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Beauty Brands Marketing Emails

QUARTERLY INDUSTRY BENCHMARK

Beauty & Cosmetics Email Marketing Report
Q1 2025 (Jan-March)

The Data-Backed Strategies Behind Top Brands

We analyzed 1,500+ emails from 30 popular Beauty & Cosmetics brands over 3 months. This playbook highlights key trends in send times, frequency, subject lines, and CTAs to help you optimize your email campaigns.

Disclaimer

This report is based on data collected from publicly available email campaigns sent by beauty and cosmetics brands between January and March 2025 to a random subscriber. While we strive for accuracy in our analysis, individual results may vary based on specific audience demographics, market conditions, and other factors. The strategies outlined in this report should be tested and adapted to your unique business needs. TargetBay is not affiliated with any of the brands mentioned in this report unless explicitly stated. All trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective owners.

The Brands We Analyzed

Our comprehensive analysis covers 30 leading brands in the Beauty & Cosmetics industry, ranging from luxury cosmetics to affordable skincare products. We’ve tracked their email marketing strategies to identify trends and best practices. Here are the brands we analyzed.

Bath & Body Works Logo
Clinique Logo
Colourpop Logo
Avon Logo
Estee Lauder Logo
Maybelline Logo
Ulta Beauty Logo
Glossier Logo
Morphe Logo
Dr Jart Logo
Tarte Logo
Burt's Bees Logo
Brand
Emails Sent
Emails in Inbox
Emails in SPAM
Anastasia Beverly Hills
28
28
-
Aveda
145
136
9
Avon
44
-
44
Bareminerals
97
97
-
Bath & Body Works
114
114
-
Bluemercury
48
48
-
Bobbiebrown.com
99
99
-
Burt's Bees
28
28
-
Charlotte Tilbury Beauty
79
79
-
Clinique
130
130
-
Colourpop
65
65
-
Cover Girl Cosmetics
5
5
-
Dr.Jart
67
67
-
E.L.F. Cosmetics
41
41
-
Estee Lauder
124
124
-
Glossier
53
53
-
Juvia
20
20
-
Kylie Cosmetics
30
4
26
Laura Mericer Cosmetics
67
67
-
Maybelline
14
14
-
Moroccanoil
61
61
-
Morphe
7
7
-
Oribe Hair Care
33
30
3
Ouai
33
33
-
Rarebeauty
23
23
-
Tarte
45
45
-
The Body Shop America
16
15
1
Too Faced Cosmetics
13
13
-
Ulta Beauty
13
13
-
WetNWild Beauty
8
5
3

Key Data Insights from Beauty & Cosmetics Email Campaigns

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1. Email Send Time & Days

A bar chart of popular email send times of beauty industry brands.

🔍 Strategies Behind Email Send Times

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2. Email Frequency & Cadence

Chart of average emails sent per week by beauty brands

Strategies Behind Email Frequencies

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3. Email Placement: Inbox vs. Spam

Brands like Bareminerals send emails frequently (19+/week) yet maintain 100% inbox rate.

Meanwhile, Avon has a moderate send volume but a 0% inbox rate.

✅ This suggests there is more to email deliverability than just email frequency.

Authentic Subject Lines + Previews: Personalization and relevance increase engagement, which boosts inbox placement.

List Hygiene: Remove inactive or bounced emails regularly to keep your sender score clean.

Inbox icon

94.44%

Average inbox rate

SPAM email icon

5.56%

Average Spam Rate

Total email icon

1,550

Total Emails Analyzed

Most common Words used in email subject lines-Beauty industry

What Makes People Click and Open Your Email?

Email Subject Lines That Stood Out

Get Inspired

Download Subject Line Inspirations from All Brands

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5. Preview Text: The Secret Ingredient

The top words used in email preview texts reveal a clear strategy across brands:

🛍️ “free,” “shop,” “now” → reinforce urgency and purchase intent

✨ “your” → continues the personalization tactic from subject lines

💡 These words work to complement subject lines and entice opens by adding context, urgency, or value

Email Preview Text Inspirations

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6. Email Types: What Works Best?

Beauty brands overwhelmingly focus on Promotional emails—over 60% of all sends—using discounts and offers to drive sales. Educational content (e.g., skincare tips, routines) is used sparingly to build trust and showcase product expertise.

Relationship-building and transactional emails make up a very small portion, showing that most brands prioritize direct conversions over lifecycle nurturing.

Note: Other email types include product launches, Holiday and seasonal emails, and thematic email types. 

Promotions icon

62.06%

Promotional

Relationship building icon

1.1%

Relationship Building

Educational icon

4.46%

Educational

Seasonal icon

32.39%

Other

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7. CTA Strategies: What Drives Conversions?

Most CTAs are clear, concise, and urgency-oriented, signaling a heavy tilt toward transactional and promotional campaigns. There’s little experimentation with content-focused or relationship-building CTAs, showing that clicks are prioritized over storytelling.

💥 “Shop Now” dominates: used in over 64% of emails, proving that brands are highly conversion-focused.

Most Used CTAs by Each Brand

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After analyzing 1500 emails from 30 top brands from the Beauty and Cosmetics Industry, here are the common patterns we found.

Lessons from the Best: Key Takeaways for Email Marketers

Based on our analysis of the beauty industry’s email marketing, we’ve identified several key strategies aimed at results across brands of all sizes.

1. Promotional emails still dominate

Beauty brands go hard on offers—60%+ of emails are sales-driven. If you're not promoting consistently, you’re leaving revenue on the table.

2. Timing matters more than you think

Most emails land midweek, especially on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. These are your windows to catch active shoppers.

3. Keep your CTAs simple and clear

“Shop Now” wins for a reason—it’s direct. Don’t confuse your audience with clever phrasing when clarity converts better.

4. Emojis aren’t optional anymore

Almost 90% of emails use emojis to boost visibility and emotion. They’re scroll-stoppers—use them wisely.

5. Preview text pulls more weight than you think

Half of the brands use preview text to stack urgency, tease offers, or reinforce the subject line. Don’t leave it blank.

Implementing These Insights in Your Email Strategy

Turning these insights into actionable strategies requires a systematic approach. Here’s how to implement these findings in your beauty brand’s email marketing program:

Recommended Strategies

1. Audit Your Current Performance

Begin by analyzing your current email metrics against the benchmarks in this report. Identify gaps in your strategy and prioritize areas for improvement based on potential impact.

2. Develop a Testing Calendar

Create a structured testing plan to experiment with different send times, subject line formulas, and CTA strategies. Document results and iterate based on performance data.

3. Refine Your Segmentation

Implement more granular audience segmentation based on purchase behavior, engagement level, and product preferences to deliver more relevant content to each subscriber.

4. Optimize for Mobile

With over 60% of beauty emails opened on mobile devices, ensure your templates are fully responsive and CTAs are easily tappable on smaller screens.

Ready to implement these strategies in real time?

Beauty & Cosmetics Email Templates That Stood Out

Q1: Email Template Snapshots

Check Out More Email Templates from the Beauty & Cosmetics Industry!

Complete repository of email templates.

Final Thoughts

The beauty and cosmetics industry continues to lead innovation in email marketing, with brands constantly refining their strategies to stand out in crowded inboxes. Our analysis reveals that success comes not from following a single formula, but from thoughtfully combining best practices with your unique brand voice and customer needs.

As we look ahead to future quarters, we anticipate continued growth in personalization, interactive email elements, and AI-driven content optimization. Brands that can balance promotional messaging with authentic relationship building will continue to see the strongest results from their email marketing efforts.

We hope this report provides valuable insights to enhance your beauty brand’s email marketing strategy. For more detailed analysis or personalized recommendations, our team at TargetBay is ready to help you implement these findings and achieve your marketing goals.