Email Marketing
Email is the one channel where you hold the audience yourself. No ranking system stands between you and a subscriber, provided the message reaches the inbox and the person agreed to receive it.
Those two conditions are where the work lies. Mailbox providers such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook now reject or junk mail from senders who are not authenticated, who make unsubscribing hard or who draw too many spam complaints.
We set up the technical side, tidy the list and build the messages. We cannot promise inbox placement, open rates or revenue: mailbox providers make their own decisions, and subscribers make theirs.
Proving the mail is really from you
Three DNS records tell a receiving server whether to trust a message. Many domains have them half configured.
SPF
A DNS record listing the servers allowed to send for your domain. We remove services you no longer use and keep the record within its lookup limit, beyond which it fails.
DKIM
A cryptographic signature added to each message, checked against a public key in DNS. Every sending service gets its own key, signing with your domain and not the provider's.
DMARC
A policy telling receivers what to do when SPF and DKIM fail or do not align with the visible From address. We begin at monitoring, read the reports, then move to quarantine and reject in stages.
One-click unsubscribe
The List-Unsubscribe headers that Gmail and Yahoo require of bulk senders are added, and unsubscribe requests are honoured promptly.
Sending reputation
Complaint and bounce rates are watched in Google Postmaster Tools and the platform's own reports. A new domain or address is warmed up with small volumes first.
Who may be on the list
Rules differ between the GDPR, the UK regulations, CAN-SPAM, CASL and others. Your legal adviser decides what applies; we build to what they specify.
- Sign-up forms say what will be sent and how often
- Consent boxes are never ticked in advance
- The date and source of each subscription are stored
- Confirmed opt-in is used where the adviser recommends it
- Bought, rented or scraped lists are refused
- Subscribers who have not opened or clicked for a long time are asked once, then removed
- Every message carries a working unsubscribe link and your postal address
- Transactional mail is kept apart from promotional mail
Messages triggered by what a person does
Automated flows are written once and sent at the moment they are relevant.
Welcome
Sent on sign-up. Says who you are, what to expect, and delivers whatever was offered on the form.
Abandoned basket
A reminder to someone who added items and left. One or two messages, with no invented scarcity.
After purchase
Order confirmation, how to use the product, and later a request for an honest review.
Replenishment and renewal
Timed to when a consumable runs out or a subscription is about to end.
Win-back
A short sequence to customers who have gone quiet, ending with removal from the list if they remain silent.
Lead nurture
For longer sales: a series of useful pieces after an enquiry, stopping the moment the person speaks to sales.
Setting up, in order
Campaigns come last. Sending before the foundations are right damages the domain's reputation.
Audit
DNS records, sending services, list sources, complaint history and current templates are reviewed and written up.
Authenticate
SPF, DKIM and DMARC are corrected with whoever manages your DNS. We supply the exact records.
Clean and segment
Invalid and long-inactive addresses are removed. The rest are grouped by what they bought or asked about.
Build flows
Each flow is drafted, tested across mail clients and in dark mode, and switched on after you approve it.
Campaigns
Regular sends to chosen segments, each with a plain-text version and a single clear purpose.
Platforms and checks
We work in the platform you already pay for. If you have none, we recommend one that fits your list size and shop system.
- Sending platforms
- KlaviyoMailchimpBrevoActiveCampaignHubSpot
- Deliverability
- Google Postmaster ToolsMicrosoft SNDSDMARC aggregate reportsMXToolbox
- Testing
- LitmusEmail on AcidSeed inbox tests
Common concerns
Our emails land in spam. Can you fix that?
We can find and correct the usual causes: missing authentication, a stale list, misleading subject lines. Placement is then decided by the mailbox provider, and recovery of a damaged reputation takes time.
Are open rates reliable?
Less than they were. Apple Mail Privacy Protection loads images in advance, which records opens that never happened. We judge sends by clicks, replies and tracked purchases.
Can you email a list we bought?
No. Those people did not agree to hear from you, the complaints harm your domain, and in many countries it breaks the law.
Who controls the platform account?
You hold the owner role and pay the platform directly. We are added as a user and the list never leaves your account.
Give us your sending domain
With the domain name and the platform you use, we can check the public DNS records before we speak. A reply reaches you within one business day.