• wkirby 3 months ago

    Thanks for the effort —— our experiences the last two years trying to launch a product have shown me that successful email marketing is elusive.

    I do have a genuine question though: who the hell does email marketing work on? I have yet to meet a single person, in and out of tech, who will admit to buying something because of emails like these.

    I can’t decide if email marketing is in the bucket of “it must work or they wouldn’t be doing it”, or in the even larger bucket of “they have to be doing something to pretend they’re adding value to the company.”

    • brushfoot 3 months ago

      Solopreneur here. For me, email marketing works, but in my experience, it works best when it's personal, casual, and highly targeted.

      This year, I actually had a prospect thank me for a cold email I sent him. He said in his 20-year career, had had never gotten one that was so helpful.

      Of course, that was nice, but the metric I'm most concerned with is sales -- and yes, they lead to those as well.

      The best ones, like the "best in my 20 years" one, have been the result of a lot of research, hand-crafting prospect lists based on what I believe are their exact needs, then writing a message that speaks to those needs.

      I'll add since this is HN: I have no course to sell and my startup isn't mentioned or linked anywhere. I'm just writing to share what's worked for me.

      • davidbff 3 months ago

        I guess that calling everything "email marketing" doesn't help. But it can be many things and impact in many ways.

        Bombarding people with spam is something that obviously isn't okay.

        A nice example can be a welcome sequence to educate someone about an app and help them understand the most helpful features/ways they can benefit from it. We're all here above average internet users, but most people appreciate some guidance and tips.

        It doesn't always have to be about selling stuff to people in an annoying and salesy way.

      • DemocracyFTW2 3 months ago

        These are things my spam folder's thriving on. Only slightly less annoying than the unexpected call from an unknown number and an unfamiliar voice who wants to talk with me about investments, whatever. My phone has one button dedicated to that situation.

        • cebert 3 months ago

          I’m tired of email marketing in general. I hope this trend ends soon.

          • fredtalty5 3 months ago

            I love the idea behind your email sequence database! It's such a practical solution for marketers, solo founders, and teams who need inspiration and structure but don’t have the time to start from scratch. The categorization and sequencing of emails from 80+ companies is a huge win—it’s exactly what’s often missing from resources like Really Good Emails. The strategic approach you’ve integrated adds a lot of value for people trying to optimize their campaigns.

            For improvements, one suggestion could be to add filters or tags that allow users to search for sequences by specific industries or campaign goals (e.g., welcome series, re-engagement, or post-purchase follow-ups). This would help users dive straight into the most relevant examples for their needs.

            Looking forward to seeing how this evolves—great work!

            • icedata 3 months ago

              We never even tried email marketing at my current company. At my previous one we had a lot of issues (boss didn't believe that spamassassin would block our efforts, he was wrong (we weren't initially using an email marketing platform)). Now I am using Waalaxy, which does linkedin and email prospecting (I only use Linkedin). Since I rarely accept unexpected connection requests myself, I was quite surprised at the effectiveness of Waalaxy, about 10% of connections requests accepted out of 1000 sent, several meetings booked, now doing phone followup on the remainder of connections.

              • handfuloflight 3 months ago

                I understand the effort but I personally don't need this product: I have dedicated inboxes for collecting email sequences that I dissect at my leisure.

                • davidbff 3 months ago

                  That's awesome. It's essentially what I used to do. But here, I kinda wanted to sort and categorize everything to make it easier and quicker for non-email nerds. Any examples that have stood out recently? I'd love to take a look!

                • xorcist 3 months ago

                  "Email sequences"? Can we no longer call a spade a spade?

                  Only 20 years ago people who did email marketing had their own forums where they traded their craft.

                  • xnx 3 months ago

                    "Email marketing sequence" = email spam = interruption marketing = attention theft

                    Keep sending me email, and I'll keep marking them as spam.

                    • undefined 3 months ago
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