Issue #172 All About Email

🔄 Email Flow Basics - Part One

In partnership with

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #172 of All About Email!

Last weekwe returned to our mini-series “Taming the Email Beast” with Part Five, as we looked at Email List Growth.

This week, in Part Six, we will explore the basics of Email Flow. This topic will take us a couple of weeks to cover in detail, and we are doing things slightly differently this week. 👀

Let’s go! 👇

An Introduction to Email Flow Basics

Email Flows, Journeys, Automation, whatever you or ESP calls them, friend is a massive topic.

🧠 There is some crossover, but your flow will depend on you or your client’s industry.

🚨 So, some of the flows we discuss over the next couple of weeks may not apply to you (yet).

Here is some general context and advice to consider before we look at some specific examples:

  • Automated emails go out when subscribers want, need, or do something.

  • It can be used for welcoming / onboarding, free product funnels, and post-purchase contact.

  • Automation can be much more effective if you also segment those automated emails (so only send them if they make sense).

  • At the very least, create a welcome message automation sequence.

Welcome Series

This isn’t the first time we’ve discussed welcome emails in this newsletter. Way back in July 2021, in Mailchimp Mondays Issue #4 (the “old, old” name for this newsletter), we looked at the potential impact of iOS 15 on welcome emails.

👋 The welcome series is the perfect automation for welcoming new subscribers to your brand.

🎉 It’s an opportunity to highlight all the aspects that make your brand unique and tell your brand story to newcomers as you build a genuine relationship with them.

Here’s an example from Wild Wonder. 👇

Browse Abandonment

🧙 Maybe it’s just me, but I struggle with this type of automation. It can feel creepy, but “can” work if done correctly.

With this automation, your subscribers receive messages based on the product pages and items they’ve looked at on your website.

🚨 You can control when this message is triggered and what audiences you want to receive, so segmentation is essential and exclusion from other campaigns/automation where appropriate.

Here’s an example from MCM. 👇

Abandoned Cart

Again, friend, this is not the first time I’ve discussed abandoned cart emails. Back in “Mail Mondays" Issue #45 (the “old” name for this newsletter), I discussed this in great detail.

💡 Abandoned carts remind your customers of the items left in their shopping carts.

✅ It can help remove any barriers that keep the potential customer from completing their purchase.

🛒 The ideal abandoned cart automation populates with dynamic content, like an image of the specific product they added, so each shopper’s card is unique to them and their experience.

Here’s an example from Brew Tea. 👇

❤️ If you love tea, Brew Tea are excellent and does excellent gift boxes!

Thank Yous

🤝 The post-purchase email's thank-you flow helps you foster brand loyalty by expressing gratitude to your customers for their business.

This particular type of email can work better as plain text, so it is worth testing.

Here’s an example from Onyx. 👇

Instructional

🤓 Instructional email automation educates your customers on using, caring for, cleaning, or assembling their purchased product.

This onboarding email also helps reduce customer service inquiries and poor product adoption.

An instructional email can be instrumental to your lead nurturing efforts. It streamlines the process and creates a pleasant experience for the shopper.

Here’s an example from AWS. 👇

Further Reading

📰 As part of our mini-series, each topic covered might include additional reading resources for building the workshops and these emails.

This week’s resources on Email Basics are:

That’s it for This Week 👋

⏭️ Next week, we will include Part Six Email Flow Basics.

That will take us roughly to the halfway mark of our email mini-series, which we started in Issue #165.

See you next week! 😀

Sponsorship Opportunities

🚨 If you’re interested in sponsoring the “All About Email” newsletter, you can find all the details in this Google Doc. I currently have “Classified” slots and a Main Sponsor slot available.

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

This is the easiest way for a busy person wanting to learn AI in as little time as possible:

  1. Sign up for The Rundown AI newsletter

  2. They send you 5-minute email updates on the latest AI news and how to use it

  3. You learn how to become 2x more productive by leveraging AI

Email Marketing News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful email news & tips:

  • AI Boost - Master AI Techniques and Optimize Campaign Performance. Boost Your Brand's Success With AI-Based Email Marketing. (Beehiiv)

  • Gmail Clipping - Prevent (& Fix) Clipped Emails (Email Tooltester)

  • They Work! - 6 Best Email Personalization Examples for Marketing. (ZeroBounce)

  • PCI Compliance - Preparing for DMARC Enforcement in March 2025. (Kizan)

  • Klaviyo 2025 - Some big changes are coming to Klaviyo. (Magnet Monster)

  • New Postmaster Tools - I’m not seeing these changes from Google yet. (Florent Destors)

  • Oh, Crap! - How We Cracked a 512-Bit DKIM Key for Less Than $8 in the Cloud. (DMARC Checker)

  • She’s Back! - These classic best practices are just what the doctor ordered to crush your marketing goals. (Alison Gootee)

  • New Feature! - Valimail's Senders Continuous Protection Report helps enable enterprise users to audit email platforms, prevent domain hijacking, and simplify SPF configurations. (Valimail)

  • This Stopped Me - 2025 newsletter predictions. (Grow My Newsletter)

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! 👋

Simon Harper's handwritten signaturee