Kimberly Huang
Kimberly Huang
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Litmus Live 2022: Highlights and Insights from Day 1

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It’s finally here! Litmus Live 2022—aka, the premier email event of the year—has officially kicked off! From October 25th to 26th, over 50 experts will take the email stage, including our four keynote speakers.

Day one just got under way, kicking off two days of action-packed education and inspiration.

Couldn’t make it? We’ll catch you up on the top moments so far from Litmus Live 2022. (Don’t forget—you can watch all the sessions on-demand for one year, with a paid MAX ticket.)

Here’s what you missed.

It’s not too late: you can still register for day two of Litmus Live 2022 by 1pm ET/12pm CT on Wednesday, October 26th. Catch all the sessions on-demand with a paid MAX ticket →

Habits of Creativity for Email Pros

As keynote speaker Jenny Haggard (Creative Strategy, NA Lead, Spotify) puts it: building and breaking habits help us become the best version of ourselves. “Think about your positive and negative habits to work on being a better marketer.”

For better creativity, keep the AABCs (anima, audience, brand, and culture) in mind—and think about how you can apply that to your email marketing.

“Creativity cannot exist with homogeneity. It cannot exist with sameness or the status quo. It can only exist because someone sees something in a new way,” says Haggard.

Data Visualization Without Images: AMP Email Update

How can you display data without using images in email? And how can AMP for email create better data visualization experiences in email? 

Benjamin Djang—Creative Technologist at The Washington Post—showed attendees how, including inside tips and tools for email developers.

Design For Life: Creating A Framework for the Career You Want

Keynote speaker Kason Morris (Head of Learning Experience Design, Salesforce) walked us through applying design thinking to our lives—and careers.

Morris reminds us about the power of reframing. Instead of asking “what should I do with my career?” ask yourself, “what am I most interested in pursuing right now?”

Most people on average have about five career changes in their lifetime. Career isn’t something you can just “figure out”—there is no wrong choice.

Working Towards Email Standards

What if email developers, ESPs, and email clients were all on the same page? That’s where the Email Markup Consortium (EMC) comes in.

 

The EMC is a community-led group of industry professionals on a mission to create email standards that improve the email experience for everyone.

As Alice Li puts it, change is everyone’s responsibility. “All this causes a feedback loop of rendering inconsistencies and issues, because all three parties are trying to edit emails to account for each other.”

Alongside Mark Robbins and Hussein Al Hammad, the three founding members of the EMC took the email stage at Litmus Live 2022 to share more about their developments, and how to get involved.

Email Evolution: Uncovering What Matters Most

Customers want to be heard, understood, in control, and remembered. As marketers, we can provide that with relevant experiences—like offers, rewards, and most importantly, personalization.

Lisa Wester (Senior Email & Marketing Automation Manager, Emerson) shared why it’s vital to put the customer first and what that looks like for marketing orgs—including examples of how her team evolved from product- to customer-centric.

Wester said the key to email personalization is to work together (instead of fragmented in silos) o understand the full customer journey across departments. “Every interaction leaves an impression. Make it a good one.”

Driving Business Impact Through Email Marketing

Attrition is rising, in part because marketing teams feel like order takers, with too many capabilities. How can teams take their power back, while scaling their efforts?

In her session, Aimee Bennett (Marketing Automation Manager, Ferguson) provides a tactical, step-by-step method for driving impact through email.

Bennet urges us to think: What does your service “cost” per hour? Think about the “packages” you provide internal groups with your emails and content—and what you are going to “bill” for that.

“It’s not a negative to need a freelancer,” says Bennett. “I wasn’t really sure why to use a freelancer until I realized I could hire them quickly and get them to focus on the business as usual tasks. Then my team could focus on strategy and what really drives the numbers.”

“Find your extensions of team. That’s what your freelancers truly are.”

Behavioral Triggers: Cultivate Meaningful Consumer Conversations

Behavioral messaging is an essential part of the overall marketing mix, with behavior triggers often driving the highest engagement metrics.

“Event-based email triggers are 467% more effective than batched business-as-usual emails,” said Lauren Gannon (Senior Vice President, PeopleCloud Messaging, Epsilon) and Jill Lemaire-Redo (VP, Digital Strategy and Insights, Epsilon).

Are You Over Designing Your Emails?

Creating emails is both an art and a science. How do you combine new ideas that may be risky, while also hitting your goals?

Lara Banker (Sr. Marketing Manager, Astral) took attendees through real examples of how to find the sweet spot between beautifully designed emails and those that perform.

Banker’s quick tip: “When you are zoomed out from your email, you can really start to see what is going to draw your users attention.”

Here are more takeaways from our attendees:

You’re Human, and I’m Human, Too! The Power of Reply Management

Reply management is an important but often overlooked part of email marketing. User experience information from the actual user is invaluable—and replies can help us do better.

Sara Willimon (Sr. Email Marketing Specialist, InQuest Marketing) shares how to tap into the power of reply management as a connection point between brands and customers.

“Humans reply in unexpected ways—and these may not be caught by an automatic filter because they don’t use ‘trigger words’ your ESP uses to recognize them,” says Willimon.

“When there are kind souls who reply with what they do like, add them to your portfolio, white papers, reports, testimonials, performance reviews! Share them with anyone who touched that email and helped make it happen. Take the joy where you can out of what you receive,” says Willimon.

Alice in Preferenceland: Down the Rabbit Hole

It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole when it comes to email preference centers. “There are so many easy mistakes to make with a project of this type, and it’s a deceptively simple concept,” said Aaron Beatty (Director of Digital Engagement, Attain Partners) in an interview with Litmus.

Preference centers are multi-faceted and complex, but Beatty makes it approachable with tips, considerations, and more.

Value-Tiers, Clusters & Triggers: How To Put Your Customer Data To Work

How can you put your customer data to work? Andy Locke (Director of Strategy, Response Labs) says to take a prescriptive approach.

Break your customer data down into loyalty segments—value-tiers, clusters, and triggers. This will create an email messaging strategy of unique customer segments, each with their own goals, objectives, and KPIs.

Don’t let FOMO get the best of you

Missed out on day one? Don’t worry, you can still register for day two of Litmus Live until 11am ET/12pm CT on Wednesday, October 26th.

For the full Litmus Live experience, upgrade to a Litmus Live MAX ticket to get access to all sessions, including exclusive live panels, full networking opportunities, and post-event access to live and on-demand sessions (plus Litmus Live 2021 sessions!).

For the full Litmus Live experience, upgrade to a Litmus Live MAX ticket to get access to all sessions, including exclusive live panels, full networking opportunities, and post-event access to live and on-demand sessions (plus Litmus Live 2021 sessions!). →

Follow #LitmusLive2022 on Twitter to stay in the loop of all things Litmus Live!

Register (or upgrade your ticket) today!

Register for day two of Litmus Live 2022 by 1pm ET/12pm CT on Wednesday, October 26th. Catch all the sessions on-demand with a paid MAX ticket!

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Kimberly Huang

Kimberly Huang

Kimberly Huang is a Content Marketing Manager at Litmus

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