It’s a wrap! Litmus Live came to a close on Halloween and boy, was it a treat. Over 6,000 email-loving marketers registered and 36 talented thought leaders shared their knowledge over four days.
If you aren’t familiar, Litmus Live is an annual email conference dedicated to all things email. It’s where some of the brightest minds in email connect each year to get insights, gather inspiration, and connect with fellow email geeks. The 2024 event put the spotlight on lifecycle marketing.
We compiled key takeaways from every session and a recap video from each day in this article. Check it out!
Also, a huge shout out to our incredible sponsors: Oracle, Salesforce, Constant Contact, OneSignal, ZeroBounce.
Litmus Live Day 1 Recap—October 28, 2024
This is my first Litmus Live and all I can say is wow! The speakers on day one knocked it out of the park. While I scribbled down notes for this recap, I took even more for myself and I can’t wait to read back through them and rewatch a session or two.
This highlight videos sums up the energy and enthusiasm of the day perfectly.
Return on Real: A New Model for the Modern Marketer
The incredible Ann Handley kicked off Litmus Live with a keynote focused on modern marketing. Highlights:
- Ann wore an Evermore (Wednesday Adams) uniform that was absolute perfection.
- An astounding 58% of marketers consider their content strategy to be “moderately” effective.
- RoR means Return on Real. 95% of buyers are not actively in the market, so you must make meaningful (AKA real) connections with them until they are.
The Sketch Effect artist, Len Peralta created an illustrated recap on Ann’s session! How cool is that?
Creating Remarkable Email Experiences: 20 Years of Learnings & Examples
Chad S. White from Oracle shared tactics for creating remarkable emails from 20 years in email marketing. Takeaways include:
- An great overview of the hierarchy of subscriber needs.
- 20 email examples from the past 20 years.
- In 2011, Helzberg Diamonds created 60,000 animated GIFs so they had one for each unique name on their subscriber list.
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Live Email Optimization
Everyone’s favorite session returned with a bang! Litmus’ own Carin Slater and Angie Weyman worked on optimizing four different emails.
- Always add your ALT text. ALT text is still important, especially for email accessibility.
- Goals of emails vary! Don’t assume you should monitor the same metrics for each.
- 40% of emails are viewed in Dark Mode, so proper optimization is more important than ever.
Foundations of Online Marketing Success: Review-Plan-Execute
Dave Charest guided us through yoga-inspired tips to ignite word-of-mouth buzz, boost productivity, and create a winning online marketing strategy.
- Engagement marketing is when you provide a “wow” experience every time you have contact with a customer.
- Mobile responsive homepages should answer four questions immediately:
- What is it?
- Who is it for?
- So what?
- What should they do next?
- Consistent marketing is the key to changing your business.
Well said, Dave!
Decoding Churn: Strategies for Subscription Retention
Anna Levitin shared how to decode churn and boost retention using B2C tactics repurposed for B2B. We especially loved these key takeaways:
- Churn = [lost customers/customers at the beginning of the month] x100
- Choose long-term over short-term loyalty goals
- Short-term: instant gratification, special offers, customer engagement.
- Long-term: community building, customization and flexibility, value-added benefits.
Advanced Interactive Coding: Building a Product Rec Engine
Email geeks couldn’t stop talking about Zac Eckstein’s session on planning and coding an advanced interactive email concept. Notable takeaways:
- Zac walked us through how to code an interactive module, including great tips and tricks along the way.
- Apple, Yahoo, Outlook.com, Samsung, and AOL inboxes provide good coverage for interactive email. Gmail and Outlook on Windows lack full support.
- Interactive emails slightly reduce click rates (by 10-20%), but they boost conversion rates by the same margin.
4 Steps to Write Emails Worth Sending (While Being Utterly Ruthless)
Copywriting + humor = Lianna Patch. She walked us through her best tips for writing to REAL readers and editing your email copy from structure down to the word level. Takeaways include:
- Use VoC (voice of the customer) data to really get to know the audience you’re writing for.
- Broad → structure → specific: Edit for only one area at a time, working your way from broad to detailed.
- Consider testing “call to values” instead of a “call to actions.”
The Future of Email: AI, Automation, and Lifecycle Marketing
This panel was not one to miss! Cynthia Price, Chad S. White, Lauren Meyer, and Drew Price explored the latest trends and innovations shaping the next generation of email marketing. Highlights include:
- Over time, brands focusing on managing quality and frequency at scale will gain more engaged subscribers because they’ve built stronger relationships.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) should be seen as a junior assistant that can help with ideas, but it’s not ready to take over completely.
- Chad S. White predicts that AI-enforced brand guidelines will become common in the future.
Len Peralta also crafted an illustrated recap of the panel.
Slack conversations were flowing
We heard from dozens of attendees in the Litmus Live Slack channel. Conversations included how we got into email marketing, email personalization tips, content and marketing team synergy, and even book recommendations.
Litmus Live Day 2 Recap—October 29, 2024
We all knew day one of Litmus Live would be hard to beat, but day two held its own! There were seven incredibly insightful sessions, an exciting Litmus product announcement, and fun networking topics.
From “Dear Customer” to Dynamic Content: The Evolution of Email Personalization
Five email pros kicked off Day 2 at Litmus Live with a fantastic panel about email personalization. Cynthia Price, Anne Ghaltchi, Natasha Sanchez, Lee Munroe, and Blake Miller discussed:
- Behavioral personalization based on actions (in a non-creepy way).
- Use your email personalization across all messaging, such as SMS, in-app, etc, for a more cohesive experience.
- You don’t need to personalize everything! Test to see where personalization works best.
The Art and Science of Accessibility in Email Marketing
Sarah Gallardo and Lauren Castady from Oracle Digital Experience Agency had a record number of questions flow in during their session. Takeaways include:
- 27% of the population has some sort of disability, and they represent about eight billion dollars in discretionary funds per year.
- When you make something accessible, you’re creating a better experience for your entire userbase.
- Create a shared “accessibility checklist” that both designers and developers contribute to so there’s common ground for identifying and solving potential issues early.
Inbox Insights: Navigating Email Audits for Enhanced Compliance and Efficiency
This session by Kelsey Smith was packed with best practices and practical tips for conducting thorough audits that elevate your email strategies.
- Clearly define the objectives of your audit. Clear goals help guide the audit process, align teams, and secure leadership buy-in.
- Break the audit plan into actionable buckets, like quick wins and long-term strategies.
- Email audits aren’t one-off activities. Establish a regular audit cadence for continuous improvement.
Unlocking the Full Potential of Lifecycle Marketing: Personalization and Optimization with Litmus
Maida Kasper and Scott Epple unveiled new features for Litmus Email Guardian and Litmus Personalize!
- There are two new ways to personalize your emails:
- Animated Video allows you to create engaging video elements that just work.
- Animated Image Carousels bring your emails to life by showcasing multiple images in a seamless, moving slideshow.
- Sender authentication in Email Guardian gives your email the best chance of reaching the inbox by ensuring you’re following sender requirements put forth by Google and Yahoo earlier in 2024. It also monitors every domain you send from 24/7 and alerts you automatically if an issue is detected.
How Invisible Experiences Inform the Future of Email Personalization
The Jessica’s (Jess Materna and Jessica Liu) united for an information packed session about the future of email personalization. Takeaways include:
- Customers will engage less frequently but more meaningfully with brands in the future.
- Consumers want personalized moments that are relevant and realize value across four dimensions: economic, functional, experiential, and symbolic.
- Email is the only channel that can reach customers throughout their entire customer journey.
The Art of the Welcome
Emily Ryan gave us a crash course on how to win over your subscribers through welcome emails. Highlights:
- The average length of a welcome email series is 6.45 emails. Aim to have 3 emails in your welcome journey at a minimum.
- Ask the subscriber a question in your welcome email and encourage them to reply so they immediately engage with you.
- No setting it and forgetting it—remember to periodically update your welcome emails.
Beyond “Oops” and “Sorry”
Ralitsa Minkova walked us through the art of heartfelt, sincere email apologies. Her presentation was so detailed and well-though out that she even captured the key takeaways for us.
Litmus Live Day 3 Recap—October 30, 2024
The content on day three was fantastic! There were six presentations, one panel, one sponsor insight session, and plenty of networking in Slack.
Beyond the Click: The Hidden ROI of Email Marketing Across the Funnel
Cynthia Price moderated as Jeanne Jennings, Anna Levitin, and Emily Ryan answered a series of questions about a holistic approach to measuring email ROI across the entire customer lifecycle. Takeaways:
- We’re all humans so you need to connect on a human level.
- Showing up in the inbox is important for generating awareness and staying top of mind. (But don’t send emails without a purpose.)
- It’s crucial to build trust right away when a new contact joins your email list.
Orient Towards Impact
Drew Price walked us through 8 principles for the Modern Lifecycle Marketer:
- Be a truth seeker
- Kill your darlings
- Value realization as a north star
- Fill product gaps
- Beware! Internal marketing scope creep
- New tools: use-cases matter most
- Be careful about how you choose and achieve your metrics
- Take big swings
Email’s Not Easy, But it’s Not That Difficult
Jeanne Jennings debunked common email misconceptions and shared practical tips for crafting fabulous emails.
- There is not a “best” time to send an email. Determine your target time based on historical data, A/B split testing, website visits, and reason and logic.
- Optimize the first 25 characters of your email subject lines because they might get cut off after that.
- A low unsubscribe rate does not mean subscribers like your content. They might just be ignoring your emails.
Talk Data to Me: How Storytelling Proves Email Success
We learned how to use storytelling to turn raw metrics into compelling narratives from Lauren Meyer. A few of the many takeaways include:
- Always connect data to business outcomes – never present it as raw numbers.
- Data driven storytelling can help you prove your worth as an email marketer.
- Emotions contribute to 90% of our decisions, so lean into them.
Are Email Developers Still Needed?
It was written on Jay Oram’s shirt that he’s a true email geek—seriously! His session explored the evolving landscape of email development in 2024 including key future skills, and what it means to be an email developer in the years to come.
- AI tools are not a threat to email developers but rather a complement to their evolving role focusing on more complex aspects of email strategy and execution.
- Generative AI tools, like ChatGPT and Claude, can streamline repetitive tasks, but they lack the ability to handle the full scope of email development, which involves more than just writing code.
- The email developer’s role is expanding into broader CRM functions like in-app messaging, push notifications, automation, and personalization—e.g. CRM developers.
Lessons From the World of Newsletters
Dan Oshinsky presented strategies to help elevate your email marketing and connect with your audience using personality. Some highlights include:
- Effective newsletters feel more like a note from a friend and less like marketing.
- Newsletters focus on four strategies to grow including owned growth, earned growth, algorithmic growth, and paid growth. These strategies can be used interchangeably or together.
- The best newsletters are built on a clearly identified audience, job, and sense of why.
Inspire Trust Through Audience-First Email Content Strategies
Christine Martenson gave us great tips on how to create engaging email content using an audience-first approach.
- First impressions matter! Don’t ignore your sender profile, subject lines, and pre-headers.
- Try using a copywriting formula to kickstart your content creation: FAB formula, PAS formula, and AIDA formula.
- Soften the hard sell! Include alternative ways for the audience to engage with your brand if they’re not ready to buy.
Litmus Live Day 4 Recap—October 31, 2024
Things got a little spooky on day four as the final 11 speakers took the (virtual) stage. Ok, not really, but a few of the speakers did wear their Halloween costumes.
Strategic Testing for Long-Term Impact: A Case Study in Holistic A/B Testing
Kath Pay kicked off the day with a keynote on the transformative power of the Holistic Testing Methodology in email marketing.
- We as humans fear the negative more than we appreciate the positive. But don’t play to negative emotions too often because it will lose its effectiveness and can be seen as manipulative.
- A Curiosity Gap is a gap between what a person knows and wants to know. You can leverage this cognitive bias by keeping just enough information from them so they act to learn more.
- Train your GenAI by asking it questions about your brand and filling in the gaps for it.
From Conversion to Connection: Integrating Empathy Mapping Into Your Email Strategy
Email is more than driving actions—it’s about understanding your readers’ emotions. Dayana Kibilds discussed using empathy mapping to create meaningful connections, delight your audience, and build long-term loyalty throughout the customer journey.
- Leading with empathy and finding a way to create value in your subscriber’s everyday life will lead to lifelong conversions = the ultimate retention strategy.
- Many companies use manipulative tactics like fear and guilt to get a sale, but that will rarely lead to loyalty.
- Rather than trying to make your customers feel a certain way, meet them where they’re already feeling.
Live Email Optimization
Angie Weyman and Carin Slater hosted a second session on email optimization. They were dressed to impress, sporting Bob Ross and Lisa Frank Leopard costumes! Despite the silliness, they showed us four emails and discussed possible optimizations to bring them from good to great.
The Must Have Ecommerce Email Flows
Chase Dimond walked us through strategies that maximize impact and avoid leaving money on the table with optimized email marketing. Here are a few of the many highlights:
- Must Have Email Flows Include:
- Pre-Purchase: Welcome series for non-buyers, site abandonment, browse abandonment, abandoned cart, abandoned checkout, back in stock
- Post-Purchase: thank you, product education, review request, replenishment, cross-sells/upsells, VIP, winback, breakup series
- Brands can focus on strategic details to optimize email flows, increase conversions, and deepen customer engagement: timing, segmentation, and content personalization.
- Retain and engage your best customers by using VIP segmentation with RFM (recency (time since last purchase), frequency (purchase rate), and monetary value((total spend)) analysts.
Future-Proof Your Brand Like Beyonce: Integrating Email and Social Media for Brand Longevity
Carlos Gil’s session covered strategies to build strong email lists, leverage data, and use AI to adapt proactively to platform changes. We learned:
- Not all social media platforms are created equal and they’ve changed over the years. Your social media plan from 5 years ago will not work today.
- Social media content must be optimized to engage and entertain, not sell.
- Your ultimate mission is to convert social media followers into email subscribers.
The ever-increasing value of email with other messaging channels in a mobile-first word
Lee Munroe taught us how to combine email with other messaging channels to enhance engagement and boost install-to-purchase conversions. Takeaways include:
- According to OneSignal, using more than one messaging channel to engage users increases average engagement by 35.8%.
- Consider using multiple channels to create stronger relationships with your customers including email, push, SMS, and in-app (reinforce reward and onboarding).
- Onboarding matters: A good onboarding process is vital for building loyalty and engagement, and email is still one of the most trusted channels.
Building a Framework for Customer Journey
Building a customer journey is essential for success. Elizabeth Jacobi presented the key steps to create a framework that keeps your brand top of mind and engages subscribers at every touchpoint.
- Map out your customer journey based on the right message through the right channel at the right time.
- Customer journey emails go by many names including marketing flows, automations, and customer experience emails. No matter the name, they’re an essential part of your marketing mix.
- Don’t try to map your customer journey all at once – it’s overwhelming! Take it step by step and start by building the journey map outside of your marketing automation platform.
Designer, Developer, CRM Manager: The Reinvention of Email Marketing Roles
Jaina Mistry, Carin Slater, Jay Oram, and Leah Miranda closed out the conference with an insightful discussion about the evolving roles in email marketing. We learned about their professional history from their first email role to where they are today, and where they think email marketing positions will go from here.
And that’s a wrap on Litmus Live 2024! Thank you to all of our speakers, sponsors, and attendees for making it a huge success.
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