64% of small businesses are incorporating email into their marketing mix in 2026, with more than half of those expecting email to be the top performer for them this year. With 4.6 billion email users globally (and given that most of them check their email at least once per day), email marketing is still a critical avenue for business owners and nonprofits—though, if you’re still employing strategies you utilized 5+ years ago, you may be short-changing yourself.

Whether you have been incorporating the channel into your marketing strategy, or are new to the tactic, email marketing for small businesses is a must in 2026. But, not all email strategies are built the same. Let’s dive into some current best practices and also review outdated advice concerning email marketing that should now be avoided at all costs.

Current Email Best Practices

Like all digital marketing tactics, email has changed considerably over the years. The recommendations (and assumptions) marketers have become used to with regards to email haven’t all stayed consistent for the last decade. As an example, plain text emails are having a resurgence: not for every single send, mind you, but for one-to-one, more “personalized” messages. Other current email best practices that small businesses should keep in mind:

• Quality over Quantity. The average internet user receives between 50 and 120 emails per day, and 67% of those polled say that their email volume is overwhelming. Sending more emails is not the answer, and can lead to mass unsubscribes, damaging your domain’s reputation score. Speaking of which…
• Deliverability is now a strategic issue, not an afterthought. Your emails need to earn their way into people’s inboxes: platforms like Gmail and Yahoo have cracked down on bulk sender requirements—meaning, your domain authentication, spam complaint rates, and having one-click unsubscribe options are non-negotiable. If you receive too many spam complaints, your emails may be permanently relocated to your customers’ spam folders.
• Design for mobile-first: Greater than 62% of all emails are viewed on mobile devices, a number that grows annually. If your email isn’t rendering properly on users’ mobile phones, more than half will delete it right away.
• Set up trigger & drip emails through marketing automation. The old “spray and pray” approach of emailing your entire database every time a message is to be sent won’t continue to see success, and may end up impacting your deliverability. Sending emails based on customer action, i.e. abandoning their cart before purchase, is significantly more impactful. Abandoned cart emails average above a 50% open rate, recovering up to 15% in lost sales. Time-based emails are also effective in bringing back lagged or lost customers. Segmented emails can result in up to 760% (not a typo) more revenue than general email blasts.

Email Practices to Avoid

Over the course of time, strategies that were once recommended by digital marketers fall out of favor for one reason or another. Here are some former best practice recommendations for email that we now advise small business owners to avoid:

• Open Rate as your #1 success metric. Email opens used to be our North Star, mostly because it required a user to physically complete an action. With Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), email tracking pixels all fire when the email is received. This means all emails to an iOS-powered phone (which is roughly 50-60% of all email) now have 100% open rates. Two things to combat this: most CRMs provide MPP-included vs. not included statistics, which will give businesses a better idea of true open rate. But, using alternative metrics, such as click-thru rate and conversions from email, will ultimately be better a bellwether of performance. This also applies to A/B testing, too. Using opens as the “winning” metric will lead to more false-positives than relying on CTR or conversion rate.
• Personalization using first name only. Using “Hi {Customer Name}” in email subjects was once as personalized as we could make emails, but not any longer. Contextual and behavior-based personalization of emails is what is now expected by consumers. And personalization is still important, with customized emails driving up to 30% higher opens and 41% more clicks.
• Buying Email Lists. Purchased lists are great for retargeting; but should never be used for your email campaigns, as they often lead to high unsubscribe and spam complaint rates.

Why Email Marketing is Still Critical for Small Businesses

Email marketing delivers, on average, $42 in return for every $1. There is simply no other marketing tactic that will consistently bring that high of a return. In fact, as a comparison, paid search—often, digital advertising’s most effective tactic—averages roughly an $8 return per dollar, while paid social advertising is barely above $2.

The absurdity of Apple’s MPP “opens” aside, there are small differences in email strategy from years’ past that small businesses would be wise to incorporate into future marketing plans. Deliverability and a mobile-first approach are too important to email performance to leave as afterthoughts, And marketing automation can be a powerful tool for small businesses, leading to up to 320% more revenue than manual emails.

Looking to get your small businesses’ email marketing generating leads and conversions for your business? Screechy Cat Media is a certified Brevo partner agency, and works with small businesses of all kinds to develop and manage email marketing campaigns and marketing automation. Drop us a line and see how we can help improve your email performance today!