Rajesh Jain

Published December 2, 2024

1

Five Pillars

In today’s digital landscape, email marketing faces unprecedented challenges. Despite its ubiquity and cost-effectiveness, email often struggles to capture attention in crowded inboxes. Open rates stagnate, click-through rates decline, and the constant pressure to acquire new customers drives up marketing costs. The result? Mounting customer acquisition costs (CAC) and dwindling returns on ad spend (ROAS).

This crisis is further exacerbated by what I term “AdWaste” – the inefficient use of marketing budgets on acquiring low-value customers or repeatedly re-acquiring lost ones. Traditional solutions, such as refining targeting or optimising ad spend, yield only marginal improvements. The digital advertising market has become so efficient that significant gains are increasingly elusive.

Enter the House of Anti-Acquisition – a paradigm shift that redirects focus from constant customer acquisition to maximising value from existing relationships. This approach recognises that the path to sustainable profitability lies not in endlessly expanding the customer base, but in deepening engagement with current customers.

At the heart of this revolution is email – the most direct and cost-effective channel for building strong customer relationships. In my recent essays (see Email 2.0 sub-section), I have explored what a “new way to email” might look like. The overarching aim is clear: transform email from a passive communication channel into an active, engaging, and interactive platform that drives higher opens, actions, and revenues for brands. This next evolution envisions email as a destination – an “email app” – where users interact dynamically without ever leaving their inbox. This vision redefines email as a vibrant ecosystem rather than just a tool for communication.

This transformative vision rests on five foundational pillars, which together create a comprehensive framework for the new era of email:

AMP: At the heart of the new ecosystem is a revolutionary technology that makes emails interactive, allowing users to take actions directly within the email. It transforms static messages into dynamic microsites. Forms can be filled out, appointments scheduled, and polls completed – all without the need to click through to an external webpage. AMP ensures content remains fresh and relevant by enabling real-time updates each time an email is opened.

Email Envelope: This is an outer “wrapper” designed to enhance engagement and drive consumption. It’s not just the body of the email that matters; the subject line, header, and footer become integral parts of the user experience. The Email Envelope features interactive elements in these spaces to increase engagement and captivate users before they even open the email. It’s about reimagining email components beyond the body content, creating multiple touchpoints, and extending the lifespan of each message.

Atomic Rewards (Mu): To foster habitual engagement, email needs to incorporate elements of gamification. Atomic Rewards (represented by a unit of currency I call “Mu”) incentivise users to engage repeatedly. For instance, opening emails, completing tasks, or playing in-email games can earn Mu. These micro-rewards can then be redeemed for discounts, exclusive content, or brand-specific perks. Atomic Rewards transform the inbox into a value-driven space, adding an element of fun and anticipation that encourages frequent interaction with brand messages.

Containers: Containers are self-contained micro-experiences housed within the email itself – be it news snippets, mini-apps, preference collection, or interactive games. These dynamic elements are designed to capture and sustain user attention. Think of each email having a “container” of content that can be refreshed dynamically, providing something new and compelling every time it’s accessed.

ActionAds: These ads represent a paradigm shift in email marketing by combining personal identifiable information (PII) with actionable content inside the email. Instead of static ads, ActionAds allow users to engage directly within the email – for example, signing up for a newsletter subscription, filling a form, or even making a purchase, without leaving the inbox. ActionAds minimise friction and maximise conversions by enabling “in-channel conversion,” seamlessly blending personalised targeting with direct interaction.

Additional Reading

• Solving the Email Open Problem
• Emagining E3 Ecosystem: Every Email Engaged
• Ads in Emails: Some New Ideas
• The 7 Levers for Email’s Exponential Expansion
• Epps: The Next Evolution in Email Engagement
• Email’s Epps Era: Transforming Customer and Employee Engagement
• Consumer Epps for Inbox Attention
• Email’s New Triad: AMPs, Epps, Ads
• Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More
• Epps Footers: New Frontiers in Email Marketing
• Email Envelope: Eight Elements to Energise Engagement
• Mu: The Currency of Email Engagement
• A Premiumisation Playbook for ESPs: Commodity to Profipoly

2

Attention and Monetisation

Together, the five pillars of the new email ecosystem – AMP, Email Envelope, Atomic Rewards, Containers, and ActionAds – create a framework that revolutionises email’s potential. They form a unified strategy to enhance email engagement, retention, and revenue generation. This paradigm shift transforms email into an app-like experience, creating new possibilities for brand-user interactions and elevating email from a one-way channel into a dynamic two-way platform.

A crucial refinement is to view Atomic Rewards, Containers, and ActionAds as integral components of the Email Envelope. These elements work synergistically within the email’s structure to attract users, maintain engagement, and drive action. The Email Envelope thus becomes the primary interface housing these innovations, positioning it as the cornerstone of this transformative ecosystem.

BEAM (Better Email for Attention and Monetisation) encapsulates this revolutionary approach to email marketing. It leverages the five pillars to create a more engaging, interactive, and profitable email ecosystem. BEAM transforms traditional email into a dynamic platform that captures attention, drives engagement, and opens new revenue streams. It’s not merely about sending emails; it’s about creating an immersive, app-like experience that keeps users returning to their inbox consistently.

This integrated approach opens up new possibilities for personalisation and data collection. User interactions provide valuable zero-party data, fuelling AI-driven personalisation and enabling brands to deliver increasingly relevant content and offers.

Multi-monetisation is another key advantage of this ecosystem. Brands can now tap into new revenue streams: hosting ActionAds from non-competing brands, offering premium content or experiences in exchange for Mu, and creating sponsored Containers with partner brands. BEAN (Brand Email Ad Network) facilitates these opportunities, creating a marketplace where brands can efficiently match their ads with suitable email audiences, all while respecting user privacy through a secure “clean room” environment.

These innovations help brands build stronger, more durable customer relationships, aligning perfectly with the Anti-Acquisition framework and reducing the need for costly customer reacquisition efforts.

For users, the new ecosystem transforms the inbox into a personalised content hub, offering an interactive, rewarding environment instead of a cluttered inbox full of static messages.

This ecosystem also integrates seamlessly with other marketing channels, enhancing omnichannel strategies. Insights from email interactions can inform social media campaigns, mobile push notifications, and even in-store experiences, creating a cohesive brand experience across all touchpoints.

As email evolves into a robust engagement platform, it could become the centrepiece of digital marketing strategies. The inbox may become the primary interface between brands and consumers, reducing dependence on third-party platforms and giving brands more control over their customer relationships.

Furthermore, as privacy concerns grow and third-party cookies are phased out, email’s role becomes increasingly critical. With its basis in first-party data and direct customer relationships, this new email ecosystem offers a privacy-friendly alternative to many current digital marketing practices.

This reimagining of email represents a strategic shift in customer engagement, retention, and the anti-acquisition mindset. By transforming the inbox into an interactive, value-driven space, we’re not only addressing the challenges of today’s email marketing but also laying the groundwork for the next generation of digital customer relationships.

Additional Reading

• Inbox to Income: BEAN for Revenue and Reactivation
• How BEAM and BEAN can Fashion a New Email Era

3

B2C Newsletters – 1

While BEAM (Better Email for Attention and Monetisation) and BEAN (Brand Email Ad Network) create the foundation for more engaging brand newsletters, there is an urgent need to go further. Today’s inbox is an untapped frontier for deeper customer engagement and brand loyalty, and to unlock this potential, we need to create a new class of B2C newsletters that leverages the full power of email innovation and demonstrate the possibilities. I outlined the emerging framework for such newsletters in two recent essays.

In An Email 2.0 Newsletter for All, I wrote: “The key to making Email 2.0 as the next new channel for marketers for their customer engagement messaging is by bringing attention to the email inbox with a service which becomes part of our lives. What is needed is an Email 2.0 newsletter which we all want to subscribe to – and read as a daily habit. This is the mountain which needs to be climbed to make Email 2.0 a commercial success. WhatsApp grew thanks to its easy personal and group messaging capabilities on the mobile, which started replacing the clunky SMS which never grew up. Email 2.0 needs a “killer app” – something which gives us a reason to open our inboxes, and then share with our network. What can such a service look like?… It must be an email sent daily at the same time… It must have an incentive to open and engage… The email body has to be unlike what people have ever seen before… Gen AI can power these AMPlets.”

I then listed some starting ideas for newsletters:

• News – a carousel of the latest stories, which refreshes each time the email is opened
• Quizzes – on a wide variety of topics. See Quizzing in Email: An Innovation in the Inbox.
• Puzzles and Games – like word jumbles, Wordle, crossword clues, math challenges, roulette, blackjack, card games. See Gamelets: Rethinking Rewards Redemption.
• Factoids – fun-to-know info. Could be made interactive with a True or False question.
• Insta-polls – with results being shown as soon as the selection is made
• Recos – for books, movies, OTT shows, apps
• Storylines – Short stories that continue in each email, enticing readers to open the next one
• Quotes from books and people
• Better Me – tips on how to eat and live better
• Words and their meanings
• Amazing images – to spark one’s imagination
• Predictions – and how they compare with what others said, and the actual outcomes

In Consumer Epps for Inbox Attention, I wrote: “Just as personal and group messaging has driven our frequent engagement with platforms like WhatsApp, the email inbox needs equally compelling reasons to entice users to open it multiple times throughout the day. Beyond brand marketing emails, which are often perceived as ads, Consumer Epps can offer a diverse range of engaging experiences… If we could get more engagement with the inbox, brands would automatically start using email more. No single brand had the ability to change – a new set of interventions [is] needed.”

I discussed MyToday, a service I had created a few years ago. “There were over 30 microns, leading to more than 300 emails a month for subscribers of 10 microns, creating inbox clutter and high sending costs. Epps can revolutionise this experience. MyToday could become a single Epp with various categories as options within it. Since Epps can fetch information in real-time when opened, only one email would be needed every 30 days (due to AMP email validity). Recipients simply need to “star” the email for easy access. Epps go further by allowing new snippets to be fetched every time the email is opened. Subscribers could get as many quotes as they want in a day with a single tap on the appropriate section. Epps could thus transform microcontent consumption, eliminating the need for multiple apps or emails. A single Epp could provide an unlimited on-demand supply for a month, streamlining the user experience and reducing clutter.” I also discussed some examples:

• News, Stocks, Sports: These information-based Epps can be sent once a month and update in real-time when the email is opened, providing the latest information instantly.
• Microcontent: Epps with content like bite-sized content like tips and quotes can also be sent monthly, fetching new content on-demand whenever the email is accessed, ensuring always-fresh and relevant snippets.
• Quizzes and Games: Depending on content volume and type, these interactive Epps Epps can be sent daily or less frequently, engaging users with interactive challenges. For example, a Wordle-like game could present a new word with each interaction.

One B2C game platform idea I recently discussed is a prediction market called WePredict. It’s a platform where users can engage in forecasting various events, leveraging collective insights to make predictions while enjoying an interactive gaming experience.

4

B2C Newsletters – 2

The B2C newsletters discussed can emerge as a powerful showcase for the “new way to email” – transforming static, one-dimensional messages into dynamic, interactive experiences that rival the engagement of websites and apps. These innovative newsletters can serve multiple crucial functions in the evolution of email marketing. Firstly, they act as a living laboratory, allowing ESPs (Email Service Providers) to experiment with and refine new ideas before introducing them to brands. This iterative process ensures that only the most effective and engaging concepts make their way into mainstream email marketing strategies.

Secondly, they provide a practical platform for showcasing the value of Mu, the micro-incentive system. By incorporating Atomic Rewards into newsletters, brands can demonstrate how gamification turns email into a rewarding, habit-forming activity for users. Each interaction within the email ecosystem—be it opening a newsletter, engaging with interactive content, or completing a survey—becomes an opportunity to earn Mu. These rewards can be redeemed for exclusive offers, discounts, or other perks, making email engagement both fun and valuable for consumers. This gamification approach not only increases user engagement but also provides brands with valuable data on user preferences and behaviours.

Most importantly, these newsletters have the potential to redefine how users interact with their inboxes, creating new habits and expectations. By offering compelling, personalised content that updates in real-time, B2C newsletters can actively shape consumer behaviour, paving the way for a future where the inbox is a destination for engagement, not just communication. In an era where inboxes are often inundated with generic, static messages, this shift toward a more dynamic, app-like experience provides users with a compelling reason to return to their inbox multiple times a day.

B2C newsletters, when combined with BEAM (Better Email for Attention and Monetisation) and BEAN (Brand Email Ad Network) form a powerful triad that will drive the new email ecosystem forward. They are built on the five pillars of AMP, Email Envelope, Atomic Rewards, Containers, and ActionAds. This integrated approach moves beyond the limitations of traditional email marketing, unlocking the potential of multi-monetisation, hyper-personalisation, and long-term engagement. By embedding interactive content, real-time updates, and rewarding incentives directly into the email experience, this ecosystem can significantly reduce reliance on costly customer acquisition efforts and foster stronger, more profitable customer relationships.

This triad represents the future of email marketing – a world where both consumer and brand newsletters are no longer static blasts but dynamic, interactive platforms that provide value, personalisation, and long-term engagement, transforming the very nature of the inbox. By creating a more engaging and valuable email experience, this new ecosystem has the potential to recapture user attention that has been increasingly fragmented across various digital platforms.

Moreover, this revolutionary approach to email marketing presents a significant economic opportunity. This new email ecosystem can unlock tens of billions of dollars of AdWaste for ESPs, publishers, and advertisers. By redirecting funds from inefficient acquisition strategies to more targeted, engaging, and measurable email campaigns, businesses can dramatically improve their return on marketing investment. This shift not only benefits brands but also creates new revenue streams for ESPs and publishers, who can leverage this enhanced engagement to offer more valuable advertising opportunities.

5

Active Database

In the context of BEAM and BEAN, every brand’s email list can be divided into two distinct segments: the Active Database and the Inactive Database. Understanding the unique dynamics of these two groups is crucial for maximising engagement, monetising attention, and efficiently utilising marketing resources within the new email ecosystem.

The active database comprises subscribers who regularly engage with a brand’s emails. These users open, click, and interact with the content, making them prime targets for deeper engagement and monetisation strategies.

Driving More Engagement

To sustain and elevate engagement, brands need to focus on making the body of the email more dynamic, interactive, and personalised. Here, the Email Envelope concept comes into play, housing various interactive elements. By incorporating elements like Email Minis – subscriptions to specialised email-based micro-apps – brands can significantly boost retention and interest. These Minis deliver bite-sized, interactive content such as surveys, quizzes, and product recommendations, encouraging users to engage repeatedly with minimal effort.

Leveraging Mu (Atomic Rewards) as a gamification tool further incentivises users to take actions such as opening emails or completing tasks within the email, adding a layer of fun and motivation. This aligns perfectly with the BEAM framework, enhancing both attention and monetisation by driving frequent and sustained interactions.

In addition, integrating dynamic Containers, which house micro-experiences directly within the email, adds another level of interactivity. Whether it’s real-time news updates, personalised content, or mini-games, Containers enable brands to keep their emails fresh and compelling, ensuring every interaction feels new and valuable. This approach embodies the app-like experience central to the new email ecosystem, encouraging users to return to their inbox with the same frequency and enthusiasm they might check a mobile app.

Zero-Party Data for Personalisation and Targeting

The active database presents a valuable opportunity to collect Zero-Party Data (ZPD), which is data voluntarily shared by users. This can be harnessed to refine personalisation strategies, enabling brands to deliver hyper-personalised content and highly targeted ads based on each individual’s self-expressed preferences. Unlike inferred data, ZPD provides more accurate insights into user behaviours and interests, allowing brands to serve more relevant, personalised emails and ads with greater precision, ultimately improving both user experience and return on ad spend. This aligns seamlessly with the AI-driven personalisation capabilities central to the BEAM framework.

Containers, with their dynamic and interactive nature, offer an excellent mechanism for collecting ZPD. By embedding engaging elements such as quizzes, polls, and preference selectors within the email, brands can encourage users to voluntarily share their preferences, interests, and needs. For instance, a quiz on product choices or a poll on content preferences allows users to interact meaningfully with the email while providing brands with valuable, self-disclosed data. These interactions are seamless and feel less intrusive than traditional data collection methods, as they are integrated naturally into the email experience. Over time, as users engage more with these Containers, brands can build comprehensive digital profiles of each subscriber, enhancing the precision of future personalisation and ad targeting efforts. This enables brands to deliver hyper-personalised offers, product recommendations, and ads that deeply resonate with the user’s individual preferences and needs.

Monetising Attention via ActionAds

Monetising attention in the active database is the next frontier for email marketing. ActionAds, a key component of BEAN, allows brands to place ads that users can interact with directly within the email. These highly targeted, in-email ads drive engagement without the friction of redirecting users to external websites. ActionAds could be part of an in-house media network or facilitated through an exchange/network to run third-party ads.

By allowing non-competing brands to place relevant ads within their emails, brands can monetise email real estate, creating new revenue streams. This approach transforms transactional and promotional emails into a dynamic platform for generating additional income, all while maintaining and even enhancing user engagement. By combining the power of ActionAds with personalised content and dynamic interactivity, the active database becomes not just a tool for engagement but a crucial revenue driver in the new email ecosystem, revolutionising the economics of email marketing.

6

Inactive Database

The inactive database consists of users who have stopped engaging with a brand’s emails, often considered a lost segment by marketers. However, instead of writing these users off and resorting to costly reacquisition efforts via Big Adtech, brands should explore more effective reactivation strategies via email. This approach aligns perfectly with the anti-acquisition mindset central to BEAM and BEAN, which prioritises deepening relationships with existing customers over the relentless pursuit of new ones.

Reactivating inactive users can be approached in two primary ways.

Direct Reactivation via the Brand’s Own Domain

This method involves sending targeted reactivation campaigns directly from the brand’s email domain, capitalising on the established permission granted by the user’s email subscription. The key to success lies in offering something compelling, such as:

• Special offers or discounts to entice users back
• Personalised incentives based on previous behaviour, tailoring content to each user
• Re-engagement prompts that remind subscribers of the brand’s value proposition

Incorporating AMP and Atomic Rewards (Mu) makes these emails dynamic and interactive. AMP enables in-email actions, allowing users to complete tasks such as browsing products or filling out surveys without leaving the email. This reduces friction and encourages immediate interaction.

Adding Mu in the subject line creates curiosity and motivates users to open the email. Offering Mu points for engaging with content like quizzes or offers within Containers adds a layer of gamification. These micro-rewards can be redeemed for discounts or perks, encouraging continued interaction.

By making emails more interactive, personalised, and rewarding, brands can effectively re-engage dormant subscribers and foster long-term engagement through these dynamic reactivation campaigns.

Indirect Reactivation via Third-Party Emails

This innovative strategy involves reaching out to inactive users through third-party emails, allowing brands to reconnect with subscribers who may still be actively engaging with content from other sources. By leveraging external email ecosystems, brands can create a new touchpoint to reignite interest. The key components of this approach include:

• Using BEAN (Brand Email Ad Network) to partner with email publishers who reach relevant audiences, ensuring the brand’s reactivation efforts appear in the right context.
• Displaying reactivation-focused ActionAds within third-party emails, offering targeted, in-email actions that allow users to engage without leaving their inbox.
• Leveraging Email Minis to bundle relevant, bite-sized content with personalised reactivation offers, making the experience more engaging and less intrusive.

For instance, a fitness brand could partner with a popular health-related newsletter to place an ActionAd offering a short series of wellness content along with special discounts on workout gear to former subscribers. By aligning the ad with content that the user is already interested in, the brand maximises its chances of reconnecting with disengaged users in a natural and non-intrusive way. This method expands the reach of reactivation efforts beyond the brand’s own email domain, helping to win back users who may have stopped engaging with direct brand communications but remain active elsewhere.

The Anti-Acquisition Approach

Both strategies align with the anti-acquisition framework by focusing on re-engaging existing subscribers rather than chasing new ones. Benefits include:

• Lower costs compared to reacquisition efforts
• Targeting users already familiar with the brand
• Unlocking untapped potential within the inactive database
• Increasing customer lifetime value without expensive reacquisition

7

ZeroCPM – 1

A significant, often overlooked incentive for adopting the new email ecosystem lies in addressing the staggering $350 billion annual spend wasted on reacquisition and wrong or low-value customer acquisition. This inefficiency in marketing budgets is almost 50 times the size of the current email delivery market that ESPs (Email Service Providers) typically tap into. This creates a unique opportunity: could ESPs rethink their revenue model and, instead of charging brands for email delivery, leverage a monetisation strategy that offers ZeroCPM (zero cost per thousand emails)?

Here is what I have written about ZeroCPM in previous essays.

Email’s New Triad: AMPs, Epps, Ads: “On the monetisation front, ads in email have not largely limited to newsletters sent by media companies. This is about to change. Action Ads in emails will create a new revenue stream for list owners (ecommerce companies, publishers, writers). These ads, which can factor in identity (email address) and process payments, can create new business models around email. Instead of CPM-based pricing, emails could conceivably become free (“ZeroCPM”) with revenue sharing between the list owner and the email service provider.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: “An alternative to CPM, the CPA model prices emails based on the actions taken by recipients. This performance-based approach could involve “ZeroCPM,” where there is no upfront cost for sending emails, and a payout occurs only when users perform specific actions within the email, such as clicking a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase. This model aligns costs directly with outcomes, making it attractive for marketers focused on ROI. It incentivises email platforms to optimise for engagement and conversion, ensuring that the innovations like AMPlets and Epps deliver measurable value.”

Email Envelope: Eight Elements to Energise Engagement: “Performance Pricing transforms the email marketing cost structure by shifting from traditional volume-based pricing to a model directly aligned with campaign performance. Building on the ZeroCPM concept, this approach changes the dynamics between Email Service Providers (ESPs) and their clients. The ZeroCPM model eliminates upfront costs per thousand emails sent, instead tying compensation to specific outcomes such as conversion-based pricing (fees based on actual sales or sign-ups), engagement-based pricing (costs tied to open rates, click-through rates, or time spent interacting with the email), revenue share models (ESPs receiving a percentage of revenue generated from email campaigns), and action-based pricing (charges based on specific user actions within interactive email elements). This outcomes-based approach offers several benefits: risk sharing between ESPs and clients, incentivising ESPs to improve email performance and deliverability, and encouraging innovation in email engagement strategies. Performance Pricing, combined with the ZeroCPM model, transforms email marketing from a cost centre to a performance-driven, ROI-focused channel, aligning the interests of ESPs, marketers, and end-users, and driving the industry towards more effective, value-driven email communications.”

8

ZeroCPM – 2

ZeroCPM envisions a future where email delivery is free for brands, drastically reducing costs for customer communication. This revolutionary approach challenges the traditional email service provider business model, opening up new possibilities for both ESPs and brands. Instead of relying on conventional email service fees, ESPs could monetise brand emails through ActionAds – interactive, in-email ads that seamlessly blend with brand content, allowing users to engage without leaving their inbox. These ads could be part of an in-house media network or facilitated through third-party exchanges, creating a new revenue stream for ESPs and brands alike.

The concept of ActionAds represents a paradigm shift in email advertising. Unlike traditional display ads that require users to click through to external websites, PII-powered ActionAds leverage the interactive capabilities of AMP technology to enable user actions directly within the email. This could include making purchases, signing up for services, or participating in surveys – all without leaving the inbox. By reducing friction and enhancing user experience, ActionAds have the potential to dramatically improve conversion rates and engagement metrics.

For brands, this shift would mean they can run large-scale, highly-targeted email campaigns without worrying about the rising costs of customer communication. With ActionAds embedded in transactional or promotional emails, brands could generate additional income while simultaneously engaging customers with relevant content. This method not only offsets email delivery costs but also transforms the email channel into a revenue driver. Moreover, the rich data generated from user interactions with ActionAds can provide valuable insights for further personalisation and targeting, creating a virtuous cycle of improved engagement and increased revenue.

The ZeroCPM model, powered by ActionAds, aligns perfectly with the anti-acquisition framework central to BEAM and BEAN. By reducing the cost barrier for email communication, brands can focus more on nurturing existing customer relationships rather than constantly chasing new acquisitions. This shift in focus from acquisition to retention and engagement can lead to significant improvements in customer lifetime value and overall marketing efficiency.

By adopting this model, ESPs could position themselves as key players in solving the enormous problem of marketing inefficiency, enabling brands to reduce their dependency on costly reacquisition efforts. As brands shift their focus towards retention and reactivation, the new email ecosystem – powered by ZeroCPM and ActionAds – can unlock vast untapped potential, creating a win-win for both ESPs and the brands they serve.

Because every email sender is both a publisher and an advertiser, the implementation of ZeroCPM and ActionAds represents a fundamental reimagining of the email marketing landscape. It transforms email from a cost centre into a profit centre, aligns the interests of ESPs and brands more closely, and creates a more engaging, interactive experience for end-users. As this model gains traction, it has the potential to reshape the entire digital marketing industry, redirecting billions of dollars from inefficient acquisition strategies towards more effective, targeted engagement through email.

**

To summarise: the new email ecosystem’s five foundational pillars – AMP, Email Envelope, Atomic Rewards, Containers, and ActionAds – create a powerful framework that transforms email into an interactive and dynamic platform. B2C newsletters showcase the immense potential of this system, demonstrating how brands can move beyond static messages to personalised, engaging content that drives repeated interaction. On the B2B side, BEAM and BEAN build a foundation for monetisation and personalisation through ActionAds and zero-party data, unlocking new revenue streams while enhancing user experience. By segmenting email databases into active and inactive groups, brands can optimise engagement and reactivation strategies, tapping into the vast potential of underutilised subscribers. The introduction of ZeroCPM offers an innovative solution to the $350 billion wasted on inefficient acquisition, allowing brands to eliminate email delivery costs and monetise their communications through ActionAds. This holistic approach not only reimagines the economics of email marketing but also unlocks vast potential in reducing AdWaste.

**

Postscript: After I wrote this essay, I realised that this new email ecosystem needed a name – a  term that encapsulates its revolutionary nature and distinguishes it from traditional email marketing. The word I came up with is “NeoMail.” This term reflects the rebirth of email as a dynamic, interactive, and value-driven medium. NeoMail represents not just an evolution, but a complete reimagining of what email can be in the AI age. It’s a vision of email that’s new, powerful, and poised to redefine how brands and consumers interact in the digital space.

Published December 1, 2024

1

Three Ideas

In recent weeks, I have discussed two ideas: The Age of Anti-Acquisition and BEAN (Brand Email Ad Network).

The House of Anti-Acquisition represents a paradigm shift in marketing strategy, addressing the unsustainable practices of excessive customer acquisition and AdWaste. This framework aims to transform businesses from profitless entities into ‘profipolies’ – industry leaders in profitability. The core goal is to maximise customer Lifetime Value (LTV) whilst minimising Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC). Built on ten critical tenets, the House comprises three pillars: Better Data (utilising Unistack and Unichannel for a unified customer view, and leveraging a Large Customer Model), Better Customer Experience (enabling in-channel conversions in all push channels, and creating differentiated experiences for the most valuable customers), and Better Personalisation (leveraging AI-powered Co-Marketers and AI Twins). These are supported by three foundations: AI (predictive, generative, and agentic capabilities), Kaizen Progency (continuous improvement via a thin services layer), and redefined Metrics and Leadership (focusing on Earned Growth and evolving the CMO role to focus on profits). This framework challenges the status quo, prioritising retention over acquisition and utilising AI-driven strategies to achieve sustainable, profitable growth in the digital age.

BEAN, the Brand Email Ad Network, is a new approach to email marketing that transforms traditional email strategies into a dynamic, revenue-generating ecosystem. It leverages advanced technologies like AMP and ActionAds to create interactive, in-email experiences that drive engagement and conversions. BEAN enables brands to monetise their email lists by hosting ads from non-competing companies, while also providing a cost-effective platform for reactivating dormant customers. Operating on innovative models like ZeroCPM and barter exchanges, BEAN creates a flexible marketplace where brands can act as both publishers and advertisers. It utilises a secure ‘clean room’ environment for data matching, ensuring privacy compliance. With real-time analytics, AI-driven optimisations, and the ability to facilitate both local and global targeting, BEAN represents the future of email marketing. It promises to reduce customer acquisition costs, increase engagement, and open new revenue streams, positioning email as a central pillar in modern digital marketing strategies.

In this essay, I introduce BEAM (Better Email for Attention and Monetisation), a groundbreaking concept designed to revolutionise marketers’ anti-acquisition strategies by forging powerful hotlines to their customers. BEAM reimagines email marketing by encapsulating the core marketing message within an innovative “email envelope”. This dynamic wrapper incorporates Mu, a micro-incentive system, directly into the subject line, while featuring an engaging, interactive footer. Together, these elements ensure unprecedented open rates and sustained user engagement. By transforming the traditional email newsletter into an attention magnet, BEAM not only enhances customer engagement but also unlocks new monetisation opportunities through the strategic implementation of ActionAds. BEAM and BEAN can together power a new era in email marketing, modernising an old and trusted market channel for the age of Anti-Acquisition and AI.

2

Email Envelope

BEAM has two elements: a better email body (using AMP) and a wrapper (Email Envelope). I discussed the idea of the Email Envelope in an essay a few months ago. I used ChatGPT and Claude to summarise the key ideas.

The Email Envelope concept is a transformative framework that reinvents traditional email marketing by enhancing engagement, interaction, and personalisation. It introduces a dynamic “wrapper” around the standard email body, creating new opportunities for interactivity and value delivery. At its core, the Email Envelope comprises eight key elements that work synergistically to capture attention, retain engagement, and drive actions—fundamentally changing how marketers connect with their audience.

1. Mu in Subject: This element uses gamification by incorporating “Atomic Rewards” (represented by the symbol “µ”) directly into the subject line. Recipients see their current Mu balance, enticing them to open the email to earn more points. This innovation transforms the passive act of scanning one’s inbox into a rewarding experience, establishing a cycle of habitual engagement.
2. Epps Header: A dynamic, interactive strip at the top of the email that offers real-time content like weather updates, stock tickers, or personalised greetings. This header serves as an immediate engagement point, delivering instant value and making every email feel timely and relevant.
3. Epps Footer: Traditionally underutilised, the footer now becomes an interactive hub that hosts mini-games, quizzes, loyalty programme updates, and feedback mechanisms. Its dynamic nature and ability to update in real-time ensure that each email provides fresh and engaging content, significantly extending its lifespan and value.
4. ActionAds: These interactive ads are embedded within the email itself, allowing recipients to complete actions – such as purchases, form submissions, or newsletter sign-ups – without leaving their inbox. This in-place interaction drastically reduces friction, enhances user experience, and opens up new monetisation streams for brands and email service providers.
5. AMPifier: Acting as the dynamic processor within the email delivery pipeline, the AMPifier automatically converts standard HTML into interactive AMP-powered emails. This backend element ensures compatibility across email clients and lays the foundation for rich, dynamic email experiences, democratising access to advanced features for marketers of all technical skill levels.
6. API Injection: This technology enables real-time integration of Envelope elements at the point of delivery. Through API Injection, dynamic components like Mu balances, real-time updates, and ActionAds are seamlessly personalised based on user data and context, ensuring that every email feels individually tailored without adding complexity to the email creation process.
7. AI + Email: AI integration allows for hyper-personalised content generation and dynamic adaptation based on real-time behaviour and preferences. It leverages advanced models like the Email Language Model (ELM) and Email Twins to optimise subject lines, predict content relevance, and tailor each interaction to the recipient’s unique patterns, creating a truly bespoke email experience.
8. Performance Pricing: A revolutionary pricing model that aligns email marketing costs with actual engagement and outcomes rather than volume. By employing concepts like ZeroCPM, engagement-based pricing, and revenue-sharing, it transforms email from a cost centre to a profit centre, incentivising better performance and value for both brands and email service providers.

The Email Envelope, with its comprehensive structure, sets a new standard for email marketing, turning every message into a platform for interaction, engagement, and sustained profitability. It represents a complete reimagining of email’s potential, with each of the eight elements playing a specific role in converting passive communications into active, value-driven experiences. Together, these elements form the foundation of BEAM (Better Email for Attention and Monetisation), a broader concept that harnesses the power of dynamic content, real-time engagement, and performance-based monetisation to redefine email marketing for the digital age. BEAM promises to revolutionise how brands connect with their audience, offering unprecedented levels of personalisation, engagement, and measurable results.

3

Explainer – 1

The following 20 points outline a shift in digital marketing, demonstrating how BEAM and BEAN synergistically combat rising acquisition costs and usher in a new era of email-centric, retention-focused strategies. This roadmap illustrates the transition from wasteful acquisition practices to a more sustainable, profitable approach in customer engagement and monetisation.

1. The Acquisition Dilemma: Businesses are trapped in an escalating cycle of customer acquisition costs (CAC). As digital advertising becomes more competitive, the cost to acquire each new customer continues to rise, eroding profit margins and creating an unsustainable dependency on constant acquisition and re-acquisition. Without a profitable way to maintain these customer relationships, businesses end up chasing numbers and top-line growth at the expense of long-term value and customer loyalty, leading to high churn rates and decreased customer lifetime value.
2. The AdWaste Crisis: Approximately half of acquisition budgets are wasted on ineffective strategies. This “AdWaste” stems from acquiring low-value customers who churn quickly and repeatedly paying to reacquire former customers who have become inactive. Unlike traditional advertising, this digital waste is measurable and preventable, highlighting the urgent need to redirect resources.
3. The Failure of Current Solutions: Attempts to improve Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) through more efficient adtech yield only marginal improvements. Major adtech platforms, with their sophisticated auction and real-time bidding systems, have created a near-perfect market, making significant efficiency gains nearly impossible. This is due to market saturation, algorithmic optimisation reaching its limits, and the increasing sophistication of competitors all vying for the same ad spaces.
4. The Anti-Acquisition Revolution: To break free from this cycle, businesses need to adopt an “anti-acquisition” mindset. This approach shifts the focus from constantly seeking new customers to maximising value from existing relationships. The House of Anti-Acquisition framework, with its ten tenets, provides a comprehensive strategy for this paradigm shift. This shift demands rethinking the role of marketing from growth-at-any-cost to profitability-first.
5. Email: The Untapped Potential: Email emerges as the most potent and cost-effective channel for building strong customer relationships. Unlike social media or search platforms, email offers direct, unmediated access to customers, making it ideal for creating “hotlines” – strong direct connections with existing customers that drive engagement and reduce churn.
6. From Static to Interactive: Traditional email marketing, often consisting of static images with links to external landing pages, must evolve. Interactive, dynamic experiences within the email itself eliminate the friction of click-throughs and significantly boost interaction rates. This shift transforms email into a mini-app, blurring the lines between communication and conversion.
7. Customer Experience Transformation: The aim is to redefine email marketing by shifting it from a basic messaging medium to an immersive experience. Every email becomes an interactive engagement touchpoint, offering in-channel actions, personalised content, and context-aware interactions. This transformation turns the customer’s inbox into a dynamic surface where value is delivered with every message, ensuring stronger connections and lasting loyalty. As a result, customer retention rates improve, and the need for constant re-acquisition diminishes.

4

Explainer – 2

8. Reimagining Email with BEAM: BEAM (Better Email for Attention and Monetisation) revolutionises email marketing by introducing the concept of an “email envelope”. This content-rich wrapper around the main marketing message transforms emails from simple communications into daily utilities for customers, dramatically increasing open rates and engagement.
9. The Power of Micro-Incentives: BEAM incorporates Mu, a micro-incentive (“atomic rewards”) system, directly into email subject lines and for in-mail actions. This gamification element motivates opens and in-email interactions, making every email a potential touchpoint for engagement rather than an ignored notification.
10. The Power of AI and Automation: BEAM leverages AI to optimise personalisation and automate repetitive tasks, ensuring that each interaction is tailored to the recipient’s unique preferences and behaviours. This enables real-time adjustments to content, offers, and interactions, making every email more relevant and impactful. For example, AI might dynamically adjust product recommendations based on a customer’s recent browsing history or tailor the email’s tone and content based on the recipient’s past engagement patterns.
11. Advanced Analytics for Continuous Optimisation: BEAM is equipped with advanced analytics capabilities, offering brands real-time insights into engagement, conversions, and user behaviour. This data-driven approach enables continuous optimisation, ensuring that every email sent is fine-tuned for maximum impact. With actionable analytics, brands can swiftly adapt their strategies, making data the core driver of decision-making and engagement.
12. Cross-Channel Integration: BEAM is not just confined to email – it acts as a foundational element in a broader omnichannel strategy. Insights and data collected through these interactions can be seamlessly used to enhance engagement across other channels like SMS, WhatsApp, RCS, push notifications, and social media. This integration ensures a cohesive customer journey, making every channel work in synergy for better results. The result is a seamless, consistent experience for customers, regardless of how they choose to interact with the brand.
13. Monetisation through BEAN: BEAN (Brand Email Ad Network) introduces ActionAds, a new form of email advertising that leverages the unique advantages of email: Personally Identifiable Information (PII), push delivery, in-place interactions, and seamless payment options. ActionAds enable immediate conversions without the need for external landing pages.
14. Creating the Email Media Network: BEAN creates an ad network specifically for emails, efficiently matching advertisers with suitable email audiences. This network acts as an exchange, facilitating the placement of ads and creating new revenue streams for brands. With BEAN, emails become not just a communication tool, but a monetisation engine.
15. Privacy-First Reactivation Strategies: BEAN’s clean room environment enables brands to reactivate dormant customers through other brands’ engaged email lists. This process respects privacy while enabling highly targeted reactivation campaigns, thus addressing a key component of AdWaste.

5

Explainer – 3

16. Zero-Party Data Collection: The interactive nature of BEAM- and BEAN-powered emails facilitates zero-party data collection – information that customers intentionally and proactively share with a brand – allowing for more precise and effective targeting. This method not only enhances engagement but also lays the groundwork for a more data-driven approach to retention marketing, while respecting customer privacy and preferences.
17. Co-Creation and Partnership Opportunities: BEAM and BEAN open new avenues for brands to collaborate through shared audiences and co-marketing campaigns. By partnering with complementary brands, companies can co-create engaging email experiences, share data insights in a privacy-compliant manner, and tap into each other’s customer bases. For instance, a fitness brand might partner with a nutrition company to offer a joint email campaign featuring workout tips and healthy recipes, providing added value to both customer bases. This collaborative approach not only amplifies reach but also maximises the value delivered to customers, turning competitors into partners for growth.
18. Brands as Publishers: BEAN transforms every brand into a publisher, enabling them to monetise their email audience. By repurposing email into a monetisation channel, brands can generate new revenue streams while delivering value to their subscribers. This shift turns email from a cost centre into a profit centre, offsetting marketing costs and maximising engagement.
19. The Path to Sustainable Profitability: By enabling multi-monetisation, reducing CAC, and improving Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), BEAM and BEAN put brands on a path to building sustainable profitable businesses. This shift from constant acquisition to retention and value maximisation is essential for achieving long-term success in the digital marketplace.
20. Heralding a New Era in Email Marketing: Together, BEAM and BEAN herald a new era in email marketing. They transform email from a passive communication tool of the past into a powerful engine for customer retention, engagement, and revenue generation. This aligns perfectly with the anti-acquisition mindset, enabling brands to move beyond mere customer acquisition and towards building deeper, more valuable relationships. As this new era unfolds, we can expect to see a shift in marketing strategies across industries, with email reclaiming its position as a central pillar of digital customer engagement and driving sustainable business growth for years to come.

In essence, BEAM and BEAN are not just innovations in email marketing; they represent a fundamental shift in how brands engage, monetise, and sustain relationships. By embracing these strategies, companies can break free from the costly acquisition-reacquisition cycle and build a future of sustainable profitability through deeper customer connections.

6

Sample Emails – 1

I asked ChatGPT and Claude to incorporate the BEAM and BEAN ideas and create 2 emails: one sent by a Media Giant and another by E-Shop Express (an eCommerce brand).

ChatGPT

Email #1: Media Giant (News Email)

Subject Line:
µ50 Points Inside! | Your Morning Headlines and Exclusive Features

Epps Header:

• “Good Morning, [Name]! Here’s today’s top news for you.”
• Live Update: Breaking News Ticker – “Market Rallies Amidst Economic Optimism”
• Quick Link: [Bookmark Top Stories] | [Read Today’s Editorials]

Main Content Body:

• Top Stories Section:
  • Story 1: “Political Shift: What This Means for the Economy”
  • Story 2: “Tech Giants Announce New AI Breakthroughs”
  • Story 3: “Travel Rebounds: Top 10 Destinations for 2024”
  • Story 4: “Health Insights: New Studies on Longevity”

Each headline is clickable and expands within the email to show a brief synopsis, accompanied by a “Read Full Article” button that opens in a new tab if required.

• Interactive Poll Section:
  “What is your top priority for 2024?”

– [ ] Health

– [ ] Wealth

– [ ] Career

– [ ] Leisure

Receive +10 Mu Points for participating!

• In-Mail Quiz Section:
  “Guess the Author: Which journalist wrote this opinion piece?”
  (Select your answer below to earn 20 Mu Points)

• • Option A: John Doe
  • Option B: Jane Smith
  • Option C: Maria Lopez
    (Correct answers will also unlock exclusive content for tomorrow’s newsletter.)

Epps Footer:

• Daily Mini-Crossword Puzzle: Complete the puzzle to unlock your personalised horoscope.
• Live Sports Score Update: [Track your favourite teams]
• Podcast of the Day: [Listen Now to our Editor’s Picks]
  (All activities reward users with Mu Points, boosting engagement and ensuring every section is actionable.)

ActionAds for Monetisation:

1. Sponsored Interactive Quiz:
   “Win a free audiobook subscription!”
   (Answer three questions to participate and earn 100 Mu Points)

1. • Sponsored by [e-LibraryCo]
     (Once completed, a button pops up: “Claim Free 1-Month Trial” – All actions are completed within the email itself.)

2. Branded Content Block:
   “Exclusive Deal: Subscribe to [Finance Weekly] and Get 30% Off!”
   (Click here to apply the discount code within your subscription confirmation.)
3. In-Mail Interactive Form:
   “Tell Us Your Favourite Sections, and Win!”

1. • Answer the short survey (multiple choice)
   • (Complete for a chance to win a free Annual Subscription.)
     (Sponsored by [eMagazinesPro]. No need to leave the inbox – all submissions are instant.)

Email #2: E-Shop Express (eCommerce Email)

Subject Line:
µ100 Points for Grabs! Discover New Deals and Limited Offers Inside!

Epps Header:

• Personalised Greeting: “Hi [Name], ready to shop the latest deals?”
• Real-Time Update: “Free Shipping for the next 2 hours!” | “Your Cart: 3 Items Waiting”
• Quick Actions: [View Cart] | [Browse Bestsellers] | [Find a Store Near You]

Main Content Body:

• Dynamic Product Carousel:

• • “Recommended for You:”
  • Item 1: Smartwatch Pro – 20% off today
  • Item 2: Wireless Earbuds – Buy 1 Get 1 Free
  • Item 3: Luxury Skincare Set – New Arrival
    Each product can be added to the cart directly from the email, using an “Add to Cart” button below each item.

• Limited-Time Flash Sale Section:
  “Flash Sale: 50% Off Select Items – Ends in 3:00:00 Hours!”
  (Countdown timer embedded in the email header updates in real-time.)

• • Product Grid: 6 featured items
  • [Add All to Cart] | [Shop Now]
    (Every purchase earns 50 Mu Points automatically.)

• Loyalty Programme Update:
  “You’ve earned 250 Mu Points this month! Redeem Now for Exclusive Rewards.”
  (Click to view reward options or convert points into store credits.)

Epps Footer:

• Virtual Fitting Room:

• • “Try Before You Buy: Explore Our New Virtual Fitting Feature”
  • (Users can upload a picture or choose a model, and see the latest clothing range live.)
    (Try Now button leads to interactive module within the email.)

• Product Reviews Widget:

• • “See What Others Are Saying!”
  • [Scroll through reviews] | [Leave Your Own]
    (Earn +10 Mu Points for submitting a review.)

• Referral Programme:

• • “Invite a Friend and Get ₹500 Off!”
  • [Share via Email] | [Share on Social Media]
    (Referral links and social sharing buttons are embedded for instant use.)

ActionAds for Monetisation:

1. Interactive Ad Block:
   “Introducing the New [SmartHome Assistant]: Control Your Home with Just Your Voice!”
   (Buy now directly from the email for a special discount.)
   (Sponsored by [HomeTech])
2. Embedded Affiliate Ad:
   “Get 10% Off Your Next Vacation!”
   (Answer a quick survey about your travel preferences and unlock your coupon.)
   (Sponsored by [TripMax] – All interactions are seamless and require no redirect.)
3. In-Mail Exclusive Offer:
   “Special Bundle Offer: Buy 2 Get 1 Free on Beauty Products.”
   (Choose your bundle preferences directly within the email and checkout instantly.)
   (Sponsored by [BeautyBox])

7

Sample Emails – 2

Claude

Media Giant News Email

Subject: µ500 | Breaking News: Global Summit Begins – Earn Mu & Stay Informed!

[Epps Header]
Good morning, [Recipient Name]! Current Affairs Quiz: 3 questions, 50 Mu each. Your Mu balance: 500
Live Updates: Global Summit 2024 | Trending: #ClimateAction | Stock Market: ▲1.2%

[Main Content] Today’s Top Stories:

1. Global Leaders Convene for Climate Summit
2. Tech Giants Announce Breakthrough in Quantum Computing
3. Sports: Underdog Team Makes Historic Championship Win

[Interactive Element] 🎲 Daily News Challenge: Test your knowledge on today’s headlines! [Button: Start Quiz – Earn 150 Mu]

[Epps Footer]

1. Customise Your News Feed [Interactive dropdown to select preferred topics]
2. Weather Forecast [Dynamic local weather information]
3. Community Poll: “What’s the most critical global issue?” [Interactive voting buttons]

[ActionAds]

1. E-Shop Express: “Exclusive 24-hour Sale on Eco-friendly Products” [Interactive product carousel with ‘Add to Cart’ buttons]
2. TravelEase: “Plan Your Next Adventure” [Interactive destination quiz with instant travel package recommendations]
3. FinTech Solutions: “Invest in Your Future” [One-click sign-up for a free investment webinar]

[Mu Management]
Your current Mu: 500 | Earn more: Share this newsletter (50 Mu), Complete our weekly survey (100 Mu)
[Progress bar showing path to next reward tier]

E-Shop Express Email

Subject: µ750 | Your Personalised Style Guide Awaits – Open for Exclusive Offers!

[Epps Header] Welcome back, [Recipient Name]! Your Mu balance: 750 | Loyalty Status: Silver
Flash Sale: 2 hours left | Your Cart: 3 items | Wishlist Updates: 2 new price drops

[Main Content] Your Curated Style Picks:

1. [Product Name] – Based on your recent purchases
2. [Product Name] – Trending in your area
3. [Product Name] – Completing your wishlist look

[Interactive Element]
🎨 Mix & Match Styler: Create your perfect outfit!
[Button: Start Styling – Earn 50 Mu]

[Epps Footer]

1. Style Quiz: “Discover Your Summer Look” [Interactive quiz with product recommendations]
2. Loyalty Program Update [Dynamic progress bar towards next tier]
3. Sustainable Fashion Tips [Daily eco-friendly fashion advice]

[ActionAds]

1. BeautyBliss: “Complete Your Look” [Interactive makeup palette with ‘Shop Now’ button]
2. FitLife Gear: “Elevate Your Workout” [One-tap sign-up for a 7-day free trial of premium fitness content]
3. Foodie Delights: “Gourmet Meals Delivered” [In-email ordering system for meal kits]

[Mu Management]
Your current Mu: 750 | Redeem now: 500 Mu for £10 off, 1000 Mu for free shipping
[Interactive Mu redemption options]

**

BEAM and BEAN represent a paradigm shift in email marketing, offering a powerful solution to the challenges of rising acquisition costs and declining engagement. By transforming emails into interactive, personalised experiences, these innovations create strong customer hotlines that drive retention and reduce the dependency on costly reacquisition. The synergy between BEAM’s engaging content and BEAN’s monetisation capabilities not only opens new revenue streams but also deepens customer relationships. As businesses embrace this anti-acquisition mindset, they position themselves for sustainable growth and increased profitability. The email inbox, long overlooked and underutilised, now emerges as a central hub for customer engagement and value creation. Forward-thinking marketers who adopt these strategies will find themselves at the forefront of a new era in digital marketing – one that prioritises customer value, engagement, and long-term profitability over short-term gains.

Published November 30, 2024

1

Overview

In today’s digital marketing landscape, brands face a persistent and costly challenge: the cycle of customer acquisition and reacquisition. This process, particularly reacquisition, has become a significant profit drain for businesses. Paradoxically, brands already possess a direct line to these customers but lack an effective “hotline” to reach them, forcing reliance on expensive ad platforms for re-engagement.

Email advertising, long a staple in the digital marketer’s toolkit, has yet to realise its full potential. Traditional email ads, mimicking web page display ads, have been largely confined to media newsletters. The conventional format, requiring clickthroughs to external landing pages, has deterred brands from fully embracing this medium, fearing distraction from their primary call-to-action within emails.

However, a paradigm shift is imminent. Emerging technologies within the Anti-Acquisition framework are set to transform this landscape, addressing two critical issues simultaneously:

1. Channels 2.0, enabling in-place engagement and conversion, can strengthen connections with existing customers, reducing dormancy and churn.
2. This enhanced attention can be monetised through ActionAds for non-competing brands, creating new revenue streams.

Email, with its unparalleled reach and cost-effectiveness, emerges as the ideal channel to realise this dual potential.

Enter BEAN – the Brand Email Ad Network. This innovative concept integrates multiple cutting-edge ideas:

• AMP technology for interactive emails
• AMPifier for HTML to AMP email conversion
• Email Envelope for dynamic content injection
• Atomic Rewards to boost email open rates
• ActionAds leveraging PII, in-place actions, and seamless payments
• Reactivation strategies as an alternative to costly reacquisition
• Novel ad formats, including one-tap subscriptions to “Email Minis”
• A sophisticated exchange for matching ad supply and demand
• ZeroCPM model, where email service providers absorb sending costs in exchange for ad revenue commission

BEAN offers a twofold advantage for brands: it enables multi-monetisation of existing customers through ads and provides a platform for running reactivation campaigns on other brands’ networks, bypassing traditional Big Adtech platforms. This brand-to-brand ad connectivity could even be structured as a barter system, minimising external financial outflows.

As a cornerstone of the Anti-Acquisition playbook, BEAN represents an untapped opportunity in the market. Its realisation requires an intermediary, ideally an email service provider, to synthesise these innovative concepts into a cohesive platform. The potential reward is substantial: with approximately half of the $300 billion in global AdWaste attributed to reacquisition efforts, BEAN could redirect this spending to bolster brand P&Ls and fuel their Profipoly Quest.

By leveraging the power of email, reimagining ad formats, and creating a seamless, interactive user experience, BEAN has the potential to not only solve the reacquisition problem but also to open up new avenues for brand growth and customer loyalty. BEAN is the future of email marketing and digital advertising, where every inbox becomes a potential goldmine of engagement and revenue.

In this series, we will explore BEAN in depth, examining how this revolutionary approach can reshape the email marketing landscape and provide brands with a powerful tool for customer engagement and revenue generation.

2

Previous Writings

Ads in Emails: Some New Ideas: “Can ads in emails open new opportunities for advertisers, brands, and consumers? My short answer: Yes, the time has come. There are five reasons why change is coming. First, AMP in email can change the format of ads. Instead of clicking through on a display banner to a landing page, ads can become interactive, and the engagement can happen without shifting attention to a new context. Second, with 2024 being the year of the third-party cookie deprecation, advertisers will want better targeting. What better place than an email footer where the PII (email ID) is known? Third, a solution to the email open problem has the potential to dramatically increase open rates and therefore attention. Fourth, with brands facing pressure on profitability, there will be interest in new revenue streams. Finally, new ad formats can create exciting opportunities for advertisers beyond what’s possible with the traditional digital ads we have become so used to.”

Ads in Emails: Some New Ideas: “The key to unlocking this future is to ensure that “Action Ads” generate response for the advertiser, relevance for the publisher (email list owner), rewards for the consumer, and revenues for the ESP…The thinking behind E3 Ads is to create new formats and experiences which delight consumers. The best ads are those where the readers/viewers don’t think of them as ads but as content that is of value to them…With E3 Ads, the business model of email can also be transformed – from “some CPM” to “Zero CPM”. E3 has the potential of being the single channel to address all use cases: acquisition, engagement/retention, and reacquisition. It can do it far more efficiently than current methods. Success with E3 is what can help brands in their Profipoly quest. It can also give the email channel a much-needed makeover for the newer generation of customers.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: “ActionAds represent a revolutionary approach to email advertising, leveraging the interactive capabilities of AMP technology. Unlike traditional email ads that require clickthroughs to external landing pages, ActionAds enable users to complete desired actions directly within the email. They have four key attributes: PII, Push, in-Place, and Payments. This means they can leverage personal information for targeting, utilise email’s push nature, allow in-email actions, and even facilitate payments. ActionAds aim to reduce friction in the customer journey, potentially leading to higher conversion rates.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: “[Email Minis] are brief email series, typically lasting from a few days to a couple of weeks, deliver concentrated, themed content to subscribers. Their power lies in their ability to deliver focused, timely content. Examples could include a week-long fashion advice series, a 10-day financial literacy course, or a 30-day fitness challenge. Email Minis leverage the precision of AI-driven insights with the interactive capabilities of AMP-powered emails. By offering clear value propositions and limited time commitments, Email Minis can attract subscribers who might be hesitant about long-term email engagements, potentially increasing overall email list growth and engagement. Email Minis can easily be subscribed with a single tap via Email Footer Containers or ActionAds.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: “ActionAds could adopt a commission-based model similar to existing adtech platforms, where the email platform takes a percentage cut of the revenue generated from ads. This model is particularly suited for interactive ads that allow users to take action directly within the email, such as purchasing a product or signing up for a service. By aligning the platform’s revenue with the performance of the ads, this model encourages the development of high-quality, engaging advertisements that benefit both brands and users. A bidding system could also be used, allowing advertisers to bid for targeting specific user segments based on their behaviour and preferences. This approach ensures that the most relevant ads are shown to users, maximising engagement and conversion rates. By incorporating advanced targeting and personalisation, this model enhances the effectiveness of email advertising and ensures optimal ad placement.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: [From ChatGPT and Claude] “The ActionAds Exchange aims to create a new paradigm in digital advertising by leveraging the unique capabilities of E3 (Email 3.0) technology. This exchange will specialize in two innovative ad formats: one-tap subscriptions to Email Minis and ActionAds with embedded landing pages. By capitalizing on the interactive nature of AMP-powered emails, we’ll offer advertisers unprecedented engagement opportunities and provide publishers with new revenue streams.”

Email Envelope: Eight Elements to Energise Engagement: “ActionAds revolutionise email advertising by enabling full interactions within the email itself. Leveraging AMP technology, these ads allow recipients to complete actions – from form submissions and purchases to newsletter sign-ups – without ever leaving their inbox. By eliminating the friction of external clickthroughs, ActionAds dramatically enhance user experience and conversion rates. They also open new revenue streams for email senders and ESPs, transforming emails from cost centres into profit generators. The incorporation of PII, push capabilities, in-place interactions, and seamless payment options makes ActionAds a powerful tool for personalised, effective marketing.”

A Premiumisation Playbook for ESPs: Commodity to Profipoly: “ESPs can collaborate with brands to generate revenue through ActionAds embedded in emails. To make this viable, ESPs would need to build email ad networks to create ads that leverage AMP to bring the landing page experience within the email itself. To enhance this model, ESPs can: develop partnerships with existing ad networks to expand reach and inventory, create a self-serve platform for brands to easily create and manage their ActionAds campaigns, offer advanced targeting options using the rich data available from email interactions, and provide real-time analytics and optimisation tools for ActionAds performance. This model enables ESPs to share revenue from the ad performance, aligning their interests with those of the brands.”

3

Workings

In today’s digital landscape, brands face mounting challenges in customer acquisition and retention. The Brand Email Ad Network (BEAN) emerges as a groundbreaking solution, offering a symbiotic ecosystem where media companies and e-commerce brands can thrive. Let’s explore how two hypothetical companies, Media Giant and E-Shop Express, could leverage BEAN to transform their marketing strategies and bottom lines.

Media Giant, a prolific newsletter publisher, sits on a goldmine of subscriber data but struggles to maximise revenue from its email campaigns. E-Shop Express, meanwhile, grapples with skyrocketing customer acquisition costs (CAC) and a growing list of inactive customers. BEAN provides a bridge, allowing these brands to tap into new opportunities for engagement and monetisation.

For Media Giant, the journey begins with a technological upgrade. By converting their HTML newsletters to AMP format, they unlock a world of interactivity within the inbox. This shift allows for real-time content updates, in-email story expansions, and dynamic search functionality – all without requiring readers to leave their email client.

To boost engagement, Media Giant introduces gamification elements, such as “Mu” rewards in email subject lines. These micro-incentives encourage opens and interactions, creating a more compelling user experience. The enhanced content quality, featuring interactive quizzes, surveys, and story chats, further cements reader loyalty and time spent within each email.

Crucially, Media Giant carves out prime real estate within their newsletters for ActionAds – interactive advertisements that allow for in-email actions. They also make their subscriber list available in a secure “clean room” environment within BEAN, enabling precise targeting without compromising user privacy.

E-Shop Express focuses on reactivating dormant customers. It compiles a list of inactive email addresses and uploads it to BEAN for targeted outreach. The e-commerce brand then creates compelling ActionAds, offering one-tap subscriptions to “Email Minis” – short, focused email series – or exclusive deals with seamless, in-email payment options.

BEAN acts as the central nervous system of this ecosystem. It matches E-Shop Express’s target list against Media Giant’s active subscribers, identifying overlap. When a match is found, BEAN serves E-Shop Express’s ActionAd within Media Giant’s newsletter to that specific subscriber.

The magic happens when a Media Giant reader engages with E-Shop Express’s ActionAd. This interaction triggers a payout – either monetary or through a predetermined barter agreement – from E-Shop Express to Media Giant. BEAN facilitates this exchange, acting as a clearinghouse for transactions.

This system offers multiple benefits. Media Giant monetises its email list more effectively, potentially transitioning to a “ZeroCPM” model where email service providers absorb sending costs in exchange for a share of the ad revenue. E-Shop Express reactivates lost customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional reacquisition methods, bypassing expensive ad platforms.

4

Ecosystem – 1

The beauty of BEAN lies not just in the isolated collaboration between two brands, but in its ability to scale across multiple brands and industries, creating a vibrant ecosystem where companies can dynamically switch roles based on their strategic needs. With BEAN, email becomes more than just a communication channel; it transforms into a high-engagement media network where every interaction has the potential to drive revenue, build relationships, and extend reach.

Imagine a scenario where hundreds of brands like Media Giant and E-Shop Express, spanning various industries and sizes, leverage BEAN’s infrastructure. Each brand in this network can choose to act either as a Publisher (like Media Giant) or an Advertiser (like E-Shop Express) — and sometimes even both — depending on their current marketing goals.

Here’s how BEAN enables a wider range of possibilities for brands, creating a new paradigm for cross-brand marketing within the email ecosystem:

1. Bidirectional Role Flexibility

Unlike traditional ad platforms where roles are rigid, BEAN allows brands to fluidly switch roles between Publishers and Advertisers. For example, Media Giant could use BEAN to monetise its newsletters today by hosting ads for e-commerce brands. Tomorrow, if Media Giant finds itself with a growing list of disengaged subscribers, it could switch to the role of an Advertiser and run reactivation campaigns on other brands’ email networks.

Conversely, E-Shop Express might typically be an Advertiser running promotions across various newsletters. But it could easily become a Publisher by opening up its transactional and promotional emails to run ActionAds for non-competing brands, thereby converting its existing email traffic into a new revenue stream.

This flexibility maximises the use of every brand’s email assets, ensuring that every subscriber touchpoint has the potential to deliver additional value, either through revenue or increased engagement.

2. Expanding Reach with Cross-Brand Targeting

BEAN’s true power lies in its ability to act as a centralised “marketplace” for brands. A publisher like Media Giant could onboard multiple advertisers, ranging from other media companies to B2C brands, who all wish to tap into its large subscriber base. In a similar vein, an advertiser like E-Shop Express could run campaigns on multiple publishers simultaneously, creating a multi-channel presence across diverse newsletters without needing to invest in individual partnerships.

The key enabler here is BEAN’s clean room environment, where different brands can share and match their customer segments without compromising data privacy. Through these privacy-safe matches, brands can effectively target subscribers based on behavioural signals, past purchases, or engagement patterns — enhancing the precision of their marketing efforts.

3. Seasonal and Event-Based Collaborations

BEAN facilitates temporary alliances between brands for specific seasons or events. For instance, a travel company could partner with a sunscreen brand during summer months, or a fitness app could collaborate with a health food brand for New Year’s resolution campaigns. These timely partnerships maximise relevance and engagement, creating win-win situations for all involved parties.

5

Ecosystem – 2

4. ZeroCPM, Credits, and Barter Models for Cost Efficiency

BEAN introduces innovative business models like ZeroCPM and Barter Exchanges to help brands optimise costs. In a ZeroCPM model, email service providers or large publishers absorb the costs of email sending in exchange for a share of the ad revenue, making it easier for smaller brands to participate. This approach can significantly reduce the barriers to entry for brands with smaller budgets.

For brands seeking even greater flexibility, BEAN can also facilitate a Credit System. Each participating brand can choose to receive “credits” instead of cash as compensation for running ads. These credits can be stored and used to fund their own acquisition and activation campaigns, essentially turning email real estate into a tradable commodity within BEAN’s ecosystem. With credits, a brand can seamlessly transition between roles — shifting from monetising their own audience to running campaigns targeting a new audience — all without immediate cash outlays. This not only maximises liquidity but also fosters a self-sustaining network of value exchange.

The Barter Exchange model further enhances BEAN’s appeal by allowing brands to trade ad real estate directly. For instance, E-Shop Express could run reactivation campaigns for its dormant users on Media Giant’s newsletters and, in return, provide Media Giant with a free promotional space in its own product-focused emails. This approach ensures that even smaller brands, who might lack the cash flow for large ad spends, can still participate actively in the network, creating a more inclusive marketplace.

5. New Opportunities for Niche Brands and Verticals

While the initial example focused on media and e-commerce, BEAN’s application extends to virtually any industry where email is a touchpoint. Niche publishers, such as industry newsletters or specialized content creators, can offer highly targeted inventory to relevant brands, while B2B companies could use BEAN to cross-promote thought leadership content or webinars through industry association newsletters.

Additionally, financial services, real estate, or healthcare companies could utilise BEAN to reach qualified leads through educational newsletters, lifestyle emails, or wellness bulletins. Each brand’s email list becomes a potential revenue-generating asset, creating a diversified source of income that goes beyond their core business.

6. Real-Time Campaign Management and Analytics

Finally, BEAN isn’t just a matchmaking service — it also provides flexible bidding systems, advanced matching algorithms, customisable targeting options, real-time analytics, and automated compliance checks. Brands can see exactly how their ActionAds are performing across different publishers, monitor engagement metrics such as open rates and in-email interactions, and even tweak campaigns in real time. This granularity ensures that brands aren’t just running campaigns in the dark but are actively optimizing for better outcomes.

7. Local and Global Reach

BEAN enables both local and global targeting. Local businesses can use BEAN to reach customers through the emails of larger national brands, targeting specific geographic areas. Simultaneously, global brands can leverage BEAN to expand into new markets by partnering with local publishers, gaining instant access to engaged local audiences.

BEAN’s Future: Building the Ultimate Email Exchange

As BEAN scales, it has the potential to become the de facto email ad exchange, where brands can list their audience segments, define their ad inventory, and dynamically pair up with the best-fit partners in real time. The vision is to create a seamless environment where every brand can act as both buyer and seller, tapping into the shared value of the email ecosystem without ever losing control over their customer data.

By lowering acquisition costs, increasing monetisation opportunities, and enabling precise targeting, BEAN can redefine how brands think about email. It’s not just a communication channel; it’s a sophisticated, high-impact media network that sits at the intersection of engagement, revenue, and growth.

Furthermore, as BEAN evolves, it could incorporate AI-driven predictive analytics to suggest optimal partnerships and campaign strategies, further enhancing its value to participating brands.

In a world dominated by rising CAC and stagnant engagement, BEAN offers a fresh, scalable solution that turns every email sent into an opportunity — for communication, collaboration, and profitability.

6

Risks and Mitigation

I asked ChatGPT and Claude for an assessment of the reasons why BEAN could fail and what could be done to address these risks.

The Brand Email Ad Network (BEAN) represents a bold reimagining of how brands can engage, monetise, and collaborate through the email channel. However, BEAN faces a number of potential challenges that could undermine its success. Here are the risks along with strategies to mitigate them, ensuring that BEAN can transform from a compelling idea into a robust and thriving ecosystem.

1. Privacy Concerns

• Risk: Given the emphasis on using personally identifiable information (PII) for precise targeting and reactivation, privacy concerns are the single most critical issue for BEAN’s success. Users may feel uncomfortable with data sharing, especially when sensitive information is used to run personalised reactivation campaigns. Any perception of data misuse could significantly harm BEAN’s reputation.
• Mitigation: Implement robust privacy protocols, including anonymising data in the clean room environment to ensure subscriber information is never directly exposed. Provide clear opt-in/opt-out options and transparently communicate how data is being used. Design BEAN to comply with GDPR, CCPA, and other data protection regulations to avoid potential legal repercussions.

2. Regulatory Hurdles

• Risk: Changing data protection laws, like GDPR and CCPA, could impact how BEAN operates, especially in terms of cross-border data sharing and reactivation using dormant subscriber lists. A regulatory breach could result in heavy fines and reputational damage.
• Mitigation: BEAN should be built with flexibility to adapt to changing regulations. This includes creating a privacy-first architecture and working with legal experts to ensure compliance. Engage with regulators proactively to shape favourable data policies and stay ahead of compliance requirements.

3. Technical Challenges and Complexity

• Risk: Implementing AMP technology and ActionAds across a wide range of email clients and ensuring compatibility could be complex, especially for smaller brands without technical expertise. A poor user experience due to inconsistent rendering could deter adoption.
• Mitigation: Develop fallback options for non-AMP compatible clients, ensuring that even if interactivity is limited, the core content and functionality remain intact. Create plug-and-play tools, such as the AMPifier, to convert HTML emails to AMP format seamlessly. Extensive testing and technical support will be crucial for success.

4. Adoption Resistance by Key Stakeholders

• Risk: Brands may be reluctant to alter established email marketing strategies or invest resources in a new and unproven ad network, limiting the scale and diversity of BEAN’s participants.
• Mitigation: Offer pilot programmes, case studies, and gradual integration options to demonstrate BEAN’s value. Provide performance-based pricing and financial incentives like waived platform fees to encourage early adoption. Establish a community of early adopters who can act as advocates and share their success stories.

5. Revenue Distribution Conflicts

• Risk: With multiple stakeholders involved — publishers, advertisers, and email service providers (ESPs) — disagreements over revenue sharing could arise, particularly if expectations are not aligned from the outset.
• Mitigation: Establish transparent, fair revenue models with clear terms that balance the interests of all parties. Consider offering flexible compensation options, such as revenue sharing, credits, or barter arrangements. A well-defined governance model can help resolve disputes quickly and fairly.

6. User Fatigue and Disengagement

• Risk: If ActionAds are overused or poorly targeted, they could lead to user fatigue and disengagement, potentially harming the value of the email channel as a whole.
• Mitigation: Implement strict relevance algorithms, frequency caps, and a quality scoring system for ads to ensure high-quality and non-intrusive experiences. Focus on delivering ads that are contextually relevant and aligned with user interests to enhance, rather than disrupt, the overall email experience.

7. Competition from Established Platforms

• Risk: Major ad platforms like Google, Amazon, and Facebook could view BEAN as a competitive threat and respond by developing similar email-based solutions, leveraging their scale and market dominance to outcompete BEAN.
• Mitigation: Focus on BEAN’s unique value proposition, such as zero-click engagements, credits, and barter systems, and build strong partnerships with email service providers. BEAN’s differentiated approach should be continuously communicated to the market, positioning it as a complementary solution rather than a direct competitor.

8. Email Deliverability Issues

• Risk: Increasing the volume of ad content within emails could trigger spam filters, reducing deliverability and overall engagement rates.
• Mitigation: Work closely with internet service providers (ISPs) and email service providers (ESPs) to ensure that BEAN-enabled emails adhere to deliverability best practices. Monitor deliverability metrics in real time and adjust content and ad placement strategies as necessary to maintain a high sender reputation.

9. Measurement and Attribution Challenges

• Risk: Accurately measuring the impact of in-email ads and attributing conversions to these interactions can be complex, complicating campaign optimisation and ROI calculations.
• Mitigation: Develop robust analytics tools to track in-email interactions and link them to broader marketing metrics. Partner with existing martech and CRM platforms to integrate BEAN data into established attribution models, ensuring that marketers have a complete view of campaign performance.

10. Complexity for Small Businesses

• Risk: BEAN’s setup and management could be seen as too complex for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), limiting participation to only larger brands with dedicated resources.
• Mitigation: Develop user-friendly, no-code interfaces and offer managed services for SMBs. Provide educational resources, workshops, and dedicated support teams to help smaller businesses maximise BEAN’s potential without needing extensive internal expertise.

**

Addressing these challenges head-on will be crucial for BEAN’s long-term success. By building a privacy-compliant, easy-to-use, and flexible platform that prioritises user experience and fairness in revenue sharing, BEAN can establish itself as a transformative force in the email marketing landscape. Ensuring early buy-in, maintaining adaptability to regulatory changes, and providing a seamless, privacy-compliant experience for brands and users alike will be key to its widespread adoption.

7

Pitch to CMOs

I asked Claude to imagine a dialogue where Varun, an ESP executive, pitches BEAN to Maya, a CMO unfamiliar with the concept.

Varun: Maya, I’m excited to introduce you to BEAN – a game-changing approach to email marketing that could revolutionise how you engage with your customers and monetise your email list.

Maya: Interesting, Varun. But we’re already doing email marketing. What makes BEAN so special?

Varun: Great question. BEAN stands for Brand Email Ad Network. It’s not just about sending emails; it’s about transforming your email list into a powerful, interactive advertising platform.

Maya: (skeptically) Advertising in emails? Won’t that annoy our customers?

Varun: That’s the beauty of BEAN. We use cutting-edge AMP technology to create interactive ads that blend seamlessly with your content. Imagine your customers being able to make purchases or sign up for services directly within the email, without ever leaving their inbox.

Maya: That does sound intriguing. But how does this benefit us specifically?

Varun: In two major ways. First, you can monetise your email list by hosting ads from non-competing brands, creating a new revenue stream. Second, you can use BEAN to reactivate dormant customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional reacquisition methods.

Maya: Tell me more about reactivating dormant customers. That’s a big challenge for us.

Varun: With BEAN, you can target your inactive customers across other brands’ email networks. Your ads will appear in emails they’re actually engaging with, increasing the chances of bringing them back.

Maya: But what about data privacy? We can’t just share our customer data.

Varun: Absolutely right, and that’s why BEAN uses a ‘clean room’ environment. Your customer data is never directly shared. Instead, matches are made securely without exposing individual user information.

Maya: Okay, I’m intrigued. But what’s the cost structure like?

Varun: That’s another exciting aspect. We offer a ZeroCPM model, where we absorb the email sending costs in exchange for a share of ad revenue. We also have a credit system and barter options, making it flexible for businesses of all sizes.

Maya: This sounds promising, but it also seems complex. How difficult is it to implement?

Varun: We’ve designed BEAN to be as seamless as possible. Our team handles the technical integration, and we provide comprehensive analytics and real-time optimisation tools. You maintain control over your brand experience while we manage the backend complexities.

Maya: What about our current email strategies? Do we need to change everything?

Varun: Not at all. BEAN complements your existing strategies. You can start small, perhaps by hosting a few ads or running a reactivation campaign, and scale up as you see results.

Maya: This is certainly interesting, Varun. What would be our next steps if we wanted to explore this further?

Varun: I’d love to set up a detailed demo for you and your team. We can show you real case studies, dive into the analytics, and even set up a small pilot program tailored to your specific needs. This way, you can see BEAN’s potential firsthand with minimal risk.

Maya: Alright, let’s schedule that demo. If it’s as impactful as you say, this could be a significant opportunity for us.

Varun: Excellent! I’m confident you’ll see the value. BEAN isn’t just about improving email marketing; it’s about creating new revenue streams and customer engagement opportunities. I look forward to showing you how it can transform your email strategy.