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- [April 2025] 🤘 3 frameworks for better emails + 7 new features
[April 2025] 🤘 3 frameworks for better emails + 7 new features
Apply these learnings to send better emails
Mica 🔷 Referral Rock
May 01, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Hey it’s Mica,
Email isn’t dead, it’s just harder to get through. That was a major theme of the Unspam email conference I attended last week, but one thing really stuck with me:
“47 seconds. That was the average attention span in 2020, and it’s only gotten shorter.”
Every inbox is crowded. How can your emails stand out? The same old practices aren’t cutting it.
Improving emails is always top of mind for us since we serve 2 audiences (people like you in this newsletter and helping our customers with their referral program emails).
During the conference, 3 frameworks stood out to me on writing better marketing, sales, and service emails. Make sure to check those out. 👇👇
In our last newsletter, we shared how our team is actively building better email practices into the product with a fresh perspective on turning customers into active sharers.
While we all wait for the new email builder (fun screenshots in that last newsletter), the team has released 7 usability updates to make referral management easier (see below).
Until next time,
-Mica
Head of Operations
P.S. Get in touch if you need help (yes, I reply).
A Small Ask
We understand that sending email campaigns can cause a lot of anxiety. Will I bother these people? Will I send it to the right contacts? Can I trust this email system?
We’re looking to improve our product and would appreciate your input by answering the poll below.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a Referral Rock user or not, we’re trying to understand all software usage.
[Poll] What stops you from importing contacts into an external software you use?Please pick one. |
✉️ 3 frameworks to send better emails
Regardless of your current email strategy, here are 3 frameworks to help you send better marketing, sales, and service emails.
1) The 3 W’s - Ask Who? What? Why?
Without a clear approach, emails get lost in the inbox. All emails need a target audience, a specific objective, and must provide relevant value.
Ask yourself these questions when planning your emails:
Who am I trying to reach?
What am I trying to accomplish?
Why would the reader care/want to hear from me?
Many newsletters (hopefully not this one) fail to answer these questions. Instead, companies send them because that is the supposed best practice. They don’t think through the reason for sending, but get stuck on the hamster wheel of getting the next one out before the deadline.
By asking the 3 W’s, they may change the format/cadence of their newsletter or decide to send other emails instead. Here are 4 other emails to consider:
Goal | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
Lead Magnet Emails | Inform and establish trust | Opt-ins, form fills, referral program activation campaigns |
Client Relationship | Be helpful and build credibility | Follow ups & outreach from sales and services reps |
Nurture Sequences | Provide value and maintain trust over time | Educational campaigns to interested prospects, drips of your best content |
Event Based (if this/then send) | Be helpful at the right time | Welcome emails, reminder emails, follow up on your service/order, and referral/reward emails |
2) RAD (Relevant, Adds Value, Designed for Easy Navigation)
47 seconds. That is the maximum time you have to convince someone to read your email.
Use the RAD frameworks to stand out:
Relevant - focus on your audience and their interests
Adds Value - be helpful and share useful information
Designed for Easy Navigation - create scannable emails (optimized for mobile) so the reader can quickly decide if it’s worth their time
Starting your emails with whatever is most important/interesting gets readers invested in what else you have to say.
3) Check your email format based on current trends
Preferences change over time as people’s behavior changes. The best email strategies adapt to new trends.
Here are 3 interesting trends from the conference that impact your emails:
40% of people stay in dark mode - Many images look odd in dark mode (especially those with a large white background). Make sure to test your emails in dark mode.
Text-based emails are becoming more effective - Text-based emails are seen as more human and are more likely to get a reply. They make it easier to condense information and focus the reader on what they need to know. Consider replacing or adding a text-based email to your email mix.
More people are checking email on mobile - Optimizing email for mobile has been a best practice for a while, but it’s a good reminder to test emails on your phone before sending.
🎉 7 updates for easier referral management
This month was packed with usability updates to make it easier to manage your referral programs.
Feature Update | Details |
|---|---|
Open Portal as Member | Let’s you open the Member’s Portal so you can see exactly what they see without accidentally activating them or changing their stats |
Faster load times for tables and analytics | Everything is now faster (especially for large datasets with lots of members, referrals, and rewards) |
Improved profile navigation | Easier to move between member and referral profiles (+ reward profiles - coming soon) |
Table UX improvements | Cleaner design so you find and view the information you need in the tables |
Bulk member actions | Enable, Disable, and Delete members in bulk |
Control who gets the Welcome Email | Configure which activated members receive the Welcome Email |
Remove share link from Direct Add widget | Enable/Disable if the share link shows when using the Direct Add share widget |
⏮ And in case you missed it…
Here are some more recent posts from our team that you may have missed!
