#619 MV Braverman: Master Email Deliverability & Automation Without Losing the Human Touch

Are your emails actually reaching your audience—or landing in spam?

In this must-listen episode of Talking with the Experts, we welcome MV Braverman, email strategist and founder of Inbox Welcome. Together, we unpack what it really takes to run a high-performing, human-centred email marketing campaign in today’s ever-evolving inbox environment.

Forget the days of “just hit send.” Platforms like Gmail and Yahoo are cracking down, and if you don’t know their latest rules, your carefully written content might never be seen.

MV shares why email is still the most powerful marketing tool—and how to use it responsibly. We explore:

✔️ How to improve deliverability so your emails land in the inbox, not spam
✔️ The one sequence every business should set up immediately
✔️ What the big email providers are watching for—and how to stay compliant
✔️ How to automate without sounding robotic or losing your personal touch
✔️ Why most businesses overcomplicate their tech—and how to simplify it for good

MV’s practical, compassionate style will leave you feeling empowered to clean up your systems, build trust through your emails, and create lasting relationships with your audience.

Whether you're a coach, consultant, or service provider—if you're using email to grow your business, you cannot afford to miss this conversation.

🎧 Tune in now to stop guessing and start converting.

📩 CONNECT WITH MV

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mvbraverman 

Website: https://inboxwelcome.com

📌 PROMOTION: https://inboxwelcome.com/everything

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Transcript

Intro | 00:01
Welcome to Talking With The Experts. Here we discuss all things business, by business owners, for business owners. Here is your host, Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:12
Hello and welcome to Talking with the Experts. I'm your host, Rose Davidson from rosedavidson.com.au. I'm going to be talking today about email marketing, deliverability and automation with MV Braverman. And MV is... The founder of Inbox Welcome, where email marketing becomes your best relationship building tool. She helps businesses keep emails out of spam, save time with smart automations and connect with their audience. Known for her clear, approachable style, MV works with select clients to untangle tech spaghetti, simplifying systems so everything runs seamlessly. Welcome MV to Talking With The Experts. It's such a pleasure to meet you. 

 MV | 00:56
Thanks for having me. Likewise. 

 Rose | 00:59
Can you tell me what brought you into helping people with their email marketing and automation. 

 MV | 01:07
I've been in tech support and system administration basically my entire life, and I've done all kinds of tech support from WordPress to pretty much anything else. Help me connect my Apple Watch. You to complicated zap. But I've always been told that I'm supposed to specialize and eventually I did actually manage to specialize. 
 So I'm a Google Workspace administrator and I had a client come to me wondering why her proposals that were requested by the audience, but they weren't reaching. The people she was sending them to. And so that was my first dive into deliverability a few years ago. *smooch* And it's I really love it because email has been around for such a long time, but it's still a very, it's thriving and it's a very democratic medium. No one really controls it. It's not dependent on LinkedIn or Facebook moods. 
 So I love it. And it's a great combination as a tech support person. 
 Like at least 50% of solving a problem is managing emotions. So there's a lot of psychology. And there's a lot of psychology in email. It's not just about how you send it. It's what you send. And both are equally important. 

 Rose | 02:35
Yeah, I... I find it a little bit challenging too that my emails don't end up in someone's spam or junk folder. How do we overcome that? 

 MV | 02:48
Well... Laughs It's a challenge. And that's, you know, that's why I... I have people coming to me. Because it's really not obvious. And, you know, the golden years of you can just send something and you know it will get there are over. Unfortunately, this is one of those why we can't have nice things situations. There's been, of course, explosion and spam over the years, but it's become exponential after Chad GPD came out. And Well over half of all the emails sent are spam. And so... It's a huge challenge for mailbox providers to deal with it. And sometimes, unfortunately, good senders get caught up in it. 

 Rose | 03:40
Yeah. Yeah. And It can be a little bit disappointing. 
 Well, it is a lot disappointing when, you know, you've sent an important email to someone, it ends up in their junk mail and, you know, A lot of people don't, to check their junk mail folder because they're hoping that their email providers will, you know, filter out the stuff that, you know, they think is spam or not spam. And yeah, so... And it can be, you know, quite a challenging thing to keep it out of the spam box. Are there any sort of words that we can use to help that along? 

 MV | 04:19
No. And if you ever see the advice, you know, check for spam words, don't include free in your subject line, run away because those people are like 20 years out of date. Best. There are no magic words you can say, because if there were magic words we could say, spammers would be seeing them. I hate to tell you. 

 Rose | 04:46
Yeah, so I guess, you know, email providers, you know, try to do their best to keep us safe. And, you know, they're on guard and they've got processes and things in place to help us along. How do we keep our emails in front of potential customers? And how can we automate those without losing that personal touch? 

 MV | 05:12
Well. Mailbox rights are actually very straightforward and they tell you how they want you to behave they tell you exactly what to do They want to be able to connect. The audience with the sender. As long as it's a respectful and wanted relationship on both sides. 
 So Google told us in their announcement in October of 2020, of 2023, you know, send emails that people want. Make it easy to unsubscribe, and authenticate your emails. 
 So there's a technical side to each one of these, and there's kind of a human side. Authenticating your email sounds like very much like just technology. And there is a lot of technology, you kind of have to prove that you own the domain you're sending from. But there's a human side. A lot of times people don't realize that, for example, their display names, like what we see, you know, next to the subject line is not what they think it is. 
 So one of my clients, actually, I keep sending emails to business clients that just say from Jennifer, right? And it doesn't have her last name. 
 So. I'm probably not going to open an email that shows up in my mailbox that's from a Jennifer. 
 So don't keep changing up your domains. Don't keep changing up your from addresses. Be consistent. And. 
 So that's for the authenticate your emails, then send emails that people want. I mean, don't buy lists. Please don't buy lists. 
 You know, people need to give you permission because if they don't expect your email, They will rightfully market as spam. And someone marking an email as spam is a whole lot worse than them unsubscribing or even deleting it. 
 And then... Last one is make it easy to unsubscribe. 
 So there is a technical side of it. That's a requirement. But I don't know about you. I've seen a lot of emails where the unsubscribe link is tiny. 
 Sometimes it's non-existent. If you hide it, That doesn't mean that who won't leave your list or market as spam. They are much more likely to do so. And unsubscribe is a pretty neutral signal unless you have a whole bunch of them. A spam complaint is not a neutral signal. 

 Rose | 07:42
No, that's true. And I've received emails from, you know, people that don't have that unsubscribed capability and it's quite annoying when they don't do that because some of it is I'm not interested in and I want to unsubscribe from them and not having that option yeah it Angers me, it does. It It's something I thought that it was a necessity to have that on all your emails. 

 MV | 08:16
It is a necessity on marketing emails. So if you are promoting something and they can be a broad thing like an event invitation or would actually be technically under that. Right. But if I send you a one-on-one email saying, Hey, can we talk about, you know, the timing of the podcast? That's not. That is not an email that requires an. 

 Rose | 08:37
Unsubscribe. No. That makes a lot of sense. 
 So how do we, you know, how do we automate our emails so that, you know, we can stay in touch with people? 

 MV | 08:51
Well, first, understand the value of automation. And its limitation. 
 So if there is one phrase that I would love to be stomped out for the rest of existence is set it and forget it. There is absolutely no such thing. Because if you set it and forget it, your automation is still Delivering that first impression but it may well be completely out of date. I actually recently subscribed to someone's list. I like to go to websites of the community members I'm in, just look at their website, subscribe to their list. 
 So I subscribed to the list and I got an acknowledgement, a welcome email saying our community is closed. We reopen four times a year. The next time it's going to open is September 2022. That is... It's May 2025. That is not the first impression they wanted to be delivering. They just didn't know that it was happening. 
 So. Automation is just speeding up or making it more broadly available. I'm something like it's a multiplier. It's not a replacement. 
 So If you create really thoughtful... Emails and posts. That is the first impression that you're delivering. Then automation is going to make it so much better. 

 Rose | 10:21
And, you know, people have to be aware that they have to, you know, keep working on their automation or their email sequences because, as you say, you've got an out-of-date message and obviously haven't checked it for three years or four years or whatever, you know. Not good business opportunities. Is it at all? 

 MV | 10:47
Yeah. And the number one advice, I don't actually get asked this, but I wish I would. 
 So I'm just going to pretend that you asked me this question. But the easiest thing you can do to improve the health of your email list is to just regularly go and subscribe to your list. Because... You're gonna see. The things you don't see in your inner platform. . 
 You know? I've had... Two clients at this point who did not realize that there were a separate platform running automations in parallel. 
 So their new subscribers are receiving double the emails that they thought they were receiving. Which of course overwhelmed them and decrease the reputation of their domain. 

 Rose | 11:37
That's interesting. Yeah, I have subscribed to all of my email sequences, either from one email address or another, just so that I can see what the emails look like when they're sent out and just to make sure that they're set out right. 
 I mean, because when you're looking on the platform that you've got your sequence set on, it doesn't look the same as when it's actually received by someone. So it's always really helpful to, as you say, subscribe to your own lists or use the view function that is available in most email providers. Or automation providers, I should say, that can help you to look and to see what the email looks like before it's sent out. I use that function. That's a great start, but. 

 MV | 12:27
Sometimes, you know, there might be like if you add multiple lead magnets, what if someone subscribes to several of them? Are they getting all of those emails at once? Is there... Is there something else going on? 
 So again, Looking in the platform is definitely step one. Absolutely. But There's nothing beats subscribing and pretending like you're a whole brand new person going through. 

 Rose | 12:53
This experience. Yeah, a great tip, MV. Thank you so much for sharing that. 
 You know, what, I mean, I know there's a lot of automation providers out there, you know, there's... I can't think of them off the top of my head, but... How, if you say you're using Google Meet Yahoo or any of those types of platforms, how can you use... Automation in those systems. Is it easy to set up? 

 MV | 13:24
You mean if you're. 

 Rose | 13:26
Using Google emails or you're using Outlook or one of those things, is it easy to set up an automation in those systems or do you have to use an automation provider? 

 MV | 13:38
Usually you would have some kind of an add-on. So there's like CRM, for example, that are specifically for Gmail, right? They don't really have a lot of built-in automations, although I guess that's changing with Gemini and AI and stuff... You can have some basic filters and scripts, but it's not. Intended for complex animations. 

 Rose | 14:04
Yeah, and a lot of times with emails too, and I'm going to get into the other side of emails, is the words that you use. I mean, as a writer, I've intended the emotion. 
 So to me, it sounds emotional in my head when I'm writing it. But how it's received by somebody else can be totally different. How can we make our emails a bit more neutral so that we're not... Having things misunderstood. 

 MV | 14:38
Oof, that's a tough question. Will first know your audience. If most of your audience is very international and the same humor will not translate. Eve. I don't want to say dumb and down, but simplify it. And AI and Grammarly and other things are actually really great at this. 
 So running it through a checker of reading level is... Is really good advice all the time. Another thing is.. Maybe consider adding an extra channel. 
 So for example, if I'm doing tech support or going back and forth with someone over email or over message and they're just getting increasingly more upset. If I change the channel and say, hey, let's set up a call. Then... Things get fixed a whole lot faster and the person knows that I'm a real person at the other end. I want to solve their problem. 
 So the same way that maybe, you know, add an audio version or a video version, at least once in a while, so that people are kind of familiar with what you really sound like and what your tone is. And then they're less likely to assume negative intent or maliciousness and they're more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt. 

 Rose | 16:06
That's great advice. Absolutely great advice. MV, you know, if you had other information to provide and some other hints and tips at how we can, you know, better our email marketing, what might that be? 

 MV | 16:20
Oof. But yeah, my number one is just subscribe to your email, you know, inspect it thoroughly and. Email is an important channel, but People misunderstand it sometimes. 
 So I think every coach tells you that you should have your own email list. Every marketing person says you should have your own email list, which the thought of it is overwhelming. And I understand that. The thing to understand is that there is a difference between a discovery platform and a relationship platform. 
 So people will find you know, they're going to find you on LinkedIn, they might find you on Facebook, you know, in person if you go to networking meeting, right? The chances of them stumbling onto your newsletter unless they're like me and just go subscribe to everything are near zero. And that's really frustrating because just setting up the list is a lot of work. Writing those emails when you have a small audience is a lot of work. 
 And then your list is not growing and it's just, why am I bothering? Why am I paying for this? Why am I spending my time? 
 So. Understand that. It's a relationship building platform. 
 So. No one's going to stumble on it, but it's a much more direct channel that is not dependent on algorithms. 
 So you are deepening the connection, you're not creating a new one. 

 Rose | 17:53
Yeah, I like that. I love that, actually. It's great advice. I think building an email list can be really challenging. 
 I mean, I'm lucky enough to have mine through the podcast and through resources, free resources that I get people to subscribe to. But, yeah, if you're just starting out, you're right, don't buy a list because they haven't received permission to receive emails from you. But, you know, do it in legitimate ways, I think, is... You can do that by providing resources and getting people to sign up for an e-book or a checklist or whatever it is and gather your resources. Email addresses that way. If you want to find him... 

 MV | 18:44
One more thing real quick. So the advice is, you know, you want to reach you want to only your ideal audience to subscribe. I'm actually like, if you're, if your sister or cousin or whatever wants to subscribe and they're a cheerleader, they will reply to you. Let them just hearing someone reply is a, it's a great signal to the mailbox providers, but it's just, it helps you keep going. 

 Rose | 19:10
It does. Yes, absolutely. If you want to find more how MV can help you with your email marketing, you can find her on LinkedIn. She has a website at inboxborkham.com and she would like to... Share with you her inboxwelcome.com forward slash everything what can people find in there MV.
 MV | 19:33
It's going to have a list of all of them. A number of... Lead magnets and other guides that I have created and just general resources. 

 Rose | 19:44
Wonderful. So go and check out inboxwelcome.com forward Slack everything for everything you need to find out about email marketing. MV, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us today. 

 MV | 19:57
Thank you so much for having me. 

 Rose | 19:59
Bye-bye for now. 

 Outro | 20:01
You've been listening to Talking With The Experts, hosted by Rose Davidson. Make sure you have a look at our back catalogue over at talkingwiththeexperts.com. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss out on any episode. We look forward to your company next time.