Inside the inbox

Email tips, inspiration and insights from the team at EmailOctopus

An open letter: why our free plan isn't going anywhere

Last week, our COO Tom sent this letter to EmailOctopus subscribers on our free plan. A few people asked if they could share it, so we're publishing it here in full, exactly as it landed in inboxes.

Simplifying email automation with templates

Email design trends in 2026

Email Marketing Trends 2026

Case studies

Customer feature: J. Cole and Dreamville Records

If you know J. Cole, you probably know him as a rapper, singer and songwriter with a back catalogue full of top ten hits and Grammy-nominated records. You might not know that he’s also the head of Dreamville Records, a record label he co-founded in 2007 that boasts a roster of eight rappers and hip [...]

Mirka Hokkanen: how a multi-faceted artist makes email marketing work on her own terms

Mirka Hokkanen is a Finnish-American author, illustrator, printmaker and educator who runs a creative business spanning fine art prints, books, classes, and an online shop. With audiences ranging from art collectors to parents and educators, Mirka uses EmailOctopus to stay connected with them all, without letting email marketing take over her creative life. By keeping things simple, personal, and on her own terms, she consistently achieves open rates that most marketers can only dream of.

Alex Baia: on growing a list of 15,000 subscribers, one joke at a time

Alex Baia is a humour writer, marketing consultant, and newsletter creator who has built a list of nearly 15,000 subscribers since 2016. Using lead magnets and smart segmentation, he's turned his newsletter into the backbone of everything he does – from sharing his writing in The New Yorker and McSweeney's to running workshops and growing his comedy publication, Comedy Bizarre. With EmailOctopus as his platform of choice, he shares what's driven his growth and why the welcome email is the most important email you'll ever write.

Tiger Tags: a small family business on a mission to make school life easier

Tiger Tags, a small family-run name label brand, helps parents keep track of school uniforms, nursery items, and everyday essentials. Since launching in 2024, they’ve used EmailOctopus to connect with parents and schools at key points in the school calendar. By keeping campaigns clear and simple, they’ve built trust, strengthened relationships, and supported school fundraising – making school life a little easier for families.

The latest on the blog

Email Marketing

Automated welcome email examples to woo your subscribers

A welcome email is like greeting a new customer when they enter your shop. It’s your chance to make a great first impression and keep prospects hooked for the long run. Think of it like this: when subscribers sign up to receive your newsletter, they’re showing an interest in you. The least you can do [...]

Tom EvansMarch 07, 2022

Email Marketing

(2022) March newsletter ideas & templates to engage your readers

March is just around the corner, and there’s no better time to engage with your newsletter readers. Temperatures get higher, colours get brighter and the mood shifts. Consumers are ready for their spring purchases, and you should be at the top of their lists. As a business owner or an email marketer, you need to [...]

Tom EvansFebruary 09, 2022

Email Marketing

Fool-proof ways to optimise your email sign-up form & capture more leads

Considering four out of five marketers say they’d rather give up social media than email marketing, we think it’s safe to say optimising your email signup form is important for most businesses. At EmailOctopus, we know a thing or two about doing that, so in this article, we’re going to teach you everything you need [...]

Tom EvansJanuary 28, 2022

Email Marketing

4 ways you can repurpose content for email marketing campaigns

Content creation can be a time-consuming process. From choosing a topic to deciding which format the content will take, and then producing it – creating good content is a long process. Research from CoSchedule shows that most marketers spend an average of six hours per day creating new content. That’s almost three quarters of a [...]

Marvellous Aham-adiDecember 22, 2021

Email Marketing

How nonprofits can build an email list with the Google Ads Grant

Growing your email list is an essential part of increasing your digital marketing reach. But building a strong base of contacts doesn’t happen overnight. However, the results are worth it – few other sources of communication give you as high of a return on investment as email marketing. The smartest businesses and nonprofits use a [...]

Hollie YouldenDecember 20, 2021

Email Marketing

How to deal with a stale email list

Maybe you’ve inherited an old email list in your new marketing role. Or perhaps you set up a sign-up form months ago and forgot all about it. Whatever the reason – we’ve all been there. And as email marketers we’ve found ourselves with a valuable list of email contacts that we have no idea what [...]

Hollie YouldenDecember 14, 2021

Email Marketing

How to grow your email list using social media

Using social media to grow an email list is not a new concept, but it is one that may be under-utilised. That’s largely because social media platforms make it seem so easy to connect with an audience, many people wonder why they should bother with an email list at all. While that’s a good question, [...]

Hollie YouldenDecember 13, 2021

Email Marketing

The impact of Apple iOS 15 on email marketing

In September 2021, Apple released iOS 15. With it came Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and the ability for users to take more control over their email privacy. There was plenty of speculation within the email marketing industry about what this update would mean for marketers. And plenty of fear-mongering along with it. But now that [...]

Hollie YouldenDecember 10, 2021

Email Marketing

How to grow your email list with Facebook

Facebook is an effective tool to help you grow an email list. With roughly 2.89 billion monthly active users on Facebook, your target audience is definitely on the platform. And with the right strategies, you can promote your email list to your target audience and convert them into subscribers. Since you most likely already have [...]

Marvellous Aham-adiDecember 03, 2021

Email Marketing

The best email marketing solutions for Amazon SES

Amazon SES – which stands for Simple Email Service – is a cost-effective, reliable and scalable email service built on the same infrastructure that Amazon.com developed to send communications to their customer base. Thanks to the flexible IP deployment and email authentication options, users can be assured of high deliverability. And if you want to run [...]

Hollie YouldenNovember 23, 2021

Email Marketing

Top Black Friday SaaS deals for marketers, entrepreneurs and small business owners

Black Friday is around the corner and SaaS (that’s ‘software as a service’ for the uninitiated) companies of all shapes and sizes are preparing their discounts for the weekend. Which makes it an excellent time for you to upgrade your tech stack and take advantage of savings on a host of useful tools. To help, [...]

Hollie YouldenNovember 18, 2021

Email Marketing

How to get started with email marketing – 9 steps to success

As a marketer or small business owner, you’re no doubt looking for the best marketing channel for your business. And after some research, you might have correctly concluded that email marketing offers the best return on investment of any marketing channel. To put it in numbers, email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is [...]

Marvellous Aham-adiNovember 16, 2021

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