AI Email Marketing Strategies: Takeaways from “The State of Email 2025” by Litmus

If your company’s email marketing strategy feels stuck (or worse, ineffective entirely), you’re not alone. According to Litmus’ report “The State of Email 2025,” countless marketers are grappling with understaffed teams, proving ROI, and staying ahead of the curve with data and AI. But in Litmus’ words, “Successful brands can’t simply send more [emails] in 2025—they need to send smarter.”

Here are three key takeaways from their report that every business should consider.

#1: Engagement-Focused Emails Deliver the Best ROI

Is this news? Maybe not. But it’s important to keep strategy at the forefront of every marketing action you take, and not all emails are created equal. The Litmus report states that “customer engagement emails” (think: product education, product news, etc.) and “promotional emails” (featuring discounts or sales) see the best returns.

In B2B especially, customer engagement emails are the frontrunners for ROI. Why? Because they’re relevant, timely, and valuable to the recipient. Here are a few strategies to consider when replacing blind email blasts with emails that work smarter for your business:

• Create targeted automated campaigns for each stage of the customer lifecycle
• Use AI to optimize send times within each segment
• Experiment with interactive elements beyond CTAs, like surveys, forms, or dynamic product carousels

#2: Personalization Isn’t a Nice-to-Have—It’s a Necessity

As Litmus puts it, “Today’s customers expect the brands they interact with to know who they are and what they’re interested in.” That means the era of one-size-fits-all email blasts is over. Whether you’re using simple, out-of-the-box segmentation solutions or getting ahead with AI-driven dynamic content, personalization is crucial to engagement (and ultimately, ROI).

Here are some personalization tactics Litmus includes in their report that you might want to consider for your next email campaign iterations:

• Interest-based audience segmentation
• Dynamic content tailored to individual preferences
• Behavior-based triggers like abandoned cart emails
• Segmentation based on lifecycle stage (e.g., new customers vs. loyal customers)
• Geographic segmentation strategies

#3: AI Is the Competitive Advantage in 2025 and Beyond

There’s been a “340% increase in marketers using [generative AI] for image generation between 2024 and 2025” according to Litmus, and that’s just one application. AI can now be leveraged for:

• Content creation, including subject lines and body text
• Send time optimization
• Campaign performance analysis
• Behavior-based segmentation and personalization

“Companies using AI outperform companies that don’t.” For AI to work for you and your email strategy, you’ll need:

• Customer data you can actually use
• An infrastructure that can make sense of that data
• A clear goal (or two) to drive your strategy and decisions
• A team of marketing experts that can leverage AI and use it ethically and iteratively

Final Thoughts

If you’re struggling to prove the ROI of your email strategy or produce and personalize emails at scale, you’re not falling behind. You’re facing the same challenges most brands are. But with the right mix of strategy and tech, your email marketing strategy can go from being a burden to becoming one of your most powerful tools.

Need help making your email smarter, not louder? Let’s talk.