Issue #246 All About Email

Hi, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋

Welcome to Issue #246 of All About Email!

Last week, I had my first guest author of the summer! We took a look at deliverability as email therapy: uncovering the habits behind complaints, poor engagement, and filtering, and making the changes that rebuild trust.

This week is one of my favourite newsletters of the year, and it only comes out twice a year as we look back at your Top 10 issues over the last six months and what we can learn and apply.

Let’s go! 👇

⚡️ The last time we did this was back in Issue #221, six months ago.

💡 If you are new, {{first_name|friend}}, every six months, I look back at the "Top Ten" newsletters based on your engagement and that of the rest of my lovely readers.

Raw click counts get inflated by bots scanning links, and web traffic can be skewed by one lucky share, so this ranking weights the metrics that actually reflect a real reader, using the following criteria and weighting:

🎉 So, let's look at your "Top Ten" from January to June 2026, ranked by weighted engagement across those metrics. 👇

Did one of your favourites make the list, {{first_name|friend}}?

🧠 A few patterns jump out when you look back at ten issues side by side and analyse their analytics. And there might be some points and insights that can help you with your own content:

🎉 Gmail's address change, Gemini, BIMI, Yahoo's inbox mess, four of your top five spots.

🚨 When something changes in an inbox you don't control, urgency does the heavy lifting for you. You don't need a clever angle. You need to be fast and clear (and that’s not always easy).

💡 "Only 8 emails passed. Out of 376,000." was your best open rate of the whole half. Not a pun, not a tease, just a genuinely alarming number.

The same story with "Have you ever heard of DKIM2?" A real question with a real answer waiting on the other side…curiosity intrigues.

Template workflows, testing culture, and a new QA tool were never going to go viral.

💡 But readers keep finding and clicking them on the web long after send day.

🚨 Issues #231 and #233 climbed this list on the strength of what happened after the open, not because of a spectacular open rate.

🧠 Sometimes the subject line undersells what's actually inside.

💡 These are my insights, based on your interactions, {{first_name|friend}}, but I think you’ll find something useful in here too:

🏆 Issue #223 arguably did everything right when analysing the data, which is why it came out on top:

🤦‍♂️ Issue #237: "Don't Do Stupid Things on a Friday" didn't make the ranked Top Ten, but it pulled in roughly 4x the web traffic of any other issue this half.

Its web click-through rate, though, was the lowest of the period. Great story, wide reach, but people came for the honesty, not to click anything, and believe me, there was a lot to click; that was the point of the issue.

💡 Reach and engagement aren't the same thing, and this issue is the proof.

Next week is our second guest author in our summer series, but can you guess who? Reply and let me know.

Here are some clues:

See you next week, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋

Every week, as I write this newsletter, I'll share the track of the moment to create an unbelievably eclectic playlist just for your inbox.

🚨 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 get back to you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋