(And the Different Types of Email Content That Actually Work)

One of the most common questions I hear from marketers is surprisingly simple:

“What emails should we actually send?”

It sounds like a straightforward question, but it usually appears after something has already gone wrong. The team has built their welcome flow. The basic automations exist. The content calendar is sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere. And then someone asks:

“What should we send this week?”

This is where many email programmes quietly start drifting. The conversation becomes about filling space in the calendar rather than solving a problem for the audience.

A campaign gets planned. A promotion gets scheduled. Someone writes an email because “we need to send something.”

But good email marketing doesn’t start with the campaign.

It starts with the audience and the outcome you are trying to create.

You could technically send an email every day. Many businesses do. But frequency alone is not a strategy. Sending more emails does not automatically create more impact.

For example, in my own business I could easily send a daily email. I have enough ideas, insights, and experiences to fill that space. But I deliberately choose not to, because it doesn’t align with what I’m trying to achieve for my audience or for the business.

The question therefore, isn’t:

“What email should we send this week?”

The real question is:

“Which audience group should we be speaking to, and what do they actually need to hear right now?”

Once you shift the starting point from campaigns to audience, deciding what emails to send becomes much clearer.

Start With Your Audience Groups, Not Your Campaign Calendar

Before you even begin thinking about email content, you need to understand who exists inside your database.

Most businesses already have multiple audience groups sitting within their email lists, even if they haven’t formally mapped them.

These groups might include:

• New subscribers

• Prospects exploring your product

• Highly engaged readers

• Customers who recently purchased

• Repeat customers

• Customers who haven’t purchased in a while

• Leads who showed interest but haven’t committed

Each of these groups sits at a different stage of their relationship with your business. And that stage should determine the type of email they receive. Instead of asking: “What campaign should we send?”

You should be asking questions such as:

• Which audience group has the strongest signals right now?

• Which group is closest to taking an action?

• Which group could we activate with the right message?

• Which group needs education before they can move forward?

This is why intent-based emails almost always outperform generic campaigns.

When someone has taken an action that signals interest, curiosity, or hesitation, the message you send can be much more relevant. And relevance is the single biggest driver of engagement in email.

1. Intent-driven email content

Intent-driven emails are triggered by behaviour. Someone has taken an action that signals interest or readiness, and the email responds directly to that moment.

Examples of intent signals might include:

• abandoning a basket

• visiting a pricing page

• downloading a guide or whitepaper 

• attending a webinar

• starting a product trial

• browsing a product repeatedly

• becoming inactive after onboarding

These emails are powerful because they respond to a moment that already exists. You are not interrupting the reader with a random message. You are continuing a conversation that has already started. But the content inside these emails often misses the mark because marketers assume intent always means “ready to buy.”

In reality, intent often means someone is thinking through objections. This is where frameworks like TFDS (Think, Feel, Do, Say) become extremely valuable.

Instead of asking: “What should this email say?”

You ask:

• What might this person be thinking right now?

• What might they be worried about?

• What might stop them moving forward?

• What questions might they be asking internally?

The answers to those questions are your content ideas.

2. Awareness email content

Not every email should try to drive an immediate action. Email is also incredibly powerful as an awareness channel.

Awareness emails help your audience:

• understand a problem they didn’t recognise before

• learn something useful

• see a new perspective

• gain confidence in a topic

• explore ideas that might help them later

These emails often look more educational.

Examples might include:

• explaining industry trends

• sharing practical advice

• discussing common mistakes

• introducing useful frameworks

• highlighting overlooked opportunities

In B2B environments, this type of content builds trust over time because buying decisions rarely happen instantly.

In B2C environments, awareness content often strengthens the brand relationship and helps customers understand the value behind a product.

The goal of awareness emails is not necessarily conversion.

The goal is recognition.

When the audience eventually needs what you offer, your brand is already familiar.

3. Specific campaign content

The third type of email content relates to specific moments in the business. These are the emails that often appear on content calendars first.

Examples include:

• product launches

• upcoming events

• webinars

• seasonal campaigns

• promotions or sales

• company announcements

These emails exist because something is happening. But even with these messages, you should still ask yourself:

• Who actually needs to see this?

• Why does it matter to them?

• What problem does this solve?

Simply having something to promote does not mean every subscriber needs to receive it.

Relevance still matters! 

Why you struggle to come up with email content

When marketers say they have run out of email ideas, the problem usually isn’t creativity. The real problem is perspective and most marketers naturally write from the viewpoint without even realising! 

They focus on things like (or are forced to talk about): 

• product features

• announcements

• company updates

• campaigns they want to run

But the audience isn’t thinking about the business. They are thinking about themselves - we all do. 

• Their own problems

• Their  own uncertainties
  

• Their goals and what they want to achieve

Humans are self-absorbed by nature. The more you understand that internal experience, the easier it becomes to generate useful email content.

The easiest place to find email content ideas

If you ever feel stuck for ideas, the simplest place to look is where your audience already talks.

Your best email topics are hiding in places such as:

• customer support conversations

• sales calls

• product reviews

• Reddit discussions

• TikTok comments

• YouTube reviews

• online communities

• industry forums

Every question, complaint, or hesitation represents a potential email topic. For example, if customers constantly ask a support question, that question should probably become an email. Because if one person asked it, many others are likely thinking the same thing! 

How to turn objections into email content

One of the most practical exercises you can use is mapping objections. Take a product or service and ask:

“Why might someone hesitate to buy this?”

Write down every possible answer.

These answers often fall into categories such as:

• price concerns

• trust concerns

• performance doubts

• comparison with competitors

• uncertainty about results

• value exchange unclear 

Each objection becomes a content opportunity. Instead of avoiding the concerns, the email addresses them directly.

This approach builds far more trust than simply repeating promotional messages.

Creating a messaging framework for your emails

Once you have identified the content topics, the next step is structuring the message. One of the simplest principles I encourage teams to follow is:

One email = one goal, one message.

Trying to say five things in one email usually means the reader remembers none of them.

Before writing an email, ask yourself:

• What is the single point of this message?

• What should the reader understand or feel after reading it?

• What action, if any, should they take?

This clarity dramatically improves the effectiveness of the email.

A useful structure might look like this:

1. Identify the core idea or problem

2. Explain why it matters to the reader

3. Provide insight, guidance, or reassurance

4. Offer a clear next step

Simple messaging frameworks like this make email easier to write and easier to read.

A practical exercise for planning email content

If you want a simple way to organise your email content strategy, try this exercise. It works whether you’re a B2B business, a B2C brand, or somewhere in between, and it forces you to move away from the idea of simply “sending something this week”.

Instead, it helps you identify who you should be speaking to, why they matter, and what type of content will actually move them forward.

This exercise works best if you do it with a spreadsheet, a whiteboard, or even sticky notes. The important thing is that you visually map your audience and the signals they’re giving you.

What you’ll notice after doing this exercise

Once you map your audience groups, signals, and questions, something interesting usually happens.

You realise that you were never short of content ideas in the first place.

The ideas were already there.

They were just hidden inside:

• audience behaviour

• customer questions

• decision friction

• moments of uncertainty

Good email content doesn’t come from inventing topics.

It comes from understanding what your audience is already trying to figure out.

Let’s round it up…

Email content should not feel like a weekly creative struggle.

If you constantly find yourself asking: “What should we send this week?”

It’s usually a sign that the strategy is starting in the wrong place. Start with the audience, look at the signals they are giving you and understand their questions and objections.

When you do that, the content becomes much easier to find.

Because you’re no longer inventing emails. You’re simply continuing the conversation your audience is already having.