Write down the goal and its measure, how the list grows with consent, the segments, the automated flows, the campaign calendar, the content rules, how the domain is authenticated, and what you measure. Build the welcome and nurture or cart flows first, then campaigns. Follow CAN-SPAM, CASL and the Gmail and Yahoo sender rules.
This is the main guide in our email series. The guides below cover choosing a platform for a store, email programs for B2B and reaching the inbox.
1. The goal and its measure
Name the result email should produce and the number that tracks it: revenue per recipient for a store, meetings or pipeline from email for B2B, renewals for a subscription business. Opens are a weak measure: Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates recorded opens, as Stripo's 2026 benchmark roundup notes, so clicks, replies, orders and pipeline tell you more.
2. List growth with consent
Grow the list from people who asked: sign-up forms with a clear promise, lead magnets, checkout opt-ins, event registrations. Record when and how each person consented. Never buy lists. In Canada this is the law: CASL requires consent before the first commercial message, express or implied, and section 10(10) counts a purchase within the past two years or an inquiry within the past six months as implied consent.
3. Segments
Send different messages to different people. Four ways to cut a list:
- By stage: subscriber, lead, first-time customer, repeat customer, lapsed.
- By behavior: pages viewed, products browsed, emails clicked, purchases.
- By role or need (B2B): job role, industry, company size, the problem they came for.
- By engagement: active, cooling, inactive; inactive addresses get a win-back, then removal.
4. Automated flows
Flows run on triggers and do most of the work. Build these first; our guide to ecommerce email flows goes deeper for stores:
- Welcome: three to five emails that deliver the promise and introduce the business.
- Nurture (B2B): a sequence that answers the buyer's questions in the order they ask them.
- Browse and cart abandonment (ecommerce): reminders with the product and the reason to finish.
- Post-purchase: onboarding, care, cross-sell and a review request.
- Win-back: a last attempt before an inactive address is removed.
5. Campaigns and cadence
Campaigns are the one-off sends on top of the flows: news, launches, offers, content. Set a cadence you can keep with something worth reading each time, weekly or fortnightly for most stores and B2B newsletters, and plan the year's peaks in advance. Send to engaged segments by default and to the whole list only when the message deserves it.
6. Content rules
One email, one job: one message and one call to action. Subject lines say what is inside, which CAN-SPAM requires and readers reward. Write as a person, from a named sender where it fits, and make every email readable on a phone. Our guide to email marketing best practices covers list, content and testing practice in detail.
7. Deliverability: reaching the inbox
Google's sender guidelines apply from 1 February 2024 to anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts: authenticate with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, offer one-click unsubscribe with a visible link in the body, and keep the spam rate below 0.10%, never reaching 0.30%. Yahoo's sender best practices set the same authentication, ask for a spam rate below 0.3% and for unsubscribes to be processed within 2 days.
Our deliverability guide covers authentication, list hygiene and monitoring step by step.
8. Measurement
Measure each flow and campaign by clicks, conversions and revenue or pipeline per recipient, plus unsubscribes and spam complaints. For a public reference, Mailchimp's email marketing benchmarks, last updated in December 2023, put the average open rate at 35.63% and click rate at 2.62% across its users, with business and finance at 31.35% and 2.78% and ecommerce at 29.81% and 1.74%. Compare yourself with your own last quarter first.
The law: CAN-SPAM and CASL
In the United States, the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide (August 2023, updated January 2024) requires accurate header information, subject lines that are not deceptive, identification of the message as an advertisement, a valid physical postal address, and a clear way to opt out that is honored within 10 business days. CAN-SPAM covers B2B email too, and each separate email in violation can carry a penalty of up to $53,088 (the figure set in January 2025, 16 CFR 1.98(d), unchanged for 2026).
In Canada, CASL requires consent before sending, identification of the sender, and an unsubscribe mechanism honored within 10 business days; its administrative penalties reach $1,000,000 per violation for an individual and $10,000,000 for any other person. This guide is general information, not legal advice; the laws of the places you send to, and your own counsel, decide what applies to you.
Conclusion
An email marketing strategy fixes eight things: the goal and its measure, list growth with consent, segments, automated flows, campaigns and cadence, content rules, deliverability and measurement. Build the welcome and nurture or cart flows first, authenticate the domain as Gmail and Yahoo require, follow CAN-SPAM and CASL, and judge each email by clicks, revenue or pipeline.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. Our email marketing team builds flows, campaigns and list growth for ecommerce and B2B brands, in your own email platform account. We travel to our clients every 3 to 4 months.
The guides in this series
This is the main guide in our email series. Each guide below goes deeper on one part and links back here.
- Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: which email platform fits an online store, on features and published pricing.
- B2B email marketing: sequences, newsletters and the benchmarks worth knowing.
- Email deliverability: authentication, list hygiene and the Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook rules.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.