Counterintuitively, highly formatted and image-heavy emails can feel corporate and impersonal, decreasing engagement. Shifting to a simpler, plain-text style mimics a personal message from a friend, which increases perceived authenticity and encourages more replies and genuine connection.

Simple spintax (swapping words like "hi" for "hello") was once a common trick to dodge spam filters. Today's advanced AI and machine learning algorithms easily detect this low-effort pattern. It is no longer a viable standalone method for improving deliverability and should be replaced with genuine personalization.

While technology for dynamic content exists, creators can't effectively personalize newsletters because they lack granular data on their audience's specific interests. You can't tailor content to thousands of individuals you don't truly know, making the data gap a bigger hurdle than any technical implementation.

Modern AI enables hyper-personalization where every email element—copy, images, discounts—is generated uniquely for each shopper based on real-time site behavior. This moves beyond simple segmentation to a one-to-one communication standard.

Since true video embedding in email is unreliable, use animated GIFs to simulate video content and boost clicks. Create a short, looping GIF from your video, overlay a play button icon, and link it to the full video. This serves as a more dynamic and enticing call-to-action than a static image.

To achieve personalization efficiently, Samsung creates a few core email templates. They then use third-party tools like Movable Ink to dynamically insert content modules based on individual customer data, such as products owned or purchase propensity. This avoids massive versioning complexity.

Social media algorithms are fickle and AI summaries are reducing referral traffic from search. Email newsletters are thriving because they provide a direct, reliable communication channel where creators truly own their audience and distribution, hedging against unpredictable platforms.

Since embedding actual video in email is unreliable, marketers can create an animated GIF of a video thumbnail. Animating a 'play' button or background elements signals that there is rich media content, serving as a highly effective call-to-action to drive clicks to external landing pages, demos, or case studies.

Avoid the 'settings screen' trap where endless customization options cater to a vocal minority but create complexity for everyone. Instead, focus on personalization: using behavioral data to intelligently surface the right features to the right users, improving their experience without adding cognitive load for the majority.