Email Marketing in 2025: Why Relevance Requires Empathy (and a Little Humility)

Can you believe how far we’ve come?

Can you believe how far we’ve come?

Half a decade ago, we were all scrambling to adapt to global shutdowns, learning to look professional on video calls, and navigating digital-first everything. But here we are in 2025, and the only constant in marketing is this: customer expectations evolve fast—and marketers who fail to adapt fall behind.

The ring light might still be on. The camera still rolling. But the rules of engagement have changed again.

It’s time to refresh our customer personas, update our assumptions, and root our marketing in the messy, complex, very human world we’re living in now.

Recognise the New Shared Reality

We’re not all stuck at home anymore – but we’re also not “back to normal.” Today’s consumers are dealing with:

• Constant digital noise
• Shrinking attention spans
• AI-generated everything
• A post-cookie landscape
• Economic uncertainty

And through it all, they expect brands to understand them, respect their time, and deliver genuine value.

They can tell the difference between a message written for them and one blasted at them. They’ve seen enough.

Marketing Is a Service, Treat It Like One

In 2025, marketing isn’t about pushing messages. It’s about being useful, being human, and being relevant in real time. That means shifting the mindset from “campaign-first” to “customer-first.”

Your emails, content, and automations must:

• Speak to current needs, not last quarter’s funnel metrics
• Reflect changes in lifestyle, work routines, and buying habits
• Feel like a conversation, not a corporate broadcast

Remember: your customer could be parenting between Zooms, managing side hustles, or dealing with burnout. You don’t need to reference those things directly—but your tone, timing, and content must acknowledge that you’re not the only thing competing for their attention.

A Story That Still Matters

Let me share something that happened last year.

I had a terrible grocery delivery experience. A broken substitution system, missing items, zero communication—it was frustrating. I’d paid for a premium plan, and I expected better.

But when I contacted support, a real person replied.

And here’s the twist: they didn’t just “resolve the issue.” They acknowledged the frustration, validated the experience, and even used humour. I laughed. I felt heard. I stayed a customer.

That is marketing.

Support is marketing. Content is marketing. Every digital interaction is marketing.

And it works best when it feels like a conversation between humans—not a handoff to a machine.

Update Your Personas, Seriously

Your personas from 2020 are probably useless now.

Customer priorities have shifted:

• Work is more hybrid, flexible, or unstable
• Budgets are tighter in many sectors
• AI is changing how people create, consume, and evaluate content
• Digital trust is in short supply—privacy concerns are high

If you’re not regularly validating and revising your personas, you’re not marketing to real people. You’re marketing to a spreadsheet.

Revisit your data. Run interviews. Re-segment based on behaviour, not just demographics. Then, apply those insights to every touchpoint—especially your email and lifecycle marketing.

Put More Humanity in Your Automatio

Automation is not the enemy of empathy – bad automation is however.

Today’s platforms are powerful. You can personalise based on behaviour, send in the right moment, and create contextual experiences across channels. But if you don’t build in emotional intelligence, you’re just adding noise.

Ask yourself:

• Is this message helpful or just timely?
• Does it reflect my brand’s voice—and my customer’s mindset?
• Is there room for a little warmth, humour, or humanity?

You don’t need a joke in every email. But you do need to sound like a real person.

Wrapping Up: Be More Than a Message Machine

We’ve entered the era of earned attention.

It’s no longer enough to be “personalised.” You must be perceptive, thoughtful, and humble enough to accept that your audience might not care—unless you give them a reason to.

So, before your next send:

• Rethink your personas
• Refresh your automations
• Revisit the why behind every message

Marketing isn’t about visibility anymore. It’s about resonance.

And the brands that win in 2025 will be the ones that treat every message – every email, chat, or CTA, as an opportunity to connect, not just convert.