Since the dumpster fire of 2020 is over, everything changes, right? Maybe it’s not that simple, but you can kick off the year by reviewing last year’s email analytics to get this year’s strategy into shape (gym membership not required). <h1>9 Email Analytics to Keep an Eye On</h1> <h2>1) Clickthrough Rates</h2> One of the top email reports for every marketer is email clickthrough rate (CTR), the percentage of links clicked in an email. Your email message and design should persuade your audience to do something: visit your website, fill out a survey, make a purchase, or do a little dance. You can take your email click reports one step further by reviewing an email’s click map or heat map. This map is a great visual to see where people are clicking (or where they aren’t clicking) in the email template. Are your subscribers loving your CTA buttons, or are they clicking on more of your plain-text links? <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/b2dbc764258c4e57a617aff7095a6322"> What about those social media icons – are those serving your audience or are those an afterthought in the footer? Use these analytics as a tool to decide what to keep, change, or get rid of in your email content. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/9dab1c53a8b244148832b456cd167eaa"> <h2>2) Return on Investment (ROI)</h2> The ROI of an email shows you and the higher-ups in your company the value of email marketing. This is the big picture sales number that everyone likes to see to understand what worked in an email campaign, and how much additional money it generated for the company (minus the dollar amount your company invested in the email campaign). ROI is a crucial metric in sales, retail, e-commerce, small businesses, large corporations…everyone in the company is happy to hear these analytics. <h2>3) Conversion Rate</h2> An email’s conversion rate is the percentage of subscribers who clicked a link in the email and completed an action, such as filling out a <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/do-email-pop-ups-work" target="_blank">form</a> or buying a pair of shoes.To track these conversions, you could add an integration like Google Analytics and set up a goal to track when people fill out that form on your contact page or buy those shoes. You can also add <a href="https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/" target="_blank">UTM parameters</a> – in your own email and especially when your link is included in another company’s campaign – to track your campaigns. You’ll add campaign variables, including the source (“newsletter”), medium (“email”), and name (“rge_promo”) to track where people are coming from and how they’re converting. Ad: <a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=tanban&amp;utm_campaign=reporting" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/1bd2720096604eca98e70bd97b350b08"></a> <h2>4) Open Rates</h2> The open rate is the percentage of emails your audience opens. Factors like subject line, preview text, email sender name, and the “from” email address can affect open rates. An “open” counts when someone clicks to open an email – before clicking any links – and if images are enabled. Be mindful when you’re analyzing this metric because if a subscriber who blocks images opens the email, that open might not be included in the campaign’s open rate (but if they click links within that email, these will count in the CTR). Digging deeper into open rates, you can review email client opens, mobile opens versus desktop opens and update your design and send strategy from there. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/42fd17ff03c84508b2b8fcf547d13d24"> <h2>5) Engagement</h2> Email engagement helps you determine how often subscribers are opening and clicking your emails. This helps all sorts of industries get the most out of their email lists, from <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/ecommerce" target="_blank">e-commerce</a> to <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/retail" target="_blank">retail</a>, personal <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/newsletter" target="_blank">newsletters</a>, and industry-specific <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/product-update-new-feature" target="_blank">updates</a>. Think about:<ul><li>Who’s visiting your site?</li><li>Are shoppers using your promo codes?</li><li>Who’s replying directly to your emails?</li><li>How many people are clicking the header link in the email?</li><li>Who’s signing up for a free trial?</li><li>How many people aren’t opening or clicking?</li><li>Why aren’t they interacting with our content?</li><li>If there’s a large number of subscribers who aren’t very engaged with your content, then you can think about creating a <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/retention-reactivation" target="_blank">re-engagement campaign</a> to get them interested in your product or your content again.</li></ul> <h2>6) Delivery Rates</h2> Your delivery rate is just a small piece of the big picture, but it’s still an important metric to make sure people receive your message. If you notice a dip in delivery rates, there are a few things you can check: <ul><li>Sending Address – where you’re sending the email from</li><li>From Email Address (hello@support.youraddress.com) and From Name (Really Good Emails -or- Mike at Really Good Emails)</li><li>If you’re sending from a custom domain (preferably a subdomain, but not required), make sure you’ve authenticated that domain with your ESP and your domain provider (SPF and/or DKIM records).</li><li>Email Sending IP – If your IP is new to sending emails, send out small batches of emails to start to build a trusty sending IP.</li><li>Complaint Feedback Loops – when people mark your email as spam, this counts as a complaint against you as a sender, which could hurt your sending reputation</li></ul> <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/aca05c5477d34b26bbac6b06681f46fc"> <a href="https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/email-deliverability-test/" target="_blank">14.8% of all emails</a> might not be delivered, getting caught in the spam folder or disappearing for some unknown reason. You can increase your deliverability rates by sending personalized, targeted emails, engaging your audience, and sending from a custom domain that’s been authenticated. <h2>7) Bounce Rates</h2> The bounce rate is the number of emails that couldn’t be delivered to email recipients. You’ll see two types of bounce rates in your email analytics: soft bounce and hard bounce, depending on the delivery failure reason. A soft bounce is a temporary email delivery failure. This could be caused by a full mailbox, a busy email server, or if the mailbox isn’t set up correctly, if an ESP is trying to send too many emails at once to a single email client. A soft bounce is common when you’re sending a large volume of emails to an email client such as AOL, Yahoo, and Comcast. If you’re seeing a high rate of soft bounced emails, try throttling an email campaign to send a smaller number of emails per hour. For example, if you’re sending 100,000 emails to a lot of AOL addresses, throttle the campaign to send 1,000 emails per hour. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/745e11880bbc40e58a2fe6f44ca3632f"> A hard bounce is a permanent email delivery failure. An email could result in a hard bounce due to a bad email address, bad domain, the email address no longer exists, or an email server is blocking the email from being delivered. The best thing is you can do with hard bounced email addresses is to remove or archive these contacts and keep your list squeaky clean. <h2>8) Subscriber Count</h2> Keeping an eye on your subscriber count can help you track your list growth. When your subscriber count increases, analyze why there’s an increase. Did you add a new signup form on your website? Were you running a promotion during that month? <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/d116144ecbe24e2398ae8673f73b0261"> If your subscriber count decreases, take a minute to question what you could improve with how you’re getting subscribers in the door, and how you’re enticing them to stay. <a href="https://youtu.be/4dtirA7g6Wg?t=319" target="_blank">Ask your subscribers</a> what they love about your emails and question what they don’t love. Send an email to a select group of subscribers or ask them to reply directly to your email. Keep the line of communication open. <h2>9) Unsubscribe Rate</h2> The <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/unsubscribe" target="_blank">unsubscribe</a> rate is the percentage of email recipients on your list who opt out of receiving future emails from you. A <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/7-really-good-unsubscribe-pages-preference-centers" target="_blank">preference center</a> can help your subscribers choose what emails they want to continue receiving if they don’t want to unsubscribe altogether. (If you use a preference center, it’s a good complement to an unsubscribe link, not a replacement.) HubSpot mentions it’s helpful to keep an eye on the unsubscribe rate, but your <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blog-subscriber-graymail-purge" target="_blank">subscriber engagement</a> is more important. Focus on who’s opening and clicking on your emails and who’s not engaging with your emails. This is an opportunity for you to <a href="https://youtu.be/dmpXi_ErBc8" target="_blank">re-engage</a> inactive subscribers before they opt out. <h2>Compare Email Analytics</h2> Keep track of your team’s objectives and your campaign progress. If you don’t have a method to the madness like a spreadsheet or automated reporting system, this is a great time to get to it! Start fresh. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/9ee20102b69f401d828ab728e9065913"> When I fell into email marketing, I inherited a hefty old spreadsheet and kept track of these analytics on a monthly basis: <ul><li>Total number of emails sent (#,###,###)</li><li>Emails delivered (%)</li><li>Open rates (%)</li><li>Clickthrough rates (%)</li><li>Opt-outs (%)</li></ul> There were 3 sheets in the spreadsheet: 1) Metrics for all clients, 2) Metrics for one of the company’s largest clients (sort of a big gaming magazine published in different countries), and 3) Metrics for internal company campaigns. This helped the company and me see how much revenue the email department (audience of one) generated each month, and if we needed to ramp up on email clients. <h2>Keep Track of Email Analytics with a System that Works for You</h2> Every company and every marketer will have a different goal with their email marketing. Find something that works for you. Whatever <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/report-infographic-case-study" target="_blank">reporting</a> system you create, make sure it’s WELL-documented – in work tickets, an internal wiki, everywhere. If you were to call out of work tomorrow, leave your email position, or train someone, keeping an organized reporting system in place helps for a smooth transition. When you look at all these different analytics, you can really help your company, your clients, and yourself to see what’s working, what you need to switch up and create a campaign strategy from there. Create emails that align with your goals, your message, and your audience. Ad: <a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=prodban&amp;utm_campaign=reporting" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/f91a281429714e46a8c6df37743a0421"></a>

Since the dumpster fire of 2020 is over, everything changes, right? Maybe it’s not that simple, but you can kick off the year by reviewing last year’s email analytics to get this year’s strategy into shape (gym membership not required).

9 Really Good Email Analytics to Keep Track Of

Segmentation is really just another way of spelling “personalization.” It’s a strategy in building and maintaining relationships with your customers based on how they interact with your site and your products. Marketers have seen as much as a <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-stats" target="_blank">760% increase in revenue</a> thanks to segmenting their campaigns. Audience segmentation comes down to reviewing customer engagement, personalizing the experience, and reflecting on behavioral stats to keep the conversation going. <h2>Check out your audience’s engagement</h2> Customers are looking for the right companies to commit to while companies analyze customer engagement. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/webinar-keep-customers-and-build-brand-love-with-email" target="_blank">Build a relationship</a> with your audience as soon as they show an interest in you. Think about custom send dates and times based on when your audience is most active with your content or based on their location. Your audience will be more excited about your content when you send it at a time that’s convenient for them. Add tags, create subscriber groups, and work with the information that you have to personalize the inbox experience. Do what works best for you and your audience based on the data you have. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/a6c37bb09d9c4078903d54518cbf41ba"> You can use data such as when a customer signed up on your site to send an <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/anniversary" target="_blank">anniversary email</a>. Send a personalized <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/engagement" target="_blank">engagement email</a> based on their activity on your site like Spotify does with users' favorite artists and song play counts. Send a <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/product-sale" target="_blank">product sale email</a> based on a customer’s last order date, the purchase amount, and purchase type. You can use this for lapsed customers who haven't placed an order in a certain period of time as part of a <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/retention-reactivation" target="_blank">re-engagement</a> campaign. Depending on the data that’s available to you and the email provider you use, you can be very broad or very detailed in your segmentation strategies. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/088d4aec13674a3599b0cfbc645f6f95"> Ad: <a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=prodban&amp;utm_campaign=segmentation" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/e6510b29a45f4443bea0417ea35158f2"></a><h2> </h2><h2>Personalize every message (not just the welcome email)</h2> Customers love good news and progress reports. They want to know how many miles they ran, if they beat their friends in a challenge, and if they’re on the right track with their goals. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/fitbit" target="_blank">Fitbit</a> sends weekly stat emails like this based on user activity. The user tracks their fitness activity on their device or in the app and can customize their goals in their profile. This personalization is a great example of how to keep your audience coming back for more with your products. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/your-weekly-progress-report-from-fitbit" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/51263cd7691f4df49077cff783852d5a"></a> Create buckets based on user activity for different audience segments. In Fitbit's case, they might bucket their audience into extra active runners, average walkers, and people who need more motivation, and then personalize the messaging to those segments. You can bucket your audience based on user profiles and how they interact with your product. By doing so, you can see how tailoring messaging related to those buckets on a personalized level impacts user behavior and activity later. <h2>Celebrate your anniversary</h2> Customers want to know they’re more than just dollars in a company’s pocket. Why do you think <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAPcHdlB7MM" target="_blank">Chipotle</a> and <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/taco-bell" target="_blank">Taco Bell</a> released branded swag? They know their customers love their brand and people love a comfy burrito sweatshirt.&nbsp; Celebrate customer milestones, including when they signed up for your platform or when they made their first purchase. Add fun, behavioral data in your emails, such as how many hours your customers perused your blog, what their favorite store candle scent from your store is, and if they finally caught up on the Mandalorian. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/happy-1st-playstationversary" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/619c9c9ceafc47c081f4cb0956c8c5af"></a> An anniversary email is a great way to keep customers engaged, or to re-engage them if they haven’t made a purchase or haven’t visited your site in a while. Using a re-engagement segmentation like this would be based on lapsed users or the time elapsed between purchases. Make sure the messaging is clear like the <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/playstation" target="_blank">PlayStation</a> email above. Otherwise, subscribers might be confused about whether you’re celebrating <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/feedback-friday-surveymonkey" target="_blank">their account anniversary or your company’s anniversary</a>. Ad: <a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=grnban&amp;utm_campaign=segmentation" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/ee5fdd9a0e15426bb0c8683effe0bccf"></a> Here’s another example where <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/careof" target="_blank">Care/of</a> makes it clear that they’re celebrating the company’s birthday. They share internal milestones while encouraging the reader to join the fun by downloading the app or taking a quiz. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/its-our-birthday" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/ace3465d657540b58095b015201558e3"></a> <h2>Expand on customer behavior stats</h2> Jeff Rossi, previously Spotify’s Global Director of Business Marketing, mentioned that <a href="https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/spotifys-head-b2b-marketing-keeping-rising-advertiser-expectations/" target="_blank">one out of every two Spotify streams</a> is initiated by the user. When users dig a platform, they’ll spend more time interacting with the content and searching for what they like, giving companies the opportunity to segment and reciprocate that interaction. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/spotify" target="_blank">Spotify</a> segments their emails according to user location and user behavior in the app and on the website. This Time Capsule email leads the user to a personalized playlist, created by Spotify, based on throwback songs and artists that the user listened to most often. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/remember-santeria-by-sublime" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/ea420c8593e14ac4b72611a1e542d96b"></a> Spotify also sends a handy “Upcoming concerts near you” email, pulling updated artist info, venues, and show dates based on user location and streaming activity. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/upcoming-shows-near-greenville-aziz-ansari-east-forest-and-more" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/17c1845b1e9d41ac8ecd3e8bdc9b7415"></a> In a third example, Spotify shares how many minutes users streamed audio on Spotify and/or how many different songs they listened to. When users click the CTA button, Spotify sends them to a customized playlist based on the songs and podcasts they listened to the most that year. All of these examples personalize the experience, bringing people back to Spotify’s platform. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/spotify" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/41ae05edd61d4b1a87d35213ed0d0cc7"></a> <h2>Segment your audience based on previous purchases</h2> When a customer walks out of a brick and mortar, that could be the end of the company-customer relationship unless they hit it off one-on-one. But if a customer signs up with their email address or phone number (in-store and online), that’s an opportunity to continue the relationship based on a customer’s <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/recent-purchase" target="_blank">purchase activity</a>. You have the opportunity to ask for feedback. Request a product review after the customer buys that swanky chair. Or send a survey to get feedback on their shopping experience. You can also send follow-up emails for a customer to buy an item again, purchase a refill (hello, fridge water filters), or renew their membership. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/what-did-you-think-of-your-recent-order-65006006500600" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/7adb2626cdf640b8bc63eeb8de92a355"></a> If a customer hasn’t purchased from you in a certain amount of time, or if they’ve left an item in their online cart, this is a great opportunity to check back in with that customer. You don’t want them to leave you on read without taking action. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/b2397483b7324203a9bfba845ce55746"> They might still be interested in that product, but they got distracted. Life got busy and they exited all tabs instead of just the tab with all the annoying notifications. Sending a personalized email based on customer purchase behavior is key to bringing them back to your site. <h2>Segmentation can save you money, especially with SMS marketing</h2> When you send a targeted message to a specific group of people, you can save money by sending fewer emails or fewer SMS messages. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/feedback-friday-postscript" target="_blank">SMS marketing</a> is a solid way to reach your customers (as a complement to emails) when you’re ready to take the customer relationship to the next level. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/feedback-friday-postscript" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/e93cddcaf5464638a26f8a4f3d98c2c9"></a> You can use SMS marketing to send a quick and concise message, sharing a product launch or a promo code. Keep in mind, you might have more opt-outs in SMS marketing than email marketing due to the personal nature of SMS messages. Make sure you send engaging messages that benefit the person on the other side of the screen. You have a lot of options to segment your SMS messaging:<ul><li>New customers</li><li>Returning customers</li><li>VIP memberships</li><li>Number of purchases</li><li>Purchase type</li><li>Last purchase date</li><li>Abandoned cart customers (new vs. returning customers)</li></ul> These are all opportunities for re-engagement and win-back campaigns. Make every message relevant. Track customer activity and integrate with tools like Zapier, CartHook, Omnisend, and Klaviyo to filter that activity and adjust your SMS campaigns. <h2>Build a solid plan for your audience segmentation and stick with it.</h2> At the end of the day, segmentation is really just checking in with your customers, reminding them to return to what they love. Think about what they’re interested in, what they’re buying, and what they’re interacting with on your site. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/feedback-friday-filmsupply" target="_blank">Email is landing pages delivered</a>. Guide your customers with personalized messaging based on their behavior, and deliver that experience in the best way possible. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/76dd783a268741dba17501b028d8e875"> Ad: <a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=tanban&amp;utm_campaign=segmentation" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/e8241f5bdfcf4f9084f68aaf7ee1daca"></a>

Personalizing the customer experience from the moment you lay eyes on their email address can set you both up for a wonderful relationship.

Delight your customers with audience segmentation

Do you really need another gift guide? Probably not, but being people of the variety with eyeballs, hearts, and legs we wanted to share a little bit about our team and a gift guide was a cool way to do that. It's been a wild year for everyone on planet earth, or "erf" as my 9-year-old would say, and yet I've seen some of the best of humanity this year despite the challenges. Giving and receiving gifts is a fun tradition in my family and on our team. Learn a little bit about us based on our gift ideas below. <h1>Matthew (<a href="Twitter.com/whale" target="_blank">@whale</a>)</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>I already have essentially everything I need in life, but <a href="https://www.miir.com/products/campcup" target="_blank">this 12oz Camp Cup is one of my favorite objects</a>. I bring it nearly everywhere with me. It keeps coffee perfectly hot, but not too hot for 25 years like some other brands. I like my coffee drinkable within a 2 hour period. Small cup. Black. Matte. Fucking cool. Get it. <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I want to give <a href="https://jenis.com/box/" target="_blank">Jeni’s Ice Cream Box</a>. This is the perfect gift for anyone who loves Ice Cream. Wait, sorry, that’s all the good people on earth. If you have evil relatives they may not like ice cream and prefer things like dried marmite discs. Trust me this Jeni’s shit is gold. <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>I want to support my favorite charity GOAT. Great Outdoor Adventure Trips (for disadvantaged youth). This group supports outdoor life and training for kids who’d normally never have access to something that was super important in my own upbringing. You can donate <a href="https://goattrips.org/donate/" target="_blank">here</a>. <hr><h1>Mike (<a href="https://twitter.com/mevlow" target="_blank">@mevlow</a>)</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>Something that makes me more active / reminds me to move around. I sit all day at my computer, watching this “dad bod” become more like a “Jabba-the-Hutt bod.” I’ve been really eyeing an overpriced Peloton but will probably just settle for an apple watch for fitness since I also need a reminder to not be late to zoom meetings on my wrist. <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I’m the worst at gifts. Seriously. I once gave my brother a disco ball and still not sure why. What I’d love to give versus what I typically give are two different things, but recently I’ve been getting some joy out of putting together quarantined weekend getaways. You can find some killer deals in some obscure places right now if all you want to do is hike, watch movies, and sit around a fire pit. <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>Since my wife and I got together more than 10 years ago, we’ve participated in something called Fast Offerings, where we give up eating for most of a day – at least once per month – and give what we would’ve spent on those meals for our family to feeding and sheltering the poor. It’s a great way to make sure that we’re helping the people around us and to be grateful for what we have. We serve at local food banks or homeless shelters throughout the year when we can. <hr><h1>Matt H. (<a href="https://twitter.com/mtthlbg" target="_blank">@mtthlbg</a>)</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>I love me some dry spikey plants that remind me of my feelings for bad emails. If you're also a <a href="https://shop.hotcactus.la/collections/plants/products/epithelantha-micromeris-specimen?variant=37556502823081" target="_blank">cactus freak</a>, this is a great gift. <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I know the other Matt* based team members live in the South where BBQ is contested and debated like mad, but people need more Japanese in their lives and so I prefer this mad science of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YP13BRB" target="_blank">Japanese BBQ sauce</a>. Makes for a hot little gift. <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>I love supporting my friends without mustaches. What better way than to give to the businesses that they run through <a href="https://www.womenownedlogo.com/ " target="_blank">Women Owned Logo</a>. <hr><h1>Matt C. (<a href="https://twitter.com/mattecook" target="_blank">@mattecook</a>)</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>I'm neck-deep in the little years with my wife and 4 amazing kiddos. With the prospect of soon being able to get back outdoors and adventuring, I'm dusting off all the old outdoors gear and replacing the equipment that's just too old for use. I'm hoping for some <a href="https://www.burton.com/us/en/p/mens-burton-ruler-boa-snowboard-boot/W20-203171.html" target="_blank">Burton Ruler Boa boots</a>. I know I'm receiving an <a href="https://www.burton.com/us/en/p/mens-anon-raider-3-helmet/W21-214291.html" target="_blank">Anon Raider 3</a> snowboarding helmet because my family values my noggin. I'm pretty sure a long-term client is getting me a <a href="https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/talon-4-2021" target="_blank">Giant Talon 4</a>. <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I love giving my time. The most valuable thing I have in life right now is my time and there are so many folks around me who could use it. I have friends and community members struggling to adapt their work and businesses to the trauma of a global pandemic. Truly giving time without expecting anything in return is a gift few people give and many people need. I've given my time to help pivot a catering business to an online meal delivery service. I've given my time to ideate on a personal finances startup being fueled by one person and a dream. <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>I'm eager to support local families in need and (as cliche as it may seem) Wikipedia. Lots of families around me could use supporting hands and help--especially with the amount of illness keeping us all distant.&nbsp;I'm impressed by the <a href="https://millionmealmovement.org/" target="_blank">Million Meal Movement</a> and a local nonprofit called <a href="https://loavesandfishesgreenville.com/donate-food/" target="_blank">Loaves and Fishes</a>. You can also find me trying to spin up <a href="https://takethemameal.com/" target="_blank">Take them a Meal</a> for family and community members. I have a passion for people being able to search for truth and information and I can't think of a better organization for self-education than Wikipedia. Check out exactly what the <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/support/" target="_blank">Wikimedia Foundation</a> does. <hr><h1>Krista</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>To this day, <a href="https://www.nespresso.com/us/en/order/machines/vertuo/vertuo-evoluo-deluxe-black-and-aeroccino-plus" target="_blank">this Nespresso is still the best gift</a> I ever bought myself. I am a bit of a coffee fiend and drink about 4 cups a day, which you can imagine adds up quickly. However, this simple, wonderful, minimal effort, espresso machine makes all my mornings better. Whipped cream sold separately but 10/10 recommend you put some on top. <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I am the best and the worst at giving presents. I love coming up with unique presents for everyone I love, but I also want to give them out right away! Patience may not be my strongest trait! This year, I’ve been gifting all my fellow dog mamas, the <a href="https://shopus.furbo.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzsz-BRCCARIsANotFgNPWDQlVJHjo3aBbVK3IrujOlwhCMHtWu6G5xuINTBoRuofZS6LqRgaAivJEALw_wcB" target="_blank">Furbo Dog Camera</a>. I’m a crazy dog mom so I’m obviously obsessed with mine, and I feel so much better knowing I can see my pup and give him treats when he’s an extra good boi! <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>I’m supporting a wonderful adoption agency, <a href="http://www.specialangelsadoption.org/ourfamilies.html" target="_blank">Special Angels Adoption</a>. This organization helps children with special needs find a loving, safe home with parents who have firsthand knowledge of how to care for these children. They also offer support services to both the birth parents and adoptive families.&nbsp; <hr><h1>Alex (<a href="https://twitter.com/aclaussdesign" target="_blank">@aclaussdesign</a>)</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>Spending so much time in my house this year has made me reevaluate how much physical "stuff" I want to surround myself with. For retro gaming fans who also like to do some light hardware tinkering, you can set up a <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/" target="_blank">Raspberry Pi</a> with <a href="https://retropie.org.uk/download/" target="_blank">RetroPie</a> as a cheap and easy way to condense a huge game library down to one tiny device. Most controllers work with it, and there are tons of easy-to-follow guides online to get you set up. <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>This year, I've tried to buy as many Christmas gifts as I can from small makers. If you do a little hunting on Etsy and Instagram, there are mountains of ultra-talented artisans with great gift options. And if all else fails, getting gift cards to your favorite local restaurants and businesses is a great way to share hidden gems with friends and family. <h2>What do you love to support?</h2><a href="https://www.girlsmakegames.com/support" target="_blank">Girls Make Games</a> organizes camps to teach young girls the ropes of game development and increase representation in the historically male-centric games industry. I've worked with them in the past to help make prototypes from attendees into full-fledged, playable games, and it's an amazing thing to be a part of. Especially this year when they've had to pivot to digital teaching, any donations help a lot. <hr><h1>Chin</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>I'd really like to go for a vacation with my family just to wind down. A change of environment to reflect for the coming year instead of being stuck at home (which many of us are right now due to the pandemic). <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I want to give <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CHh1VT6jB0q/" target="_blank">this drying rack</a>, especially for calligraphers! Love the workmanship. I'm all out to support our small local businesses here :) <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>I want to support the <a href="http://www.nasom.org.my/" target="_blank">National Autism Society of Malaysia</a> (NASOM). It was founded by a group of parents and professionals to help children or people with autism to reach their full potential and participate in their communities, because they can also lead a meaningful life with dignity. With more and more children having autism in recent years, I think it is important to support them so that they can carry out what they have envisioned to do. <hr><h1>Will (<a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/will" target="_blank">@will</a>)</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>If 2020 has reminded me of one thing, it’s this: family really&nbsp;really&nbsp;matters. Having not seen my brother, who lives in Sydney, and my sister who lives in Auckland for over a year, all I want for Christmas is a travel bubble! <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I live on giving and receiving knowledge. I love sharing ideas, concepts and information with people in ways where the information truly sticks. I’ve had a year of doing this at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ausmed.com.au/" target="_blank">Ausmed</a>, and would love to continue to doing this forever. <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>I care deeply about the environment, and our animals. From the smallest insects to the largest beasts. COVID has been good and bad for our environment; reducing carbon, but increasing plastic usage. <hr><h1>Kelly (<a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/kellylamano" target="_blank">@kellylamano</a>)</h1> <h2>What do you want for the holidays?</h2>When it comes to physical items, I’ve been in two modes this year: buying quirky things (like a Pac-Man suit) and minimizing by getting rid of or donating things I no longer need. With less “things,” I'm still a sucker for acoustic music and I miss going to live shows. So, I want to see more music performances. I’ve been loving artist livestreams lately, like <a href="https://shop.youngthegiant.com/pages/livestream" target="_blank">Young the Giant</a> (a band I was fortunate enough to have seen in person three years ago), <a href="https://ryancabrera.veeps.com/stream/events/a48c4622461a" target="_blank">Ryan Cabrera</a> (yes, that guy), and the documentary concert film <a href="https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/movie/folklore-the-long-pond-studio-sessions" target="_blank">folklore: the long pond studio sessions</a>. The performances are affordable, plus, I can watch them in comfy clothes and get some background on the stories behind the music. <h2>What do you love to give?</h2>I love to give advice. I host <a href="https://www.freelancersunion.org/get-involved/spark-events/" target="_blank">free workshops for freelancers</a>, and recently I’ve been meeting virtually with people one-on-one who are unsure about their career or want to learn more about where to start with freelancing. In the early days of my own freelancing, I asked people to meet for coffee or emailed them questions to learn from different perspectives. Talking to people was instrumental in making sure I had the resources I needed before I took the leap. I love paying it forward by listening to people, answering questions, writing recommendations, and sharing resources. <h2>What do you love to support?</h2>I love to support <a href="https://www.gktw.org/help/" target="_blank">Give Kids the World Village</a>, a nonprofit resort that works with wish-granting organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Village provides a free, week-long vacation for critically ill children and their families who want to visit Orlando, FL. I volunteered at GKTW for 4 summers, and one of the most moving experiences is the Castle of Miracles. It's usually each family's first stop in the Village. The Wish child gets a gold star, writes his or her name on the star, and then drops the star into a tree stump. Then, the Castle fairy hangs up the star on the Castle ceiling, which stays there forever. Families usually come back to the Castle later that day and volunteers help them find the child’s star on the ceiling. Sometimes Wish families from 5, 10, even 20+ years ago return to see their child's star. It might take the whole crew - employees, volunteers, a ladder, flashlight, craning necks - to find stars on the ceiling from years ago, but it’s an amazing experience for everyone. GKTW temporarily shut down this year and has been hosting virtual events, so the organization could really use some support with donations. <hr><h1>Much Love, Email Geeks</h1> Seriously, we benefit so much from being part of this community. Everyone on the RGE team still has full time jobs doing other things and creating this resource to make the world a little less spammy is a big piece of joy for us. Thank you for being part of that. We hope everyone's holiday season is filled with something that reminds you of the joys associated with being human. You do that for us. Hugs and High Fives, Matthew &amp; the Really Good Emails team.

We look back on the crazy year that was 2020 and share what we want, what we love to give, and what we love to support this holiday season.

Team RGE's Really Good Gift Guide for 2020

Triggered email open rates were <a href="https://us.epsilon.com/pressroom/epsilons-q3-2017-email-trends-and-benchmarks-report-shows-increase-in-email-engagement-for-travel-hospitality-brands" target="_blank">67.9 percent higher</a> than business as usual emails and nearly doubled in click-through rates in Q3 2017. Email automations are all about welcoming customers and building a relationship upon a signup or customer action. When you change a web page or a form, that’s a great time to test or update any trigger emails connected to your customer journey. An automation isn't a "set it and forget it" situation. Update your email template, subscriber database, anything and everything to make sure your automation is connected, working, and doing its job. <h2>Here’s a look at key takeaways in updating different email automations:</h2><h2><a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/onboarding" target="_blank">Onboarding emails</a></h2>Onboarding emails are great for introducing subscribers to who you are, what you do, and how they can benefit from you. Whether you’re updating automations for a company, for a nonprofit, or for your own business, our ideas and goals can change throughout the years. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/how-do-you-run" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/d0cb6f3168de49d9b262d7d7bfe15301"></a> Update your onboarding emails as your messaging evolves. Include your mission statement. Where can people find you on social media? If it's part of your strategy, share the latest in your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzxszDYZCMQ3mVUDYR8L_T1hH4xOyfIi-" target="_blank">YouTube series</a>, podcasting, or how people can jump in on the conversation on social media to tag your company and build a relationship. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/michaels-g2-profile" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/872dade66ca848b3bbe971454e68c8c5"></a> When you’re welcoming customers into your virtual home, personalize the experience with the most recent and most important data you have. Update email merge tags to reflect the verbiage and the fields you’re requesting in landing pages and forms on social media. Think of your marketing content as living documents: as these change, so should your email automations. Ad:<a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=grnban&amp;utm_campaign=automation" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/ce9603924f7b41deb9e747bb8977849e"></a> <h2><a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/ecommerce" target="_blank">E-commerce emails</a></h2> There’s a LOT to cover with <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/ecommerce-emails" target="_blank">e-commerce emails</a>, so stay tuned for a deeper dive later on in this series about automations. For now, here’s a look at a few types of e-commerce automations to keep on your radar to update frequently. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/discount" target="_blank">Discounts</a> You’ve seen them all: <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/do-email-pop-ups-work" target="_blank">pop-up forms</a>, promo codes on social media, email signups, and taking quizzes about which type of bread you are in exchange for a discount. Customers expect to get these discounts immediately after completing an action on your website, so update these automations as often as you update your sales and products. New seasons, holidays, and new product launches are all great opportunities to check in with the automatic discounts you send out. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/get-10-of-your-first-purchase-" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/7a89bfb921bf47999e150b1358b62c34"></a> <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/order" target="_blank">Order</a> and <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/shipping" target="_blank">Shipping</a> Confirmations Keep confirmation emails focused and optimized per customer. In a bold move, Amazon removed item descriptions and images from its order and shipping confirmation emails. Customers might find this confusing, especially if they’re expecting multiple shipments. Do what’s best for your audience and keep the emails clear. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/confirmation" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/f8a09e0f564c469b836ea06466cd8fa7"></a> <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/review-testimonial" target="_blank">Reviews</a> Asking customers to leave a product review to earn 50 rewards points in their account can be an incentive-based ask in your automations. Keep this ask up to date with your current rewards and referral systems. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/upselling" target="_blank">Upselling</a> Recommending similar products to customers based on their previous purchases or offering product protection, depending on the item, can be a great way to keep customers coming back to your site to buy more. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/abandoned-cart" target="_blank">Abandoned cart</a> Segment these emails based on customer status: new customers, existing customers, VIP customers. Update these automations to start and stop sending after a certain period of time – and test it! In an example of what not to do, a customer received a reminder email 4 months after abandoning their cart. When they went to check the item in their cart, the cart was empty. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/28460219478749a0951041cc130bb8ef"> Get your customer data together. Bridge the gap between the abandoned cart and successful purchase by being timely and accurate with your automations. <h2><a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/categories/retention-reactivation" target="_blank">Retention emails</a></h2> Get customers back before they leave for good, and personalize the emails based on their activity (or lack thereof). In this Headspace email, the message is friendly and comforting. The email encourages the subscriber&nbsp;to keep going, even offering an explainer video related to overcoming obstacles and getting closer to the goal in mind. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/three-is-the-magic-number" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/a337be0f7cba4c99b992924b7dfb3507"></a>The key here is relating to the subscriber, meeting them where they’re at so they’ll be more inclined to return to the site or the product. In Hulu’s case, a Seinfeld GIF will always be relevant and (hopefully) put a smile on the subscriber’s face. Tying in the subscriber’s birthday adds a personalized touch to reengage them. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/happy-almost-birthday-from-your-friends-at-hulu" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/e680bffef4334f069e8e3163c7c46cc4"></a> <h2>Multichannel remarketing</h2> One of the best things about your original content – especially if it’s evergreen – is <a href="https://buffer.com/resources/repurposing-content-guide/" target="_blank">repurposing information</a> for different platforms, audiences, ads, and email campaigns. You can turn one blog post into countless social media posts, podcasts, and videos, tailoring each caption and scheduling the posts. SEO expert Brian Dean saw a whopping <a href="https://backlinko.com/seo-techniques#relaunch" target="_blank">111.37% increase in organic traffic</a> to a case study when he updated the blog post and re-promoted the post in an email to subscribers and on social media. By promoting new and existing content across multiple channels, you’re delivering a fresh experience per platform to meet your customers wherever they are. Plus, you're reminding search engines that you’re publishing or updating content consistently. <h2>Test those automations</h2> Always test updates. Whether that’s a new web page, a form, or your email automations, go through as much of the live process as a customer to make sure everything works. Test the updates on desktop, mobile, across browsers and devices. Ask your friends to test the updates. Heck, ask your cat or dog to get in on testing (okay, maybe that’s a bit much, but you get the point). Give your audience the most seamless experience possible throughout the entire journey. At RGE, we believe that <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/mental-inbox-with-matthew-smith-from-really-good-emails" target="_blank">email is relationship designed</a>. Maintain that relationship with your audience by keeping all the pieces connected in real-time. Ad:<a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=grnban&amp;utm_campaign=automation" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/02ce8ce5bcf84182ab713022e2c8c3fe"></a>

Frequently updating your email automations can help you save time and keep your content fresh to better serve your customers.

How to Keep Your Email Automations in Check

Really Good Emails CEO Matthew Smith guides us through looking internally at our thoughts, feelings, and fears, challenging us to bring ourselves and our customers to a safe space.

Mental Inbox with Matthew Smith from Really Good Emails

For how annoying they are and how much they go against UX best practices, it seems like you can’t go to a website these days without getting served an unapologetic pop-up.&nbsp; We all know how we feel when this happens:<ul><li>Frustrated</li><li>Insulted</li><li>Tricked</li><li>Instantly unengaged</li></ul> The thing that makes me wonder is why every company continues to do this when we know that there’s a collective feeling of disdain for these experiences. So I went digging to find out what I could find about pop-ups. <img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/nMXyfv_RzfPLoy6KfNSEaK6XZCTqz9acfvLosBXD7JXG2YlUGFzt37WTJshURkqVwtlK1TnBDj0yI9klDm5j6xx-EtQ1XPruS1XuDva-OGFTtMS_JwPFDfpW7_pq_VVHCI7R6LJQ9dk"> In the 1990s, Ethan Zuckerman (no relation to Mortimer Zuckerman who owned The Atlantic, Forbes, and Fast Company from what we could find) created the pop-up ad because some advertisers didn't want their banner sitting directly next to some content. The pop-up was a way to get around that - by putting the ad in another small browser which didn't "directly" correlate to the content of the page. But Zuckerman <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2014/08/15/the-man-who-invented-pop-up-ads-says-im-sorry/?sh=4d716b24ebec" target="_blank">hates what he did</a>. Not only because he thinks that an ad-run model isn't the best for the internet, but because of how rampant the annoying practice became. And it turns out that there’s a lot of research out there about the annoyance of pop-ups. <a href="https://optinmonster.com/6-reasons-pop-ups-welcome-gates-and-slide-ins-suck-and-the-solution/" target="_blank">OptinMonster</a>, a company that is known for creating opt-in pop-up forms, admitted to the negative feedback that they get for the experience. Marketing coalitions have conducted experiments with different sizes and types that show that pop-ups are some of the most loathed things that can be done on a site, such as this one: <img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/6_BRGAbAXdTfG1lDbDqlDb8keA_p3RrweAb-HUFLhRaC2hqlJ_WpuTIF0T-d7Js5iyCb_qD8upQ7aePBGPOBwp3RLug6B5Vz3jCPkXVpXrjCfHq0yQ14BDAC0DsA2ivnJzIt2Zxp"> And this one, showing that a pop-up is more positively correlated with annoyance, distracting, and creepy and negatively correlated with being “useful” to the user: <img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Iwy1RqB5lzh-tpZSoK6YkIGCqY0xJe5IgP1WGDYfFE-4Hw3ekcmblqzBCHdObmXPh7e4IpkKtgCYEeTbu3bwSwll_AR8_gAOc3M-hjT8G6txwvPcLeegmbxHqpf43ygt3PbVGOvx"> Google has even been penalizing websites which use intrusive pop-ups, which they define as:<ul><li>A popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to the page or while they are looking through the page</li><li>Using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears to be an interstitial, but the original content has been pushed below the fold</li><li>Forcing the dismissal of a standalone interstitial before accessing the main content</li></ul> <a href="https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/8lzcsjA-lanw4vX83WvpVmIBC4KFmF-aKV6tJ4R6sVV-a3yzmskQ921k4Sj1n3tp7lpC_6_cSzchlCa0R3Ko8cqcfbuexcNjMttaBF5VnPArk41D8X8u_UdXoZnJ66n99Gi0pEPJ"></a>(source: <a href="https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html" target="_blank">Google</a>) So without asking the question of “do pop-ups work?” it seems like everyone is in agreement that they are definitely annoying. Ad:<a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=grnban&amp;utm_campaign=forms" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/f24a896c423449cb8984b9c67819e520"></a> But here’s the thing: If they are so annoying, why is everyone still doing it? Because annoying doesn’t equal ineffective. And if done right, they can actually have a positive impact on your readers and business.&nbsp; The biggest thing that people will talk about when using a pop-up for newsletter subscribers is how much your list will grow. Here at ReallyGoodEmails.com, we tested that theory out with our own pop-up form on our site. We used different copy, different positioning, different timing, different colors, etc. Before we launched our new site, it looked like this: <img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/v9kLr1fj96xcFFSvFocYhG4YDaUm66wl_Gb9nXJDCubcRmOHoQ6kreSLegsDrTAi1DdzLbh7SH7DaybBHvSA75sKk5TrOERDD2ddxVNIaxrdXMoyvsc_oQd2bhcIaJQywuz5ps1K"> On an average day, we were converting about 2.3% of our users. It was pretty consistent, so on days where traffic spiked (which is typically Monday and Tuesdays) we’d see a steep bump in sign-up volume and then flatten out (and sometimes dip) over the weekends. <img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/0A8ByeSYE9GHhdRO2SnkRSM9gszK8ewmU_oIecCBWkAx1DUyVoG8eaX6q_Ff_EeMi_8eO3JnwCzpbSznMvV-_Rqc1lv83DuNfeEMLIP0Ir2-hyNkKJY_RE2IxTKqjac2TSNEMI3j"> But we were under the impression that we pointed out earlier; the impression that pop-ups were an annoyance and if we wanted people to enjoy the site and become loyal readers, we didn’t want them to be frustrated or come back less because of our pop-up. Plus, we had a ton of people every week write to us to say that their colleague had referred them to our newsletter or they had seen a snippet of it online somewhere and were manually signing up without being prompted via a pop-up. So with those two things, we decided to remove the pop-up completely and see what happened. For most people, this is where their alarm bells would be going off. Could you imagine going to your boss and telling them that you were going to stop asking people for their email addresses? <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/df6a5c7f6e814a42bac63c32a427ea7f"> While we were still seeing new subscribers through that non-pop-up method, our list size was in decline. This is because our weekly unsubscribes (due to bounces, natural churn, and people who definitely didn’t like what we were sending) were more than those super eager new subscribers who had to find their way to our sign-up form. This is what we call a negative delta, and something that I was taught was the worst thing an email marketer could see. <img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/eap4EtStdGyJ-nAtEhPwKG0mHd-wNfYWWH2lRvZnQx2Bqsj22Bh-hyHakzuKMv7VsOrlvirC_crT9_s44JLlcTvekWn4CE0zuR1rHLd8AOef-opNGMoNepCQu3C0_DVMd0E_w5za">But we at RGE don’t really care about list size. We often say: “Build relationships. Not lists.” We are okay with people leaving our lists because we’d rather talk to the people who want to hear from us than try to get the attention of those who could hear from us. The importance of list size is based on vanity metrics and billables. Most ESPs and bosses put an emphasis on how many people are on your list, not who is on your list. If anything, this little test reinforced this position that your most engaged readers are the ones you should be serving. With that perspective, we clearly had a problem with our messaging for a portion of our users who were opting out. And after reaching out to a few we found some common things that we worked towards fixing, which ultimately brought us back to a positive delta for our list.&nbsp;<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/6SbyLsN6CuHh0a5OZWx7Tz65Q2sheIvNUspDKL9WG7pKjerIQsF9EZKBc-A7Z89qZaIcybkU9uhRUMBRNB1qXmtCWe0tVBxyVak_7XdEkKWi-hInb4AeENWpu3uiXDr4T0OiyTL1"> Now that we had dammed up the issue, we could’ve easily kept our pop-up hidden and grown our subscribers slowly. And actually, this amount is what we kept as our new control - we know in a given week how much we should expect from organic new subscribers without any promotion. But that seems silly to not promote the newsletter in different ways. But going back to our earlier statement about building relationships, promoting the newsletter to just hit a growth number isn't right. Number of subscribers doesn't mean anything. It's just a vanity metric. But with us fixing the underlying issues, we felt comfortable getting the newsletter in the hands of those people who actually wanted to see it. And the pop-up was the next thing to bring back into the picture. That's because, on top of growing a list (which we’ve already pointed out isn’t the best thing to focus on), pop-ups can do some other things. For example, they can: <ul><li>grab the most likely people who will engage with your brand in the long run</li><li class="ql-indent-1">People who will buy your stuff</li><li class="ql-indent-1">People who will promote your content and products to others</li><li class="ql-indent-1">People you don’t have to win-over again through paid media spend</li><li>re-emphasize your value propositions</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Products that you sell</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Mission statement or core competencies</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Tailored experiences meant for the visitor</li><li>reach folks you want to retarget</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Show pop-ups to visitors clicking thru from email marketing</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Show pop-ups to visitors clicking thru from paid ads</li><li>alert those who need to know certain kinds of information</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Explain forces such as COVID or high demand that has limited resources</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Prompt them to upgrade for a feature they are trying to access</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Remind them of store hours</li></ul> Of the list above, really honing in on the users that come from your other marketing efforts seems like the biggest no-brainer. We know how expensive AdWords or Facebook targeting can be, so making sure that you message them based on that profile is important. Ad:<a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=prodban&amp;utm_campaign=forms" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/f25f51cfee0d4d5d82f478538460a858"></a> While researching, we found that Cocofloss is doing this: They use MuteSix to help target the right kind of audience who may be interested in their hipster floss and then use JustUno’s targeting by referral source to make sure the messaging in the pop-up is written to resonate with that demographic. The result has been a <a href="https://blog.justuno.com/hubfs/Case%20Studies/Case%20Study%20-%20Cocofloss.pdf" target="_blank">decrease of 25%</a> to their cost per acquisition because they are able to capture the potential buyer quicker with the right kind of messaging to keep them engaged. (Full disclosure that JustUno sponsors RGE, but they aren’t sponsoring this article nor are they compensating us for writing it.) <img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/39ZjWbj_D-aJh08K9-u_v6LEfuokHGAvdD70DlaS1p2mIn6Y1Z9nYLooptXOt8HHcXADODgAzw63dgYlcKhuRTgVztsTqfyxmW69AG_O9I9LkobYAo7eCKEYzb4nHmgBdBUmyCyY"> Which brings us back to why pop-ups can be so powerful when done right. There are plenty of email capture options out there, but the ones that win with pop-ups are those who understand the context. <img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/jVUss8-scJmwVUruky0JTrrGkADNkR6mYN0uljH5A3NGdoL6kVGpF93KHwwF-42Tg6YUfO3BGoYPMaboUUWML1EUATwJNo8Gw2486U2vVjhLa2l8kY_TCS86I99P9YoI_Vx9kNXs"> You know when a pop-up is beneficial when it isn’t nagging the visitor, but rather nudging them. Here’s how you know the difference between the two. The definition of nag is that it annoys or irritates a person with persistent or continuous urging. On the other hand, nudge is a gentle prod that typically is done to draw attention to something. Would you rather feel nagged or nudged? Nudging is done best when in context. For example, when someone is about to leave. Or when they’ve made their way far enough into the site to understand the value of being nudged in some way. So when you are thinking of implementing your pop-ups, here’s some research we found on the topic from <a href="https://sleeknote.com/blog/popup-statistics" target="_blank">Sleeknote</a>: <ul><li>Pop-ups with images convert 83% better than pop-ups without images</li><li>Pop-ups with countdown timers convert 112% better than pop-ups without them</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Not all pop-ups need a countdown timer, of course. After all, there’s no urgency for a website visitor to join your email list. But if you’re running a time-sensitive campaign like an <a href="https://sleeknote.com/blog/giveaway-ideas" target="_blank">on-page giveaway</a> or seasonal promotion, test adding a countdown timer to your popup.&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Adding a countdown timer to a pop-up communicates urgency and moves visitors to action.</li><li>Pop-ups with two input fields convert better than any other</li><li class="ql-indent-1">If you want to hurt your chances of getting an email address, include more than 2 input fields</li><li>76% of subscribers input more information when asked to do so in a two-step pop-up.</li><li>Pop-ups that were shown at 8 seconds convert better than pop-ups shown before or after</li><li>Pop-ups shown at 35% scroll depth convert better than pop-ups shown before or after</li></ul> And when it comes to designs, here’s what you should consider: <ul><li>Stay away from dark patterns.&nbsp;Those are elements such as forcing someone to click on a button rather than click outside the pop-up to close it. Worse off is shaming the user for not entering their information or tricking them into entering their info.</li><li>The headline is the first impression, and one that is confusing will all but guarantee you won’t be seeing that person again. Being vague has never helped anyone. “Sign Up for Coupons” is a lot more direct and clear than “Receive Our Emails” (what emails?).</li><li>Clearly state something of value. “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t answer this question from your visitor’s perspective, it’s time to return to the pop-up drawing board. This pop-up form is about to begin a relationship between you and a customer, and it has to be a give and take.</li><li>Include some social proof if you’ve got it. This is a great sign that other people are getting value out of what you are presenting. Think of this in ways of “X many people receive our newsletter each week” or “X people save $Y on average after getting one of our emails.”</li><li>Location can bring attention to your pop-up. Of the places to put your pop-up, here’s the average submission conversion rates:</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Full-screen (~7% CVR)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Center (~5% CVR)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Fixed banner (~2% CVR)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Corner (~1% CVR)</li></ul> There’s a lot more to consider about pop-up designs and strategy, but it all comes back to serving the end user. One of our mantras at RGE is to build relationships, not lists. When thinking about why you want people to give you their information, thinking in this context should guide you better than anything else. <img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/LkpbduKpnvPFPkN4aRtjtwc0OL9rfmb9KB7adqCSPWblHZ2PmIOTaoliStaw21pDB-U3vQs-FAKe_DeTEn8ZWDcnxn2z2CVgzC1xsiunapiD_fzrvOuRqebZ6rARQMGaZycPm66X"> Ad:<a href="https://www.omnisend.com/?utm_source=RGE&amp;utm_medium=tanban&amp;utm_campaign=forms" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/0694a19ee7034de69ba1b979592fadb8"></a>

Why do organizations still utilize pop-ups when clearly anyone you ask hates them? This is what we found.

Do Email Subscription Pop-Ups work?

Data-driven email marketing begins with a reliable CRM system. But when it comes to how a CRM is built, customized, and maintained, marketers often don’t know what to ask for. This workshop is designed to teach email marketers and data-driven marketers how to navigate CRM systems so that they can have access to the data they need to successfully segment, trigger, and personalize their email campaigns. You’ll learn how to:· Understand CRM fields in terms of their purpose and your marketing goals· Ask for integrations to make CRM the single source of truth· Use CRM data to trigger automated marketing campaigns· Easily prove the ROI of marketing campaigns Who should come?Email marketers, data-driven marketers, B2B marketers Who should maybe skip this one?Designers, copywriters, email newbies Natalie Jackson is the Marketing Director for the emfluence Marketing Platform and for emfluence's Digital Marketing. She has nearly a decade of experience in B2B marketing and in digital marketing, including more than eight years of geeking out over all things email and marketing automation strategy. Natalie has spoken on email marketing, CRM strategy, and content marketing for storytellers at Digital Summit Kansas City and Digital Summit At Home, Microsoft Dynamics CRMUG Summit, emfluence’s And Then Some Conference, and for countless local marketing organizations. *All classes are recorded and will be sent out to all registrants for those that can't attend live and/or want to rewatch over and over again (who wouldn't?!) **By joining us for this class, you’ll also get free newsletters from Really Good Emails and Emfluence (if you aren't already). You can unsubscribe from either or both at any time.

For data-driven marketers to learn how to navigate CRM systems in order to successfully segment, trigger, and personalize campaigns.

The 7 Things That Belong on Every Email Marketer’s CRM Wish List

When building a first-class customer experience, every little detail counts. Leaders like Spotify, Amazon and Netflix have ushered in a new era of convenience and personalization we didn’t know was possible. Now it’s on all brands to live up to these high standards. Though challenging, there’s hope—83% of consumers will share their data in return for more personalized experiences. This where Iterable can help! In this class, experts from the Iterable team will reveal how to achieve advanced cross-channel personalization by building individualized recommendations and dynamic content based on product metadata. You’ll learn how to:<ul><li>Sort and filter dynamic content groupings using multi-attribute criteria</li><li>Create localized recommendations, like “5-star restaurants, in my price range, near me”</li><li>Use Iterable Catalog to build personalized content collections and automate messages in real time</li></ul> Who should come?B2C marketers that focus on customer lifecycle / retention / CRM Email, mobile and cross-channel strategists Verticals: retail/e-commerce, subscription services, media &amp; entertainment, food &amp; beverage, travel, consumer tech Enterprise businesses looking to replace a legacy marketing cloud People looking to see what Iterable is capable of Who should maybe skip this one?B2B marketers, Small businesses, Marketers in highly regulated industries (healthcare, finance, etc.), developers and designers who strictly write code and design from scratch Note:This class is part 3 in a 3-part series. While you're encouraged to attend all 3 classes, each class stands well on its own. Choose 1, 2, or all 3! Alyssa Jarrett is Head of Brand &amp; Content at Iterable, where she specializes in creating data-driven content to educate growth marketers on how to develop world-class customer engagement. She has previously served in marketing roles for companies in SaaS and big data, including Ripple, Objectivity, Splice Machine, and Cray. Katie Barends is a New Jersey native turned California girl now living in Denver (with a few years in Florida along the way). Katie got her start in journalism, focusing on communicating and storytelling in every interaction. She has a knack for strategic conversations and helping others realize and achieve their goals. She's been in the tech world for the last 5 years working with Fortune 100 and C-Suite decision-makers across all industries. In that time, Katie has held a variety of roles in solutions consulting, sales coaching, and product and customer marketing to support both not only customers and prospects but also internal partners. *All classes are recorded and will be sent out to all registrants for those that can't attend live and/or want to rewatch over and over again (who wouldn't?!) **By joining us for this class, you’ll also get free newsletters from Really Good Emails and Iterable(if you aren't already). You can unsubscribe from either or both at any time.

In part 3 of this 3-part series, you'll learn advanced personalization using product metadata.

Metadata: A 3-Step Plan to Cross-Channel Personalization (3 of 3)

Email campaigns are an exercise in relationship building. When done right, a well-mapped email program can bring in more sales and help you transform your existing client base into a community. But building a successful email strategy isn’t just selling things—by applying analytics to your customer journey, you can gather valuable intelligence about your prospect and customer base that can help you transform how clients experience your brand.In this class, we’ll talk about how to build targeted email campaigns for every step of the customer journey, with hands-on tips for deciding who to nurture, when to nurture them, what to say in your messaging, and how to measure email success. You’ll learn how to:· Map your email strategy to your customer journey· Grow beyond sales-oriented emails and into relationship nurtures· Use CRM data to determine who should receive which emails and when Who should come?Email marketers, data-driven marketers, client success teams Who should maybe skip this one?Designers, coders Natalie Jackson is the Marketing Director for the emfluence Marketing Platform and for emfluence's Digital Marketing. She has nearly a decade of experience in B2B marketing and in digital marketing, including more than eight years of geeking out over all things email and marketing automation strategy. Natalie has spoken on email marketing, CRM strategy, and content marketing for storytellers at Digital Summit Kansas City and Digital Summit At Home, Microsoft Dynamics CRMUG Summit, emfluence’s And Then Some Conference, and for countless local marketing organizations. *All classes are recorded and will be sent out to all registrants for those that can't attend live and/or want to rewatch over and over again (who wouldn't?!) **By joining us for this class, you’ll also get free newsletters from Really Good Emails and Emfluence (if you aren't already). You can unsubscribe from either or both at any time.

Building a successful email strategy isn’t just selling things—you have the power to transform how clients experience your brand.

Building Better Relationships with Email

B2B email doesn’t have to be boring. In this workshop, we’ll talk about how to jazz up your B2B email strategy and better leverage your CRM data to improve your recipient relationships. We’ll take lessons from B2C email strategies and discuss how they can be applied to B2B relationships, see what B2B marketers can learn from ecommerce email, and open up the possibilities of B2B email beyond the standard newsletter. You’ll learn how to:· Explore new ways to use email as a B2B relationship tool· Experiment with fresh email designs, strategies, and messaging for the B2B inbox· Work within the Outlook inbox Who should come?Email marketers, data-driven marketers, B2B marketers Who should maybe skip this one?B2C email marketers Natalie Jackson is the Marketing Director for the emfluence Marketing Platform and for emfluence's Digital Marketing. She has nearly a decade of experience in B2B marketing and in digital marketing, including more than eight years of geeking out over all things email and marketing automation strategy. Natalie has spoken on email marketing, CRM strategy, and content marketing for storytellers at Digital Summit Kansas City and Digital Summit At Home, Microsoft Dynamics CRMUG Summit, emfluence’s And Then Some Conference, and for countless local marketing organizations. *All classes are recorded and will be sent out to all registrants for those that can't attend live and/or want to rewatch over and over again (who wouldn't?!) **By joining us for this class, you’ll also get free newsletters from Really Good Emails and Emfluence (if you aren't already). You can unsubscribe from either or both at any time.

B2B email doesn’t have to be boring. It's time to open up the possibilities of B2B email beyond the standard newsletter.

The B2B Marketer’s Guide to Better Email

When building a first-class customer experience, every little detail counts. Leaders like Spotify, Amazon and Netflix have ushered in a new era of convenience and personalization we didn’t know was possible. Now it’s on all brands to live up to these high standards. Though challenging, there’s hope—83% of consumers will share their data in return for more personalized experiences. This is where Iterable can help! In this class, experts from the Iterable team will dive deep into all things data feeds between your ESP and outside sources. By mastering data feeds, you’ll be able to send time-sensitive content at the perfect moment for each customer. You’ll learn how to:<ul><li>Use data feeds to personalize campaigns, like active offers and blog newsletters</li><li>Differentiate public and managed data feeds and how to leverage them</li><li>Create individualized email templates using Iterable’s handlebars logic</li></ul> Who should come?B2C marketers that focus on customer lifecycle / retention / CRMEmail, mobile and cross-channel strategistsVerticals: retail/e-commerce, subscription services, media &amp; entertainment, food &amp; beverage, travel, consumer techEnterprise businesses looking to replace a legacy marketing cloudPeople looking to see what Iterable is capable of Who should maybe skip this one?B2B marketers, Small businesses, Marketers in highly regulated industries (healthcare, finance, etc.), developers and designers who strictly write code and design from scratch Note:This class is part 2 in a 3-part series. While you're encouraged to attend all 3 classes, each class stands well on its own. Choose 1, 2, or all 3! Alyssa Jarrett is Head of Brand &amp; Content at Iterable, where she specializes in creating data-driven content to educate growth marketers on how to develop world-class customer engagement. She has previously served in marketing roles for companies in SaaS and big data, including Ripple, Objectivity, Splice Machine, and Cray. Katie Barends is a New Jersey native turned California girl now living in Denver (with a few years in Florida along the way). Katie got her start in journalism, focusing on communicating and storytelling in every interaction. She has a knack for strategic conversations and helping others realize and achieve their goals. She's been in the tech world for the last 5 years working with Fortune 100 and C-Suite decision-makers across all industries. In that time, Katie has held a variety of roles in solutions consulting, sales coaching, and product and customer marketing to support both not only customers and prospects but also internal partners. *All classes are recorded and will be sent out to all registrants for those that can't attend live and/or want to rewatch over and over again (who wouldn't?!) **By joining us for this class, you’ll also get free newsletters from Really Good Emails and Iterable(if you aren't already). You can unsubscribe from either or both at any time.

In part 2 of this 3-part series, you'll learn intermediate personalization using data feeds and other 3rd-party integrations.

Data Feeds: A 3-Step Plan to Cross-Channel Personalization (2 of 3)

When building a first-class customer experience, every little detail counts. Leaders like Spotify, Amazon and Netflix have ushered in a new era of convenience and personalization we didn’t know was possible. Now it’s on all brands to live up to these high standards. Though challenging, there’s hope—83% of consumers will share their data in return for more personalized experiences.In this class, experts from the Iterable team will cover the basics of how to user profile and event data to create personalized email and cross-channel messaging that supports a best-in-class customer experience. You’ll learn how to:<ul><li>Create custom events for lifecycle milestones, like downloading an app or visiting a high-intent webpage</li><li>Build the perfect email template that incorporates hyper-specific user profile data</li><li>Launch a foolproof campaign that delivers individualized customer messaging</li></ul> Who should come?B2C marketers that focus on customer lifecycle / retention / CRM Email, mobile and cross-channel strategists Verticals: retail/e-commerce, subscription services, media &amp; entertainment, food &amp; beverage, travel, consumer tech Enterprise businesses looking to replace a legacy marketing cloud People looking to see what Iterable is capable of Who should maybe skip this one?B2B marketers, Small businesses, Marketers in highly regulated industries (healthcare, finance, etc.), developers and designers who strictly write code and design from scratch Note:This class is part 1 in a 3-part series. While you're encouraged to attend all 3 classes, each class stands well on its own. Choose 1, 2, or all 3! Alyssa Jarrett is Head of Brand &amp; Content at Iterable, where she specializes in creating data-driven content to educate growth marketers on how to develop world-class customer engagement. She has previously served in marketing roles for companies in SaaS and big data, including Ripple, Objectivity, Splice Machine, and Cray. Katie Barends is a New Jersey native turned California girl now living in Denver (with a few years in Florida along the way). Katie got her start in journalism, focusing on communicating and storytelling in every interaction. She has a knack for strategic conversations and helping others realize and achieve their goals. She's been in the tech world for the last 5 years working with Fortune 100 and C-Suite decision-makers across all industries. In that time, Katie has held a variety of roles in solutions consulting, sales coaching, and product and customer marketing to support both not only customers and prospects but also internal partners. *All classes are recorded and will be sent out to all registrants for those that can't attend live and/or want to rewatch over and over again (who wouldn't?!) **By joining us for this class, you’ll also get free newsletters from Really Good Emails and Iterable(if you aren't already). You can unsubscribe from either or both at any time.

In part 1 of this 3-part series, you'll learn basic personalization using user profile and demographic data!

User & Event Data: A 3-Step Plan to Cross-Channel Personalization (1 of 3)

Knak sponsored this FF episode. <a href="https://info.knak.com/really-good-emails.html?utm_source=rge-youtube&amp;utm_medium=influencer&amp;utm_campaign=rge " target="_blank">Schedule a demo</a> to build your own really good emails and get them to market in minutes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📋 TL;DR key takeaways from this episode: 1. Watch your email size and think about who's your audience. Your email team should decide together: What's the limit with the email? What's the bar? Can you achieve the intensity you're aiming for with a smaller email? Make sure the email (and email size) serves the audience. 2. Check your analytics before creating something new and check-in with your audience. Ask all of your subscribers OR ask a select group of subscribers how they feel about a new design you're testing out. The more you get to know your audience, the closer of a relationship you'll have with them, and you'll earn their loyalty toward your brand. 3. Talk with your email team to decide what the objective of the email is. How can you incorporate that objective into the email copywriting and design? Own it. Maintain your brand uniqueness. Refine your typography and design styles to dial that in. Fewer changes = less friction. Be consistent. *BONUS* Use as much live text as possible in your emails and in CTA buttons for the best accessibility and design experience. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Smith: Happy Feedback Friday, everybody. It's a good day to be alive. I am here with <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/rob" target="_blank">Rob Hope</a> of <a href="https://onepagelove.com/" target="_blank">One Page Love</a> and <a href="https://emaillove.com/" target="_blank">Email Love</a>. I am super psyched to talk about <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/formula-1" target="_blank">Formula 1</a>. This is going to be sick. Look at these frickin amazing GIFs. I want to pimp <a href="https://onepagelove.com/100" target="_blank">Landing Page Hot Tips</a> here for Rob. He didn't pay me for this, but I'm just psyched about it. I went through all 100 days, and we all need to read this stuff. I am telling you about this because our audience is always looking for better ways to learn design. And I believe that emails are landing pages delivered. Learning about great design and strategy tips for landing pages are killer. Rob's got the book to boot. Get into these emails. It's super helpful. Thank you for putting them together, Rob. Again, I loved it. Great copywriting in it and great examples. Well done. Rob Hope: Thank you. It's interesting because when you promise a hundred emails in a hundred days, it may seem overwhelming, but I spent so much time stripping the email lessons down to their core. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dtirA7g6Wg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dtirA7g6Wg</a> Rob Hope: Sometimes, you get two paragraphs. And it's just a reminder about some fundamentals when it comes to design, and I still get so many replies. So, it's an email drip. If you sign up today, you get hot tip one today or tip two tomorrow, hot tip a hundred and a hundred days. It's crazy because I set this up a couple of months ago, and I’m still getting replies. Someone replies to, you know, tip number 70 today to go.And dude, I appreciate this one. I'm like, which one was that again? And you'll be surprised at how many people got through a hundred. It's the appreciation of just cutting down lessons. People appreciate snackable bites of information. Matthew Smith: I agree, man. Especially these days, there's so much information, so much noise. It's hard to break through. So speaking of that, how is email working in that engagement? We've talked before about this idea that email is utility minimum viable content. Get it out there, say your thing, do it with as few elements as possible. What's killing it in that way in this email? <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/f47c85bb96204320a432324d8371609c"> Rob Hope: We're always going to turn to GIFs to try and create a little bit of action in our emails, and they've nailed it. So this is a Formula 1 car. As it hits the showcase, the copy comes in. It's just remarkable. There's no email in your inbox that looks like this.It has all the same traits to watching a live race. Cameras everywhere cars buzzing past. So it's reminding you about the action that's coming up. It's an excitement builder and so on. I’ve torn this email apart a bit, and it's quite interesting. This GIF is 3.4 megabytes.You know, I want to just throw the question at you. Matthew, what do you see out there? Like where is the limit? Because this email is a 7.3-megabyte email. That's what you're loading on your phone. And the GIF itself is at 3.4 MEG. Is it too much? Matthew Smith: It's such a hard question. So, let's go into Matthew's storytime. I quit drinking four and a half years ago. Life had to change. Things weren't working, and on that journey - I swear, I'm going to get back to the point here - I discovered this narrative of how rarely binaries work. Binaries being like, this is true. That is not true. This is right. That is not right. There are very few things in this world where that kind of binary thinking works, or it's helpful, or it serves people, and I think this is a good example. So, one of the things that I think about here is, who's the audience? Is somebody going to be looking at this email in Sub-Saharan Africa where there's no internet connection? Probably not, I don't know. That's the question. A 7.3 MB email? That's a lot for a little bit of communication. This team that's putting this email together needs to decide together, what is the limit? What is the bar? Could we accomplish this intensity... You can almost hear that *wah wah* Wow. You know, it's just jamming. You feel it. That's cool. That gets me. Is it worth it? You have to figure it out with your audience. You know, generally speaking - best practices, this is too big. So I would say that 7.3 MBs will be pushing a limit that's on this far end, but is it serving their audience? Only they can know that. That's where I think there's no truism out there. There's no binary find out from your audience. Here's the thing not to do: don't just put something out there and not check your analytics, not check to see how it was affected. Check-in with your audience. Ask them a question: find out is this working? Is this annoying? You can either ask them in an email, like, this email specifically. Hey, this was a big email. Did this suck, or was it okay? You can break the third wall and get into a conversation with your audience. Or you can email 25 audience members and ask for an interview. You can give them a $10 Amazon gift card for something like that. Learn more about how your emails are serving them. Learn more about them as people. And the more you get to know your audience, the more in a relationship you can be with them. And the more vital that relationship is, the more loyalty you can garner for your brand. Rob Hope: I just want to add three things out of this GIF that other email designers and creators out there can take. Three things are happening here that make this unique because this could be a little square within the email, but it's not. It's full width. It's got this little band at the bottom, which is part of the GIF. So it feels unique. You know, this is the Formula 1 brand aesthetic where it's got bends and turns everywhere, but they've included that in the intro. Matthew Smith: This curve you're talking about, it's right from this "F." You feel it. The brand system has identified to use angles. See the angle of the yellow here.I think it's the same as the "F" here. You're spot on, dude. I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. You feel it. Rob Hope: Yeah, so it's super on brand. But another thing that I want to mention is that this header with the logo and the issue number is part of the GIF. And what this does is it creates this feeling that there's a car driving over the email. I know I'm dramatic. They didn't have to do that, but this GIF...the whole image has taken over. And then the third thing is that they've included the flag colors within the type. So there's just so much in this intro, and that's exactly what the Formula 1's going to be. You know, the copywriting, you love it. We love it—twenty gurgling beasts returning to the track. The copywriting is just on point when it comes to the hype before the race. Our call to action buttons, we can call that copywriting to get in the know, expert advice. This could just say click here. It doesn't. Every single thing has to do with creating the hype. So again, when you're talking with your team, what is the objective of the email? The top of the pyramid is hype, and we've got here, Formula 1 cars coming and riding over the email logos. We've got good copywriting. This is a very comprehensive email, as well. We've got little snippets, expert advice. If you scroll a little bit further, you'll see there's Mark Webber. Yeah, I love the big images.So yeah. Look for graphics of the actual track. You get to see all the different turns. As a Formula 1 fan, you want the nuances, you want the specific information. As a fan, you are happy with this email. Matthew Smith: It's so consistent too. Notice, this was interesting. They've got sort of a sub-branded space happening here. I think that must be drawing on some Star Wars theming or something like that, right? You feel this neon lightsaber, and they go ahead and own it.Instead of using this same red here, they maintain that sort of brand uniqueness here. They've done a nice job. Let's look at this other one. What are the things that you see here again that are mimicked in this one? <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/9104e2f2747748cd9b65ab8fbd65b9f1"> Rob Hope: Brilliant. So you can see that design system, you know, they've got a massive document that they're just ticking with every send. This GIF, I'm not even sure how they created this. Probably with some animation tools. But that's a very impressive GIF to start an email. It just shows speed. You know, that's a speed blur. Even the fonts, like slightly blurred around the edges, meaning that you can't even read things because it's going so fast. So yeah, that is just super consistent with the other send. The colors are strong. If you scroll down this email, you see a very similar format, but again, look at this track. This Grand Prix is coming up in Austria, and they're showing you this track. That is exactly what you would like to know. So, let's talk about positioning yourself when you're about to start creating this email, the team gets together, and they ask themselves, what exactly would a Formula 1 fan want to see in a fan email leading up to the race? And you know what you want to see? You want to see the noteworthy corners, look at last year for Verstappen tussled with Leclerc in turn for, you know what I mean, oh, I remember that, sparking an old memory. So it's got these little highlights, and this is proper fan stuff. You recall old stories, you know. This is not for new Formula 1 fans. This is for real fanatics. Matthew Smith: I love it. And even if you're not on that level, you feel it. And you're invited into that. There's so much that's happening here. And we talked a little bit about the weight, the file size of these emails, and the more time I spend in these, the more I realize it's a trade-off. Think about what Formula 1 fans are doing on TV. They're spending a lot of time in front of a very visual experience. This brand is very visual. Yes, they support it with great copywriting. They don't let that slide off. Also, I appreciate that they bring in live text as often as possible here, but you know, they do something unique. This coded in an email would have been a challenging thing to do - it would have been amazing, but okay. We're not going to go to town on something like that, but we are going to still use as much live text as possible. They do that well. They could easily get what's called a bulletproof button set up here where they could have that live text. If there's one thing other than increased live text, which I'm always just going to be banging on about that, I would love to see here would be just a little more refinement in terms of the use of different typography design styles. So I talk about design golf, and I think they could go one or two steps further in just dialing that in a little bit. I understand they have these sort of sub-brand moments, and they use different fonts to break in with some of that kind of stuff. This is a different font than some of this up here. There's some shared characteristics. They add a lot. And I think that's part of the brand, but me personally, especially in an email, if there's anything you can do to keep the email in sort of a utilitarian way of thinking, it's little stuff like the grid. So there's a lot of different places in the grid. You've got left-aligned. Now you've got a bizarre, not quite center aligned. Then this kind of unique lockup, left-aligned again. Right-aligned again, or this time, and then left-aligned again. And then a little bit of different. On their own, any of those things are fine, but they add up to many differences, which causes some friction, I think. So, just something that I think from my perspective. Do you agree with that, Rob, or do you have a different perspective? Rob Hope: No, I agree with that for sure. I see this in landing pages as well, and it's so overlooked. I'm not saying that this team isn't top design, but there's an inconsistency in vertical spacing. This is just something that happens in emails where we don't ever look at it. It's so difficult. But if you look under the buttons, they're not all the same spacing. Some of the headings...I'm trying to be harsher, but I think they've achieved quite a lot for what they've done.You know, they're trying to make it comprehensive. They're trying to gain the hype. They've got their GIFs. So there are some trade-offs here. Maybe there were time constraints.&nbsp; Maybe this email took a hundred hours, and that infographic they did of the track, they say to ourselves, okay, well, if we have 20 hours left of our time allocation, maybe let's attempt this. But they ran out of time, and then now you ask yourself as an email team, you say, Do we not include it because it's an image or do we have it as an image? And I think it's the right call, but it's just interesting. It's all a trade-off. Matthew Smith: That's right. That's a good way to put it as trade-offs. I think they've balanced out so much. And generally speaking, email teams are tiny. To achieve this much with likely a small group, I think it's pretty impressive. Feedback Friday folks, if other emails are high quality like this that we should be reviewing, please submit them or just let us know on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/reallygoodemail" target="_blank">@ReallyGoodEmail</a> or Instagram, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reallygoodemails/" target="_blank">@ReallyGoodEmails</a>. Twitter didn't allow us the "S", so we had to remove that. It's so good to have you on again, Rob. We'll have to do this again before too long. And dude, it's always just good to be with you. What are you going to get up to this weekend? Rob Hope: Man, I've been working pretty hard, and like you were saying that you were going to take a trip. I think I'm also going to spend some time in the ocean. Hopefully, I'll get a few surfs in and clock off, get a hard recess, and then bang out the next week. Matthew Smith: Dude, one of these days, I want to come to learn to surf with you. That would be so sick. Rob Hope: We have plenty of waves in South Africa, man. Matthew Smith: I grew up snowboarding and skating. So, it's in my blood. I want to take that leap to learn the nuances that are surfing. I've heard it can help, but also it's its own thing. I've always wanted to get over to South Africa. Rob Hope: You’re always welcome. Matthew Smith: Thanks my man. It'll be good to catch up again soon. Feedback Friday folks, email geeks, thanks for being here. Stay healthy. Stay safe. Remember to be kind, to be really good, and we will see you the next time. Peace! Rob Hope: Ciao, guys.

How do you get your email team on the same page to create a consistent message and design that serves your audience? This week, we dive into some GIF emails that push email to the limit with Rob Hope from One Page Love and Email Love.

Putting the pedal to the email with Formula 1

This FF episode was sponsored by <a href="https://more.emfluence.com/really-good-emails" target="_blank">emfluence</a>. Get paired with a marketer to see how your strategy will work in the emfluence Marketing Platform. <hr> 📋 TL;DR key takeaways from this episode: 1. Start with a base template to build the foundation of an email design system for the client. You (or the client) can use the design system to easily add or remove modules and change the template to fit their branding. This saves everyone time since you’ve already coded the template. 2. When clients send you email assets, check out the file contents ASAP to decide if this will be a simple project with a quick turnaround, or if it will be a more involved and time-consuming project. Set realistic expectations. 3. Send test emails to get feedback from the client on the design, accessibility, interactivity, etc. If the client pushes back on something that you don’t agree with (like using a responsive template), coach the client as much as you can with the facts. Educate them, but if they still don’t agree, then don't force anything on them. *BONUS* Figma can be a good alternative to Photoshop or Sketch since it uses slick design, prototype, and code view panels. There’s a learning curve with Figma, but you don’t have to interact with the tool as much once you’ve got it down. <hr> Matt Helbig: What's up, email geeks. Welcome back to another Feedback Friday. This week, we have a returning friend of the show, <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emailsyall" target="_blank">Anne Tomlin</a>. Welcome back. It's been a minute since we've had you on. Anne Tomlin: Yeah, but I'm glad to be here again. Matt Helbig: Time flies when you're making emails, I guess. Anne Tomlin: Absolutely. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LbLQirJWVXA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/LbLQirJWVXA</a> Matt Helbig: These are some emails that you made from <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/fundrise" target="_blank">Fundrise</a>. I had a chance to look at some of the live emails they're sending, but these are the templates you made. Anne Tomlin: So the client gave me a Figma file with every single mockup of a module that they would need. Every single one. And they were all in five different files. What I ended up doing was creating those five files with all the modules in them. Those five emails contain all the modules that Fundrise will ever need. They put them into their ESP and can switch around whatever order they need. For whatever modules to be in whatever order. It was just easier to create them, to code them all together at one time with each email. Matt Helbig: Were they starting from scratch, or do they have something in place already, or they hand over these Figma files, and this is a newer brand? Anne Tomlin: Yeah. They handed over the files and said go. They provided their mockups and their font and pretty much said go for it. Do as much as you can. Matt Helbig: When they handed over those files, were there any limitations that you didn't think could work with email, or were they pretty straightforward with how they laid everything out? Anne Tomlin: They gave me the files and said, is there anything in these that can't be done or that would take a ridiculous amount of time, something like that. And I looked at it, it said no, but sometimes when clients hand over stuff, they do have a couple of things that may not work in email or take a little too much time to create. That was not the case with Fundrise&nbsp; Matt Helbig: These are pretty in-depth, pretty extensive. I think how everything is scaling is looking nice. How do you get started with this? Before, you mentioned maybe like a base template that you're maybe starting with and then try and code out these individual sections. Anne Tomlin: Yep. That's exactly right. So I started with my base template. My base template has every structure that I have built ever. I can quickly start with that and then take out any structures that I don't need and create each of these modules, one on top of each other.So it doesn't take me too horribly long to code something like this because it's kind of already all coded. It just needs to be changed a little bit to fit their branding like this one at the top right here. It says new apartment development. I didn't have those three columns right next to each other. So I had to create that for them. The big parts of the email, the modules themselves are already done. That's always just a copy paste and then put in whatever is missing specific to the brand.&nbsp; Matt Helbig: So did you have to do any ESP work or any integration stuff with them, or was it just handing off the HTML? Anne Tomlin: I handed off the HTML. Usually, I like to put the code in the ESP. This client just decided they wanted to do it themselves. From the emails that I've got from them that use this modular system, they are doing a great job. Matt Helbig: We've been using Figma a lot too internally, and I wonder if that better than Photoshop or something for you? Did you find it a little easier to use? Anne Tomlin: I like that it provides the hex colors. You don't have to interact with it as much as a PSD or a Sketch file. With those, you have to find the exact hex number and measure the distances between elements, but with Figma, that information is already available. It's in a design type of pane that shows you there are 25 pixels between these two segments that I think is helpful. I would say that Figma has a little bit of a learning curve, though. Matt Helbig: This is another template. How did you guys split this up? Anne Tomlin: I think what they did was gather the modules that would be the most often with each other. That's how I created five of them so that the modules are already with the modules that they will most often appear with. That way, the client can pull up one of the five and then use that as a basis to pull in or out any modules. Matt Helbig: Are you seeing that more and more with clients with a design system or idea of how their emails might work down the road? Or is it dependent on each one? Anne Tomlin: So kind of a mix, but I will say that I enjoy this kind of work a little more. The modular system is making it so that the client can use it in multiple different ways. I like the satisfaction that I get after building something like that. Matt Helbig: It's great to see all this use of live text. A lot of times on this show, we don't always get live text. Anne Tomlin: I'd say it is a very important thing to me to have live text. Matt Helbig: This is an excellent case to see sort of the skeleton template that you can populate content with and test different things, pull things in dynamically when you're not having to worry about slicing paragraphs or something like that. I think it frees up the design template to take a lot of different types of content. Anne Tomlin: I will also say that the design of this is very clean, which is helpful when creating something that's as modular as this. There are not too many background images or background colors that need to be right up against another image to match the background colors. Those are hard to do in dark mode. With these modules, they don't have any of that. So it's very, really clean. Matt Helbig: I like the constraint with these templates in their branding. I feel like they're trying only to use a couple of colors, and I think it focuses their message on the main content and the CTAs they want you to click. Cool to see that they had a vision going into this rather than some financial brands bogged down by legalese, but this still feels pretty clean. Even though you do have a big chunk of legal, I still think it does an excellent job balancing design and function. Anne Tomlin: I think I even probably said to them at one point, wow, this is pretty. This is a nice modular system you've got here. I can't wait to build it. Matt Helbig: Speaking of dark mode, this is what dark mode looks like on these emails. How much more time did you have to spend optimizing these for dark mode? I know this is a newer topic. People are a little scared of it. Anne Tomlin: I would say maybe an additional 15 to 20 minutes. It doesn't take very long to get all the colors right and put in the actual code. What you see on screen is what Apple mail and iOS mail look like that respect the dark styles declared in the head tag. I took the background color that is already in the light mode and darkened it by 90%. Then put the style in to change that background color to keep the same feel of the light mode, but just darker. I will say that Fundraise did not give me any instruction on the dark mode. I just basically said, do you want dark mode styles? They said yes. I went ahead and did what I thought looked best. Matt Helbig: Dark mode, I don't think, is something that's going to go away super soon, and more people are opting in on it, depending on newer devices. I think it makes sense to think about that going in when you start email design, to be aware that some email clients will try to force things into dark mode if you have that option turned on. It's better to understand a little bit about how the emails are laid out so you can better respond to that.&nbsp;Anne Tomlin: I think that the best way to treat dark moon is to design for it. Before the design is completely done, possibly get in there beforehand, and see what it looks like. If, what Outlook or whatever changes the colors, inverts them fully, what does that look like?Then you can go from there and change a few things about the email design itself that would make it a little better in the dark mode clients that invert your colors. That doesn't respect any styles that you've put in. Matt Helbig: I do think it is a little bit still complicated on exactly the support everywhere. So I don't think you're going to get it a hundred percent perfect. I know that it may be hard for brands that have to approve a specific design, but if you are approving every single email client exactly how it's going to look, that will take a while. If you follow some good email coding best practices, once you turn that dark on, there's hopefully isn't tons that you'll have to tweak. Anne Tomlin: Yeah. What you've pulled up here is an interesting one of what they had me do. They had all different mockups of this particular module. Of what it's going to look like with various buttons and button colors and such. When I'm creating this stuff, it seems strange.&nbsp;It looks kind of weird with the same thing, one on top of each other. I think that it's helpful for the client to be able to have this stuff done and pull in the module that they want that looks best with whatever design they have chosen for whatever email they're doing at that moment. Matt Helbig: Are there any recommendations that you did for them or extra enhancements. I know you said the dark mode styling, but did they give you desktop and mobile layouts? Anne Tomlin: I'm not sure if they gave me mobile layouts. I would probably say they did because they were really on the ball with everything. Even if any client does not give me a mobile mockup, I use my best judgment. I've been doing this for ten years now or a little more. I generally know what the best mobile layout is going to be when I see a desktop design. I think that most of my clients trust that it'll look right. If they don't like it, when I send them the Litmis links, they'll tell me they want it changed. I will gladly change it. Matt Helbig: That's good. Some people I've worked with are print designers, and they only understand one specific layout. I tried to inform them that most people on our list are opening on a mobile device. We should spend some extra time to optimize for that view. Anne Tomlin: Totally. Sometimes some clients will come back and say, Hey, we don't want this to be responsive for some reason. I'll coach as much as I can as to why I think it should be responsive or, in any circumstance, why I believe that this way is better than that way, but if they don't want it, then I'm not going to force them to do it. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/1a41198cd0a34329ae967cf1f6747b9d"> Matt Helbig: I had some of the live emails thought we could take a quick look at. So this first one is a nice looking welcome email. The first one that I got, and it was pretty inviting for a welcome email. It's nice to see how they're using those different sections in the building, this communication, but it doesn't look that much different than the template that you laid out for them. Anne Tomlin: When I build things, I try to keep it as simple as possible with a lot of code notes so that if the client is going into the code to make these changes, it helps them navigate. They can build the email a little faster if you have some documentation. Suppose they have some guidelines, even in the code. I think that that helps them. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/6cc9e07b6ceb4f24af50becf6a6c3512"> Matt Helbig: I like all of their emails. I feel, as you said, that they're pretty simple and straightforward. Do you tend to point people towards these more simple text designs? I feel like sometimes people would try to over-complicate email. Anne Tomlin: I don't necessarily push in one direction or another for the design, but I try and educate. I kind of pride myself on code most, anything in email, but I also will be like, yes; I can create this; however, these are the reasons you shouldn't want me to make it this way. Let's think about accessibility, image sizes—that gently pushing to maybe a little cleaner of a layout. Matt Helbig: You're more on the development side, but were there any design parts of these that you may be wanting to experiment with something new or are tweak a bit? Anne Tomlin: Not in this one. With the layout, this clean and nice that I didn't have anything to experiment on. It all pretty much was in nicely coded modules. Anything new that a design that has got some layovers and stuff like that, I will try new techniques and always make my code a little bit better. With these guys, they were already on point. I didn't have very much to counsel them on. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/996ba58529be49528c8a46a6e39a396c"> Matt Helbig: I am impressed, especially with this bottom section. I feel most people would cheat on this one. They would maybe make the rest of this live text, but this one would be like a bottom cover image. So it is nice to see that this stuff has live text as we saw it with the dark mode. If those styles are there, this does look much better than having a single banner there. Anne Tomlin: Live text is the hill I will die on. It is the most important thing to me when I'm coding is making sure that everybody can get the message of the email. I want the message to get to everyone and for there to be no blocks in the way. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/8b2343d11067484383afc288e99dac7e"> Matt Helbig: This one's even more dynamic, which I think is cool to see, just because of how much time you probably save with that live text, being able to populate this entire module with dynamic content. So you do not ever have to lay this out if you do it right. This email can just trigger pulling in all this information. Anne Tomlin: I didn't have access to the ESP,&nbsp;but I get these emails as well. I can tell you for sure that I did not get the same four of these examples in this particular order. So it must be dynamic content. If they set it up to where there are only so many possibilities for each of the three columns next to each other, they must be super easy to bang out and send for however often send this email. I would love to see it in the ESP, but from what I can tell, it seems like they've done an excellent job of taking the modules and using them to their full potential. Matt Helbig: So, do you have any resources for people like starting coding? I feel like some people in our audience might be stuck in a small ESP where they're more familiar with just messing around with a WYSIWYG editor. Is it best to let a professional do some of this, or are there some small things that you can learn to help you out with coding? Anne Tomlin: I think that maybe not the modules we're looking at now, since that required many nested tables. These were pretty difficult to make and get them looking right. Some of the other ones that are a little easier, maybe the 50/50 that would have an image and a block of text, those sorts of less complicated modules, the way that I learned it, go through other people's code. The more exposure you get to it, the more you'll learn how to use it correctly and then change it to whatever you need for any circumstance. I would invite anybody to look at the code for these. Please feel free to learn from them. Matt Helbig: Here's the time you can plug all your stuff. Is there anything you want to plug? Anne Tomlin: I guess I would like to plug my website. It's <a href="https://emailsyall.com/" target="_blank">emailsyall.com</a>. It shows you what I can do, and if you want to hire me, you can contact me through there. Matt Helbig: So wait, you're going to code my emails too and make them look this good? Anne Tomlin: If you would like, yes, if you want me to do it, I can. I enjoy it. Matt Helbig: Well, thanks for coming on. It's always a pleasure to have you on. Anne Tomlin: Totally. I love to be here.

How do you educate clients on the world of email while building a template that they can easily update? This week we go behind the scenes with Anne Tomlin from Emails Y’All to learn how she creates design systems and customizes client emails.

Guiding clients through design systems with Fundrise

This FF episode was sponsored by <a href="https://info.knak.com/really-good-emails.html?utm_source=rge-school&amp;utm_medium=influencer&amp;utm_campaign=rge" target="_blank">Knak</a>. Schedule a demo to build your own really good emails and get them to market in minutes. <hr> 📋 TL;DR key takeaways from this episode: 1. Use a consistent color scheme and text hierarchy as actions to grab the reader's attention. Explain the who, what, when, where, why, and how, and show your audience what they should do next. 2. When you create a design system, you’re using your emails in a consistent way where you can still have variation but you don't have to go back to the drawing board for every single email. Build the email, let it sit for a day, and come back to it. You might think of a different way of handling the information, and then you can change up the content. 3. In image-only emails, make sure alt-text connects with the images so assistive devices can read it. Make sure the text on mobile is large enough to be readable. The more that we push the tech of email, the better our industry will get. <hr> Matthew Smith: Happy Friday Feedback Friday, everybody. It's good to be here. I'm back again with my buddy good friend, <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/rob" target="_blank">Rob Hope</a>. Who's hanging tight in South Africa and bringing some incredible new email love to us and sharing our just enjoyment of good design, good web, good customer service, all that stuff. It's fantastic to have you back, man. Rob Hope: Thanks for having me, Matthew. Wow, a good response on the last few we critiqued, and just excited to dive into these great looking emails. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UXuCvkGxFP8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/UXuCvkGxFP8</a> Matthew Smith: I love what you're doing on <a href="https://emaillove.com/" target="_blank">Email Love</a>, and of course, <a href="https://onepagelove.com/" target="_blank">One Page Love</a> just while we're kicking this off. If any of you get a chance, you need to make yourself do this.It was awesome. I signed up and went through a hundred days of digestible tips, a hundred tips for landing pages. Many of you know that I think about emails as landing pages delivered. Man, just getting these tips into my inbox was awesome. So Rob's not paying me for this. I think this is fucking great. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/b1901e4efce84169bf3132bf1083ac94"> Get your butts over there and check it out. It's so fantastic. Notice this ebook that's coming out with it, but this is free. Just get over there and <a href="https://onepagelove.com/100-tips" target="_blank">sign up</a>. You're going to love these tips. I was super impressed. Let's see how these folks over here on <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/wildist" target="_blank">Wildist</a> are using some of those great tips themselves. What is it that pops out here that gets your attention about Wildist? <a href="https://emaillove.com/inspiration/a-free-webinar-with-alex-strohl-and-charly-savely/" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/3b8a7b9d8e0945219977b3bc27c063b0"></a> Rob Hope: When these emails from Wildist pop in my inbox, they always demand my attention. They shine compared to everything else. So let's talk about the pandemic. Everything's a webinar—everything's online. I get so many of these webinar events, and this one arrives in the inbox and looks completely different than the rest. There are a few things that are noteworthy here. Just a beautiful color scheme. This is the furthest thing from a generic load of text email and white background. This is a chosen color scheme. We've got actual photographs highlighting the maverick color used in the email. Good white space, breathing room, everything about this email screams these guys know how to design. Matthew Smith: Thinking just now about the process by which they would have come up with this color scheme. Here's another color scheme, and we can compare and notice. Okay. This is one color scheme. Here's another.&nbsp;What's consistent between these? Well, this dark green sort of sea-green background is constant, but the orange is different. It's a different color in the last one. So it occurred to me that they may have had these two pictures with this standout maverick orange. And huh, how can we use that? They use that as a defining characteristic throughout the email. I thought that's smart. They could have just gone with anything, but in the same way, you've probably heard me talk about this idea of design golf. Let's call it Frisbee golf because I hate typical sports. So Frisbee golf is a little bit edgier or weird, but the whole point of the game is to get as few points as possible. Same with design golf. So you want to have as few types of fonts as possible. As few colors, as possible as few different white space settings, as possible as few differences and every single difference, you have every point you have needs to do a job. It needs to be serving something. So in this, they've done a great job of starting out super low design points by utilizing that orange as an action. I can click on these photos if that's drawing my interest. I can see that it's a webinar right away. I can reserve my spot. The orange is what is grabbing my attention, and they use great hierarchy to do this. Okay. What is this? It's a free webinar. Who is involved? Charlie Savely Alex Stroll, like two photographers photographing the wild. Oh, that's something I want to do. When is it? Okay, cool. I see that I can reserve my spot. Let's learn a little bit more. Mark my calendar, but they do this interesting thing with two different type colors. I rarely think that this works, but they nailed it. It works so well because they use so few colors, so few types within the email. They pull off right-aligned text, which is rare to get right. A designer has come in here and made this work, and it's just super consistent. It feels relaxing. Their audience is visually oriented people who are paying attention to visuals all day. You could not sell this workshop with a poorly designed email. It would not do nearly as well. They seem like they know their audience. Rob Hope: Totally. So, I mean, I want to add here that when you open up a webinar email, and it's just another webinar on your whole list of meetings in the week, and this one pops up, and you see these two orange jackets, you see that the CTA matches and you are thinking, wow, these guys have thought this through and they've preplanned this email before even getting to the stage of sending it. There's so much care and attention to detail here that it will translate into this actual webinar, and it's going to be worth my time. So that's it. It's just that little, extra 10% they put in to like finesse this color scheme and design. Maybe it started with six colors. But there are three colors of type and one color in the background. This is just so well thought out. There's no stone left unturned here. Matthew Smith: That's a great way to put it. It makes me think of that quote, "I apologize for such a long letter - I didn't have time to write a short one.” It's such a beautiful idea that it takes time to edit something down to that refined picture.&nbsp;When you're working on an email or any design, get the core information you need to get out to people. Figure out what you can trim, especially in an email. Generally speaking, most emails need to be short and to the point. Get focused. It's about really helping people understand the quintessential thing that you're trying to get across: the minimum viable content and getting that out there and no more. You begin to layout a design and preferably a design system, a pattern, a way of using your emails, that's consistent so that you can have variation, but you don't have to go back to the drawing board, every single email. Finish it and let it sit for a day and then come back to it.&nbsp;Almost every single time I do that, it's like, Ooh, this would be a much better way of handling this piece of information. Change it up. Now we're ready. Once you get a design system going, you can get things set up where a marketer can leverage this content and get it out there. That said, there is one drawback to these emails. We'll get into the other one here in a minute as well. But Rob, we already talked about this. What's the main thing that these folks could be doing differently? Rob Hope: We are talking about four images for this whole email. It's a pity—this such low-hanging fruit here when it comes to coding this up. When you break down all the elements here, it's not like a very complicated design. There's white space around a lot of this text, so it is worth their investment. <a href="https://emaillove.com/inspiration/last-call-50-off-burkard-workshop/" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/251173002f4e47fc99026d03e57863d4"></a> We are talking about $149 per conversion. Are you willing to spend $149 to code up this email? Once you get your template in place and get three coded up, maybe that costs you $500 or $1000. You get to reuse that for a whole year. You are just swapping out the content. Your return on investment is there, and it just looks professional. These are outstanding designers, the photos shine. They've also got white space around this JPEG photography, so it downsizes very well on mobile, but we need to bring it up. It's important. Matthew Smith: To cover it for everybody, if you're going to do all images, a couple of things, make sure your alt text connects so that those who have assistive devices can read the actual content using their assistive device. Also, make sure that your text is large enough on mobile so that it's still visibly readable in the mobile environment. Think about the web 10, 15, 20 years ago. This is how people constructed the web. Can you imagine trying to utilize the web now doing that? We are holding the email industry back when we continue to behave this way. That means we are keeping a zero or more from our salaries within the email space. The more that we push the tech of email, the more that we demand better tech, the better our industry will get and the more successful, and the more money that will be spent within this category. So go and take that time. Push your team to code up these emails. There's so little friction between doing it right. You can do it once and done as Rob said. So what about this email, man? What are the last little pieces we want to get in that might be different about this email what's working? Is there anything you would change? Rob Hope: I like to use this little mantra when it comes to landing pages. And as you say, emails are landing pages delivered, is that they are giving the exact amount of information I need to act. It's pretty much trying to tell you with as little content as possible. Not as much.They've identified that. Attention spans are low, too much information is noise. They use one testimonial. That testimonial pretty much sums up the whole course brilliantly. I like how it's a less is more approach. One image of Chris here. There's nothing in this email that shouldn't be. The consistency I want to give props to with Wildist is they've got this less is more approach. They don't put 15 images here. It's just a couple, and all of them are just beautiful.&nbsp;The consistency again, we've got ourselves an off-white color for paragraphs. We've got white headings, and then we've got these little stars, yellow, which stand out because there are so few colors used. You immediately see the five stars. You're scrolling down. I see five stars. Brilliant choice of fewer colors also type size again. We've probably dealing with about four font sizes here. It doesn't look noisy, allows you to skim, breathe, loving it. Matthew Smith: I don't know if you've ever watched how the movie was made or things like that. I love to watch that kind of stuff. One time I was watching the Cohen brothers. About how they made one of their movies. One of the things that I thought was so funny is as they were talking through it, they were like, do you remember how this scene came together? No, I don't. Like that's crazy. Huh? And you're like, what? This seems like such a genius moment. It was so well planned, but I felt that when like, Are these stars, they're yellow. They seem so inline with the yellow out of this photo. Rob Hope: Yeah. That yellow is not a mistake. Matthew Smith: They do this interesting thing where they draw your eye down. Somebody's thinking about what they're doing in this work. Why design, why spend money on design? There's a couple of core reasons to me, and I'm interested in your thoughts too, Rob. It's this quality of why would you spend so much on a product and then not dress it appropriately to the occasion? Let's say the equivalent would be some woman or some dude who has spent a lot of energy getting fit, being healthy, taking care of their body. Then they would show up to work or show up to a date or something like that, like in kind of messy sweats that's, in-congruent doesn't make sense. Why would you do that? Instead, go the whole way and spend money hiring a designer thinking through the process of your brand, your communication, all of that. I would call capital "D" design, not just visual design, but also the entire structure. It just makes everything feel coherent. That feeling like I've heard, it said that brand is the promise of an experience. The idea here is that with a different, less quality brand in this Wildist visual, you would lose the integrity of the power of the photography. It's coming through here. You sense the quality, the integrity, the potency of the webinar that they're about to share with me. I haven't seen any of these, but I'm genuinely interested in signing up. My dad and I are photographers. I'm thinking about doing it. I would not normally do something that was just a webinar; I would want to do something in person, but of course, during COVID and I have tons of options to choose from, but I'm leaning in this direction. Why? Because this design says, this has got to be high quality. Rob Hope: You summed it up. For me, design carries over the feeling that people care about the end product. When you take a shortcut in the final 5% here on your email delivery, it gives me a feeling that this course, maybe you're on cheap hosting for your videos, perhaps this isn't your full-time thing. You are just experimenting. These guys, this is it. This course is the answer to my problem. My problem is that I want to learn how to take good photos outside. This seems like a very polished, well thought out scripted solution. This isn't Chris Burkard in the wild dialing in on a windy microphone giving you some tips extracted from some Instagram stories. This is Chris at a desk who took his time. He's probably recorded and rerecorded. I feel like the design here is going to translate into this end product a hundred percent. These guys are the real deal. That's design for me. So when you start seeing little mistakes, let's talk about copywriting. What if "business" had a typo and it's had three S's? It's like these small flags, like, okay. Maybe there's no one checking these emails. Maybe there's not a team.&nbsp; But I'm feeling like five people are reading these emails before they go out. There's an actual designer that's got some industry experience. There are so many elements that go into an email like this. It seems quick to read. At first glance, you're like, yeah, that's just lovely, but the design takes time, and it shows they care about their end product. Matthew Smith: Yeah. I mean, you nailed it. I think you said it. It's this flag. I think a lot about these things like these little flags. They show up, and they sort of tap on your brain a little bit.We've spent our whole careers getting thoughtful about what's wrong in a design that makes it feel incongruent, and how do we fix that? Many people, you intuit it, you feel it. Something's off in that person walking toward me. I don't feel safe. Our brains are incredibly complicated, and we're able to analyze and note that stuff even if we can't articulate it. It's those little flags, those little things. If we can, as creators, email creators, identify that and then trim that up. Clean that up. We're going to have more effective sales. Design is not about a vanity metric. It is about helping business succeed, helping your organization succeed, helping the communication succeed, and getting the job done. Well, everybody out there. Thank you for joining us. Go check out Rob's landing page tips, everybody. Thank you for staying safe and wearing a mask, and being healthy people. We appreciate you. Say something kind to someone today. That's all we need. All right. See you next week. Rob Hope: Ciao, Matthew. Ciao.

How can you make image-only emails work while connecting with your audience? This week we look at how Wildist's emails use a design system to grab the reader's attention and show the reader where to go.

Driving actions with a consistent color scheme and hierarchy with Wildist

This FF episode was sponsored by&nbsp;<a href="https://more.emfluence.com/really-good-emails" target="_blank">emfluence</a>. Get paired with a marketer to see how your strategy will work in the emfluence Marketing Platform. <hr>📋 TL;DR key takeaways from this episode: 1. When you're laying out the email, make sure the contrast is high enough that you can read the content on desktop and mobile. Be careful with thin-weighted fonts. Make the font size large enough for the reader to easily scan the text on any device. 2. Don’t include your full legal policies in the email footer. Instead, link to landing pages with the legal content. Talk to your legal team about this. Legal content in the footer can feel like the content is about the company instead of the reader. Remove any obstacles that aren’t serving the audience. 3. GIFs can show off what's possible. Add GIFs with just a few frames and smaller file sizes (ideally 500kb) to keep the email light and easy on the loading time. BONUS: If you don't have enough of a design pattern to indicate a link without color, work with your formatting for accessibility purposes. Underline the text, consider semi-bold text, and/or add a symbol to indicate a link (ex: single right-pointing angle quotation mark). <hr> Matthew Smith: Happy Feedback Friday, everybody. Email geeks. It's great to be back with Kelly from the Really Good Emails team. Thanks for being here, Kelly. How's it goin'? Kelly Lamano: It's going pretty great. It's finally cooling down in Florida. We're usually in the seventies and eighties. So, we're dropping down to the sixties or so. It's finally sweater weather, which I love. Matthew Smith: I like the sound of that. Yeah, usually Florida's a little too hot for me. I mean, even here in South Carolina, I get pretty miserable and can't wait to get back to Colorado as soon as possible. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hB2vRxNTdGw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/hB2vRxNTdGw</a> Matthew Smith: We're going to be digging into some <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/adobe" target="_blank">Adobe Creative Cloud</a> here today. These are really interesting. I've been following Adobe's stuff through Behance quite a bit, and then saw some of these come through. And they're really striking. Really interesting. What do you think is working well here? <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/a-free-font-just-for-you" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/33a9b6bbec204096833d7008b7b0e6fa"></a> Kelly Lamano: The font - it's front and center. It's beautiful. It's huge. "Go for the bold," it makes a really bold statement. And I think just that alone is really cool. Both on mobile and on desktop, I think it works really well. And it sets you up for what exactly the email is about. Adobe is all about design and fonts and being creative. And I think that this is a really great way to draw the reader in. Matthew Smith: Yeah, I think it's interesting the way that they create something that is exciting from the beginning. Some clear, clean text, also live text, the ability to download that font. And then they get me into this next piece, which is all about getting that app, figuring out what you can do with Adobe products. And then a footer reminding me this is creativity for all, which I think is a pretty rad statement. They have this kind of long legal text that I would love to see something like that. Especially in a big company like Adobe, you can put these links there and bigger, crazier products than Adobe have found out that legally, you can put stuff on pages that don't need to be in your footer. This feels like it's about Adobe, not about me, the user. So, anything that we can do to remove any obfuscation between what's serving me as a user and instead of what's serving the company. Talk to your legal team, see what you can do to get your legal text refined and minified. But overall, I think this is working well. Let's jump over to some other emails that they're doing and see how they compare. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/check-out-the-latest-in-adobe-design" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/b36bec05c6d94473b7eeb9be0f5b70aa"></a> Once again, we've got live text, which is great, especially over a background. Very nice. One thing that is challenging here that I'm noticing is we've got this secondary "learn more" sitting over an image. It works a little bit here on this cloud in desktop, but on mobile, that's really hard to see. So, when you are laying things out, especially this text here on mobile, make sure that the contrast is high enough that you're really able to view it. Also, one thing that a lot of people neglect is, this is a light or a thin weight on this font, and that's actually quite difficult to read at smaller sizes. So, if you're going to use a thin or a lightweight font, you need to make sure it's at a large enough size where I can easily read it. There's not enough material there for the eye to easily scan it. And especially over the background like this, it makes it even that much more difficult. So, be careful with that. As we move down, one of the things I think is working really well and very interesting here is this idea of having these images come off the edge. I really like how Adobe's dark background brings my eye right to this center place. Then, what a cool way to use a GIF to show off what's possible here in this section talking about Photoshop. Now that said, seeing how long this GIF is and all that it's doing, I am going to imagine that that's a big GIF. Keep your eye on the file size on your GIFs. Make sure that they're, ideally, 500K or less. That's already quite big. See what you can do to keep those things small, but obviously, it also depends on your audience. Then, we get down here into Illustrator and seeing some of what's possible here. And again, down with Photoshop, just a nice way of taking me through those Suites of what's possible. Finishing with Document Cloud, and then dream bigger, which I think is cool. The idea of getting into their Cloud services and learn more. I think this is overall working pretty well. It's an organized email. It tells a good story and it gets out of the way, lets you jump in on those CTAs. What do you think could be improved in this email, Kelly? Kelly Lamano: Yeah. You made a good point about the GIF because I was wondering why they didn't use more throughout to show the different programs, but then, because there's that one huge GIF right there, that makes up for all of it. I would've liked to see a little bit more interactivity throughout the emails. So, if they do it with one, I would like to see it with another one, maybe a smaller GIF. One other thing is going back to those CTAs, if they're going to be very minimal like this, maybe underline them. Underline the "learn more" and switch up the verbiage there too so they're not all "learn more," maybe "get creative" or "start creating," "start editing," or something like that. That would be cool to see. Matthew Smith: One thing that a lot of people miss is, imagine if your email was black and white and if you don't have enough pattern of a design pattern to indicate that that's a link without color, then you're missing something. I do think this carrot here, Chevron, however you want to say that, that helps quite a bit. Gives it just enough. And it's also this semi-bold, which helps, but I think to your point, they could go one step further and I think that would help quite a bit. So let's jump over to some others and see how they're comparing. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/save-25-on-creative-cloud-for-teams-today" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/58625db82ca64c6d8e5c5d0fb3f1a4e3"></a> Same use of typography, same buttons, pretty rad GIF, visually very cool Black Friday email. So they're telling me a little bit about it. One thing that I think is not working as well here is it does tell me Black Friday, but saving 25%, I think, is one of the most important things about this entire email. And it's the smallest text they have other than legal down here. From my perspective, I would love to see that nice and bold and clear because that's one of the strongest parts of the sale. What else would you change, Kelly? Kelly Lamano: Yeah, I agree that 25% is one of the most important parts. So, making that larger. Something that I liked was the animation and also like the fact that you can call Adobe. That's very rare with big corporations. I liked that the email is short and sweet and it kind of creates urgency, but I would also like to see the "offer ends tonight" bigger. If I'm looking at the email at a quick glance, I'll just be like, "Okay. You know, I have time," Because it's such small text, I might just breeze over it. So maybe making that expiration date larger as well. Matthew Smith: From my perspective, the order goes "Black Friday," "Going, going almost gone," "Buy now." "Offer ends tonight." That's the order I read them in and see them in. And then these pieces, which are actually quite important and these get almost entirely lost. The text is a little bit bigger on mobile, which is helpful. I really feel like for a company like Adobe, I would love to see a little bit stronger design aesthetic and hierarchy in their emails to really show off what's possible. Overall, I think these have some strong strategy and some good aesthetic. Pretty stoked to see them. All right. Email geeks, stay healthy, stay happy. Be really good. Make sure to take care of your neighbors. We're in a hard time, everybody. So, anything you can do to just be part of the great community, keep it up. Let us know what we can do to add new brands that you would like to see or you'd like to see us review. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and keep the love going around and talk to you soon. Bye.

How do you serve your audience with software product announcements? This week, we look at how Adobe's emails spotlight bold fonts, animations, and creative illustrations to show their software products in action.

Putting bold designs and animations to the test with Adobe

This FF episode was sponsored by <a href="https://info.knak.com/really-good-emails.html?utm_source=rge-school&amp;utm_medium=influencer&amp;utm_campaign=rge" target="_blank">Knak</a>. Schedule a demo to build your own really good emails and get them to market in minutes. <hr>📋 TL;DR key takeaways from this episode: 1. Show real photos of people using the products so your audience can connect with your message and what you’re selling. 2. Use live text instead of all-images to make text easy to read and accessible across devices 3. Make sure the hero image adds value. What’s the problem you're solving? Make the design feel unique, less blocky, so the images pop out and bring life to the email's visual aspects. BONUS:&nbsp;If you’re thinking about adding a CTA to the hero image, test it to see what works best for your brand and your product. If you add a CTA too early, people might miss the rest of the email. <hr> Matthew Smith: Happy happy Friday. Feedback Friday, everybody. It's good to be here. What's up, Matt Helbig? Matt Helbig: What's up, Matthew Smith? I'm ready to look at some fantastic email examples. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QKfvWBwe5Ao" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/QKfvWBwe5Ao</a> Matthew Smith: Hey, everybody. We're going to look at <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/public-rec" target="_blank">Public Rec</a>. I'm super psyched about this brand. They're doing cool stuff. Look at it. Does everybody see that? That's live text. What's up, live text? <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/meet-your-new-go-tos" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/c842384e8815474287e1ebb2b948759c"></a> Look how simple this is. Look at this typographic hierarchy. Look at how good it looks on mobile. Oh, my God. They're killing it. I'm like super, super stoked on this. Look at that green, clear CTA all the way through. They make this black, white, green plus photograph so, so hot. And then look at this nice footer down here. Everything's very clear. It just gets it done. I am psyched about that. In this one, they're showing off some of their products. I'm signed up for Public Rec. I get to see some comfort meeting style, some of these different things that they're offering, and I can jump in. Now, let's look at the other kinds of emails that they're serving up. All right. So what are we wearing? Look at the layout differences here. So we went from an all-white background email with a zigzag pattern. It keeps me going. To keep things fresh, to keep things a little different, they went to a card layout. So now they've got this hero image, then a centered set of text here. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/theres-always-a-favorite" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/8127fb48852446c596c3ca8cadd8ad7c"></a> This is not live text, by the way, I'm noticing, but they get this nice lockup going to show me more about this Politan hoodie, which by the way, I think I need to get one of those. I love some sweater hoodies. They're doing a great job of showing people actually wearing the gear. I like this too. These are like normal feeling, normal-looking people, not like model-oriented folks. So it's like photos for the rest of us. Then they get these quotes going with them, and I can then shop. I think that's a cool way to show off a fashion brand or show off a product. Show people using it. We did an episode; I think it was <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/school/feedback-friday-supergoop" target="_blank">Supergoop!</a> That was where people were using the sunscreen product, and it was a real woman, and it was like a GIF of her putting it on her body or a face or something and some quotes, and I was very connected to it. So I thought that worked well. &nbsp;I think this looks super tight. I'm interested in it. Who's not been in that situation where you're sitting in a yurt or some shit you can go on your computer with a sweater? They did four of these. I think they work well.&nbsp; Let's jump over and see a few more. So this is the same sort of basic lockup, but now look, they've changed it up. So they have this Tetris set up of these different visualizations of these shorts, and those look comfortable. They're able to finish it all off with a "shop all shorts."<img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/6d16c973b7254ace8603109163f2a5cd"> Finally, I thought this was just a good, smart, transactional email on the e-commerce side. I also got an email to know when these shorts were back in stock. I always love to have that brand interaction and not have to rethink it. I don't understand why every brand doesn't do that. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/4b013ecc7dd7453dbc3cd381529a702e"> I put these in my cart and then like a good email geek. I walked away cause I wanted to see if they would send me an email, and sure enough, they did. So I think this continues to stay on brand. It feels a little bit empty. But I think that it's also simple and does its job. It gets out of the way. I appreciate that they lead in with this hero image and then dive me into this both strategically in terms of showing off products and getting the right CTAs. In there in terms of using strategy for showing off how actual real people are using products and getting them into those products. And in terms of creating unique layouts, I think they're just doing a fantastic job. They're very consistent. I would love to see some more live text in some of those other examples. Maybe this is one of the newer examples using live text, but other than that, I think this is a fantastic example of an email in an e-commerce setup that is focused and simple—getting the job done and being brand forward. It checks all the boxes for me. What about you, Matt Helbig? Do you think this is working? Matt Helbig: I think this is a seven or eight out of 10 for me. I feel like this hero is a little outdated or old. It doesn't grab my attention as much, but I liked the zigzag design and the use of live text, and the CTAs. That's smart. I feel like I almost like some of the other template styles a little more where they're talking about individual products. With this one, I feel like they definitely could try to use a little bit more live text. I think that would help some of the mobile stylings. I think it is getting a little small on that side. The CTAs still look good, but the text is a bit hard to read. In this one, it would be cool if one of these pictures was GIF or an animation. I think that would catch your eye a little bit. Matthew Smith: They probably didn't do that because a GIF that was this large would be huge. But if they had done this live text, they could have had a nice small GIF. Matt Helbig: I think the footer is pretty simplistic, but I almost want just a little bit more. Maybe bringing in that social stuff would be cool. I know there are many images in this already, but they could add some additional modules to capture a few more people in some of the other campaigns. But overall, I think this one is probably one of my favorite out of their templates, just cause I liked the comparison product shot to a person wearing the product. Matthew Smith: I do too. And you think this hero's working better? Matt Helbig: I think the hero is all right. Matthew Smith: What would you change about these two headers? Matt Helbig: I pass over this text. It doesn't add any value to me. I think something like best-sellers is the keyword here. So maybe highlight that a little bit more. This, in general, is a hard problem to solve sometimes. Rereading this, these are our favorites. So some information about why these are the best selling or some icons around, like these are our top styles, could bring me in just a little more. To me, this almost looks more like a sales promotional email showing me some new product. Reading a little bit more like it is a best-selling pant and everything like that, but maybe that could catch my eye a little bit more. For some reason, I think for heroes, it doesn't add too much to the rest of the email when the meat of the email is this content. Matthew Smith: I get what you're saying. I think for me, it fits the brand. It's a very no-nonsense brand, very much out of the way. What I was thinking about is, "what's the problem that this product is solving?" Generally, there is either very comfortable clothing that looks like shit and makes you look like shit, or there's very nice clothing that makes you look terrific but is super uncomfortable. They're trying to say: this is this middle ground; we're meeting it. That's what our product is about. So I think that the "comfort meets style" headline does do that. I think they could do something unique here if they broke the frame, this a blocky frame. If there was a way that either text or some icon, or if you had the head of somebody like popping out, that kind of thing can make this feel much more unique and less blocky. I think it's the blockiness that is probably an issue. Imagine, for instance, if the top of this popped out of that and Public Rec was higher up, or something like that can be a very effective visual solution. Matt Helbig: Do you feel like they should add a CTA to these hero images? Matthew Smith: I think it draws people in. If you add a CTA too early, sometimes I think that people will miss the email. Do you know what I mean? Like you should test it. That's what I would recommend. But I think it's early enough that I see this CTA. This one draws me in. This is a little bit lower down the page. One of the biggest things I would change is either you have to make this text larger to work better in mobile if you're going to do images. Use live text. Emails can be coded these days very affordably by some great people who code them out there. Once you have them coded, you've got an email design system if you do it right. Then you don't have to have it coded again until you get a new series. They're very flexible. Yeah, I could talk about that all day. Well, great job Public Rec. I love what you're doing. Feel free to send us some awesome swag. I love your stuff. Looking forward to seeing more in my inbox from Public Rec and looking forward to seeing more of just great emails come in.&nbsp;I never thought I would look forward to emails, but I do. It's crazy. I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend. It's going to be a good one here. I'm going to stay grateful, do some meditation, remain mindful, and stay focused on being really good. So love you all and talk to you soon. Matt Helbig: See ya. Peace.

Public Rec makes high-quality, technical leisure apparel that helps people focus on what they’re doing, not what they’re wearing.

Adding value in e-commerce fashion emails with Public Rec

This FF episode was sponsored by&nbsp;<a href="https://more.emfluence.com/really-good-emails" target="_blank">emfluence</a>. Get paired with a marketer to see how your strategy will work in the emfluence Marketing Platform. <hr>📋 TL;DR key takeaways from this episode: 1. Lead into the email with a crisp photo to showcase product characteristics. 2. Keep the CTAs focused, and run a split test to try serving up different promotions. Target one deal in Email A. Run two deals in Email B. Keep an eye on which email performs best and see what you learn. 3. Balance the CTAs and product photography. If you’re showcasing a variety of products, spotlight the main CTA at the top of the email, and make the rest of the CTAs secondary. *BONUS*: Underline text CTAs. Make it clear that they’re links, or change up the verbiage so each CTA is different. See if that helps drive sales. <hr>Matthew Smith: Hey, it's Feedback Friday, everybody. I hope everyone's having a fantastic finish to your week and ready for another good episode. Today, we will jump in, and I've got Kelly on our team who will join me in doing some review of some fantastic email. Kelly, Thanks for joining me. This is fun to have you. Kelly Lamano: Thanks, Matthew. It's fun to be here. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fzSl-QXVuUg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/fzSl-QXVuUg</a> Matthew Smith: This is <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/gopro" target="_blank">GoPro</a>, a company no one has ever heard of, but you know, just kidding. I would love to hear what's doing it for you. What works well in this initial GoPro email? <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/2353c90f7fe24b288915ba26f9d216b5"> Kelly Lamano: I love the animation. The background jumps out to me. Since it's a Black Friday email, I think it's important to grab the reader's attention and do something that's like, wow. Having the deal flash in the background is cool. I love that product shot. I think it's clean. It's crisp. It takes an inanimate object and makes it something that's like in motion. So I think that that's a cool feature. Matthew Smith: One of the things I think that's working well here is this email's simplicity. They're just getting out of the way. Get the jump on Black Friday. Boom. Get right in front of people. They use a clear heading and get that shop now, moving. Get you right into the visuals to see what you want to create. This sort of deal graphic is a little bit new, I think, for GoPro. I haven't seen it before, but I think that just showing off the product shot makes for a nice image. What, if anything, would you add or change about this email?&nbsp; Kelly Lamano: I like how they have the "Shop now" CTA at the top. It's very focused and simple. One thing that I would update is to have maybe one more CTA button at the end. Once you finish scrolling through, I think it's more valuable to bring the reader back to the website rather than the social media. You want to drive them towards that product or drive towards that sale. So I would like to see one more CTA button at the bottom.&nbsp;Matthew Smith: Yeah, I agree. I thought the same thing. I'm sure that there's not just one deal going on, but that there might be others. Now that said, that would be a great split test. Try focusing people on just one thing and then run another email where you have two things and see which one performs better. See what you learn. Let's jump into a few others here in the GoPro stack. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/2e54c11649ae4c21af8c4723cb850e54"> It looks like this one is around some of the things, some of the current cameras' features. Again, excellent product imagery. I like how they're using two types of light on this product shot. Whether this is an actual product shot or digitally rendered, it is attractive and makes for just a fantastic visual. I love that they get clear with a big title. Image around like the new nine. Simple subheading. This simple subtext. Shop now. And then they repeat this. They have a secondary CTA here. I'm a little bit curious about why they switched to that. Instead of using the clear button, they change the imagery using a bit of an angle here, which I think is an excellent way to handle this. You can see it's a PNG. It occupies the space of a rectangular image, but they get a little more action out of that by creating a diagonal here. I think that's interesting. They continue to use this same lockup for text. Really consistent. I like how they go top left, down right, top right, down left. They use a zigzag motion to move down through this email. I think it's working well.&nbsp; They end with another option to subscribe to GoPro and get 50% off, which is pretty cool—assuming that somebody's already subscribed to their email. I'm guessing that's like some other subscription, but not just a subscription to email, but some subscription service that they've got.&nbsp; Pretty on point in terms of this black that shows off the aesthetic of the GoPro. Over here on mobile, this looks great. I really shows off the photography really well. I think this gray on the outside is not as effective. If it were me, I would make that either a dark gray to still have a feeling of a column here in the primary email. Or I keep it black. It's such a high contrast that it just distracts from the email. What about you?&nbsp; Kelly Lamano:&nbsp;I agree. I would like to see a darker color, like black, because it takes away from the content. I like the zigzag and how they do put that focus, so it's clear on mobile.&nbsp; Matthew Smith: What do you think, from your experience Kelly, why are they doing this Secondary CTA as a text and not a button? What's your thinking there?&nbsp; Kelly Lamano: I think that with the button, that's more focused towards maybe people who are just being introduced to GoPro for the first time. Perhaps they haven't seen the product, or they haven't bought the product before. So that's just a bam right in the middle "shop now," like go and get it.&nbsp; Then as you scroll down, maybe more of like the more advanced GoPro user, they're more looking for accessories or something to compliment what they already have. Perhaps it's more of a softer, like you already know what's going on. Like, you know the deal, here's the place where you can shop now. So it's a softer CTA.&nbsp; Matthew Smith: You might be right. That's an interesting way to do it. Start people out with something focused and then slowly draw them down. If I were GoPro, I would test what effect you get if you make all of those the same color CTA and like an actual button. Or if you make this still secondary, but underline it or make it a little bit clearer it is a CTA.&nbsp; Even another thing that you could test would be changing up the text. So, "See the brand new Zeus mini" or "get the latest gear" or whatever the CTA is instead of just "shop now." See if any of those things drive sales. You never know how it'll end up affecting things, but it's cool to be able to see how those split tests work here. We've got another. They're talking about the eight. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/e4bb49224f2c408b98075fae2272cfa7"> Like the first one we saw, I think one of the things working well in this is this idea of leading with an image that shows a lot of the product's characteristics. Get in there with that intense color. Super simple title and subtitle, and then this dynamic CTA. Tt's powerful. It gets right in there. What do you think? Kelly Lamano: I love that product shot again. It's bringing that product to life, bringing the camera to life, and seeing it really from top to bottom, back to front. It's a very simple email, but I think it gets the job done. It's just like, "Hey, here's a new product. Get yours." It's very inviting with that CTA. Matthew Smith: Fantastic. I think this one is my favorite. Kelly Lamano: This email is also a great example of brand recognition. So GoPro keeps it simple with really like maybe three to four colors at most what the yellow, black, blue, and white. I feel they do an excellent job of being consistent with that and switching it up in emails to use that color scheme. They're just using it in a different order. Matthew Smith: I think you're right. One thing, though, I get a different color scheme here, a different color scheme here. I want to see something a little bit more consistent. I love the aesthetic of this, and I would love, and you know, another one here is this font. I'm pretty sure it's not being used here. Yep. So it's just an interesting difference. We could have grabbed these GoPro emails at different times. So these might be changes that they've made, but this is nice. It's great to see live text. I would love to see a little more consistency between these, but I know it can be challenging to do for a big brand. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/1d3616b5a9aa472da8d6c65a3c22289c"> So this is even a little bit different still again, another switch in the brand aesthetic. I like this aesthetic a lot, and I think this one has a bit more consistency between the two, probably because of the font. I think what they're doing here is interesting using live&nbsp;text.&nbsp; I like these highlighted words. But look at this CTA. It's a new CTA as well. I wonder maybe these are submissions from over some time. It's hard to say. What do you think about this layout?&nbsp; Kelly Lamano: The layout draws your eye from right to left, doing that zigzag effect. I liked that it highlights the different accessories. So the other emails are more focused on the camera. Here again, here are some items that can compliment that camera or some things that you can add to your kit when you're on the go. So I think they do a great job with that. The CTAs jump out to me. What do you think about the copy inside the CTA? So they all say, "get it." Do you feel like that's effective, or do you feel like it might do a little bit better if it had a different word inside each button? Matthew Smith: A couple of the things that I would probably change would be to get it all in one shot. You get these kits, here they are, and then a CTA. Then, I would let the travel kit and make this one of those secondary CTAs, the same here. As far as the language, I think you're right. Like, "get your travel on," "Start your adventure," "Go big with sports." Then where it says, "shop all accessories," I would show some kind of image with all the accessories or a bunch of accessories and then "shop all your accessories." But right now, especially these two being so close, I find that it's a little bit CTA overwhelming, and it doesn't work quite as well. Mobile works a bit better because you've got this image sitting in between those. It's one of those balances. But overall, I think some strong things are happening here. And of course, the photography is fun and fantastic. Well, thanks for walking through this, Ms. Kelly. I love it. Appreciate it. What are you going to be doing this weekend?&nbsp; Kelly Lamano:&nbsp;Well, this weekend, I'll probably just be hanging out on the couch. I will be watching Taylor Swift's folklore film. So, I'm excited about that. That'll be the highlight. How about you?&nbsp; Matthew Smith: Well, I'm going to spend some time with the kids and just trying to get some of that outdoor weather where it's safe from COVID, but not be cooped up inside. I am looking forward to that. Email geeks, thanks for everything. Always. Please let us know what brands you'd like us to feature and to look at. Don't forget; you can submit your emails on <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/" target="_blank">reallygoodemails.com</a>, and please subscribe to our channel and let others know about it. We want to keep improving, so let us know what you think. Thanks. Have a good one.&nbsp; Kelly Lamano: Bye. Happy Friday.

GoPro is a technology company that manufactures versatile action cameras and develops video-editing software.