Issue #192 All About Email

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #192 of All About Email!

Last week, we took a closer look at whether Gmail was spamming emails with Vimeo links and what it teaches us about links in emails.

This week, I am inspired by Al Iverson as we look at email annoyances and must-haves, and there’s a Gmail Sender Guideline update.

Let’s go! 👇

Email Annoyances

Al Iverson is one of these email technical geniuses you need to follow.

Over the weekend, Al posted on LinkedIn about everyday email annoyances that frustrated him so much that it inspired him to write the article: “Five email newsletter must-haves in 2025”.

So, what are these “must-haves,” and does your newsletter include them? 👇

1. View Online link

2. Online Newsletter Archive

3. Newsletter Homepage or Website

4. Were You Forwarded This Email?

5. Consistent Branding, Recognisable Names - more on this later!

🚨 I won't cover Al’s points in detail, as Al explains them more thoroughly in his original article, especially point five (in light of Google’s updated sender guidelines).

However, I will add some of my quick thoughts on each point.

1) View Online link

“View Online” links aren’t necessarily applicable to all emails, and even for paid newsletters (which can be paywalled), I agree that you should add these links to your newsletters.

🤔 Yes, potentially, people can read your content without subscribing. But does that matter?

💡 I would much rather that someone share my newsletter with a “view online” link than not be able to share it at all.

2) Online Newsletter Archive

What you can do here, friend, might be limited by your ESP (Email Service Provider) as to how many issues you can show in your archive.

🚨You also need to be careful about what content you display in your archive, as you may not want to share everything publicly.

3) Newsletter Homepage or Website

🙌 I agree with everything Al says, but I’d go further and build upon his comment about a landing page for your newsletter; in a world of zero-click search and AI Overviews, it has never been more critical to build a recognisable brand.

A website is an integral part of building your brand.

4) Were You Forwarded This Email?

🤦‍♂️ I don’t do this (but I did).

When I sent this newsletter from Mailchimp, I had it, but I wrongly assumed my Beehiiv template had it, too.

I’ll be fixing that for next week.

Now, on to the “big” point of this week’s email. 👇

5) Consistent Branding, Recognisable (Sender )Names

🚨 ⚠️ Attention, please, friend, if you’ve skimmed the rest of this email, do not ignore this point.

Sender Names are not only the point Al goes into the most depth in his article, but they also become a huge point after a seemingly silent but noteworthy change to Google's Sender Guidelines.

💡 In news that broke across the email industry over the last five days, it turns out that Google announced changes to Sender Names guidelines sometime between April 8th and April 21st, 2025 (thank you, Wayback Machine).

Bento has a very nice summary and practical examples in their coverage, or you can read Google’s full updated guidelines.

Sender Names In Short

• Don’t spoof

• Don’t be misleading or deceptive

• Sender display names should be used exclusively to identify the sender.

• Display names should reflect a consistent, clear, and accurate statement of the sender's identity, name and/or organisation.

• Don’t include subject or message content in display names.

All About Email - Playlist 🎧

I listen to lots of music, friend, particularly when I’m writing newsletters.

Each week, when I hit the publish button, I’ll share the track I am currently listening to and create the most eclectic playlist you’ve probably ever heard.

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.

That’s It For This Week 👋

Over the summer, I will be opening up my newsletter to guest authors. 🏝️

Spaces are extremely limited, so I cannot guarantee everyone a spot. However, if you’re interested, please reply to this email and I will send you more information.

I’ve been doing this for the last few years, and it has become an even more popular feature each year.

Emily Ryan, who guest-authored last year, still occupies one of my most popular newsletter posts of the year!

See you next week!

Email Marketing News & Tips

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

• Envelope Accessibility - Find out how accessible your HTML emails are with Envelope Accessibility. (Paul Airy)

• Klaviyo Announcement - In-platform email testing! [more information in the comments]. (Lindsey Coulter)

• Failing Transactional Emails? - Reliable Email Infrastructure with Built-in Redundancy. (SocketLabs)

• Email Security - Cloudflare selects Valimail to strengthen email security and authentication. (Valimail)

• Email Strategy - Modern problems require modern solutions. (Alison Gootee)

• Accessibility Principles - Email clients are stripping out accessibility at the expense of user needs. (Email Markup Consortium)

• Low Hanging Fruit - 12 Simple Growth Tactics for Newsrooms and Publishers). (Inbox Collective)

• Email Teardown - Crafting Clickable Emails with Emily Ryan. (Vicky Smith)

• Email Growth - Daily Newsletter Experiment: 3,714 Subscribers in 30 Days. (Growth In Reverse)

• Send It Right - Validation is a tool, not a strategy. (Lauren Meyer)

• Standout Subject Lines - Your secret weapon for writing subject lines that make everyone want to open your emails. (Louis Nicholls)

• Inbox Evolution - 10 must-know trends from the 2025 RGE Survey Thingy. (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! 👋