Litmus Live 2021 Speaker: Meet April Mullen—With Insights on Email’s Future

Two more weeks until THE conference for email marketers—Litmus Live—is here! This October 26th-27th, you’ll get how-tos, tips, and advice from marketing leaders and email marketing experts like April Mullen.

April Mullen Director of Brand and Content Marketing, SparkPost Follow April on LinkedIn and Twitter

April will be on a Litmus Live panel discussing what lies ahead for email professionals as we emerge from the social and economic disruption of the pandemic and chart a new path toward growth and opportunity for all. Let’s find out more about April…

What’s your email marketing origin story?

Like many people in email, it found me.

I started my career as a marketing coordinator for an e-commerce team. As part of the role, I supported the company’s presence on comparison shopping engines and helped on affiliate marketing and email campaigns. When the email manager put in her notice, my boss asked if I’d like to be promoted into running email given I had some experience supporting it. The rest, you could say, is history.

I’ve been working in email in some capacity ever since.

I then went on to launch and grow an enterprise email and CRM strategy for a large brokerage firm, did a stint on the agency side as an email strategist, and then have spent the last 7 years working in various roles for email and martech companies.

I’m currently the Brand and Content Marketing Director for SparkPost, and I love getting to manage a team that focuses on PR, email marketing, social media, community management, brand, thought leadership, and content—all focused on email as a subject.

What do you love about email marketing?

I love the power that comes with hitting send. I’ve never seen a campaign go out that didn’t immediately start driving conversions in some way. Email doesn’t always get the attention or love it deserves, but it is almost always the leading channel in any integrated marketing strategy because it works. It is a workhorse that gets the job done.

What do you find most challenging?

With email’s success has come challenges. I’d like to see more companies elevate it to being a channel used to build customer relationships. Too many executives still see email as a channel for pure conversion building and push email professionals to ask for too much from their email audience.

If more companies looked at their tactics and measurement at a customer level and not channel level, we’d start to be able to email individuals like the people they are, instead of a target in a database that continues to get bombarded with messages.

I know that’s more of a corporate culture problem—especially in the US—and less something caused by email geeks. Most geeks I know despise what they are asked to do with their audiences and want to get to that dream state.

Can you give us a sneak peek into your part at Litmus Live?

I’ll be a part of the closing panel at Litmus Live. We’ll be talking about the future of email and where we think it will be going next! I am really looking forward to nerding out over my favorite channel with some brilliant people.

Don’t miss April’s discussion and more—at Litmus Live Hear from the best & brightest in the marketing industry, virtually meet other email geeks, and learn strategies & tactics to level up your email program. Join us at Litmus Live via livestream on October 26th-27th, 2021.

How do you expect email marketing to change in the near future?

I’m optimistic that email will finally get the attention and budget it deserves from CMOs.

Yes, email has challenges with changes like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection and “Hide My Email”, but the tailwinds are behind email with what’s happening in advertising with the deprecation of third-party cookies and app tracking.

As a result of what’s happening with third-party data, first-party data is going to become a bigger focus.

Capturing and retaining first-party data like email and being able to execute well in channels like email is going to become more paramount than it has in the past. I’m excited to see what will happen. I think our moment in the spotlight is coming.

What’s your favorite email pun?

I laughed when I saw the “You Be You and I’ll BIMI” shirt in Anne Tomlin’s Email Loot store. It’s exactly the kind of nerdy humor that emanates from this special community. So clever.