Publish date:

• 27th June, 2025

Digital marketing has evolved, and technology has enhanced business operations. However, one thing still matters: good customer relationships come from clear communication.

Here’s the issue: making your emails stand out in a client’s busy inbox. For 2025, Salesforce email marketing is crucial for effectively solving this problem.

Email marketing is experiencing rapid growth, with global revenue projected to reach $17.9 billion by 2027. As more companies increase their email marketing budgets, Salesforce email marketing emerges as a powerful tool that can enhance your campaigns and make them more effective.

Want to see for yourself? Our top consultants can help you use the best email marketing practices with Salesforce. Whatever you need, our Salesforce consulting services can assist you.

Before we begin, let’s examine the best practices that will yield tangible results.

How to Use Salesforce for Email Marketing?

Salesforce email marketing utilizes cloud technology, leverages first-party data, and employs automation to deliver a seamless and practical email marketing experience.

While Salesforce offers a robust email marketing platform, it has some limitations that may necessitate the use of third-party tools for optimal results.

Salesforce’s Flows is a strong tool for automation. It helps you set up rules for sending automatic emails to contacts and leads. However, keep in mind that even with the top subscription plan, Salesforce limits you to sending 5,000 emails per day. Despite this limitation, Flows can significantly enhance your ability to connect with leads and increase conversion rates.

With Flows, you can create automated email campaigns, including drip campaigns. You can set specific rules to send a series of emails based on how your leads interact and behave.

Setting up these flows can be complex, but Salesforce provides the necessary tools to run effective drip campaigns and other automated marketing strategies.

How to Send Emails with Salesforce Marketing Campaign

When building the next campaign, it’s essential to use a step-by-step approach. Turn to our guide when using Salesforce for email marketing:

• Create your campaign record

• Define the criteria for your audience

• Add the audience to the campaign

• Design your email template

• Create your email content

• Send your email to your audience

• Track your statistics in the campaign layout

Step #1: Setting Up a Campaign Record

Start by creating a campaign record. This record will serve as the foundation for your email marketing campaign in Salesforce. You will use it to keep track of everything, from selecting the audience to measuring the campaign's performance.

To do this:

1. Navigate to the “Campaigns” tab in Salesforce,

2. Click “New.”

Fill in the campaign details, including the name, type, and start date. Ensure that everything aligns with your overall marketing strategy.

Step #2: Defining Target Audience

The next step is to decide who you want to target. With Salesforce for email marketing, you can set specific criteria to divide your audience into groups.

• Age,

• Demographics,

• Past interactions,

• Purchase history, and more.

Use Salesforce’s filtering options to narrow your audience. This way, you will consistently target the right people.

Step #3: Importing Audience to the Campaign

After you define your audience, the next step is to add them to your campaign. If you’re using Salesforce for email marketing, import your chosen contacts or leads into the campaign record.

• Go to campaign record

• Click on the “Add Contacts” or “Add Leads” button

• Select the appropriate group

Ensure your emails are directed to the correct recipients. This final step is essential.

Step #4: Designing an Email Template

It’s time to create your email template. Salesforce has introduced a new drag-and-drop tool that simplifies the design of attractive emails. You can choose from ready-made templates or start from scratch. Customize the layout, colors, and images to fit your brand.

Salesforce email marketing tool is exceptionally user-friendly. So, you can build your email without any coding knowledge.

Step #5: Crafting an Email Content

With your template ready, start creating the content. Write a strong subject line and body text that connects with your audience. Make sure to personalize your emails. When each recipient feels the message is meant for them, it can significantly increase engagement.

Here are some practical personalization approaches:

• Use the recipient’s name: Addressing recipients by their name adds a personal touch.

• Mention past interactions: Reference previous purchases or interactions to make the content more relevant and engaging.

• Choose timing: Send emails at times when recipients are most likely to engage.

When your content is ready, please attach it to the Salesforce email marketing template and connect it to your campaign record.

Step #6: Sending an Email

Once everything is ready, it's time to send your email. Verify all details, including the target audience, content, and timing, to ensure accuracy. When you're happy with it, click “Send” to start your Salesforce email marketing campaign.

Salesforce will send your email to the chosen audience, making sure it arrives in their inboxes.

If you have large lists, Codleo can help you organize and target your audience in Salesforce.

Step #7: Analyzing Campaign Performance Metrics

Track the success of your campaign by looking at the statistics in the campaign layout. When you use Salesforce for email marketing, you can access detailed analytics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion metrics.

Use this information to assess the effectiveness of your campaign and make adjustments for future campaigns.

How to Use Salesforce Flow for Email Marketing

Managing email marketing campaigns can be challenging without the right tools. Salesforce Flow helps solve these problems by automating complex tasks and making your email marketing easier.

Here’s how you can utilize Salesforce Flow to optimize your email campaigns:

• Navigate to Setup > Process Tools > Flows or use the App Launcher to find Flows.

• Create a New Flow: Name your flow and select its type

• Configure the Flow: Add elements such as assignments, decisions, and loops.

• Add Email Actions: Specify email templates, subjects, and recipients.

• Personalize Emails: Use merge fields to populate recipient-specific information dynamically.

• Test and Activate: Thoroughly test the flow using test data before activation.

• Schedule or Trigger the Flow: Schedule the flow to run at specific times or trigger it based on certain events.

You can make your Salesforce Flows better by using Salesforce Einstein. This tool uses AI to help you create personalized and effective email campaigns. It provides content suggestions based on data and enables you to predict the performance of your campaigns.

By integrating Salesforce Einstein, you can leverage advanced AI features to tailor your messages. It leads to higher engagement and better results for your campaigns.

How AI Can Boost Salesforce Email Marketing

Email marketing remains effective, especially with the use of AI. 

According to Statista, 51% of email marketers believe that AI in email marketing is more effective than traditional methods.

AI in email marketing utilizes machine learning to create more personalized messages, determine the optimal times to send them, and segment audiences. Predictive AI analyzes past data to provide insights, while generative AI creates new content tailored to meet users' needs.

AI-driven email marketing enables the creation of targeted campaigns that enhance engagement and boost customer satisfaction. By combining technology with communication, marketers can quickly deliver personalized messages. It significantly improves engagement and results.

Here’s a comprehensive look at how AI can enhance your email marketing strategy:

• Send Times Optimization: By analyzing how each email performs and studying engagement trends, AI can suggest the best frequency for sending emails. It helps to increase engagement from recipients and reduce the number of unsubscribes.

• Customer Segmentation: Use machine learning to segment your audience based on their behavior. AI can analyze patterns in customer interactions, purchase history, and preferences to create accurate segments. It helps you send tailored messages and special offers, making it easier to engage customers and increase conversion rates by ensuring each person gets the most relevant content.

• AI-Driven Content Creation: AI tools like ChatGPT can help you generate content ideas and create personalized emails for each recipient, tailored to their interests and actions. By sharing details about your business, ChatGPT can suggest specific content topics that align with your needs and interests. It can help you get past writer's block and boost your creativity.

• Email Validation: AI can analyze your email list to find valuable addresses by comparing different metrics. It can track how people engage with your emails and rank the quality of the addresses. It helps in creating the best email list for your needs.

• Subject Line Optimization: Utilize AI to craft more effective subject lines for your emails, resulting in higher open rates. AI can also run A/B tests to compare different subject lines and determine which ones are most effective in appealing to users. This ongoing process helps you improve your open rates and run more successful email campaigns.

• A/B Testing at Scale: AI tools help automate A/B tests and analyze their results. They quickly identify the best versions by running multiple tests simultaneously. These tools provide real-time data on key performance metrics, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. This efficient approach enables rapid improvements and scaling of effective email strategies.

• Performance Analytics: AI can help you improve your email campaigns by analyzing performance data. It examines open rates, click-through rates, and conversion metrics to identify trends and patterns. It allows you to refine your strategies over time. With AI, you can target your audience more effectively, engage them more effectively, and achieve a higher return on investment (ROI).

• Savvy Product Recommendation: Send emails with product suggestions that fit each customer’s browsing and buying history. By utilizing intelligent algorithms, you can display products that match customers' preferences, enhancing their shopping experience. This method not only increases engagement but also helps sell more and builds customer loyalty, leading to higher overall sales.

• Dynamic Content Generation: Automatically update your email content based on real-time data and interactions. It helps ensure that recipients get the most relevant and timely information, which improves their engagement. For example, the content can change depending on a recipient’s location, past purchases, or recent website visits. It creates a personalized experience that delivers better results.

Using AI tools for email marketing can help with many tasks, but there are some challenges to consider:

1. Data Privacy and Security: It’s essential to comply with data privacy laws to safeguard sensitive information.

2. Technical Expertise: You need skilled people to set up and optimize AI tools.

3. Solid Data Foundation: AI needs high-quality data to provide accurate insights and personalizations.

That’s why it's essential to have human oversight to keep the content relevant and appropriate.

Salesforce Email Marketing Best Practices: 13 Steps to Make Smart Emails

Even with the rise of social media, email remains an essential means of communication. To create successful email marketing campaigns, it's necessary to understand the best practices. Here are some key points to consider:

1. Segmentation

Segmenting your email list is crucial for delivering targeted content to distinct groups within your audience.

By dividing your list based on demographics, purchase history, behavior, or engagement levels, you can tailor your messages to meet the specific needs and interests of each group.

This targeted approach boosts engagement rates and improves the success of your Salesforce email marketing campaigns.

2. Personalization

Personalization means more than just using the recipient's first name. It requires using data to create content that aligns with their interests, past actions, and purchase history.

Emails like this can significantly increase the number of people who open them, click on links, and make purchases. It is because they make the recipient feel appreciated and understood.

Use Salesforce for email marketing to improve your personalization efforts.

3. Compelling Headline

Your subject line should be clear and brief, about 40 characters long. It will encourage people to open your email.

Key elements are clarity, urgency, personalization, curiosity, and relevance. Best practices include A/B testing, avoiding spam triggers, and maintaining consistent email content.

Using emojis sparingly can make your subject line stand out. For example, you can use: “Exclusive Offer: 20% Off All Winter Wear” or “Hurry! Sale Ends Tonight.”

4. Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

Make it easy for recipients to know what to do next. A clear and strong call to action (CTA) helps guide your recipients toward the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or downloading a resource.

Make your call to action (CTA) easy to see and understand. This way, people will know what to do next without confusion.

5. Consistent Branding

Using consistent branding helps strengthen your brand identity and build trust with your audience.

Ensure your emails accurately reflect your brand’s voice, colors, fonts, and images. When your branding is consistent, people can easily recognize your emails, which boosts your overall brand presence in email marketing strategies.

6. Compliance

Following email marketing laws, such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM, is essential to protect your brand’s reputation and avoid legal problems. 

Ensure you obtain explicit permission from recipients, provide an easy way to unsubscribe, and include all required information in your emails.

Staying compliant not only builds trust but also helps maintain a clean email list.

7. Right Timing

When sending emails, please consider the timing to increase the likelihood of recipients opening them. Avoid sending emails late at night, and consider the time zones of your recipients. Research indicates that emails sent between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. or from 8:00 p.m. to midnight tend to perform more effectively.

Mid-week days, especially Tuesdays and Thursdays, often receive more engagement. 

You can improve your results by looking at past campaign data. It will help you identify the optimal times to reach your target audience.

By scheduling your emails strategically, you can enhance their visibility and increase the likelihood that recipients will engage with them. It can lead to more opens and higher conversion rates.

8. Effective Landing Page

Guide your email readers to a clear landing page that aligns with the content and call-to-action of your email. It will help create a smooth user experience.

Create a clear and direct headline. Use engaging visuals and include a strong call-to-action that encourages visitors to take a specific action, such as purchasing a product, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource.

A good landing page helps you track what users do. You can analyze this data to determine how well your campaigns are performing and refine them for future success.

Maintaining consistency between the email and landing page can significantly enhance user engagement and boost conversion rates.

9. Mobile Optimization

Most emails are now opened on mobile devices, so it's essential to make your emails mobile-friendly.

It means using a design that adjusts to different screen sizes, keeping your content brief, and adding clear buttons that are easy to tap. By optimizing for mobile, your emails will look good and function well on any device, which can enhance the user experience and boost engagement rates.

10. Automated Workflows

Automation enables you to create email workflows that initiate based on specific actions or events. For example, you can set up a welcome series for new subscribers or send reminders for abandoned carts.

Automation enables you to create email workflows that initiate based on specific actions or events. For example, you can set up a welcome series for new subscribers or send reminders for abandoned carts.

Salesforce and email marketing automation can significantly enhance your efficiency.

11. A/B Testing

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method for determining which version of an email is more effective in achieving its goals. You send two different versions to a small group of your audience. You can test various aspects of the email, such as subject lines, calls to action (CTAs), images, and the layout of the content.

Regular A/B testing helps you find out what your audience likes best. It also enables you to make your email marketing campaigns in Salesforce better over time.

12. Regular Analytics Review

Regularly check your email campaign analytics to see what works and what doesn’t. Focus on key metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Use this information to refine your strategies, enhance your content, and optimize the performance of future campaigns.

13. Re-engagement Campaigns

Re-engagement campaigns help reconnect with subscribers who haven't opened your emails in a while. 

Use focused content, special offers, or surveys to learn about their preferences and encourage them to engage again.

These campaigns can refresh your email list and boost overall engagement rates.

Top 4 Email Marketing Tools and Integrations for Salesforce

Salesforce CRM works best when customized with other software, popular add-ons, or complete solutions. Adding marketing automation tools to Salesforce improves its features and provides a strong platform for managing the entire customer journey.

ActiveCampaign

• Starting Price: 15$/month

ActiveCampaign is a valuable tool for businesses seeking to enhance their marketing and customer experience. It can boost growth by improving customer interactions. When you connect ActiveCampaign with Salesforce, it aligns your sales and marketing efforts, providing a clear view of how customers interact with your business.

This integration automates tasks between the two platforms, making work more efficient and helping you better understand customer behavior. This knowledge can improve your decision-making.

Pros:

• ActiveCampaign has a simple interface and is easy to understand.

• The service offers four payment plans starting at $15 per month. To connect with Salesforce, you require a premium subscription, which costs $145 per month.

• This email marketing automation app allows you to test entire sequences of emails, not just two emails labeled A and B.

• ActiveCampaign has recently developed several features that utilize machine learning. These include tools for sending emails at the right time, customizing content for users, and scoring leads based on their chances of winning. These innovations help you automate more of your marketing and sales processes.

• Its drag-and-drop tool makes it easy to create simple emails quickly. It also lets you design more advanced emails.

Cons:

• Setting up and configuring the integration can be complicated and may need technical help. 

• Combining ActiveCampaign and Salesforce can be costly, especially for small businesses. 

• Users may require training to utilize the features of these platforms effectively.

• Problems with data syncing can disrupt marketing and sales activities.

• You may need advanced customization to make the integration fit your business needs, which can be time-consuming.

MailChimp

• Starting Price: Free

This integration connects Salesforce CRM with Mailchimp’s email marketing platform. It makes it easier to manage your CRM and email marketing tasks.

It makes it easier to manage customer data, run targeted email campaigns, and analyze customer engagement.

Mailchimp helps you create audiences for your contacts and leads, and these audiences update automatically without needing manual work. You can also create campaigns directly in Salesforce and use Salesforce triggers to improve the campaign workflows.

Pros:

1. The new version is a significant improvement. It has better features and is easier to use than the old one.

2. Automating contact and lead management saves a significant amount of time. Without it, you would spend a considerable amount of time manually updating the audience.

Cons:

1. This tool has limitations on customizations. It is moderately priced—not the most expensive, but not the cheapest either. This pricing affects the number of customizations you can make.

2. Data synchronization issues can happen. While automatic data syncing and audience creation save time, they cause problems if your data is complex.

3. Installing and setting up the system can be a time-consuming process. You may also need to pay an additional fee for a specialized team to assist with this process.

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (AKA Pardot)

• Starting Price: $1,250 /month for up to 10,000 contacts

This app, formerly called Pardot, is a versatile email marketing tool. It offers a variety of features, including the ability to create and manage forms on the website. You can use it for drip campaigns and one-time emails, and it provides strong reporting capabilities.

You will benefit from seamless integration with your current Salesforce tools, as Salesforce owns them.

Pros:

• You can easily sync contacts and leads between Salesforce and Pardot, as Pardot functions as a Salesforce app, enabling seamless data sharing.

• You can also manage campaigns directly in Salesforce.

• The drip campaign setup is robust and detailed. It lets you create actions in Salesforce based on what prospects do during the campaign.

• You can create your forms or use the existing layout on your website.

• With Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE), you can access Analytics Studio in Salesforce. This tool provides a clear dashboard to track and effectively monitor your marketing campaigns.

• Use the Salesforce Email Builder to create simple emails. Then, use these emails in MCAE.

• Make your marketing efforts easier by organizing assets by product or region. Business Units help you quickly find specific assets related to a product or area.

Cons:

• Pardot is expensive. Expenses can add up from subscription fees and additional mailable prospects.

• You will need a dedicated team or consultant to set up and provide initial training. It can be a significant cost for your company.

• We offer complete Salesforce and Pardot consulting and integration services to ensure a smooth setup of your email marketing tools.

• Our expert team is ready to help you from the initial setup to customizing your system. Get the most out of Salesforce and Pardot with Codleo. We’re here to assist you!

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

• Starting Price: $1,250 Org / Month

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a powerful marketing tool that helps businesses manage and enhance customer journeys across various channels, including email, social media, mobile, and websites. It offers numerous tools for planning, executing, and evaluating multi-channel marketing campaigns. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of using Salesforce Marketing Cloud:

Pros:

• You can manage all your email, social media, mobile, web, and advertising marketing activities from one central platform.

• Marketing Cloud helps you create customized customer journeys across multiple channels.

• Its advanced segmentation lets you target specific customer groups using various criteria.

• SF Marketing Cloud delivers personalized content based on customer behavior and preferences.

• It integrates seamlessly with Salesforce CRM, providing a comprehensive view of the customer.

• Real-time data synchronization ensures that your marketing efforts work hand in hand with sales and customer service.

• This marketing automation tool provides strong data analysis and visualization tools, helping you measure campaign performance and ROI. It also offers unified marketing intelligence for data-driven decision-making.

• You can use artificial intelligence for predictive analytics, next-best actions, and more personalized customer experiences.

• Marketing Cloud is ideal for large enterprises with complex marketing needs.

• It provides access to many third-party add-ons and integrations to enhance its functionality.

Cost:

• Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be costly, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Extra charges for add-ons and additional features can add up.

• Some users experience performance issues when handling large datasets or running complicated queries, but these problems can usually be managed.

• The platform has many features, which can make it hard for new users to learn.

• Setting up and configuring the system can be time-consuming and may require assistance from a professional. To utilize the platform effectively, businesses often require skilled staff with experience in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

• Regular maintenance and optimization are crucial to ensure the system operates efficiently.

• While the platform is flexible, customizing it for specific needs can be complicated and may require coding or extensive consultation.

• Connecting with other systems, especially those not developed by Salesforce, can be challenging and may require additional development work.

• Like any cloud service, Salesforce Marketing Cloud may experience downtime or performance issues, which can impact business operations.

How Codleo Can Help with Salesforce Email Marketing

Codleo Consulting is a certified Salesforce consulting partner with over 300 clients across various industries.

Want to improve your email marketing? We can help. We specialize in integrating Salesforce and Pardot, and we offer personalized consulting services. Our goal is to ensure your email marketing tools work for you.

Our experts deliver results that meet your goals.

Book a free consulting call with us to see how we can customize Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud to boost your email marketing efforts.