Email marketing is targeted email communication with customers to drive business goals (sales, retention, brand). Per Litmus and DMA studies, as of 2026 email remains the highest-ROI digital marketing channel β $36 per $1 spent, far above Google Ads (1:5) or Facebook Ads (1:4).
Email marketing vs spam
The key difference is permission. Spam β ads sent without consent to bought or scraped lists. Email marketing β every subscriber opted in (double opt-in), can unsubscribe anytime, and the content matches their topic. Uzbekistan's spam laws are still weak, but international services (Mailchimp, SendGrid) check list quality and block suspicious ones.
Most effective email types
Welcome email β automatic after signup. Open rate 50-80%, the highest metric. Newsletter β weekly or monthly, for brand and engagement. 15-25% open. Promotional β discounts, new products, seasonal campaigns. 10-20% open but most directly drives sales.
Drip campaign β a sequence: day 1 welcome, day 3 deeper value, day 7 social proof, day 14 discount. Transactional β order confirmation, delivery tracking, invoices. Re-engagement β "We miss you" for inactive subscribers.
Email marketing services
Mailchimp β the most popular, free 500 subscribers and 1000 emails/month, Standard $20-300/mo. Clean UI. SendGrid (Twilio) β for high volume and developers, $20-200/mo. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) β cheap and simple, $25-65/mo, also good for transactional. ConvertKit β for bloggers and creators, strong automation, $9-79/mo. MailerLite β simple and cheap, $9-30/mo.
Key metrics
Open rate β percent who opened the email. Industry avg 21%, good 25-35%. Click rate β percent who clicked. Industry avg 2.6%, great 5-10%. Conversion rate β percent who bought after clicking. Unsubscribe rate β under 0.5% is fine, 1%+ signals a problem.
Sayt.uz practice
Sayt.uz uses Brevo β cheap, also good for transactional. As of January 2026: 14,200 subscribers (4 languages as separate segments), 6 emails per month (2 newsletters, 1 drip, 2 promotional, 1 re-engagement). Metrics: average open rate 32% (above industry), click rate 7.4%, unsubscribe 0.3%. Sales: 4-7M sum/month from email-sourced clients. Tip: DO NOT buy lists β Mailchimp/Brevo will ban your account; grow organically.