In this edition:

→ Why you can't capture attention in the inbox

→ How to proof and test your emails before sending (scroll to blogs)

→ The best send time  (scroll to end)

→ The 3 reasons people open an email (scroll to end)

Howdeedoo 🤠 

I hope you're having a fabulous week, wherever you are right now. 

Updates from me:

I ran the first EVER Email Design Masterclass, and it was a huge success - so much great feedback, so I've added July dates! 

Deliverability Certification Programme - going LIVE next week. You must be on the waitlist to get a space (only 100)!

I'm in Amsterdam next week talking at the EMEA - very excited (also nervous, but mostly excited)!

Enough with that, let's inbox it up 👇

Why you can't capture attention in the inbox

Because you already have it....duh!?

People come to the inbox on or with a purpose, mainly out of habit, to check or to fulfil a task 

So if your audience is in their inbox, you already have their attention 

Our brains see everything; we register it passively

So if your emails are landing in the inbox, then you have a fighting chance!!

Inbox attention is neurological, rarely emotional

Most inbox behaviour is fast, automatic, heuristic, and subconscious. Here’s what the brain is doing the moment someone opens their inbox:

1. Cognitive load

It cuts corners fast. Anything that looks too hard to find the point, or clutter, gets filtered out instantly.

2. Inbox triage
It prioritises states, not senders, judged against mood and mode, not your campaign goal.

3. Predictive coding

The brain builds predictive patterns with your sender name, subject matter and other emails.

4. Emotional association
The name in the inbox is the real subject line. Memory of you matters more than wording - there will be feelings.

5. Pattern interruption
Attention spikes when patterns break, but standing out doesn’t need to hard; it’s about being helpful in an inbox full of rubbish!

Email design masterclass

"Genuinely brilliant. I love that you actually spoke about real-world examples. I learned more in 90 minutes than I have in the past six months of studying email marketing" - Hannah from Smart Cookie Studio

MORNING SESSION | 14 JULY

🕐 10am (BST)

Join live or get the recording (you still need to get a ticket). Includes 15 min Q&A

AFTERNOON SESSION | 14 JULY

🕐 3pm (BST)

Join live or get the recording (you still need to get a ticket). Includes 15 min Q&A

From the Vault

A blog a day keeps the spam filter away 

⌚ 6 min read:

→  Email QA: How to Proof and Test Your Emails Before Sending

⌚ 5 min read:

→  Email Marketing for B2B SaaS: The Mistakes I Keep Seeing and How to Fix Them

⌚ 7 min read:

→  How to Build an Email Marketing Strategy

From the Queen’s Court

Voiceover video verdicts 

Recorded reviews of emails in the wild

70+ recorded video verdicts

The Inbox Drop

What is the best time to send? 

Ah yes...

Everyone knows Tuesday at 10am is when the inbox gods descend, part the clouds, and place your campaign in front of a fully alert, coffee'd-up, decision-ready human who has nothing better to do than convert

LOL 

I get asked this constantly:

• What's the best time to send an email?

• Should we turn on send-time optimisation in our platform?

• Is it even accurate?

And it ties straight back to what we covered earlier - when someone's in their inbox, you've already got their attention.

People don't like feeling they've missed things, so they scroll back

How far? Depends on volume, but for most people checking daily (personal and work), it's a day or two.

Which means landing "at the right time" mostly just makes you a fresh visual cue at the top. You'll get noticed faster, sure!

But being seen sooner is not the same as being more likely to convert

The whole "best time to send" question assumes attention runs on a clock

That "open time" your platform is so proud of could be the moment they're clearing out their inbox as a daily habit

So when I take a global send-time benchmark and try to staple it onto my audience it don't work

The best send time is based on intent, not the clock

Send-time optimisation is optimising the variable that matters least

The real question was never when are they in the inbox - it's are you relevant when they get there

Three things to take away:

• "Best time" is really "best moment" and moments are personal

   

• An open time is not an intent signal

   

• Relevance buys you margin on timin

Quick win for you

People only open an email with intent for 3 main reasons:

(with intent: opening with the intent of reading, engaging, looking - positive intent)

1. Who sent the email (the sender name)

An association has been built with the sender, the brand, the person etc - so regardless of what the email is about, the association could be so positive that it gets opened.

E.g. my emails, people may open any of them because I’ve trained them to expect helpful, useful content and hardly any ‘selling’

2. Pre open elements

Subject line, preheader - the pre open promise. So if this ‘activates’ something in the reader, it’s super relevant or timely; it’s something they’ve been thinking about, need answers to, it’s something they thought, say or feel.

3. Task/retrieve/utility

You have a specific task or you’ve come to find a promo code, you’re clearing out. You are performing an ACTION that was thought out. 

It could be trying to find something, to go back and sign up or perform an action.

Plug of the week 

Expert email deliverability audits

A 30-day, six-step deliverability audit and find out exactly where your emails are landing, why, and what to do about it.

Stop chasing the clock, start reading the signals, and send like a human/

See you soon,

Beth ✌️

I have ADHD (IFYKYK) so please excuse any typos and spelling errors in this email.

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