Digest email best practices

Lawyers write a lot of emails. Client updates. Partner questions. Research summaries. Scheduling notes that somehow turn into mini-briefs. And because email moves fast, many legal emails create more work than they should. The reader has to open the message, figure out the matter, hunt for the point, decide whether anything is being asked of them, and then maybe reread the email because the key detail was buried halfway down. The best legal emails do something different: they reduce the reader’s effort. They tell the reader, early, what the message is about, why it matters, and what should happen next. Then they organize the details so the reader can find what they need without digging. Here are a few ways to do that. ➡️ Start Where the Reader Starts Before anyone reads your email, they see the subject line. Make it useful. A subject line like “Update,” “Quick question,” or “Thoughts?” does not give the reader much. A better subject line gives the reader the matter, the purpose, and the timing when timing matters. ➡️ Put the Answer Before the Background Lawyers often explain things in the order they learned them. That can make sense in conversation, but it usually works poorly in email. The background can come later. The answer should come first. ➡️ Make Each Paragraph Earn Its Place Front-loading is not just for the subject line and opening paragraph. It also applies inside the body of the email. A useful editing test: if the reader remembers only one sentence from your paragraph, which sentence should it be? Put it first. ➡️ Write for the Screen People Actually Use Most emails are read between other tasks. On a phone. On a laptop. While the reader is scanning other messages. Dense paragraphs make that harder. You should label the information, break it into chunks, and give the reader entry points. ➡️ Say What Should Happen Next Many legal emails end with useful information but no clear direction. The reader reaches the end and still has to ask: Am I approving something? Am I supposed to respond? Is this just an update? End the email by answering that question. A strong legal email is easy to triage, easy to follow, and easy to act on.

📉 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀. Sending company updates, like new hires, awards, and office moves, doesn’t engage prospects. The truth is, 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴. Those belong in an internal memo, not your marketing strategy. 🧭 To build something that actually drives awareness and opportunity, you first need to understand the 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗘’𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀:  𝟭. 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 – These are your company-centric updates. Great for keeping employees, clients, or investors informed, but weak for new business. They build pride and transparency internally, but they rarely attract a new lead.  𝟮. 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 – Broader, multi-topic publications that share insights, trends, and stories relevant to your audience. They can be your own original content, curated pieces, or a mix. Think of them as a weekly “briefing” for your community: valuable, varied, and audience-first.  𝟯. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 – These are focused on thought leadership. One strong idea or perspective per issue. They demonstrate your agency’s point of view and help you stand out as a trusted voice in your niche. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙚𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡. 📬 If your newsletter is for new business, then you need to 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭. That’s where real value lives. The Enterprise style just won’t move the needle with prospects. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t promote yourself at all. Just keep it to 20% or less of your content. Share a win, a campaign, or an event only if there’s something your audience can learn from it. And if you do want to speak to different audiences, such as clients, prospects, or employees, don’t jam them all into one newsletter. Create distinct lanes. 🎭 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗻𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲.

Over the weekend, I reviewed around 100 emails in Superglue to figure out what drives partner engagement. Here's what I learned: 👉 Keep it short and sweet Keep your emails short, 150 words max. (50 is better). Challenge yourself to communicate concisely. Partner teams tend to overload emails in an attempt to cover all bases. Aim for one key message or insight per email. Splitting your content into several messages performs about 3x better than one long email with 17 links. 👉 Tone matters A casual, friendly, personal tone performs the best and can double reply rates. Drop the formalities. If it sounds too grandiose or something you wouldn't say in person, rethink it. Instead of sounding overly authoritative, aim to sound interested and engaging. Initiate the conversation. 👉 Subject lines play a crucial role Stick to 1-3 words. When it comes to partnerships, mentioning your company's name and the partnership actually works well. What surprised me was how well emojis performed. 👋 Bonus 1: Portal adoption Systematic communications via email can actually drive portal adoption. Imagine an eCommerce merchant without a loyalty program. The loyalty program is what drives people back to the site and ensures they engage (and buy). The same is true for partner communications. Some of our customers saw a huge increase in portal adoption by sharing portal links at the right time, e.g. when sending deal updates or as part of enablement flows. 👋 Bonus 2: Sender importance Avoid sending messages from impersonal email addresses like partners@... Few things impact open and reply rates as negatively as a generic domain (and using HTML templates). Messages need to come from individual people and should feel personally crafted. Anything less tends to be ignored. Partnerships thrive on personal connections, so don't risk alienating your partners with impersonal communication. If you're looking for more insights, feel free to reach out. We've dedicated the last two years to identifying best practices in leveraging data to drive more partner revenue. Our experience could provide valuable guidance for your strategy.

Subscribers judge your email in three seconds… even before they read a single word inside. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟯-𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝟭/ 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 "noreply@company.com" = "Don't talk to us." "Company Marketing Team" = "You're talking to a department." "Sarah from Company" = "You're talking to a person." Sender name sets the entire tone. Human names build connection. Generic labels create distance. → Your sender name is your first impression. 𝟮/ 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀 This week: "John Smith" Last week: "John at Company" Two weeks ago: "Company Newsletter" They can't recognize you in their inbox. Each email feels like it's from someone new. → Pick one format. Never change it. 𝟯/ 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 "URGENT: Last chance to save 50%!" = You prioritize clicks. "3 things I learned this week" = You prioritize value. "Re: Your question about pricing" = You prioritize relevance. Subject lines reveal your intentions immediately. → What you lead with is what you care about. 𝟰/ 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗦 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 "OPEN NOW - LIMITED TIME" "YOU'RE MISSING OUT" "FINAL WARNING" Caps lock is the email equivalent of yelling. It doesn't create urgency. It creates annoyance. → Loud subject lines repel quality subscribers. 𝟱/ 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘇𝘆 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 "View this email in your browser" = wasted space. "Unsubscribe | Update preferences" = footer leaked into preview. "Hi [First Name]," = you didn't customize the preview. Preview text is your second subject line. Most people waste it on technical junk. → First 100 characters should add value, not clutter. 𝟲/ 𝗘𝗺𝗼𝗷𝗶 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 🔥💰🎉 = You're targeting consumers or trying too hard. No emojis = Professional, straightforward, serious. Neither is wrong. But they attract different audiences. → Your emoji usage defines your perceived sophistication. 𝟳/ 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 "Are you making this mistake?" = Clickbait energy. "Here's what I learned about X" = Direct value. Questions can work. But weak questions signal you're fishing for opens. → Strong statements beat weak questions. Check your last five sent emails. What do those three elements say about you? ♻️ Repost if first impressions happen before the first word. ➕ Follow me, Louis Shulman, for more tactics to stay top of mind and beat the competition. 📧 Join our weekly marketing newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gYGzEeTb

If you aren't doing these things, you're eviscerating your email delivery rates... 1. Authenticate Your Emails: Implement SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) to authenticate your emails. Get to know Google Postmaster Tools. 2. Clean Your Email List Regularly: Remove inactive subscribers and invalid email addresses. A clean list reduces bounce rates and improves your sender reputation. 3. Segment Your Audience: Send targeted emails to specific segments of your audience. Personalization increases engagement, which signals to ISPs that your emails are valuable. 4. Craft Engaging Subject Lines: Create compelling and relevant subject lines to improve open rates. Avoid using spam trigger words like “free,” “buy now,” or “guarantee.” 5. Use a Reputable Email Service Provider (ESP): Choose an ESP with a good reputation for delivering emails and strong anti-spam measures. They can help ensure your emails are properly configured and compliant with regulations. 6. Optimize Email Content: Keep your emails concise, relevant, and visually appealing. Use a mix of text and images, and ensure your emails are mobile-friendly. Personalized video goes a long way. 7. Include a Clear Unsubscribe Option: Make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe if they no longer wish to receive your emails. This helps maintain a positive sender reputation and reduces spam complaints. 8. Monitor Your Email Metrics: Track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. Use this data to refine your strategy and improve future email campaigns. 9. Warm Up Your IP Address: If you’re starting with a new IP address, gradually increase your email sending volume. This helps build a positive sender reputation with ISPs. 10. Avoid Using URL Shorteners: URL shorteners can be associated with spam. Use full URLs or branded links to maintain trust and avoid triggering spam filters. 11. Ask for Whitelisting: Encourage your subscribers to add your email address to their contact list or whitelist. This ensures your emails land in their inboxes. 12. Check Your Email’s Spam Score: Use tools to analyze your email content for spammy elements before sending. This helps you identify and rectify potential issues that could land your email in the spam folder. By following these simple tricks, you can significantly improve your email delivery rates, ensuring your messages reach your audience effectively and boost your overall email marketing success. Feel free to share any additional tips or experiences in the comments!

Want to stand out as a law firm associate? Have a dialed-in client email strategy. Ease the burden of your in-house contact's email inbox. As with any strategy, understanding the reality of your in-house clients' world is key: they're juggling multiple legal matters. They're serving dozens or even hundreds of internal "clients" across their organization. Each business unit, manager, and project team needs their attention. Their inbox is a constant stream of urgent requests, necessary approvals, and internal discussions. Every email you send either adds to or eases this cognitive burden. How you email can make a real difference in how clients view both you and your firm. Your email habits show you understand their world and are actively working to make their job easier (bad habits will have the opposite effect). In addition to understanding their world, it's important to understand their communication preferences. In other words, there's no one-size-fits-all-approach here. But...there are some solid go-to techniques that, at least in my experience, most in-house counsel appreciate. Here are a few ideas: 1. Lead with clear "next steps" at the top of a substantive email—don't bury action items in lengthy prose. 2. Write in a way that makes it easy for your in-house contact to forward to business colleagues: use plain English summaries, clear headers, and explicitly call out what's needed from each stakeholder. 3. Remember that your email might be forwarded multiple times as part of internal discussions, so make it scannable and self-contained—a business executive should be able to understand the key points without needing the full email chain for context. 4. Make your subject lines work harder—label them clearly as [ACTION NEEDED] or [UPDATE ONLY] and include a few key details for context. 5. Keep separate matters in separate emails—this makes it easier for your in-house contact to forward only relevant pieces to different business teams. 6. When sending documents for review, highlight the 2-3 key areas needing attention rather than leaving them to hunt through the full document. 7. Instead of sending multiple updates, consolidate them into regular digestible summaries. Create a predictable rhythm your clients can rely on—they'll appreciate knowing when to expect updates and can plan their workflow accordingly. 8. For complex matters with multiple workstreams, maintain a simple status report that can be quickly skimmed or forwarded to show progress at a glance. These things might seem small, but they demonstrate real professionalism and understanding of your clients' needs. You're not just handling legal work—you're actively making your clients' jobs easier. And that goes a long way toward helping you stand out as an associate for the right reasons.

Improving your B2B SaaS email footprint can drive growth. 5 tactics to consider (some might look like bad ideas): [1] 𝗖𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗲 - As new email triggers get added and user bases grow, the volume of emails ejected per day balloons exponentially. With Google's stricter spam policies, this can spell trouble. - I often see PMs build new notifications and keep them on by default. This should be done sparingly. - It's better for users to get fewer, more important emails than be swamped with an email upon every action. [2] 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 - Here's a mistake I made - I once set the subject line of an automated email as: "[Alert] {First Name}, here are results matching your criteria". - Users were frustrated as they were lost in a sea of emails with the SAME subject line. - Using personalization isn't enough. Think about unique tokens in subject lines, especially for alerts and digests. - Using a solitary emoji for a few (not all) might be worth experimenting with. [3] 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗳𝗳-𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 - Emails synced with a cron job (like a digest) are often set at optimal sending times. - The problem: every other platform is sending emails at that time too. - This might be counter-intuitive, but one should experiment with sending emails (with less time sensitivity like a digest) during downtimes. [4] 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻-𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 - I've seen reset password emails with chunky, branded banners and flashy footers. - Adopt plain-text for system emails to avoid consuming real estate unnecessarily. - At max, plug in a logo + a single-line footer with the un-subscription link. - It also helps with avoiding the wrong inbox profile. [5] 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 - Most emails are "personalized" by referencing the name or company. - That's not personalization. That's just token insertion. - With LLMs on the rise, the best personalization will be contextualizing the copy based on the persona at hand. Let me explain the last point with an example. Assume the product is a Project Management tool like Asana or Clickup. Say they launch a new analytics dashboard view. A Marketing manager might get: "Our new Analytics Dashboard gives you a bird's-eye view of your marketing campaigns' progress. Track key performance indicators like campaign completion rates and team productivity, helping you optimize resource allocation and hit your marketing goals faster." But for the same feature, a software lead might get: "We've just launched our Analytics Dashboard, allowing you to visualize your development team's velocity and sprint progress. Monitor critical metrics like code commit frequency and bug resolution times to streamline your development cycles and boost overall productivity" -- What are your SaaS email tips?

After reviewing data from 1,000s of inboxes at RevGrowth, these 8 practices have made the biggest impact for consistent 99% email deliverability:   Most teams skip at least one of these, then wonder why their cold emails land in spam.   Here's what we do:   1. Use Secondary Domains - Never send from your main domain > We buy secondary domains through Porkbun for cheap, easy management   2. Track Replies Only - Open and click tracking hurt deliverability > I keep reply tracking on and turn everything else off. Clean signal, less risk   3. Send Fewer Emails Per Mailbox - I stick to 30 emails/day per mailbox, max > Spread your volume across several domains. Fewer red flags, more consistency   4. Warm Up Slowly - Ramp up sending volume over time. > Start low, increase gradually. This builds trust with inbox providers.   5. Double-Verify Your Lists - Bad data kills sender reputation > We use LeadMagic, Icypeas, and Prospeo.io for email search, then verify with LeadMagic. Clean lists = low bounce rates   6. Use Modern Sending Platforms - Old-school SEPs drag down deliverability > I recommend EmailBison or Smartlead   7. Automate CRM Syncing - Manual updates cause errors and missed follow-ups. > OutboundSync handles real-time syncing with HubSpot or Salesforce. Less manual work, more accuracy.   8. Stick to Plain Text - Links and images lower inbox rates. > I write text-only emails. They look more human and get better placement.   Our team applies these 8 steps in every workflow ourselves & all client accounts.   What’s been your biggest deliverability challenge lately?

I audited a supplement brand sending all their emails at 9 AM on Tuesdays. This was an "industry "best practice." But we tested different times. Found their audience was actually most engaged at 7 PM on Sundays. >People planning their week.  >Thinking about health goals. >In the right mindset to buy. This increased revenue per send by 34% . (exact same email btw) Most brands send emails when it's convenient for them. Not when their customers are actually checking their phones. That's like opening a restaurant only when you feel like cooking. GENERAL GUIDELINES: → Tues-Thurs for promotional emails  → Sunday evening for educational content  → Friday for weekend-related products  → Avoid Monday (inbox overload) and Saturday BEST WINDOWS: → 10-11 AM: mid-morning coffee break  → 2-3 PM: post-lunch scroll  → 8-9 PM: evening wind-down NEVER just copy industry averages. Send the same email at 3 different times to a small segment. Track open rate, click rate, and revenue. Your audience might be completely different. The data will guide you. 

Presented my "Communicating with IMPACT" workshop this week for John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University. IMPACT FACT: Today’s average employee receives 120 messages per day* and spends: ~ 30 % of their work hours on email*. IMPACT TIPS: Here are a few tips for improving your emails: · Review and Read Aloud: Before hitting send, take a moment to review your email and read it aloud. This helps catch any errors and ensures your message is clear. · Meaningful Subject Line: Craft a subject line that reflects the intention of your email. A clear and concise subject helps the recipient understand the purpose of your message at a glance. · Limit Your Points: Stick to a few key points to avoid overwhelming the reader. This makes your email more digestible and easier to respond to. · Short Paragraphs with Spaces: Use short paragraphs and include spaces between them. This improves readability and makes your email look more inviting. · Privacy Awareness: Remember that emails are not private and can be permanent. Be mindful of the content you include and avoid sharing sensitive information. · Complex Topics? Call Instead: For complex or sensitive topics, consider making a phone call instead. It's often easier to discuss and resolve issues in real time. Also a big thank you to Sandra Miller for all her help! *Source: https://lnkd.in/gBvtRfAi