AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I was working on a complete website revamp for a Shopify e-commerce client. The original brief was straightforward: update the abandoned checkout emails to match the new brand guidelines. New colors, new fonts, done.
But as I opened the old template—with its product grid, discount codes, and "COMPLETE YOUR ORDER NOW" buttons—something felt off. This was exactly what every other e-commerce store was sending.
So I did what seemed obvious in hindsight but revolutionary at the time: I completely reimagined the approach. Instead of corporate template emails, I created newsletter-style messages that felt like personal notes from the business owner. The result? We doubled email reply rates while most competitors were celebrating 2% open rates.
Here's what you'll learn from this experience:
Why following email "best practices" is killing your engagement
The specific changes that turned transactional emails into conversations
How addressing real customer problems beats perfect formatting
When to break conventional wisdom (and when to follow it)
The framework for creating emails people actually want to read
This isn't about perfect subject lines or A/B testing button colors. It's about fundamentally rethinking what email communication should be in 2025. Check out our SaaS playbooks for more unconventional growth strategies.
Best Practices
What every email marketer thinks they know
Walk into any marketing conference or scroll through any email marketing blog, and you'll hear the same tired advice repeated like gospel:
Perfect your subject lines - Keep them under 50 characters, use urgency, avoid spam words
Segment ruthlessly - Create 47 different customer personas and send targeted messages
A/B test everything - Test button colors, send times, preheader text
Follow email templates - Use proven layouts with hero images and clear CTAs
Optimize for mobile - Single column, large fonts, thumb-friendly buttons
This conventional wisdom exists because it works... sort of. These tactics can improve your metrics marginally. You might go from a 2% click rate to 2.3%. Your open rates might bump from 18% to 21%. But here's the problem: everyone is following the same playbook.
When every e-commerce store sends the same abandoned cart template, when every SaaS company uses the same onboarding sequence structure, when every newsletter looks identical—you're not standing out. You're contributing to inbox noise.
The real issue isn't technical deliverability (though that matters). It's that we've optimized for metrics instead of conversations. We've turned email into a broadcast medium when it should be a relationship-building tool. Most "best practices" treat recipients like conversion targets rather than humans with real problems.
That's where most businesses get stuck: following tactics that work for everyone else while wondering why their email engagement stays flat.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The client came to me with a classic e-commerce challenge. Their abandoned cart emails were performing "okay" - nothing terrible, but nothing exciting either. About 15% open rate, 2% click rate, and minimal actual cart recovery.
The existing email followed every best practice in the book: clean design matching their website, product images in a grid layout, "Complete Your Purchase" buttons in brand colors, and a 24-hour urgency timer. It looked professional. It was mobile-optimized. It should have worked.
But during our discovery phase, the client mentioned something interesting: customers kept having issues with payment validation, especially with two-factor authentication timing out. "We get support tickets about it weekly," they said.
That's when I realized the disconnect. We were sending beautiful marketing emails about abandoned carts while completely ignoring the fact that many people weren't abandoning their carts by choice—they were getting frustrated by technical issues.
Most email consultants would have recommended A/B testing subject lines or adjusting the discount percentage. But I saw an opportunity to do something different: address the actual problem customers were facing.
The breakthrough moment came when I proposed something that made my client initially uncomfortable: "What if we made this email feel like a personal note from you, acknowledging the real issues people face, instead of just another sales push?"
That question led to completely rethinking not just the abandoned cart emails, but our entire approach to customer communication through email.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's exactly what I did to transform those abandoned cart emails from generic sales pushes into conversation starters:
Step 1: Ditched the Template Mentality
Instead of the standard e-commerce template, I created a newsletter-style design that felt like personal correspondence. No product grids, no aggressive CTAs, just clean text that looked like it came from a real person.
Step 2: Changed the Subject Line Strategy
Rather than "You forgot something!" or "Complete your order now," I went with "You had started your order..." - much more conversational and less pushy.
Step 3: Addressed Real Problems
This was the game-changer. Instead of ignoring customer pain points, I added a simple troubleshooting section:
Payment authentication timing out? Try again with your bank app already open
Card declined? Double-check your billing ZIP code matches exactly
Still having issues? Just reply to this email—I'll help you personally
Step 4: Wrote in First Person
The email came from the business owner personally, not "The [Company] Team." This simple change made every message feel like direct communication rather than automated marketing.
Step 5: Made Replies Expected
Instead of treating email as a one-way broadcast, I explicitly invited responses. "Just reply if you're having trouble" became a core element of every message.
Step 6: Applied This Across Other Campaigns
The success with abandoned cart emails led us to redesign welcome sequences, product launch announcements, and customer service follow-ups using the same human-first approach.
The key insight: people don't want to receive marketing emails, but they do want to solve their problems. When your emails help solve real issues, engagement skyrockets.
Strategy Shift
Moved from broadcast marketing to problem-solving communication
Personal Touch
Wrote emails as if they came from the founder personally, not a marketing department
Problem Focus
Addressed actual customer issues like payment failures instead of just pushing sales
Reply Invitation
Explicitly asked for responses and made the email feel like the start of a conversation
The transformation was immediate and measurable:
Engagement Metrics:
Email reply rate increased from virtually zero to 12%
Open rates jumped from 15% to 28%
Click-through rates doubled from 2% to 4.2%
Business Impact:
But the real success wasn't just in the metrics. Customers started replying with questions, feedback, and even compliments about the personal approach. Some completed purchases after getting personalized help, while others shared specific technical issues we could fix site-wide.
Unexpected Outcomes:
The abandoned cart email became a customer service touchpoint, not just a sales tool. We started receiving product suggestions, testimonials, and referrals through email replies. One customer even said, "Finally, an e-commerce store that feels like it's run by real people."
Most importantly, the approach gave us insights into customer behavior that traditional analytics couldn't provide. When people reply to your emails, they tell you exactly what's blocking their purchase.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key insights from this email transformation experiment:
Best practices are often worst practices - When everyone follows the same rules, following different rules becomes your competitive advantage
Problems beat promotions - Customers care more about solving their issues than seeing another discount code
Conversations convert better than campaigns - Two-way communication builds trust faster than one-way broadcasts
Personal beats professional - Emails from real people get better responses than corporate communications
Address friction directly - If customers are having issues, acknowledge and solve them rather than pretending they don't exist
Metrics don't tell the whole story - Reply rates and conversation quality matter more than open rates
Test big changes, not small tweaks - A/B testing button colors won't give you breakthrough results
When this approach works best: For businesses where trust and relationships matter more than volume. Perfect for higher-value products, complex purchases, or anywhere customer support is crucial.
When to be cautious: High-volume, low-touch businesses might struggle to handle increased reply rates. Make sure you can actually respond to customer emails before inviting them.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies specifically:
Write trial expiration emails as personal check-ins, not sales pitches
Address common onboarding pain points in welcome sequences
Include troubleshooting tips in feature announcement emails
Make customer success emails conversational, not corporate
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores:
Address shipping concerns in order confirmation emails
Include sizing/return guidance in product launch announcements
Make review request emails personal and specific to their purchase
Turn abandoned cart emails into customer service touchpoints