Heya, I’m Megan!
After 10 years in the email marketing industry, I’ve got some opinions.
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Email marketing is an art and a science. The science is in best practices. They aren’t fast, they aren’t sexy, and they may fuck up your reporting sometimes, but in the long run, your program will be better for following them.
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No matter what your growth team tries to tell you. Even if it affects conversion, you’ve got to have explicit consent to receive marketing emails. Submitting a form or making a purchase then receiving a bunch of email from you is just going to erode trust from the jump & increase your spam rates.
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Email copy and design stand out when a real person is behind the creative direction. AI may help you ship things faster (and as a team of one, I get why that sounds appealing), but it’s more important to ship things better.
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If you’ve ever caught yourself looking at when the best day and time to send your emails are, or whether emojis belong in your subject line, the real answer lies within your own audience. You’ve got to test your way into your own definitive answers.
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Unless they explicitly opted in to receive your marketing emails (no, having disclaimer language when they click to complete their purchase does not count), you have no business sending marketing emails to your customers.
I’m an Oxford comma devotee (and I will die on that hill). I believe Roger Moore is the best Bond. Pineapple does belong on pizza, but ham has no business there. If you ask me what I’m watching lately, chances are it’s gonna be Hallmark movies, Psych, Gilmore Girls, SVU, Pretty Little Liars, or Gossip Girl. My morning routine is gathering my emotional support beverages like a goblin (coffee, water, cherry coke zero), lighting a candle, and telling Alexa to turn on the twinkly lights. If we’re on a 3.5 hour+ road trip, we will be listening to the entire Hamilton soundtrack (and playing all the parts). I once took down a basilisk in a D&D game playing Milkshake by Kelis on kalimba at it (ask me about it sometime).
You can find all sorts of email marketing 101 content out there. Much of it’s AI slop someone’s regurgitated from someone else’s AI slop.
Some of it’s from people I know and respect in this space who know their shit.
The Deliverability Diaries is isn’t meant to be prescriptive or instructional, but more a place for anyone who’s ever felt like my close personal friend Ron Swanson at work when it comes to running their email program (and spinning all the other plates they’ve got you in charge of). It’s stories, musings, observations, what’s working, what’s not.
If you just want to be a little less alone in your expertise, I’d love for you to subscribe to The Deliverability Diaries: a semi-regular newsletter for the solo marketers out there full of fresh (and sometimes spicy) takes on how to build the best email program you’re being massively underpaid to run.