Worth Opening

Email marketing for a shop, a service, a market stall or a small online store, explained from the very beginning.

You have no email list, or a pile of customer addresses you have never written to. You are not a marketer. This book takes you from nothing to a list of people who asked to hear from you, a welcome email that sends itself, and a monthly email you can write in about 45 minutes that people open and act on.

How it teaches

• Three small businesses, followed through every step. A plant shop in North Carolina, a bike workshop in Leeds and a candle maker selling online and at markets in Maine. Each starts from a different place: no list at all, an old list of booking addresses, and a shop checkout where some customers ticked the box. (They are invented, and the book says so.)
• Every email shown whole, as it arrives, then marked up in pen. What works, what to cut, and why. Including a full before-and-after rewrite of a first newsletter.
• The inbox view. What a reader sees in the two seconds before deciding to open: the from name, the subject line and the preview text, with eight kinds of subject line and eight rewrites.

By the last page you will have

• A one-sentence sign-up promise that says what people get, how often and why it is worth it
• A sign-up sheet for your counter, a QR card, a parcel card and an online form, all worded to count as a real yes
• A free email tool, chosen and set up, sending from your own name
• A welcome email, written, switched on and tested
• A year plan of email ideas and a 45-minute method for writing each one
• A 15-minute monthly check using the numbers you can trust

What is inside

• The rules first, US and UK side by side: CAN-SPAM (FTC), PECR and UK GDPR (ICO), the soft opt-in, what every email must carry, what to do with an old list, and the Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook sender rules in plain words. Checked against the official pages on 17 October 2026, with a "Can I email this person?" decision chart.
• Choosing a tool: the free plans of Kit, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Brevo, beehiiv, Sender and Shopify Email compared on each tool's own pricing and help pages (checked 17 October 2026), with the catches.
• First sign-ups without website traffic: at the till, at handover, at a market stall, in the parcel, at booking and checkout, with the exact sentences to say.
• Emails people open and act on: from names, subject lines, preview text, one job per email, buttons, photos, sounding like a person, and a ten-point check before every send.
• What to send and how often: eight kinds of email, a year plan for each business, and 60 email ideas sorted by type of business.
• Is it working? Why open rates are unreliable since Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, what to watch instead (clicks, replies, sales), how to read a report, unsubscribes and spam complaints, and cleaning a list.
• Troubleshooting for ten common problems, US and UK rules checklists, a glossary and sources.

The book gives you no "average open rate" to beat. It teaches you to compare each email with your own last one.

What you download

• Worth Opening (59 pages, PDF, US Letter): the book, in color, with bookmarks and a contents page.
• The Swipe File (42 pages, PDF): 40 emails to fill in, one to a page: welcome emails, how-tos, news, invitations, offers, service reminders, thank-yous and review requests, behind-the-scenes, corrections, closures and list clean-ups. Each has three subject lines, preview text, a tip, an example filled in by one of the three businesses, and space to draft your own.
• Print Pages (9 pages, PDF, in US Letter and in A4): sign-up sheet, counter card, parcel cards, sign-up sentence worksheet, subject-line workshop, year planner, monthly check and the before-you-send checks.
• A ZIP of everything above, plus all 40 Swipe File emails as one plain text file and as a Word document, to paste into any email tool.

Good to know

• Written for the US and the UK. Where the rules differ, each page says which applies. It summarizes official guidance; it is not legal advice.
• Tool prices and free plans change often. The book dates every figure; check the tool's current page before you choose.
• The printable pages are for printing, not typing into.
• This is a digital download. No physical book is shipped.