Resources
Email Promotion Ideas for Underwear Brands
Author :
MailMend Team
February 10, 2026
Key Takeaways
Email remains the highest-ROI channel for underwear brands — delivering $36 for every $1 spent, but only when messages actually reach the Primary inbox where customers engage
Automated email flows outperform scheduled campaigns — behavior-triggered emails generate $2.01 revenue per send versus $0.10 for broadcast campaigns, making automation architecture the foundation of profitable email programs
Founder-led storytelling creates emotional connection that commodity products cannot — top underwear brands like Savage X Fenty and Pepper use personal narratives to drive purchases without constant discounting
Inbox placement is the hidden revenue multiplier — 91.22% of emails land in Gmail's Promotions tab, where they achieve 30% lower open rates than the Primary tab
Segmentation drives 3x revenue — targeting customers based on purchase history, browsing behavior, and size preferences triples email revenue compared to generic batch-and-blast campaigns
Here's what separates underwear brands that thrive from those that struggle: the successful ones treat email as a retention engine, not a discount delivery system. With the global underwear market valued at $92.3 billion in 2024 and competition intensifying across every product category, your email strategy determines whether customers buy once or become lifetime advocates.
The challenge? Even perfectly crafted campaigns fail when they land in the wrong inbox tab. This is where Mailmend changes the equation—moving promotional emails from Gmail's Promotions tab to the Primary inbox without requiring content changes, copy adjustments, or technical overhauls. When your emails appear at the top of customers' inboxes alongside personal messages, engagement rates climb and revenue follows.
This guide covers proven email promotion strategies specifically for underwear brands, from subject line formulas that drive opens to automation flows that capture peak purchase intent—plus the deliverability optimization that ensures your messages actually reach customers.
Crafting Compelling Subject Lines for Underwear Email Promotions
Subject lines determine whether your email gets opened or ignored. For underwear brands, this means addressing specific customer concerns—comfort, fit, confidence—while creating enough curiosity or urgency to earn the click.
Subject Line Formulas That Convert
The most effective subject lines for intimate apparel combine specificity with emotional triggers. Generic "New Arrivals!" performs poorly compared to subject lines that speak to documented customer needs.
Formulas that work for underwear brands:
Problem-solution format — "Finally: Underwear That Doesn't Ride Up" addresses a specific pain point
Curiosity gap — "The Reason Your Bras Never Fit Right" creates intrigue without revealing the answer
Social proof — "Why 50,000 Women Switched to [Brand]" leverages customer validation
Urgency without desperation — "Last Day: Your Size Is Still In Stock" creates time pressure with relevance
Personalization — "[Name], Your Perfect Fit Is Back" combines individual recognition with product specificity
Savage X Fenty's "Rihanna's February Faves" exemplifies founder-led subject lines that create influential atmospheres. The celebrity association drives opens, but the strategy works equally well for non-celebrity founders who share authentic product picks.
Personalization Tactics for Higher Opens
A/B testing subject lines reveals what resonates with your specific audience. Fashion marketers consistently find that personalized subject lines outperform generic alternatives, but personalization extends beyond inserting a first name.
Advanced personalization approaches:
Size-based targeting — "New Colors in Your Size 34B" for customers with documented fit preferences
Purchase history — "Time to Refresh Your Everyday Basics?" for customers who purchased 6+ months ago
Browse behavior — "Still Thinking About the Lace Collection?" for customers who viewed but didn't purchase
Seasonal relevance — "Summer-Ready Styles for [City Name]" combining location with timing
Visual Storytelling in Underwear Email Marketing Campaigns
Intimate apparel demands visual excellence. Unlike categories where product descriptions carry the sale, underwear purchases rely heavily on seeing how products look and move on real bodies.
Showcasing Underwear Comfort and Style Through Imagery
High-quality product photography serves dual purposes: demonstrating fit accuracy and creating aspirational appeal. The most effective underwear brand emails balance technical product shots with lifestyle imagery that helps customers envision themselves wearing the products.
Visual strategy essentials:
Multiple angles per product — front, back, and side views address fit concerns before purchase
Diverse model representation — SKIMS and ThirdLove demonstrate that inclusive imagery expands market reach rather than limiting it
Fabric detail shots — close-ups of lace, seamless construction, or moisture-wicking materials justify premium pricing
Mobile-first design — with most email opens occurring on mobile devices, images must render properly on smaller screens
Incorporating Video for Product Demos
Video content in emails increases engagement when used strategically. Short clips showing fabric stretch, bra strap adjustability, or underwear staying in place during movement address concerns static images cannot.
GIFs offer a middle ground between static images and full video—demonstrating key product benefits without requiring customers to click through to external content.
Segmentation Strategies for Personalized Underwear Promotions
Generic email blasts waste resources and train customers to ignore your messages. Segmented campaigns generate 3x higher revenue because they deliver relevant content to customers based on documented preferences and behaviors.
Tailoring Offers Based on Past Purchases
Purchase history reveals customer preferences that inform future recommendations. A customer who consistently buys seamless underwear responds differently to promotions than one who purchases lace styles.
Effective purchase-based segments:
Category buyers — separate audiences for bra customers, underwear customers, and loungewear customers
Price sensitivity — customers who only purchase during sales versus those who buy at full price
Replenishment timing — basics buyers typically replace items every 6-12 months
Size consistency — customers with stable sizing versus those whose orders vary
Targeting New vs. Returning Customers
New customers need education and trust-building. Returning customers want efficiency and recognition. Welcome flows achieve 9.89% placed order rates because they introduce brand values and product benefits to customers who've already demonstrated interest.
Segment-specific strategies:
First-time buyers — emphasize fit guarantees, easy returns, and brand story
Repeat customers — highlight new arrivals in their preferred styles and VIP perks
Lapsed customers — re-engagement campaigns with "We miss you" messaging and incentives to return
High-value customers — early access, exclusive products, and personalized service
Exclusive Deals and Early Access for Underwear Launches
Promotional emails work when they offer genuine value. The challenge is creating urgency without training customers to wait for discounts on every purchase.
Creating Urgency with Time-Sensitive Offers
Flash sales and limited-time offers drive immediate action, but overuse erodes brand equity and margin. Reserve true urgency for situations where scarcity is real—limited inventory, genuine time constraints, or exclusive opportunities.
Urgency tactics that maintain brand value:
Back-in-stock alerts — SKIMS deploys two-email sequences for popular items, first creating anticipation, then notifying availability
Seasonal transitions — "Last chance for summer styles" before inventory clearance
Bundle deals — limited-time sets that offer savings on complementary items
Size-based urgency — "Only 3 left in your size" when inventory actually runs low
Rewarding Loyalty with VIP Access
A VIP program demonstrates how loyalty structures increase customer lifetime value. VIP Gold ($200 annual spend) and VIP Elite ($500 annual spend) customers receive early access, exclusive perks, and priority service—creating incentives for continued engagement beyond individual transactions.
Loyalty-building email campaigns:
Early access to new collections — VIP customers see and buy before general release
Birthday and anniversary rewards — personal recognition tied to purchase incentives
Points-based systems — visible progress toward rewards encourages continued purchases
Exclusive colorways or styles — products available only to loyalty program members
Leveraging User-Generated Content in Underwear Emails
Customer content builds trust that brand-produced marketing cannot replicate. For intimate apparel, where fit anxiety and body confidence concerns influence purchases, seeing real customers in products addresses objections professional models don't.
Showcasing Real Customers Wearing Your Products
Customer reviews and social media posts provide authentic social proof. Cuup features "the people behind the creation" in back-in-stock emails, combining product availability with customer storytelling.
UGC integration strategies:
Review highlights in product emails — "Customers say: 'Most comfortable bra I've ever owned'"
Instagram content curation — feature tagged customer photos with permission
Before/after fit comparisons — customers sharing their sizing journey
Video testimonials — short clips of customers describing product benefits
Integrating Customer Testimonials for Credibility
HoneyLove combines product photos with customer quotes to reinforce buying confidence. This approach works particularly well for back-in-stock and new product launch emails where customers need reassurance before purchasing.
Nurturing Customer Relationships with Engaging Content
Not every email should sell. Brands that only send promotional messages train customers to tune out. Content that provides value—education, entertainment, community connection—builds the trust that converts to full-price purchases.
Sharing Your Brand's Values and Mission
Knix's anniversary email celebrated brand milestones while reaffirming the company's position as innovation-focused. These campaigns strengthen ties with existing customers and attract new ones who share similar values.
Providing Value Beyond Just Selling
Content that builds relationships:
Sizing and fit guides — educational content that reduces returns while positioning your brand as helpful
Care instructions — extending product life demonstrates commitment beyond the initial sale
Styling tips — showing versatility of products increases perceived value
Sustainability initiatives — send awareness campaigns connecting brand values to causes customers care about
Optimizing Underwear Email Deliverability for Primary Inbox Placement
Every strategy in this article fails if your emails land in the Promotions tab. The structural challenge: promotional content that drives conversions—discount language, product images, multiple CTAs—triggers the exact algorithmic signals that cause Promotions tab categorization.
The Impact of Promotions Tab Placement on Revenue
Only 2.7-4.4% of e-commerce emails reach the Primary inbox. The remaining 91.22% land in the Promotions tab, where they achieve 30% lower open rates and miss mobile push notifications entirely. This isn't a minor optimization opportunity—it's the difference between emails that generate revenue and emails that go unread.
Dr. Squatch experienced a 112% email revenue increase after improving inbox placement, demonstrating the revenue impact of reaching the Primary inbox. In just 24 hours, Dr. Squatch ran a test to see how Mailmend was performing. Little did they know they were missing out on half the revenue they deserved. The brand achieved a 42% increase in open rates and 67% increase in CTR.
Other brands have seen similar transformative results with Mailmend:
StickerYou — "Day 1 boost of 20% - 100% Increase by month 1." StickerYou was absolutely blown away by the results of Mailmend. After going through our videos and speaking to our team, they signed up. They achieved a 64% increase in open rates and 43% increase in CTR.
Ministry of Supply — "Results within a business day!" Although skeptical at first, Ministry Of Supply was able to quickly get setup with Mailmend in a matter of business days and land in the inbox. They saw a 27% increase in open rates and 30% increase in CTR.
Larsson & Jennings — "Saved our black friday." Anna was suffering from low open rates & click rates after they had a data failure in their ESP. They also had massive promotions tab issues. We came in and fixed ALL of it, delivering an 82% increase in open rates and 51% increase in CTR.
Amberjack — "It Actually Worked." Blake was looking for more incremental revenue after they noticed click rates take a dive. They ran some tests with Mailmend and instantly saw revenue shoot up, with a 54% increase in open rates and 51% increase in CTR.
Clevr Blends — "Made a big Difference." Clevr Blends was looking for an easy way to boost their email revenue after seeing low opens and clicks - so they came to Mailmend and saw amazing results: 21% increase in open rates and 63% increase in CTR.
Testing Deliverability for Optimal Email Performance
Traditional deliverability advice focuses on authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and list hygiene. These practices prevent spam folder placement but don't address Gmail's promotional categorization algorithms. Even with 96.5% DMARC compliance, e-commerce brands still land in the Promotions tab because the problem is algorithmic categorization of commercial content, not traditional spam factors.
Mailmend's algorithmic inbox placement technology works at the technical level to move emails from Promotions to Primary without requiring content changes. The solution integrates with Klaviyo through a simple code snippet, enabling brands to A/B test Primary versus Promotions placement and measure exact revenue lift within their existing analytics dashboard.
Measuring Success: Analytics for Underwear Email Campaigns
Vanity metrics mislead. High open rates mean nothing if those opens don't convert to purchases. Effective measurement connects email performance to revenue outcomes.
Key Metrics to Track for Email Performance
Healthy brands drive 20-40% of revenue through email marketing. If your email contribution falls below this range, performance optimization represents significant revenue opportunity.
Essential email metrics:
Revenue per email — the bottom-line measure of campaign effectiveness
Click-to-conversion rate — automated emails achieve 27.05% versus 7.69% for scheduled campaigns
Revenue per send — distinguishes high-performing flows from underperformers
Customer lifetime value by acquisition source — whether email-acquired customers stay longer and purchase more
Inbox placement rate — percentage of emails reaching Primary versus Promotions tab
Using A/B Testing for Continuous Improvement
Automated emails generate 25% of total email revenue from just 1.7% of sends, proving that behavioral targeting dramatically outperforms broadcast messaging. This efficiency gap underscores the importance of testing automated flow performance against scheduled campaigns.
A/B testing within your email platform reveals which elements drive performance: subject lines, send times, content layouts, and offer structures. For underwear brands, test variables specific to the category—size recommendation placement, fit guarantee messaging prominence, and UGC integration approaches.
Mailmend enables brands to test inbox placement directly—splitting emails between Primary inbox delivery and standard Promotions tab placement to measure exact revenue impact. This testing capability provides immediate validation that deliverability improvements translate to revenue, not just open rate improvements.
For underwear brands ready to maximize email revenue, contact Mailmend to see how Primary inbox placement impacts your specific campaigns.
Building Your Underwear Brand Email Program
The lingerie market is projected to reach $104.55 billion by 2034, with email remaining the highest-ROI channel for capturing this growth. But success requires more than sending more emails.
Priority implementation order:
Audit current deliverability — determine what percentage of emails reach Primary inbox versus Promotions tab
Build essential automation flows — welcome series, cart abandonment, browse abandonment, back-in-stock
Implement segmentation — separate new versus returning customers, category buyers, size preferences
Develop founder-led content — create emotional connection beyond product features
Measure revenue attribution — connect email performance to actual sales, not just engagement metrics
The brands winning in underwear email marketing combine strategic content with technical deliverability optimization. Compelling campaigns that land in the Promotions tab underperform mediocre campaigns that reach the Primary inbox. Both elements matter—but deliverability determines whether your content gets seen at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should an underwear brand send promotional emails without annoying subscribers?
Frequency tolerance varies by segment and content quality. Research shows click rates declined 33% year-over-year, but click-to-conversion increased 51%—indicating customers are more selective but ready to buy when content is relevant. For underwear brands, 2-4 campaigns per week works when balanced with automated flows triggered by customer behavior. The key is ensuring each email provides genuine value rather than repetitive discount messaging. Monitor unsubscribe rates by segment to identify frequency thresholds for different customer groups.
Should underwear brands send different email promotions to men and women?
Absolutely. Men's and women's underwear purchases involve different decision factors, purchase frequencies, and content preferences. Women typically research more extensively before purchasing, respond to fit guarantee messaging, and engage with educational content about materials and construction. Men often purchase based on brand familiarity and convenience, responding better to bundle deals and replenishment reminders. Beyond gender segmentation, consider size category differences—plus-size customers, petite customers, and specialty size ranges each respond to different messaging around fit confidence and product availability.
How can underwear brands recover revenue from abandoned carts through email?
Cart abandonment flows recover 15-30% of lost sales when properly implemented. The standard approach uses a three-email sequence: first email at 1 hour (reminder without discount), second at 24 hours (address common objections like sizing or returns), third at 72 hours (final urgency, potentially with incentive). For underwear specifically, address fit anxiety in the second email—highlight your return policy, size exchange options, and customer reviews about sizing accuracy. Avoid leading with discounts in the first email, which trains customers to abandon carts expecting incentives.
Can improving email deliverability really increase underwear brand sales significantly?
Yes. The math is straightforward: emails reaching the Primary inbox achieve 30% higher open rates plus mobile push notifications. With 91.22% of emails currently landing in the Promotions tab, most brands operate with a structural disadvantage. Dr. Squatch's 112% email revenue increase after improving inbox placement demonstrates the scale of opportunity. This improvement required no changes to their email content, subject lines, or frequency—only where their emails landed. For underwear brands with strong email programs stuck in the Promotions tab, deliverability optimization represents the highest-leverage improvement available.
