An algorithm can decide tomorrow that your posts are no longer worth showing. Your list is yours: it is the only audience no platform can take away from you.
Almost everything written about email talks about the content of the message. That is the last problem. The first is technical: a domain with no SPF, no DKIM and no DMARC has its messages filed as spam whatever the text says, and nobody warns you. So we start by setting those three records and checking they line up, which takes a morning and changes everything.
Then comes reputation, which is built and destroyed quickly. Sending to ten thousand addresses at once from a new domain is the surest way to be flagged: so we raise the volume gradually, over three to six weeks, watching the complaint rate. Above three complaints per thousand a provider starts filtering; above five it blocks. Those thresholds are not negotiable and no amount of creativity compensates for them.
Content comes only after that, and it follows one rule: one message, one action. A letter offering six things gets none of them done. So we write short messages with a single button, and we measure clicks rather than opens, which have become unreliable since Apple pre-opens its users' mail. A flattering open rate no longer means anything; a click rate is still a fact.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC set and aligned, tightened step by step without losing a message.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC set, verified and aligned. We begin DMARC in observation, with reports sent to an address we actually read, then harden towards quarantine once everything that legitimately writes in your name is identified. Going straight to reject makes messages from a forgotten legitimate tool vanish, and nobody notices for weeks.
A new domain warms up over three to six weeks, step after step.
A new or long-silent domain is warmed over three to six weeks: a few hundred sends at first, to the most engaged addresses, then a doubling per step as long as the indicators stay clean. It is the part everyone skips and the one that costs most when it is missing, because a damaged reputation takes months to rebuild.
Segment on behaviour, never on age or city.
We do not segment on age or town, which predict almost nothing, but on behaviour: pages viewed, abandoned basket, last open, lifetime value, ninety days of silence. The same message sent to three segments with three different hooks earns more than a perfect message sent to everyone, and it tires the list less.
Messages that send themselves and usually make half the channel's revenue.
Welcome, abandoned basket, post-purchase follow-up, reactivation, contract anniversary. These messages go out on their own and usually account for half the channel's revenue for a tenth of the work. We write them once, wire them to the real events of your site or tool, and review them twice a year.
One element at a time, judged on clicks or sales, never on opens.
One element at a time, on a large enough sample, with the decision taken on clicks or sales rather than opens. We test subject, sender, timing and hook, in that order of influence. Below a thousand recipients per variant, the observed gap is chance and we say so rather than selling a conclusion.
Proven consent: a smaller list, but a defensible one.
Consent collected and time-stamped, proof retained, one-click unsubscribe honoured immediately, processing register kept. This is not a formality: one complaint is enough to trigger an inspection, and the absence of proof of consent is the first thing asked for. We would rather have a smaller, defensible list than a wide, fragile one.
Email is the fastest channel, provided you do not start at the end. Here is the order in which we work, and why it does not reverse.
Records set, alignment verified from outside, test send analysed header by header. Until that point is green, nothing else matters: a perfect message in the spam folder earns nothing.
List cleaning first: invalid addresses removed, duplicates merged, contacts inactive for more than eighteen months set aside. Then increasing sends to the most engaged. A list of ten thousand with three thousand dead is worth less than a live list of seven thousand.
Writing and wiring the automations, starting with the one that pays fastest in your trade: abandoned basket for a shop, quote follow-up for a service, welcome everywhere. Each goes live on its own, so we know what produces what.
One letter a month, sometimes two, never four. The rhythm follows what you actually have to say, not a calendar. A house with nothing to announce in a given month is better off staying quiet than sending filler, which costs lasting unsubscribes.
Addresses that have opened nothing for six months get one last attempt, then leave the list. It feels counter-intuitive and it is what protects deliverability: providers look at the share of recipients who engage, not the total number.
State of the three records, alignment, reputation of the domain and the IP address, header-by-header analysis of a real send. It is yours and can be redone in ten minutes the day you change tools.
Four to eight automations depending on your activity, with their trigger conditions and delays. They live in your tool, on your account: we are invited in, never owners.
Built with tables and inline styles, because Outlook uses the Word engine and ignores modern layout. Tested in dark mode, where light backgrounds invert. With no indispensable image, since mail clients block them by default.
Clicks, attributed sales, unsubscribes and complaints, by sequence and by segment. The open rate is there, marked as indicative: since Apple's pre-opening, it flatters without proving anything.
No, and we refuse to work with one. It is illegal in Europe without consent, it is ineffective because those addresses do not know you, and it is destructive: the complaints that follow damage your domain's reputation for every send, including those to your real customers. The gain is nil, the damage lasting.
According to what you have to say, not to a calendar. A service house finds its rhythm between one and two letters a month; a shop can go weekly in season. The signal to watch is not the unsubscribe, which is healthy, but the complaint: it says the message was seen as unsolicited.
Whichever suits your volume and your team, opened in your name. We have no referral contract with any vendor and take no commission on your subscription. If you already have one that works, we work inside it rather than migrating you for nothing.
Almost always, but not in a week. First the cause has to be identified: missing authentication, reputation damaged by a mass send, flagged content, or an IP address shared with a bad neighbour. The technical fix is quick; rebuilding reputation takes one to three months of careful pacing.
Leave us your website and a word about your project. A director studies it and replies to you personally within twenty-four hours: what holds your visitors back, what we would do, and whether your house can join us. It is the first door of admission, and it commits you to nothing.