1. Send Check It

This is the perfect example of a simple, easy to use tool I find invaluable.

Many people don’t realise the wording of subject lines in emails they send has a huge impact on them being delivered successfully, instead of shunted to the junk or spam folder or being rejected completely – which means an email you send to a client may never be seen at all!

Simply type in your subject line and Send Check It gives it a numerical score, which indicates how easily your emails will get through. Just a few minutes of playing around with your wording (avoiding Spam Keywords, ALL CAPS and !! marks for instance) makes a huge difference to how many recipients end up seeing emails you send.

2. Mail Tester

There’s more to your emails getting through successfully than just the subject line!

This is where Mail Tester is great. It generates a random email address, you then send your message to that email, hit ‘Then check your score’ and then wait for it to arrive.

Mail Tester gives you a complete breakdown of how likely your email will be delivered, but more importantly it’ll show you what other factors may be stopping your emails getting through.

There could be a problem with your message’s content, an issue with the domain you’re sending from or your email platform isn’t setup properly – if there’s a problem Mail Tester will let you know the cause, without it if your emails aren’t getting through you’re essentially flying blind.

3. Unsplash

Looking for some free artwork to spice up your emails or website?

Unsplash is a great source of free stock photography. You simply type what you’re looking for in the search bar (such as “business person using laptop at a desk”) and it’ll bring up a huge list of images.

You simply click the image you want, hit the ‘Download free’ button and it’ll download to your computer’s download folder where you can use it free of charge, without paying any royalties.

4. Email Academy

Ever wondered how to embed images in your emails without hosting them on your website?

Email Academy lets you do just that. Simply create an account, hit the ‘Select file’ button & choose an image on your computer. Click ‘Convert’ and your image will appear in the list below.

Then you then click “CDN:” or the Copy Icon next to it which gives you a link to the image that’s been uploaded to Email Academy’s server. You then paste that into your email’s HTML code and your image will appear.

Unless you pay for a subscription you can only upload 30 images per month, but even without paying the links to them never expire.

5. Bitly

Bitly is awesome for two things – creating shortened links & QR Codes.

If you have a super long link to a page on your website you want to SMS someone or post in an email, you simply paste the link into Bitly and it’ll generate a much shorter version that’s easier to read on a phone. You need to register an account but it’s free.

You can also paste your link and have it create a QR Code for you which sends people to that page when they scan it with their phone camera. This is great for emails, business cards, posters or even faxes.

6. Grammarly

Copy is an essential component of most emails, which is where Grammarly can help.

Traditionally Grammarly was used to check spelling & grammar, you’d paste in your text and it would suggest improvements.

They’ve now incorporated AI, so you can even have it write email copy for you by clicking the ‘Write with generative AI’ option and then entering a phrase such as “Write a 200 word email alerting <insert your product here> to School Principals to help solve <insert their problem here> using a conversational tone”.

7. WiseStamp

Improving your email signature helps all your messages feel more professional.

With WiseStamp you simply input your business details (and optionally upload a photo) and it generates attractive signatures from your choice of countless templates.

Scroll down on the Pricing page to select the ‘Solo Free’ option to generate a signature for one person, with free options to install it for a Gmail or Yahoo email address – other export options do require a subscription.

8. Mailerlite

There’s many platforms around for sending emails, and Mailerlite is a free way to get started.

Their free plan lets you send up to 12,000 emails per month to a maximum of 1,000 contacts, including full use of their templates for creating your emails.

If you’re ready to make the jump to a more sophisticated solution for sending emails you’re welcome to give me a ring on 1800 961 500 as I’m familiar with most of the popular choices out there.