
How we made the #emailweekly newsletter
Last week we sent our first #emailweekly newsletter, which replaces our old feedburner email alert that auto-sent when we’d written a new blog post. Now, being a blog about email design, we were never really happy with how the old emails looked, but at the time it did a job and we had more pressing things to do. This time around though, we thought we’d try out a few ideas.
Highlights from Completely Email Conference 2014
Last week we went to the inaugural Completely Email conference in Central London. Speakers included Becs Rivett, Kirsty Trainer, Alex Ilhan, Mark Robbins and Tim Watson.

Are soft opt-ins a good email experience?
When you visit a supermarket in the UK, one of the first things you have to do is give a pound coin deposit before you can get hold of a shopping trolley (sorry, cart). It is an awful way to start a customer relationship. It says “Welcome to our store. Even though you are going to spend hundreds of pounds with us, we have no trust in you whatsoever”. It is an inconvenience, but because every company does it, it becomes accepted.
Realmac: Cleaning up our list
I’ve not seen many campaigns like this, so thought it’d be a good share. This email from software house Realmac is almost entirely about unsubscribing – giving people who aren’t interested in receiving future emails a chance to opt out, and in the process tidying up their list. I’m not sure if they did any data behind this, but this is the kind of thing that could be sent to an unengaged segment, as part of a larger strategy.

Tube Strike Tuesday
There’s currently a series of tube strikes in London over the next few weeks, and as ever, some brands have been canny in using it as a subject for email campaigns.