Data-Driven Email Marketing: A Go-to Guide for Beginners

In this guide, I will break down how to implement a data-driven email marketing strategy.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What data you should collect
• How to collect it legally
• How to use it to improve segmentation, personalization, and automation

Without much ado, let’s start with the basics.

What is data-driven email marketing?

Data-driven email marketing is the practice of using real customer insights (data points) to shape every aspect of your campaign. This includes subject lines, send times, sales, and everything in between. So, it’s not a type of email marketing, but a strategic choice to inform all your campaigns.

You rely on numbers and percentages to define how people interact with your emails, what they click, when they engage, and even what they ignore. Every customer action becomes a clue to what they want, helping you make smarter, evidence-backed decisions.

For example, if a particular age group tends to open your emails on Thursday mornings, send them at the given time. Similarly, if a subscriber keeps clicking product recommendations but skips your newsletters, maybe it’s time to switch up the content you’re sending them.

The goal of data-driven email marketing is to provide customers exactly what they want at precisely the right time.

Importance of data-driven email marketing

According to HubSpot’s 2025 Marketing Industry Trends Report, 31% of marketers say data-driven strategies primarily help them understand campaign effectiveness.

But that’s just one piece of the puzzle. Data plays a role in every step of your email strategy. It helps with everything from audience segmentation and personalization to something as granular as optimizing send times and measuring success.

Here’s why it matters so much.

Provides valuable customer insights

First rule of email marketing? Know who you are talking to.

Every open, click, scroll, and purchase tells you what the customers care about (and what they don’t). Tools like Google Analytics or your ESP’s built-in tracking help capture and interpret these signals.

If someone opens your email but doesn’t click, your subject line probably did its job, but your content or call-to-action fell flat.

If they haven’t opened the last five emails? Well, they’re either bored or busy, and that means you can start sending them re-engagement emails instead.

Over time, this data gives you a clearer picture of who your audience is, what captures their attention, and how to communicate with them effectively.

Helps you build better campaigns

According to McKinsey’s Next in Personalization 2021 Report, 71% of customers expect personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when brands don’t deliver that.

Can you blame them? A generic email saying, “Hey there! Check out our new arrivals,” often rings “Hey, we’d like to take your money, but we don’t care.”

However, with a data-driven, personalized email saying, “Hey Erin! Noticed your team’s been exploring workflow automation. Our latest update helps you automate approvals 2x faster. Want a quick walkthrough?” you’re making headways. 

Simply,  the first one feels like a broadcast, and the second feels like a proper service. The better you know your customers, the more targeted your campaigns and messaging will be.

Here’s a post by Kath Pay, Founder of Holistic Email Academy, where she talks about how best practices are not enough to guide your email strategies.

And I agree. Email marketing trends and best practices are great starting points, but your target audience is unique. Only the data can tell you what the best practices are for the audience’s preferences.

Improves deliverability and sender reputation

Inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook pay attention to how people interact with your emails. If your campaigns consistently earn clicks and low unsubscribe rates, it tells them you are a sender worth trusting. This improves your chances of landing in the primary inbox instead of spam or the promotions tab.

That kind of performance is a result of tracking email marketing metrics like opens, bounces, and click rates, and optimizing accordingly.

Similarly, sending irrelevant or poorly timed emails can damage engagement and your sender reputation, not just for one campaign, but across the board.

Improves customer loyalty

Selling is just the start. You want customers who stick around and advocate for your brand. And that means engaging them after a purchase, too.

You can’t send the same message to a new subscriber and someone deep into the email marketing funnel. The right data helps you segment your list, tailor content for each stage of the customer journey, and make every message feel relevant.

Let’s look at one of the best examples of a data-driven campaign that keeps users hooked.

Every December, there’s a recurring trend all over social media: The Spotify Wrapped. You get to see your top artists, the number of hours you spent listening to music, and maybe a personalized video from your favorite artist.

Everyone shares it. Everyone looks forward to it. That is a data-driven campaign done right.

Helps with resource management

Email marketing relies heavily on experimentation and A/B testing different strategies, which can become expensive, particularly when you factor in the human resources. 

Do it without data, and you’re just guessing what to experiment with. A risky business, to say the least.

Therefore, instead of spreading email marketing efforts evenly across all campaigns, use data to prioritize high-impact messages and formats. This helps you make smarter use of marketing budgets, creative resources, and team bandwidth, which increases the chances of a higher ROI.

How to collect data for email marketing campaigns

Collect data across multiple touchpoints. This could include tracking browse behavior on your website, purchase history from your store, and engagement metrics from your email..

Why does that matter? 

Because email is just one part of your larger digital marketing strategy. Each channel influences the other, so having the full picture leads to smarter, more effective decisions.

However, don’t forget that one of the challenges of email marketing is navigating legal implications at every step. And data collection, storage, and management are at the core of this challenge..

Let’s break down the smart (and compliant) way to collect data.

Compliance

Is sending emails to your customers illegal? No, but there is a line you don’t cross.

You can send marketing emails to your customers as long as you comply with the email marketing laws of each country you have customers in. I know that seems overwhelming, but hang on. I’ll also walk you through ways to avoid penalties.

First, let’s look at the four main email marketing laws related to data collection.

1. CAN-SPAM Act (USA)

This act doesn’t require you to have prior consent to send emails. However, you do need to follow a basic code of conduct, like using honest subject lines, making it easy to unsubscribe, and including a valid postal address. The law also holds you accountable for emails sent on your behalf by third parties (like agencies or automation platforms).

Violations can cost up to $53,088 per email. So, if you mass email 1,000 contacts without proper disclosures…well, you get the picture.

2. GDPR (European Union)

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives EU citizens control over their data, like their browsing behavior, IP addresses, preferences, and purchase history. They can also control how their data is collected, stored, and used.

If you’re sending emails to anyone in the EU, even just one subscriber, GDPR applies. The penalties go up to €20 million or 4% of your global annual turnover, whichever is higher. In short, they don’t play around, so follow the law to the T.

3. CCPA (California)

Californians have the right to know what personal data is collected, why, and who has access to it. They also have the option to opt out or request deletion.

While it is similar to GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) only applies to businesses that meet certain thresholds (e.g., $25M+ revenue or 100,000+ users’ data).

You have 30 days to tackle the issue before facing a $2,500 fine, or $7,500 if intentional.

4. HIPAA (USA)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) applies to healthcare providers, insurance companies, and any business handling electronic medical records.

HIPAA categorizes compliance violations by intent and correction. Fines range from $100 to $50,000 per violation, with repeat offenders potentially seeing up to $250,000 penalties.

But this is just the financial damage (not that it is not serious). These violations further damage your brand reputation and customer trust. Follow the best practices below to keep your emails within legal bounds.

• Build (don’t buy) your email list: Use subscription forms, gated content, and double opt-ins.
• Get explicit consent (even if it’s not mandatory): Keep records of how and when a user opted in. Your CRM or email marketing tool should help with this.
• Have a visible opt-out button: Don’t hide the ‘unsubscribe’ link. Better yet, offer email preference center.

• Honor opt-outs ASAP: The CAN-SPAM Act gives you 10 business days to process unsubscribes. Don’t procrastinate, automate instead. Most email marketing tools will handle this for you.
• Introduce yourself properly: Use a name familiar to the recipients. It can be a brand name or a personal name + brand name.  Add your contact information and logo in the footer so your email feels legit.
• Don’t clickbait with subject lines: ‘RE: Your Invoice’ might get opens, but it also attracts legal attention and unsubscribes. Keep subject lines honest, clear, and connected to the email content.
• Include your physical address and privacy policy: This is about trust. A real address and a link to your privacy policy help subscribers feel safe and also keep your emails out of spam folders.

Most email service providers (ESPs) provide built-in features for compliance, like double opt-in options, easy unsubscribe links, and data handling tools.

However, you are ultimately responsible for how you collect and use the data. They provide the tools, but you must implement the practices correctly. Always review their terms of service regarding data privacy.

Tools

The right stack helps you track behavior, segment smarter, and automate campaigns that convert. 

Let’s walk through the key tools that help.

Opt-in forms

As we discussed earlier, it’s best to get explicit consent from users before sending marketing emails. Opt-in forms are the most straightforward and legally compliant way to do this.

Create an effective opt-in form and ask only for necessary information. A name and email are usually enough. If you need more context (like job title or company size), capture it later through progressive profiling, behavior tracking, or surveys.

Avoid asking too much upfront. According to the 2023 IAPP Privacy and Consumer Trust Report, nearly 68% of consumers are somewhat or very concerned about their online privacy. 

This means they hesitate to share their information online and might share dummy emails instead.

But there is a way around it.

Avoid placing a form the moment someone lands on your website. That’s the equivalent of a salesperson trying to bill you the second you enter the store. Let users explore, build trust with valuable content, and then ask.

Instead, place your forms strategically. Here are a few places that work best:

• High-intent pages, like pricing pages, product comparison pages, or integration pages.
• Exit-intent popups to re-engage abandoning visitors.
• Blog footers to turn content consumers into subscribers.
• Slide-ins or sticky bars. They are less intrusive and effective.

Tip: Start with one placement and then A/B test email design, copy, and timing. But don’t overdo it. You don’t want to scare customers away by asking for information at every scroll.

Don’t forget to optimize for mobile. The latest 2025 projection from StatCounter shows that 64.35% of website traffic comes from mobiles.

Now, let’s talk about how to create opt-in forms.

Most email marketing platforms (like Mailchimp, Brevo, ConvertKit, etc.) come with built-in form builders or embeddable HTML snippets. These are perfect if you’re on a budget or just starting.

If you want granular targeting, design flexibility, and advanced triggers, tools like OptinMonster and ConvertBox offer more control. That said, some of these might not natively integrate with your CRM, so you may need Zapier or custom code to bridge gaps.

Finally, enable double opt-in. It sends a confirmation email after sign-up to verify the address and the user’s intent. It may slightly lower your subscriber count, but it improves list quality and engagement from day one.

Email marketing platforms

Email marketing platforms usually come with built-in analytics to track email open rates, click-throughs, bounces, unsubscribes, and basic engagement trends.

If you’re using email tools that come with a CRM layer like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho, you also get insights, such as lead scoring, lifecycle stages, and multi-touch attribution.

Most of these platforms integrate with Google Analytics, so you can access post-click behavior like how users navigate your site after clicking a link in an email.

And yes, I know,  it’s a bit more work to set up and integrate everything so the data flows smoothly across the sources. But after the initial setup, it’s mostly maintenance and tracking. 

Email analytics tools

While most email platforms come with basic tracking, standalone email analytics tools offer data-driven insights across multiple campaigns, channels, or tools.

The two kinds of tools that can help here are pre-send testing tools and post-send analytics tools.

Pre-send testing lets you inspect emails even before you send them, often using a fake SMTP server. You can check headers, validate content, and make sure the setup behaves exactly the way you want.

It’s especially handy during QA testing or when you’re debugging tricky templates. I’ve found it helpful in staging environments or when managing multiple ESPs, basically any time you want peace of mind before hitting send.

Also, there are post-send analytic tools that let you monitor inbox placement, analyze email heatmaps, and catch rendering issues across devices and clients.

These are useful when you manage high-volume sends or need to optimize every part of your email workflow.

Website analytics tools

Google Analytics is the go-to for tracking what happens after someone clicks your email. You can monitor page visits, bounce rate, time on site, conversions, and more. It gives you a clear view of how emails drive real business results.

If you’re using SMTP or tools like Amazon SES to send campaigns, GA is your best option. Just add UTM parameters to your links manually or through Google’s Campaign URL Builder, and track email performance in the Acquisition report. Segment by ‘email’ to isolate your campaign results.

GA4 also supports event-based tracking for deeper funnel analysis. You can even build custom dashboards to compare email traffic with other sources like search or social.

Data enrichment tools

Sometimes your email list just doesn’t have the full picture. That’s where data enrichment tools help.

Clay is a great option here. It pulls in missing info like job titles, company names, social links, and even intent signals from sources like LinkedIn, Clearbit, Apollo, and Hunter.

You can set it up to send this data straight to your CRM or email platform, and build simple, logic-based workflows without having to code anything.

This helps you understand who you’re reaching out to, segment better, personalize more, and ultimately send emails that make sense to the person reading them. It’s useful if you’re working with cold email leads or minimal form data.

Survey and feedback tools

You don’t always have to go digging for data. Sometimes, the best way to understand your subscribers is to just ask them. Survey and feedback tools help you collect direct input about your content, products, or overall customer experience directly from the subscribers.

Typeform is a solid pick for creating engaging, mobile-friendly surveys that don’t feel like a chore to fill out. Google Forms is also good if you want something free and fast. Other great options are Jotform and Tally. They give you plenty of templates and automation options to work with.

These tools also integrate with both CRMs and ESPs, so you’d have no trouble pulling that data in to refine email marketing strategy.

E-commerce platforms

If you’re running a D2C brand, the chosen e-commerce platform is where most of your customer data resides. Tools like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce help you manage products, orders, payments, and the respective data.

With the right setup, you can automate everything from welcome emails and post-purchase flows to abandoned cart nudges and product recommendations.

Most of these platforms support event tracking, dynamic content, and list syncing out of the box. However, features like advanced segmentation, A/B testing, or customer lifetime value analysis might need add-ons or third-party integrations.

Just make sure your store and ESP are tightly connected so that the data flows both ways. That ensures relevant and timely emails.

CRM systems

A CRM stores all your customer relationship history. It brings together contact info, sales activity, past email interactions, and customer notes in one place, all ready to be used for smarter marketing.

This helps you segment customers by where they are in their journey. You can target better, send emails at the best times, and tweak your messaging to fit their interests. Of course, they integrate with ESPs too.

Platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce give you built-in dashboards to track performance across sales and marketing. But you don’t need a big setup to start.

Numerous free or affordable tools do the job well. HubSpot’s free plan is a good place to start. It’s clean, reliable, and also connects with Mailchimp and Constant Contact. If you’re running a lean team, Zoho CRM or Freshsales work well and offer basic automation.

Examples of data sets

Email platforms and analytics tools provide various metrics. Here are the key data points that you should pay attention to.

Demographic data

This is basic user profile information like name, age, gender, location, language, income level, and occupation.

It’s useful for personalizing subject lines, segmenting by region, or targeting specific age groups.

Psychographic data

This is a more advanced dataset that covers interests, lifestyle, personality traits, values, and motivations. You can use it to tailor content to resonate emotionally.

Example: Sending eco-friendly product emails to environmentally conscious users.

Performance and deliverability data

This is the most important dataset to track because if you aren’t sure your emails reach your customers, every strategy is a shot in the dark. Here’s what it includes.

• Email deliverability rate: These are emails that reached primary inboxes. An excellent deliverability rate is 95% or higher, but anything above 85% is acceptable.
• Bounce rate: Emails that failed to deliver. Keep this under 2% to avoid being flagged as spammy.
• Sender reputation score: This rates IP addresses, and it shouldn’t go below 80%
• Spam complaint rate: This shows how many subscribers marked your emails as spam. Should be below 0.1%.

Engagement data

After deliverability, these are the data metrics you cannot ignore. They tell you how users interact with your emails:

• Open rate: The percentage of recipients who opened your email. According to Campaign Monster’s 2022 Email Marketing Benchmark’s Report, the average across all industries is about 21.5%, with top sectors like education and financial services reaching between 27% to 28%.
• Click-through rate (CTR): This is the percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link. A healthy CTR in most industries is above 2%.
• Click-to-open rate (CTOR): This is the percentage of email openers who clicked on a link. The average range across industries in 2025 is 2.93% to 10.71%.
• Email reading time: Tracks whether your email was skimmed, glanced at, or read in full. It’s an auxiliary metric, often outside the scope of email providers. 
• Frequency of interaction: How often users engage with your emails over time (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). Again, an auxiliary metric that doesn’t come out of the box. 
• Unsubscribe rate: Tells you if your content is turning people away. The industry average in 2025 is 0.08%.
• Revenue per email: Calculates the return on investment (ROI) of each campaign. And one more auxiliary metric, often calculated manually. 

Device and platform data

This tells you how and where users open emails:

• Device type: Reveals mobile vs. desktop usage and helps guide responsive design.
• Browser, email client, OS: Useful for spotting rendering challenges and ensuring cross-platform compatibility.
• Platform-specific open rates: Shows how different devices and clients impact the customer engagement rate.

Transactional data

Tracks the actual buying behavior of customers:

• Past purchases: What they’ve bought before.
• Average order value: How much they usually spend per order.
• Purchase frequency: How often they buy (monthly, seasonal, etc.).

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

An estimate of the total revenue you can expect from a customer over the long term. This helps you prioritize loyal and high-value audience segments for retention-focused campaigns.

Zero-party data

This is information that users voluntarily share with you over time, such as:

• Email preferences: Frequency, topics of interest.
• Birthday or special dates: For timely offers or greetings.
• Survey responses: Valuable for personalization.
• Product preferences: Shared through quizzes or sign-up forms.

How to use data in email marketing: strategies

I’m sure that by now, you’ve realized that there’s a lot of data to track. You also need to use the data to improve your strategies.

So, how do you do that?

According to Coupler.io’s 2024 research, most (55%) of the email professionals do their data analysis every week.

That is a solid habit, especially if you are a beginner in email marketing. But even with regular check-ins, the sheer volume of numbers can get overwhelming.

I don’t want you to get a brain freeze and decide to quit. The trick is to know which data to focus on at a particular time. To use the marketing lingo, you need to match the right insight to the right goal.

For instance, psychographic data isn’t relevant for re-engagement emails because the subscriber has already stopped interacting. Behavioral signals like last-click dates are far more useful here.

But if you’re personalizing content for active subscribers, knowing what they care about (psychographic data) would make all the difference.

Now, let’s see how to apply different data points across key email strategies.

For analytics

This is where you step back and assess how your email strategy has been performing so you can identify what is wrong and fix it. Check the curated guide on how to do it.

Deliverability and inbox placement

Email deliverability tells you whether your email successfully reached your subscriber’s inbox. Inbox placement refers to where exactly it landed, in primary, promotions, or spam.

Here’s how to use data for better deliverability and inbox placement.

• Clean your email list regularly. Keep a close eye on bounce rates and remove invalid or unengaged addresses. High bounce rates can damage your email sender’s reputation and worsen your deliverability and inbox placement.
• Monitor engagement across domains: Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook all have different filtering systems. Check domain-specific performance data to identify hidden deliverability issues.
• Track unsubscribe and spam complaint rates: Email feedback loops alert you when emails are marked as spam. If you notice more unsubscribes or complaints, revisit recipient targeting, adjust send frequency, and ensure your opt-in process is solid.
• Verify authentication protocols: If data shows frequent blocks or your emails being flagged as suspicious, ensure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols are correctly set up and compliant. These are foundational elements of a healthy email infrastructure.
• Test your email: If you consistently see poor inbox placement, use Email Sandbox to test your emails before making them live. This simple step would reveal whether it’s your subject line, content, or send reputation that’s causing the problem.

Metrics monitoring

Once your emails land in the primary inbox, it’s time to track how they perform. Use these data to evaluate and refine your strategy:

• Track subject line performance: Since Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) is also in the picture, club open rates with click-to-open rate to measure performance.
• Use click-through rates to evaluate content relevance: A low CTR usually signals weak CTAs or unengaging content. Try changing your offer, layout, or messaging one at a time so you can determine what works.
• Measure click-to-open rate for message effectiveness: This shows how compelling your content is after an open. A low CTOR means your email isn’t delivering on its promise.
• Check device and location insights: If most users open emails on mobile or in certain time zones, adapt your design and send time accordingly.

KPIs achievement

Your KPIs reflect the goals of your email strategy. Here’s how you can use data to stay on track and make smart adjustments when needed.

• Define the right KPIs: Align data metrics with the goals you want to achieve. If you’re aiming for more conversions, track post-click activity like purchases or downloads.
• Align KPIs with campaign type: Newsletters aim for engagement (opens, clicks), while promotional emails focus on conversions. Remember, your goal guides the metrics.
• Track performance over time: Use data trends to see if you’re improving or plateauing. A declining trend signals a need to revisit your strategy.
• Compare against benchmarks: Use industry or past campaign results to understand what ‘good’ looks like for you and set goals accordingly.
• Use attribution data: If your email is one of several touchpoints, look at assisted conversions or multi-touch attribution to assess its true impact.
• Set realistic targets: If your previous CTR was around 3%, don’t aim for 10% overnight. Use your historical data to set achievable goals and scale from there.

For campaign optimization

The goal of campaign optimization is to make every email better than the last. That’s only possible when you know what data to consider.

Check some ways you can use data to optimize your email campaigns.

Segmentation

Every subscriber is unique, and so should be your emails. Segmentation helps you group users by shared traits to send more relevant content.

You have many options when it comes to segmenting your list.

• Demographics: Use age, location, or language to tailor tone, timing, and offers. For example, send emails based on time zones, not one global email blast.
• User behavior: Track how users interact with your product or website. Someone exploring help docs or integrations may be evaluating a tool. This is the perfect time for onboarding tips or case studies.
• Purchase behavior: Consider plan type, renewal cycles, or feature usage. New users might need guidance, while loyal ones could get upsell offers or beta invites.
• Email engagement: Reward your most engaged users with exclusive offers or sneak peeks. For inactive users, trigger re-engagement sequences to win them back.
• Signup source of intent: Tailor campaigns based on where users signed up. A webinar lead expects different content than a pricing page visitor.

This is how you move from a spray-and-pray approach to giving customers exactly what they need in a particular customer journey stage.

Personalization

No, personalization doesn’t mean simply adding ‘Hi [First name].’ It is more about leveraging data to understand what your customer will need next and being proactive with it.

Here’s how you can personalize your emails based on the data you have:

• Match their journey stage: Use funnel data to understand if someone’s new, exploring, or ready to buy and customize emails accordingly.
• Speak their language: A CTO wants scalability, while a marketer looks for integrations and performance metrics. Send emails that directly solve their exact problems and maybe even offer something extra, like a gift card.
• Act on behavioral signals: Track metrics like pages visited, products viewed, or time on site to send contextual follow-ups.
• Time it right: Use open and click-through rates to send emails when users are most active, and reduce sends to low-engagers.
• Use AI to refine: Let AI pull insights from your past subject lines, CTAs, click behavior, or segment responses to optimize future sends. A/B test what resonates most.

Automation workflow

Not automating your emails is like owning a car but choosing to walk in the heat. Automation saves you time, yes. But more importantly, it uses data in real-time to ensure your message lands when it matters most.

This plays a significant role in nudging a subscriber toward a desired action.

Here’s how to use data to automate emails.

• Start with a trigger: Every workflow needs a reason to fire, like a signup, a download, or a cart abandonment. Use event data to define this.
• Map the journey, not just steps: Think beyond a welcome email. Consider what users need in 3 days, a week, or a month based on their behavior and drop-off points.
• Add logic with conditions: Use engagement metrics (opens, clicks, site visits) to branch flows. For example, if they clicked, send an offer. If not, resend with a new subject.
• Use delays intentionally: Base this upon behavior and average conversion times to add delays that feel natural, not robotic.
• Test and optimize flows: Monitor key metrics like CTRs and conversion rates at each step. Experiment with different subject lines and content to improve results.
• Don’t forget exits: Set clear exit conditions so users aren’t stuck in irrelevant loops once they convert, churn, or respond.

When in doubt, follow the data

This guide isn’t theory. It’s what I’ve used to lift open rates, improve conversions, and re-engage entire segments. If your emails aren’t driving results yet, it’s not because email is dead. It’s because your strategy isn’t smart enough, yet.

When you use data, your campaigns get sharper, and your growth becomes predictable, scalable, and repeatable.

And when things stall or feel unclear, go back to the data. It rarely lies.

Ready to implement data-driven email marketing?