So, who are you and what do you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m Jaina Mistry and I\u2019m an Email Marketing Specialist for Padawan Group<\/a>, a London-based startup company.<\/p>\n When did you first get involved with email marketing and design?<\/strong><\/p>\n Back in 2007 I landed my first web design & development job at Sit-Up Channels, where a big part of the job was to look after the design and build of the emails. I think I thought of them as mini-websites back then.<\/p>\n What did you do before email? Has it had any effect on how you approach email?<\/strong><\/p>\n Before email I was working in IT. Working in IT taught me a few things about problem solving. There is no one solution to problems you face. Sometimes there are a few and it\u2019s up to you to choose a solution for your situation. I feel like that\u2019s the case in email, especially today when there are so many devices and browsers to cater to. There are different solutions, the quick and dirty ones that are just temporary patches, or the ones that take a bit more time to implement but will holdfast for the long term.<\/p>\n What are some of your favorite tools? And what does your typical design process look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n It goes without saying that I\u2019d be lost without Litmus. I was without Litmus for a week, at one point, and it was terrifying.<\/p>\n Can I also say that the #emailgeeks<\/a> on Twitter and Litmus Community<\/a> are a couple of my favorite tools, too? There\u2019s such a wealth of knowledge, all of which the community shares with everyone.<\/p>\n My design process always starts with some sketches and brainstorming in my notebook. I find it a lot easier to come up with a design for an email after I scratch out a few words on what the objective of the email is and what the end user should be doing with the email. Once I\u2019ve got some loose ideas down and a very sketchy sketch, I\u2019ll dive into design. In the past (as in, just a couple of months ago) I used Adobe Photoshop to design the emails. However I\u2019ve now jumped on the Sketch bandwagon for designing them. Sometimes during the design process, I\u2019ll design something I\u2019m not yet sure how to code. So I\u2019ll jump into Adobe Brackets to do a quick HTML mock-up, just to make sure I can code what I\u2019m designing.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your favorite email hack?<\/strong><\/p>\n The one email hack I find myself coming back to time and time again is Mike Ragan\u2019s Ghost Column Hack. It\u2019s incredibly simple and it just works. Any email hack that makes the everyday process of email coding easier is a favorite of mine. And the min-width hack for Gmail, to make sure the Gmail app displays your email at the right width. Again, it\u2019s a small hack, but knowing my email renders well in an app that over 60% of our customers use makes me happy.<\/p>\n What do you see as the biggest challenge in email today?<\/strong><\/p>\n Technically, combatting the vast array of email vendors, browsers and devices. And the numbers of all of those just keeps increasing. And when something new is released or changes are made, email marketers often stumble upon it (or find out their emails render somewhat differently) rather than finding out in a release document!<\/p>\n Generally in terms of email marketing, working with your data. While it\u2019s great collecting data and analyzing and reporting on what you\u2019ve found in your last 10 email campaigns, it\u2019s still very subjective. It\u2019s a guessing game as to why the open rate may have dipped 2 months ago, but then came back up again. Or why one CTA button worked but another didn\u2019t. We know as email marketers that we have to use our data in order to give our customers the emails they want to receive, but understanding and forming conclusions around that data can sometimes be more of an art-form than a science.<\/p>\n What do you think email will look like in five years?<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll be vastly different in five years. After all, email hasn\u2019t changed much since it\u2019s birth. I can imagine it\u2019ll still be a big part of everyday lives, with it still being used as a messaging as well as a marketing platform. Email isn\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon, but the way it\u2019s consumed may well change. With things like Siri already being able to read emails<\/a>, albeit not very well, I could well imagine more email being consumed without screens.<\/p>\n You recently moved from the UK to Bahrain. How has that move influenced how you approach work? What\u2019s changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n As I\u2019m still working for a UK-based company, my approach hasn\u2019t changed that much. However living in a completely different region has given me more of an awareness of how marketing is so different, globally. Email marketing isn\u2019t nearly as prevalent in Bahrain as it is in the UK or USA. Instead, there\u2019s much more reliance on SMS, WhatsApp and Instagram. And everyone does marketing\u2014even hospitals send out WhatsApp marketing messages!<\/p>\n While we don\u2019t have a Bahraini website at Padawan Group (yet!), working for a company with a group of global websites has made me appreciate how important localization is. Having local knowledge to make sure your marketing is relevant to the target audience is vital.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your favorite movie, book, band, and email campaign?<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"jaina-mistry\"](\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/jaina-mistry-250x262.jpg\")
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