Email Marketing12 min read
Black Friday email marketing in 2026: a week-by-week playbook
A week-by-week Black Friday email marketing playbook for 2026: teasers, honest countdown timers, Cyber Monday timing and a fix for when things break.
Inbox Thinking
The Alterable blog on email deliverability, personalization, and design. For marketers who want to understand the inbox, not just use it.
Setting something up?
Step-by-step guides for Klaviyo, Mailchimp, HubSpot and more.
Checking an email?
Start here
- How to add a countdown timer to your email (complete guide)If you want a live timer in your next campaign.Countdown timers · 7 min read
- How to check your email deliverability before you sendIf your email is landing in spam, or might.Deliverability · 6 min read
- Dynamic email content: what it is, how it works, and when it's worth itIf you are new to email that changes at open.Dynamic content · 9 min read
Setting up a countdown? Every countdown article and ESP guide, in reading order
Latest articles
Email Personalization8 min read
New in Alterable: critical messages, calendars, charts and slideshows
Fix an email after it's sent with critical messages, show each reader their own dates with calendars and their own numbers with charts, and pack five slides into one GIF. Plus a rebuilt designer.
Email Marketing4 min read
Siri is already reading your emails before your subscribers do
iOS 27 Mail ranks search by intent and lets Siri summarize emails and pull out tracking numbers without an open. Here's how to write for the parser, not just the person.
Email Personalization4 min read
Email marketing just redefined “personalized.” Here’s what it missed
Klaviyo's new personalization models decide who, what, when and where before an email goes out. The part they can't decide is what's true when someone opens it.
Email Deliverability7 min read
Perfect authentication, and it still reads like spam
A Dick's Sporting Goods campaign passes SPF, DKIM, DMARC reject and one-click unsubscribe. Read it as text and you see what the filters and AI summaries see instead.
Email Marketing7 min read
What an AI marketing agent can't do for your email program
Every major platform shipped an AI marketing agent this year. Here's what they genuinely handle, where they fall apart, and what to fix in your email program first.
Email Deliverability7 min read
Gmail is starting to care who you are, not just whether you signed the envelope
Gmail's Verified Sender Program launches September 8. It ties inbox placement to confirmed identity, not just authentication. Here's what that shift means for senders.
Email Design10 min read
Best free email countdown timer services in 2026 (honest review)
Compare the best free email countdown timer services in 2026, including free tier limits, design customization, evergreen support, and ESP compatibility.
Email Design7 min read
Interactive email was supposed to be AMP. It became something else entirely.
AMP promised interactive email in 2018, but fewer than 5% of senders ever used it. What actually went wrong, and where interactivity ended up instead.
Email Personalization9 min read
Dynamic email content: what it is, how it works, and when it's worth it
Dynamic email content changes per recipient, or at the moment of opening. Here's how both kinds work, what email clients allow, and when it's actually worth doing.
Email Marketing4 min read
AI email agents and the future of email marketing
HubSpot and Klaviyo now ship AI agents that run campaigns on their own. What agentic email means for marketers, and who is accountable when AI hits send.