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Hey Marketing Bestie,

Can I take a second a hype up my wife, Ari Murray?

For those that don't know, she is the Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone.

But this week they just launched body oil and I think her and her team CRUSHED it. See below.

I don't know what body oil does. TBH. But, I want it. And I ordered, because I buy all of her launches and I always will.

It's so awesome to have a wife who is a BADASS and a better marketer than you. Anyways, love you honey. Ship my order quickly, please.

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Gmail Is Killing Spray-And-Pray Email

Gmail's AI Inbox

Gmail recently dropped a bomb on January 7, 2026. It's about damn time.

Google officially announced their "AI Inbox" powered by Gemini. Not a test. Not a beta. Live right now. Your emails now land in one of two AI-curated sections: "Suggested to-dos" for high-priority messages that need action, and "Topics to catch up on" for grouped updates by theme. Translation: Gmail's AI decides if you're important or background noise.

Here's the ouchie from Mailbird's analysis: "Your inbox no longer shows you everything in order-it shows you what AI thinks you need to see first."

And Folderly just dropped this stat: up to 40% of emails that technically reach Gmail inboxes are being deprioritized by AI filtering. Your email "delivered"? Cool story. Your subscriber actually saw it? Maybe not. Traditional inbox placement rates are now basically meaningless.

What Gmail's AI Is Actually Watching

Google's tracking EVERYTHING:

Sender reputation - How often you email specific contacts and your reply patterns.

Engagement history - Opens matter less now, clicks matter more, replies matter MOST.

Content semantics - Natural language processing literally reads your message and spots promotional B.S. from a mile away.

Visual cues - Formatting, images, banners, CTAs.

The AI learns. The AI remembers. The AI has receipts on every boring email you've ever sent.

Why This Is Actually Good News

This is GREAT news for Marketers who actually give a damn about their subscribers.

The spray-and-pray era is over. Good riddance. Toodles. Gmail's AI can spot the difference between a personal message someone wants, a promotional blast they tolerate, and garbage they should ignore.

The Marketers who treated email like a billboard are getting ignored by AI. The ones building actual relationships with their subscribers are winning harder than ever. As they should.

What Actually Works Now

Send as much as you want ... IF people actually want it.

I know people will tell you, "DON'T SEND SO MANY EMAILS."

Here's the truth: frequency isn't the enemy. IRRELEVANCE is.

If your emails are genuinely valuable, relevant, and people are engaging with them? Send daily. Send twice daily. The AI doesn't care about volume if subscribers are clicking, replying, and spending time reading.

But if people aren't engaging? Sending more just trains the AI to bury you faster.

The real game is matching your frequency to your value. High value = high frequency works. Low value = any frequency kills you.

Segmentation is non-negotiable.

You need at least 2 lists: the Hot List (opens, clicks, replies in last 30 days) and the Cold List (crickets for 30+ days). Send different cadences, different content, different EVERYTHING.

Your superfans who read everything? They can handle daily emails.

Your casual readers? Maybe weekly.

Your ghosts? Either win them back or cut them loose.

One-size-fits-all email is dead.

Personalization has to mean something real.

{FirstName} doesn't count anymore. Sorry to break it to you. Gmail's AI can literally read your email and tell when you're faking intimacy.

Real personalization means sending based on actual behavior, referencing past purchases or interactions, and making your email feel like it came from a human, not ESP's template library.

Write like a human, not a brand consultant.

Gmail's natural language processing can spot promotional language faster than you can say "synergy." Ditch the corporate speak. Drop the "Dear Valued Customer" nonsense.

Write like you're emailing a friend. Make it conversational, not transactional.

Emails need an actual personality and a distinctive voice. That's not just good branding. It's STRATEGY now. The more your emails sound like a real person wrote them, the better they'll perform.

Your domain reputation is everything.

A couple bad sends can nuke your deliverability for months because AI doesn't forget. Ever. It's holding grudges like scorpios.

Warm up new domains properly, never buy lists (why is this still a thing people do), watch your complaint rates, use a sunset policy for dead subscribers, and monitor engagement metrics obsessively.

What I'm Doing

I am doubling down on engagement, not backing off frequency. I am segmenting like our Marketing depends on it. Because it does.

We're writing emails that make people want to reply-because replies are basically gold now. Liquid gold.

And watching my email metrics like I am still in Marketing Ops:

Open rates? Cool, but becoming less relevant by the day.

Click rates? Getting warmer.

Reply rates, forwards and time spent reading? That's the game now.

My Takeaway

Gmail's AI inbox isn't killing email marketing. It's rewarding BETTER email marketing.

Email is becoming relationship marketing instead of interrupt marketing. Thank goodness for that.

If your strategy is "blast everyone with the same generic message," time to evolve or get left behind. But if you're willing to send relevant, valuable content that people actually want to read, you can send as much as your audience can handle.

The inbox is earned now, not given.

Start acting like it.

MEME OF THE WEEK

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🎙 TUNE IN

Podcast to listen to this week:

What Growth Looks Like For Kellogg's

What you will learn:

🎙: How to spot trends before competitors

🎙: Why Super Bowl works as ecosystem launch, not one-off

🎙: Transparency and authenticity beat sizzle long-term

Listen Here

JUST FOR FUN

🤩: Brand of the week: Cherry LA

😛: Favorite meal I ate: Burger King

🎵: Favorite song this week: Coastline

💍: What I bought my wife: It was Valentine's Day, after all. I can't link it because not available anymore but was bigger than my son. A heart box of chocolates. Highly recommend for next year.

🍼: What I bought my son: This bib. We've started solids.