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Welcome to Vol.24 of Email Advice in Your Inbox!
Hey, friend!
We're so happy you've decided to join us for today's Volume.
Get ready to learn about all things email deliverability! We've been following a group of deliverability experts who recently shared a ton of knowledge for #deliverabilityweek.
We thought we'd share some highlights to help you, along with our regular tools, knowledge and expertise.
Here's what you'll learn this week
Highlights from #deliverabilityweek
This week's top email resources
Email expert practical tip of the week
Smart email senders we're learning from
The fun stuff: No ragrets when it comes to email sending
Let's get into this week's email knowledge 🚀
A big part of our philosophy at Email Expert Africa is learning from others who exceed our skills and knowledge in various spaces.
Email deliverability is one of those.
The inbox requirements required for getting into the inbox are getting stricter, and changing almost daily.
This is a good thing!
We don't want bad email senders and spammers diminishing email as a channel, do we?
The problem for email senders is that keeping up with these changes can be, well, tough.
Here's where the experts come in!
We're going to explore 4+ of the most insightful articles from #deliverabilityweek for our readers.
We hope you learn from these as we have over the past few weeks 💪
Our first insight comes from Laura Tessmer Atkins, Founder of Word to the Wise.
In Laura's contribution, we learn why we often hear the words "It depends" when it comes to email deliverability.
Most email senders know that when diagnosing issues with deliverability, there could be many reasons why emails aren't getting to the inbox.
"In most cases any “how do I” question in deliverability has multiple answers that will all work.
Some of those answers are more appropriate than others for a particular situation. When we say “… it depends” it means we can give you a five answers, but if you want the appropriate one for your situation, then you’ll need to give us more details."
If you've heard the phrase "It depends" before, here's a quick explanation to help ease your frustration with the answer/ lack of an answer.
Our next insight comes from Richelo Killian, Founder of Inbox Jam.
Richelo covers a simple yet accurate framework of what consent in email marketing consists of.
The goal for any email sender is to have folks who actually want to hear from them as members of their audience.
This article covers which user actions constitute consent, and how to navigate this soundly.
"Consent in email marketing is when someone gives you their email address with explicit permission to be added to an email list for the purposes of sending updates and/or marketing messages related to the company being given explicit permission to.
Consent CAN be revoked at any time, and when consent is revoked, it MUST be honored!"
To ensure you're following sound consent practices, read this easy-to-digest article.
Our third insight comes from Travis Hazlewood, expert head of deliverability at ORTTO.
Travis shares some great ways to diagnose and fix deliverability issues, especially if your deliverability sucks.
Here's a sad but true reality: As email senders, we're often the root cause of our own deliverability issues.
"Once you can admit that maybe something’s not broken and the solution is likely a learning experience for you, then you can troubleshoot things correctly."
Read this article for great beginner and technical tips to help your deliverability suck less.
Our final insight comes from Al Iverson, founder of Spam Resource.
We follow a ton of Al's resources, and Al's insights into deliverability problem-solving and analysis are phenomenal.
As mentioned, most deliverability issues are self-inflicted but changes to practices and ongoing actions are the first place to begin fixing these.
"Deliverability is a big practice, and an important practice, involving email marketing and email marketing best practices, email technology and authentication, abuse prevention and mitigation, industry collaboration, expert consultation, and so much more."
Instead of a single article, we've chosen to link you up with all of the articles and guest posts that Al shared during #deliverabilityweek below.
Email resources of the week
Cool articles and resources to help you become a better email sender
A brilliant deliverability resource
While discussing all things deliverability, not mentioning this would be criminal.
Lauren is a deliverability expert we look up to and has just kicked off a blog and newsletter on all things deliverability
Why you should start a newsletter
Regardless of your business, newsletters can be a powerful growth tool.
If you're on the fence about kicking off a newsletter for your business, offer, or just for fun, begin here.
Collecting zero-party data
We all know zero-party data can be crucial to customising emails for your audience.
There are, however, good and bad ways to do this. The team at Litmus put together some great places to begin doing this well.
Email Expert Practical Tip of the Week
Today's tip is from sales psychology expert, Katelyn Bourgoin
If you're looking to hit the mark and attract the right subscribers to your emails, then these three questions are crucial.
This is the basis for any ideal customer profile, so apply it in as many ways as you can to build solid products too.
(PS! Give Katelyn a follow on X here)
Smart email senders we're learning from
We believe that learning from some of the greatest in the industry is one of the best ways to improve.
Here are three emails we found that followed sound email principles or used innovative strategies to nail their email goals.
Take a look at this week's best 👌
Pride Month Email by Athletic Brewing
June was Pride month, so what better than a campaign celebrating love and company values laid out beautifully?
Check it out here
Cart Abandonment Email by Liquid Death
Here's a cheeky yet clever cart abandonment email by the team at Liquid Death that hits all the right design and action goals.
Check it out here
Animated GIF Email by Patagonia
We LOVE animated GIFs used well in email The team at Patagonia hit the mark showcasing their product in a great way using strong imagery.
Check it out here
Some more (email) fun to make your day better
It's okay, we all miss things in our emails at times. We've had a few fantastic misses in previous editions too 🙃
We guess we aren't alone, but this one had us chuckling to ourselves (and if you haven't seen We're The Millers yet, where have you been for the last 10 years?)
Thanks to the guys at The Marketing Millenials for this gem!
(PS: Sign up for their newsletter - It's one of our favourites)
We'll see you in two weeks, friend!
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Your feedback only makes us better.
Until next time,
Des💌
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