... Four months ago I started auditing SaaS emails from real companies. Not as a service. As research. I wanted to know whether the structural failures I was seeing in individual emails were isolated mistakes or a consistent pattern across the industry. So I picked companies: Semrush, HeyGen, Optimizely, Revolut, Notion, Perplexity, ElevenLabs, Zoho, Wiz, dbt Labs, ran their emails through a 7-point diagnostic framework I'd developed, scored them, named the failure patterns, rebuilt the emails, and published everything ... ... They place the action in the company's frame, not the reader's. "See if this applies to my team" is the reader's language. It names a decision, not an action. 96% of the 59 emails I audited

... Because line one told me what they shipped. Not what I stopped losing. By Monday it was four screens up in my inbox. It ceased to exist. This is the pattern with the lowest CTR across 59 audits. Not the email nobody opened. The email everyone opened and immediately forgot. It has a name: Feature-First Bias. It shows up in 83% of the SaaS emails I have audited

... marketing, you'll want to pay attention because this directly impacts your bottom line. What I've observed in the last 4 years isn't good and the frustration is real. Since 2022 I ve performed hundreds of audits and consultations for businesses wanting to stop landing in spam, and start landing in the inbox. Most of my clients come from a checklist I launched on Hacker News 4 years ago and Upwork, where I ve maintained ... ... modern email. Businesses get caught off guard by the changing landscape and the duopoly's latest rule changes, and suddenly they're stuck. How do you generate engagement if your subscribers never see your emails? I recently audited

... matters for agencies: Metric Value Brands that don't know their AI visibility 78% Clients asking about AI answers (increasing) 64% year over year Agencies offering dedicated AI visibility services Still under 15% Average monthly retainer for AI visibility audits 1,200 2,500 Average monthly retainer for ongoing AI visibility + content 2,500 5,000 First-mover advantage is real. The agencies offering this now are locking in clients before competitors