Carrie Gallagher

Certified HubSpot Consultant | HubSpot Solutions Partner

Email Marketing

By

Holiday Marketing: How One Company Blew Up Their Email List (and not in a good way)

Yesterday was July 4, so I’m gonna share a little story with you about something that happened with a client a few years ago. This client is B2C, and they sell a product that people in a specific geography are very interested in. These people visit the company website and sometimes learn right away that they’re ineligible for the company’s product. But they are so interested in it that they fill out a HubSpot form, go into the client’s HubSpot CRM, and, in some cases, sit there for several months until they can be nurtured and learn they are eligible for the product.

Leading up to a national holiday, without telling me they were going to do this (because I would have told them “don’t do this”), they sent an email blast to everyone in HubSpot: customers and leads. The email said something to the effect of “Happy [insert holiday], we’re so thankful for you.” The call-to-action button sent them to the company website. The customers who received the email didn’t understand why they were being sent to the company website, but, even more importantly, the leads on the list learned they were still ineligible for the product!

[Read more…] about Holiday Marketing: How One Company Blew Up Their Email List (and not in a good way)

By

How AI improves email deliverability beyond send times

Email deliverability is cumulative, and AI email deliverability optimization works by reinforcing the sending behaviors that mailbox providers already measure over time. Mailbox providers evaluate authentication alignment, complaint rates, engagement patterns, and unsubscribe behavior across domains. In 2024, Gmail and Yahoo formalized stricter requirements for bulk senders, reinforcing a core principle: inbox placement depends on authentication, permission, and recipient behavior working together.

According to HubSpot’s 2026 State of Marketing report, 22% of marketers cite email as a top revenue driver. AI strengthens that infrastructure by improving segmentation discipline, identifying reputation shifts earlier, maintaining cleaner lists, and stabilizing engagement patterns — without overriding provider policies.

This guide explains what AI-powered email deliverability optimization is, how it applies to content, reputation, list quality, and timing, and which platforms support those workflows.

[Read more…] about How AI improves email deliverability beyond send times

By

What you’re doing wrong in your marketing emails

Published on HubSpot.com

One of the hardest parts of our three-lesson format is deciding what NOT to include, and a lot of really useful advice is gathering dust in my Google Drive.

This week, I’ve got three lessons I just couldn’t waste from the most-shared interview in the history of Masters in Marketing. Email marketing expert Jay Schwedelson is back, and this time he’s coming in hot with what you’re (probably) doing wrong with your email marketing.

And, in all honesty, I’ve committed some of these sins with this very newsletter. (Oopsie!)

[Read more…] about What you’re doing wrong in your marketing emails

By

Understanding the Goals of an Email Sequence

What are your goals for your email strategy? It’s important to have a clear understanding of where you want to lead your prospects and customers. Are you aiming to increase traffic to your blog? Drive more e-commerce sales? Schedule important meetings? Close those crucial deals?

An effective email strategy acts as a guide, leading your audience from point A to point B. However, you can’t successfully do that if you’re unsure of what “point B” represents. Your ultimate objective will determine the approach and tactics you employ in your email cadence.

[Read more…] about Understanding the Goals of an Email Sequence

By

The Biggest Marketing Fail in Your Holiday Email Campaign

email-marketing-fail

I’m a sucker for Black Friday email deals, and this week I took advantage of two really good ones:

  • 40% off a one-year membership to a very cool online training site for entrepreneurs
  • 50% off a WordPress plugin that’s going to save me tons of time customizing themes for clients

Both deals won me over with clever emails — they each put a lot of thought into their design and copywriting, and I don’t know if it was on purpose, but the more expensive entrepreneur site emailed theirs later in the day. That’s smart considering some of us get a little grouchy during the holidays and might be having a glass of wine at the end of the work day … was I more inclined to pull out the credit card?

I spent $300 after the discounts, and I’m the type who loves to share deals like this on Twitter (I don’t do Facebook). Can you see the problem with the confirmation emails I received after my orders were placed?

Order Confirmations are a Missed Opportunity for Most Email Marketers

Transactional emails are undoubtedly the highest open rate you’ll ever get, because everyone wants to know their order was received correctly and their payment was processed. In the case of the second email example, there were files to download, so that’s an email I might need to come back to a few times. So where are the social sharing buttons? These emails should be encouraging me to tell everyone I know about the great Black Friday deals I just took advantage of.

The final stage of the Inbound marketing methodology is to delight customers and encourage social sharing. Let your customers help with your holiday email campaign, and send their friends into your sales funnel. Imagine how many more customers these two businesses could have gotten if they made it easy for me, a marketer, to spread their messages on Twitter or via email.