Issue #209 All About Email

Hi, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋

Welcome to Issue #209 of All About Email!

Last week, I had a little moan about Spam Reporting, and yes, it was personal (and I got a lot of replies about this in email and LinkedIn).

This week, it’s a thought piece (it’s been a while) about “Critical Thinking”, and I’ve introduced a new newsletter feature.

Let’s go! 👇

I use AI in every issue of both my newsletters. That usage can be more complex, but in general:

**(I’m just too slow at this, and where I lack most creativity, it’s not laziness. 😂)

Those last two points are less frequent, but the other three are present in nearly every newsletter.

There is an argument that an over-reliance on AI for creating content will lead to a reduction in critical thinking.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “critical thinking” as:

Google’s AI Overviews (notorious for inaccuracy and inferior to AI Mode) expands on Oxford Dictionary’s definition:

There are a vast number of resources available on the topic, with Chad S. White’s Email Marketing Rules being referenced most frequently.

In many ways, it’s logical that if we stop thinking for ourselves when it comes to creating content and entirely rely on machine learning, then we are going to struggle to:

** (AI is not a source of truth; it hallucinates, and one AI response can be very different from another.)

For many, our increased reliance on AI to improve processes and increase productivity has also led to a growing sense of “AI fatigue.”

This topic is being discussed more frequently.

It’s also become easier and easier to spot when AI has created content as we start to see similar patterns appear across the subject lines, pre-headers and content of our inboxes.

With the amount of AI-generated content already created, AI fatigue is a real phenomenon; the content is repetitive, lifeless, and uninspiring.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a local business conference, and one of the speakers struck me with a phrase: “human-first - AI-assisted.”

It was a call-to-action that embraces both:

AI doesn’t write my content (unless I’m experimenting, and I will tell you, {{first_name|friend}}), but it can help me improve it.

Even then, I will tweak the AI suggestions (as Grammarly isn’t perfect); that’s critical thinking 😉.

I often wonder (in the not distant future), will our inboxes have AI content detection tools built in to filter the slop and not just cold emails (think Gmail’s “most relevant” feature, which will change and mature).

💡 We can spot a LinkedIn AI comment a mile off, and platforms are cracking down on content spam, so I’ll ask you, “Has there ever been a better time to be a human content creator?”

That’s it for this week. 👋

Last week, I asked a question, and I’m going to run with it as a little experiment to see how it goes as a new feature.

Welcome to “Curiosity Corner”, where each week, I ask you a question that might not always be related to email marketing.

In last week’s poll, I asked if you were aware of email masking in Fastmail, and here are the results. 👇

I listen to lots of music, 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 email playlist you’ve probably ever heard.

🚨 If you’re interested in sponsoring the “All About Email” newsletter, you can find all the details in this Google Doc.

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

If you have any questions about this email or email marketing, please reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋