Welcome to Vol.61 of Email Advice in Your Inbox
We’re stoked to have you back, {{name|friends}}!
This week is slightly shorter and sweeter, because we’re all about saving time.
That happens also to be the topic of this week’s Volume, as we’ve spent a heap of just that, finding some neat tools and tech to help make your email process a little more efficient.
Creating consistently valuable emails can be tedious, so we hope you find a few of our recommendations helpful.
There’s also more of the good stuff you’re here for!
Time to get this show on the road 🤠
What have we found to expand your email knowledge today?
Here are a few of our favourite links from across the email and business world, carefully curated just for you:
Find of the week ⭐
This week is a fun one, and an ingenious use of AI to keep you in the loop on just about…well, anything!
The Scouts tool by Yatori sends out little AI “scouts” to round up insights and keep you in the know. We’ve just begun giving it a spin to keep an eye out for new newsletters about newsletters.
We’re also constantly on the lookout for new resources, news, tools and links, so hit us up if you’ve got something valuable to feature!
We’re all about saving time, aren’t we?
It’s one of those things we all only have a finite amount of anyway.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the email creation process, time is one of those things you have to spend well, because cutting corners means you’re often also cutting value.
There’s a place for doing things quickly, too. If you have a solid process in place in your email planning and execution, you’re already able to move faster.
But here’s the thing…
Quick and efficient are two entirely different things when it comes to email.
In these emails, we’re focused on efficiency, not speed, and today, we’re sharing a few tools and parts of our efficiency process to help you, {{name|dear reader}}, in finding ways to enhance the efficiency of your email or newsletter process.
Ready to put some extra time back in the email diary, while filling up your bookmarks tab?
Our top tools for email efficiency
You’re about to take a sneak peek at the (mostly) free tools we use for almost every Volume we create and send, and how we apply these to enhance the efficiency of our email process.
Subject lines
Yeah, we get it, “subject lines are becoming irrelevant, blah, blah”.
The reality is that there’s still merit in creating a strong, enticing, well-thought-out subject line. Here’s what we’re using:
Subjectline.com: A great place to assess what’s working, what’s not, and grab a few ideas in the process.
EmailToolTester’s Subject Line Tester: Once you have a solid subject line, here’s a great place to test what those subject lines might look like across a few of the leading mobile devices out there (mobile first, after all).
Bonus! Many email builders also neglect making it easy to add emojis to your subject lines or emails, so if you’re looking for the perfect emoji, bookmark Emojipedia to help you do just that.
Email creation
This is where a heap of time is often spent.
The aim is efficiency and time well spent. Yes, we’re seeing a ton of AI-tools emerging to match your tone of voice and style, but why not have your voice (literally) shine through?
We shared a snippet of this in the last Volume, but seriously, dictating our content (like this email) has been a time-saving game-changer!
We’re using Wispr to do just that, and their free tier alone has helped a crazy amount.
There’s also the process of making sure all your links work, and work well!
Here’s what we’re using for various link elements in our emails:
Link tracking: Our tool of choice, and what we’ve used to already track over 15,000 link clicks in these emails alone, is LinkShortener.io.
We’re using this tool to create campaign-specific tracking and engagement, so we can build better emails, just for you.Mailto links: We want you to save time when reaching out to us! We use this free Customer.io tool to do just that.
There are also neat (free) email tools in their toolbox you HAVE TO check out when there.Email length checks: Though some email builders give you a chance to provide an estimated read time, many also miss the mark on this.
We’re using Read-o-meter to estimate how long these emails take to read (and, in today’s case, the best 5 minutes and 6 seconds of your day 😏).
If you’re keen kick things up a notch, there’s also Stripo (who we partner with) that has a pretty neat (but paid) AI email creation tool that you can use to build and ship emails into your ESP of choice, which you can check out here.
Email testing
The final, and likely most critical part of the email process, is testing. This is (often) the most time-consuming aspect.
Here are three free tools we’re using to help save time, effort, and the need to check things across heaps of channels and devices.
With so many devices running in dark mode, the team at Mailmodo have a great way to preview what youremails are going to look like in dark mode, so give that a shot here.
Once that’s done, you also (and this is critical) want to ensure EVERYONE can access your content. Accessibility is no longer something to neglect, and the accessible-email.org site has a simple tool to help you tick all the accessibility boxes in your emails.
And, finally, to ensure your emails meet all of those deliverability standards, sizing requirements and more, we’re sending a test email to aboutmy.email to close things out before we hit that “schedule” button.
There you go. Time saved.
Not only do you now have a toolkit to save you a heap of time, but you’re also making sure your email process focuses on the right structures while you focus on the value of your content.
Use them or don’t (at your peril).
If you have any neat tools, time-savers, or insights you’d like to share that help you save time, effort and create better emails, we want to know!
Pop a reply, tell us what’s working, and let’s feature that here.
Now go on and build some email efficiency. You’ve got this 💌
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tHIS DARN KEYBOARD!!!
If you’re following us on LinkedIn, you’ll have seen this land last week.
It felt relatable enough to share with our community, too.
Let’s be honest, we’re not the only ones, are we?
Here’s to saving you even more time building emails that win.
If you have any feedback or knowledge to share, click here! Oh, and please share this email with your friends and colleagues if you think they’ll find value over here.
Your feedback only makes us better.
Your friend in email,
Des
