Retention marketing for people doing the work
Guides to retention marketing and the email marketing tools you run it on, including where AI is starting to change the job.
- What retention rate, churn and lifetime value measure, and how to calculate each one.
- Email marketing tools compared on price, plan limits and who each one suits.
- How AI is used in retention today, from churn prediction to picking the next offer.
Latest
How do you write marketing email subject lines that get opened?
Write subject lines from the offer and content, keep important conditions, and check the inbox preview. Includes original examples and a practical review record.
Transactional vs marketing email: what is the difference?
Classify receipts, abandoned-checkout reminders and stock alerts by what they say. Compare US and UK mixed-content rules, permission checks and unsubscribe duties.
Which customer retention strategies work for an online store?
Choose ecommerce retention strategies from the customer problem: product support, replenishment, win-back or rewards. Check repeat purchases and contribution.
Which email flows should an online store set up first?
Start with welcome, checkout recovery and post-purchase emails. Use your audience, customer gaps and working event data to decide which flow to build first.
Can AI find retention problems in customer feedback?
AI can surface patterns in reviews, surveys and support messages. Learn how to verify a theme, check whether it relates to repeat purchasing, and test a specific fix.
How do AI spam filters decide what reaches the inbox?
See which spam-filter signals Gmail and Microsoft disclose, why authentication is not an inbox pass, and how to diagnose a real placement problem.
Everything so far, grouped
AI in retention
How AI is used in retention work: churn prediction, segmentation, email copy, agents, and how to check what a model gives back.
- Can AI find retention problems in customer feedback?
- How do AI spam filters decide what reaches the inbox?
- Can AI explain why a customer might churn?
- Do loyal customers react differently to AI customer service?
- What customer data should an AI email assistant be allowed to access?
- When should AI customer service hand off to a human?
- Can you trust an AI-generated email performance report?
- How do you check an AI-created email segment before sending?
- Do AI-generated email subject lines perform better?
- How to make AI email copy sound like your brand
- Does AI actually save time on email marketing?
- Churn prediction vs uplift modelling: which customers should you target?
- How does AI personalise loyalty programme rewards?
- What is agentic AI in retention marketing?
- What is AI customer retention?
- Do AI agents improve customer retention?
- Does AI-written email copy improve retention?
- How is AI customer segmentation different from RFM segmentation?
- Next best action vs next best offer: what is the difference?
- What is next-best-action in retention marketing?
- What is predictive churn, and how do the models work?
- How is predicted customer lifetime value calculated?
- What does AI actually do in email marketing?
Email flows
The automated emails a store sends, what starts each one, and how to set them up.
- Which email flows should an online store set up first?
- How do you stop browse, cart and checkout emails overlapping?
- Why is my email flow not sending?
- What is a replenishment email?
- What is a browse abandonment email?
- What is a win-back email?
- What is a post-purchase email flow?
- What is a welcome email flow?
- What is an abandoned cart email?
Deliverability
Getting email into the inbox: authentication, consent, bounces and list hygiene.
- Transactional vs marketing email: what is the difference?
- Is Gmail's Promotions tab spam?
- Hard bounce vs soft bounce: should you resend the email?
- SPF vs DKIM vs DMARC: what does each one do?
- Should you use a subdomain for email marketing?
- What is one-click unsubscribe, and does a footer link count?
- Single vs double opt-in: which should you use for email?
- Can you email people who never opted in?
- How do you improve email deliverability? A guide to finding and fixing the problem
- Is email list cleaning worth it? When to suppress contacts or pay for validation
Campaigns and content
Writing, timing and sending campaigns, and how emails render.
- How do you write marketing email subject lines that get opened?
- Why does Gmail clip your emails, and how do you fix it?
- Why does dark mode change your email colours?
- How often should you send marketing emails?
- When is the best time to send marketing emails?
- Is email marketing still worth it in 2026?
- What is email list segmentation?
Email metrics
What open rates, clicks and email-attributed sales can and cannot tell you.
Store metrics
Retention rate, churn, lifetime value and the other numbers a store runs on, with the formulas side by side.
Retention strategy
Getting customers to buy again, and why they leave.
Best-of lists
Lists of email marketing tools for a particular need, with prices and plan limits dated to the day they were read.
Three ways in
Pick whichever sounds most like where you are.
New to retention marketing
Start with the numbers retention teams report on. Each guide explains what the metric measures, how to calculate it, and where the definitions differ.
Start readingWorking with the tools
Choosing an email platform, or leaving one? The tool lists sort the options by why you are looking, with prices and plan limits from each vendor.
Email marketing toolsKeeping up with AI
AI is turning up in churn prediction, lifetime value forecasts and offer selection. These guides explain what the models do and which decisions are still yours.
Start with AI in email marketing