Mailed It! Advanced Email Strategy and Writing-Slides

Slides

Pdf Summary

The workshop, led by Ashley Budd and Dayana Kibilds, focused on advanced email strategy and writing. It argued that email remains one of the most effective channels for engagement and conversion, citing strong ROI, high open rates, and audience preference across students, parents, alumni, and donors.<br /><br />The presenters emphasized that email success depends on trust, relevance, and timing. They explained deliverability basics such as sender reputation, authentication, engagement signals, open rates, bounces, and inbox filtering. They also highlighted the importance of understanding audience mindsets and creating content that builds relationships, informs, reminds, and motivates action.<br /><br />A major section covered turning content into campaigns. This included brainstorming quarterly themes, aligning with organizational priorities, identifying collaborators, reviewing calendars and budgets, and mapping messages to the audience journey or funnel. They recommended using brainstorming frameworks and prompts to generate ideas and make content creation more collaborative and fun.<br /><br />The writing section focused on making emails easy to read in just seconds. Key advice included using a trusted “from” name, writing clear subject lines and preheaders, using simple language, and formatting for scannability. They recommended self-explanatory links and buttons, second-person voice, short words and sentences, and F-pattern or newsletter-style layouts depending on the email type.<br /><br />The workshop concluded with practical tests and examples, especially the “2-second test,” which asks whether a reader can quickly understand the email’s purpose and action. Overall, the core message was: use trust, clarity, and empathy to send the right message at the right time.

Keywords

email strategy

email writing

deliverability

sender reputation

engagement

conversion

subject lines

audience segmentation

content campaigns

2-second test