How to improve email marketing ROI with Optimizely Campaign

Email campaigns still deliver incredible value if done right. But many marketers find themselves stuck with declining open rates, inconsistent performance, or wasted effort. The truth is, achieving a better ROI isn't just about writing better. It's about better execution.

That’s where Optimizely Campaign comes in. As a powerful email marketing platform, it helps businesses automate, personalize, and optimize their messaging without adding complexity.

Let’s explore how.

Why ROI still rules in email marketing

Email continues to prove its staying power as a key channel in modern marketing. According to Market Research Future, the global email marketing industry is projected to grow to $45 billion by 2035, up from $34.84 billion in 2023, with a steady 2.15% annual growth rate over the next decade.

Email market value in USD billion. Source: Market Research Future

This growth reflects more than just volume, it reflects performance. A statistic collection by Influencer Marketing Hub found that 73% of global marketers consider email marketing “excellent” for driving results, placing it ahead of SEO (72%) and paid search (67%).

Despite its potential, many teams continue to struggle to achieve meaningful returns. Saturated inboxes, untargeted campaigns, and lack of insight into what’s working can all weigh down performance. That’s why marketers today aren’t just looking to send more emails, they’re looking to send smarter emails that deliver measurable results.

This is exactly where Optimizely Campaign can change your game. By helping marketers automate, personalize, and optimize their messaging, it makes improving email marketing ROI not just possible but scalable.

Want to improve email marketing ROI with Optimizely? Get in touch to explore how we can support your strategy.

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How Optimizely Campaign supports better email marketing ROI

Marketing automation

Manually creating and managing email campaigns across multiple customer segments is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and inconsistency. As your subscriber list grows, delivering relevant content at scale becomes nearly impossible without automation. That's why marketing automation is crucial, it enables you to send the right message at the right time, boosting engagement while lowering operational costs.

Optimizely Campaign simplifies this process through its powerful Marketing Automation capabilities, designed to help teams streamline workflows and improve campaign effectiveness.

• Drag-and-drop automation builder: Easily map out complex user journeys with a visual interface. This allows marketers to design personalized flows quickly and clearly, saving hours of manual coordination.
• Smart Campaigns: Trigger emails based on specific behaviors or conditions, such as joining a list, abandoning a cart, or clicking a link. These automated reactions ensure you're always following up with intent-driven messaging that keeps leads warm.
• Multi-step workflows: Set up sequences with delays, conditional logic, and personalized content variations. This gives you the ability to guide subscribers down conversion paths without micromanaging each touchpoint.

An example marketing automation flow setup on Optimizely Campaign. Source: Optimizely

Send-time optimization

Even the most well-crafted email can be ignored if it lands in a user’s inbox at the wrong time. Sending too early might bury it under other messages, while sending too late risks missing the moment of intent. That’s why timing is critical. Optimizing send times can dramatically increase open and click rates, directly impacting email marketing ROI.

Optimizely Campaign addresses this challenge with its dedicated Send-Time Optimization feature, which uses machine learning to deliver emails when recipients are most likely to engage.

• Individual send-time prediction: The system learns from each contact’s historical behavior to determine the ideal delivery time no guesswork needed.
• Automated delivery adjustments: Once activated, emails are scheduled dynamically for every recipient, increasing the likelihood of higher engagement without additional manual setup.
• Continuous learning algorithm: The more data you collect, the more accurate the predictions become allowing performance to improve over time with no extra effort.

Behavior-based personalization

Customers expect more than generic newsletters. They respond to emails that reflect their interests, actions, and timing. When emails feel personal, engagement goes up and conversion rates. Personalizing content based on user behavior is one of the most effective ways to improve email marketing ROI.

Optimizely Campaign enables this through its Behavioral Triggers, which allow you to respond to user actions in real time.

• Trigger emails from website activity: Set up workflows that react to clicks, page views, form submissions, or product interest delivering timely and relevant content.
• Automated follow-up emails: For example, when someone abandons a cart or downloads a whitepaper, follow-up emails can be scheduled to continue the conversation or recover potential lost revenue.
• Dynamic content blocks: Insert product recommendations, user-specific content, or personalized offers within a single template based on behavioral data.

Audience segmentation

Segmentation is considered one of the most essential strategies for successful email marketing. Because, not all subscribers are the same. A first-time visitor won’t need the same content as a repeat customer. Treating your entire list as a single audience can lead to lower engagement and higher unsubscribe rates. Then, you definitely need to segment your audience in to groups, catered to different purpose of the campaign. This allows marketers to tailor messaging to smaller, more relevant groups - a proven way to increase the effectiveness of campaigns and drive ROI.

Optimizely Campaign makes this possible with its robust Audience Segmentation engine that supports real-time, rule-based targeting.

• Segment by behavior and demographics: Target users based on geography, past interactions, purchase history, and more, ensuring messages feel tailored and intentional.
• Build dynamic, auto-updating lists: Keep your segments current without manual work. As user behavior changes, they automatically move between audiences.
• Layer conditions for deeper targeting: Combine multiple filters (e.g., users who clicked a promo + visited product page + haven’t purchased) to create highly specific segments that match your campaign goals.

Source: Optimizely

A/B testing

Even small changes in subject lines or CTA buttons can have a measurable impact on results. But without testing, you're relying on guesswork. Split testing removes that uncertainty, allowing you to optimize campaigns based on actual user behavior and ultimately increase your email marketing ROI.

Optimizely Campaign includes built-in tools for A/B Testing (also known as split test emails) to help marketers refine every part of their email.

• Test subject lines, content blocks, and CTAs: Compare variations to find which combination leads to more opens, clicks, or conversions.
• Define success criteria up front: Choose your goal like open rate or click-through rate and Optimizely will determine the winning version based on performance.
• Auto-send winning variant: Once a test is complete, the platform automatically sends the highest-performing version to the rest of your audience for maximum impact.

Source: Optimizely

Optimizely also offers Experimentation as a cutting-edge solution. If you're focused on conversion rate optimization, explore how Optimizely's A/B testing can boost your marketing ROI.

Cross-channel orchestration

Email is powerful, but users interact with brands across more than one channel. To create a seamless experience and maximize impact, marketers need a unified strategy that spans multiple touchpoints. Coordinated messaging across email, SMS, and push notifications boosts brand recall and can lead to higher conversions.

Optimizely Campaign supports this through its Omnichannel Campaign Orchestration feature, which centralizes control over every message type.

• Manage multiple channels from one workflow: Plan and trigger campaigns across email, SMS, mobile push, and even print all in a single drag-and-drop interface.
• Create consistent customer journeys: Use the same user data to personalize messages across channels, improving continuity and engagement.
• Set fallback rules: If a customer doesn’t respond on one channel, automatically follow up on another, keeping the momentum going without duplicating messages.

Source: Optimizely

Analytics

Without tracking, you’re flying blind. Analytics isn’t just about counting clicks, it’s about identifying what’s driving results and what’s holding you back. Solid reporting helps you justify marketing spend, refine your approach, and continuously improve your email marketing ROI.

Optimizely Campaign delivers this with two key capabilities: Live Analytics and Deep Analytics.

• Live dashboards for real-time insight: Monitor opens, clicks, conversions, and unsubscribe rates as they happen and adapt fast when needed.
• Advanced campaign comparisons: See performance across different segments, channels, and time periods to identify winning strategies.
• Attribution tracking: Understand the full impact of email across the customer journey, helping you connect email outcomes with business goals.

Source: Optimizely

Practical tips to maximize ROI with Optimizely

Understanding how Optimizely Campaign works is one thing - putting it into action effectively is another. While the platform offers powerful tools, the real results come from how you use them. Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up, a few best practices can help you get the most out of your investment.

To help you begin, here are some actionable tips that apply to most teams and campaign types:

• Start with prebuilt campaign templates: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Optimizely offers customizable templates that align with common email goals like onboarding, re-engagement, and promotions, saving time while following tested structures.
• Enable your performance dashboards from day one: Set up your analytics early so you can start tracking results immediately. Knowing what works (and what doesn’t) lets you improve as you go, not after it’s too late.
• Begin small with automation: You don’t have to automate everything at once. Start with simple workflows like welcome emails or cart abandonment reminders. Once you’re confident, expand to more complex journeys.
• Test subject lines and CTAs regularly: Even small tweaks in tone, length, or formatting can impact open and click-through rates. Schedule regular A/B tests to find what truly resonates with your audience.
• Segment before you scale: Sending personalized content to well-defined segments consistently outperforms mass mailing. Create your core segments first then layer on behavioral or purchase-based logic for deeper personalization.
• Stay curious, stay iterative: The best results come from continual learning. Treat every campaign like a test case, and keep refining your approach based on performance data.

Conclusion: Leverage Optimizely Campaign with Niteco

Improving email marketing ROI isn’t about working harder, it’s about working smarter. With the right strategy and the right tools, you can deliver more personalized, better-timed, and higher-converting campaigns that move the needle.

That’s exactly where Optimizely email marketing stands out. We're confident that we can help you maximize the benefits of the platform.

At Niteco, we’ve spent over 15 years working with Optimizely to help businesses drive measurable results from their digital marketing. As the largest certified Optimizely partner globally, with 156 certified experts and 3 Platinum MVPs on board, we know how to turn advanced capabilities into performance, whether you’re scaling automation or fine-tuning personalization.

Want to improve your email marketing ROI with Optimizely? Get in touch and let our team support your strategy from day one.

Boost email marketing ROI with Niteco and Optimizely