Tag: Entrepreneurship

Email Marketing Isn’t Dead—Your Strategy Might Be

How to Fix Underperforming Email Campaigns

It’s easy to write off email as yesterday’s marketing tool, but it can still seriously deliver. Email marketing boasts an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent—and 18% of brands are earning even more, with returns upwards of $70 per dollar. Email marketing is direct, personal, measurable, and—when done well—ridiculously effective.

So why are so many brands still seeing flat performance in their inboxes?

Because it’s not email that’s broken. It’s the strategy behind it.

Whether your list has gone cold or your campaigns are running on autopilot, this guide will help you diagnose what’s not working, rebuild your email program with intention, and optimize for results. Because for fashion brands looking to scale, a healthy email marketing strategy isn’t optional—it’s essential.

Diagnosing the Problem—What’s Not Working?

If your emails are falling flat, it’s time to take a hard look at the signs. Underperforming email programs often show symptoms like:

  • Low open or click-through rates
  • High unsubscribe or spam complaints
  • No noticeable impact on sales
  • Inconsistent sending schedules or tone

Other red flags to watch for:

  • Flows that haven’t been updated in 6+ months
  • Newsletters that go to your entire list with no segmentation
  • A “blast-first, strategy-later” approach

These issues don’t just hurt engagement—they can damage your domain reputation and make it harder to reach inboxes in the future. But don’t panic. Let’s fix it, one step at a time.

Rebuilding Your Foundation—Flows First

Before you send another newsletter, get your automations in order. Why? Because email flows work 24/7, converting customers while you sleep.

Every brand should have at least four foundational flows:

  • Welcome Flow – Introduce your brand, set expectations, and share a first offer
  • Abandoned Cart Flow – Remind shoppers of what they left behind
  • Post-Purchase Flow – Say thank you, offer styling tips, and suggest complementary items
  • Win-Back Flow – Re-engage customers who haven’t shopped or clicked in months

Some brands thrive with four or five flows. Others need 14. The key is to test, tweak, and find your flow sweet spot. These automated sequences often generate the highest ROI across your entire marketing mix—don’t overlook them.

Reimagining Your Campaigns—Think Like Your Customer

Flows are foundational. But campaigns—aka your one-off newsletters—are your chance to show up consistently, creatively, and with value.

Strong campaigns have:

  • Clear goals: Are you educating, promoting, or building community?
  • Value-first content: Offer tips, styling advice, or founder insights—not just discount codes
  • Fresh creative and storytelling: Think editorial-style visuals, founder Q&As, or collection deep-dives

And don’t send the same email to everyone.

Instead, segment by:

  • Purchase history
  • Engagement level
  • Product preferences
  • Email behavior

Email is a relationship. Every message should either build trust, deliver value, or invite action. Sending with intention—and always thinking about what your audience wants to see, not just what you want to say—is invaluable.

Design & Deliverability—The Overlooked Essentials

You could have the best content in the world, but if your emails don’t render well—or don’t reach inboxes at all—it won’t matter.

Here’s what every brand should prioritize:

  • Mobile optimization – 68% of online shopping orders in 2024 came from mobile devices
  • Clear hierarchy – Your CTA should be easy to find and act on
  • Branded visuals + plain text fallback – Great design meets accessibility
  • Verified sending domain – Builds trust and keeps you out of spam folders
  • Avoiding spam triggers – Steer clear of all caps, excessive punctuation, and generic subject lines

Pro tip: Audit your emails regularly. Check how they load on various devices, review broken links, and ensure they still reflect your current branding.

Subject Lines & CTAs—Small Changes, Big Results

Subject lines are your first impression—and your biggest gatekeeper to opens.

Tips for subject line success:

  • Keep it under 50 characters
  • Add urgency, curiosity, or clarity
  • Test emojis, personalization, and formatting
  • Avoid spammy language (“Free!!!” “CLICK NOW”)

Once they open, don’t waste the opportunity. A strong call-to-action (CTA) is what turns interest into clicks—and clicks into sales.

Make sure your CTA:

  • Focuses on one action only
  • Uses benefit-driven language
  • Is easy to find and tap

Instead of “Click Here,” try “Discover Our New Collection” or “Shop the Top-Rated Styles.”

A/B test both subject lines and CTAs regularly to learn what your audience responds to.

Let the Data Lead

Sending emails without tracking performance is like driving blindfolded.

Monitor key metrics like:

  • Open Rate – Are your subject lines and sender name compelling?
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR) – Is your content delivering value and inviting action?
  • Conversion Rate – Are readers actually purchasing?
  • Unsubscribe/Spam Rate – Are you annoying your list or misaligned in messaging?

Use industry benchmarks as a litmus (like an average retail open rate of 33.8% and click rate of 1.11%), but the trends in your own data matter more.

Look at:

  • What types of content generate what types of consumer responses
  • Which days and times yield the best engagement
  • Which flows drive the most revenue
  • Which flows drive the least revenue
  • What types of content is converting least

What to Do If You’ve Let Your Email Strategy Slide

If your email program has been neglected (no judgment—it happens), it’s never too late to revive.

Here’s how:

  • Start with a “We Miss You” or exclusive welcome-back message
    • Don’t hit your full list all at once—warm up your domain with smaller, engaged segments
  • Focus first on your most active subscribers: people who’ve clicked, opened, or purchased recently
  • Rebuild with consistent, value-driven content—no firehose of promos, please

Pro tip: Don’t expect results overnight. A healthy email program takes time, testing, and consistency—but the payoff is worth it.

A Healthy Email Program Drives Real Growth

With the number of email users expected to reach 4.59 billion by the end of 2025 and over half of consumers making purchases directly from emails, this channel isn’t going anywhere.

The difference between a revenue-generating email strategy and a forgettable one lies in intention, segmentation, strategy, and storytelling.

And the brands seeing serious results from email aren’t winging it. They’re building smart, strategic programs that prioritize customer relationships—and consistently deliver value.

So no, email isn’t dead. But if your results are? It’s time for a strategy refresh.

Pink Sheep Publicity builds bold, data-backed email strategies for fashion and lifestyle brands that want to scale. If you’re ready to turn your list into your most powerful sales and storytelling tool, we’re here to help.

Staying Focused Amid the Chaos

How Independent Fashion Brands Can Thrive in 2025

Between shifting consumer expectations, economic fluctuations, and the unrelenting expansion of fast fashion and drop-shippers with disturbingly low price points, independent, ethical, and sustainable fashion brands are navigating an increasingly complex landscape. While it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or be tempted to pivot at every turn, the brands that will succeed aren’t necessarily the ones that react the fastest or most frequently—they’re the ones that stay focused on their core mission and execute with clarity and purpose while remaining adaptable to the changing consumer climate.

The Challenge: Information Overload & Constant Disruption

We live in an age of endless noise, constant competition, and growing public distrust. Social media algorithms shift overnight, new trends emerge at lightning speed, and global events can shake the industry in unexpected and uncontrollable ways. For independent, ethical and sustainable fashion brands, the challenge isn’t just keeping up—it’s deciding what actually matters and what’s distraction.

Staying reactive to every shift can lead to brand dilution, wasted resources, a lack of direction, and burnout by a brand’s team. It can also lead to an overwhelmed customer losing sight of what the brand actually is and does. Instead of chasing every trend or opportunity, the best brands establish a clear strategy and make intentional decisions that align with their long-term goals.

The Importance of Staying Focused

Focus doesn’t mean resisting change—it means being strategic about which changes are worth adapting to. Pink Sheep Publicity helps independent, sustainable, and ethical fashion brands build strategically every day and for the first time, we’re sharing how brands like those we build can cut through the noise and remain on track:

  1. Define Your Core Values & Stay Rooted in Them: Your brand’s mission and core values should act as a guiding compass for decision-making. Whether your focus is sustainability, ethical production, or timeless design (or a mix), ensure that every move you make reinforces your brand’s mission and helps your brand move forward while staying true to its purpose. Consumers today are looking for brands they can trust, and consistency in messaging and action builds that trust over time. [for more on this, feel free to check out our recent post on the importance of authenticity in branding].
  2. Create a Strategic Measured Growth Plan: Rapid expansion can be tempting, but not all growth is sustainable, profitable or prudent. Instead of spreading yourself or your brand too thin, identify the key areas that will drive meaningful progress. Whether it’s refining your product line, expanding into a new market, or improving your supply chain, targeted growth will always be more effective than scattered efforts.
  3. Use Data in Your Decision Making: Guesswork is not going to cut it in today’s competitive landscape (and neither will leading by ego). Leveraging insights from your own brand’s collected data as well as industry sales trends and reports and customer feedback to refine your approach is the only way. Understanding what resonates with your audience will help you allocate resources efficiently and avoid unnecessary risks.
  4. Filter Out the Noise & Focus on What’s Relevant: Not every trend or marketing strategy will align with your brand. Just because a competitor is jumping on a viral moment or you’re seeing “it” everywhere, doesn’t mean you need to the “it” too. Assess whether an opportunity aligns with your brand identity and can be implemented in a way that MAKES SENSE TO YOUR BRAND. Don’t get so bogged down in jumping on every trend that you lose sight of your main goal (aka long-term success and investing your time and resources meaningfully to move your brand forward).
  5. Build a Resilient Community: One of the biggest advantages independent brands have is their ability to foster genuine relationships with their customers. Engage with your audience meaningfully—through social media, email marketing, or personalized experiences. A strong, engaged community will support your brand through industry fluctuations and economic uncertainty.
  6. Prioritize Financial Discipline: In unpredictable economic times, financial stability and thoughtful budgeting is key. Be strategic about your investments, focus on high-ROI marketing efforts, avoid overextending on inventory, and take the time to review your costing and pricing strategies. Brands that maintain financial discipline and learn how to operate within a responsible budget can better weather downturns while positioning themselves for sustainable growth.

The Power of Strategic Focus

Independent fashion brands are often at a disadvantage compared to large corporations with massive marketing budgets. But what smaller brands lack in scale, they make up for with agility, creativity, and the ability to forge deeper connections with customers.

By staying focused on their vision and making intentional, well-researched decisions, independent brands can navigate uncertainty without losing their identity. Success in 2025 isn’t about reacting to every shift in the market—it’s about staying the course, refining strategies, and building a brand that stands the test of time.

At Pink Sheep Publicity, we work with independent, ethical, and sustainable fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands to develop strategic, future-focused approaches that cut through the chaos and drive sustainable growth on a competitively conservative budget. The fashion industry will always be a bit unpredictable, but with clarity and commitment (and the right growth partner), independent brands can carve out a space that’s uniquely their own.