Most “email strategy” advice is overcomplicated. You really only need to answer four questions: what is email supposed to achieve, who are you sending to, what will you send, and how will you know it’s working. Here’s a framework that fits on a napkin.
Pick the single outcome email exists to drive — sales, repeat purchases, bookings, or donations. Every campaign should ladder up to it. A clear goal makes every later decision easy.
Give people a real reason to subscribe (a lead magnet, a discount, genuinely useful content), and capture them with forms wherever they meet you. Then group contacts simply — new vs. customer, by interest, or by source — so you can send relevant email.
Combine automations that run forever (welcome, nurture, cart recovery) with a regular broadcast (a weekly or monthly newsletter) and occasional campaigns (launches, offers, events). Automations do the steady work; broadcasts keep you top of mind; campaigns create spikes.
Ignore vanity metrics. Watch open rate (are subject lines working?), click rate (is the content relevant?), and the action tied to your goal (sales, bookings, replies). Improve the weakest link and repeat.
BrandBits covers every part of this framework: capture and segment contacts, run automations and broadcasts, and track the few metrics that matter — all built on the leads you already collect, so nothing lives in two places.