Issue #180 All About Email

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Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #180 of All About Email!

Last week, we completed our mini-series “Taming the Email Beast”.

This week, we have two topics! I will first review Notion Mail, and then we will discuss why knowing/understanding your data is essential.

Let’s go! 👇

Notion Mail

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Notion announced Notion Mail on October 25th, 2024.

🎉 Finally, after 4.5 months of waiting, I’m off the waitlist and have access to this Gmail wrapper.

Yes, Notion is a wrapper for Gmail (or Google Workspace) and will only work with that for now.

🥺 My initial impression was underwhelming, and I will be playing around, but I can’t see this being my default mailbox provider for a while.

What is Notion Mail?

Naomi West uses Notion extensively and made this review of her initial experience on November 26th. 👇

(That review came one month after Notion announced Notion Mail and three months before I got access.)

🧠 Not much has changed in those three months, but Naomi’s video was great, and it helped me discover some features I wasn’t aware of.

The Notion Mail website also showcases some features explaining why Notion Mail differs (it’s also a very nice website), and you can sign up to join the waitlist.

Onboarding

🤩 I did see stars, friend, when the Notion Mail access email landed in my inbox.

However, it was a rocky start.

The email signup button took me to some horrific URL redirects in the Notion platform, which made the signup impossible.

I eventually got access by logging into Notion and clicking the microscopic Mail icon 🤦‍♂️.

Onboarding was pretty smooth and well-guided from then on.

Initial Thoughts

🤔 After the initial underwhelm, I am still scratching my head.

If you use Notion deeply (as Naomi does), then I can definitely see how this can be very powerful and useful.

I do use Notion, but I wouldn’t describe myself as a power user, although this did make the interface a little less jarring.

I’m mostly struggling with:

• Dark Mode is not easy to read or use (more contrast for people).

• For the life of me, I cannot find full original email headers or the ability to download original emails.

What is cool:

• ⚡️ The app is snappy, and I prefer using that to the website (which differs from the main Notion site; the same goes for the calendar).

• Labels, Views, Filters, and Automations are going to be key! (Refer to Naomi’s video and my screenshots.)

• Anyone who has used Notion will know how powerful Views and Templates can be.

• I’m also taking a wild guess that Notion AI and automation could be a big deal. 😉

Calendar and Feedback

Notion has also launched a Calendar, which I have integrated with and will eventually report back on as it has a relationship with Mail.

Once I have played around with Notion Mail more and given it some time, I will write up a deeper dive.

Higher Than Average Unsubscribes

Two topics this week!! You lucky thing, friend. 😉

Last week’s newsletter had a 1.65% unsubscribe rate.

Not catastrophic, but not great either, as the last 90 days my unsubscribe rate was 0.37%.

However, if you look at the percentage increase, it’s a whopping 345.95% increase. 🚀

(Some ESPs might show an in-platform warning or help message with such an increase.)

That could cause a lot of people to panic, but here is why I’m not, and it’s all about the deep dive data:

• 50% of the subscribers have been with me for a long time, and the churn period aligns with other unsubscribed.

• I ran two listicle newsletters one after the other, and that is too many links for anyone, so I won’t be doing that again. 💡

• Only one person completed my unsubscribe survey and didn’t say why they had unsubscribed; they “preferred not to say”. **

• Nobody who unsubscribed reported my email as spam (this is incredibly rare for my newsletter, anyway). 🎉

** (I don't force my subscribers to tell me why they are unsubscribing; perhaps that's a topic for another time. )

Know Your Data

I’ve already given the answer away above, but if you missed it, not all unsubscribes are bad.

🧠 You need to know and understand your data.

Unsubscribes also help:

• Keep your email list clean.

• Help maintain engagement.

• Reduce your ESP costs.

⚡️ I would much rather some unsubscribed than marked my email as spam.

That’s it for this week 👋

⏭️ Next week, friend, I’m going to talk about newsletter monetisation, hopefully without giving you the “ick”.

Talking about money and sponsorship is always tricky, and this is the first time I will discuss it, so go easy on me.

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.

Email Marketing News & Tips

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

• Workshop - Create Better Emails in Mailchimp. (Emily Ryan)

• LinkedIn Shuts Down Apollo - A Turning Point for Data Scraping and Cold Outreach. (Inbox Insider)

• Updated! 🎉 - “Into the Inbox” Email Statistics Report for 2025. (ZeroBounce)

• Context - What is the single most important thing for troubleshooting deliverability issues? (Travis Hazelwood)

• I got you 🙌 - Apple Mail updates got you stressed? Don't worry. (Alison Gootee)

• You’ve got to ask - The Power of Permission in Email Marketing. (Lauren Meyer)

• 10 Years - What we learned from building newsletters for over a decade. (Really Good Emails)

• Very Cool! 😎 - How to Automate List Cleaning with Klaviyo Webhooks (Magnet Monster)

• Tracking - Yep, Proton Blocks the Pixels. (Spam Resource)

• Nuance - Interactive Emails and Accessibility - Part 3. (Sarah Gallardo)

• Big Announcement - Here Are the Finalists for the Inaugural Inbox Awards. (Inbox Collective)

• Glossary - A Comprehensive Glossary of Email Deliverability Terms. (Litmus)

• Poll - What's your biggest frustration when it comes to email warmups? (Lauren Meyer)

• Eye of the Beholder - What do spam and beauty have in common (Alison Gootee)

• Feedback Friday - Graza’s Bold Email Strategy with Naomi West. (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! 👋