Four Hundred Billion Emails a Day

The Power of Simple: Why Your Email Strategy Needs Less Noise and More Clarity

Insights from our podcast episode with Ashely Budd, author of "Mailed It!" and Senior Marketing Director at Cornell University.

In the cluttered arena of digital communication, clarity is your strongest ally. It’s easy to forget that at the heart of every inbox lies a human craving connection—not noise. Ashley Budd, author of "Mailed It!", reminds us:

“Your job is not to send emails. Your job is to get your message received.”

The sheer volume of emails is staggering: "We're pushing 400 billion emails sent every single day," Ashley points out. To cut through this overwhelming barrage, we don't need elaborate tricks or complex algorithms—we need simplicity, empathy, and authenticity.

Budd and co-author Dayana Kibilds emphasizes a strategic approach grounded in what they call the "trust triangle," derived from principles taught by Aristotle—ethos, pathos, and logos. "The points on the triangle are authenticity, empathy, and logic."

In other words, speak clearly, considerately, and logically.

The Art of Being Direct

It sounds simple, yet so many of us fail here, myself included. Ashley offers a deceptively straightforward exercise:

"Write an email and give it to a trusted friend or colleague. Start your timer and stop them at two seconds. Can they tell you what the point of this email was?”

If the answer is no, your message has already been lost.

Also - Stop with the niceties! The cliché "I hope this email finds you well" is the first casualty. Instead, immediately present your value proposition.

The Nielsen Norman Group's eye-tracking studies tell us readers follow a predictable F-pattern: they scan the top, skip to the next paragraph, and skim down the left side. Don't waste precious real estate on empty niceties.

Personality Over Personalization

Personalization isn't just inserting someone's name into the greeting or tailoring content with an algorithm. True personalization, Ashley argues, is about genuine personality—being relatable, human, and real. "Authenticity is about keeping it real and having a voice," she stresses.

"You're not going to build a relationship with a drip campaign." Relationships grow through real human connection. "We know that people who are more engaged have a higher tolerance for email pain." So why not engage them authentically, build trust, and earn that tolerance?

Empathy as Strategy

"Empathy is all about them," Budd reminds us. It's about genuinely understanding your readers and meeting their needs where they are—usually, buried under a mountain of unread emails. Cornell University's strategy offers a brilliant example: for major events like Giving Day, they preemptively offer recipients an option to pause emails if it's not their interest.

“It's very thoughtful,” she explains, and surprisingly, "just having those statements dropped unsubscribe rates by up to 75%."

The Simplicity Imperative

The battle for attention is fierce. “We're losing people by using language that requires a postgraduate level to understand. People will act faster with simpler language.” Tools like the Hemingway App and Grammarly can help us distill our language, making our communications feel conversational and human. "Write as if you're speaking directly to one person," Ashley advises. The result is clear, conversational, and deeply effective.

Clarity is Your Super Power

In a world drowning in noise, clarity is your greatest weapon. Your email strategy doesn't need to be revolutionary to make an impact. Remember Ashley's powerful triad of authenticity, empathy, and logic—rooted in human behavior and simplicity itself.

As Ashley puts it, "Let's all use our email for good.” It's not merely about sending less; it's about meaning more when you do send. And that might just be revolutionary enough.