What Healthy Email Automation Looks Like in 2025

Healthy email marketing program isn’t just about clever copy or eye-catching design. It’s about strategy, segmentation, and systems working together behind the scenes. For e-commerce brands and outdoor retailers, that means building automations that not only engage but convert, without overloading your list or leaving money on the table.

Here’s how to know if your email account is in good shape and what to tweak if it’s not.

1. Your Campaigns Target Engaged Segments, Not Everyone

Sending every campaign to your entire newsletter list may seem efficient, but it's a shortcut to low engagement rates and higher spam complaints. A healthy email account sends most campaigns to engaged segments, which are comprised of people who have opened or clicked on emails recently, purchased within a set timeframe, or fit specific behavioral triggers.

Why it matters:

• Boosts open and click-through rates
  

• Reduces unsubscribes and spam flags
  

• Keeps your sender reputation strong

2. You’ve Set Up Separate Abandoned Cart and Checkout Flows

These aren't the same thing. A cart abandoner might be browsing, while a checkout abandoner was inches from purchase. Healthy e-commerce accounts set up distinct flows with tailored timing, content, and incentives. If you only have one or the other set up, you’re missing out on a ton of potential customers. 

Pro Tip: Make sure that when you have both flows set up, you add in trigger filters to keep out everyone in the other flow, and those who have purchased since starting the flow. 

Key differences:

• Cart Abandonment Flow: Targets users who added items but never began checkout
  

• Checkout Abandonment Flow: Targets users who started checkout but didn’t complete it

Learn more about different automation strategies here: The Many Ways to Automate Email and SMS

3. You’re Actively Cleaning Unengaged or Risky Contacts

Even great brands collect dust in their lists. Unengaged subscribers and those with negative engagement metrics (like repeated soft bounces) hurt your deliverability and skew your data. Proactive list cleaning keeps your metrics accurate and your emails landing in inboxes.

Smart segmentation ideas:

• 30/60/90-day unengaged subscribers
  

• Soft bounce repeaters
  

• Non-openers after 10 sends

4. You’re Integrated with Google and Meta

Healthy email systems don’t operate in a silo. Integrations with Google and Meta help you:

• Sync audiences across channels
  

• Track conversions and attribution accurately
  

• Optimize campaign performance with better data

If your automations aren’t pulling from your paid channels, or vice versa, you’re missing key signals.

5. Your Automations Are Triggered by Behavior, Not Guesswork

Are your welcome series, upsell flows, and win-backs firing based on actual behavior? Or are they time-based blasts with a fancy name? In a healthy system, triggers and targeting are dialed, whether it’s post-purchase timing, browsing behavior, or lifecycle stage. Using event triggers from your e-commerce platform will provide more accurate results than using an API. 

Final Thoughts

Your email account doesn’t have to be perfect; it just needs to be proactive. Small improvements in segmentation, automation, and hygiene can lead to big gains in engagement and revenue.

Learn how Foghorn Labs can help you
scale your email marketing automation strategy