No-Code Platform for Interactive Emails: A Chat with Aquibur Rahman

In this interview, we will learn from Aquibur Rahman, CEO of Mailmodo, about his journey in the marketing industry and how he founded a no-code platform for creating interactive emails.

He will share his challenges during the pandemic, how he built his team, and the critical components of a successful email marketing campaign.

Aquibur will also discuss how his company uses AI in marketing and stays up-to-date with the latest trends in email marketing and AI.

Let’s dive in!

Can you tell us about your journey into the marketing industry?

I always wanted to build my own company ever since my college years. So I headed the marketing of various startups for a few years.

Later I provided consulting services to some early-stage startups – so I could learn how startups work. After that, I planned to work for five years and save enough money to start my venture.

While leading marketing at a prominent fintech in India. I realized that email is closely tied to all other growth metrics, so cracking email becomes vital for businesses.

When Google announced the AMP Email for the Gmail app, I knew there was much potential in AMP emails for marketers like me who want to improve email conversions.

With AMP emails, one could add interactive elements like forms, accordions, dynamic data, API, etc., inside emails. Users can take action inside the email without any redirects leading to higher conversions.

But coding AMP emails is technically challenging and strenuous for email marketers. Thus started Mailmodo, a no-code platform for marketers to create actionable and interactive emails.

What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in B2B growth?

We started building Mailmodo during the pandemic in the middle of the lockdown.

Market conditions were uncertain and gloomy, and no one knew what would happen. Additionally, we faced many rejections while raising funds because the market was saturated with numerous email marketing service providers.

But we knew we had a unique product that could disrupt email marketing and decided to proceed. Building a company, under those circumstances, taught us a lot of frugality, and we used all available resources in the best possible way.

Also, finding the right people to build a team at an early stage isn’t easy. The risks are high, and the money for hiring is low. It was one of the challenges we faced initially. That cemented my belief about the importance of good relationships in the professional world.

What are some of the critical components of a successful email marketing campaign?

A lot goes into formulating a successful email campaign. This includes, but is not limited to:

1/ A strategic goal

Define the goal of your campaign before anything. It will help you frame the message, decide on success metrics and develop a suitable CTA.

2/ A single CTA

The next step you want the users to take should be clear, and for that, avoid using more than one CTA.

3/ Personalization

Your email should read like it’s written to one person. Use information like first name, company name, or recent user behavior to make your emails individualized.

4/ Smooth user experience:

Make your emails accessible and mobile-responsive, and avoid unnecessary redirects. AMP emails can help you reduce friction in customer journeys as people can take action without leaving the email.

How do you use AI in your marketing campaigns?

We’ve been using AI primarily for content generation. This includes content for our blogs, social posts, landing pages, and email copies.

Creating from scratch is often intimidating. AI-generated content provides a great starting point for marketers to review and optimize. It has sped up our content creation and is helping generate results sooner.

How do you stay current with the latest trends in email marketing and AI in marketing?

Besides updates and news announcements on the internet, I also like to follow some influencers and their content.

This includes blogs, newsletters, and podcasts. Some of my favorites are newsletters by Demand Curve and The Hustle, among others.

Can you share some successful marketing campaigns you have executed in the past?

One of the earliest email campaigns we had run for a Fintech company saw 2.5 times higher responses than before.

It was an email campaign with an interactive NPS survey to help understand customer problems.

Previously, emails would have a link to redirect users to a landing page before they could complete the form. With interactive AMP emails, users could quickly give feedback inside the email itself, leading to a multifold increase in responses.

How do you measure the success of your marketing campaigns?

When measuring the success of marketing campaigns, I prefer to track essential metrics like conversion rates and ROI. This way, you can understand the campaign’s impact on achieving critical business goals.

Other metrics like higher click rates or reducing bounces can be worth checking, but they are hardly the ultimate goal.

What are some common mistakes you see businesses make regarding email marketing?

Some common mistakes I keep seeing email marketing teams make are:

1. No domain warm-up: Before you start off sending bulk emails from a new domain, you need to warm up your domain by sending small batches of emails to create a good domain reputation
2. Too many links and CTAs: One email should have one objective. Even if you include more than one link, you should have only one primary CTA.
3. Not authenticating your sender domain or IP address: Email authentication has different processes to confirm a genuine person is sending the email. These are necessary for your emails not to be marked as spam.

Can you talk about the tools and software you use to help with your job and career in marketing?

We use many marketing and analytics tools.

Besides those, Mailmodo is a remote-first company, so there are plenty of tools to keep everyone in sync as well:

Communication: Slack, Hangouts

Video conferencing: Google Meet

Project management and collaboration: Asana, G Suite, Figma, Whimsical, Airtable

Notes: Notion, Workflowy

CMS: Strapi

UI Design: Figma

Web analytics: Google Analytics, Search Console, Intercom

Emails: Mailmodo

Social Media: Vista Social

SEO: Ahrefs

What advice do you have for someone just starting their marketing career?

Instead of chasing the trends, keep in touch with your customers and focus on creating a clear message that conveys how your product solves a real problem for your target market.

Build a spirit of learning and problem-solving. Channels and methods are evolving every day, and you need to adapt.

Finally, for someone who’s starting, value good relationships. Create a network for the sake of it, even if you don’t need it then.

Then, you’ll constantly learn from other marketers, and if the need for support arises, you’ll have people you can turn to.