We wrapped up the final leg of Litmus Live 2015 in London—and it was chock-full of email geekery. For two days, hundreds of email lovers (from all around the world) gathered to learn and share how to produce great looking—and performing—emails.

Speakers from the UK, Bahrain, Canada, and the US presented on a wide variety of topics, including accessibility in email, producing emails at scale, and writing subject lines. Speakers and attendees alike shared tips and inspiration all aimed at a common goal: to make email better.

NEW CITY, NEW SESSIONS

While some amazing sessions from Boston were brought across the pond, like Mark Robbins’ chat on “Building Interactive Email”—whose entire presentation was actually an email–and Fabio Carneiro’s talk on creating responsive emails without using media queries, we also had a lot of new, amazing additions to the London event.

Email Notifications for Your Blog

MailPoet’s Becs Rivett Kemm presented the benefits of manual vs. automated blog emails and gave some quick wins to jazz up your blog emails and get readers inspired to read your content.

Bloggers, you'll get more traffic and thus more ad revenue when you send awesome emails to update your followers. #TEDC15

— Jason Meeker (@jpmeeker) September 28, 2015

Relying on automated blog emails can result in "boo-boos"—the peril of emails you "set and forget." https://t.co/Q0uoS9Bf0b #TEDC15

— Justine Jordan (@meladorri) September 28, 2015

To excerpt or not excerpt, that is the question. Showing full blog posts in an email is a no no @becskr #TEDC15

— Steph Jones (@Stephhh) September 28, 2015

Have email signup CTAs at the bottom of blog posts and opt-in check boxes as part of submitting blog comments. ~ @becskr #TEDC15

— Chad S. White (@chadswhite) September 28, 2015

A Type of Accessibility

Beyond the Envelope Founder Paul Airy chatted about the challenges of developing accessible emails and how HTML typography can help solve some of those difficulties.

https://twitter.com/nicholas_c/status/648504472373739520

#TEDC15 @Paul_Airy great point, create your email so its accessible as possible to all recipients, inc those with reading difficulties.

— Rut Dawson (@rutdawson) September 28, 2015

Always do contrast checks, stop using small bloody text @Paul_Airy #TEDC15

— Becs Rivett-Kemm (@becskr) September 28, 2015

We can sacrifice consistency to achieve accessibility – @Paul_Airy #TEDC15

— スティ—ブン✌🏻 (@StevenHowe) September 28, 2015

Turning Big Data into Intimate Moments

Alex Timlin, Head of Client Success at Emarsys, covered how to blend big data and creativity to bridge the gap between the data scientist and the marketer to create campaigns that make a personal impact.

“email isn’t free… because it’s so personal it’s one of the most expensive channels” — @ARTimlin #tedc15

— Elliot Ross (@IAmElliot) September 29, 2015

Cart abandonment, price drops & back in stock emails are great but not the only email marketing you should do. 100% agree @ARTimlin #tedc15

— Cyrill Gross (@cygro) September 29, 2015

Fully automated emails fail the Turing Test. You know you're getting a message from a machine. ~ @ARTimlin #TEDC15

— Chad S. White (@chadswhite) September 29, 2015

Stop looking at emails as a one off campaign, look at the lifecycle of a customer…too bloody right! Subscriber first thinking #tedc15

— Mel (@Mellywellington) September 29, 2015

Going International: How to Localize Your Campaigns

Playing off of Ros Hodgekiss and Jacques Corby-Tuech’s talk from Boston, Elliot Ross from Action Rocket and Jaina Mistry from Padawan Group provided tips and examples to help you solve design challenges and address code considerations for sending localized campaigns.

56.2% of consumers say the ability to have info in their language is more important than price #TEDC15 #intlemail

— Phil Singer (@philsi) September 29, 2015

Using agile collaboration tools like @trello can make tracking translations, testing, time zones, signoff, and process easier. #TEDC15

— Justine Jordan (@meladorri) September 29, 2015

https://twitter.com/smilton/status/648784210690482176

Localisation does not only affects text but also the creative in an email… @jainamistry and @iamelliot at #tedc15

— Cyrill Gross (@cygro) September 29, 2015

Email Production at Scale

Alex Ilhan, email developer at display block, talked about how to optimize your email production process by streamlining email builds, managing snippets, and adding tools to your process.

https://twitter.com/nicholas_c/status/648795869085593600

https://twitter.com/smilton/status/648796556154568704

@omgitsonlyalex showing DRY (Don't repeat yourself) concepts in email building with Sublime Text #TEDC15

— Gerret Braren (@GBraren) September 29, 2015

Tools to help you create emails faster: GitHub, Grunt, Gulp, Sass, Less, Emmett, Jade, Haml, Litmus, etc. ~ @omgitsonlyalex #TEDC15

— Chad S. White (@chadswhite) September 29, 2015

Five Emails Every Business Needs to Send After Signup

How do you convert your subscribers to paying customers? In this session, Alan O’Rourke from WorkCompass shared the actions a user must take (and the emails you must send) to get them to pay for your services or products.

You have 30 days to convert a visitor to a customer online @alanorourke #TEDC15

— Mike Parry (@MikePickn) September 29, 2015

Do not use "noresponse@" addresses to send emails. Thanks @alanorourke for not letting me alone in this quest! #tedc15

— Cyrill Gross (@cygro) September 29, 2015

Triggered email opens are four times higher than timed emails. @alanorourke #TEDC15

— Beyond the Envelope™ (@Paul_Airy) September 29, 2015

The fear of loosing (or missing) something is a powerful driver for user engagement. @alanorourke at #tedc15

— Cyrill Gross (@cygro) September 29, 2015

Shorthand Coding: Write Twice the Amount of Code in Half the Time

Litmus’ own email designer, Kevin Mandeville, live coded an email in less than two minutes (yes, an actual email!). He covered how to use Emmett, code snippets, and other shortcuts to supercharge your email development workflow.

"To evolve, we need to optimise workflow" – @KevinMandeville #tedc15

— Laura Elliot (@orangesmarties) September 29, 2015

https://twitter.com/TaxiforEmail/status/648842702688264192

Short hand code has just blown my mind… I've been coding in the dark ages #TEDC15 @KevinMandeville pic.twitter.com/avORFQo0qW

— Aaron Simmonds (@otherside_uk) September 29, 2015

Does Your Subject Line Suck?

Seems like a simple question, doesn’t it? Parry Malm, CEO of Phrasee, showed why the emotional power of your subject line is really what matters—and actual statistics about how you can make your subject lines better.

https://twitter.com/nicholas_c/status/648880560039927808

https://twitter.com/smilton/status/648881287848140800

Pointers for less-sucky email subject lines: Directness, urgency, curiosity, friendliness & offbeat-ness (@parrymalm's secret sauce) #tedc15

— Ellie Robinson (@FollowEllie) September 29, 2015

When an email lands in your inbox, you have an instantaneous emotional response. Act—or not? #TEDC15 @ParryMalm

— Justine Jordan (@meladorri) September 29, 2015

RECAPS FROM ATTENDEES

Who recaps the conference better (and more honestly) than the attendees themselves? Two attendees have already written about their experience in London:

• Mike Ragan from Action Rocket highlighted the major takeaways from each session he attended.
• The team at Phrasee compiled their 38 favorite tweets from Litmus Live London, 2015.

LOTS OF TAKEAWAYS…AND LOTS OF FUN

While the conference was full of actionable takeaways, it was also full of fun. Between doodles, pillows (or are they cushions?), photobooth photos, and Fabio Carneiro’s birthday, there wasn’t a dull moment in London.

Impressive doodling

#TEDC15 – learning lots and doodling lots pic.twitter.com/kmSen7wqBG

— Lady Gabe (@LadyGabe) September 28, 2015

Aaron Simmonds had some amazing doodles! You can check them all out on Twitter, but here are a few of our favorites:

If the #tedcntacc was a monster would it look like this? #TEDC15 pic.twitter.com/07tl7mFLyy

— Aaron Simmonds (@otherside_uk) September 29, 2015

Another great quote from yesterday's #TEDC15 @meladorri pic.twitter.com/SHQBQmW1Gx

— Aaron Simmonds (@otherside_uk) September 29, 2015

Thank you @litmusapp have had an amazing time at #TEDC15. So inspired, can't believe I got a litmus cushion! pic.twitter.com/El2O9JBqgt

— Aaron Simmonds (@otherside_uk) September 29, 2015

So. much. swag.

I got a @litmusapp cushion / pillow. So so so happy #TEDC15

— Sharon Jennings (@EmailChicGeek) September 28, 2015

Have an eye for detail. american vs british. is it cushion or is it pillow #tedc15 anyhow, it's mine pic.twitter.com/hjpm1jzcC9

— Robin Stroobants✌️ (@stroobants) September 29, 2015

Thanks @litmusapp for the the pint glass. Keep on snippet tweeting #tedc15 pic.twitter.com/3al5YP0Rg4

— Cyrill Gross (@cygro) September 29, 2015

Happy Days, I finally got a cushion/pillow from @litmusapp #TEDC15 Your are safe @EmailChicGeek @stroobants pic.twitter.com/vGd0sz6vSy

— Becs Rivett-Kemm (@becskr) September 29, 2015

Tough choice over which t-shirt to wear back into the office today. Ta for the free swag @litmusapp #TEDC15 pic.twitter.com/osrccGXD7V

— Laura Harrison (@lawharrison) September 30, 2015

Photobooth fun

Majito time with @stevelinney Monday night sesh. #TEDC15 #davidcameron @litmusapp pic.twitter.com/njM7f6iEVB

— Jonno Cox (@MrJonnoCox) September 28, 2015

Brainstorming at the email design conference #tedc15 #email #emailmarketing #marketing #marketingonline pic.twitter.com/k0o9jSmFM2

— Steve Linney (@stevelinney) September 28, 2015

Haha! @EmailChicGeek @becskr @rutdawson @pixelpanda @iamacyborg #emailgeeks #TEDC15 #nofilter #nofilterneeded #sorry pic.twitter.com/30NlxFdy2K

— Mike Ragan (@Mike_Ragan) September 28, 2015

Happy birthday, Fabio!

Thanks for spending it geeking out over email with us.

Happy birthday @flcarneiro!! #tedc15 pic.twitter.com/SxwzEFpjGs

— Lauren Smith (@ImLaurenSmith) September 29, 2015

Thank you so much, #TEDC15, for your attention and your lovely singing. I really, really appreciate it.

I'm only moderately embarrassed.

— Fabio Carneiro (@flcarneiro) September 29, 2015

Stay tuned for all the news on #LitmusLive

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