It’s a wrap! Litmus Dwell got here to a detailed on Halloween and boy, was it a deal with. Over 6,000 email-loving entrepreneurs registered and 36 proficient thought leaders shared their information over 4 days.
When you aren’t acquainted, Litmus Dwell is an annual e mail convention devoted to all issues e mail. It’s the place among the brightest minds in e mail join every year to get insights, collect inspiration, and join with fellow e mail geeks. The 2024 occasion put the highlight on lifecycle advertising.
We compiled key takeaways from each session and a recap video from every day on this article. Test it out!
Additionally, an enormous shout out to our unimaginable sponsors: Oracle, Salesforce, Fixed Contact, OneSignal, ZeroBounce.
Litmus Dwell Day 1 Recap—October 28, 2024
That is my first Litmus Dwell and all I can say is wow! The audio system on day one knocked it out of the park. Whereas I scribbled down notes for this recap, I took much more for myself and I can’t wait to learn again by them and rewatch a session or two.
This spotlight movies sums up the power and enthusiasm of the day completely.
Return on Actual: A New Mannequin for the Fashionable Marketer
The unimaginable Ann Handley kicked off Litmus Dwell with a keynote targeted on trendy advertising. Highlights:
- Ann wore an Evermore (Wednesday Adams) uniform that was absolute perfection.
- An astounding 58% of entrepreneurs take into account their content material technique to be “reasonably” efficient.
- RoR means Return on Actual. 95% of consumers are usually not actively available in the market, so it’s essential to make significant (AKA actual) connections with them till they’re.
The Sketch Impact artist, Len Peralta created an illustrated recap on Ann’s session! How cool is that?
Creating Exceptional E-mail Experiences: 20 Years of Learnings & Examples
Chad S. White from Oracle shared techniques for creating outstanding emails from 20 years in e mail advertising. Takeaways embody:
- An nice overview of the hierarchy of subscriber wants.
- 20 e mail examples from the previous 20 years.
- In 2011, Helzberg Diamonds created 60,000 animated GIFs so that they had one for every distinctive identify on their subscriber listing. 🤯
Dwell E-mail Optimization
Everybody’s favourite session returned with a bang! Litmus’ personal Carin Slater and Angie Weyman labored on optimizing 4 completely different emails.
- All the time add your ALT textual content. ALT textual content continues to be necessary, particularly for e mail accessibility.
- Objectives of emails differ! Don’t assume you need to monitor the identical metrics for every.
- 40% of emails are seen in Darkish Mode, so correct optimization is extra necessary than ever.
Foundations of On-line Advertising Success: Evaluate-Plan-Execute
Dave Charest guided us by yoga-inspired tricks to ignite word-of-mouth buzz, enhance productiveness, and create a successful on-line advertising technique.
- Engagement advertising is while you present a “wow” expertise each time you could have contact with a buyer.
- Cellular responsive homepages ought to reply 4 questions instantly:
- What’s it?
- Who’s it for?
- So what?
- What ought to they do subsequent?
- Constant advertising is the important thing to altering your online business.
Effectively stated, Dave!
Decoding Churn: Methods for Subscription Retention
Anna Levitin shared easy methods to decode churn and enhance retention utilizing B2C techniques repurposed for B2B. We particularly beloved these key takeaways:
- Churn = [lost customers/customers at the beginning of the month] x100
- Select long-term over short-term loyalty objectives
- Quick-term: prompt gratification, particular gives, buyer engagement.
- Lengthy-term: group constructing, customization and suppleness, value-added advantages.
Superior Interactive Coding: Constructing a Product Rec Engine
E-mail geeks couldn’t cease speaking about Zac Eckstein’s session on planning and coding a complicated interactive e mail idea. Notable takeaways:
- Zac walked us by easy methods to code an interactive module, together with nice suggestions and methods alongside the best way.
- Apple, Yahoo, Outlook.com, Samsung, and AOL inboxes present good protection for interactive e mail. Gmail and Outlook on Home windows lack full assist.
- Interactive emails barely scale back click on charges (by 10-20%), however they enhance conversion charges by the identical margin.
4 Steps to Write Emails Price Sending (Whereas Being Completely Ruthless)
Copywriting + humor = Lianna Patch. She walked us by her finest suggestions for writing to REAL readers and modifying your e mail copy from construction all the way down to the phrase degree. Takeaways embody:
- Use VoC (voice of the shopper) knowledge to essentially get to know the viewers you’re writing for.
- Broad → construction → particular: Edit for just one space at a time, working your approach from broad to detailed.
- Take into account testing “name to values” as an alternative of a “name to actions.”
The Way forward for E-mail: AI, Automation, and Lifecycle Advertising
This panel was not one to overlook! Cynthia Worth, Chad S. White, Lauren Meyer, and Drew Worth explored the most recent developments and improvements shaping the subsequent era of e mail advertising. Highlights embody:
- Over time, manufacturers specializing in managing high quality and frequency at scale will achieve extra engaged subscribers as a result of they’ve constructed stronger relationships.
- Synthetic intelligence (AI) ought to be seen as a junior assistant that may assist with concepts, nevertheless it’s not able to take over fully.
- Chad S. White predicts that AI-enforced model pointers will turn into widespread sooner or later.
Len Peralta additionally crafted an illustrated recap of the panel.
Slack conversations had been flowing
We heard from dozens of attendees within the Litmus Dwell Slack channel. Conversations included how we acquired into e mail advertising, e mail personalization suggestions, content material and advertising group synergy, and even e-book suggestions.
Litmus Dwell Day 2 Recap—October 29, 2024
All of us knew day one in all Litmus Dwell could be arduous to beat, however day two held its personal! There have been seven extremely insightful periods, an thrilling Litmus product announcement, and enjoyable networking matters.
From “Expensive Buyer” to Dynamic Content material: The Evolution of E-mail Personalization
5 e mail execs kicked off Day 2 at Litmus Dwell with a implausible panel about e mail personalization. Cynthia Worth, Anne Ghaltchi, Natasha Sanchez, Lee Munroe, and Blake Miller mentioned:
- Behavioral personalization primarily based on actions (in a non-creepy approach).
- Use your e mail personalization throughout all messaging, equivalent to SMS, in-app, and so forth, for a extra cohesive expertise.
- You don’t have to personalize every little thing! Take a look at to see the place personalization works finest.
The Artwork and Science of Accessibility in E-mail Advertising
Sarah Gallardo and Lauren Castady from Oracle Digital Expertise Company had a file variety of questions circulate in throughout their session. Takeaways embody:
- 27% of the inhabitants has some kind of incapacity, and so they symbolize about eight billion {dollars} in discretionary funds per 12 months.
- Once you make one thing accessible, you’re creating a greater expertise in your whole userbase.
- Create a shared “accessibility guidelines” that each designers and builders contribute to so there’s widespread floor for figuring out and fixing potential points early.
Inbox Insights: Navigating E-mail Audits for Enhanced Compliance and Effectivity
This session by Kelsey Smith was full of finest practices and sensible suggestions for conducting thorough audits that elevate your e mail methods.
- Clearly outline the targets of your audit. Clear objectives assist information the audit course of, align groups, and safe management buy-in.
- Break the audit plan into actionable buckets, like fast wins and long-term methods.
- E-mail audits aren’t one-off actions. Set up an everyday audit cadence for steady enchancment.
Unlocking the Full Potential of Lifecycle Advertising: Personalization and Optimization with Litmus
Maida Kasper and Scott Epple unveiled new options for Litmus E-mail Guardian and Litmus Personalize!
- There are two new methods to personalize your emails:
- Sender authentication in E-mail Guardian offers your e mail the very best probability of reaching the inbox by making certain you’re following sender necessities put forth by Google and Yahoo earlier in 2024. It additionally screens each area you ship from 24/7 and alerts you robotically if a difficulty is detected.
How Invisible Experiences Inform the Way forward for E-mail Personalization
The Jessica’s (Jess Materna and Jessica Liu) united for an data packed session about the way forward for e mail personalization. Takeaways embody:
- Prospects will interact much less ceaselessly however extra meaningfully with manufacturers sooner or later.
- Shoppers need customized moments which are related and notice worth throughout 4 dimensions: financial, practical, experiential, and symbolic.
- E-mail is the one channel that may attain prospects all through their whole buyer journey.
The Artwork of the Welcome
Emily Ryan gave us a crash course on easy methods to win over your subscribers by welcome emails. Highlights:
- The typical size of a welcome e mail collection is 6.45 emails. Purpose to have 3 emails in your welcome journey at a minimal.
- Ask the subscriber a query in your welcome e mail and encourage them to answer in order that they instantly interact with you.
- No setting it and forgetting it—bear in mind to periodically replace your welcome emails.
Past “Oops” and “Sorry”
Ralitsa Minkova walked us by the artwork of heartfelt, honest e mail apologies. Her presentation was so detailed and well-though out that she even captured the important thing takeaways for us.
Litmus Dwell Day 3 Recap—October 30, 2024
The content material on day three was implausible! There have been six displays, one panel, one sponsor perception session, and loads of networking in Slack.
Past the Click on: The Hidden ROI of E-mail Advertising Throughout the Funnel
Cynthia Worth moderated as Jeanne Jennings, Anna Levitin, and Emily Ryan answered a collection of questions on a holistic strategy to measuring e mail ROI throughout the whole buyer lifecycle. Takeaways:
- We’re all people so that you must join on a human degree.
- Displaying up within the inbox is necessary for producing consciousness and staying prime of thoughts. (However don’t ship emails and not using a function.)
- It’s essential to construct belief instantly when a brand new contact joins your e mail listing.
Orient In the direction of Affect
Drew Worth walked us by 8 rules for the Fashionable Lifecycle Marketer:
- Be a fact seeker
- Kill your darlings
- Worth realization as a north star
- Fill product gaps
- Beware! Inside advertising scope creep
- New instruments: use-cases matter most
- Watch out about the way you select and obtain your metrics
- Take massive swings
E-mail’s Not Simple, However it’s Not That Troublesome
Jeanne Jennings debunked widespread e mail misconceptions and shared sensible suggestions for crafting fabulous emails.
- There’s not a “finest” time to ship an e mail. Decide your goal time primarily based on historic knowledge, A/B break up testing, web site visits, and motive and logic.
- Optimize the primary 25 characters of your e mail topic traces as a result of they may get minimize off after that.
- A low unsubscribe price doesn’t imply subscribers like your content material. They could simply be ignoring your emails.
Speak Information to Me: How Storytelling Proves E-mail Success
We realized easy methods to use storytelling to show uncooked metrics into compelling narratives from Lauren Meyer. A number of of the various takeaways embody:
- All the time join knowledge to enterprise outcomes – by no means current it as uncooked numbers.
- Information pushed storytelling can assist you show your value as an e mail marketer.
- Feelings contribute to 90% of our selections, so lean into them.
Are E-mail Builders Nonetheless Wanted?
It was written on Jay Oram’s shirt that he’s a real e mail geek—severely! His session explored the evolving panorama of e mail growth in 2024 together with key future expertise, and what it means to be an e mail developer within the years to return.
- AI instruments are usually not a risk to e mail builders however slightly a complement to their evolving position specializing in extra complicated facets of e mail technique and execution.
- Generative AI instruments, like ChatGPT and Claude, can streamline repetitive duties, however they lack the power to deal with the complete scope of e mail growth, which includes extra than simply writing code.
- The e-mail developer’s position is increasing into broader CRM capabilities like in-app messaging, push notifications, automation, and personalization—e.g. CRM builders.
Classes From the World of Newsletters
Dan Oshinsky introduced methods to assist elevate your e mail advertising and join together with your viewers utilizing character. Some highlights embody:
- Efficient newsletters really feel extra like a observe from a pal and fewer like advertising.
- Newsletters deal with 4 methods to develop together with owned progress, earned progress, algorithmic progress, and paid progress. These methods can be utilized interchangeably or collectively.
- One of the best newsletters are constructed on a clearly recognized viewers, job, and sense of why.
Encourage Belief By means of Viewers-First E-mail Content material Methods
Christine Martenson gave us nice tips about easy methods to create partaking e mail content material utilizing an audience-first strategy.
- First impressions matter! Don’t ignore your sender profile, topic traces, and pre-headers.
- Attempt utilizing a copywriting method to kickstart your content material creation: FAB method, PAS method, and AIDA method.
- Soften the arduous promote! Embrace other ways for the viewers to have interaction together with your model in the event that they’re not prepared to purchase.
Litmus Dwell Day 4 Recap—October 31, 2024
Issues acquired slightly spooky on day 4 as the ultimate 11 audio system took the (digital) stage. Okay, not likely, however a number of of the audio system did put on their Halloween costumes.
Strategic Testing for Lengthy-Time period Affect: A Case Examine in Holistic A/B Testing
Kath Pay kicked off the day with a keynote on the transformative energy of the Holistic Testing Methodology in e mail advertising.
- We as people worry the detrimental greater than we recognize the constructive. However don’t play to detrimental feelings too actually because it is going to lose its effectiveness and may be seen as manipulative.
- A Curiosity Hole is a niche between what an individual is aware of and desires to know. You may leverage this cognitive bias by protecting simply sufficient data from them in order that they act to study extra.
- Prepare your GenAI by asking it questions on your model and filling within the gaps for it.
From Conversion to Connection: Integrating Empathy Mapping Into Your E-mail Technique
E-mail is greater than driving actions—it’s about understanding your readers’ feelings. Dayana Kibilds mentioned utilizing empathy mapping to create significant connections, delight your viewers, and construct long-term loyalty all through the shopper journey.
- Main with empathy and discovering a solution to create worth in your subscriber’s on a regular basis life will result in lifelong conversions = the final word retention technique.
- Many corporations use manipulative techniques like worry and guilt to get a sale, however that can not often result in loyalty.
- Quite than making an attempt to make your prospects really feel a sure approach, meet them the place they’re already feeling.
Dwell E-mail Optimization
Angie Weyman and Carin Slater hosted a second session on e mail optimization. They had been dressed to impress, sporting Bob Ross and Lisa Frank Leopard costumes! Regardless of the silliness, they confirmed us 4 emails and mentioned doable optimizations to convey them from good to nice.
The Should Have Ecommerce E-mail Flows
Chase Dimond walked us by methods that maximize impression and keep away from leaving cash on the desk with optimized e mail advertising. Listed below are a number of of the various highlights:
- Should Have E-mail Flows Embrace:
- Pre-Buy: Welcome collection for non-buyers, website abandonment, browse abandonment, deserted cart, deserted checkout, again in inventory
- Submit-Buy: thanks, product training, overview request, replenishment, cross-sells/upsells, VIP, winback, breakup collection
- Manufacturers can deal with strategic particulars to optimize e mail flows, enhance conversions, and deepen buyer engagement: timing, segmentation, and content material personalization.
- Retain and have interaction your finest prospects by utilizing VIP segmentation with RFM (recency (time since final buy), frequency (buy price), and financial worth((complete spend)) analysts.
Future-Proof Your Model Like Beyonce: Integrating E-mail and Social Media for Model Longevity
Carlos Gil’s session lined methods to construct sturdy e mail lists, leverage knowledge, and use AI to adapt proactively to platform modifications. We realized:
- Not all social media platforms are created equal and so they’ve modified over time. Your social media plan from 5 years in the past is not going to work in the present day.
- Social media content material should be optimized to have interaction and entertain, not promote.
- Your final mission is to transform social media followers into e mail subscribers.
The ever-increasing worth of e mail with different messaging channels in a mobile-first phrase
Lee Munroe taught us easy methods to mix e mail with different messaging channels to reinforce engagement and enhance install-to-purchase conversions. Takeaways embody:
- In accordance with OneSignal, utilizing multiple messaging channel to have interaction customers will increase common engagement by 35.8%.
- Think about using a number of channels to create stronger relationships together with your prospects together with e mail, push, SMS, and in-app (reinforce reward and onboarding).
- Onboarding issues: A very good onboarding course of is significant for constructing loyalty and engagement, and e mail continues to be one of the crucial trusted channels.
Constructing a Framework for Buyer Journey
Constructing a buyer journey is important for fulfillment. Elizabeth Jacobi introduced the important thing steps to create a framework that retains your model prime of thoughts and engages subscribers at each touchpoint.
- Map out your buyer journey primarily based on the proper message by the proper channel on the proper time.
- Buyer journey emails go by many names together with advertising flows, automations, and buyer expertise emails. Irrespective of the identify, they’re an important a part of your advertising combine.
- Don’t attempt to map your buyer journey unexpectedly – it’s overwhelming! Take it step-by-step and begin by constructing the journey map outdoors of your advertising automation platform.
Designer, Developer, CRM Supervisor: The Reinvention of E-mail Advertising Roles
Jaina Mistry, Carin Slater, Jay Oram, and Leah Miranda closed out the convention with an insightful dialogue concerning the evolving roles in e mail advertising. We realized about their skilled historical past from their first e mail position to the place they’re in the present day, and the place they assume e mail advertising positions will go from right here.
And that’s a wrap on Litmus Dwell 2024! Thanks to all of our audio system, sponsors, and attendees for making it an enormous success.
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