Email Marketing RulesIs Email Marketing’s ROI Sky-High or Irrelevant?
Posted on September 14, 2026
For the better part of the past two decades, email marketing’s return on investment (ROI) has hovered around 36:1, according to a variety of sources. That means the average brand can expect to earn $36 for every $1 they spend on their email marketing efforts.
Compared with other channels, email marketing’s ROI is typically near the top of the spectrum, up there with brands’ investments in their website and organic SEO. Email marketing outperforms SMS and push marketing, as well as search, social, and other digital advertising. And it blows away the returns seen with traditional media channels like direct mail, TV, and radio.
This ROI hierarchy has been in place for a long time. Given that, you might expect brands to be perpetually eager to invest more in their email marketing programs, especially as they gain more AI capabilities. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Instead, brands are deprioritizing marketing and shifting budget from higher-ROI owned channels to lower-ROI paid channels, according to Gartner’s 2024 CMO Spend Survey. That seems like a poor strategy, both short-term and long-term, so why are brands doing this?
Let’s explore possible reasons why brands aren’t more drawn to email marketing’s high ROI.
Vibe Coding Reignites the ‘Build vs. Buy’ Debate
Posted on September 9, 2026
Thanks to vibe coding, the build vs. buy debate has rekindled over the past year, with numerous headlines pronouncing “SAAS is dead.” The argument is:
AI makes coding software so easy, why wouldn’t companies build what they need instead of paying a vendor for it?
The last time this debate was had was in the 2000s. Then, plenty of companies had legacy homegrown software. Plus, anytime you hired someone from Amazon, they wanted to build everything from scratch—whether it was email service provider functionality or a content management system or a personalization engine. It was a bit of a running joke.
What wasn’t funny was how horrible virtually all homegrown software was. Everyone complained about it—how it was clunky, outdated, and literally unfixable. And they always cheered when it was finally replaced by packaged software.
Is Your Brand Chasing the Wrong Marketing Goals?
Posted on September 4, 2026
“Do you want to be right, or do you want to get what you want?”
This is a saying that my wife, a leader at a Boston hospital, has become very fond of in recent years. She mostly uses it when counseling her team members and peers (but also sometimes uses it to counsel me).
It’s about not letting your ego get in the way of your goals. Often, it’s about accepting that convincing people to take a desired action is way more important than also convincing them to agree with your reasoning. In fact, the latter can compromise the former. However, more broadly, it’s also about not being stubborn and wanting the world to conform to your beliefs.
In the digital marketing world, we’ve experienced tons of changes in recent years, and it’s only natural to resist it, especially when it challenges long-held beliefs. Here are four cases that come to mind.
The Last Word on August 2026
Posted on September 3, 2026
A roundup of digital marketing and email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
AI-Generated Email Summaries: What We Learned After Analyzing 628 Summaries (With Video) (BuzzStream)
AI Fears Are Fueling the ‘Handmade’ Branding Trend (Fast Company)
New EU Guidelines For AI Labelling (Smashing Magazine)
Your Unsubscribes May Not Be an Email Problem (Holistic Email Academy)
Social Media’s Audience Share Continues to Be at Odds with How Marketers Spend on the Channel (EMarketer)
GLP-1 Drugs Are Forcing Retailers to Rethink their Entire Playbook (EMarketer)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
Stop sending emails to these role and function local parts. pic.twitter.com/SIMvoE4YQz
— Keith Kouzmanoff (@emailmp) August 14, 2026
Noteworthy subject lines
IKEA Family, 8/2 – The IKEA Ready for College Event ends today📚
Macy’s, 8/7 – Up to 40% off shirts, shoes, and more for back-to-school & beyond
PINK, 8/13 – NEW Campus Fleece—Stay Cozy, Friends
Staples, 8/14 – Classroom supplies as low as $12 = 🕺 💃
Michaels, 8/13 – Your dark side called: It’s craving spooky décor 🕷️🦇
Spirit Halloween, 8/10 – NEW Mandalorian costumes! 🪐
Williams Sonoma, 8/26 – Halloween curb appeal starts here
The Container Store, 8/30 – 🚨 EARLY ACCESS: LABOR DAY SALE
Uncommon Goods, 8/19 – Your uncommon holiday preview
Goldbelly, 8/20 – LAST CHANCE 🦞 The Maine Lobster Roll SALE of the Summer
Bass Pro Shops, 8/10 – Get ready for deer season and save
Michaels, 8/21 – Fine Art Month at Michaels 👩🎨 Celebrate our growing selection with deals and demos ->
Michaels, 8/31 – Grandmacore 101: Old-school hobbies are having a moment. 🧶🧵
Urban Outfitters, 8/10 – The best day is NEW ARRIVALS day 🎉
Kate Spade New York, 8/7 – Office-worthy accessories that do the work
Clinique Summer Gift, 8/20 – Big News! 🌟 Enjoy 25% off jumbo favorites.
Uncommon Goods, 8/9 – 10 “Where’d you GET that?!” finds
Huckberry, 8/2 – New Show: 50 Things to Do Before You Die
Huckberry, 8/23 – The 1873 Invention that Changed the World
Ann Douglas from Lonely Planet, 8/8 – Rules for being a better tourist
Patagonia, 8/11 – Leave your pants at home
Gap Email Exclusive, 8/26 – THE SWEATS RESET
Urban Outfitters, 8/26 – New & Now: Introducing our BDG Curve Pant!
IKEA Family, 8/26 – 🎮 Game on. Meet the new IKEA | XBOX collection.
West Elm, 8/11 – Pierce & Ward + West Elm is back
ECCO, 8/14 – ECCO x Natacha Ramsay-Levi
Bed Bath & Beyond, 8/8 – The best deal is in the app 📲
Abercrombie & Fitch, 8/30 – APP ONLY | Extra 20% OFF almost everything* ends tonight.
Levi Strauss & Co., 8/31 – Red Tab™ members, you’re up first
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Holiday Subject Line Insights to Boost Your Results
Second Quarter 2026 Marketing Benchmark Report
The No. 1 Thing Holding Back Loyalty Programs
12 Trends a-Trending: Digital Marketing Insights for the Holiday Season Ahead
The Holiday Design Playbook: What to Update & When
Posted on September 1, 2026
When brick-and-mortar retailers want to signal to shoppers that it’s time for the holiday season, they deck their stores with pops of seasonal colors, put up eye-catching decor, and install impressive window displays. Brands should introduce the same festive visual signals into their digital marketing campaigns.
Here are four ways to bring that holiday cheer …
Holiday Subject Line Insights to Boost Your Results
Posted on August 19, 2026
During the holiday season, even the most loyal customers may only give your messages a quick glance. So, it is essential for email subject lines to communicate value and capture attention efficiently.
To identify compelling subject line tactics, Zeta Global examined the subject lines of approximately 22,000 campaigns sent by retailers during the 2025 holiday season. We organized the most commonly used words into six major themes and then correlated those word groups with open and click metrics.
Let’s look at each theme and its effectiveness.
Second Quarter 2026 Marketing Benchmark Report
Posted on August 12, 2026
Zeta Global’s latest Marketing Benchmark Report shares aggregated data on SMS click rates and on email sends, open rates, click rates, click-to-open rates, and unsubscribe rates from Apr. 1 through June 30, 2026, including year-over-year changes. The email benchmarks are broken down by industry (e.g., retail; travel, hospitality & entertainment; financial services & insurance; and media) and by email type (e.g., promotional and triggered). And for the first time, the report includes European email benchmarks.
Our second quarter Marketing Benchmark Report also includes:
- Commentary and context from our digital marketing experts so you can understand performance changes
- Tips on how to use benchmarks effectively
- Discussions of the latest DMARC standards and inbox provider changes from Yahoo Mail and Gmail and how they affect marketers
To get the report via a free, no-form download…
The Last Word on July 2026
Posted on August 7, 2026
A roundup of digital marketing and email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Personalisation Is Not a Merge Tag. It’s a Judgement Call. (Holistic Email Marketing)
AI Meets the Wiretap Statutes: Three Class Actions the Email Industry Should Be Watching (Email Expert)
Backlist confusion (Seth’s Blog)
AI-Generated Email Summaries: What We Learned After Analyzing 628 Summaries (With Video) (BuzzStream)
Meta’s AI Ad Tools Are Creating New Risks for Marketers (EMarketer)
Setting the Standard: DMARC’s New Upgrade Explained (Validity)
Test the Email Verification Protocol with an Origin Trial (Chrome for Developers)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
Authenticity (and effort) as a competitive advantage. https://t.co/0oZTwEAgtc
— Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer) July 16, 2026
Noteworthy subject lines
Macy’s, 7/1 – 50% off inside (’cause it’s our 50th Fireworks show outside)
Goldbelly, 7/1 – Today, It Begins. 250 Dishes That Made America.
Goldbelly, 7/2 – Get $50 for National Restaurant Month! 🇺🇸🍽️⭐️️
IKEA Family, 7/8 – Halloween already? 🫣 You better boo-lieve it! 👻
adidas, 7/19 – WORLD CHAMPIONS. SPAIN 🇪🇸⚽🏆
Pacsun, 7/19 – 4 HRS ONLY! $10 Off $20* Match Day Deal ⚽
IKEA Family, 7/17 – 🎓 From late-nights to early mornings, save on college essentials for it all.*
The North Face, 7/20 – Campus-ready bags built for off-grid adventures
Olive Garden, 7/27 – POV: It’s National Lasagna Day
Huckberry, 7/7 – A Heat Wave Hot-To From Our New Stylist
Eddie Bauer, 7/13 – Too Hot Outside. Too Cold Inside.
ECCO, 7/2 – Your Time Off Is Scheduled. Do You Have The Right Shoes? ✈️
Patagonia, 7/1 – Meet the four-wheel drive of shorts
Crate & Kids, 7/2 – Is your tween asking for a bedroom refresh? Get inspired →
Bed Bath & Beyond, 7/13 – Last call: Win an Everything Home Refresh worth up to $100K
Michaels, 7/20 – The Party Shop at Michaels has everything you need starting at 99¢!
Aéropostale Rewards, 7/13 – Join Aero Rewards ✔️Get A $5 CashPass ✔️
Macy’s, 7/21 – Today only! Extra 20% off designer clearance in the app
Nintendo, 7/15 – Available now: Crocs x Super Mario Collection
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
The AI Standing Between You and Your Subscribers
What You Need to Know: The CDP’s New Role in AI-Driven Marketing
The No. 1 Thing Holding Back Loyalty Programs
Posted on August 6, 2026
Some brands hold their loyalty programs in high regard, seeing them as a key to their success. Others are more skeptical, questioning whether their programs actually foster loyalty or just needlessly give away margin.
A new survey of 310 loyalty and marketing professionals by Forrester Research, commissioned by Zeta Global, confirms this skepticism, finding that 30% of brands rate their loyalty programs as only somewhat effective, at best. It also reveals where much of that skepticism likely stems: the collection and use of loyalty data—or rather the lack thereof.
According to The Underutilized Superpower Hidden in Loyalty Data report, 27% of brands don’t use their loyalty programs to collect first-party data and a whopping 38% don’t use it to collect zero-party data. That’s a huge missed opportunity for brands to get to know their best customers better, and then use that knowledge to serve those high-value customers better.
That begs the question: Why aren’t 100% of brands collecting zero- and first-party data via their loyalty programs? What’s holding them back?
12 Trends a-Trending: Digital Marketing Insights for the Holiday Season Ahead
Posted on August 4, 2026
Like a snowflake, every holiday season is unique. Knowing what economic, technological, and consumer challenges and opportunities to expect and then planning appropriately can allow marketers to maximize their chances of having a successful holiday season.
To help you plan your holiday marketing, Zeta’s Strategy & Analytics Teams have pulled together a list of the top 12 trends that will impact marketers this holiday season and how you can adapt. For a full discussion of each of those trends and how to respond to them, watch the on-demand webinar below. But for a quick rundown of the trends, read on.
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
GVP of CRM Strategy
Zeta Global
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
