How to Combine Email Marketing and SEO for Full-Circle Growth

Email • Email MarketingBengu Sarica Dincer • Published: May 03, 2025 • Updated: May 05, 2025 • 10 minutes READ

SEO people do know how email marketing works, and on the other hand, some companies that do email marketing invest in SEO, right? Then, why not combine them to create a powerful growth loop?

SEO brings people in, and email keeps them coming back. So if you’re only using email to distribute blog links, you’re leaving serious growth on the table.

According to a study, 42% of B2B marketers see email as the most effective marketing channel after in-person events and webinars. On the other hand, SEO continues to increase its importance based on research that says the global market for SEO was valued at $89.1 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $143.9 billion by 2030.

You don’t want to stay behind by missing one of them, do you? Today, as someone who has been doing SEO for a pretty long time and is a firm believer that email is an indispensable marketing channel, I want to give you some ideas on how to combine email marketing and SEO beyond the usual tactics. Here we go!

Why is It a Good Idea to Combine Email Marketing and SEO

You might be thinking they serve completely different purposes. I feel you, SEO is often seen as acquisition-focused while email leans more toward retention. But at the end of the day, they both share the same goal: introducing products/services to the right people, at the right time, and in the right context.

So why not let each one fuel the other’s performance?

When you think of SEO and email as strategic partners, they become a growth loop. I can hear you saying, “How exactly?” Let me explain how combining email marketing and SEO supports your growth.

It Helps to Complete the User Journey

One user’s journey might start in Google or ChatGPT and end in your email newsletter; another might start in the inbox and bounce to your solution pages. These paths may look different, but they’re part of the same ecosystem. The key is to understand how people flow between channels and make sure the messaging, tone, and experience match their intent at every step.

When your SEO and email strategies are designed to reinforce each other, you’re not just capturing attention, you’re leading people to desire your tools. So it is crucial to understand these flows and make sure they support each other.

It Helps to Grow Your Email List

Your SEO efforts can quietly double as a lead-gen funnel without feeling like one.

I’ve lost count of how many times a blog post ended up becoming a top email driver. Why? Because when someone lands on a genuinely helpful guide, let’s say, “Email Design: The Ultimate Guide with Examples,” and halfway through we offer a juicy bonus like “Want to use ready-to-use email templates? Grab them here for free,” people opt in. Happily. No pushiness required.

I’m not mentioning that stuffing popups or banners everywhere. The thing I’m saying is about giving people something better than what they searched for. And when you do it well? SEO brings the crowd, and email gives them a seat at the table.

It’s basically audience-building in stealth mode, and it feels good because it actually helps people.

It Helps to Drive Quality Traffic to the Website

Organic searches bring in curious visitors, but email brings in more qualified ones. Because if someone joins the email list, you know they are interested in your niche. And you can direct that interest to your website. Therefore, this traffic becomes more intentional and more valuable.

These are users who trust you enough to open your emails, click your links, and engage with your website and products. You know what this is? It is a brilliant thing for you that search engines notice that kind of behaviour.

Eventually, the engagement signals thanks to the email-driven traffic actually contribute to your page-level and site-level value regarding organic performance.

It Helps to Build Trust with Your Users

I’ve seen this time and time again: a user finds one of our blog posts via search, signs up for our newsletter, and months later becomes a paying customer. That trust doesn’t happen overnight, but it compounds with every valuable email you send.

When people see your brand name in both search engines and LLM platforms and in their inbox, over and over, familiarity sets in. This helps to build credibility. And it’s often what moves someone from “just browsing” to “ready to buy.”

It Helps to Increase the Visibility of Your Products

One of the best things about SEO is that it catches users while they’re searching for solutions. But if your product isn’t top of mind (or top of search), you might miss out. Email helps fill that gap by consistently showcasing your product’s value with tutorials, case studies, templates, even when users aren’t actively searching.

That means you’re not waiting for demand, even better, you’re creating it. And here’s the best part: when you write about your products on your website and in your emails, you naturally start ranking for the language your customers use. That boosts visibility across both channels.

Helping Improve User Retention

Someone who finds you through search engines might not be ready to commit as I already mentioned. But if you offer them something valuable like a free tool, template, or guide in exchange for an email address, now you have a chance to stay in touch.

From there, email can guide users back to your site repeatedly with new content, updates, and feature launches. That keeps your brand top of mind, reduces churn, and extends the customer lifecycle. Plus, it gives you more behavioral data to feed back into your SEO strategy.

How to Merge Email Marketing with SEO: 5 Out-of-the-Box Tips

Please keep in mind that combining the two marketing channels is not a silver bullet to achieve your business goals. You need the right strategy and execution.

If you believe you have done well in these two, pairing these channels wisely drives growth for your business. Here I am to give some out-of-the-box (I believe) ideas to execute your strategy better:

1. Segment Subscribers Based on Personas

None of your website visitors is the same person. So, their aim by clicking your web page is not the same either. For example, someone searching for “free HTML email templates” is likely in a DIY mindset and looking for quick wins or inspiration. Meanwhile, someone searching for “email builder for SaaS” is probably evaluating tools with a business objective in mind.

You can map those distinct intents back to your email segments. Once segmented, customize your messaging too: freebie seekers might get value-packed tutorials, design inspiration, or community content to build trust and nudge them toward more premium offerings.

On the other hand, SaaS buyers need ROI-focused content. Think feature deep-dives, customer success stories, and onboarding flows that show off how your product solves real business problems. Matching content to intent is smart SEO and email strategy working together.

2. Let Your Email Subscribers Google You

Consider turning your email subscribers into search angels. For example, leave some keyword hints in your email content that will encourage users to search for them in search engines.

It’s a bit confusing, I admit. Let me explain with one example. Imagine your platform is HubSpot (oh, wouldn’t that be great). Encourage subscribers to search for “HubSpot website accessibility checklist” by mentioning you have something like that on your website. This way, users who reach this landing page through organic search will both increase your branded search volume and increase the value of your landing page by engaging with it.

If you’re thinking, “I could just link to this page from the email content, why would I do that?” You’re right. However, if you already have a few links in your email content, you’d better try this idea. As you may know, too many links in an email can lead to your email ending up in the spam box.

3. Turn Newsletter Replies Into UGC for Blogs

Encourage your subscribers to give feedback on the blog articles, resources, and tools you share in your email newsletter. This feedback is a gold mine for you. Of course, it can help improve your pages, but I recommend using these comments as UGC on the relevant page.

You can republish that feedback as real user comments (with permission, no doubt) below the web page. This allows you to add unique, new user-generated content to the page and creates social proof without the need for a separate commenting system.

3. Use Data for Email Topics & Blogs

Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Semrush and similar tools give you a direct line to searcher intent. Why not use that to write more relevant emails and improve web pages according to the results?

For this, you can look for queries with lots of impressions but low CTR. Then test those exact phrases as subject lines in the email. If they outperform, it tells you you’re onto something.

Then, base your blog improvements on the reactions from your email subscribers. Maybe your blog used to perform very well but its performance has decreased over time for some reason (it could be anything: user trends may have changed, AI Overview affected, Reddit or Quora may have outranked your content. We experience all of these, right?)

The fastest way to recover that content may be by reviewing the reactions of your email subscribers. I mean, you can try to reframe the idea and send two email versions by doing an A/B test to see which one resonates. Then you can update the post accordingly and watch its performance.

4. Hijack Dead SERPs with Real Insights

Search queries like “best email tools 2025” are often littered with outdated listicles or generic AI-generated posts. These pages still rank well, but they’re static and rarely updated, which makes them ripe for takeover.

To reclaim those positions, identify underwhelming SERPs in your niche where the top results are outdated, thin, or lack credibility. After that, in your email newsletter, call it out “Sick of seeing the same tools every time you search for ‘best email tools 2025?’ Hit reply, and I’ll send you our real stack what people actually using today.”

When your subscribers respond, you:

✔️ Get engagement signals that improve your sender reputation.

✔️ Gather qualitative insights (what tools they expect, what they hate, etc.).

✔️ Build trust by sharing something personal and useful.

Then, use that exchange as the base for a new, deeper blog article or a resource, one that’s informed by real user needs, fresh recommendations, and email-driven proof. Finally, when you publish the new guide, send a follow-up email: “Remember that tool stack I promised? We turned the whole thing into a full guide. No fluff. No copy-paste lists. Just what’s actually working now.”

This approach does two things at once: it drives email engagement and replaces stale search results with genuinely useful, timely content.

5. Steal Our Layouts: Great Email Design Does Half for You

When it comes to attention spans in an inbox, it is not hard to assume that convincing people to stay in your email is a real struggle. That’s where beautifully designed email templates come into play. They’re strategic assets that drive your subscribers’ behaviors and make your email content feel more trustworthy at a glance.

But you know what, that design polish doesn’t just help with email metrics. It also helps to improve your SEO performance. “How?” you may ask.

When you use email to attract people to your blog or product pages, design plays a big role in setting expectations. A clean layout, great content hierarchy, and branded imagery can pre-frame the click. Think of it as warming up the stage before the curtain goes up.

Templates also make it easy to consistently feature evergreen blog posts, calls to action, etc. This means you’re not just designing an email; you’re designing a smoother journey from inbox to a web page.

So please feel free to steal Designmodo’s ready-to-use email templates. Just make sure they sell your message and support your search strategy.

Bonus: What Not to Do

❌ Don’t treat email as just a faucet for traffic.

Yes, you can push clicks from an email inbox to a website, but that’s the bare minimum. Email is also your fastest real-time feedback tool. If nobody clicks or replies, that’s not just an “email problem.” It might mean your blog title, content angle, or even your product positioning isn’t resonating. Use it to diagnose issues before rankings tank.

❌ Don’t load emails with too many links.

More isn’t always the best. Overlinking can hurt email deliverability and confuse the reader. Instead of sending a bunch of links, focus on one juicy call-to-action that aligns with the aha-moment.

❌ Don’t treat unsubscribe data as rejection; it may be segmentation gold.

When someone unsubscribes, they’re giving you a strong signal: “This wasn’t for me.” Dig into which content triggered the drop.

FAQ

What is SEO and Email Marketing?

SEO helps your web pages get discovered via search engines. Email marketing is about nurturing that relationship once someone’s found you or bringing them back if they’ve dropped off. Most companies use these tools independently. But when used together, they can become a powerful feedback and amplification loop.

Can Email Really Impact Rankings and Visibility in Result Pages?

Indirectly, yes. While search engines and LLM platforms don’t index email content itself, the behavioral impact of email like increased branded search and better engagement time, so it can help to improve your rankings over time.

Is Email Marketing Outdated?

No, not even close. With the rise of privacy concerns and the decline of third-party cookies, owning your audience matters more than ever. And email is still one of the few channels where you truly own the relationship.

What’s the Success Rate of Email Marketing?

According to multiple reports, the average ROI of email ranges from $36 to $40 for every $1 spent. That’s not a typo. And when paired with a strong SEO strategy, those results scale even faster.

How to Measure the Success of Email-SEO Combination?

To see if your email marketing and SEO integration is actually working, focus on signals that show one is boosting the other. Did branded search volumes increase after email campaigns? Are pages linked in emails seeing better engagement and longer time on page? If your email-driven traffic is helping content rank higher, that’s when you know the efforts are paying off.