer behavior, and scale personalization, but it works best when supported by a strong strategy. Deliverability, list hygiene, and authentication form the foundation for ensuring emails reach the inbox. The future of email marketing lies in building an always-on system that prioritizes meaningful connections over message volume.
And this behavior isn’t limited to office hours—it spills into life’s most personal moments. People check their inbox after work, in the bathroom, in bed next to their partner, while driving, at weddings, even during vacations and funerals. The inbox has quietly embedded itself into the rhythm of daily life.
But this isn’t about productivity—it’s about psychology. The real driver here is discomfort. People aren’t opening emails because they want to—they’re opening them because they feel a subtle tension: Did I miss something important? Am I falling behind? Will someone think I’m unreliable?
THE EMAIL BRIEF
3 Things Worth Knowing
One keeps searching for positive news about Mailchimp. Is it succeeding as a separate operating unit of Intuit, which it has been since August, or is it declining as an email service vendor?.
The truth is that the iconic brand is suffering weak revenue growth and increasing customer churn, Trading View writes in an analysis for potential investors published on Tuesday.
Star Power: How Influencers Are Helping B2B Brands Build Engagement, ROI
Even the most isolated email teams are hearing faint whispers about the role of influencers. Indeed, many are being called on to help drive the programs, for CEOs know that thought leadership can help their firms get onto buyer shortlists.
There is good reason for this feeling: 93% of firms with influencer programs say they’re effective, although only 46% call them very effective, according to a new study from TopRank Marketing and Ascend2: “The 2027 B2B Influencer And Creator Marketing Report.”
Systems Central: Pulling Together All The Elements In An Email Operation
Email teams, despite their excellent creative and targeting, are hemmed in by technology. Systems don’t often speak to one another, and this problem is compounded by the need to put guardrails around a brand.
But the movement toward hassle-free email marketing has taken another step, to hear Validity tell it. The company has enhanced its Engage platform, adding a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector that it says can protect brands while expanding marketing and competitive intelligence.
Most email programs have never had a proper inspection. Stepin's Email Program Audit checks your authentication, deliverability, automations, and revenue attribution — and shows exactly where money is leaking.
This slot is available to sponsors — reply "sponsor" to learn more.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
What is a good click rate for email marketing?
Focus on Engagement, Not Just Opens
Open rates are unreliable: Many Redditors note that open rates are inflated by Apple's Mail Privacy Protection and other security scanners, making them a less accurate measure of true engagement. "Open rates are practically useless as a performance metric at this point."
Clicks show genuine interest: A high click rate, even with lower open rates, indicates that the people who did open the email were genuinely interested and took action. "Lower opens with higher clicks and form submissions means the right people engaged."
Prioritize business outcomes: Instead of focusing on vanity metrics like open rates, Redditors emphasize measuring actual business outcomes like conversions and revenue per recipient. "Optimize for actions, not opens."
Factors Influencing Click Rates
Compelling calls to action (CTAs): Emails should have a clear, single primary CTA that is easy to spot and offers a compelling reason to click. "Figure out why a 60% open only turns into 0.5% click first, and it's almost always too much image with no single obvious reason to tap."
Relevant and personalized content: Segmenting your audience and sending targeted content ensures that the email is relevant to the recipient, increasing the likelihood of clicks. "Segment by purchase history, engagement, product usage, order value, and time since last purchase, then change the message for each group."
List hygiene and segmentation: Regularly cleaning your email list to remove inactive subscribers and segmenting by engagement levels can significantly improve click rates. "anyone who doesn't click. Smaller engaged".
Improving Click Rates
Content and Offer Audit: Analyze your email content, offers, and where links are placed to ensure they provide a strong reason to click. "I'd audit the CTA, offer, copy, product presentation and where the links are placed."
A/B Testing: Experiment with different subject lines, CTAs, and email layouts to see what resonates best with your audience. "I'd suggest A/B testing with different subject lines."
Focus on Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR): If open rates are high but click rates are low, investigate the CTOR to understand if people are opening but not finding a reason to click. "If you're at ~0.5% CTR with a 60% open rate, that's roughly a 0.8% CTOR. That's where I'd start digging."
Are you currently tracking your email marketing performance by focusing on actual conversions rather than just open rates?
