Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps


 

Workshops – Monday, September 11, 2023

First off, let’s begin with pre-game. And by that, of course, we mean the optional day of workshops on September 11, the day before the conference started. For the truly dedicated, or just those local to Boston, we offered five, three-hour in-depth workshops on the real meat and potatoes of how to do email real darn good. 

That workshop list included…

About 50+ folks showed up to get their hands dirty on workshop day, and left with some real learnings about coding, testing, accessibility, and workflow management. What secrets did they learn? You’ll have to find someone who attended and ask them. We’ll never tell! 😉

#LitmusLive2023 workshops, complete! ✅

We had a blast learning from @emailjay_ , @jainamistry, @hannahjtiner, and Abigail Sims this afternoon.

See you on the email stage tomorrow for Day 1 of our main conference! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/Fxj2fQtwfL

— Litmus (@litmusapp) September 11, 2023

And with that, workshop day drew to a close, and the real fun began…

Litmus Live 2023 Day 1 – Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Litmus Live 2023 began properly a little after nine in the main hall to the tune of late 2010’s pop, reminiscent of a millennial’s highschool homecoming. The vibe felt less like a conference about to commence, and a little more like summer camp, honestly. We were just a joyous bunch of email geeks, all chatting and rustling in our seats, slapping new Litmus Live stickers on laptops, and waiting for the camp counselors to arrive. 

And so it was, to great applause, that Litmus’ own SVP of Marketing Cynthia Price and Senior Community Evangelist Logan Sandrock Baird made their opening remarks, and kicked off the next two day of email-based camaraderie! 

Here’s a quick peek at each of the sessions on day one: 

BTS of Achieving the Impossible: 100% Conversion Rate – Samar Owais

Our very first keynote session that morning came from one of the biggest names in email, the legendary Samar Owais. She shared one of her biggest wins—a 100% conversion rate with her client Workamajig—and then told the story of just how exactly she accomplished this legendary win. 

Living my e-mail dreams seeing @samarowais IRL here at #LitmusLive2023 pic.twitter.com/Y37UJ9sj9v

— emily ryan👩🏻‍💻 (@emilyryantweets) September 12, 2023

The goal of that project? Move the entire customer base of Workamajig to a new version of the product before a very tight deadline. Samar was faced with a tricky problem. She had only email at her disposal to accomplish this very big ask. To do so, she began with the customer. Because, as she stated, “Without customer research, there is no email strategy.” So real, Samar, so real. 

“Without customer research, there is no email strategy.” — Samar Owais

So, she shared, her team went all out to find out how to reach every customer in a way they would respond to. They hosted a webinar, they sent out follow-up emails, and ultimately got every single customer switched over to the new version before the deadline, resulting in a 100% conversion rate! Now that’s a win for the email marketing history books. 

But it wasn’t all just her. She shared just how much she relied on the people around her to accomplish this, too. “It’s never just one person,” she said. “You are part of a team”. 

Couldn’t ask for a better teammate 🥺 @Winraar #litmuslive2023 pic.twitter.com/il6MxQj80j

— alex kelly (@alexkellysays) September 12, 2023

After that inspiring keynote, we broke out into our sessions for the day. We hosted two tracks, running simultaneously—the Professional and the Practical. Attendees could choose which to attend, and switch back and forth between them as desired throughout the day. 

Let’s take a peek at what those sessions covered!

What’s the Point of Marketers? – Najmah Salam

In this session, Najmah Salam confronted some of the burning questions facing marketers today head on. In a world where “60-70% of an employee’s time could be automated,” how does the dedicated marketer provide real value to a team? How do we set ourselves apart from generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automation tools? 

Najmah Salam speaking

We learned that the answer is to demonstrate what you can do that a machine can’t do. And it’s not enough to be quietly confident anymore. “You have to be SEEN doing the work and show how difficult the work is,” said Najmah. It’s time to be our own advocates in the workplace, and louder than ever!

Email Deliverability: A Result of Respect – Radek Kaczynski

Over on the practical track, Radek Kaczynski tackled the issue of email deliverability. What is the magic formula for getting into inboxes, and staying there? The answer is simple: it’s about respect, and showing your audience that you respect them, their time, and their choices. 

“Respect is the center of email deliverability.” — Radek Kaczynski

Sender reputation takes time to build, and every time you send an email with broken links, ignore a subscriber’s communication preferences, or don’t deliver on the promise you made when first establishing the relationship with your audience, you jeopardize that respect. 

How B2B Marketers Can Prepare for How Data Privacy Will Change Email Metrics and Strategy – Natalie Jackson

If data privacy isn’t top of mind for you as a marketer these days, who are you and how are you functioning? Between GDPR, CPRA, and the end of third-party cookies, it’s a pretty big deal. In this insightful panel, Natalie Jackson covered how to rethink your email strategy as some of our favorite reporting metrics just simply no longer work for us. 

And of course, we had to face the cold hard truth: email opens are dead

“Email opens are dead. What else can you measure?” — Natalie Jackson

Natalie stressed the importance of moving to opt-in marketing, even for B2B companies, and making sure that opt-in doesn’t direct you immediately to a sales nurture. Also, make sure you think creatively about how to measure success in a campaign—and look at where your opportunities are really coming from. 

Are your emails RAD?? @NatalieTJackson #LitmusLive2023 pic.twitter.com/foQQwyWO4T

— Najmah Salam (@najmetender) September 12, 2023

And finally, make sure your emails are RAD:

  • Relevant
  • Add value
  • Designed in a way that’s easy to navigate

Accessibility Implementation: Removing the Resistance with Behavioral Science – Paul Airy

In this fascinating installment on the Professional track, Paul Airy walked us through how to improve adherence to accessibility best practices with some cold hard science. That’s no exaggeration, either—it was science! Behavioral science. 

Frankly, accessibility goals can look really far away. And we need help figuring out what’s slowing us down from getting there. How can we make that process simpler and easier for our brains? 

“The efforts towards achieving our goals increase exponentially the closer we are to achieving them.” — Paul Airy

Paul covered ways we can make accessibility measures look more achievable to our brains—like the punch card method—and how to break down big steps into smaller ones. By making the goals smaller and easier to reach, we can reduce the “slow thinking” currently required to get us to our goal. 

Carving Out Your Career Path in Email – Crystal Ledesma

There are so many career possibilities within email, it can sometimes feel hard to make a choice, let alone be confident in that choice. In this session on the Professional track, Crystal Ledesma guided us through the job of a manager—to get better outcomes from a group of people working together—and the career path she took to reach that point. 

@sentbycrystal slaying with both the career guidance AND the look at her talk, “Carving Out Your Career Path In Email” here at #LitmusLive2023 pic.twitter.com/oELhyBHdu5

— Logan Sandrock Baird (@logansandrock) September 12, 2023

You don’t have to know all the answers to manage, but you will have to learn to hire people who do know those answers and get comfortable asking them for help. And that can be really uncomfortable at first! But, Crystal shared, “Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is vital to carving out your career path”. Words to live by!

Secrets From My Swipe File: Copy Strategies You Can Steal – Lianna Patch

For all us content folks in attendance, this session caught our attention! Lianna Patch shared her strategies for clever, click-worthy copy in this educational session. From opening curiosity loops, to experimenting with sender names, to “putting some emojis on that bad boy”, we all walked away with some new tricks to try.

I’m watching @punchlinecopy at #LitmusLive2023 and it was full of practical advice + examples. Plus the chat was poppin 👀 pic.twitter.com/DuwYGRhRD7

— Aleena Khan (@aleenahkhan) September 12, 2023

Some tips, however, were a little more off the beaten track. For example, we learned to think outside the box with sender addresses, including such clever examples as, “Your closet” and “A toilet!” We also learned about the power of interactivity, like including little games in your emails. And finally, we covered the importance of “micro copy”, and making even the small touches on your email seem more human wherever you can.

This session was best and most cleverly summed up by Lianna herself: “Think of your subject line as what someone would call out of their car window at you as they drive by”.

Litmus Product Session – Maida Kasper

With our morning sessions complete, we headed into our post-lunch main hall session for the hottest and most-anticipated session of Litmus Live 2023! First, Litmus CEO Erik Nierenberg kicked off our product launch by entering his latest email era—and reminding us at Litmus of all the eras we’ve been through, as well. Here at our 10th Litmus Live? It’s quite a few!

When the team are sharing a notes doc and attending the same sessions during #LitmusLive2023 @litmusapp @eriknierenberg pic.twitter.com/SgklfQq3jA

— Rose (she/her) (@thetrickisto) September 12, 2023

Today’s announcement, however, would be the biggest yet. After reviewing the last decade of successful time at Litmus, Erik welcomed onstage Maida Kasper, the VP of Product & Growth at Litmus. 

“When I was here 7 years ago, there was a lot of talk about how ‘email is dead’, but I don’t hear that anymore. We’ve come a long way… and we’re entering a whole new world with AI.” — Erik Nierenberg

Maida announced the big news: Litmus has a brand new feature called Litmus Email Guardian, and a slew of updates and changes to existing features that make the most of our new AI capabilities. “In today’s era of email marketing, there are more things than ever that can go wrong,” said Maida, “Many of which are out of your control”. Whether it’s an ESP issue, an email client update, or just Outlook at it again, that’s the truth. 

And Email Guardian is here to protect you (and your brand) from issues like these. Email Guardian is always on, and always watching, even when you can’t. How’s that for a new era of email marketing? 😍

Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here