User Experience for Digital Marketing

"But it's an extra click" Yes, but would you rather... Click one more time, Or, send money to the wrong person? Click one more time, Or involuntarily see sensitive / graphic content? The truth is, friction still gets a bad rep But less clicks doesn’t always mean a better experience Less clicks doesn’t always mean a quicker journey Less clicks doesn’t always mean easier to use Sometimes that extra step, that extra click, that extra loading state, is good Actually, adding friction can be crucial → It can increase trust → It can reduce mistakes → It can keep people safe How? By giving people control  By enabling them to pause and evaluate their actions → Am I sending money to the right person? → Do I really want to delete all of my photos? → Do I actually want to mass email the company? → Do I want to see that graphic / sensitive content? → Did I mean to add 3 of the same things to my basket? → Do I believe that the system actually did what it said? → Did I create an account with the right details, or now will I be called Emilu? I’m not saying to always add extra steps for the sake of it But, we can’t underestimate the value of slowing people down So, what we can we do? → Map the journey (and system interactions). What decisions can people fly through vs where do we need them to slow down? Are there any destructive actions (like deleting) → Ask what could go wrong and think how it could be prevented. What actions can be make reversible? → Understand people's behaviours. What are they doing, intentionally or unintentionally. What behaviour are we trying to amplify or change? Where can we give more control? → Can we add friction to tailor their experience? It could be as simple as: → Adding an "are you sure prompt" → "Check your details" page at the end of the flow We can't define success by how many times we tap Design for the experience, not for the clicks Design for people, always 💛

In the dynamic world of digital marketing, an effective email campaign is more than just a message—it's a carefully crafted experience that captivates, resonates, and drives action. Let's dissect the key elements that contribute to the success of an email marketing masterpiece. 🌐📧 1. Subject Lines that Spark Curiosity: 🔍📌 The gateway to your email. Craft subject lines that intrigue, inspire, or pose questions. The goal? To entice recipients to open the email and explore what lies within. 2. Compelling Content: Tell a Story, Solve a Problem: 📖🎯 The heart of your campaign. Your content should be a blend of storytelling and problem-solving. Connect emotionally, provide value, and address the needs or pain points of your audience. 3. Personalization for a Tailored Touch: 🤝🎨 Beyond just using a recipient's name. Leverage data to personalize content, recommendations, or offers based on user behavior and preferences. A personalized touch enhances engagement. 4. Visual Appeal with Eye-Catching Design: 🎨👁️ A picture is worth a thousand words. Incorporate visually appealing graphics, images, and layouts. Design should complement your brand and guide the reader through the content seamlessly. 5. Clear and Compelling Call-to-Action (CTA): 🚀🔗 The purposeful nudges. Your CTA should be crystal clear, compelling, and aligned with the campaign's goal. Make it easy for recipients to take the desired action, whether it's making a purchase, signing up, or downloading. 6. Mobile Optimization for On-the-Go Engagement: 📱💨 In a mobile-centric world, ensure your emails are optimized for various devices. Responsive design is key to delivering a seamless experience, no matter where your audience opens their emails. 7. A/B Testing for Continuous Refinement: 🔄📊 Don't guess; test. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different elements—subject lines, content, visuals—and refine your approach based on real-time performance data. Share your insights and let's continue to elevate our email marketing game together! 💬💌 #EmailMarketing #DigitalCampaigns #EngagementStrategy

How will email marketing change if AI summarizes all your emails? The first wave of AI was about creating content, but the second wave is synthesizing information to save users time: Gen AI → SynthAI. Marketers got a wake up call about SynthAI with Google I/O’s recent announcements. 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 AI Overviews in search will lead to “zero click search” and dramatic drops in clicks to your website. Recommendations for how marketers should respond include: 🎢 Websites must become experiences that can't be summarized. Christopher Penn says machines can’t summarize experiences because there’s no value in the summary; you want to visit Disneyland, not read a summary about a trip. Invest in owned media and communities, with new content formats such as videos, podcasts, and events. 📊 Content must be so relevant that AI search can't ignore and must cite it. Invest in content based on original research and data, a la Gong Labs. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥? Gemini in Gmail can scan unread emails, deliver a summary of key points and action items, and draft a reply. What will happen to B2B email marketing if buyers don’t read their emails and only pay attention to what the AI highlights? The drops in web traffic will be nothing compared to the drops in email open and click rates. 😱 The solution? Like websites, focus on experiences and content AI can't ignore, and: 🤝 Use “human” emails: As AI handles more routine communication, authentic human-to-human interactions will become more important. Emails from people your recipient knows, including your executives, will stand out. ✍️ Master "AI-optimized" email copywriting: A new specialty will emerge in crafting email copy that guides the AI to include it in summaries. This will include authentic personalization; referencing specific events or deadlines that the AI associates with urgency for the user; and including unique, valuable offers or insights that the AI recognizes as noteworthy. 🎼 Orchestrate across channels: B2B marketers will synchronize their email messages across channels like LinkedIn, direct mail, and phone calls to surround prospects and tell a cohesive story that can't be reduced to a summary. 👥 Prioritize human channels: May Habib suggests you engage customers in the channels you know are likely to be their human eyeballs and not their AI ones — particularly social. 💧 Cultivate buyer watering holes: Spend time where your buyers spend time, such as communities, review sites, industry events, and influential publications. Email becomes a notification system to drive engagement on these platforms. 🏆 Build your brand: Most importantly, as I've often said, your brand is what people think and feel about you, regardless of what an AI summary says. If your brand is strong, people will seek you out — something AI can't synthesize. #SynthAI #B2BMarketing #EmailMarketing #AIOverviews #GoogleIO

Delete. Unsubscribe. Mark as spam. These are the reactions many assume email marketing elicits. Yet, while social media grabs headlines, email quietly outperforms, driving $36 for every $1 spent. It's the digital marketing channel that refuses to die – and for good reason. Many marketers overlook it, chasing the latest social media trends, but savvy businesses know its power. Here's why email marketing remains a cornerstone of effective digital communication: → Direct access to your audience: Unlike social platforms, your email list is yours. No algorithm changes can cut you off from your subscribers. → Personalization at scale: Modern email tools let you tailor content to individual preferences, increasing engagement and conversion rates. → Cost-effective: Compared to paid ads, email marketing often delivers a higher ROI. Some studies show returns as high as 4200%. → Measurable results: Open rates, click-through rates, and conversions are easily tracked, allowing for continuous optimization. → Builds long-term relationships: Regular, valuable emails keep your brand top-of-mind and foster customer loyalty. → Versatile content options: From newsletters to promotional offers, emails can serve various marketing goals. → Mobile-friendly: With most emails now read on smartphones, it's a perfect channel for reaching on-the-go consumers. Despite claims of its demise, email usage continues to grow. In fact, many Gen Z consumers prefer email for brand communications over social media messages. The key? Providing value, not spam. Businesses that master the art of helpful, engaging emails will continue to reap the benefits of this powerful marketing channel.

One email. To 1,00,000 people. And then… silence. Why? Because blasting emails is like shouting into a crowd. You’re loud. But not heard. You’re everywhere. But not remembered. Because in a world full of noise, what’s loud isn’t what gets noticed — it’s what feels relevant. 🧠 People don’t read emails. They scan. They judge. And they delete in seconds — unless something clicks. 📬 What clicks? Personalisation. Context. Timing. Not “Hi [First Name]” personal. But “I know where you are in your journey” personal. That’s what stops the scroll. Even in B2B — behind every inbox is a human being. With deadlines, distractions, and decision fatigue. Bulk fails. Target wins. Not because bulk is bad — But because relevance is rare. 🎯 Segment like a strategist: ✅ Cart abandoners – they wanted it. Then life got in the way. Bring them back. ✅ Free trial users – they’ve tested the water. Show them why the full plunge is worth it. ✅ Clickers who didn’t convert – interest was there. Maybe trust wasn’t. Fix that. And that’s not all. Go deeper: ✅ First-time vs. returning visitors ✅ High spenders vs. window shoppers ✅ Geography, device type, time of open Each tells a different story. So tell yours differently to each. Then? 🖊️ Don’t just write to them. Write for them. Make your words mirror their thoughts. Answer their silent objections. Deliver value before asking for action. Because when you stop sending emails to everyone, And start sending the right emails to the right people… That’s when the inbox starts working for you. 💡 Opens go up. 💬 Replies come in. 💰 Conversions follow. Email isn’t dying. Bad email is. #EmailMarketing #Email #Personalization #DigitalMarketing

I've run hundreds of email account audits, and I always see the same mistakes. Here are the "5 Deadly Sins" that are killing your email performance – and how to fix them. MISTAKE #1: TOO MUCH EMAIL VOLUME When it comes to email marketing, engagement is far more important than list size. Sending too many emails can overwhelm your subscribers, leading to lower engagement rates, increased unsubscribes, and damage to your sender reputation. This turns into a “boy who cried wolf” scenario, where too much volume results in your messages getting ignored or sent to SPAM. THE FIX: Focus on quality over quantity. Prioritize sending valuable content at a steady cadence rather than hitting an arbitrary volume target. MISTAKE #2: NOT SEGMENTING YOUR AUDIENCE If you’re still sending “email blasts” in 2024, you’re gonna have a bad time. Sending the same email to your entire list without considering a subscriber’s unique needs or interests is a recipe for terrible engagements, sales, and unsubscribe rates. THE FIX: Segment your list based on demographics,interests, or behaviors. Send hyper-personalized content to maximize relevance and improve conversion rates. MISTAKE #3: WEAK OR MISLEADING SUBJECT LINES Using vague, spammy, or clickbaity subject lines is an absolute no-no. If your subject line is unclear, it’s not getting opened. If it makes a promise that your content doesn’t deliver on, your subscribers will lose trust, killing your future engagement metrics. THE FIX: Craft subject lines that are both clear and compelling. Set expectations for what’s inside and make sure the email content follows through on that claim. MISTAKE #4: IGNORING MOBILE OPTIMIZATION Current estimates suggest that around 60% of website visits take place on mobile devices. Similarly, studies have shown that around 40-60% of email opens happen on mobile. So, why do so many brands invest thousands in mobile optimization for their SITE, and almost nothing in optimizing their EMAILS? THE FIX: Use responsive email templates that adjust to any screen size, and always test how your emails look on mobile before sending. MISTAKE #5: FAILING TO ANALYZE PERFORMANCE For many brands, email marketing is an item on a to-do list that just needs checked off. If you’re not running a post-send analysis to determine what’s working and what’s not, you are absolutely leaving money on the table. THE FIX: Analyze your email marketing metrics on a monthly basis to understand what’s working and use that to drive further experimentation and optimization. I see these mistakes in every single account I audit – and it KILLS me. Get these low cost, high impact opportunities dialed in and you’ll dramatically improve your results.

You’re treating clicks like it’s a conversion path, but your users are navigating it like a minefield. 💣 It’s not just a gap in data, it’s a gap in perspective. 👀 Users aren't just navigating your website, they're navigating their trust in you. 👉 The real signal? It’s in the ⏸️ pause before the click. That moment of: “I’m curious… but I don’t trust you yet.” → Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) typically prioritizes visible trust indicators like badges, reviews, and guarantees. But most of the time, it overlooks a critical variable: emotional reassurance. Why is this important? According to behavioral insights, users form gut-level judgments in as little as 50 milliseconds. So, before logic takes hold, emotion decides. Put another way… Ignore the emotional pause, that split-second user skimming your content, and you risk losing potential conversions before trust is even on the table. ❇️ This is where trust is won or lost. 👉 So then, how can we get better at offering emotional reassurance? Small shifts in language. Take this illustrative example: 👇 A fintech startup with auto investing powered by AI (yup, you guessed it), sleek UX and zero commission, and the whole shebang. Everything looked right....but conversions stalled at the “Connect your bank” step. ❌ Dashboards showed low click-through. The typical response? → Increase Ad spend. Push more traffic. But having a session 📺 replay helped tell a deeper story: → People hovered over the tooltip “Why do we need this?” link…then left. But how come? The tool tip was perfect, factual, accurate, informative, and linked to more info.. Well… What if we made a real change with something more human, something that changes that emotional moment before the click…Why? 👉 Because...small shifts in language lead to big shifts in belief. ✅ The generic tooltip with something ❤️ human: ⤵ “We use bank-level encryption. Your money stays in your account until you choose to invest. You’re in full control, always.” ✅ Then add a founder’s note with their pic 🤳: ⤵ “We’ve been burned by hidden fees too. This platform is different, and we’ll prove it.” I bet you can already imagine the impact this change can make…bounce rate will drop, bank connections will rise, and trust will become more believable. Real connection isn’t created by over-optimized funnels, shorter forms, fewer fields, and faster clicks alone. 👉 It's built in the quiet spaces between words, in the ❤️ hearts and 🧠 minds of people. → The pause. →→ The restraint. →→→ The earned emotion. So if your voice feels like it’s loud and pushing for a conversion…try whispering something real instead. Trust is built in the ⏸️ pause, not the push. #B2BMarketing #Marketing #Startups #Sales #AI #Leadership #Strategy

As I'm diving into The 2023 State of Email Report published by Litmus, a particular point strikes a chord with me: "Email works the whole customer journey, from brand awareness to customer lifecycle, and beyond. There’s an email for every moment!" Litmus posed a question: "How else is email a cut above the rest?" Here are my insights on how email not only excels in direct marketing but also informs a broader strategy: 🔍 Uncovering Sub-Audiences: Email analytics can reveal engaged subgroups we might not initially target. Tailoring messages for these audiences enhances the impact across all channels. It's like finding a hidden treasure in plain sight. 🔄 Driving Content Strategy: The content and messaging that resonate in your emails are likely to strike a chord elsewhere. These insights are invaluable for shaping your overall content strategy, ensuring consistency and relevance across all touchpoints. But there's more than just these two aspects. Insights from email marketing are instrumental in: ✔ Personalizing the Experience: Email engagement data helps refine personalization strategies on other platforms, from social media to your main website, making every interaction more meaningful. ✔ Forecasting Market Trends: Engagement trends in emails often signal broader shifts in customer preferences, enabling you to adapt your marketing strategies proactively. ✔ Optimizing Investment: By understanding what resonates in email, you can better allocate resources across your marketing channels, enhancing ROI. In essence, email marketing does more than just communicate; it provides a roadmap for strategic decisions and holistic marketing success. ⁉ What are your thoughts on the multifaceted role of email in shaping marketing strategies? Share your insights!⁉ #EmailMarketing #MarketingStrategy #EmailMarketingStrategy #StateOfEmailMarketng

People don’t buy because they understand your brand—they buy because they feel understood. And great email marketing is more than eye-catching designs; it’s about sharing the right content at the right time to meet customers where they are. Here’s how to tailor your emails to each step in the customer journey: For first-time subscribers, start by introducing your story, sharing social proof, and showing how your products fit into their lives. A warm welcome email sequence can build familiarity and trust, setting you apart from just another brand in their inbox. After their first purchase, don’t stop at a simple “thank you.” Follow up with tips, care instructions, or complementary product suggestions, showing you care about their experience and satisfaction. This not only reinforces their decision but keeps your brand top-of-mind. For returning customers, deepen loyalty by offering exclusive perks, early access, or personalized recommendations. Tailored email content here shows them they’re part of an inner circle, building connection with every message. And for your VIPs—the loyal champions of your brand—treat them to pre-launch access, loyalty rewards, or exclusive content that feels crafted just for them. Ultimately, email marketing done right isn’t just about explaining your product; it’s about helping customers feel understood at every stage of their journey and building lasting connections. If you nail this - you already are miles ahead of your competitors.

“Nobody reads email anymore.” Says the brands that are: 1. Using opens as their core KPI while Apple MPP inflates them. 2. Tagging “success” to a campaign with 2% CTR and no revenue tracking. 3. Sending the same hero to VIPs, first-timers, and lapsed buyers. 4. Linking every CTA to the homepage instead of the PDP you pitched. 5. Shipping a “Welcome” flow with one email that just says hi. 6. Hiding price in the email and asking readers to hunt for it. 7. Writing subject lines like “Fall Favorites 🍁” with no angle, no outcome. 8. Leaving preview text as “View this email in your browser.” 9. Treating image-only emails as “design” while Gmail treats them as spam. 10. Testing nothing — not even subject lines or button copy. 11. Blasting the full list for a 20% off promo every week and wondering why spam complaints spike. 12. Never splitting offers for VIPs vs first-timers vs lapsed. 13. Copying a competitor’s layout and inheriting their mediocre performance. 14. Including 5 separate 5 mb image files in one message. 15. Using seven fonts and nine colors because “it pops.” 16. Reusing the same message template for 6 years (actually...) 17. Burying the first CTA halfway down the email. 18. “Shop Now” as the only CTA in every send, regardless of the story. 19. Zero product education in the Welcome flow — no proof, no outcomes, no FAQs. 20. Browse abandonment that looks identical to cart abandonment. 21. Cart abandonment that triggers after purchase because the filter logic is lazy. 22. Post-purchase that ends at the receipt — no usage tips, no cross-sell, no review ask. 23. Replenishment ignored for a 30-day consumable because “we’ll get to it.” 24. Winbacks that say “We miss you” with nothing to win back the customer. 25. Letting flows run untouched since 2021 while product mix, margins, and buyers changed. 26. Building for desktop first when 70%+ of opens are on mobile. 27. No SPF/DKIM/DMARC, then blaming Klaviyo for deliverability. 28. Not warming a new subdomain before BFCM. 29. Never removing inactive contacts from their active lists. 30. Treating unsubscribes like a problem instead of a signal. 31. Sending at 12:00 AM Eastern because no one changed the default. 32. Ignoring time zones for West Coast and international buyers. 33. Stacking discounts on discounts until margin disappears — then wondering why LTV stalls. 34. “Last chance” three times a week until no one believes you. 35. UTMs missing or duplicated — analytics shows “Direct / None.” 36. Measuring email’s worth only by web orders when a brand has physical storefronts or a high-volume of draft orders from CS And the list keeps going below...