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The Big Email Marketing Updates of 2025 (So Far)

Another year (month, week, day), another email marketing update, right?

Well, 2025 hasn’t disappointed with its additions to the list of updates that every digital marketer, email marketer, and business leader should have on their radar. 

From new Gmail features to Microsoft catch-up, AI inboxes and bot clicks - here’s what’s changing in email marketing and what it means for your business.

1. Gmail’s new ‘manage subscriptions’ feature

The TL;DR: Gmail has started rolling out its one-stop dashboard, called Manage Subscriptions, which allows users to see every email list they’re on and unsubscribe from all mailing lists tied to a sender in one click.

Bye-bye, spammy mailing lists you just can’t seem to unsubscribe from (assuming you even subscribed to begin with!).

2. Microsoft’s new deliverability rules (May 5th, 2025)

Microsoft are launching their deliverability rules, hot on the heels of Google and Yahoo’s 2024 rules - what can you expect?

3. Google's upcoming 'shielded email' 

• Create temporary email aliases that forward to their main inbox
• Turn these aliases off at any time if spam or unwanted messages start coming in

4. Bot clicks and email security filters are inflating metrics

Tools like Mimecast, Barracuda, and Microsoft Defender are great from a security perspective, but when it comes to your metrics, they could be wreaking havoc after scanning and clicking every link before a human lands their eyes on your email.

Protecting users from malicious links is important, of course, but it’s important to understand the detrimental impact these tools can have on your metrics.

5. AI summaries, previews, and smart inbox categorisation

Ah, AI, AI… you can’t so much as breathe without seeing something about AI somewhere, can you? 

Well, it’s for good reason in this blog, as AI is starting to:

• Replace your preheader text with summaries of the email content
• Offer email summaries once opened
• Categorise inboxes using machine learning (e.g., primary, promotions, updates)

Apple Mail (iOS 18), Gmail (using Gemini AI), and Yahoo Mail are all using AI email inbox summaries and features.

Final thoughts

2025 is already a year of email evolution, from smarter inboxes to tighter rules and privacy-first tech.

If you’re not adapting your approach to email marketing now, you need to be if you want to thrive instead of barely survive.

It doesn’t matter if you’re sending B2C promos or B2B nurture flows, you need to:

• Tighten up your data (and don’t just take it at face value)
• Be obsessed with relevance
• Respect the inbox (and the user)
• Measure smarter, not just with opens and clicks

Want help navigating all of this change? Drop me a message or get in touch for an email audit or a strategy session so we can future-proof your marketing and give you some much-needed peace of mind.

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RE:markable is the weekly email about emails (coming soon). It will drop the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief.