Practical help for better email marketing

EMV Email Desk helps you with deliverability, email design and copy, list building and segmentation, and how Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook treat bulk mail. Facts are checked against official documentation from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple and against the rules themselves: the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide and the GDPR text. emailmarketingvoodoo.com published an email marketing blog from 2006 to 2012 and was relaunched in 2026 as EMV Email Desk by a new, independent team.

Start with deliverability

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Deliverability

All deliverability guides

Hotmail Revamps Usability Features and Declares War on Newsletters

Hotmail’s October 2011 attack on “graymail” gave users an automatic Newsletter category, a built-in unsubscribe option and the Sweep and Scheduled Cleanup tools. Those…
How Do You Deal With Unwanted Marketing Emails?

When subscribed email arrives and there’s no time for it, most people ignore it, delete it, mark it as read, or unsubscribe. A growing…
Crispers: Audio Double Opt-In Instructions

An audio double opt-in page plays a short recording right after someone signs up. The recording tells them to check their inbox and click…

Design and copy

All design and copy guides

Borders’ Death Rattle in Email Form

When Borders closed in 2011, its liquidation emails dropped the brand people knew, put the store locator in the footer, gave no end date…
Hotmail’s Partial HTML5 Video Support in Email, and Where Email Video Stands Now

As of November 2026, you still can’t count on HTML5 video playing inside an email. The main clients where it can play are Apple…
Mobile Email Design Dos and Don’ts

Most of your subscribers now read email on a phone, so design for a one-thumb, small-screen reader first: one column, body text of 14…

Strategy and lists

All strategy guides

Why Bigger Is Not Always Better

Smaller, segmented sends usually win Smaller, segmented sends are more relevant to your subscribers, and they almost always perform better than one message sent…
An Illustrated Example of Over-Sending

Over-sending means mailing your list more often than subscribers want, and in November 2026 it costs more than ever. Every extra unwanted message raises…
How Not to Grow Your Email List

A hidden, pre-checked “send me emails” box at checkout is still one of the worst ways to grow a list. It isn’t valid consent…

Inbox providers

All Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook guides

A New Challenge for Email Marketers: Gmail’s Priority Inbox

Gmail’s Priority Inbox still exists in November 2026. It is one of several optional inbox types, and it sorts each user’s mail into “Important…
For the Impulsive and Non-Committed: Gmail Undo Send Quick Tips

As of November 2026, Gmail’s Undo Send is switched on for every account and can’t be turned off. By default you get 5 seconds…
Does a Delay Make an Email Less Relevant?

Yes. When a campaign goes out late, any copy tied to a date, season or event can make the brand look behind, even when…

More guides

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