MelAudit is a journal on email marketing. Not a firm, not a consultancy, not a subscription service. A journal — the way a writer might use the word — where we publish essays on the strange craft of writing to a stranger's inbox.
We started writing here in 2023 because we could not find the writing on email that we wanted to read. Most of what existed then was either promotional content produced by tool companies, or tactical checklists so short they did not repay the trip. Nobody seemed to be writing about email the way people write about music, or architecture, or bookmaking — as a craft with a long history, a set of unwritten rules, and small decisions that compound into large differences. So we started doing that ourselves.
What we write about
Roughly a third of what we publish is about copywriting — subject lines, preview text, what to sign an email as, when to ask a question, how much to say. Another third is about the medium itself — the history of the newsletter, why the algorithmic feed made email valuable again, what the difference is between marketing and transactional email and why it decides more than you might think. The last third is about the craft — footers, hierarchy, restraint, and the small design principles that outlast every template pack.
What we do not write about, at least not primarily, are tool comparisons. Not because tools do not matter — they do — but because plenty of other people are covering that ground and there is only so much air time in a lifetime.
How we work
Every essay is written first and edited twice. If a claim rests on personal experience, we say so. If a statistic comes from a study or a report, we link to it. If we do not know something, we say we do not know it. This is a lower bar than it sounds and a lot of writing on this subject clears it inconsistently.
We hold no partnerships with the tools we mention. We pay for our own subscriptions. No sponsorships in the memo, no paid placements in the essays, and no affiliate commissions on anything we recommend. When we like a tool, it is because we would still use it if nobody was reading.
We are trying to write the pieces on email marketing that we would have wanted to read three years ago. Everything else follows from that.
Who reads this
Founders running their own email programs. In-house marketers at small teams. Consultants who like to compare notes with other consultants. Newsletter writers who care about the craft. A handful of tool founders who occasionally write in when they think we got something wrong. All are welcome. The last group in particular.
If you would like to write in
You can. The address is hello@melaudit.online. We read everything. If you would like to talk properly, book a time on the calendar.