# Email marketing Human Guide

## What This Is For
Guides email marketing strategy for AI/SaaS products. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for email marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Email marketing agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for email marketing.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Email marketing guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Goal**: Retention, conversion, brand reach, or SEO synergy
- **Content mix**: Onboarding, campaign, announcement, features, newsletter
- **List size**: Bulk sender rules (5,000+/day) require Gmail/Yahoo compliance
- **Content mix**: Allocate onboarding, campaign, announcement, features, newsletter
- **Select articles**: Pick retention, ToFu, MoFu from blog; prioritize SEO target pages
- **Cadence**: Stable frequency (weekly/biweekly/monthly); avoid over-sending
- **Monitor**: Open rate, click rate; GA4 email contribution to article traffic; GSC
- **Content mix** (five types)
- **EDM vs Newsletter** balance
- **Deliverability** (subdomain, SPF/DKIM/DMARC)
- **Article delivery** (Retention, ToFu, MoFu, SEO targets)
- **KPI** (open, click, GA4 email traffic, GSC)

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Initial Assessment, EDM vs Newsletter, Five Content Types, User Best Practices, Content Best Practices, Deliverability & Domain Config, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, Delivery Strategy: Articles + SEO Synergy, Planning Framework, Frequency.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- | **Announcement** | Product launch, major update; one-time important notice |
- | **Unsubscribe** | One-click required (Gmail/Yahoo); honor within 48h; clear entry |
- | **Subject** | One clear topic per email; avoid pure promo |
- **Cadence**: Stable frequency (weekly/biweekly/monthly); avoid over-sending

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Email marketing human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the kostja94/marketing-skills skill entry for `email-marketing`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Channels: Email Marketing

Guides email marketing strategy for AI/SaaS products. Email ROI ~$36 per dollar spent; open/click rates typically higher than social. Covers EDM vs Newsletter, five content types, deliverability (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), and SEO synergy via article delivery.

**When invoking**: On **first use**, if helpful, open with 1-2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On **subsequent use** or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

## Initial Assessment

**Check for project context first:** If `.claude/project-context.md` or `.cursor/project-context.md` exists, read it for audience and content strategy. See **content-marketing** for content types and formats across channels.

Identify:
1. **Goal**: Retention, conversion, brand reach, or SEO synergy
2. **Content mix**: Onboarding, campaign, announcement, features, newsletter
3. **List size**: Bulk sender rules (5,000+/day) require Gmail/Yahoo compliance

## EDM vs Newsletter

| Type | Purpose | Use |
|------|---------|-----|
| **EDM** | Direct marketing; conversion-focused | Promotions, campaigns, announcements; bulk sends |
| **Newsletter** | Ongoing value; relationship | Industry insights, curated articles; regular cadence |

**Combine both**: EDM for push; Newsletter for nurture. Cover different stages and goals.

## Five Content Types

| Type | Use |
|------|-----|
| **Onboarding** | Welcome + first-use guidance; 5-7 day sequence; behavior-triggered; drive "Aha!" moment |
| **Campaign** | Promotions, limited-time; conversion or participation |
| **Announcement** | Product launch, major update; one-time important notice |
| **Features update** | New features, improvements; help users adopt |
| **Blog/Newsletter** | Curated articles, industry insights; sustained touch |

## User Best Practices

| Practice | Guideline |
|----------|-----------|
| **Personalization** | Segment by behavior, source, stage; boosts open/click |
| **Timing** | New users: dense; existing: controlled pace; behavior-triggered > calendar-only |
| **Welcome series** | Send soon after signup; 5-7 emails over days; guide first key action |
| **Unsubscribe** | One-click required (Gmail/Yahoo); honor within 48h; clear entry |
| **Complaint rate** | Keep below 0.3%; list hygiene critical |

## Content Best Practices

| Practice | Guideline |
|----------|-----------|
| **Subject** | One clear topic per email; avoid pure promo |
| **Value first** | Useful info before promotion |
| **CTA** | Single primary CTA; clear next step |
| **Mobile** | 50%+ read on mobile; responsive layout, tappable links |

## Deliverability & Domain Config

**Subdomain**: Use subdomain (e.g. mail.example.com) for marketing; keep transactional (support@, etc.) on main domain. Isolate risk.

### SPF, DKIM, DMARC

| Protocol | Purpose |
|----------|---------|
| **SPF** | Authorizes mail servers for domain |
| **DKIM** | Cryptographic signature; verifies sender |
| **DMARC** | Policy for unauthenticated mail; start p=none, then quarantine, then reject over 60-90 days |

**Order**: SPF first, then DKIM, then DMARC. Gmail/Yahoo require all three for bulk senders (5,000+/day) since Feb 2024.

**Advanced**: TLS-RPT, MTA-STS, BIMI (brand logo). **Postmaster Tools**: Monitor deliverability, spam rate, auth status.

## Delivery Strategy: Articles + SEO Synergy

| Article Type | Use |
|--------------|-----|
| **Retention** | Deep content for existing users; improve retention |
| **ToFu** | Top of funnel; awareness (trends, concepts, problem framing) |
| **MoFu** | Middle of funnel; consideration (comparisons, reviews, best practices) |

**Dual value**: (1) Better email engagement (open, click, stickiness); (2) Drive traffic to article pages from non-search channel; signals to Google that users value content; supports SEO.

**Measurement**: GA4 email source traffic to article pages; GSC rank/click changes.