Episodes

  • The week that was in email, July 27

    The week that was in email, July 27
    Jul 27 2025
    Email Industry Crisis: Microsoft Authentication Issues, TalkTalk Shutdown & Major Security Threats

    URGENT UPDATES for Email Marketers & Deliverability Professionals

    The email landscape is experiencing unprecedented disruption right now. In this critical industry briefing, we break down the major developments threatening your email deliverability and what you need to do immediately to protect your sender reputation.

    What We Cover:

    🚨 Microsoft's Authentication Enforcement Crisis - Why legitimate emails are being blocked and the DNS resolution problems causing widespread delivery failures

    📧 TalkTalk Email Shutdown Alert - Thousands of UK email accounts being deleted between July-October 2025, creating massive bounce risks and spam traps

    ⚖️ Legal Precedents & Compliance Updates - New anti-spam lawsuits, TCPA rulings on SMS marketing, and FTC rule changes you need to know

    🔐 Security Threats & Breaches - Recent phishing attacks, BEC scams, and data breaches affecting the email industry

    Immediate Action Items:

    ✅ Increase your DNS TTLs to 3600+ seconds (86400 for DKIM keys) ✅ Audit your lists for TalkTalk domains (@talktalk.net, @tiscali.co.uk, etc.) ✅ Implement proper DMARC, SPF, and DKIM authentication ✅ Review your bounce handling and retry strategies

    Subscribe for weekly email deliverability updates and industry insights!

    Have questions about your email authentication setup? Drop them in the comments below.

    #EmailDeliverability #EmailMarketing #Microsoft #DMARC #SPF #DKIM #TalkTalk #EmailAuthentication #DigitalMarketing #MarketingTechnology #EmailCompliance #CyberSecurity #BEC #Phishing #TCPA #EmailIndustry #MarketingNews #DeliverabilityNews #EmailSecurity #MarTech #EmailStrategy #ListHygiene #SenderReputation #EmailBest Practices #IndustryUpdate
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    7 mins
  • The Week in Email Marketing

    The Week in Email Marketing
    Jul 20 2025
    Here are the show notes for this podcast episode, "Emailexpert Inbox Intel," covering critical topics in email marketing and security: Email Expert Insights: Navigating AI Threats, Legal Minefields, and Data Pitfalls This episode of Email Expert Insights dives deep into the most critical challenges and groundbreaking developments shaping the email landscape today, from sophisticated AI-driven cyber threats to costly legal battles and the often-overlooked problem of dirty data. I. New Class of AI-Driven Email Threats: The Google Gemini Exploit • AI-Driven Phishing: Cybercriminals are now leveraging AI tools not just to generate attacks, but to weaponize the recipient's own inbox AI features. A new vulnerability in Gmail's Gemini summarization feature highlights this emerging threat. • Prompt Injection Explained: This novel phishing technique bypasses traditional email defenses by exploiting Google Workspace's AI-powered summarizer, Gemini. It requires no links, no attachments, and no visible malicious content in the email body. Instead, it relies on "prompt injection," hidden invisibly within the email, often using techniques like hidden HTML/CSS styling, to manipulate the Gemini summary. • Demonstrated Exploit: In a real-world example, the Gemini summary falsely warned, "Gemini has detected your Gmail password has been compromised, please call us immediately at [phone number]". This "carefully crafted hallucination" is a social engineering tactic designed to induce panic and an immediate response, allowing the malicious AI summary to deliver the attack. • Shift in Attack Surface: This incident signals a significant shift where attackers are designing exploits that target how machines interpret email content, rather than how humans do. AI-generated UI elements like summaries, alerts, and previews are now attack surfaces in their own right. • Mitigation and Future Outlook: Google has acknowledged the issue and is "hardening its protections against prompt injection attacks". For security teams, this calls for improved input sanitization in AI summarization engines, new heuristics to detect prompt injection attempts, and enhanced user education about relying on AI-generated summaries for security-related information. Legitimate senders should also maintain clarity and consistency in message formatting and monitor inbox renderings. II. Costly Legal Pitfalls in Email Marketing • Nike Inc. Class Action Lawsuit: Nike is facing a proposed class action lawsuit in Washington state for using misleading subject lines that allegedly created a false sense of urgency. Examples include "Only a few hours left" or "Ends tonight," which implied imminent sale endings but promotions were reportedly extended or fabricated. The lawsuit claims violations of the Washington Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA) and the Washington Consumer Protection Act. • Crucial Legal Precedent - Brown v. Old Navy, LLC: This Nike case is significantly bolstered by a landmark Washington Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 in Brown v. Old Navy, LLC. This ruling broadly interpreted CEMA to impose a $500 statutory penalty on every commercial email containing false or misleading information in its subject line sent to Washington residents, without requiring proof of actual financial damages. The "injury is receiving the email that violates CEMA". • Tim Hortons Class Action Lawsuit: A Quebec Superior Court judge authorized a class action lawsuit against Tim Hortons due to a "catastrophic email marketing error" in April 2024. Approximately 500,000 contest participants, including thousands in Quebec, falsely received emails stating they had won a $64,000 boat and trailer. Follow-up emails retracted the win, citing "technical issues". • Quebec's Consumer Protection Act: The lawsuit argues that Quebec's Consumer Protection Act prevents companies from simply claiming "mistake" to void contractual agreements formed by contest win notifications. • Lessons for Marketers: These cases highlight the importance of accuracy in subject lines (avoiding fabricated scarcity), geo-targeting compliance with specific state laws, utilizing dynamic content for timely updates, and conducting regular audits and legal reviews. The Tim Hortons incident further emphasizes the need for robust testing protocols, approval workflows, and pre-planned crisis communication templates for contest and promotional emails. III. The Silent Saboteur: Dirty Data • Pervasive Problem: A new report, "The State of CRM Data Management in 2025," reveals that 76% of companies admit less than half of their CRM data is accurate or complete. Furthermore, 37% attribute lost revenue directly to poor data quality through mistargeted campaigns, missed follow-ups, and distorted reporting. • Financial Impact: Bad data is estimated to consume 15% of annual revenue (Gartner). An IBM figure places the U.S. cost of poor data quality at a staggering $3.1 trillion annually. Data scientists...
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    15 mins
  • The Big Sunday Session

    The Big Sunday Session
    Jul 13 2025
    Email Industry Weekly: Major Acquisitions, Leadership Changes & Privacy Updates

    📧 What's happening in email marketing this week?

    From massive industry consolidations to game-changing AI tools, this episode covers the most important developments shaping the email landscape right now.

    🔥 This Week's Headlines:

    💼 MAJOR ACQUISITIONS & LEADERSHIP

    • Acquirz Limited acquires Marketscan Limited - What this means for B2B lead generation
    • Iterable appoints new Salesforce veteran CEO Sam Allen - Strategic shift toward enterprise growth
    • Industry consolidation continues following Grammarly's Superhuman purchase

    🛡️ INBOX CONTROL & USER EXPERIENCE

    • Gmail vs Proton Mail: New newsletter management features launched
    • How one-click unsubscribes could impact your email campaigns
    • What marketers need to know about reduced friction unsubscribes

    🤖 AI & INNOVATION

    • Netcore Cloud's new AI Marketing Analytics Agent breakdown
    • Natural language campaign queries without SQL knowledge
    • The future of conversational AI in marketing platforms

    🔒 SECURITY & DELIVERABILITY UPDATES

    • Microsoft Defender adds email bombing protection (July 2025)
    • EasyDMARC upgrades to Charter Enterprise Member status
    • Microsoft Outlook global outage recap and lessons learned

    ⚖️ GLOBAL PRIVACY LANDSCAPE

    • Nigeria hits MultiChoice with $501K fine - Africa's largest data protection penalty
    • Tennessee & Minnesota enact new privacy laws affecting email marketers
    • What these expanding regulations mean for your compliance strategy
    🎯 Perfect for:
    • Email marketers and campaign managers
    • Marketing technology professionals
    • Privacy and compliance officers
    • B2B lead generation specialists
    • Anyone managing email programs

    #EmailMarketing #B2BMarketing #DataPrivacy #MarketingTechnology #EmailDeliverability #AIMarketing
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    12 mins
  • The Sunday Session

    The Sunday Session
    Jul 6 2025

    Inbox Intel the podcast for email industry professionals, an experimental podcast from emailexpert.
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    6 mins
  • Inbox Intel: The Overdue Edition

    Inbox Intel: The Overdue Edition
    Jun 30 2025

    The overdue edition some updates from emailexpert including news about new Enterprise members Infobip and Postmastery
    #email #emailmarketing #emailgeeks #deliverability #omnichannel
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    12 mins
  • Email Industry Briefing (Episode 6) – emailexpert

    Email Industry Briefing (Episode 6) – emailexpert
    Jun 20 2025

    Email Industry Briefing – Q2 2025 (Episode 6) – Key Take-aways

    • Email is still mission-critical.

      • 56 % of all vital business communication flows through email, prized for its structured, traceable, and auditable nature.

      • It remains the default for formal, high-stakes messages—even in mobile-first, hybrid workplaces.

      • Security is a top concern: phishing, data leakage, and mis-sends keep IT leaders focused on risk mitigation.

    • Global deliverability expertise is expanding.

      • Aurora SendCloud becomes emailexpert’s first Chinese Charter Enterprise Member, strengthening East–West knowledge sharing on China-specific regulations and inbox placement challenges.

      • The partnership underscores a push toward worldwide collaboration on compliance and deliverability best practices.

    • Long-term alliances reinforce industry standards.

      • Bouncer (email verification) upgrades to Charter Enterprise status after five years of consistent support for emailexpert events, signalling sustained commitment to quality and innovation.

    • MarTech consolidation + AI acceleration.

      • Cakemail acquired Leadfox (March 21 2025) to broaden its suite and build an AI-powered marketing assistant.

      • Deal exemplifies a wider trend: vendors either merge or bolt on AI to stay competitive against larger automation platforms. Leadfox continues as a standalone brand for now.

    • Virtual events remain a knowledge hub.

      • Festival of Email 2025 (8–9 Oct, online) aims to be the most interactive edition yet, with a new platform, evergreen session replay, lead-gen features, and tracks on copywriting, advanced segmentation, CRM, deliverability, and list growth.

    Bottom line: Email’s central role in business endures while the ecosystem modernises—through global partnerships to tackle deliverability, strategic M&A to integrate AI, and vibrant events that keep practitioners connected and informed.
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    6 mins
  • A Busy week in Email

    A Busy week in Email
    Jun 13 2025

    Email Industry Update: June 2025 - Major Acquisitions, AI Integration & Security Changes

    The email marketing world is buzzing with major developments! This week brought us three huge industry conferences, game-changing acquisitions, and important security updates that every email marketer needs to know about.

    🔥 Key Highlights:

    • Major Acquisitions: Constant Contact acquires Moosend to expand globally, while Cakemail buys Leadfox for AI capabilities
    • AI Revolution: New AI-powered email production pipeline cuts production time by 75%, but human oversight remains critical
    • Security Tightening: Orange.fr drops spam complaint threshold to 0.6% (soon 0.3%), following Google/Yahoo standards
    • Strategy First: Industry leaders emphasize foundations over fads - "focus on impact, not inbox metrics"

    🚨 Critical Security Alert: Millions of domains exposed due to SPF misconfigurations from major providers like Microsoft and Google - researchers successfully spoofed 26,000+ domains for just €30!

    What This Means for You:

    • Stricter deliverability standards are coming
    • AI tools can boost efficiency but need human review
    • Email security has never been more important
    • Strategic thinking trumps tactical quick fixes

    Whether you're an email marketer, deliverability specialist, or business owner using email marketing, these changes will impact your campaigns. Stay ahead of the curve!

    #EmailMarketing #EmailDeliverability #EmailSecurity #AI #DigitalMarketing #MarketingStrategy
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    6 mins
  • Inbox Intel: Never standing still

    Inbox Intel: Never standing still
    Jun 3 2025
    7 mins