In this blog post, Andrey Arestov, Marketing Automation Lead at Sky New Zealand, shares practical insights into the evolving world of email marketing. With inboxes more crowded than ever, Andrey explores how marketers can cut through the noise, adapt to new technologies, and ensure their email campaigns continue to deliver strong results in 2025 and beyond.

Checking my mailbox in early January feels like an overwhelming mission - sifting through a flood of promotions, newsletters flashing the latest trends in AI and LLM models, white papers, and even lingering Christmas offers on various products and services. The real challenge? Clearing out the clutter and focusing on what truly matters. Fortunately, Apple, Gmail, and other major email providers (or Internet Service Provider - ISPs, as they’re officially called) help manage this chaos by categorising emails, filtering out ‘obvious’ spam, and blocking malicious ones. Sounds great, right? But does it make marketers lives easier?

Before we dive deeper, let’s take a quick step back and reflect on the state of email today. Over the past decade, there have been countless claims that email marketing was ‘dead’- from as far back as 2014 right up to now. However, the latest statistics tell a different story. Not only is email still alive, but it’s also thriving. In 2024 alone, over 361 billion emails were sent, with projections reaching 376 billion in 2025. Furthermore, 59% of consumers say marketing emails influence their purchasing decisions.1 Email remains one of the most cost-effective marketing channels, delivering an average return of $42 for every $1 spent.2

With all that in mind, ensuring your emails work hard and stand out is more important than ever. Here are some key considerations to help your next email campaign succeed:

Key Considerations for a Successful Email Campaign

•    Personalisation Matters: A one-size-fits-all approach no longer works. Understanding your customers and delivering personalised experiences - whether through tailored offers, optimal send times, or language preferences - can significantly enhance engagement and conversion rates.

•    Mobile First: With 61% of emails being read on mobile devices, optimising for a mobile-first experience is crucial to maintaining engagement.3 Mobile optimised emails will look great on desktops as well.

•    Dark Mode Compatibility: Dark Mode becomes very popular setting that helps reduce eye strain and conserve battery life. Over 40% of subscribers may have already enabled Dark Mode to read their emails. Ensuring emails key content is not lost and display correctly in Dark Mode is essential for readability, user trust and eventual conversion.4

•    Open Rate a ‘soft’ Metric: Open rates have never been the most reliable and sharp metric, but with privacy changes such as Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection and email client optimisations, their significance has diminished further. Marketers should focus on other engagement metrics, such as click-through rates and conversions.5

•    Enhanced Authentication Requirements: As of February 2024, Google, Yahoo, and other mailbox providers have implemented stricter authentication protocols, requiring senders to use DMARC, DKIM, and SPF to combat phishing and spoofing. These settings must be correctly configured and regularly monitored. If this is outside your technical expertise, consult your IT or technology team for assistance.6

•    Stricter Spam Management: Gmail and Yahoo now enforce a 0.3% spam complaint threshold, which means senders exceeding this limit risk having their emails blocked or redirected. To maintain a strong sender reputation, monitor your email performance metrics, remove inactive subscribers, and regularly clean your mailing list.

•    AI-Generated Summaries and Categorization: iOS 18 introduces AI-powered email summaries and content-based categorization, automatically sorting emails into tabs like Primary, Transactions, and Promotions. To ensure visibility, marketers must prioritize key information at the beginning of the email body and focus on personalization and value delivery. Poorly crafted or irrelevant emails risk being miscategorized or summarized inaccurately, reducing their chances of reaching customers effectively.7

•    Gmail Annotations: With the sheer volume of emails sent daily - and Gmail being a dominant ISP - leveraging Gmail annotations is an effective way to make your emails stand out. Although this feature has been available since 2018, it remains underutilised. Consider enabling it for your next campaign.8

Final thought

Email marketing is far from obsolete; in fact, it continues to be a vital tool for businesses looking to engage their audience effectively. By staying ahead of evolving trends, leveraging personalisation, and prioritising deliverability, brands can create compelling email campaigns that not only reach their audience but also drive meaningful interactions. The key to success lies in balancing technology, strategy, and customer-centricity - ensuring that every email adds value, trust and able to grab attention among hundreds of electronic messages that land in customers mailboxes daily. With a thoughtful approach and considering balancing emails with other marketing channels, your email marketing efforts can remain a powerful driver of business growth in the years to come and will set your next email campaign up for success.

[1] 50 Email Marketing Statistics You Need to Know (Updated for 2025). https://porchgroupmedia.com/blog/50-unbelievable-email-statistics-you-need-to-know/

[2] 40+ Email Marketing Statistics [2025]. https://cropink.com/email-marketing-statistics

[3] 40+ Email Marketing Statistics [2025]. https://cropink.com/email-marketing-statistics

[4] Dark Mode Central. https://www.litmus.com/dark-mode-email-best-practices

[5] What Is a Good Email Open Rate In 2024: Does It Still Matter? https://www.jarrang.com/insights/what-is-a-good-email-open-rate-in-2024-does-it-still-matter

[6] Email Compliance: Key Changes in 2024. https://act-on.com/learn/blog/get-ready-for-2024-email-deliverability-compliance-changes/

[7] iOS 18.2 is coming: What to know about changes to email & messages. https://meetmarigold.com/blogs/ios-18-2-what-marketers-need-to-know/

[8] Google annotations: The secret weapon email marketers should use in 2024. https://martech.org/google-annotations-the-secret-weapon-email-marketers-should-use-in-2024/

Source: Andrey Arestov, 5 March 2025