email

Subject lines and preheaders

Under ~50 characters for mobile truncation; the preheader continues the thought, never "View in browser". Specific beats clever ("Your March invoice is ready" beats "Big news inside 🎉"). Curiosity works only when the email pays it off — clickbait trains people to stop opening. No FROM-name games; people open senders they recognize.

Flow design (the money is in the automation)

• Welcome series: 3–5 emails; #1 sends immediately (highest open of the relationship — deliver the promised value + set expectations), then story/value → best content → soft offer.
• Cadence: consistency beats frequency; whatever rhythm you promise, keep. Increase volume only behind engagement.
• Win-back: 2–3 emails, honest framing ("still want these?"), then actually suppress — a shrinking engaged list beats a large dead one.
• Every flow has an exit condition (purchased → leave the nurture; replied → human takes over).

Email craft

One job per email; one primary CTA (repeated is fine, competing is not). Write to one reader, not "you all". Front-load the point — most read the first two lines in preview. Buttons say the outcome ("Get the template"), not "Click here". Heavy-image emails fail dark mode, screen readers, and image-blocking clients — text carries the message; images decorate. Always a real reply-to; replies are both signal and deliverability gold.

Benchmarks (directional, vary by list and vertical)

Click rate ~2–4% healthy for broadcasts; unsubscribe under ~0.5% per send; complaint under 0.1% comfortable / 0.3% hard ceiling. A high-open low-click email had a good subject and a weak body — diagnose per stage of the funnel: delivery → open → click → convert.