Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #154 of All About Email!

Last week, we continued our mini-series in part two of the new Email Love Figma to HTML email plugin.

This week, I'm sharing my fifth and penultimate summer guest post from Laressa Uredi. Brainbox, agency owner and Mailchimp Pro Partner.

Let’s go! 👇

Guest Author - Larissa Uredi

Now, on to the good stuff! 🎉

KlaviChimpWeber - Why Choosing the Right ESP Matters

Klaviyo, Mailchimp, SendGrid, ConvertKit…the list of ESPs is staggering, with each promising to be better than their competition.

🧠 Knowing which system will be right for you and your business can seem impossible.

I’m here to break down the top considerations for business owners when choosing the most appropriate ESP:

• Knowing when you’re ready for an upgrade.

• And why this business decision matters in the long run. 

The above statement means that while choosing the most appropriate ESP, website builder, marketing platforms, etc., is a significant decision, the key to prioritisation is knowing why you choose those systems.

They are there to support and enhance your overall business goals and vision, not the other way around.

🚨 Put plainly, you can’t throw a system at a business with no vision and expect miracles to happen. 

With that out of the way, let’s dive in. 👇

Define Your Purpose

🧰 If so, you’ll want to ensure that your ESP can handle various tasks, such as automating customer journeys (e.g., welcome emails or post-purchase follow-up) and tailoring email blasts to your audience.

If you need your ESP to “do it all,” consider Mailchimp or Klaviyo for their robust feature sets, ease of integration with eCommerce platforms, and audience segmentation capabilities.

Features vs. Ease of Use

Be honest with yourself. Knowing how you like interacting with your systems and tech will be crucial as you consider which ESP to use.

🧠 For every feature you want (complex customer journey building, third-party integrations, webhooks, etc.), you will trade between ease of use and available features.

So choose wisely.

For those who love many options and bells and whistles, consider a system like ConvertKit or Klaviyo.

If you’re more of the “set it and forget it” type, Mailchimp might be a better choice.

To Sell or Not To Sell?

🤔 While relying on Shopify or SquareSpace’s built-in email systems may be tempting, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice in the long run.

Why?

In short, deliverability and customisation (each of those topics is a rabbit hole).

💬 In our experience, you’re not consistently landing in people’s inboxes or able to segment and communicate with your clients clearly and meaningfully if you use the wrong ESP.

For eCommerce sites, Klaviyo is hard to beat when it comes to integrated email marketing.

For service-based businesses, selling digital products like eBooks, Mailchimp, or ConvertKit can be great ways to get your product to those who want it. 

If you want more help learning how to think about and prioritise your business decisions (ranging from Sales to Systems), check out my “Start Somewhere eBook”.

It’s everything I wish I’d known before starting my business in one handy guide.

🎉 I’m offering it to you for just $27 (43% off!) with the code:

SimonLovesEmail

You can grab your copy here (and don’t forget your discount code).

That’s it for this week 👋

A big “thank you” to Larissa for guest authoring this week’s newsletter.

Throughout the summer, we have had regular guest authors:

• Lindsey Carroll (Issue #146)

• Emily Ryan (Issue #148)

• Elizabeth Jacobi (Issue #150)

• Vicky Smith (Issue #152)

• And “perhaps” one final exceptional guest…

⏭️ Next week, we will continue our mini-series in part three of the Figma to Email plugin from Email Love. ❤️

Catch up on now on:

• Part One

• Part Two

Email Marketing News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful Email News & Tips:

• Podcast - Geek Out! about email development. Is it still a viable career path? (Megan Boshuyzen & Carin Slater)

• Voodoo - Why Your Deliverability Rate Is Wrong (and what to do about it). (Lauren Meyer)

• Testify! - The Best 147 Review and Testimonial Email Examples in 2024. (Really Good Emails)

• Persuasive Copy - Top 6 persuasion principles for email copywriting. (Jimmy Kim)

• The Breakdown - Detailing a billion-dollar company’s (Patagonia) email program. (Andrew King)

• Consent - It goes a little something like this… (Alison Gootee)

• That InboxArmy Podcast - Interactive Email and Email Development with Megan Boshuyzen of Sinch. (InboxArmy & Megan Boshuyzen)

• Cleaning Email Lists - A Guide to Better Engagement and Deliverability. (ZeroBounce)

• Repetition - The Newsletter Advice I Give Again and Again. (Inbox Collective)

• Bot or Not - Understanding Email Bot Clicks. (Braze)

• Email Weekly - Olympic Inspiration. (ActionRocket)

• Email Marketing Deep Dive - With Megan Boshuyzen - 123. - Email Camp | Feedback Friday. (Really Good Emails)

If you have a question about this email or email marketing, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋