For many companies, email is saving the day in 2020—and that’s exactly what SparkPost highlighted at their highly anticipated event, OptIn Live 2020: Email is Having Its Day in a Changing World. Originally planned as an in-person event, OptIn went virtual and expanded its reach to more than 1,000 registrants with the help of our event management team.

Over the course of the live half-day event, attendees heard from keynote speaker and MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer Ann Handley, as well as two panels with speakers representing email marketers worldwide. In addition to the live content, one panel session was pre-recorded and uploaded to the SparkPost content page, which is available online for free. 

SparkPost CEO Rich Harris kicked off the event with a quick overview of the email landscape and how sending volume has (still) remained consistent through 2020 before passing the virtual mic to Ann Handley. Ann took attendees on a deep dive into email newsletter storytelling, how they’ve made a comeback in 2020, and how we can make them more effective for companies, brands, and ourselves. 

Next up, Forrester VP Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk, moderated two expert panels on “The Future of Email Post COVID-19” and how “Retention is the New Acquisition.” With speakers from the New York Times, ActiveCampaign, and Emarsys, our first panel touched on the importance taking a holistic approach to your audience, recognizing that email is a tool for building personal, long-term relationships with your customers but requires that you consider the entire lifecycle of your subscriber—not just the email interaction. 

Our next panel of speakers from Versidi, 14West, and CareerBuilder expressed similar sentiments agreeing that senders must deposit more into their customer relationship than they’re trying to withdraw. Shar VanBoskirk summarized by saying, “If you are working to solve your customers’ problems, then you are doing what you need to do to protect your sender reputation.”

All of these insights and more are available on the SparkPost website.

Need help taking your event virtual? Reach out and let us know how we can help.