Email Marketing in Latin America Based on Brazil

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Vamos para a América Latina! A region so near to the US yet oftentimes underexplored or misunderstood, LATAM is comprised of one of the biggest countries in the world, both in territory and population.

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to email marketing in the region based on the country we at Selzy know best — Brazil. Read the article to learn helpful data and insightful opinions from email marketing experts working in LATAM.

To make this guide as comprehensive and helpful as possible, we contacted several email marketing experts working in LATAM. We wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this article:

Aristóteles de Oliveira Marques — Partnership Manager at Selzy.
Giovana Bomentre — Editor-in-Chief of the Selzy Brazil blog.
Agata Sousa — Editor at the Selzy Brazil blog.
Matt Alonso — Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email.
Ronaldo Dias — Deliverability Coordinator at Pmweb.
Daiana Ferreira — Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers.
Juliana Padron — HTML Specialist at Revenue Pulse (RP) and Email designer & developer at Templateria.

What is LATAM?

LATAM or Latin America is a term that generally refers to Mexico and Romance-languages-speaking countries in Central and South America and islands in the Caribbean. Most of these countries share a common history of colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese from the 15th to 18th century and have similar trends in development starting from their independence to this day. Reflecting that and the fact that French influence on Latin America is significantly smaller, LATAM is sometimes used to describe only Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, as suggested by our colleague from Selzy Brazil.

Giovana Bomentre

Editor-in-Chief of the Selzy Brazil blog

You can use Latin America to refer to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of Central and South America.

There is, however, a dedicated term to only mean the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in LATAM — Ibero-America. It is significantly less popular and is mostly used in official contexts (and sometimes even includes Spain and Portugal!).

Considering the popularity of the term and the dominant history and economies of the region, in this article LATAM will be used to chiefly mean the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries:

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Puerto Rico (U.S. Commonwealth)
Uruguay
Venezuela

An image of a globe showing the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of the Americas and the Caribbean in yellow and green

Source: Wikipedia

Get to know LATAM: General statistics

Let’s take a look at the region as a whole and briefly explore some of the key data you might want to know before making a LATAM-centric email marketing strategy.

Demographics

In 2023, the total population of Latin America was a little over 664 million. This number reflects how many people really reside in the region, no matter their legal status or citizenship. However, the population isn’t spread out evenly. Close to a third (215 million) of it lives in Brazil, 128 million people live in Mexico, 52 million — in Colombia, and 46 million — in Argentina.

A bar chart showing some of the most populated countries in Latin America in a descending order starting with Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela and ending with Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica

Source: Statista

Unsurprisingly, the most populated metropolitan areas in the region include São Paulo (Brazil), Mexico City (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Cities and urban areas make up the bulk of people living in LATAM — according to recent data, 81.87% of the total population lives there.

Economics

Countries in LATAM with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) follow almost the same order as the population one, with a notable exception. The first one is Brazil followed by Mexico. Argentina and Colombia have exchanged places, so the latter is fourth by GDP while being the third by population. Economic sectors that comprise GDP in LATAM countries had consistent shares across 10 years. In 2023, services took up 65%, industry — 31%, and agriculture — almost 7%.

The GDP of the region is projected to rise. However, the inflation in the region has also been climbing up and is projected to amount to 16.72% in 2024. Despite that, experts suggest that the rate will gradually drop beginning this year and will reach 3.61% by 2029.

A bar chart showing the registered and projected inflation in LATAM countries from 2019 to 2029. Since 2019, inflation has been rising except in 2020. However, after 2024 which has the highest projected inflation, this rate is projected to decline.

Source: Statista

It’s also worth noting how drastically different inflation is in the major economics of the region. Last year, in Brazil it had only been around 5%, and 5.53% in Mexico. At the same time, in Argentina, inflation was estimated at 133.5% — the second biggest in LATAM, after Venezuela.

Now, let’s take a closer look at people and their personal finances. In 2022, a third of the LATAM population were non-poor with low incomes. The second biggest share was people with lower-middle income, closely followed by the poor. If you want to put these percentages into perspective, that same year, 201 million people were living in poverty, and 82 million — in extreme poverty.

Digitalization

In Brazil, there are almost 188 million internet users. In Mexico, this number was 107 million, and 41 million in Argentina. Most of the internet users in LATAM use mobile devices to access the internet with sometimes significant differences between the countries.

In Brazil, 98% of internet users also use social media. In Mexico and Argentina, this number was 92% and 91% respectively. According to research, the most popular social media in the region was Facebook followed by Instagram and TikTok.

As for e-commerce, we believe one of the most valuable data you should know is the low share of it in the total retail of the LATAM countries. In 2022, it only accounted for 13% in Mexico, 11% in Brazil, and 6% in Argentina.

With the high number of internet and social media users, LATAM is full of potential for digital marketing and e-commerce business development.

Email marketing in LATAM countries: Key insights

Let’s now focus on our main topic — email marketing in Latin America. Here, we’ll discuss the differences between this industry in the US and Canada and the LATAM countries and then take a look at what email marketing looks like in Brazil and Mexico — the region’s most prominent economies.

In general, LATAM countries have the highest open rate of 23.61% and relatively high click-through rates averaging 3.29%. One could think that these numbers come with a cost, but the unsubscribe rate in the region is the lowest out of all the researched — only 0.06%. This makes Latin America a region with great potential and high success rates for email marketing.

However, there is a deliverability drop in the region. Although this percentage has been rising, still only 87.4% of all emails reach the inbox. Spam and missing emails percentages are almost equal. At the same time, if you plan to reach people who use locally popular providers (BOL, Terra, and UOL), the share of missing emails increases more than twice to 15.1%. In 2019, the most popular email clients in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile were Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo taking up more than 70% of email clients share in these countries.

With the basics out of the way, we asked LATAM email marketing experts to share their insights about email marketing and summarize them below.

The industry hasn’t yet matured

Generally, the email marketing industry in LATAM is still developing. That is in contrast to more mature, established markets of the US and Canada. This also relates to people’s understanding of the strategies and results associated with email marketing.

Matt Alonso

Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email

I believe the biggest difference is that our market is still immature. Companies seek quick gains, and email marketing requires long-term strategies.

Just like email marketing in LATAM is still developing, the economies of the region are as well. This process affects the consumers’ purchasing power, the marketability of certain products, and the expected demand for them. The local market state also dictates what tools are popular and available and how you can use them to your advantage. All of these factors are important to consider when you’re crafting an email marketing strategy aimed at LATAM countries.

Ronaldo Dias

Deliverability Coordinator at Pmweb

The purchasing power of countries like the USA and Canada, as well as other more developed countries, influences two main points: the users’ ability to purchase the products and services offered in the emails, even with a high average ticket; and also the access that ESPs and companies have to technologies that improve user experience, such as AI, geolocation, personalization, and integrations, enhancing audience segmentation.

As the email marketing industry is only being established, many people are incorrectly underestimating the value of the channel and don’t put much care into its strategy.

Matt Alonso

Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email

Many managers are still unaware of how much revenue can be generated through email. Most marketing teams understand this, but it is common for them not to be the final decision-makers on how much will be invested in this area. Because of this, it is also common for email marketing to be just one of the marketing team’s responsibilities.

Email marketing is seen as part of a wider scope of work

As we mentioned, email marketing is often undervalued, and there may not be a dedicated person to oversee the channel. Instead, this may be just one of the tasks of a marketer-generalist, so there is a lesser focus on analytics or deliverability.

Ronaldo Dias

Deliverability Coordinator at Pmweb

I see that in Brazil and Latin American countries in general, professionals working with email are not yet specialists in this discipline. Email analyses are still distributed among those who perform the sends, without separating functions, and with a shallow analytical layer. Those who work with email marketing need to specialize in deliverability, improving in three pillars: strategic, analytical, and technical. I understand there is demand in the Brazilian and Latin American markets, but there is still a lack of professionals to cover this space.

However, professionals who can successfully prepare, send, and measure the campaigns’ results are in demand, and with the growth of LATAM’s IT sector, this demand will only increase. As the market matures, email marketers will become more specialized. If you plan to enter the LATAM email marketing market, you should know that finding niche specialists might be challenging.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

From my perspective, email marketing professionals are in high demand in both the Latin American and Brazilian job markets. With the growth of e-commerce and the digitalization of companies, the need for effective email marketing strategies has increased significantly. Companies of all sizes are looking for specialists capable of creating segmented, personalized campaigns that generate measurable results.

Economic crises affect email marketing just as much as other channels

In the face of crises or uncertainty, email suffers the same as the rest of the channels. However, experts note that the nature of email marketing makes it one of the most stable and reliable tools in that situation. Not only is it cost-effective, but it also has many flexible strategies and offers direct access to your audience.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

I believe this is an ecosystemic niche issue. If a specific niche is affected by economic or political changes, emails targeting that audience will also be impacted. The economic situation can influence consumer behavior and, consequently, the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns. However, the adaptability of email marketing strategies can mitigate these effects by adjusting the content and approach as needed.

Aristóteles de Oliveira Marques

Partnership Manager at Selzy

I believe that email marketing is affected similarly to other marketing channels. With economic instability, consumer potential decreases, affecting not just email. However, this can also be positive for email companies because, with reduced marketing budgets, email can remain active as it is one of the channels with the best cost/benefit ratio.

Emphasis on personalization and storytelling

In LATAM, email is seen as even more of a personal channel than it is in the US or Canada. The communication from brands may even be informal, focused on creating a connection and resonating with each individual customer.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

In the USA and Canada, email marketing tends to be more direct and objective, focusing on offers and promotions. The approach is more transactional. In contrast, in Latin America, there is a greater emphasis on building relationships through engaging content and storytelling. Communication is more emotional and personalized, reflecting cultural differences and the importance of creating a personal connection with the audience.

In the email below, skin-care brand Simple Organic ties product recommendations with a horoscope emphasizing customers’ personal traits and establishing a closer, more emotionally charged connection.

An email recommending 3 products for Leos with links to other Zodiac signs at the bottom

Source: Email Nest

As for personalization, Aeroméxico, a Mexican airline, nails it down with a personalized header with the recipient’s name and loyalty program information.

Source: MailCharts

Companies are sending emails often

Another major characteristic of email marketing in LATAM countries is sending cadence. Notably, many companies in the region are very active senders which may be linked to underused segmentation.

As for consumer preference, 38% of Brazilians were open to receiving emails from brands daily and 33% wanted one message per week.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

In my experience, some of the main characteristics of email marketing in the Latin American market include the recurrence of emails, usually with a well-defined periodicity.

Communication is often lively and seeks to create a closer and more personal connection with the audience. Emails tend to have a more friendly and engaging tone, aiming to build a continuous relationship with consumers.

Ronaldo Dias

Deliverability Coordinator at Pmweb

I notice that in Latin America, the behavior with email across countries is similar. Many Brazilian brands, for example, also operate in Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, etc. This makes interests similar regardless of location, as it is dictated by the brand.

However, some differences can be noticed in the day-to-day email sends and transactions compared to Europe. For example, Brazil and Mexico are the Latin American countries with the highest GDP and largest population, with open rates between 18% and 23%. The volume of sends is higher. While European countries like Germany and France, which are among the richest countries on that continent, have average open rates between 34% and 40% in emails. The volume of sends is lower, ensuring better audience segmentation.

Whose example to follow?

Just as in other spheres, market research can reveal how your strategy fairs out against the others and what you can do to be more successful. Here are some companies you may want to watch in the LATAM region.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

Some of the companies that stand out in terms of email marketing in Latin America include Resultados Digitais, Locaweb, eMailBrain, and Brevo (formerly SendinBlue). These companies are recognized for their effective strategies, relevant content, and audience segmentation capabilities. I also really like the beauty emails from companies like Beauty Fair, Época, and Salon Line… They are always lively and have exciting communication.

In the broader Latin American context, companies like Mercado Libre and Falabella also stand out for their innovative and successful email marketing campaigns.

Email marketing in Brazil

Brazil is the largest economy in LATAM and one that has a lot of potential for email marketing. In 2023, 60% of internet users in the country had sent and received emails, so your audience will include more than half of Brazil’s population!

Having its own major differences from the rest of the LATAM countries, for example, the Portuguese language, Brazil still experiences a lot of similar trends. Let’s explore these similarities and differences more.

Email marketing is undervalued

Just as in the rest of the region’s countries, email marketing is underappreciated in Brazil. This relates not only to the lack of dedicated teams but also to methods of work. Many marketers, in our experts’ opinions, still rely on old-school techniques. That is why thorough work and analysis of your email base can give you a competitive advantage.

Aristóteles de Oliveira Marques

Partnership Manager at Selzy

I can speak more accurately about the Brazilian market in particular. What I notice is that email marketing is an underrated channel by many marketing professionals and loved by “scam professionals.” Unfortunately, conversations about new strategies and optimizations are far from the daily routine of marketing professionals, who continue to look for templates and ready-made formulas instead of understanding their audience.

Plus, being viewed as a non-essential channel, email marketing can be the first on the chopping block when there are financial difficulties.

Matt Alonso

Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email

In times of economic turmoil, companies seek to cut costs. As I have mentioned, there is an immaturity on the part of managers regarding the effectiveness of email, which makes it top of the list of investments to be cut. In my opinion, it should be the opposite: since it has the highest ROI, other marketing channels should be cut before email.

Job market isn’t mature

As email marketing isn’t seen as an independent channel worthy of investing in separately, the job market in Brazil favors generalists who will not focus only on email.

Aristóteles de Oliveira Marques

Partnership Manager at Selzy

Highly specialized email marketing professionals are not in high demand. Today, there is a misunderstanding of email marketing as a channel that any marketing professional can manage. So, we see professionals in CRM, Growth, or Digital Marketing being asked to manage this channel. While yes, all these professionals have a connection with the email channel, a specialized professional would deliver better results for the company by making better configurations of the technical aspects of email marketing (authentication, reputation, postmasters, etc.).

Matt Alonso

Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email

I would say that jobs specifically for email marketing are a bit harder to find. However, CRM positions — which usually require advanced knowledge of email marketing — always appear. Therefore, for those who want to specialize in email, the market has been very hot for many years.

Juliana Padron

HTML Specialist at Revenue Pulse (RP) and Email designer & developer at Templateria

There are job openings for different profiles of professionals typically needed to work with email marketing, such as CRM analysts, designers, developers, content writers, and strategists. With the variety of sending platforms available in the market, companies seek professionals who already have knowledge — and even certifications — in these systems to ensure they are truly specialists in their field.

Email marketers are still adapting to changes

Worldwide changes like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection burden email marketers in Brazil just like everywhere else. However, as the industry is less developed, there might still be lingering effects from changes introduced years ago.

Ronaldo Dias

Deliverability Coordinator at Pmweb

I see that Brazil is going through a series of changes regarding the measurement of results. Major Brazilian brands are gaining access to email marketing and CRM technologies, and are already able to adopt more precise segmentations, improving strategy journeys. The open rate is still an important KPI, but I view it with caution.

When Apple announced in 2021 the change in its privacy policy (AMPP), where email opens are automatic and anonymized, it was not clear how this would affect customers in Brazil. Over time, we see email platforms today informing in reports what are auto-opens and real opens. However, analysts are still struggling to gain insights from this, as the use of iOS 15, where this policy started, is still limited in Brazil. In my numbers, in 2021 the share of sends to iOS was 7% of the total base. Today, it is 12% and tends to grow. To adapt to this, I understand that the weight of clicks should be greater than opens in email analyses.

Apart from clicks-focused analytics, email marketers may not have adopted all other best practices like accessibility.

Juliana Padron

HTML Specialist at Revenue Pulse (RP) and Email designer & developer at Templateria

When I compare email marketing practiced by major Brazilian brands with the email marketing of companies from other countries, I see that we still have most emails composed solely of images, which can be somewhat detrimental to user experience, especially considering mobile access. There is still no central concern with usability and user experience in the email environment, offering buttons and links that are easy to identify and click, lightweight images with readable text. I believe there is still a long way to go for brands to implement user-centered design strategies in their emails.

Data protection is only being established

To successfully operate in an international market (well, any market, really), you need to follow the compliance rules. Europe has GDPR regulations while the US introduced its CAN-SPAM Act, and Brazil has its own regulations as well.

We asked email marketing experts familiar with local rules to explain what they are, what challenges they bring, and whether or not companies follow them.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

In Brazil, email compliance rules are primarily governed by the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), which resembles the GDPR in Europe. Companies need to obtain explicit user consent to send marketing emails and must allow recipients to easily opt out of distribution lists. In comparison, regulations in the USA, such as the CAN-SPAM Act, are less strict, focusing more on transparency and the ability to opt out. While many companies comply with these regulations, there are still cases of non-compliance, especially among smaller or less established companies.

Juliana Padron

HTML Specialist at Revenue Pulse (RP) and Email designer & developer at Templateria

The Brazilian LGPD is largely based on the EU’s GDPR, so they have some points in common, especially regarding unsubscribing and data transparency. However, the LGPD does not have specific guidelines on sending marketing emails, which means that some companies still abuse sending emails to their contacts, prioritizing quantity over quality. For example, the LGPD recommends that companies establish a period for using customers’ and prospects’ personal data, even for advertising purposes. However, since it is just a recommendation, many companies do not adopt this practice rigorously because there is no defined penalty for not doing so.

The USA and Canada have had their data privacy laws established for many years, and therefore the importance of following their guidelines is a general consensus. The Brazilian LGPD, on the other hand, has been in effect only since 2018, and not all companies have adjusted their data collection processes to the law’s recommendations. This results in senders practicing excessive sending and not giving due attention to discarding data after a certain period of contact inactivity.

But even if not all players abide by the rules, regulations can still have a lingering effect on the industry as a whole and establish pathways to move forward.

Matt Alonso

Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email

The LGPD — General Data Protection Law — has strict rules regarding the sharing and collection of sensitive data without authorization. Although the regulatory agency is just beginning its work, I feel that the law itself has already deterred many spammers from continuing their bad practices. This was mainly because email-sending tools have become much stricter regarding sending practices, making the work of these spammers much more difficult.

Email marketing is guided by personality and storytelling

The same general approachability and focus on personal communication and engaging storytelling that is seen in LATAM is very present in Brazil as well. Personalization is also a big tendency in the country.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

In Brazil, email marketing is strongly influenced by storytelling. Campaigns usually captivate the audience, creating anticipation for the next email. This approach generates higher engagement as readers feel part of an ongoing narrative. Compared to other Latin American countries, this emphasis on storytelling is particularly notable in Brazil.

Giovana Bomentre

Editor-in-Chief of the Selzy Brazil blog

I would say that in Latin America people are more comfortable with things getting more personal, even in corporate communication. So we have some successful cases of cool brands using very informal language and making more jokes, such as the digital bank Nubank.

In the email below, Nubank directly addresses its clients and explores different pain points regular people have. There are recommendations for participating in a governmental program, advice for dealing with work stress, and tips on how to avoid fake deals on Black Friday. Together with a friendly tone, this newsletter aims to form a close bond with subscribers.

An email with several reasons to participate in a governmental support program and advice with links to corresponding videos or blog posts on running, avoiding burnout, etc.

Source: MailCharts

Agata

Editor at the Selzy Brazil blog

Even in cases of companies that are by nature “more serious”, the successful content is really personalized. There is also a lot of space for humor, but that will depend mostly on the brand.

Here is a recent inspiring email marketing example from Chico Rei. To entice a customer to return back to their abandoned cart, the brand made a whole three-panel comic with fun illustrations and a 20% off deal to return the “friendship” with the subscriber.

An email with a three-panel comic showing a sad shopping cart that finally finds a solution how to return the customer’s friendship and ends up offering a limited 20% off deal

Source: Selzy Brazil

Email marketing offers a trusted channel

Just like the rest of the countries in the region, Brazil is affected by economic and political changes. Experts we contacted believe email is more reliable in these scenarios than social media.

Juliana Padron

HTML Specialist at Revenue Pulse (RP) and Email designer & developer at Templateria

I have always considered email marketing a very important ally, especially for SMEs (small and midsize enterprises), in times of crisis and economic instability. Those who have a mailing list hold greater power over communication with these people, unlike channels like social media, which distribute very little content organically to the audience a profile already has. This means that the number of followers is not synonymous with content visibility in the same proportion. Email marketing is a low-cost communication channel that brings very effective results, as it actually delivers its message to all the people it was addressed to.

Plus, people in Brazil are now moving away from social media which can often produce and propagate fake news in an instant.

Giovana Bomentre

Editor-in-Chief of the Selzy Brazil blog

I feel like the political polarization affected the trust Brazilian people have in social media (especially Facebook), so I would say it made email marketing more reliable.

Agata Sousa

Editor at the Selzy Brazil blog

I also feel that there is a trend to move away from social media and in the direction of email, both for marketing and for content in general, as a way to experience more curated content that does not rely on algorithms. The political chaos and polarization happened using fake news as a cornerstone, so knowing the source of your information became even more important, which favors email marketing.

Whose example to follow?

Apart from emails we’ve already shared, here are some other recommendations for Brazilian brands you can follow that excel in email marketing.

Giovana Bomentre

Editor-in-Chief of the Selzy Brazil blog

In terms of big brands, I would say that Nubank is a good example. In small brands, I really like Chico Rei’s (an apparel brand) communication and I used to love Meg & Meg’s (a cozy stationery brand) newsletter.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

In Brazil, brands like Magazine Luiza, Nubank, and Netshoes are known for their effective email marketing strategies. They use a combination of personalization, audience segmentation, and relevant content to engage their customers. In the broader Latin American context, companies like Mercado Libre and Falabella also stand out for their innovative and successful email marketing campaigns.

Netshoes uses a combination of purple and neon green to create an eye-catching design and draw subscribers’ attention to the CTAs.

An email with a 70% off deal and several other promotions on shoes, clothes, and accessories

Source: MailCharts

Email marketing in Mexico and Argentina

Although Selzy has strong connections in the Brazilian market, we are less informed about the other LATAM countries’ email marketing. However, some email experts we contacted shared their expertise on both Mexican and Argentinian situations.

Ronaldo Dias

Deliverability Coordinator at Pmweb

Today, I serve a major brand in Mexico, and I notice that the needs still revolve around knowledge of the potential of their email base. Local communication is essential to achieve significant results. When we see email as a relationship channel, used to bridge the gap between the brand and the user, the audience responds very well. Mexico is the second-largest economy in Latin America. And like Brazil, it has a vast field for exploration regarding the use of email and its segmentations. The behavior of the email base says a lot about what the next strategies to be adopted should be.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

In Mexico, email marketing is characterized by a high open and engagement rate, with campaigns focused on promotions and exclusive offers. Mexican companies tend to value personalization and segmentation. In Argentina, email marketing is also widely used, with a greater emphasis on informational and educational content. Argentine campaigns often include newsletters and product updates, in addition to promotions. Argentine companies are increasingly investing in technology to improve automation and personalization of their campaigns.

LATAM and Brazil email marketing best practices

Do you want to enter LATAM or specifically the Brazilian email marketing sphere? We have several recommendations straight from people who work there.

But first, you’ll need a reliable email service provider!

Given the current state of the industry in the region, it’s important to give email marketing the attention it deserves and at the same time not to expect immediate results. Email is focused on building lasting relationships, so the longer you keep at it, the better the payoff.

Aristóteles de Oliveira Marques

Partnership Manager at Selzy

I believe the first mistake to avoid is treating email as an insignificant channel. All attention is turning to WhatsApp, and meanwhile, the contact bases already in the possession of companies are being ignored. If the company does not ignore email, the next step is to avoid treating email marketing as just a way to send offers. Customers seek, above all, a relationship. Today there are many ways to find offers; what you should offer your audience are things beyond that: education, information, entertainment, conversations.

Matt Alonso

Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email

Consistency. The best email marketing results come in the medium and long term, so you should not give up with the first obstacles that appear. Also, learn to analyze reports and results to understand what works for your audience. Avoid magic formulas, and do the basics well to achieve excellent results.

Another important aspect to remember is localization. You won’t be able to succeed with a generic approach to email marketing. To truly resonate, your campaigns need to account for local culture and best practices. Plus, you should carefully study the countries you want to target. Surely, LATAM countries belong to the same region but each one has its own trends and unique features.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

Companies aiming to reach the Latin American market should focus on creating campaigns that culturally resonate with the local audience. It is important to invest in personalized and relevant content, using a close and friendly tone. They should avoid mistakes like lack of segmentation, excessive email sending (which can lead to unsubscribing), and not adapting messages for different mobile devices.

Agata Sousa

Editor at the Selzy Brazil blog

I think it is important to remember that even though Latin America is a single region, there is a big difference between Brazil and the other Latin American countries due to the language difference and Brazil’s size. In Brazil we don’t have a lot of cultural contact with the Spanish-speaking countries, so don’t just suppose that what works for Brazil is going to work for the rest of Latin America or vice-versa.

Also, localization will take you a long way. It’s a market that likes to create connections, and for that to work it is important that the content doesn’t feel general or irrelevant.

Giovana Bomentre

Editor-in-Chief of the Selzy Brazil blog

Focus on bringing good content with strong storytelling. Brazilians like to know where you came from and how you got to where you are. I also would say to avoid duplicating the same content on different communication channels (such as WhatsApp and email marketing).

One of the region’s biggest characteristics is its passionate audience. Here is a tip on how to best interact with it:

Juliana Padron

HTML Specialist at Revenue Pulse (RP) and Email designer & developer at Templateria

The Latin American audience is very passionate and tends to have the same behavior towards brands. When they like something, they like it a lot, to the point of being brand advocates and spontaneously sharing content.

But when they dislike something, the intensity is also the same, and they do not hesitate to take their discontent to social media! Therefore, I believe that respecting each person’s particularities — and thus personalization — is very important to gain the loyalty of the Latin audience. Knowing the audience is fundamental to having segmented and targeted content for the right people.

That being said, email marketing is email marketing in every country, so you need to stick to the known best practices.

Aristóteles de Oliveira Marques

Partnership Manager at Selzy

The first is: keep your base always updated and clean. It is better to have fewer qualified contacts than a large base with low engagement. Secondly, choose a platform that provides you with price flexibility. Many require annual plans that make base cleaning useless, as you will continue paying for the contacts you removed.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

Personalization. Use customer data to personalize email content, making it more relevant to each recipient.
Segmentation. Divide your email list into segments based on criteria such as purchase behavior, location, and interests.
Storytelling. Invest in engaging narratives that create an emotional connection with the audience.
Mobile-friendliness. Ensure that emails are optimized for mobile devices, as many users access their emails via smartphones.
A/B testing. Conduct A/B tests to understand what works best with your audience and continuously optimize your campaigns.

The future of email marketing in LATAM and Brazil

We also asked email marketing to share what they believe the future holds for email marketing in LATAM and Brazil. The projections we received are more than positive with many expecting the channel to grow and surge in relevance and popularity.

Matt Alonso

Sales Marketing Manager and Revenue Operations Specialist at Benchmark Email

My projection is constant growth. Despite many predicting the end of email, year in and year out, it continues to be a highly effective sales channel. I am seeing growth in the newsletter segment, so I would invest in that.

Aristóteles de Oliveira Marques

Partnership Manager at Selzy

I can speak particularly about Brazil. I project that in the next 12 months, we will see a resurgence of email marketing as a “trend.” When WhatsApp API costs become prohibitive and the account ban policies for sending spam via WhatsApp become stricter, all these professionals who say email is dead will soon say it is more alive than ever.

Email marketing’s potential for growth is closely linked not only to the channel’s unique advantages but also stems from societal and cultural processes in the region. The move away from WhatsApp and social media makes email ever so attractive for both brands and customers.

Juliana Padron

HTML Specialist at Revenue Pulse (RP) and Email designer & developer at Templateria

The biggest consumers of email marketing in Brazil are millennials and Gen Z. Despite being two generations with different behavioral profiles, they share the fatigue that the excess of screens and exposure to superficial content — what’s called brain rotting — brings. Email marketing, particularly newsletters, plays an important role in this scenario as a communication channel capable of delivering relevant content for people to access whenever they want.

Email marketing today is a calm sea, a peaceful corner in the noisy party that is social media on the internet! That is why email is on the rise, especially for building brand or theme communities. Email marketing has been the choice of digital influencers and podcasters, for example, as the vehicle for delivering exclusive and paid content for those who want to be supporters or members of their communities.

Giovana Bomentre

Editor-in-Chief of the Selzy Brazil blog

I think email marketing will grow stronger since people are acknowledging the negative effects of social media on our mental health and valuing more asynchronous communication.

Going forward, the experts we contacted also suggest that new technologies such as AI in email marketing will play even a bigger role in the industry.

Daiana Ferreira

Marketing Coordinator at Airfluencers

For the future of email marketing in Brazil and Latin America, I see an increase in personalization and automation of campaigns. The use of artificial intelligence for data analysis and audience segmentation is expected to grow, making campaigns more efficient and targeted. Adaptation for mobile devices and integration with other digital platforms will also be essential for the continued success of email marketing in the region.

Final thoughts

With this guide, we only touched the surface of email marketing in LATAM countries and Brazil. This fast-growing region offers great opportunities for anyone interested in an engaged, active audience who is ready to dive deep into your brand’s newsletters. Here are some of the best practices we recommend you follow to effectively work in the LATAM market:

Invest in your email marketing and be consistent.
Learn about the region and its audiences. Learn about each country you want to target individually — even though they belong to one region, there are important differences between them. For example, the official language in Brazil is Portuguese and not Spanish like in other countries of the region.
Produce relevant content that reflects the cultures and trends of the countries you are targeting. Don’t forget about proper localization.
Focus on storytelling and personalization.
Follow general email marketing dos and don’ts: segment your base, don’t spam, A/B test, etc.

05 August, 2024

#strategy

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Diana Kussainova

Writer, editor, and a nomad. Creating structured, approachable texts and helping others make their copies clearer. Learning and growing along the way. Interested in digital communications, UX writing, design. Can be spotted either in a bookshop, a local coffee place, or at Sephora. Otherwise probably traveling. Or moving yet again.

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