As a huge fan of newsletters and much respect for the process, I have to say, opening my email and seeing that crazy number of unread messages is stressful. We chose to subscribe because the information is valuable, it's been vetted, and we respect the unique point of view coming from each curator. For me at least, my email inbox hoards plenty of different types of messages ranging from junk to the most important information. From a honey.com promo code to my sister's "urgent" message to my main source of daily information, it's so hard to keep up!
Here are a few tools and ideas to better organize your email, prioritize your messages, and keep up with your daily newsletters.
For The Junk:
This Unsubscribe Script is amazing, for all my random promotions, junk emails, and random senders I use this script to easily unsubscribe me from any senders that I don't want in my inbox. All you have to do is click on this link, copy the Google Sheet to your drive. Then, go to the Gmail menu in the Google Sheet (see screenshot above) and choose Configure, when you enter your email inbox, mark any of the senders you no longer want to receive messages from as "Unsubscribe."
Just as an FYI, there was a service very similar to this called, Unroll.me. An NYT's article came out and that Unroll.me was scraping users' data and sold it to companies like Lyft and Uber. This script that I linked to is created by Amit Agarwal, a computer science engineer and an expert in Google apps and products. Before you click on anything, I would suggest doing your research. It's your email and it's personal - you wouldn't just give your phone to a stranger.
I think of my email inbox as a reminder area, if there is something that I need to be alerted about that I'm not checking frequently, I'll leave it in my primary inbox area. However, there are plenty of other emails that I receive that I don't necessarily need a reminder for.
Here are my labels, description, and how I filter:
Mark As Read/Skip the Inbox: Daily Analytics Report: Check every day, don't need the reminder. HARO: Check every day, too many emails that will clutter my inbox. Newsletter DB: tend to these emails once a week.
Skip the Inbox: Listory Team: You could think that this means it's less important, but it's the opposite, I like to segment it this way so I know that if there is an unread message, I immediately tend to it. Alerts and Mentions: This is for my Google Alerts (that I set up as a Daily Report) and other websites like Brand24,BuzzSumo, Awario, etc. I like to be notified when I do receive a new mention however the notifications contain a link for me to open.
Label/Mark As Important: Guest Blogs: automatically is featured on the top of my inbox. (I set it up this way, important mail features first.) I do it this way because if the curator is asking a question and I "skip the inbox," I may forget to come back to it. Rule: always answer your users' emails.
Label Manually Ideas! and Read Later: If I read something and loved it, I'll manually add it to either "Ideas!" (for company product releases, engagement campaigns, etc.) or "Read Later" (newsletter issues that contain articles I can't immediately tend to but interested in reading later.)
If you need a little help getting started, try using these apps:
MailDrop: MailDrop is a free throwaway email address. It's meant for those times when you don't want to give out your real address. Just give someone any email address in the maildrop.cc domain, come back here, put in the email address, and you can see that inbox. (Free)
n8n:If you are looking to utilize your email with your workflow, you could use n8n to automate tasks from email to Trello, Google Calendar, MailChimp, Zendesk, and more. n8n has a list of integrations with the option to create a custom integration. (Free) (Alternative: Parabola which is $4 a month and slightly easier to use.)
Notyfy: All your web notifications in one place. This is a browser extension where all your notifications across your platforms show up well-arranged in one place. Clicking on the notification will guide you directly to the notification's platform and its content. (Free)
Sortd: One intuitive place to manage your Emails, To-do's, Projects, Sales, Client Service, CRM, and Teamwork ... right in gmail! (Freemium)
Superhuman: uses artificial intelligence to automatically triage your email. This is the same technology used by spam filters but applied in reverse. Now it detects and highlights your most important email. Quickly get to the messages you care most about. Never miss important emails again. (30$/month with no free-trial.)
For Your Newsletters:
I like to receive my email newsletters in my inbox, always. This is where I get my daily dose of information so they take the place as an important message, located in my inbox. There are other tools and great websites to categorize and organize your newsletters by the day.
1. Mailbrew
Mailbrew puts the sources you love into a single personal email digest where you receive the top posts from your favorite creators. (Here's a coupon code to try it out.) You could connect your account with Twitter (which will scan your followers and be added to your daily digest) or sign-up via email (with the option to connect with Twitter when you build your daily digest).
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Easy Onboarding Process
Allows me to customize/select my time when receiving my daily digest
I can add newsletters, subreddits, and topics
Add other sites for updates that I may be interested in.
Gave me solid newsletter suggestions
An email that I could subscribe to newsletters with - so all my newsletters are in one place.
Cons:
I don't like picking "topics" because I may be interested in different things. Yes, I may read more articles on a specific topic, but if people are talking about The Intelligence of Elephants, I wouldn't want to miss that.
I was only allowed to subscribe to Product Hunt and HackerNews - but I also don't care about all PH's new products, will it trim the fat further? I don't know. (Also missing IndieHackers from this list...)
The newsletter suggestions were all newsletters I already knew, and if I didn't know about them, I would need a little more information before signing up (give me a description.)
I like to segment my newsletters based on the topic/category. I'm a newsletter enthusiast, I'd like to segment my newsletters by topic.
My Overall Rating for Mailbrew: 06/10
2. StoopInbox
StoopInbox helps you discover, subscribe, and consume great content all in one place. Get those newsletters out of your inbox and onto your Stoop. This is a cool app to hoard your newsletters along with finding interesting ones to subscribe to. Is it anything more than a place to find newsletters, no, but it is a great way to have one place for your newsletters.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Newsletter Directory
An email that I could subscribe to newsletters with so all my newsletters are in one place
Shuffling: a surprise newsletter that you probably never heard about that may be cool
Preview the App before I sign-up with a reading experience
Allows me to toggle between other newsletters from the same brand
Cons:
Long Loading Time
No Reading Experience post-signing up. When you click on a newsletter, you have to "subscribe on the web"
Can't view any information aside from category, author, title, and a little description. (I like to read archives before I subscribe, so this concept doesn't work for me.)
Zero content, pure newsletter directory.
Only available as an app
My Overall Rating for StoopInbox: 04/10
3. Itemsy
Itemsy allows you to save personal links for later. You can also use our browser extension or simply email them to my@itemsy.com, share links and stories, create a private "group chat" or channel for sharing, set up your newsletter.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Updated topics when I click on one I'm interested in, however... (see first bullet below)
I like the coach marks
Option to create a newsletter but doesn't help guide creators through the newsletter process without paying
Analytics, layout, and lighting options are a nice touch
Cons:
Topics changed way too quickly...
The loading time is very long
Share was confusing - I didn't realize I could save to a list from "share.
I couldn't read in the web app, hard to make notes if that's the case, I would have to keep two tabs open.
Followed was difficult to understand because Itemsy didn't tell me I should follow people during onboarding. If you don't figure it out - you have an unused primary navigation option
My Overall Rating for Itemsy: 02/10
4. Hey.com
Hey.com has been getting so much hype, I was super intrigued to review this app (along with the awesome push from our readers asking us to review it.) Hey.com aims to change the course of your generic inbox. The idea is that you now have an email (you create a new email xxx@hey.com) where you have consent as to what comes in. Your email "Imbox,"as they call it, is completely redesigned, you can filter your messages by priority. Basecamp, creators of Hey.com, renamed priorities and labels: "The Feed," messages that are not urgent, "The Paper Trail," those messages that you'll never read again, and "The Imbox," the messages that are important. If you know me, this has my name written all over it, I mean, just read the introduction paragraph.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
The strongest pro is that they brand your email with awesome design and eliminates the anxiety-provoking email feeling.
The Screener feature allows you to pick and choose what is allowed to come in (i.e. consent)
Onboarding was excellent - the tool tips and guidance were awesome, however...
Option to create a newsletter but doesn't help guide creators through the newsletter process without paying
Analytics, layout, and lighting options are a nice touch
I like the idea of files in a separate section (but, I don't get to list my items or see context)
Cons:
If I fall in love, I'm going to have to pay.
I feel like I already have so many email addresses, I have to create a new one and start all over. Their thing is that this will be THE email you use, the ideal situation would be to transform my current email into their space.
When I clicked "Hey.com" was okay to come in, I received 6 emails from them... what exactly do you need to communicate with me in 6 different emails?
I like the idea of switching up fonts in my email, you can't change the formatting in Hey.com.
"Previously Seen" is super difficult to navigate and extremely confusing, if I wanted to go back and check emails, I find it would be really hard because of the lack of filter or search.
When I was doing some research on Hey.com, I stumbled upon this thread posted by Nile from Nocode.tech. Here were some of his thoughts/cons:
If you don't do Inbox Zero, its incredibly hard to find people you've already spoken to. I currently have to scroll through tons of emails to get there
The screening feature doesn't do enough to differentiate what is being sent. I don't want the newsletter from the e-commerce company I just bought from, but I sure as hell want the order confirmation. Same "From" address? Too bad
Forgot to reply to an email or missed someone? No reminders like Gmail and everything is so over-sized that I can only scan 6 emails at once. Again, Inbox zero needed to make this work
Screening is actually quite an over-head. I've now got 100+ accounts to screen and it's very hard to find the time to sit and do that, because I have to actively think about what each address is going to send me and where I want that to go
My Overall Rating for Hey.com: 07/10
5. Slick Inbox (still in Beta - looking for feedback)
Slick Inbox was designed for newsletters. It's essentially an inbox dedicated to your newsletters - it's clean design, an easy subscribe or unsubscribe option, and that's really it. Some features are coming out that are promising, but as of right now, Slick just seems like your average inbox with @slickinbox.com attached...Let's see.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
After exploring the landing page, the one thing that I felt l should mention is that on the bottom, section "Coming Soon," the creators listed new features along with their email saying: "Don't see the features you want? Write to me here and I'll be happy to consider it!" To me, this is an awesome, easy way to talk with your users is you are a newer app. I know it doesn't have to do with functionality, but these little things are super important to note.
I love the design, it's simple, clean, and not distracting. Especially the way they designed "mark as read" - makes me feel like I've completed something by using this task-like check mark.
I really like how I could unsubscribe really easily - just go into your newsletters in "Subscriptions" and read stories and/or unsubscribe.
I love that you could easily customize your notifications, however (con: not sure what this means but I'm guessing that new issues won't land in my inbox but I could check them when I head over to my "Subscriptions."
Cons:
So, right off the bat, I really dislike when I have to verify my email before going into an app. The reason being is that it disrupts the flow of onboarding and taking me to a different app. There is so much more room for drop-off there.
Again, creating yet another email, great...I would love if I could transport my subscriptions to this new app, if there could be some sort of functionality allowing me to do that because I'm now going to have to resubscribe.
I really feel like Slick doesn't navigate me through the subscription process - when I clicked on James Clear. I was expecting Slick to automatically place James Clear's 3-2-1 in my subscription because this leaves room for users' to question whether or not they did the right thing.
I'd also expect some sort of discovery, I know it's coming soon, but if you don't take the proactive approach to subscribe, users won't subscribe and come back to the app. I anticipate a low retention rate if this isn't fixed.
The empty screens: when I click on "Inbox" it reads, "Looks like there's nothing to read now!" - instead tell the user what to do! Take them to either Substack, Newsletter Stack, InboxReads, Discovery by Revue, etc. anything to get them to subscribe.
I also think it's weird that my archive and history is in my settings, I don't know where they would be but having them in my settings is super bizarre. Let's say if I want to read something later, can I do that?
Also, you could only read on Mobile...
My Overall Rating for Slick Inbox: 04/10 (hoping in the future the rating will go up.)
6. Mux
Mux is also an inbox-esque app made for newsletters. Users can verify senders, easily navigate through favorited newsletters, and an interface made for reading. My first thought is that Mux is combining both Hey.com (consent) and Slick Inbox (newsletter reading), but let's see.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Has an iOS version and an Android version (huge plus!)
The Welcome Screens were super easy to read, navigate, and super welcoming. Didn't give me much information, but I got the gist from the Landing Page.
One email for guiding me through the app is great - if you need 5 emails to explain what you are doing, it's too complicated.
Read view
Cons:
It was extremely hard to find in the App Store, I had to literally search "Mux newsletter app" to finally see it. Also, they don't have any ratings! ATTN developers, please do something about this so you could get some exposure!
Okay, MUX, also on your landing page, why should I pay to join your community? If I want to get updates, give feedback on features, etc. I have to pay? I understand that you may not have seed funding to develop this, but you and your readers should have open communication and feel as though you are accessible. You're essentially making your beta testers pay...the testers are spending time helping you develop the app not the other way around eep!
Creating another email account...
Why do you need my phone number? But okay, sure.
I'm immediately welcomed with a big, fat void sign. I thought I did something wrong here. *Sweating*
Onboarding should be bigger and not as a notification...
"A source wants to send you emails" - first of all, the name should be in the title because the text is so small underneath, I could easily accidentally press no...what happens then?
This was super interesting, I have to open Senders in settings...if this is a big feature that I have control over, I should easily be able to see if I want to accept, decline, or leave unattended.
This whole void thing is extremely unwelcoming on the landing page.
I guess I try and subscribe...I subscribed to two newsletters 3-2-1 and Stratechery. 3-2-1, I never got a notification and for Stratechery, I received an invitation to add the sender, but it was hidden in senders...I was so confused at a point that I began reloading the page. I know I didn't ask for notifications, but that doesn't mean the app can't indicate that I have a pending request?
Finally, when I did expect Ben Thompson, the email / message came in as "false" and two, the invite came in as Ben Thompson, not Stratechery... I don't know every curator by name?
Ugh! I know there were a lot of cons, but I'm hoping that Mux cleans their app up. It would be amazing to use this instead of Hey.com and Slick, plus, it would be free (I think.) There is so much to do Mux but I trust you could hopefully work out some of your kinks!
My Overall Rating for Mux Inbox: 01/10 (I'm sorry!)
6. Zenbox
Zenbox is made for remote teams to reduce anxiety when it comes to email. Personally, I'm using it for myself and managing all my emails in one space. The best part about this layout is that there is an actual progress report, focused-reading experience, mark as done or remind me later, and such a clean format, it's awesome. I'm really excited to try this out but as of right now, I really think this is my better version of Hey.com.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Add Inbox, SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Live Chat, etc. (don't have to create a new inbox, you don't know how much I was struggling with this...)
Collaborate with teams on a specific email (no more groups!)
Get notifications when you are mentioned
Assign to yourself or others based on the message/task
Tag any email
Search is incredibly easy
Switchable format (from regular inbox view to Zenbox)
Check analytics
Mark as done or Read Later (choose a time)
Easy navigation between different inboxes
LiveChat help (thank you!)
Progress Reporting
Focused-reading experience
Literally do the forwarding for you
Can you believe this?!
Cons:
Onboarding was a bit weird
Not sure what "Create Help Center"
Wow. Finally. I mean, I have no words for this tool. Zenbox makes it so easy to switch over, it seems like they thought of everything that was anxiety-inducing and flipped the switch. Impressed. My only request would be to fix onboarding which is a minute issue especially because the user experience is excellent. The free version is awesome - if you are remote and want to use Zenbox for collaboration, it's $25 a month.)
My Overall Rating for Zeninbox Inbox: 10/10
As for your newsletters and ensuring you are up to date with newsletters that you follow, see the important content first (the same as your inbox), I must say, the items out there are lacking. Check Listory out and let me know what you think for newsletter and curator up-keep. I would love to know how it compares with some of these other tools mentioned above.
Lastly, your inbox is so personal and it should be a delightful experience, not an anxiety-provoking one. Try out a couple of tools and tips for cleaning up your email inbox and let us know if there are any that we should include in this post.
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