Email Address Bounced Back? Here's an Alternative Way to Deal With That

In a great blog post at Word to the Wise blog we're seeing a not so frequent approach to processing email bounces. As a shop customer the blogger has received a sticker on her delivery bag asking for an email update because it has bounced. What an example of not so common friendly email marketing! :)

Double Opt-In? Never Heard Of!

Duolingo language learning website has asked me for an email address and sent me a welcome email soon after. Despite the fact I've never clicked on this welcome email I've got another one later. I'm pretty sure it will result in deliverability issues later when (if?) this project will grow.

Gmail Has Been Erroneously Assigning Emails to Wrong Gmail Accounts

I've got 2 Gmail accounts I'm logged in at the same browser - a personal one and a work one. So these are 2 different accounts and I have to switch between them in order to see appropriate emails.

But few minutes ago I've mentioned in my work account an email intended to arrive into my personal account!

What does make me think it's a Gmail fault but not something else?
1. Technical headers of the emails show no link with my work account. The headers are saying it was intended and delivered to my personal account.
2. There's no active forwarding or mail fetching rules that might result in this on both personal and work accounts.
3. I'm seeing more that one erroneously delivered email.
4. Those problematic emails are available from different devices.

As a result it makes me think there was a bug in Gmail, and it lasted at least for a few hours.

P.S. I've seen the same failure again on 15/Oct. So probably the problem lasts.

Yes, Uber Really Need an Email Marketing Manager

Today I've applied to an email marketing manager vacancy at Uber. Their jobs website was extremely slow and almost non-responsive.

Anyway the most important thing about the process was a confirmation email I've got soon after the application. It's really funny to see how it looks like taking into account key requirement for the job - make sure everything works fine both on desktop and web environments.

What are the flaws?
1. Too small to read comfortably.
2. Friendly From doesn't exist, as a result I're getting an email from "no-reply".
3. Too big useless indents.

That's clear that's not one of the most important Uber emails, but why don't you try to deliver your best at every email?

P.S. You could check my previous posts and a good <LINK> and not so good <LINK> examples of Uber emails.

Example of a Non-Relevant Email

Yesterday I've signed up for an another online language learning product. Soon after I've downloaded their iOS app and signed in in it using the same credentials.

Anyway I did get an email promoting their native apps next morning.

Why did it happen? Here're possible reasons:

1. The product manager expected me to set up their app on another devices. But I don't really think that was the case.
2. The info about apps installations happened after sign up isn't being passed into their ESP.
3. Their email marketing manager just didn't really think about this use case and forgot to exclude users already having an app.

Gmail couldn't verify that this message was sent by

What does it mean to have this marker on emails for a bank? This will have a negative reputation impact and probably decrease customers' trust. The reputation and trust are the key values for banking business, aren't they?

Why did it happen? Probably because they set up a new SMTP server and forgot to update SPF and DKIM configuration appropriately:

Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;       spf=neutral (google.com: <ip> is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of <from email>) smtp.mailfrom=<from email>

How to Get More Spam Complaints

I'm subscribed to a geeky blog platform which sends me a weekly digest. At some point I've understood I don't really read it, so I decided to disable the digest using a link from the email footer.

While the web page has been loading I guessed if it will require me to remember my login and password - that's a common mistake here in email world.

Everything went fine and I've seen a notification settings page with... digest option already disabled! Seems like I've tried to disable it last week too, but the setting just isn't taken into account.

Ok, you're getting another spam complaint, guys!