The Marketing Millennials: Ep. 395
What Actually Makes a Good Email with Naomi West, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Customer.io
Host: Daniel Murray
Guest: Naomi West
Date: February 25, 2026
Episode Overview
In this episode, Daniel Murray welcomes Naomi West, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Customer.io, for a candid deep-dive into the realities of email marketing. Naomi unpacks common misconceptions, design pitfalls, strategic approaches, and shares actionable insights from her hands-on experience. The conversation is packed with stories, A/B testing wisdom, and insider perspectives on platform selection, collaboration with engineering, and the skills that separate good email marketers from the greats.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
Naomi's Journey Into Email Marketing
- Naomi started in recruiting but became bored, so she picked up an email marketing side hustle through AngelList.
- Realized the power of automation and pivoted into consent-based email marketing, focusing on post-signup and value-driven communication rather than cold outreach.
"I just loved email marketing, consent based email marketing...when I'm talking about emailing today, I'm not referring to cold emails or spam." — Naomi (01:58)
Why Most People Misjudge "Good" Email (03:17)
- Context matters more than design — triggers, timing, and relevance are often ignored.
- Overuse of image-only designs leaves emails unreadable or blank for many recipients.
"They're looking at it without the context of how someone's receiving that email." — Naomi (03:28)
Web Design vs. Email Design: The Reality Check (04:48)
- Many web design trends break down in email:
- Custom fonts don’t work reliably (even Gmail doesn’t support Google Fonts!)
- GIFs and video often don't render, especially in Outlook.
- Rounded corners and interactive elements have limited support.
- Invest your energy in universal compatibility.
"Fonts is a big one...when they don't end up loading in the email world you're like what? Hate this Helvetica." — Naomi (05:20)
"You try and make very simple things like a GIF work in an email and the reality is it's not universally supported." — Naomi (06:05)
Design Isn't Everything—Content and Relevance Matter More (07:37)
- The obsession with highly designed emails is outdated.
- Simplicity outperforms flashy design in most situations, especially transactional or automated emails.
"The nicely designed email is so like 10, 15 years ago..." — Daniel (07:51)
The Great A/B Test: Simplicity Wins (08:31)
- Naomi shared an A/B test (text-based vs. designed emails):
- Text-based emails outperformed designed versions in both click-through and conversion.
- Test duration: full quarter; results revealed consistent outperformance by simplicity.
"The text based variant won for both click through rate as well as conversion rate...maybe keeping things simple is the way to go." — Naomi (09:37)
[10:39]
- Design vs. simplicity is email type-dependent—newsletters for an engaged audience may support more visual flair.
Executing A/B Tests: What’s "Fair"? (11:50)
- Best practice: change one variable at a time, but even image use can drastically alter results.
- Staggered, multi-send tests (over several weeks) recommended for statistical significance.
"Automate your tests...after a longer period of time go and look at how individuals are reacting to them or engaging with them." — Naomi (13:01)
Navigating Brand Guidelines & Internal Politics (14:15)
- Push for data-driven changes—show value in terms of saved time or improved conversion.
- Sometimes, organizational resistance is insurmountable; Naomi’s advice: present a solid business case, or move on.
"If you can respond with numbers in any fashion...management would see that and be like, okay, it's worth testing." — Naomi (15:01)
Does Platform Matter? Tools vs. Strategy (16:43)
- Strategy trumps platform; most tools (ESPs) can accomplish basic email needs.
- Complex customizations may need external tools, but fundamentals (event triggers, segmentation) are the real differentiators.
"Basic text based email can be accomplished in every single platform, no issue there." — Naomi (17:47)
Campaign Creation Process (20:05)
Naomi’s 1-2-3 for Campaign Planning:
- Define Trigger: What customer action triggers the email?
- First Touch: Welcome, set context, provide resource links, invite feedback—always aim for a two-way street.
- Follow-Up: Measure results, gather feedback, iterate.
- QA: Cross-functional review (brands/design team).
- Feedback Loops: Translate insights back to the team.
Memorable Approach
"My stance on email marketing is it has to be a two way street. I have gathered so much valuable feedback from users over the years when they reply to my emails." — Naomi (21:18)
Collaborating with Engineering—The Marketer’s Struggle (25:03)
- Marketers often face delays or resistance from engineering for new triggers, fields, or events.
- Persistent communication (and creative escalation) are key.
"If you're a marketer out there and engineering isn't helping you, you just have to push all day, every day." — Naomi (25:35)
Practical Evaluation: What Makes a Good Email? (26:29)
Naomi’s 3 Key Criteria:
- Relevancy: Does the timing/content make sense for the recipient's relationship with the brand?
- Content: Is the value proposition clear? Is there a call to action?
- Design/Accessibility: Is the email legible, accessible, and does it avoid design pitfalls?
"If I need to make my face wrinkle to read an email on my mobile device, it's a bad email." — Naomi (28:35)
The Future: Skills for Great Email Marketing (29:42)
What Will Set Top Email Marketers Apart:
- Openness to testing, learning, and being wrong.
- Adoption and deep, practical use of AI tools (e.g., WhisperFlow, Claude).
- Strong communication skills—written and verbal.
- Ability to clearly give direction and feedback (applies to managing people and AI agents).
"The best types of email marketers ... are ones that are open to testing new ideas, not people that just stay, you know, working the same wheel over and over again." — Naomi (30:18) "Good communication skills, written and verbal as well as an openness to learning...isn't something you can tick with an online certification." — Naomi (33:48)
The "Marketing Hill" Naomi Would Die On (35:23)
-
Open Rates Are a Vanity Metric
- Increasingly unreliable due to bot opens (e.g., Apple Mail privacy), not correlated to true engagement or reading.
"Open rates are a vanity metric. That is a hill I will die on." — Naomi (35:23)
-
Click-through and conversion rates, along with unsubscribe rates (especially in welcome flows), tell a much richer story.
"Click through rates and conversion rates. Really good one. And then another one that I like to keep an eye on is unsubscribe rates from an automated perspective." — Naomi (38:11)
Internal Communication—Tell People About Your Work! (39:42)
- Marketers should proactively communicate email campaign plans and results internally; don’t let efforts happen in a vacuum.
"Don't let your work like exist in a silo...when you can communicate that a big send is going out...your customer success team can amplify that..." — Naomi (41:14)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- On Platform vs. Strategy:
"There are a million ways to get the same thing done in all of these platforms." — Naomi (17:47)
- On Over-Design:
"You spend a lot of time attempting to create something that looks great in an email builder...at send time...a lot of those things aren't supported." — Naomi (07:17)
- On AI and Skills:
"I use a great tool now called WhisperFlow. It's a voice, voice transcription. It's so good. I now just talk everywhere..." — Naomi (31:15)
- On Industry Best Practices:
"Most courses are become best practices and when they best practices they're already old." — Daniel (34:31)
Important Segment Timestamps
- Naomi’s Journey: 01:19–02:47
- What Makes a Good Email: 03:17–04:48
- Web vs. Email Design: 04:48–07:37
- Design vs. Content: 07:37–10:39
- A/B Testing Tips: 11:50–14:15
- Tools vs. Strategy: 16:43–20:05
- End-to-End Campaign Planning: 20:42–24:28
- Collaborating with Engineers: 25:03–26:29
- How to Evaluate Emails: 26:29–29:42
- Future Skills: 29:42–34:31
- Vanity Metrics (Open Rates): 35:23–37:38
- Internal Communication: 39:42–41:57
Where to Find Naomi
- Website: naomiwest.ca
- Newsletter: Slow Emails ("I send it very slowly throughout the year.")
- LinkedIn: Naomi West
"Go subscribe to the slowest email newsletter in the world." — Daniel (43:02)
Naomi’s blend of practical, tested advice and willingness to challenge industry dogma makes this episode a must-listen for marketers frustrated with email myths and looking for actionable ways to improve real results.