Slow emails volume 8
As always, I break my email up into two sections:
Throwing Rocks in which I throw metaphorical rocks at email-related topics and break down concepts with said rocks. To be clear, this is not meant to be negative in any sense, and is meant to raise questions of "is this update really that bad?" or find answers to "should I be sending a newsletter because everyone else is?".
Cool Tools - meant to be self-explanatory in nature and highlights great email tools that have caught my eye over the past month or so.
Throwing Rocks
Interviewing in the email space?
My OG professional background was actually in recruiting (weird pivot to email but alas), and I conducted over 3,000 interviews in my tenure. Having worked in email and been on the interviewing side, I've compiled a list of common questions so that you don't have to that you can jot down thoughts for ahead of your interviews.
You're writing copy wrong...
Did you know you should actually (probably) be using an em-dash in your writing but instead, you've been using a hyphen. Can you believe it?
UNSPAM 2022
I didn't go and it has been my biggest regret so far this year. However, I'll be in London in April and May this year and hope to catch their UK edition then. Do I have any UK #emailgeeks on my subscriber list!?
Kicking this year off right...
Returning from vacation this year (Jan 5th, to be exact) hit me like a ton of bricks. Within two weeks I was completely burning out, I felt frustrated at my massive Asana board, and frustrated with not knowing where I wanted to take my career this year. I'm really making it a mission to try and establish a better work-life balance as the year continues, and continue to keep my love of email alive. Here's what works for me:
My morning time is my time. I avoid looking and replying to Slack messages until 8:30/9 am, after I have meditated, read my book, and had a full glass of water.
Always seek inspiration. See a cool email? I screenshot and save it in my inspiration folder.
I need to get off Tiktok and read a book!
Try and learn one new thing a week (whether it be about email, investing, web development, etc)
Take time to fully disconnect and be with friends. Sometimes as someone who loves introvert time, staying in and working can actually sound relaxing, but it's not sustainable.
Only take on freelance projects that fit with my goals, and don't overextend myself. This means putting a cap on the # of projects I commit to (so that I can actually relax on weekends and evenings). As of right now, I have a waitlist - which is a first!
If I want to grow in career, life, savings, etc, procrastination is going to get me nowhere, so I've started to map out where I want my career to go, and what I like to do, and it's been fun.
Cool Tools & Other Cool Stuff
Here are some of my favourite emails from the past month:
Mailgun featuring some nice interactivity for an upcoming event...
An email I created for my freelance client Formula Fig - outlining their monthly facial membership packages.
I also work heavily on their web strategy and have run some really fun A/B tests recently. The first being a signup form popup A/B test that had Variant A coming in with a 10% conversion rate, vs. Variant B coming in with a 3% conversion rate. Don't you love when tests show significance?!
Okay... saving the best for last. If you haven't had an opportunity to check out Parcel yet, you need to prioritize it. It's an unbelievable email coding platform that is built specifically for this fantastic community.
Even more exciting... you'll see my face on the about page :)
That's all from me this month!
Ps. I'm running another Deep Dive into Email with Digital Summit on March 31st! Pencil it into your calendars.
Naomi