Email Industry Trends

This is the new reality: "The Great Ignore." Buyers are drowning in cold outreach.   Thousands of messages flood their inboxes daily.   Most get ignored or filtered out.  The old outbound playbook is dead.   Mass emails and cold calls don’t work anymore.   So how do you break through the noise?  Leverage relationships. Trust gets you in the door when automation won’t.   Warm intros convert 5-10x higher than cold outreach.  Think about how you buy.   When searching for a tool, do you read cold emails?   Or do you ask peers and trusted connections?  Sales should follow the same logic.   Tap into existing relationships.   Get recommended by people your buyers trust.   It’s not just about booking meetings, it drives higher win rates and stronger retention.  Outbound isn’t dead.   But the way we do it has to change.   2025 is about relationships over volume.   Time to adapt.

I was talking to my husband, who’s building his startup, Talowiz. His marketing approach? Find contacts via some martech tools, launch email or LinkedIn campaigns, and hope for conversions. Sounds familiar? Unfortunately, this is where most startup founders go wrong, especially when their deal size is low. They burn dollars on tools and campaigns with little to no return. Let’s talk about why this approach often fails: 1️⃣ Targeting the Wrong Companies Most of the time, these contacts are not from accounts that may be interested in your offerings. This is not a research-driven approach. 2️⃣ Generic Messaging Multiple industries have their specific pain points. Addressing these pain points should be the first step. It is imperative to research the accounts before starting any outreach. 3️⃣ Spray and Pray Doesn’t Work Only 5% of buyers are actively in-market. Sending generic campaigns to everyone is wasteful, especially in B2B, where personalized outreach is important. 4️⃣ Email Challenges Many emails never reach inboxes. According to studies, 20% of emails fail to land in inboxes due to spam filters, poor domain reputation, and unverified lists. Average open rates in B2B? 21.33% for general emails, which means most efforts go unnoticed. Even if you manage to land in the inbox of someone not ready to buy, they might mark your email as spam, killing future opportunities with them. 🚨 Bottom line: Relying on random lists, generic campaigns, and drip emails without research only wastes efforts and dollars. 🚨 So, what’s the solution? The key is to stop the spray-and-pray approach and focus on Account-Based Marketing (ABM) to prioritize research, personalization, and targeting in-market accounts. Want to know how ABM can transform your startup’s marketing? Stay tuned for my next post or drop me a message! #ABM #accountbasedmarketing #B2B #B2BMarketing #ABMers #AccountBasedMarketers

The Google/Yahoo anti-spam stuff is everywhere. Yet I feel like we keep asking the wrong questions. "How can I work around this?" How about we just stop with the mass emailing altogether? "Spray & Pray" is like that favourite hoodie you bought when you were 16 and you really love, but there are holes in it and it doesn't even really fit you anymore. It looked amazing on you years and years ago and still feels comfy and familiar, so you don't want to part with it. In the meantime, we've evolved. There are other options out there now. Instead of asking "How can I send lots of emails and not get flagged?" How about we ask "How can I leverage my network?" "How can I maximize cold calling effectiveness?" "How can I get creative?" The volume game is over. Please, it's time to let that hoodie go.

This plain text email generated $26K in 48 hours. Here's why it outperformed our designed emails: Most DTC brands think fancy designs = higher conversions. They're wrong. This simple, text-only email crushed our beautifully designed campaigns. Why plain text emails work: Higher deliverability - Bypasses spam filters Feels personal - Like getting a text from a friend Mobile-friendly - Loads instantly (no heavy images) Creates urgency - Without looking salesy or pushy The psychology behind it: When someone opens a plain text email, their brain thinks: "This is important. Someone took time to write this personally." Designed emails trigger: "This is marketing. Delete." Here's the exact framework we use: 80% designed emails (for brand building) 20% plain text (for maximum conversions) When to use plain text: • Flash sales • Urgent announcements • Founder messages • Re-engagement campaigns • Last chance offers The $26K email structure: Personal subject line: "Quick question..." Conversational opener One clear offer Simple CTA Founder signature Pro tip: Your plain text emails should feel like they came from your phone, not your marketing team. The result? $26K revenue in 48 hours Bottom line: Sometimes less design = more dollars.

Most cold emails get <1% reply rates. Mine get 10%. Here's why yours are failing: I run a 34-person agency and have tested every cold email "hack" out there. Most don't work. Here's how I actually write cold emails that get replies... and the 3 rules that changed EVERYTHING ↓ ✅ Emails that start with real triggers I get emails like "Saw you're expanding your team based on your recent LinkedIn post about hiring." That's a real trigger. They saw something specific I did. Compare that to "I noticed you work in sales", - which could apply to 10 million people. Pro Tip: Use Clay to track job changes, funding announcements, or social posts. ✅ Emails that name pain + solution immediately "Hiring 10 new SDRs usually means 6-month ramp time is killing your quota attainment." They connected my trigger to a specific pain I'm probably feeling. Then: "We helped [Similar Company] cut ramp time to 6 weeks using our onboarding system." Solution + proof in one sentence. ✅ Emails that give 100% value upfront "They increased quota attainment 73% in Q1 by implementing our 3-week sprint methodology." Full value. Real numbers. Specific outcome. Stop holding back value, thinking it will book you a meeting. ❌ Generic template emails "Hope you're doing well" emails get deleted instantly. If I can tell you, copy-pasted the same message to 100 people, I'm out. ❌ Emails asking for time on the first message "Do you have 15 minutes for a quick call?" No context. No value. Just asking for my time, will get ignored every time. ❌ Emails without specific proof "We help companies scale their sales teams." Cool story. So do 10,000 other agencies. → Where's the proof? → Which companies? → What results? Here's my actual template: "Hi [Name], Saw you're [specific trigger]. Usually, that means [pain point]. We helped [Company] go from [before] to [after] using [method]. They saw [specific result] in [timeframe]. Mind if I share the 3-step process we used? Best, Alex" Everyone OVERTHINKS cold email. They think they need perfect subject lines or AI personalization tools. But if you nail trigger + pain + value, nothing else matters. The pain has to connect to their trigger logically. And the value has to be specific. → Real companies → Real numbers → Real results One more thing: Free work beats everything. "Mind if I build you a custom lead list for your new SDR team and send it over?" That gets replies every time, because you're solving their problem before they even ask. Bottom line: Stop trying to be clever. Start being helpful. When your email actually helps someone, they want to talk to you. 🎥 Want to see me how I write these emails? I break down my entire cold email process (with real examples) in last week's YouTube video. Link in the comments 👇

Cold emails and cold calls won't work forever. Email tools can now send 100s of personalized emails at once. But it's not just you that has these tools... 1000s of others do, too. So Google will continue to roll up the steel curtains around those inboxes. ⚠ Stricter inbox filters ⚠ Increased email authentication ⚠ More flagged emails from unfamiliar sources Making it harder and harder to send and receive cold emails. Glock Apps did an analysis of email deliverability rates in Q3'24: → The avg. inbox placement rate decreased by 3% in Q3 vs Q2 → Sending <10K emails per month = a low inbox placement of 28% → Sending >1M emails per month = a lower inbox placement of 25% The mass email tools we’re used to—like Apollo, GMass, Lemlist, Woodpecker, Smartlead, and Clay .com—are only going to get 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. These tools work well now, but this is as good as it gets. As email filters tighten up and more people use similar tools, inboxes are going to be even more crowded. What about cold calls? The main challenge is simply 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵. You’re often dealing with gatekeepers like receptionists or assistants, making sure you don’t waste the decision-maker’s time. Even when you do get past them, it’s not a guarantee you’ll catch the person at the right time. Plus, cold calls are often met with resistance, making it a lot harder to get a meaningful conversation started. What this all means is that we’ll have to find new, more creative ways to connect with people. That’s why building brand awareness on other channels—your website, social media, and earned media—becomes even 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹. 💬 My advice to SaaS founders: Instead of going straight for the sale, focus on building a genuine relationship with your prospects. Get out there—attend events, network, and make your outreach personal by offering value upfront. Also, don’t forget about your current customers—turn them into advocates. Encourage them to share their success stories, and you'll start generating leads naturally. That's how you'll WIN in 2025 and beyond. 🚀 — P.S. Want to get ahead in 2025? Happy to hook you up with a free growth diagnostic session. No fluff. Just actionable insights you can use right away. DM or comment “GROWTH”

"Plain text or designed emails?" The plain text vs. designed debate misses the point: Design for clarity, not decoration. The highest converting emails we've seen break things down to the basics: Visual hierarchy matters more than visual complexity. Three beautiful columns of product options won't convert nearly as well as one clear CTA. White space isn't wasted space. The emails with higher click rates give content room to breathe. Your customers aren't impressed by how many products you can cram into a single viewport. Every design element matters. An animated GIF looks nice, but if it doesn't push the customer to action it's just slowing down load times. Good design is invisible, and brands hitting 30%+ revenue from their campaigns are winning because their e-mails are instantly scannable, immediately valuable, and friction-free. Ask yourself whether every element in your stack is working toward conversion or just getting in the way.

Everyone says email is dead. After generating $3 million in sales from it, I can now say they’re wrong. If you asked me 3 years ago what makes a high-performing email…I would’ve said: subject lines, emojis, a good copy, and a strong CTA are enough. But after sending 5000+ emails across 12+ countries, I’m convinced that the “best practices” are no longer enough. Let me tell you what’s really working in 2025 and what’s quietly killing your emails. Here’s what happened in a recent campaign: We had a SAAS client who had a decent list, but poor email engagement. They were doing everything “by the book”… yet open rates were dying, and conversions? Flat. We went in, broke the rules, and rebuilt their strategy from scratch. Here’s what we did differently: What’s working in 2025 (From 1,200+ Campaigns): 1) Tone > Template People are tired of robotic emails, so just speak like a human and write like you are their friend and win their hearts because tone should be the most important thing in your communication. 2) Personalisation is Table Stakes First name isn’t personalisation. Behaviour-based triggers and relevance are. 3) Value Upfront Stop saving the best for the bottom. Hit them with the “aha” in the first 2 lines. 4) Shorter Isn’t Always Better Some of our best-performing emails are long because they tell stories. Not just pitch products. 5) Plain Text > Fancy Design Yes, even in 2025. Your glossy template might look pretty, but it often kills deliverability. 6) Segment or Die Mass blasts are dead. Talk to people based on where they are in their journey. We have tried and tested it, and the results were shocking: ✅ 59% increase in open rates ✅ 3X increase in replies ✅ 34% increase in conversions, without increasing the email volume At TheWireMonster Monster, we’re not obsessed with vanity metrics. We care about one thing: Does your email make someone take action, or ignore you? We’ve tested. We’ve failed. We’ve learned. And we’ve helped our clients generate millions, just through email done right. So if your emails feel like they’re floating into the void…Maybe it’s time to write less like a marketer. And more like someone your audience actually wants to hear from. Need help? My inbox is more alive than most email lists. #EmailMarketing #GrowthStrategy #WireMonster #DigitalMarketing #2025Trends #StoryDrivenMarketing #EmailIsNotDead

Our client—a mid-sized consulting firm—sent two versions of the same campaign to their list. One was beautifully designed with custom graphics, perfectly balanced colors, and multiple CTA buttons. The other was a simple, plain text message that looked like it had been typed quickly between meetings. The plain text version outperformed the designed email by 32% on opens and 51% on click-throughs. This wasn't an isolated incident. I've spent decades crafting email campaigns, watching the pendulum swing between elaborately designed newsletters and stripped-down text messages. What strikes me is how we've come full circle. In the early days, all emails were plain text because that's all we had. Then we gained the ability to create visual masterpieces, and many of us (myself included) went overboard with that power. We built miniature websites that happened to be delivered to inboxes. But something got lost in that evolution... the feeling of receiving a message from another human. I remember opening my own inbox one morning and feeling a sudden, uncomfortable recognition: I was automatically ignoring anything that looked "marketing-designed" while prioritizing emails that looked like they came from a colleague or friend. And I'm the person creating those designed emails for clients. 🤷♂️ There's something almost subversive now about the plain text email. In a world where every brand is fighting for attention with increasing visual complexity, simplicity has become the pattern interrupt. When I send a text-based email, I'm essentially whispering in a room full of people shouting. The data increasingly supports this counterintuitive approach: ✅ Plain text emails consistently show higher open rates. ✅ They rarely trigger spam filters (well, is not that simple, as always). ✅ They create a sense of personal connection that rich HTML often can't match. ✅ They actually get read rather than just scanned. I'm not suggesting we abandon beautiful design completely. Visual emails still have their place, particularly for: 👉 Product showcases where seeing is believing. 👉 Regular newsletters where brand consistency matters, like sendXmail. 👉 Content with multiple offers or sections. But I've started advising clients to approach email with a new framework: If this message could come from a trusted colleague rather than a brand, consider stripping it down to text. If you're still sending only highly designed emails, I'd encourage you to experiment. Try sending your next important message as plain text. Make it look like you wrote it specifically for the recipient. You might be surprised by how removing design can actually strengthen your message. I'd love to hear about your experiences with plain text versus HTML emails. When has simplicity worked for you? #EmailMarketing #DigitalCommunication #Authenticity #MarketingStrategy