Why targeting matters more than ever
Christie opened with a simple but sobering reality:
“There are over 340 billion emails sent every day… our challenge is to
make our emails stand out.”
She also highlighted three foundational problems marketers must overcome:
People receive 100–120 emails a day
45% of global emails are spam
Subscribers are highly selective and suspicious
This means subscribers only open emails if:
They recognize the sender
They trust the brand
The message feels relevant to them
The value is immediately clear
According to Christie, everything begins with understanding the subscriber’s world:
“What problem are they trying to solve? And how will what you offer
help them solve it?”
If marketers can’t answer that, targeting will always fall flat.
Understanding what subscribers need from you
Most brands jump straight into designing emails or writing copy. Christie urged marketers to zoom out and ask five essential questions:
What is the subscriber’s core pain point?
What problem are they trying to solve right now?
How does your email help them solve that problem?
What value does your message add to their day?
What emotion will inspire them to take action?
If you can answer three of these, Christie says you’re ready to start. But the ultimate goal is to answer all five.
Because once a brand understands intent and pain points, every sequence becomes clearer, every message becomes sharper, and conversions naturally go up.
The four focus areas that drive conversions
Christie grouped her entire framework into four pillars:
Content
Design
Frequency and timing
Segmentation
Each one plays a distinct and critical role in how subscribers behave inside your sequences.
Let’s break each down.
Content: Make every email purposeful
Christie stressed that content is the backbone of every sequence—and marketers need to define its purpose before writing a single word.
“What is the goal of the email?”
For example:
Once the goal is set, every other decision—copy, layout, CTA, images—should align with it.
What Christie recommends for stronger content
Include one clear CTA
Avoid overwhelming people with too many links
Use clear headers and subheadings
Convey value within the first 5–7 seconds
Keep email length light and easy to skim
As she put it:
“Most people skim an email within 5–7 seconds. You have to take
advantage of that time.”
If subscribers can’t understand what the email wants from them instantly, the conversion is already lost.
Design: Make the email readable, scannable, and enjoyable
One of Christie’s biggest observations?
Many emails fail not because of content but because of poor design choices.
She listed the most common problems:
Too many bright colors competing for attention
Not enough color contrast
Low-quality or blurry images
Heavy layouts that feel “long”
Buttons that don’t stand out
Emails not optimized for mobile
Her rule of thumb:
“If the experience is not a good experience, your subscriber is not
likely to stay around.”
Her design guidelines:
Use strong color contrast
Keep font at 15–16px minimum
Give CTA buttons breathing room
Use enough white space to avoid crowding
Test on iPhone, Android, tablets, desktop
Keep images light to avoid slow loading
A clean, scannable layout has a direct correlation with engagement, clicks, and long-term trust.
Frequency and timing: When to send matters as much as what you send
While marketers often obsess over content, Christie emphasized that frequency and timing can make or break a sequence.
Her advice:
Start with 1–2 days delay between emails in a sequence
Track performance before adjusting
Watch unsubscribes, complaint rates, and click patterns
Tuesdays to Thursdays often work well—but always test
Match delays to content (e.g., weekly for a 10-week program)
Christie reiterated this several times:
“There’s no perfect answer. You have to test it.”
Subscribers respond differently based on intent, device, lifestyle, and audience type. Data—not assumptions—should guide frequency.
Segmentation: The biggest driver of conversions
This was the heart of Christie’s session.
Segmentation simply means dividing your list into meaningful groups based on shared characteristics. But its impact is massive:
Higher engagement
Lower spam complaints
More relevance
Clearer value
Higher conversions
Christie shared what she hears often from new brands:
“A lot of clients talk about ‘email blasts’… sending one email to
everyone.”
Her response was clear:
Segmentation should always be a goal—even if you start small.
She walked through a real-world example of a shoe sale campaign.
After sending one email, four natural segments emerged:
Subscribers who never opened
Subscribers who opened but didn’t click
Subscribers who clicked but didn’t purchase
Subscribers who clicked and purchased
For each segment, she showed what the follow-up should look like.
Applying segmentation: What to send next
1. Non-openers
These subscribers might have missed the email due to inbox clutter.
Christie’s recommendation:
- Resend the same email to non-openers
As she said:
“If they don’t see your email, they certainly can’t convert.”
A simple resend often recovers more conversions than marketers expect.
2. Opened but didn’t click
They showed interest—but not in the product featured.
Christie suggests:
They’re warm; they just need the right creative angle.
3. Clicked but didn’t purchase
These are high-intent subscribers.
Follow-ups should include:
A reminder email
Countdown timers
Urgency-driven messaging
Limited-time offers
Small nudges often convert these subscribers into customers.
4. Purchased
These subscribers need nurturing, not selling.
Christie recommends:
Even though a thank-you email doesn’t immediately boost conversions, it builds long-term loyalty and strengthens brand perception.
How to begin segmenting when you’re just getting started
Many young brands have very little data initially. Christie shared a simple starting point:
Start by identifying who is on your list
Understand your audience’s likes and dislikes over time
Track click behavior across different categories
Run short surveys (avoid long forms)
Use A/B tests to learn what resonates
Personalize based on behavior, location, or content patterns
Her guidance on personalization:
“Speak to the subscriber in the language they want to be spoken to.”
This isn’t limited to using their first name—it’s about shaping content around what they care about.
Subject lines: Your first conversion moment
The subject line is the first gateway to any conversion. Christie advised:
Keep them 5–7 words
Put key information at the beginning
Ensure they aren’t cut off on mobile
Test using first-name personalization
Make the subject directly relevant to the email’s content
Weak subject lines crush conversions before the email even loads.
Key takeaways
To improve targeting and boost conversions, marketers must rethink how they build every part of a sequence. When content is clear, design is easy to read, timing feels natural, and segmentation feeds relevance, subscribers stop ignoring emails and start responding to them. Christie’s message throughout the session was simple: understand your audience deeply, speak to them personally, and let their behaviors—not assumptions—guide what you send next.
