Email Strategies that Convert: How to Drive Results with Email Marketing

EMAIL STRATEGIES THAT CONVERT

HOW TO DRIVE RESULTS WITH EMAIL MARKETING

Email remains one of the most measurable, direct paths to revenue…but only if your program is grounded in strategy, aligned with your buyer’s journey, and built to evolve. This eBook shares how to build a sophisticated email marketing program from first touch to a fully optimized system.

Yours in influence,

Zee Jeremic CEO + Founder MASS Engines

WHO

WE ARE:

MASS Engines helps companies drive more revenue from email marketing.

Measure marketing ROI

Run demand generation

Increase lead conversions

START WITH STRATEGY, NOT TEMPLATES

Email still works, you just need to do it right.

With email and revenue goals, it can be tempting to dive right into writing and producing emails for your next campaign. And while we love the hustle, it’s essential to prioritize understanding your buyer as your first step. Apply a consultative lens to email by analyzing the data you already have. Even if you’ve been at your company for a while and think you know your buyer inside and out, put your experience aside and confirm how your buyers engage.

Here’s a roadmap for objective

audience analysis:

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

Objective

Evaluate the industry

Examine past email performance by analyzing which audiences are responding to what topics

Question(s) to ask

What products are on offer and which buyers are they targeting? What channels and messaging is used?

Which segment is engaged and which isn’t? What content or offer was used in the highest and lowest performing emails?

STEP 5

Review competitors’ programs

Talk to sales and marketing

Interview customers (you don’t always get to do this, but when you do, it’s worth gold)

How are competitors approaching email? Use a personal email to sign up for their newsletters and email programs.

Who is the best buyer? What messages resonate? When and how do buyers progress through a sale?

Who was engaged in the buying process and what were the top considerations? (Or if they weren’t there when the product was first purchased, how do they approach similar processes?)

You don’t need a perfect map to start; you just need a few additional data points and a plan to learn as you go.

MAP YOUR BUYER’S JOURNEY

The buyer’s journey is the path a prospect takes from first becoming aware of a problem or need, to researching solutions, to ultimately deciding to make a purchase.

Use insights from your investigations to map out their process and tailor messaging, tone, and content to directly reflect your audience’s specific needs, language, and stage in the buyer’s journey.

AWARENESS DECISION

Everything is alright.

There could be a problem/opportunity CONSIDERATION

Research and analysis

Consideration: Vendor select Purchase

What can we do with what we have?

Internal alignment and approvals

Deepen your understanding of the modern buyer and learn how to map the buyer journey to funnel stages.

RAMP UP METHODICALLY

Following the phases outlined below—in order—will save you unnecessary rework and put the customer and strategy at the forefront.

Phase 1: Build the foundation

Start simple with a general nurture program including 5–6 emails with 2–3 weeks between each send. This program should hit all segments and levels of engagement. You’re just testing the water with this first campaign to find out who’s interested in what topics and how responsive your audience is in general. Don’t be afraid to send to contacts who haven’t engaged in a long time; the bigger the list, the more data you’ll collect.

You don’t need A/B testing yet, just listen and learn. Look for:

Topic interests

Track what content resonates most with different segments, revealing preferences that can guide future messaging.

Engagement patterns

Identify which contacts are active, how often they interact, and where they drop off.

Behavior that hints at buyer readiness

Watch for signs like frequent clicks, repeat opens, or visits to pricing pages that suggest someone is nearing a decision.

PRO TIP:

Email is market research in disguise.

Smart companies use email engagement as a feedback loop, not just a performance metric. Every click, open, and ignored email reveals what your audience actually cares about. When you analyze that behavior across segments, you’re not just learning how to write better emails, you’re uncovering insights that can guide product positioning, messaging strategy, and even marketing direction.

TAKEAWAY: A foundational nurture is your launchpad and learning base, not your final product.

Phase 2: Personalize what matters

Once you’ve laid the foundation, it’s time to shift from one-size-fits-all to specific targeting. That means segmenting in two critical ways:

By audience

1 2

Who they are: job role, industry, vertical, or product interest.

By engagement

How they behave: hot, warm, cold, or frozen.

Both dimensions are non-negotiable. Segmenting by audience ensures your messaging is relevant to someone’s identity. Segmenting by engagement ensures it’s appropriate for their current level of interest. Together, they ensure you’re offering value for your audience and moving the right people forward, without burning out your list.

Here’s how to work both levers:

Audience segmentation: Group by role, vertical, or behavior (e.g., a designer vs. a procurement officer). Tailor language, visuals, and value props to their worldview. Speak their language, not yours.

Engagement segmentation: Group by their activity.

HOT: They open and click regularly. Send timely, specific content, such as product details or pricing sheets.

WARM: Occasional engagers. Focus on educational content—case studies, events, or thought leadership—to reignite interest.

COLD: Rarely interact. Don’t spam them. Send only your top-performing content monthly, and focus on reengagement.

FROZEN: Never engaged. Try a win-back campaign—but if they still don’t bite, let them go.

Once segmented, consider building mini-nurtures that combine both audience and engagement level.

For instance:

• A “hot” builder might get technical specs and testimonials.

• A “cold” architect might receive an occasional trend report or design inspiration piece.

Use dynamic rules to adjust frequency and content based on behavior. Some contacts will move faster, skip steps, or require more nurturing, and your system should flex with them.

Explore how incremental changes can Triple Your Email Engagement Rate for continued growth in your campaigns.

Phase 3: Optimize with intent

Once you’ve segmented and personalized, you can test. Phase three is about refining to improve results. After every send, analyze the performance and adjust accordingly.

Questions to ask

SUBJECT LINES

Did we spark curiosity or clearly communicate value to the reader in under 50 characters?

TOPICS FORMATS

Was the format (text-heavy, visual, interactive) appropriate for the recipient's stage in the buyer’s journey and device preferences?

Did the content directly address a challenge, goal, or interest our audience has expressed through behavior or research?

Actions to take

If open rates were low, test a shorter, benefit-driven subject line with a stronger hook or question.

If click-through rates were weak, try a more visual layout or simplify the design for better mobile readability.

If engagement was low, pivot to content that aligns more closely with recent audience behavior, such as high-performing website pages or past email clicks.

Don’t just test phrasing; figure out what your audience actually cares about.

Optimize for opens, clicks, landing page behavior, and downstream actions—not just vanity metrics.

PRO TIP:

Test content themes, not just subject lines.

What you learn from your audience’s content preferences could be gold to product owners and marketing leadership.

It’s time to ditch vanity metrics

Move Beyond Opens and Clicks and learn how to achieve deeper engagement, more conversions, and better customer relationships with your email marketing.

BEYOND OPENS AND CLICKS

FUEL THE FUNNEL

Email only works if you have someone to send it to—and those contacts don’t just appear out of nowhere. Successful email marketing starts with a steady pipeline of fresh contacts.

Think of your other channels as scouts, capturing attention and gathering contacts. Email is the closer: it nurtures, educates, and converts. But it can’t do that if the top of your funnel is dry.

Database growth often relies on trade shows, webinars, form fills, landing pages, and even cold outreach. And once they’re in your world, deliver consistent, relevant value to keep them subscribed and engaged. Email isn’t your leaky bucket. It’s your secret weapon—if you keep it full.

PRO TIP:

Remember, email is a modifier.

It doesn’t generate demand, it accelerates it. Think of it like a turbocharger, not an engine. The real horsepower comes from your top-of-funnel efforts:

• Paid and organic social campaigns

• Webinars and virtual events

• Trade shows and in-person networking

• Content marketing (blogs, guides, SEO)

• Paid search and display ads

• Cold outreach and partnerships

Fuel these channels consistently, and email will help you turn interest into action—and pipeline into revenue.

Starting from scratch?

For a playbook on building your own successful demand gen program from the ground up, check out From Contact to Revenue.

LEARN MORE

Purchased lists are not the enemy

Cold lists can be useful, but only if treated differently from warm leads. Don’t drop purchased contacts into your default nurture. You’ll get high unsubscribes and low trust. Instead, use insights from phases 1–2 to craft ultra-high-level messaging focused on the reader’s world and not your product.

Avoid pitching too soon. Focus on empathy, industry problems, and subtle value-adds. Ramp up your content to align with your buyer’s journey:

Focus on industry pain points (such as tedious/expensive processes) or opportunities to make an impact (e.g., saving time, improving efficiency, etc.)

MIDDLE Consideration

LATE Decision

To build trust, offer educational content, such as whitepapers

Highlight your solutions with direct calls to action, such as demos or consultations

CREATIVE THAT CONVERTS

What to measure and expect from a purchased list

Judge performance on opens and low unsubscribes, not clicks or conversions. Treat it like cold calling via email with a softer, smarter approach.

B2B emails are often boring. They don’t have to be. Good creative breaks through the noise. Imagery, layout, tone, and design all matter.

USE BALANCE TO GUIDE YOUR CREATION PROCESS

Choose a combo of live text and accessible design

Personalize content and use messaging strategically to capture the interest of the reader

Remember that layouts are part of the experience! Don’t be afraid to experiment and test for optimal viewing on mobile devices.

Avoid text-only (boring) or image-only emails (firewalls, display issues).

Don’t copy and paste directly from a messaging document.

Stop relying on one template—your formatting could be losing readers.

REMEMBER: Even great messaging fails if no one reads it—creative is part of the strategy.

Strengthen content with careful changes

Even small, thoughtful tweaks to your email creative—like updating the hero image, rewriting the CTA, adding color, or aligning tone with audience needs—can significantly boost engagement and conversion rates.

Example inspired by a campaign where MASS Engines increased click-through rate by over 240%

BEFORE

Bland emails, bland results

Sterile imagery and generic messaging will fail to capture attention. Instead, draw in the reader with visuals and copy that speaks directly to your audiences’ needs and pain points. The goal is to make them curious and inspire an action to learn more.

AFTER

Add visual appeal to your emails

No one wants to read a block of plain text. Offer readers a thoughtfully designed email with eye-catching images, icons separating sections, and an attractive template. Refine messaging and focus on personalization to connect with your audience.