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Together with Notion
Notion surveyed 1,000 professionals buying productivity tools. One thing is clear:
AI isn’t "emerging" anymore. It’s expected.
We know there's crazy potential in AI, but it's still so new. Most teams are figuring out how to fit AI into their workflows, who should own it, and how to measure real impact. All while juggling everything else on their plate. (Myself very much included.)
So Notion published a new report: Why the Future of Work Depends on AI
It reveals the three major obstacles in becoming AI-ready — plus practical ways to overcome them.
Worth a read if you’re navigating AI at work and want to do it right.
No email required. You'll be reading in seconds.
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Now, more than ever...
We're repelled by anything that looks, feels, or smells like a sales (or marketing) email.
That’s the hard truth I learned sending 1,000+ emails at Gong, Clari, and now The Reeder.
People are skeptical, and for good reason. It’s getting harder to tell what’s real, what’s AI, what’s valuable… and what’s just BS (or worse, a scam).
To beat that defense mechanism, I ran a bunch of A/B tests—changing one variable at a time—and tracked the results.
Below are 4 tests that worked across multiple audiences to significantly improve my open rates.
Use them to write emails that get opened, read, and clicked.
1. Sender name: [Company] Marketing vs Person's name
I’ve never seen a marketing alias outperform a real person’s name.
Even if that person’s unknown, it still wins. Why? Because we trust people more than brands.
When an email comes from “Xactly Marketing” your brain goes: “They’re trying to sell me something.”
So you delete it — without opening.
But when the sender is someone, like “Devin Reed”?
It feels personal, so you’re more likely to engage.
Credibility starts with the “From” line.
If you want better open rates, ditch the alias and send from a human. (Ideally the same human over time.)
2. Send Time: Morning vs Afternoon
I've tested all sorts of times — from before dawn to midnight, and everything in between — and found that 6am local time had the best open rates.
That said, I once looked at a heat map that showed email open “hot spots” are around 6am and 7pm local time. It appears people check email right when they wake up, and again before bed. Makes sense. But good to have data to confirm.
Takeaway: Don’t lose sleep over when you hit “Send,” but aim for the morning.
3. Subject line: Questions vs Statements
Questions always perform best (with one exception).
When questions are easy to comprehend and spark curiosity, they work beautifully.
But simply slapping a question mark on your subject doesn’t always work. If the question is too long, too hard to comprehend and causes confusion or too much work for the reader, it’ll flop.
Too much thinking prevents people from clicking.
Spark curiosity, not confusion.
4. Sentence case vs Title Case
Subject Lines That Look Like This Look Like Marketing.
But subject lines like this don’t.
Because title case looks like marketing spam.
You don’t capitalize every word when you send an email to a friend or colleague. So why do it to your marketing list, sales prospects, or clients?
Multiple tests have proven that the casual look of sentence case boosts open rates.
So to this day, I write every email in sentence case.
Want more email tips?
I have 6 more tests I ran that got me way more clicks — and I'm thinking of turning all these tips into a guide.
But I want to make sure it’s worth it first.
Hit reply and tell me:
- Was this useful?
- Would you want a full playbook like this?
- Anything missing you’d want included?
I’ll read every reply.
Holler at you later,
Devin
