The Email Marketing Strategies Beyoncé, Royal Caribbean, and Sprinkles Cupcakes Use to Boost Conversions and Loyalty

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Email marketing isn't dead—it’s evolving. With an average ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, it remains a marketing powerhouse.

But here's the twist: making your emails more inclusive isn't just good ethics — it's good business.

As an inclusive marketing strategist who's analyzed countless marketing campaigns, I’ve noticed that brands that embrace inclusion in their email marketing ultimately attract, convert, and maintain even more subscribers. When people feel seen, they're more likely to click “buy now” instead of “unsubscribe.”

Let's explore five clever strategies that brands like Beyoncé’s Cécred and Royal Caribbean use to make their subscribers feel like VIPs.

5 Inclusive Email Marketing Strategies

1. Sprinkles Cupcakes celebrates cultural heritage.

Sprinkles Cupcakes does a fantastic job making people whose heritage is traditionally underrepresented feel seen. The brand does this by communicating about various special edition cupcakes that highlight different cultures and celebrations.

Whether it's emailing about cupcakes for Lunar New Year, Hanukkah, or other special flavors the brand has incorporated that are specific to certain communities like Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Vietnam, the variety in their offerings is a smart way to get more people to buy.

The brand speaks to cultural heritage in both their email subject lines and in the body of the email.

When I received their email about coquito cupcakes, I immediately called my husband to suggest we buy some for his Puerto Rican coworkers and neighbors. That's the magic — cultural recognition spreads beyond the target audience.

Try this yourself: Think about all the different cultures and identities represented as part of your customer base. Then brainstorm ways to infuse them organically into your email marketing cadence. It’s important to plan out your communications in advance (no one wants to read a hastily thrown together email in honor of International Women’s Day).

And if you’re featuring content or a product that celebrates a culture that isn’t your own, do embrace co-creating with people who are part of the communities you’re email content is about.

2. Royal Caribbean taps into the power of language.

When I booked a cruise for both my family and my Argentinian in-laws, Royal Caribbean impressed me by sending emails in Spanish to match my sister-in-law's passport language. Smart move for a company serving global travelers!

I thought it was cool to see the email topics are very much aligned in both English and Spanish when it comes to big brand announcements, as well:

This is a smart strategy because the people who go on cruises don’t only speak English. Since a lot of cruise customers are repeat cruisers (I've been on five), email marketing is one way the brand stays connected, introduces offers, and encourages people to book their next voyage.

As such, it is a smart approach to ensure you’re communicating with customers in their preferred language. You’ll reach a lot more people that way.

Try this yourself: Identify the most common languages spoken by your existing and desired customers. Then plan out an email marketing strategy that enables you to send them the relevant messages they need to take the next step forward with you.

Note that the emails Royal Caribbean sends are not exact translations. The headlines are similar, but they cover topic themes from different angles.

3. Beyoncé's Cécred shows diversity in action.

Beyoncé's hair care brand Cécred touts that it is a brand for all hair types. In its email marketing campaigns, it uses visual imagery, often in the form of photos that animate in a sequence, to show different hair types and the identities associated with them.

Here are three images included in the animated reel inside one email:

Representation matters. And when people are able to see photos of “people like them,” it helps to clearly and quickly answer the important question in consumers’ minds: “will this product work for someone like me?”

Try this yourself: Take note of all the different identities of the people you want to serve. Whenever you display images of people in your emails, intentionally include different identities that represent your ideal customers so people can see themselves and know that your brand is for them.

4. Tarzan Kay leans into accessibility.

Email marketing expert Tarzan Kay brilliantly includes an “Audio Version” link at the top of her emails — narrated by her, not some robotic AI voice. This makes her content accessible to people with visual impairments and those who prefer to listen rather than read.

The technical term for this is “text-to-speech,” and it is commonly used for people with visual impairments. There’s a ton of written content online, and oftentimes people with visual impairments will use screen readers to translate the text into speech.

And for the past versions of her emails that are archived on her website, there’s an audio player included directly on the page, as well.

Try this yourself: Research the tech associated with adding text-to-speech capabilities for your marketing emails, and then drop it in. Bonus points if you add a real person voicing the content, rather than AI.

5. Mindstream covers AI topics through diverse lenses.

A lot of people are interested in learning about AI these days. The Mindstream Newsletter, which was recently acquired by HubSpot, educates more than 200,000 people globally with its daily emails on a range of AI topics.

I talked with Maria Gharib, one of the principal writers of the Mindstream Newsletter. She told me that the brand has been able to attract and retain such a diverse readership because they write for them. For Mindstream, that means covering AI topics related to different:

• Geographic regions
• Disciplines — graphic designers, content writers, and students are interested in AI from different angles
• Degrees of knowledge — AI policy decisions on one end of the spectrum and how to get started with AI on another
• Pop culture and mainstream topics - Swifties will open an email featuring Taylor Swift-related AI content

Try this yourself: Map the different identities within your subscriber base and create content that speaks to their specific interests and needs.

Listen to my full conversation with Maria on this episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast, where we go much more in-depth with how to make your email marketing newsletters more inclusive:

Inclusion Will Make Your Email Marketing Even More Effective

Inclusive email marketing isn't just kind — it’s profitable. People from underrepresented communities tend to be more loyal to brands that actually see them, simply because so many other companies don't bother.

Choose an inclusive strategy to experiment with that makes the most sense for your brand as a starting point.

Then monitor it over time to see how it improves your subscriber base and other success measures you track for your email marketing.