638 - The New Rules of Email Deliverability: How to Stay Out of Spam in the AI Era

Email marketing shouldn’t feel like another box you have to check every week. If you’re constantly asking yourself, *“What am I supposed to email my list about?”* there’s a better way. In this episode, I’m sitting down with email strategist and automation expert Cheryl Rerick to talk about how to stop treating email like a broadcast channel and start building an intentional customer journey that works in the background of your business. We dig into how to reverse-engineer your emails from the sale, why your welcome sequence is one of the best places to start with automation, and how segmentation and personalization can make your emails feel like they were written specifically for the person reading them. Cheryl also shares what’s changing with AI—from AI-generated inbox summaries to increasingly sophisticated spam filters—and why sounding more human may be one of your biggest advantages right now.   If you want email to feel less like constant content creation and more like a strategic system that nurtures your audience and drives sales, this conversation is packed with practical ideas you can start implementing now. **00:00:00** — Why email shouldn’t be treated like a broadcast channel  **00:01:30** — Building a life-first business through automation and leverage  **00:04:30** — Turning email into a customer journey that creates sales  **00:06:00** — Using voice-of-customer research to plan better emails  **00:07:30** — Reverse-engineering your email strategy from the sale  **00:09:00** — Planning ahead vs. batch writing your emails  **00:10:30** — Three ways AI is changing email marketing  **00:12:00** — How AI summaries are changing the way subscribers consume email  **00:15:00** — AI, spam filters, and what impacts email deliverability  **00:16:30** — Using AI as a thought partner instead of your email writer  **00:19:30** — The easiest way to make AI-assisted emails sound human  **00:21:00** — Email platforms, automation tools, and personalization  **00:22:30** — Using tags and dynamic content to personalize emails  **00:25:30** — Email trends: segmentation, clicks, replies, and gamification  **00:27:00** — How to use segmentation data to create more sales  **00:28:30** — The surprising quick win: clean your email list  **00:31:30** — Overwhelmed by automation? Start with your welcome sequence CONNECT WITH CHERYL: Website: cherylrerick.com Instagram: @cherylrerickmarketing  Free Resource: AI Inboxes - How Google, Apple, & AI are judging (and summarizing) your emails - https://cherylrerick.com/ai-inboxes/ **🔗 LINKS MENTIONED:** 🎯 Free Quiz: What's Standing Between You and Consistent Business Income? → hollymariehaynes.com/quiz 👉 Download the Anti-Social Shift Private Podcast → hollymariehaynes.com/shift 💡 Download the SEO / GEO Audit Skill → www.hollymariehaynes.com/seoaudit 🌎 Website → www.hollymariehaynes.com 📲 Instagram → @thehollymariehaynes 🗨️ Chat with Holly → HollymariehaynesContact