Return Path from Validity and Demand Metric partnered again in 2019 to study the state of email marketing to equip marketers with data and best practices.

This study identifies many tactics and best practices you can apply to improve your results, which you can find detailed within the report, but here are 5 to get you started:

• Objectives – The top objectives for email marketers are communicating with prospects, communicating with customers and building brand awareness. But those with an objective of generating more revenue saw greater success with their email marketing program.

• Challenges – Competition in the inbox, lack of resources, and deliverability are marketers' top challenges in email marketing. However, for email marketers looking for a fresh start, moving to a new ESP or IP address didn't help improve performance.

• Tactics – The email marketing tactics associated with higher performance included email deliverability optimization, A/B testing, and reactivation campaigns.

• Subscribers – Understanding how your subscribers consume your email, such as the device they're reading emails on, and using technology to preview campaigns before deployment, were associated with higher email open rates.

• Performance – Organizations that appear on whitelists are more likely to experience revenue growth.