Email Marketing Strategy Guide: Tips for Small Businesses

Your email marketing strategy is your blueprint for using email to serve your business goals.

Email is the communication channel consumers consider most useful, but 60% of consumers find most marketing emails to be irrelevant to them, according to a 2025 report from martech company SAP Engagement Cloud. This gap creates an opportunity for brands who prioritize relevance in their email strategy to succeed.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create an email marketing strategy, with tips from experts and ecommerce business owners. Understand how to integrate email into your marketing ecosystem to effectively communicate with your target market and promote your business.

What is an email marketing strategy?

An email marketing strategy outlines how a business will use email to reach its marketing objectives and ultimately, business goals, such as increasing sales. Email marketing strategies include detailed tactics on how to address audiences at every stage of the customer journey map. Here’s what a solid email strategy documents:

Marketing strategy background

Email marketing is one arm of your business’s marketing strategy, so include foundational information like key messaging points, target audience characteristics, and important dates from your marketing calendar (like product launches or holidays).

Email marketing objectives

Your email marketing objectives are the specific milestones for your email channel, which ladder up to your larger marketing strategy. They outline how your email marketing campaigns support your company’s overall business goals.

Metrics for success

Identify the email marketing metrics you’ll use to assess the success of your strategy. For example, you might track open rate, click-through rate (CTR), and total revenue driven by email.

Email list building

Include information about the tactics you plan to use to build your email contact list.

Technology

Platform information includes your email marketing platform, your ecommerce store, and any other key platform or tools, like your customer relationship management system (CRM) or your website analytics provider.

Email marketing content strategy

Outline the content pillars, or main topics, and the specific email sequences that support each one. Include automated flows that occur when a new subscriber signs up, after they purchase, or after they abandon their carts. If creating a newsletter is part of your content strategy, include a section on the angle and value your newsletter offers to email subscribers. 

Benefits of email marketing

Here are a few benefits of using email marketing: 

High ROI

In a survey of 502 marketers, email marketing platform Litmus found that 37% of companies had a return on investment (ROI) between 20:1 and 36:1, meaning that for every $1 spent, they generated between $20 and $36. An additional 25% of businesses had an ROI ranging from 36:1 to 45:1. 

Control

Emails are owned media, or content your business publishes using a marketing channel you control.

For clothing brand Province of Canada, this ownership translates to more control. “Having a healthy, strong email list is something as a business you can always rely on without having to rely on these external [channels] ... whether it’s advertising or whatever it may be,” says cofounder Julie Brown on the Shopify Masters podcast. “You can control that fully.” 

Automation

Automated emails increase the overall returns from the channel. According to Litmus, the companies with the highest email marketing return on investment (ROI) are 20% more likely to use subscription life cycle emails, or automated emails based on a user’s behavior. 

Email marketing automation can also save businesses time. “The great thing about email marketing is you can basically create one message that you can send to a mass of people,” says Josh Rosenblat, email marketing expert and senior editor at Shopify. 

“You’re not necessarily having to craft or respond to each email. You can use tools that help you build out certain messages or a series of messages, and then that becomes a repeatable and measurable cycle,” he says.

How to launch an email marketing strategy

1. Set goals
2. Choose an email service provider
3. Build your email list
4. Know the law
5. Configure email automations
6. Plan your email marketing newsletter
7. Segment your audience
8. Monitor performance

Here’s how to create and launch an email marketing strategy in eight steps:

1. Set goals

Get clear on the email marketing objectives you will prioritize. These could include:

• Subscriber growth
• Improving engagement
• Increasing website traffic
• Increasing revenue

For example, fashion brand DKNY aimed to improve email engagement. They had a large list to whom they sent general campaigns on a frequent basis. To improve their engagement, they decided to send fewer, more personalized emails. By decreasing their send rate by 24%, they saw an 8% click rate increase.

Once you choose a high-level goal, use the SMART goals framework to ensure your goals are realistic, clear, and logical.

2. Choose an email service provider

Email service providers (ESPs) are software platforms designed to help businesses plan, execute, and monitor email campaigns. 

Shopify Messaging lets you gather customer data, maintain an up-to-date contact list, use customizable email templates, and segment customers. Shopify Messaging integrates with Shopify Sidekick, an AI assistant, that you can use to generate content for your emails. Shopify store owners can also connect to other ESPs like Klaviyo via the Shopify App Store. 

Josh recommends choosing email marketing software that connects with the back end of your business so you have a better picture of your audience. “You’re able to connect the different products that you’re selling to the way that you’re able to communicate with your customers,” he says.

Integrating your email provider with your ecommerce platform also improves your ability to track performance. “Being able to have those so integrated allows you to test different things, to measure different things, and then be able to capitalize on those insights,” Josh says.

3. Build your email list

To build your email list, you have to give customers a reason to opt in.

“You need to have something that makes your clientele feel comfortable giving up their contact information,” Josh says. “Give your target audience something in return for signing up, such as discount codes, exclusive content, or quiz results. You could also host a social media giveaway that requires email opt-in to register.”

Skincare company Three Ships has built an email list of more than 150,000 engaged subscribers. They capture emails via a full-screen pop-up and lightbox pop-up (which dims the content in the background so the pop-up stands out) on their website. They offer free shipping, a discount, and other perks in exchange for a visitor’s email address. 

If you have a Shopify website, you can use Shopify Forms to create pop-up forms and collect customer emails. Create forms that match the style of your store and offer incentives to encourage visitors to sign up with your email. 

4. Know the law

Effective email marketing strategies follow the law. Failure to respect your customers’ privacy and protect their data erodes trust in your business, and compliance violations can carry significant fines. 

Email marketing and digital privacy laws vary by jurisdiction, so start by reviewing your local data privacy and email marketing compliance guidelines.

But attention to local laws isn’t enough: Many email marketing regulations, including the US’s CAN-SPAM Act and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are based on the location of the email recipient, not the sender. For this reason, many businesses default to the most stringent requirements to which they could be subject.

Here are two key email marketing compliance best practices: 

Use double opt-in

Double opt-in email sign-up involves obtaining a reader’s consent to receive marketing emails twice—once through a contact submission form and once through a verification email. This strategy provides a record of the user’s consent to receive marketing emails and helps businesses ensure that their contacts represent real people, not bots or abandoned accounts.

To enable this feature on Shopify Messaging, head to your Shopify admin. Then, select Settings > Notifications > Customer notifications. Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see “Marketing double opt-in” and toggle the button to turn it on. 

Make it easy to unsubscribe

Many laws also require email marketing campaigns to include unsubscribe links in all marketing emails. Making it easy to locate unsubscribe links and manage email preferences can also help you build strong relationships with customers.

Read more: Email Marketing Audit Guide: Types of Audits + Tips

5. Configure email automations

Automated email campaigns are triggered by specific actions or events. These automated emails typically fall into two categories: 

• Transactional emails. Sent after a subscriber takes a specific action or when the business completes an activity relevant to that subscriber. Common emails include order confirmations, shipment confirmations, payment receipts, and double opt-in emails. 
• Customer life cycle emails. Sent after a customer action or event. Examples include welcome emails, birthday offers, customer anniversaries, and abandoned cart emails. 

Tique Chandler, who runs honey business Chandler Honey, uses email automation to stay connected with her audience and to make sales. “The first thing I tell any entrepreneur? Set up your abandoned cart alerts. It’s the easiest money you’ll ever make,” Tique says. 

“But don’t stop there. Email sequencing has transformed how I run my ecommerce business. It allows me to do less work on the ecommerce side while significantly improving my conversion rates.”

When users sign up for Chandler Honey’s emails, they receive a message that talks more about the brand. A few days later, it’ll be recipes they might enjoy. And then, they’ll receive something that suits their interests. “Each email builds on the last, turning curious browsers into loyal customers,” Tique says. 

Shopify Messaging provides prebuilt workflows for automated emails, such as abandoned cart emails. If you want custom automations, use Shopify Flow to set triggers (an event that starts a workflow) and conditions (which determine if an action should be taken) to carry out an action. 

6. Plan your email marketing newsletter 

An email newsletter is a means to share informational, educational, or entertaining content to build trust and authority in a particular niche. “A newsletter is a way to use your expertise and engage with folks in a non-transactional way,” Josh says. 

“The newsletter aspect of an email marketing strategy is a bit complex because you need a base of content to go with it. If your company already has a blog, that’s a really good place to find content,” he says. 

If you don’t have a blog, create an alternative plan for writing high-quality, non-salesy content.

7. Segment your audience

Segmenting your audience creates specific groups within your email subscribers based on characteristics like purchase history. Teri Johnson, founder of Harlem Candle Company, uses segmentation to create a VIP group of her most loyal customers so she can give them extra perks, like early access to new products.

“With email marketing [it’s] amazing to be able to create segments and customer groups,” Teri says on Shopify Masters. 

You can set customer segments from your Shopify admin. Customer segments are rule-based, so you can set parameters (like customer location or order contents) for each segment. Customers who meet the criteria will automatically be added to these groups. You can then use these segments to send personalized emails via Shopify Messaging.

Shopify has customer segment templates to help get you started, and you can also use Shopify’s built-in AI tool, Sidekick, to generate segments based on plain language descriptions.

8. Monitor performance 

Measure the performance of each email campaign and use those insights to guide refinements to your strategy. 

“The great thing about email marketing is that you’re able to iterate on which messages are successful and which messages might not be successful. Then you can change and adjust based on what you see,” Josh says.

With Shopify Messaging, you can generate email performance reports with engagement metrics like open rate and click rate and sales metrics like total orders attributable to an email campaign. 

Coffee company Canyon Coffee tracks email marketing performance to improve their email list. They constantly remove subscribers who aren’t opening their emails to ensure their email audience is limited to people who actually engage. 

6 email marketing strategy best practices

1. Include clear calls to action (CTA)
2. Keep it short
3. Optimize for mobile
4. Plan for engagement
5. Experiment with subject lines
6. Be authentic

Here are six email marketing best practices to help you run effective campaigns:

1. Include clear calls to action (CTAs)

Email calls to action (CTAs) should be visually prominent and specific. “Be explicit about what action you want the reader to take,” Josh says. “Even if you’re sending an informational newsletter, you still want there to be an explicit opportunity for the recipient to take an action that benefits your business.”

Design your emails so your CTAs stand out. Try brightly colored buttons or place them at the top of your email. In one email, skincare brand Soko Glam puts their CTA button copy in all capital letters, differentiating it from the rest of the text.

2. Keep it short

Josh recommends keeping your email copywriting brief. “In most cases, people only have 30 seconds to a minute to read emails,” Josh says. “The copywriting needs to be quick. It needs to be witty, and it also needs to be informative.” 

Instead of adding too much information, Josh suggests using email to drive readers to landing pages or product pages where they can learn more. “You can let the product page on your ecommerce website do most of the talking,” he says. “What an email really does is get someone from their inbox to your ecommerce site.”

3. Optimize for mobile

Worldwide, mobile devices are more commonly used than desktops, so ensure your emails are optimized for mobile viewing. 

If you use Shopify Messaging, you can preview your emails before you send them to make sure they’ll look good on mobile as well as desktop. To create a more mobile-friendly email, stick to one column that is between 600 pixels to 800 pixels. 

4. Plan for engagement 

Email lets you reach your customers and provides an opportunity for them to reach you. “Email is inherently a two-way street,” Josh says. He recommends using email campaigns to request feedback, ask questions, and solicit user-generated content (UGC). 

“One strategy that I love, especially for small businesses, is asking for replies,” Josh says. This strategy helps you build customer relationships and provides valuable insights into your customer base.”

Asking for customer input is a strategy that the cofounders of coffee concentrate company Kloo used. They used email to establish a direct feedback loop during their soft launch. Cofounder Claudia Snoh offered free products for customers who provided feedback through emails. These insights influenced Kloo’s packaging and pricing. 

5. Experiment with subject lines 

Email subject lines impact open rates and prime customers to take an email’s intended action. “Being able to write subject lines will always be extremely important, and oftentimes can be the thing that separates successful email programs from ones that maybe haven’t quite gotten off the ground,” Josh says.

Subject line best practices include keeping subject lines at less than 50 characters, creating a sense of urgency, and using email A/B testing to maximize open rates and identify strategies that drive engagement with your customer base. 

Read more: What Are Email Hooks? Types, Tips, and Real-World Examples

6. Be authentic

Josh also recommends using email to showcase your authentic brand voice. “Consumers are looking for a deeper personal connection with the people behind the brand that they’re purchasing from, and emails are a great way to express your brand values and vision in an authentic way,” he says. “If you have the desire and the creativity to share that aspect of your business, that can be a really effective way to draw folks in.”

Bird & Blend Tea Co. has seen firsthand how authenticity helps them connect with their audience. “Anytime we talk about what people are up to behind the scenes [and] community activations, people really enjoy reading that and being a part of that journey,” says founder Krisi Smith on Shopify Masters.

For example, when the company vended at Glastonbury Festival, they described the process of setting up their stall. “I think [our readers] appreciated the fact that we hadn’t been hard selling,” Krisi says. “We just spoke from the heart and it paid off.”