If I said “Rizz”, “Drip”, or “NPC”, would you have any idea what that means? If the answer is “no”, then just search your contacts for your favorite 14-year-old and they will enlighten you. Generation Z, or those people born between 1997 and 2012 according to Pew Research Center, represent $360B...

Chad is quickly becoming a valuable member of my agency's team for our planning, creative development and optimization. You won't find his photo on our company website, however. That's because "Chad" is the name we've given to our private version of ChatGPT. Plus, he's still a work in progress. We're training...

Just this week I saw yet another of those consumer surveys about email marketing commissioned by a tech vendor. Inside there were lots of obvious things that come from leading questions (like ‘Would you like less or more marketing emails in 2024?’. Phrased like that how do you think they’d respond?...

One theme I've developed after 25 years in email is that it's important to give back to the industry, to contribute to our overall success by helping other people. Like you, I find myself talking with and advising marketers at conferences and on webinars, and when writing articles like these, working...

Over the past year of consulting, I've had two client cases that have caused me significant inner turmoil. Besides fixing flawed technical setups, most cases could be fixed with the sentiment, "send wanted content." And this most often was THE solution; often boiling things down to sending the content as it...

Excellent tools. Poor deliverability? Twice a year, the website EmailToolTester compares the deliverability of different email platforms. For example, according to their report from January 2024, HubSpot, one of the most commonly used email platforms among startups, ends up with an unappealing score: "poor deliverability". The method used to make the...

Email marketers are relying on AI more and more – but are your AI endeavors as successful as they could be? Some simple guidance on prompt engineering can help – here are some tips along with a few case studies from the email marketing industry. Prompt engineering is the art of...

I was recently asked to provide a keynote speech at a university. In preparing for this I started to think about the benefits of learning. Drawing on my own experience both sides of the lectern, I know and see how combining theory with real world practical experience, elevates any marketers game....

Four Truths for 2024 #1 - The Google Gauntlet and the Rise of Value Let’s talk about Google's HCU and manual penalties. It feels like every other day, there’s a new hoop to jump through. But here's the twist: This isn't about dodging penalties; it's about embracing the core of what...

In the world of digital marketing, one question often arises: “Does the length of email content affect conversion rates?” This question was recently posed to me by an email copywriter seeking advice about the relationship between content length, information density, and conversion rates, so I thought I would use this blog...

In the fast-paced world of email marketing, staying ahead requires more than just sending out campaigns and hoping for the best. It demands a strategic approach that prioritizes data health, engagement, and adaptation to the evolving digital landscape. The webinar, "2024 Email Inbox Mastery & Wellness Plan: Key Findings from 1,000...

During our OI-members-only live discussion last week we ended up on a familiar topic: resends. But the discussion took a twist which has me rethinking my personal stance on them – and how I’ll recommend my clients handle them. I wanted to share it here because this may impact your thinking...

There has been a lot of interest and discussion in the OI-verse about the value of newsletters as an email communication channel. Advantages range from relationship-building to providing more in-depth and relevant content. In parallel, there has also been a lot of discussion on the importance of first-party data in a...

Back in 2021, I wrote an article for Only Influencers sharing data from OPTIZMO’s annual Email Opt-Out Infographic. That infographic covered data from 2018-2020, so it culminated with a look at how a year of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced email opt-out behavior. (Is it just me or is it hard to...

Generative AI today is quite a big trend that is rapidly gaining momentum and finding its place in the work processes of email marketers. Statistics confirm this, since: 43% of respondents rely heavily on GenAI in email creation processes 49% of email marketers believe GenAI helps them make their emails more...

Given that every email takes electricity to send and store, how can email marketers lower their carbon footprint? That was the central question behind “Green Your Emails,” the keynote presentation by Zillow’s Alice Li at Litmus Live last fall. Despite the increasing number of headlines about climate change and extreme weather,...

I’ll admit it. I’m a skeptic by nature. It’s not that I don’t like innovation; it’s that I try, at all costs, to avoid ‘bright shiny object’ syndrome. I’ve been playing with AI (some of you may have attended the webinar Tamara Gielen and I did last month on using AI...

In the world of digital marketing, we're always on the lookout for the next big thing that'll improve our engagement and grow our lists. That's where the idea of gamifying sign-up forms caught my eye. It sounded like a game-changer—literally. The plan? Make signing up as fun as playing a game,...

The importance of setting a first impression Setting first impressions in email marketing begins with the first email a subscriber receives after entering their email address in your signup form. That newly excited subscriber eager to receive your organisation's emails has expressed an interest; they want to learn more. So, how...

As marketers we tend to overthink how our customers feel, and how they interact with the marketing emails we send them. We obsess about what goes into the messages and the schedule, order and cadence of messaging. We’ve designed the campaigns so customers will rationally follow our lovely call-to-action as their...