Email marketing gets talked about a lot. Open rates, deliverability, automations, flows, CTRs… suddenly everyone’s nodding along while quietly thinking, “Cool, but what does that actually mean?”
This page exists for that exact moment.
Welcome to CodeCrew’s Email Marketing Essentials Hub: a practical resource designed to clearly explain core email marketing basics and terminology, without drowning you in jargon, theory, or marketing fluff. Whether you’re looking for a quick refresher or a foundation to help you dive deeper, this email marketing guide covers the what, why, and when, so you can get to the how faster.
Below, you’ll find straightforward explanations of common email marketing terms and concepts, alongside links to more in-depth guides and strategies for when you’re ready to level up – including our full breakdown of email marketing best practices for brands focused on performance and growth.
Think of this page as the groundwork: the context that makes advanced strategies, automations, and performance decisions actually make sense.
Already past the basics? Perfect! Skim through what you need, get some clarity, then head back to the fun stuff – the strategies, systems, and campaigns that drive real revenue.
Email marketing is a digital marketing channel used to promote brands and products by sending regular, targeted campaigns and automations to interested subscribers.
It’s commonly used to build customer relationships, increase engagement, and drive revenue through newsletters, promotions, and behavior-based automations, like welcome or abandoned cart emails.
Email marketing is a cost-effective, measurable, scalable, and impactful way to drive growth and increase customer lifetime value (CLV). It’s the only digital marketing platform that enables brands to communicate directly with their audiences, driving repeat purchases over time without relying on algorithms.
Once subscribers have consented to receiving your emails, you can send them campaigns and enter them into automated flows based on behavioral triggers, preferences, or life cycle stages. You should then continually analyze your brand’s performance (keeping an eye on opens, clicks, and conversions) in order to optimize your email program and see great results time and time again.
Yes – email marketing remains one of the most effective digital channels out there, delivering an average ROI of $36-$40 for every $1 spent.
Despite changes in paid media and social algorithms, email marketing continues generating results because it’s permission-based, highly targeted, and driven by first-party data.
Whether it’s increasing site traffic or nurturing leads, these will be determined by your overarching KPIs.
It increases visibility, trust, and conversions. At CodeCrew, we generate an average ROI of 1,300% for our clients through email marketing.
Newsletters, promotions, welcome emails, and cart abandonment emails.
Check out our portfolio to see what some of these look like.
It depends on your specific business, as well as the size of your email list, and the content you’re using in your campaigns.
An email open rate is the percentage of subscribers who open your email campaign, out of the total number of emails successfully delivered.
Open rates are commonly used as an indicator of how effective your subject lines, sender name, and overall brand recognition are. However, open rates alone aren’t the only success metric – for a clearer picture of your brand’s performance, they should always be analyzed alongside clicks, conversions, and revenue.
A ‘good’ email open rate depends on your industry, audience, and email type, but generally, open rates across industries range from 15% to 25%. However, averages only tell part of the story – a lower open rate paired with a strong click-through and conversion rate can still indicate a high-performing campaign.
Instead of chasing averages, the most useful benchmark is your own historical performance and whether your results are improving over time.
Testing two versions of the same email campaign to see which performs better. For example, longer vs shorter email content. Learn more about our approach to A/B testing for email campaigns here.
This is the software you use to schedule, send, automate, and track your emails. ESPs handle everything from subscriber management to segmentation, analytics, and deliverability. Our go-to ESP is Klaviyo, but there are plenty of other options out there that could suit your business model, data needs, and growth goals.
An email opt-in is when a new subscriber gives you explicit permission to send them marketing emails. Simple as that.
This consent is usually collected through sign-up forms, pop-ups, or checkboxes on checkout pages. It’s essential for compliance, deliverability, and long-term email performance.
Email segmentation is the practice of identifying specific groups within your audience based on things like purchasing behavior or level of engagement in order to send them relevant, targeted campaigns. A good email segmentation strategy goes beyond one-size-fits-all messaging to achieve higher engagement levels and better conversion rates.
Email automations are a sequence of emails triggered by a subscriber’s actions, like abandoning their cart or browsing your site without making a purchase. Setting up these automations saves you a ton of time, as you don’t have to rely solely on manual sends.
A series of emails introducing new subscribers to your brand. Usually sent right after someone subscribes, these emails are meant to familiarize recipients with your offering, set expectations, and encourage early engagement or purchase while interest is at its highest.
Don’t sleep on a welcome sequence: the first email to your customers often has an open rate of over 50% and an impressive average click-through of 27%! It’s not only smart, but encouraged, to keep that momentum going.
While an automated flow is triggered by dynamic actions like browsing or abandoning a cart, a drip campaign is sent using basic triggers or set schedules.
Unlike behavior-based automations, drip campaigns follow a predefined timeline and are often used for onboarding, education, or long-form nurturing.
A click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of subscribers who received your email campaign AND clicked on a link or button in that campaign.
A CTR is commonly used to measure how compelling an email’s content, design, and calls-to-action are.
The percentage of subscribers who perform a desired action based on your email campaign, such as clicking on a link, making a purchase, or signing up for a webinar.
How reliably your email campaigns reach primary inboxes (and don’t end up in spam). Check out how our email deliverability services ensure optimal deliverability, every time.
The percentage of emails that were not successfully delivered (based on the total number of emails you sent).
A hard bounce is a permanent email delivery failure caused by invalid email addresses or domain names. A soft bounce is a temporary delivery failure, usually due to a full inbox or server issues.
The percentage of people who opt out after receiving one of your email campaigns or automations.
First, you choose an email marketing platform according to your budget and requirements. Then, you build an email program based on achieving your KPIs (this will include website pop-ups to drive list growth, campaigns to drive sales and engagement, and automated flows). You can also leave all of this to our team of experts – just saying.
Technically no. However, you will need a website if you want to track engagement accurately and scale your business.
You could use free services and do it yourself, but it’s definitely worth investing in some expert help if you want to see tangible results and growth.
Usually, this would be a welcome email (or series of emails if you’re creating an automation) outlining your brand and its benefits.
Through pop-ups and static sign-up forms on your website (another great reason to have your website up and running first), referral programs, and social media competitions that require an email address for entry.
No. It’s illegal, and it will tank your deliverability and sender reputation.
Please don’t – it’s against the law in many countries, heavily regulated by email marketing platforms (which can suspend your account because of it), and it can significantly damage your brand’s reputation.
On the homepage, in your blog posts, and in the footer section.
Yes, as long as they’re well-timed and easy to close or minimize.
It’s best to display these on high-traffic pages (like landing pages) or those where someone will spend more time (like a blog post). Don’t add them to pages where they’ll get in the way (checkout or login pages, for example).
Absolutely – and you should, as long as they’re ethical and make sense in terms of your brand offering.
Remove invalid or inactive subscribers regularly. Schedule a clean-up every six months or so, and check for inactive addresses, hard bounces, etc.
Email personalization means using your subscribers’ data to create tailored content. This can include using personal details, behavioral data, or purchase history to help you deliver more relevant messaging that aligns with subscribers’ interests and actions.
Personalization in email marketing can include adding a subscriber’s name to the email subject line or content, and displaying recommended product reels based on their browsing or purchasing history. Check out our blog on the role email personalization can play in your email marketing strategy: this can be the difference between getting opened and getting ignored.
Email segmentation ensures that each recipient receives emails that only contain relevant content, which increases engagement and the possibility of purchase.
General segmentation would include frequency of engagement and purchase history, but your segments can also be specific to your brand. For example, if you’re selling pet products, you would separate your audience into cat and dog owners.
Email segments should be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure accuracy. For most brands, updating every three to six months helps reflect changes in subscriber behavior, engagement, and purchasing patterns.
Keeping email subscribers engaged over time requires sending them relevant and timely content based on your performance insights. By providing subscribers with the most applicable emails possible (that’s where your segmentation strategy comes in) and by constantly A/B testing your subject lines, content, and design, you’ll ensure that recipients continue opening your emails.
A good email deliverability rate is typically anything above 90%. This means the majority of your emails are reaching subscribers’ inboxes rather than being rejected or filtered as spam. Consistently strong deliverability depends on authentication, good list hygiene, and high engagement levels.
You can improve email deliverability by authenticating your sending domain, maintaining a clean and engaged subscriber list, and sending relevant content consistently.
Strong deliverability also depends on avoiding spam-triggering language, monitoring engagement metrics, and gradually warming up new sending domains.
A U.S. law that regulates commercial emails and gives subscribers the right to opt out of receiving future emails from you at any time.
An EU law that determines how you can collect and use someone’s personal data. In email marketing, this would include obtaining a subscriber’s explicit consent before emailing them.
To comply with email marketing regulations, get full permission to email your subscribers using a double opt-in email sequence, include an unsubscribe link in all emails, and ensure that all email content is transparent, accurate, and respectful of subscriber preferences.
Spam filters work by analyzing multiple signals to decide whether an email should reach the primary inbox or be filtered as spam. These signals include sender reputation, authentication, engagement history, content quality, and subscriber behavior, with each email assessed before delivery.
Emails can go to spam for a number of reasons, like sender reputation issues, suspicious content, the use of too many links in your emails (or faulty links), and improper authentication.
Other common causes include sending to inactive subscribers, missing authentication records, spam-triggering language, or poor engagement over time.
Authenticate your sending domain, avoid using spam triggers in your content, and take steps to improve your sender reputation. Read more about how to avoid the dreaded spam folder here.
These links are mandatory under the CAN-SPAM Act and give recipients the chance to opt out of receiving future emails from you. They should be included in every email to protect your sender reputation, build trust, and help keep your list clean.
Yes – verifying your sending domain improves deliverability and protects your brand. Domain verification helps inbox providers confirm that your emails are legit and not sent by sketchy sources.
Email authentication methods to prevent bad actors from sending emails that look like they’re coming from your business, also known as “spoofing”.
Using all-caps or suspicious wording (like “FREE Money”), as well as suspicious links and poor formatting. Low engagement and sending to inactive contacts can also increase the likelihood of spam filtering.
Opens, conversions, bounces, and unsubscribes. Plus revenue and order rates, as well as click-through rates.
Compare the revenue generated by the campaign to the total campaign cost (production cost, email platform fees, etc.).
Compare performance across campaigns or automations and look for patterns. These patterns can tell you when recipients are most likely to read their emails, what type of content they react best to, and what kind of emails trigger the highest unsubscribe rates.
A clean layout, captivating imagery (if you’re using images), easy-to-read text, and clearly displayed CTA buttons.
1000% – most people read emails on their phone these days.
Layouts that automatically adjust to screen size, ensuring that your emails are displayed perfectly whether they’re opened on a phone, tablet, or computer screen.
Send test emails or use preview tools to see exactly what your campaign will look like when it reaches your subscribers’ inboxes.
Figma, Canva, or built-in ESP editors. However, for the best results, we always recommend custom designs (templates are repetitive and restrictive).
It depends – product-focused campaigns and promotions perform better as designed emails, but you can convey a more personalized message using plain text.
Not directly – use a thumbnail linked to a video.
Use bright colors, clear text, and large tap areas. You can also try unique wording as opposed to the usual “shop now” or “see more”.
ESPs add them automatically.
An email subject line is the sentence that appears in your inbox once you receive an email, and it determines whether an email is opened. Subject lines play a crucial role in open rates by setting expectations and encouraging recipients to engage with email content.
A/B testing email subject lines involves sending two variations of the line to small segments of your audience and comparing performance.
There are many variables you can use, including personalization, length, using emojis vs not, and questions vs statements.
It’s the preview text that appears directly after the subject line in your inbox. A pre-header provides additional context and supports the subject line by reinforcing the message, creating intrigue, or adding urgency.
The ideal email subject line length is between 30 and 50 characters. This helps ensure that it displays clearly on mobile devices, while still providing enough information to encourage opens.
Understanding the basics is step one. Turning them into a high-performing email program is where the real work begins.
When you’re ready to get started on strategy, automations, and revenue-driving campaigns, explore our Email Marketing Best Practices Guide or learn how CodeCrew averages 1,300% ROI for our clients thanks to our full-service email marketing offering.
Look no further. CodeCrew is a mature team of 40+ experts in email, SMS and loyalty marketing. We can handle your full retention program with ease - including strategy, content, design, deliverability, active management and reporting - your marketing program will be more successful than ever before.
While you wait, take a look at how we’ve helped brands across CPG, wellness, retail, and eCommerce turn email into a consistent revenue driver.
