Too many marketers continue to treat email marketing as if it’s a standalone channel, just something that gets done once a month or whatever, then ignored while the team moves on to more important things.
The truth is, in 2025, email as a single broadcast channel just doesn’t have the impact it had fifteen years ago. It needs to be more than just a loud voice shouting out its message every now and then – it’s part of a larger marketing ecosystem, pulling its weight in relationship building, collecting data, automating engagement, and much more.
Loud Voices vs. Calm Nurturing
Let me introduce you to two people. We’re going to call them ‘Nigel’ and ‘Chloe’.
Nigel was the man in 2010. He brought in leads – good leads – and got Results (with a capital R). Nigel works on the basis that he’s got something to say and he wants you to listen.
Nigel calls his customers – all of them – once a month. He’s got his well-honed script and a loud, confident voice.
Even before you’ve had the time to process a hello, he’s talking: ‘Hi, it’s Nigel from ABC Products and Services. Let me tell you about our latest discount…’
He announces his news, repeats a few salesy phrases, and hangs up, confident that soon you’ll be knocking at his door desperate to take up his offer and spend, spend, spend – just like people did in 2010.
Nigel doesn’t remember your name. He doesn’t care if you’re interested in the things he’s telling you. He’s just calling to do his update, and then he’ll vanish again until next month. Thanks Nige!
Chloe takes a slightly different tack. She’s calmer, more personable. She opens her call by mentioning your name and listens genuinely as you fluff for a couple of minutes talking about your cat. You have a bit of a laugh. She remembers what you like, what you’ve been considering, and when you last spoke.
It hasn’t been a month since she last called, because she contacted you with a gentle nudge a couple of weeks earlier, and today she’s helping you with a bit more information that she thought you’d find useful. She’s not pushy, just wanted to check in and let you know that if you need anything, her team will be there even if she’s personally busy.
Anyway, she appreciates you’re busy – just let her know if you want to move forward and she’ll sort everything from her end, no worries.
Yeah…
Forgetting Nigel and Embracing Chloe
They’re both lovely people, for sure (Nigel’s a demon at Karaoke) – but in 2025, Chloe’s going to get far better results. It’s time to forget Nigel and embrace Chloe.
Why? Because successful email marketing is all about working with data, tailoring your campaign to better align with your audience’s expectations, and building relationships.
Nigel (obviously representing the standalone channel style of email marketing) simply isn’t capable of being taken seriously in a modern environment. Loud though his message may be, it is easily ignored and moved on from. Quite aside from the bullish nature of driving your email into an inbox and demanding attention, there’s far too much noise out there now, and the competition is considerable.
Chloe (she’s our ecosystem-based representative) considers the individual nature of your customer. She is patient and listens, engaging when she’s most likely to make an impact, and nurturing an ongoing relationship that builds trust.
The Ecosystem View
Being Chloe means connecting with everything around you:
- Automation and beginning the journey - Emails welcome new users, onboarding them onto your system with automated messages triggered at key moments.
- Behaviour tracking and personalisation - Marketing data forms the backbone of email marketing. It provides info on clicks, browsing history, and engagement to inform future email decisions and determine segmentation. Triggered events continue, such as gentle email reminders if they’ve left something in their shopping basket.
- CRM integration and lead development - Email engagement feeds into your systems to provide effective data for the sales team, allowing them to follow up intelligently, prioritising the better leads.
- Relationship building - It’s not just about a single conversion. Cost-effective sales and marketing means having a focus on retention, building trust over time, and developing brand loyalty. Emails are a core tool for this essential part of the ecosystem.
Are You Nigel?
Are you still stuck in the email marketing from a decade or more ago? Here are a few telltale signs you might still be rocking the Nigel life:
- You measure success based on the number of your subscribers.
- You don’t segment your marketing, but send the same thing out to everyone.
- You’re manually sending emails.
- Your email system doesn’t connect with your CRM or website.
- You don’t have automations to trigger emails.
If this is you, you need to consider a change. Hand Nigel his P45 and give Chloe the job (no offence, Nige).
How To Be More Like Chloe
Here’s how to start thinking ecosystem over channel:
- Plot your email marketing as a journey, not as single isolated messages.
- Segment your lists based on user preferences and their actions.
- Create automatons with conditional logic and triggers (‘if the customer does this, send that email’).
- Synchronise your email with your CRM to track users throughout their customer journey.
- Mix up your content, merging the sales drive with personal engagement.
Building an Ecosystem with Nathan Littleton
Need help finding your inner Chloe? I’m Nathan Littleton, and while I’m not planning on a name change any time soon, I’m much more a fan of the Chloe way of looking at things than good ol’ Nige. Book a free consultation, and together we can look at your email marketing, bringing it from the loud style of 2010 to a calmer and smarter 2025 ecosystem.
