Email marketing
The know-how behind every send: building a list, what to send and how often, writing, design, the inbox, the law and your numbers.
22 articles
- Where to start: your first 90 daysStart with people who asked, a sign-up form and a welcome, then a steady weekly email, a follow-up for the people who click, and your own numbers. The order of work from day one to the end of the first quarter, where to start if you already send, and a starting plan for each kind of business.How it works
- The ten rules of email marketingMail only people who asked. Welcome them at once. Send weekly on a set day. Follow up the people who click. Judge by clicks, replies and purchases, never opens. Keep complaints under one in 1,000. Win back the quiet, then stop. Measure five numbers against your own. Plan the year on one page. Know what a subscriber is worth before paying for one.How it works
- Why email worksA business needs two kinds of email. Campaigns go out on a day you choose; sequences start because one person did something. Sequences are a small share of what's sent and a large share of what it earns, and campaigns still bring in most of the money.How it works
- Build your email listA list is people who asked. Give them one specific reason to join, ask for little, say what they'll get and how often, confirm the address, and put a way to join wherever interest is high.How it works
- The emails a business sendsEight types of email carry most of a small business's mail, each with one job. Start with a welcome sequence, add regular campaigns, follow up the people who click, and keep receipts free of selling.How it works
- How often to sendWeekly, on a set day, is the place to start, and never less than monthly. Send most to the people who engage, count everything one person gets, and step up only when your own numbers say so.How it works
- The right email for the right peopleSend each group what fits it. Start with three groups, customers and prospects, engaged and quiet, and one interest you ask about, judge people by clicks, replies and purchases rather than opens, and pick a sensible send time and keep it.How it works
- From name, subject line and previewThree lines decide the open. A from name the reader knows, a subject line that says what's inside and why it matters with the deciding words first, and preview text that adds a second reason. Then a headline inside that keeps the promise.How it works
- Write an email people readAn email is read in about ten seconds. Write to one person, put the point in the first line, give it one job, use plain words and specifics, lead with what the reader gets, and answer the main doubt before the button.How it works
- Email design and layoutPeople look at an email for a few seconds, mostly on a phone. Design one column, 600 pixels wide, phone first, with the headline in real text and the main button in the first screen, built from a small set of blocks that look the same every time.How it works
- Get the clickMost emails exist to win one click to a page that does the rest. Give the email one main action as a real button that names what the reader gets, put it in the first phone screen, answer the last doubt beside it, and send the click to a page that keeps the email's promise.How it works
- Pictures, animation and videoUse a picture where it shows something words can't, keep every word in real text, and make sure the email still works with pictures off. Animate only to show, put the message in the first frame, and link to video rather than trying to play it in the inbox.How it works
- Phones, dark mode and accessibilityDesign as if every reader holds a phone in one hand and gives the email ten seconds. One fluid column, text they can read and enlarge, buttons for a thumb, colours that survive dark mode, and an email a screen reader can read.How it works
- Welcome, newsletter, offer and launch emailsThe four emails most businesses send most. A welcome keeps the sign-up's promise in its first screen, a newsletter is a contents page with one labelled offer, an offer puts what, how much, until when and the button in the first screen, and a launch names the new thing by what it lets the reader do.How it works
- Carts, win-backs, events and receiptsAn email sent because of what one person just did earns far more per email than one sent on a timetable. Remind a cart fast and answer why people leave, follow up a click, look after a buyer, ask the quiet ones a plain question, run an event on reminders, and keep a receipt a receipt.How it works
- Get into the inboxWhether your email reaches the inbox depends mostly on how people react to it. Mail only people who asked, keep spam complaints under 1 in 1,000, make leaving effortless, keep the list clean, stop mailing people who never respond, and send from a domain that's properly set up.How it works
- Email marketing and the lawThe reader's country decides the law, not yours. Ask first and keep proof, say who you are with a postal address, put a working unsubscribe in every email and act on it at once, write honest from names and subject lines, and never buy a list. That one set of habits meets the law in the US, the EU, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.How it works
- Measure what mattersAn open no longer proves anyone read your email. Judge each email by what people did next, clicks, replies, orders and money, count unsubscribes and complaints as the cost, and compare it with your own usual on a graph whose scale you hold, never with an industry table.How it works
- Test your emailsA fair test sends two versions at the same moment to a random split of your list, changes one thing, and is judged by clicks or the goal, chosen before you send. A small list can only see big differences, so test big things, repeat the test and add up the results. And check every email before it goes.How it works
- Plan your email yearWrite the year on one page before any email: the goal as one number, who gets what, a steady weekly day, the sequences first, four to eight dates that fit what you sell, list growth, one test at a time, and review dates. Each date becomes a short sequence, prepared weeks ahead.How it works
- Dates for your email calendarThe dates worth planning email around from late November 2026 to November 2027, for the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with what each suits. Pick only the few that fit what you sell, start early, and check each date before you build on it.How it works
- Before you press sendCheck every email before it goes. Every link and the unsubscribe work, every personal field has a fallback, the from name, subject line and preview are right, your prices, dates and codes match your terms, nothing broken shows, it reads on a phone, in dark mode and with pictures off, the landing page matches, and a test send reaches real inboxes.How it works