How Email Marketing is Evolving in 2026 with Tanya Plaza
Digital messaging expert Tanya Plaza shares in this episode of That InboxArmy Podcast that email continues to be a vital channel in the marketing mix. The episode explores the evolving landscape of email marketing, deliverability, and AI's role in email and marketing as a whole in 2026. Tanya shares invaluable insights on key topics such as:
The importance of email deliverability and how it interfaces with engagement and other channels
Why email remains a core channel in 2026, and how to integrate it with new messaging channels
The significance of benchmarking against yourself rather than industry standards for meaningful growth
Defining engagement beyond opens and clicks—focusing on KPI alignment and customer interaction
The legal vs. ethical considerations in email marketing and the importance of reputation management
Practical strategies for leveraging AI in marketing: time-saving tools versus overreliance
The economic impact and future costs of AI technology, including implications for marketers
Handling unsubscribes with ease and viewing them as opportunities rather than failures
The importance of meeting consumers where they are across multiple digital touchpoints
Timestamps:
02:45 - The evolution of deliverability and the postmaster role
03:45 - Where does email sit in marketing in 2026?
06:22 - The relevance of email alongside new channels and trends
07:48 - Discarding myths: Why email is still vital
09:08 - Challenges and misconceptions about email performance and ROI
11:14 - Lessons from consumer experience: the importance of respect in unsubscribes
16:11 - Building reputation: the impact of legal compliance on deliverability
18:34 - Measuring yourself against your own data, not industry benchmarks
29:53 - Practical uses of AI: efficiency tools, data analysis, and avoiding pitfalls
33:23 - The importance of human oversight in AI-driven marketing
36:26 - The democratization and rising costs of AI technology
41:02 - Imagining AI as a collaborative partner in human-led endeavors
42:34 - The influence of AI on jobs and the importance of expertise
44:17 - Engaging with unusual interview questions—insights into organizational culture
27 Aug 2025
Navigating the Yotpo Migration with LB Blair
Email is hard. It's even harder when you have a necessary email platform migration sprung on you, like the case of Yotpo's email and SMS customers. Join Scott Cohen, Garin Hobbs, and LB Blair as they discuss the key factors to consider when choosing a new ESP, the mistakes to avoid in the process, and more.
InboxArmy is also offering special reduced pricing for Yotpo customers who need to migrate. You can learn about our ESP migration services here: https://www.inboxarmy.com/yotpo.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Context of Yatpo's Sunset
03:09 Key Factors in ESP Migration
05:54 Challenges of Migration and Warmup Strategies
08:57 Timing and Urgency in Migration Decisions
11:55 Navigating Platform Choices and Deliverability Risks
15:07 Evaluating New Platforms and Avoiding Common Mistakes
18:00 Involving Practitioners in Platform Selection
23:01 Crafting Effective Plans for Tech Integration
24:05 Identifying Key Needs in Data Management
27:05 The Role of AI in Modern Tech Stacks
30:02 Human Elements in Decision Making
36:11 Navigating Migration Challenges
39:00 Practical Advice for Successful Migration
25 Jun 2025
Handling Your "Mess of Data" in Email with Chris Behrens of BearMail
Chris Behrens, CEO of BearMail, joins hosts Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs to examine how marketers use fundamental data attributes and consumer motivations to improve email marketing programs, in this interview.
24 Mar 2025
The Intricacies of Email Design with George Pettigrew of InboxArmy
In this episode, Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome George Pettigrew, InboxArmy's Creative Director, to discuss the challenges and demands of great email design. The conversation covers the importance of a strong understanding of design fundamentals, the importance of the user experience in creating effective email communications, and how design systems can address these needs. Come for the learnings on how to be creative within a design system and leave with an understanding of why you shouldn't use image-only emails, how to avoid the common mistakes of email design, and more.
03:21 - Understanding Email Design Systems
06:16 - Creativity Within Design Systems
09:41 - The Importance of Accessibility in Email Design
17:01 - The Case Against Image-Only Emails
20:35 - Designing for Dark Mode
24:20 - Common Mistakes in Email Design
28:52 - Brands Excelling in Email Design
30:46 - Balancing Creativity and Best Practices
35:33 - B2B vs B2C Email Design Strategies
3 Jan 2025
Investing in Email the Right Way with Ryan Phelan of RPE Origin and Chris Marriott of Email Connect
In this on-location episode from MediaPost's Email Insider Summit, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs are joined by Ryan Phelan, CEO at RPE Origin, and Chris Marriott, CEO at Email Connect, to discuss the challenges of navigating the decision process around choosing and fully utilizing an email service provider. The conversation dives into great detail around the common mistakes and pitfalls marketers make when making these kinds of decisions as well as what's necessary to make these complicated decisions.
Come for the banter around the limitations of AI, stay for the 2025 predictions made by email marketing experts with more than 100 combined years of experience.
00:00 - Introduction to Email Platform Utilization
06:47 - Understanding Email Service Provider Utilization Rates
16:54 - Navigating ESP Changes and Decision Points
25:03 - Common Mistakes in ESP Migration
35:56 - The Shift in Power Dynamics with New Platforms
41:40 - Underinvestment in Email Marketing
49:41 - The Role of AI in Marketing
58:19 - Predictions for 2025: The Future of Marketing Channels
8 Nov 2024
The Year of Deliverability with LB Blair of Email Industries
In this episode of That InboxArmy Podcast, Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome back LB Blair, Chief Strategy Officer of Email Industries, to catch up on the latest updates and trends in email deliverability. The conversation focuses on numerous topics, including email authentication requirements, content filtering, the importance of email hygiene, and even branch out into the evolving landscape of email security, the implications of cybersecurity threats, and the risks associated with cold emailing. You'll learn about the need for businesses to build a sustainable brand identity and engage in ethical email practices to ensure deliverability and security.
02:47 - Changes in Email Authentication and Filtering
05:59 - Content Filtering and Image Usage
09:11 - Spam Traps and Email Hygiene
11:57 - The Shift in Email Best Practices
14:53 - Cybersecurity and Email Links
18:12 - Understanding Spam Traps
20:57 - The Importance of Email Compliance
27:12 - Understanding Email Security and Cyber Threats
38:15 - The Risks of Cold Emailing
52:01 - The Future of Email Marketing and Security
14 Oct 2024
The Psychology Behind Email Marketing with Sarah Levinger
In this episode of That InboxArmy Podcast, Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome marketing psychology expert Sarah Levinger to explore the intersection of psychology and marketing. The fascinating conversation covered the importance of understanding human behavior, the emotional drivers behind purchasing decisions, and how generational influences shape behavior and marketing strategies. Come for the strategies and leave with some valuable book recommendations for marketers looking to deeper their understanding of consumer psychology.
01:20 - Sarah's Journey to Marketing
04:54 - Why Psychology is Important in Marketing
09:16 - The Critical Drivers of Consumer Behavior
15:36 - How History and World Events Drive Consumer Behavior
19:05 - Conscious vs. Subconscious Decision Making
25:12 - How Emotion Breaks Through Commodity
29:12 - What to Avoid When Using Emotions in Marketing
35:25 - Customer Loyalty and Brand Obsession
41:47 - Who is Doing Emotion in Marketing Right?
47:25 - Book Recommendations for Marketing Psychology
3 Oct 2024
Email's Importance in Digital Marketing with Hank Hoffmeier of Kickbox
Hank Hoffmeier, Senior Manager of Marketing Operations at Kickbox, joins the podcast to discuss the integral role of email in the broader marketing ecosystem. The conversation touches on the interplay between email, social media, and SMS, the impact of AI on marketing strategies, and the future of email marketing innovations.
01:36 - Hank's TLDR personal history
07:22 - How email marketing and social media play well together
18:16 - Where SMS fits into the marketing channel hierarchy
22:42 - What has more conversions? Push or SMS?
28:51 - The impact of AI on email marketing
46:11 - How email marketers make themselves indispensable
23 Aug 2024
The Hows and Whys of Email Testing with Kath Pay of Holistic Email Marketing
If you've been looking at different ways to test your email campaigns, you've come to the right podcast. In this episode, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome best-selling author Kath Pay, founder of Holistic Email Marketing, to talk all things email testing. We dive into how to effectively use the scientific method as the basis for email testing, why achieving statistical significance is important, and the common mistake marketers make when testing.
We go deeper on the challenges of testing during the holiday season, how to test for engagement and conversion performance, and how testing emotional and motivational drivers can lead to more effective email campaigns.
03:51 - The Scientific Method and A/B testing
06:45 - The importance of statistical significance
15:05 - Testing motivations
18:21 - High impact areas to test besides revenue
25:02 - Testing that's actually meaningful
35:14 - The challenges of testing during the holiday season
46:50 - Leveraging frequency, segmentation, and motivations in holiday testing
12 Aug 2024
AI and Email Personalization with Matthew Dunn of Campaign Genius and Social Signal AI
In this episode, Dr. Matthew Dunn of Social Signal AI and Campaign Genius join InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs to discuss the evolution of AI in email marketing, the challenges and opportunities it presents, and how data powers AI and personalization.
02:05 - The evolution of AI in email marketing
06:04 - The role of data in powering AI
11:29 - The importance of context and emotional drivers
19:16 - The risks of AI in terms of privacy and false information
26:11 - The risks and benefits of AI in personalization and email marketing
29:42 - Defining personalization: Relevance vs. Creepiness
36:05 - The importance of considering user intentions in AI
39:51 - Privacy concerns in the age of AI and personalization
29 Jul 2024
Navigating Email Accessibility with Sarah Gallardo of Oracle
In this episode, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome Sarah Gallardo, lead Email Developer at Oracle, to discuss the intricacies, challenges, and importance of email accessibility. We dive into the details of how accessibility is not just a legal requirement, but a crucial component of creating a great customer experience in email.
Email accessibility can be a business advantage by expanding the addressable audience, building trust, and leading to increased customer loyalty and satisfaction. Dive in, watch or listen, and get some great tips on how to focus on flexibility in design rendering and meeting other accessibility standards.
05:32 - What is email accessibility and why is it important?
08:55 - What is the ADA and what are its requirements?
13:22 - The risks and consequences of non-compliance
21:31 - Why brands should stay away from image-only emails
25:07 - The differences between screen readers and voice assistants
29:39 - Tips for ensuring accessibility in email design and email code
40:55 - The ROI of accessibility and expanding the addressable audience
22 Jul 2024
That InboxArmy Podcast - Video in Email Marketing with Lisa Jones of EyeMail
Video is becoming increasingly dominant in all marketing channels, email included. The crew welcome Lisa Jones, CEO of EyeMail, to the podcast to discuss how EyeMail is overcoming the challenges of delivering video in email. They discuss use cases for video in email, including employee engagement, event invitations, and other key points in the sales and marketing journeys.
10 Jun 2024
That InboxArmy Podcast - The Intersection of Email and Social Media with Carlos Gil of GetResponse
In this episode, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen welcomes Carlos Gil, US Brand Evangelist for GetResponse, to discuss how email marketing and social media marketing work together. Carlos discusses the need for brands to humanize and future-proof their marketing by building better relationships with customers. They discuss the need for businesses to listen to their audience, engage with them, and focus on building advocacy.
00:00 - Introduction and the Role of Social Media in Email Marketing
03:18 - Carlos Gil's Journey to GetResponse
10:25 - Email as the Original Social Media and the Importance of Integration
15:18 - Building Relationships and Advocacy Across Channels
21:39 - Focusing on Individual Customers for Long-Term Success
25:03 - Analyzing Data to Identify Loyal Advocates
26:59 - Executing a Unified Brand Voice: Strategies and Challenges
36:46 - Strengths and Limitations of Social Media, Email, and SMS Marketing
43:02 - Listening, Engagement, and Building Advocacy
48:54 - Aligning the Social Media and Email Teams: Collaboration Strategies
31 May 2024
That InboxArmy Podcast - Preparing for Email Personalization with Brian Riback of Labrador
In this episode, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome Brian Riback of Labrador to discuss the challenges of building and executing personalization in the right ways. In the conversation, Brian discusses the importance of data health, proper setup of data for rules- and non-rules-based personalization, and the role technology plays in enabling personalization. Join us as Brian passionately dives into the common sense needed to drive proper personalization.
05:17 - Effective Personalization in 2024
07:45 - What Companies Need in Place to Power Personalization
17:57 - The Line Between Effective Personalization and Creepy
26:19 - Reconciling Privacy and Data Collection for Personalization
33:53 - How Much Tech is Too Much Tech?
42:16 - Is AMP for Email Worth It?
43:39 - Personalization Success Stories
17 May 2024
That InboxArmy Podcast - Interactive Email and Email Development with Megan Boshuyzen of Sinch
In this episode, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome Megan Boshuyzen, Senior Email Developer at Sinch, to discuss the intricacies of email development in interactive email, AMP for Email, personalization, and more. The conversation covers the value of interactivity in email as well as the challenges of implementation. We also cover dark mode and all the complexity that it brings to email developers. Join us for this fantastic, lively conversation about evolving landscape of email development and its vital importance to email marketing.
07:05 - What's Possible with Interactive Email?
10:45 - Where's the Value with Interactive Email?
14:48 - Success Stories from Interactive Email
19:35 - Diving into AMP for Email
32:10 - What does Effective Personalization Look Like in 2024?
36:38 - The Intricacies of Dark Mode
45:42 - A Desire for Email Development Standards
26 Apr 2024
That InboxArmy Podcast - AMP for Email & WhatsApp with Nicholas Einstein of Netcore Cloud
In this episode, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs discuss AMP for Email and WhatsApp marketing with Nicholas Einstein of Netcore Cloud. The trio covers the capabilities and complexities of AMP for Email -- including its ability to enable interactive experiences inside the email. Nick also dives into the intricacies of WhatsApp's marketing potential, how it overlaps with SMS, MMS, and RCS, and how marketers should think about their cross-channel investments. A great listen for all.
01:14 - Nick's history
02:43 - AMP for Email 101
04:44 - Headwinds for AMP for Email
11:10 - Is the AMP juice worth the squeeze?
15:28 - Examples of AMP performance
19:42 - How AMP compares to MovableInk, LiveClicker, Zembula, etc.
22:33 - Processes for the AMP MIMEtype
25:09 - Security implications for AMP
28:28 - WhatsApp from the marketer's perspective
32:33 - How WhatsApp compares to SMS/MMS
35:33 - How RCS fits into the picture
38:55 - How marketers should think about channel investments
15 Apr 2024
That InboxArmy Podcast - Subscription Marketing with Matt Holman
In this episode, InboxArmy's Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs welcome Matt Holman, founder of Subscription Prescription and Commerce Catalyst. The conversation covers the challenges and strategies of running a subscription business and the importance of delivering value, understanding customer value, and reducing churn. We discuss the importance of email marketing and its ability to deliver value, customization, and storytelling and its crucial role in the subscription marketing channel mix.
9 Mar 2024
That InboxArmy Podcast - Operative AI vs. Performative AI with Garin Hobbs of InboxArmy
We keep it in-house this episode. Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs discuss AI in email marketing and how there are differences between "Operative" AI and "Performative" AI. We also discuss the importance of human expertise as well as the limitations of AI in fully understanding and responding to human emotions and motivations.
Key takeaways:
AI can be applied in email marketing to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Operative AI focuses on the building, composition, launching, and management of campaigns, while performative AI drives performance and impacts campaign KPIs.
Examples of operative AI include automation, list management, and responses to customer inquiries.
Examples of performative AI include predictive analytics, AB testing, and understanding the customer lifecycle.
When implementing AI, marketers should focus on problem areas in their campaigns and customer journeys and look for solutions to address those areas.
AI can provide cost savings, time savings, and faster time to value in email marketing.
Drawbacks of AI include the need for human oversight, the potential degradation of marketers' expertise, and the limitations of AI in understanding human emotions and motivations.
AI is not expected to replace human marketers but can enhance their capabilities and improve campaign performance.
Marketers should approach AI technology with a practical mindset and focus on its application to solve specific problems in their campaigns.
7 Mar 2024
Demystifying Email Deliverability with LB Blair of Email Industries
In this episode, Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs discuss email deliverability with LB Blair, Head of Deliverability and Managing Partner at Email Industries. Their conversation covers the email deliverability process, why ISPs care about protecting their users from scams and attacks, authentication methods like DMARC and SPF, and how sender reputation is very similar to a consumer credit score.
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