Return to All Resources Marketer of the Moment: Katie Wolfe, Torrid 7 Minute Read Clients Recommended for you Marketer of the Moment: Lainna Fader, Forbes CordialSend a better message. Our July Marketer of the Moment spotlight features Katie Wolfe, Senior Manager, Customer Messaging at Torrid, where she oversees email marketing, SMS, and push notifications. Katie’s journey from hands-on individual contributor to team leader of four showcases the evolution of modern email marketing—from tactical execution to strategic orchestration. What sets Katie apart is her ability to balance the technical precision of email marketing with the human elements of leadership and collaboration. At Torrid, she’s building an omnichannel messaging strategy that treats customer communications as conversations rather than campaigns. Her approach combines data-driven testing with creative innovation, always keeping the customer experience at the center of every decision. How has your approach to email marketing strategy evolved as you’ve transitioned to a team leader? As an individual contributor, my email marketing strategy was very hands-on and execution-focused. I wore all the hats—from creating content and actually building the emails in HTML to list segmentation, A/B testing and analytics. This gave me a deep, end-to-end understanding of what drives engagement and conversions. However, transitioning into a leadership role with a team of four has required a significant shift in mindset. My focus has evolved from doing to enabling. I now prioritize strategy, structure, and scalability. That means setting clear objectives, aligning the team around a unified vision with business goals, and creating systems that allow for consistent testing, learning, and optimization. I’ve also become more invested in mentoring—ensuring each team member feels ownership over their part of the process while maintaining cohesion across campaigns. Collaboration and communication have become more central, too. We now approach campaigns with a more integrated lens, incorporating insights from our data teams and our internal partners. The result is a more sophisticated and customer-centric email strategy that’s both data-informed and creatively driven. Can you share a testing initiative where data insights led to a significant improvement in your email performance? One impactful testing initiative we ran was the addition of dynamic product recommendations to the bottom of all our emails. We hypothesized that personalized content outside of the primary message could increase engagement and drive incremental revenue. After testing this for a few weeks in a few specific campaigns and measuring the data, we were able to see a noticeable increase in engagement and a lift in revenue. Following this success, we rolled out the feature across all campaigns and began exploring further personalization strategies. It’s been a great example of how data-driven testing can directly impact both user experience and the bottom line. How do you approach bringing external inspiration into your team’s work? Staying connected to trends and conversations in the email space is something I take seriously, and I try to make that curiosity actionable for my team. I keep an open dialogue with them so we’re not just reacting to trends, but actively discussing how they might apply to our work. I regularly read industry publications and subscribe to a wide range emails with other retailers—both direct competitors and brands outside our vertical—so we’re constantly seeing new ideas and executions. When something stands out, I make a point to share it with my team and internal partners in a timely, relevant way—whether that’s during campaign planning or in a Zoom chat. I also encourage my team to incorporate competitor examples directly into our email briefs and kickoff meetings to help ground our ideas in what’s happening in the market and spark conversation around how we can differentiate. How do you collaborate between your email team and other departments to ensure seamless execution across marketing emails, triggers, and transactional communications? Collaboration is key to running a seamless and effective email program, especially when managing a mix of daily marketing sends, triggers, and transactional messages. We’ve built a structured process with plenty of checks and balances to keep things running smoothly across teams. We start by planning emails at least four weeks out, which gives us the runway we need to align on goals, messaging, and timing. From there, we create clear, efficient briefs that outline everything from audience to creative direction, and we use kickoff meetings to make sure everyone—from marketing to creative to production—is on the same page. Throughout the process, we have regular alignment meetings and internal reviews to catch any issues early and make sure every email meets our standards before it goes out. There’s also constant dialogue between the email team and key internal partners. This open communication helps us adapt quickly if priorities shift or if we need to troubleshoot something on the fly. What email marketing trend or retail innovation are you most excited about exploring in 2025? One of the trends I’m most excited about exploring in 2025 is omnichannel marketing. Starting in July, we’ll have three channels live on Cordial, which is a big step forward for us. This expansion will allow us to deliver more cohesive, personalized messaging across the platforms our customers actually prefer—whether that’s email, SMS, or push notifications. The real opportunity lies in using customer behavior and data to not just connect channels, but to make each interaction feel intentional and relevant. I’m excited to test how timing, message type, and channel preference impact engagement and conversion—and to create experiences that feel more like conversations than campaigns. What’s your leadership philosophy when it comes to managing competing priorities? Balancing stability, innovation, and team morale really comes down to clear communication and thoughtful prioritization. My leadership philosophy is centered around helping the team understand what needs to get done and why—and then working together to figure out the most effective path forward. When competing priorities arise, I focus on helping the team assess needs based on business impact and deployment timelines. We regularly revisit our roadmap to make sure we’re aligned on what’s business-critical versus what can flex. I also make a point to check in anytime there’s a new ask or shift in direction to ensure everyone understands the “why” behind the change—not just the task itself. I always want my team to feel comfortable coming to me with questions or just to bounce ideas around. That kind of collaboration helps us stay grounded, adapt quickly, and continue pushing forward without sacrificing morale or quality. At the end of the day, it’s about creating an environment where people feel supported, focused, and empowered to do their best work—even when things get busy. What’s your go-to productivity hack? I have a few! I create to-do lists to keep track of priorities and make sure nothing slips through the cracks—especially when managing a large email program with many moving parts. I also delegate effectively across the team, trusting each member to own their areas while staying aligned on the bigger picture. Clear delegation not only keeps things moving but also empowers the team to grow and take initiative. On a day-to-day level, I stay productive by keeping my inbox organized and making it a goal to respond to emails within 24 hours. I treat Zoom messages like quick hallway conversations—responding in the moment whenever possible to avoid bottlenecks and keep communication flowing. These small habits help me stay on top of both the strategic and tactical pieces of the program, without getting bogged down. If you weren’t in email marketing, what alternative career path would have captured your interest? If I weren’t in email marketing, I’d definitely lean into something entrepreneurial. I’ve always been interested in real estate, interior design, or even owning a small retail boutique! Our best content to your inbox, every month Picked For You Article Marketer of the Moment: Katie Wolfe, Torrid Our July Marketer of the Moment spotlight features Katie Wolfe, Senior Manager, Customer Messaging at… Webinar Maximize intent signals and win customer loyalty Future-thinking brands choose Cordial to drive record-level customer engagement and revenue growth Get a demo