The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate the knowledge of our audience. If you allow this curse to infect your writing, you may unwittingly leave supporters feeling confused an alienated. To...

It might seem too obvious to mention. But it’s critical that you’ve defined the objective of your email. Often, it’s to lead your supporter directly to a specific page. Let’s work with that. Make your action...

How does the past experience of people on your list influence their interest in receiving ongoing email from you? It turns out quite a lot. The measure of overall email list engagement is called list health...

Sometimes, the purpose of an email can be simply to inform. But often, we’re trying to get someone somewhere. An action page. A donation form. A video... When your email has a destination, be protective of...

Imagine you’ve been asked to have an important conversation with ... ‘someone’. Chances are, you’ll be much happier to have that conversation if you know who that someone will be. Better yet if you know something about...

Consider the moment before your supporter decides whether to open your email. They must sacrifice something in order to give you their attention. Either, they’ll need to delay the thing they were about to do next, or...