Zach Nonnemacher on How to Write Emails People Actually Want to Read

Quick Answer

What’s one of the simplest ways to improve your email performance?

Short answer: Clean your list—and say what you mean. Sending to dead emails kills deliverability, and loading up your message with fluff kills interest. Be clear, be human, and respect your reader’s time.

Why it matters: Bad data and bad messaging both lead to the same result: people tune you out. But with a clean list and a straightforward message, you’re already ahead of most senders. Keep it simple—and send with purpose.

What does email marketing success really take? A giant list? Dozens of sends a week? Not quite. As ZeroBounce’s Zach Nonnemacher explains, it’s about being clear, real, and intentional — and building the kind of connection that lasts.

In this heartfelt and practical conversation, ZeroBounce Content Manager Zach Nonnemacher shares his take on how to write better emails: respect for your reader, clarity in your message, and a little bit of soul.

From the foundations of a strong email list to the evolving role of AI, Zach reminds us that good marketing is still about being human and keeping it real in a noisy digital world.

Zach talks about:

• The easiest (and fastest) way to improve your email list and email ROI
• Why AI still needs something critical: YOU
• Why personalization works better when it’s real
• The difference between using AI wisely and using it as a crutch
• Why being direct is more potent than being clever.

For the full experience, watch the video interview with ZeroBounce’s Zach Nonnemacher on YouTube.

Grab a coffee, hit play, or keep reading — and let Zach show you how to bring a little more heart (and a lot more clarity) into your emails.

The first step to better email marketing? Stop sending to dead addresses

What are some things people can do to get better results from email – things that are actually easy to do?

Honestly, the first thing – and I don’t mean to jump into self-promotion – but it really is one of the easiest wins: clean your contacts before you start sending email.

I’m assuming most people listening are bulk senders, right? We’re talking from a business perspective. But think about it, would you have your sales team cold-calling random numbers without knowing if they even work? Of course not. You’d just hit a bunch of errors. It’s the same thing with email.

You’re putting time and effort into these campaigns. So it doesn’t make sense to just fire them off blindly without knowing where they’re going. 

And with email, there’s even more risk. Maybe the phone world has a similar consequence, I’m not sure, but I know for a fact that when you keep sending emails to dead or invalid addresses, it comes back to bite you. It makes future email performance worse.

The good news? Cleaning your list can take just minutes, depending on the size. And you can use a service to do it. It’s one of the simplest, smartest things you can do. The problem is, most of us don’t take preventative action. We wait until something breaks, and then we ask, “Man, what do I do now?”

But list cleaning isn’t expensive – and doing it regularly puts you ahead of so many others.

Now, beyond that, I like to speak more from the content side of things. Just for context, I didn’t go to school for marketing. I don’t come with textbook training or a list of rigid formulas. I come at it like a regular consumer. Like all of us. We get emails in our inbox every day.

If a message feels like nonsense or like it’s not talking to you as a person, you’re not going to give it any attention.

There’s tons of advice out there about how to design your emails — and some of it’s great. It can affect deliverability, too. But when it comes to the message itself, my biggest tip is: don’t overthink it.

If you know what you’re trying to say and it’s worth saying, you’ve already got the core. Now just write like you’re talking to one person.

I get that it gets more complicated when you’re emailing 50,000+ people. There are a lot of different personas in that list. That’s where segmentation comes in, which, sure, isn’t always easy. Depending on what data you have, it can take some work. But it’s worth the investment.

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Don’t overthink it, just write like a human

So my big takeaways:

• Don’t overcomplicate the message.
• Don’t add more text just to fill space.
• Get to the point.

Most people — like me, for example, in my business inbox — are busy. We’re skimming. We want the value fast. So get in, say what matters, and get out. You’ll waste less of their time — and your own.

How many emails do you get a day, including your personal account? Just throw out a guess.

I think fewer than some of the other team members. I stay pretty quiet over here. Maybe 30 to 50 a day, depending on how active some of the more eager outreach folks are.

I’m in that space now where people look at my job title and start sending me things, even though I’m not always the right person to contact. But I get it. That’s part of the game. Sometimes you don’t know who the right contact is, and it’s tough to figure out.

I understand what those senders are trying to do. But it’s something to keep in mind because other people might not see it that way. They’ll just say, “Why is this person emailing me?” And hit spam.

That’s why I always say: if you’re going to send outreach emails, please don’t use a generic AI script. If you’re taking the time to email me, tell me why. Let me know why you reached out, why I’m the person you’re emailing. That goes a long way in keeping me from just deleting it on sight.

Avoid clickbait and be direct with your message

Well, what tends to make most people pay attention to an email? Could you put it into words? 

I can say for me — and from what I’ve seen with the emails we send — it’s really about how direct you are. I think sometimes people get a little too cute with it. There’s so much emphasis on subject lines, and I get it. You want it to be intriguing. But often, it starts bordering on clickbait.

At that point, I’m like… I don’t even know what this is. And if I’ve only got so much time, maybe I don’t even open the email. I just think, “I don’t have time for this.”

So my recommendation is: if you’re emailing someone, you already know what you want to say, so just say it. Be clear. Let me know what this is. That’s what gets me to look at it. It shows respect. I know what this is, I know if I’m interested or not. Simple.

I think sometimes, as marketers, we get caught up chasing metrics and trying to make the numbers go up. But I’d rather have a smaller list where, when I hit send, I know the people getting it want to get it. Because the last thing I want to do is keep emailing someone who hates getting emails from me. That doesn’t help them. It doesn’t help me.

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The other big one — and I know everyone’s heard this term a million times — is segmentation. But it’s not just knowing about the person, it’s: what have they done lately to engage with you? What’s bringing them to you? And how can you talk directly to that?

Timing is a big deal, too. Some of the most successful emails I’ve sent have been to webinar audiences. You host our webinar, people sign up, they show up, they enjoy the content — now that list is super engaged. When I email them afterward, I already know something about them. I know what we talked about. I know what they’re looking for. That kind of immediacy makes a huge difference.

Simplify it down to a one-to-one connection

So yeah, those are the things I think about. As much as you can, you’re trying to simplify it down to a one-to-one connection. Which sounds weird, because yeah — you’ve got a huge list. But that’s the mindset: there’s a person on the other side of the screen, and you’re trying to talk to them. It’s not just about blasting something out and hoping something sticks.

And look, some businesses are different. You might need high conversion rates. But in some cases, like if you’re selling something high-ticket, I’d rather get 10 really interested people and actually make something happen. That’s worth it.

So avoid the fluff, be direct, and be mindful of what you’re sending and when you’re sending it. 

From experience, I can tell you: it makes an astronomical difference. Like, literally the difference between nobody reading the email at all, versus people acting like it’s the best email ever written. And it didn’t even have to do with what I wrote, necessarily. It was just the right message, at the right time, to the right person.

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You are putting this so, so well. Now, I want to make a little point here. Tell us the band that’s still touring, that still plays, that you like the most.

Boy… this has been a musical year for me. 

The band I’ve been kind of obsessed with the past couple years is a group called Sleep Token. They’re like, taking over the world right now. UK-based, kind of experimental. That’s been heavy in my rotation lately.

They dropped a new album recently, and I finally got tickets to see them in September. So that’s what I’ll go with.

Now, I want you to use your imagination for a second. Imagine you’re checking your email, and you see that Sleep Token has added a second show. The subject line says: “Would you like to see Sleep Token?”— and they’re not playing in the nearest city, they’re playing in your town. If you saw that in the subject line — “Do you want to see Sleep Token in [Your Town], USA?”— how would you react?

Immediate click. It’s a done deal. You know I’m a fan. You know I want to see you. You’re making it as easy as possible for me to say yes.

I mean, in reality, that show would probably be sold out by the time I even clicked the link, but that kind of proves the point. That email would explode.

“Immediate click!” Right. The reason I brought this up — I was talking with Jay Schwedelson the other day about this — how many times has it happened to you where you saw an email in your inbox and, even just for a split second, you thought, “That’s me! That’s me!” And what did you do?

Yeah. I mean, I’m pretty particular. I’m thinking more about my personal inbox here, because that’s probably more relevant. My business inbox is a different game altogether.

But yeah, I subscribe to lists that I know I want to be on. And that’s a big part of it, too. A lot of people are still pulling data from all these weird places, and honestly, I feel strongly about not emailing people who didn’t ask for it.

So when I get those emails — like, “Hey, so-and-so is touring near you,” or “Here’s some products you might like”— I’ll at least check them out. I’m not saying I’ll definitely buy anything, but I saw the product. I clicked the email.

And to me, that ties back to the goal of the email. Sure, you want me to buy something — but even if I didn’t, you still got me thinking about it. You still made me aware. That counts for something.

So yeah, those emails feel like they’re made for me because, honestly, most of the time, they are. I asked for them.

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So just imagine a subject line pops up in your inbox: “Have you written a hundred thousand words today? Are you tired of writing? Click.”

Hahaha! That one I’d probably be skeptical of. I’d be like, “Okay… what is this? Some AI nonsense you’re trying to sell me?”

I’m good.

But I get what you’re saying — yeah.

“I’d rather get a flawed email from a real person.”

A little humor here!  You brought up AI. Are you making the most of AI? How do you feel about it now that it’s not so new anymore?

It’s funny, because it feels like every couple of weeks we have this discussion in our Slack channel. Not a debate exactly, but definitely a regular topic. And I’ll admit, I have very strong opinions about AI.

A lot of that comes from — not even a business-minded perspective — but more from this place of wanting to protect the artists and the creators of the world. I care a lot about that kind of thing. So my gut instinct is usually, “I don’t want AI anything.” I’d rather get the worst-written email from a real person — something messy, something flawed — because I know it came from a human. And honestly, that might even make me like it more.

And for what it’s worth, I think what we’ve seen at ZeroBounce supports that idea. It’s why our customer support is so active — because there’s still a huge amount of value in human connection.

Now, maybe I’m being a little too dramatic or cynical about AI and its takeover, and I think we will get more nuanced in how we use it. Right now, you see some people in different industries just copying and pasting AI-generated content — and they’re getting called out for it. Rightfully so.

AI is helpful — but only if you still do the work

My overall feeling is: AI has a place, but only if people can learn to use it maturely. And if there’s one thing I can say with certainty, it’s that AI is a major improvement over how we’ve searched the internet for information in the past.

If you look at what people are saying online, there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with Google search results lately. Maybe that’s just the inevitable result of the “pay-to-play” model — where paid spots win over quality info. So yeah, maybe I’m being harsh on Google, but the quality of search has definitely taken a hit.

There have been times when I go to a website, and I just can’t find the info I need. And I’ll think, “You know what? I’ll just ask ChatGPT.” And it does find it for me. But the difference is — I’m diligent. I’ll still go through and check the sources. I want to know where it’s pulling that information from. That’s just basic research, like we learned in school.

I was talking to my wife about this recently. When we were growing up, our parents always said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” And now, it feels like there’s a generation that just says, “Well, ChatGPT told me, so it must be true.” And it’s like — no. That’s not how this works.

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Pro tip: Did you know ZeroBounce integrates with ChatGPT? See how you can verify email addresses directly on the platform.

Use it for feedback, not for shortcuts

As far as I understand it, and I’m no tech expert, AI like ChatGPT isn’t really thinking. It’s gathering data made by other people and trying to deliver it in a way that makes sense for your prompt. And that can be really useful for research. Sometimes even great.

At ZeroBounce, there are times I’ll ask for feedback and everyone’s just too busy to respond. You know how it is — as a writer, ideally you always want someone to bounce ideas off of. Otherwise, you get stuck in your own head. You write about the same topics all the time, and eventually, it’s hard to even tell what’s good and what’s not.

So sometimes I’ll ask ChatGPT, “What do you think of this?” And it’ll give me feedback. Sometimes I agree — “Yep, that’s what I thought.” Other times I’ll think, “That’s terrible feedback.” But even bad feedback can help you think differently. Same goes for feedback from humans, really.

So that’s how I use it. I never use it to fully write an email, or build an entire web page or presentation. If you want to use it to sketch out a structure, fine. But don’t leave the human element out.

Not just because that’s my personal opinion — but because people are getting savvy. They can tell when something’s been written by a robot. And that’s not the reaction you want.

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So don’t use AI as an excuse to skip doing the work. It can help you — but what you bring to it still matters. A lot.

So can you give us a specific example of how you’d actually use AI to do something?

A good example is when I’ve got to create a bunch of content in a short amount of time — like a lineup of emails I need to prepare all at once. Even before AI came into the picture, I used to worry that writing a lot of similar emails back-to-back might make things sound too repetitive or formulaic.

So what I’ll do is: I’ll write the whole email first, and then I’ll ask AI, “Hey, what do you think of this?” I’ll tell it what I was trying to do—maybe the tone or emotion I was going for, or just the goal of the email—and I’ll let it analyze what I wrote.

It gives pretty thorough feedback. And I take it with a grain of salt — a big grain of salt — but I’ll still ask myself, “Okay, is it making any good points? Did I miss something?”

Because honestly, even though I’m still kind of meh about AI, I’ll take feedback from anywhere. I make mistakes all the time. And if it catches something, if it reads it a certain way I didn’t intend, that might be enough to help me tweak a few things and improve the final version.

I’m usually not using any of the text it gives me. I might borrow a line here or there if it’s especially good or helps reframe something I wrote. But really, it’s about the feedback. It’s just a way to bounce the draft off something when you don’t have a real person available.

And just to be clear, I’m not saying don’t use AI. But I feel really strongly about sending something that’s me — even if it has flaws — rather than relying entirely on a tool. Because if I just let AI do everything… then what am I doing?

So that’s how I usually use it. I’ll say, “Take a look — did I hit the mark?” And I keep in mind it’s not the law. It’s just another way to check myself when I don’t have a better alternative.

Don’t count yourself out — most people can write better than they think

Writers are constantly torn. We look at something we wrote and think, “This is either brilliant… or complete garbage.” At least AI is impartial — it can tell you, “Hey, this might make sense to you, but it’s not landing the way you think.”  So let’s say someone out there owns a small business and thinks they can’t afford a copywriter. What would you tell them?

That’s a tough one.

First off, I’d say, you do need a copywriter? But the better question is: what exactly do you need them for? Do you need someone to write emails? A blog? Social media posts? Because those are all different types of writing, and each one really deserves a dedicated person to do it well.

If your resources are limited, I’d start by narrowing it down. What’s your highest priority? Maybe you just want to send two or three emails a month. That’s manageable. You might not be able to hire someone full-time, but there are plenty of talented freelancers out there who’d be happy to take on a small project. They might charge by the word or have a flat rate, but it’s often more doable than people think.

And this might not be popular advice, but I always encourage people to give writing a shot themselves. I appreciate all the compliments about my writing — and maybe I downplay my skills too much — but I honestly believe most people can write if they try. You’re not trying to be Shakespeare here. You’re writing a business email. You’ve got a product, and you want to tell someone about it. That’s it.

So maybe AI can help get you started. You could ask it, “How would you structure this email?” and then take a crack at it yourself. Worst-case scenario? The email doesn’t perform well. That happens to all of us. But now, congratulations — you’re officially doing email marketing.

A lot of people say, “I can’t write,” but then I hear them talk, or I watch them in presentations, and I think, “This person can absolutely write a few lines.” Especially in business, you’re usually the expert in your field. That’s something I deal with all the time at ZeroBounce. I’m not a deliverability expert, but I’ve learned a lot by soaking up knowledge from the real pros. And when I write, I try to bring in those voices — those quotes, those insights — because they know the topic best.

Pro tip: Struggling with email deliverability? Book some time with our consultants – and start getting your emails in the inbox.

So yeah, if hiring someone isn’t an option, I say just try it. You’d be surprised what you can come up with. And when you’re ready to grow, definitely make copy a priority. It ties into everything long term.

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The most surprising things about email deliverability

We’ve all learned a ton about email deliverability, hygiene, and marketing. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered? Here’s one I found: I didn’t realize so many emails from my personal domain were landing in spam because my domain wasn’t warmed up.  I started warming it up with ZeroBounce — no, they didn’t pay me to say this — but it really made all the difference for deliverability. Have you found anything like that? Something you thought, “Wait, I didn’t know this”?

There’s actually a lot, especially when it comes to email clients, which I’m still trying to master. I think a lot of people don’t realize that when you send an email, even if you test it on your iPhone or in Gmail and it looks fine, there can still be issues.

Different email service providers (ESPs) use various technologies to display emails, which can cause all sorts of weird little problems. Sometimes it’s something really niche — like someone using an old version of Outlook — and it breaks the email in unexpected ways.

That makes it really hard to cover every possible case. It’s important because when we talk about a good email experience and better deliverability, part of that is making sure your emails are responsive and look right across all those different platforms.

But I’m still learning about some of the really niche stuff. Like, most people don’t know this, but a lot of us now use dark mode — and every ESP handles dark mode differently. Some just read the HTML as-is, but Gmail, for example, kind of plays a guessing game, trying to palette-match colors, which can mess things up.

I need to learn more about how that works instead of just relying on my usual tools that say, “Hey, it looks good on my screen.”

It gets granular. Sometimes I think I’d benefit from having a coding expert on my side to help me check all this stuff. Now it’s not just writing emails or dragging and dropping in an editor — I’m digging into the HTML to make sure everything’s configured correctly.

It’s a lot. But I figure there are tons of people out there who might look at those edge cases and just say, “Eh, it’s less than one percent of people, so who cares?”

But even for that small percentage, it matters.

“I think a lot about who I am beyond my job — what impact I’m making.”

You’re always learning and teaching at the same time. If you could live in the world of any cartoon or comic book — going back to the classics — which one would you choose?

I don’t know if you ask everyone this, or if it’s just for me, but I’m a huge geek, so this question really hits home. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved escapism — comics, games, cartoons — and I still do as an adult. If I had to pick, it would be The Last Airbender.

It’s one of my favorite shows from growing up, and I’d recommend it for anyone with kids. It’s surprisingly spiritual and very mindful. I used to be pretty religious, though I’m not anymore, but I still have this loosely spiritual side.

In business, we talk a lot about results, but on a personal level, I think a lot about who I am beyond my job — what impact I’m making. That kind of self-reflection is central to The Last Airbender. The show’s world is built around themes like balance — balancing the parts of yourself, accepting that there are no truly negative traits, just things you temper with other qualities.

Maybe I’m too passionate sometimes, so I need to balance that with calm and mindfulness. That’s stuck with me.

Living in a world less obsessed with business and money, and more focused on being grounded and growing as a person, is really appealing. For me, career success doesn’t come first; it follows personal growth. I have to find that grounding first because it shapes how I work and relate to others.

It’s kind of a simple, fantasy world. It’s not tech-driven, which I love my technology, but I wonder if all our technology is making us worse off in the long run — maybe causing more problems than it solves. That’s a complicated question that could take up a whole interview.

But yeah, living in a world where people focus more on those kinds of things — that would sound pretty nice.

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I’m glad you answered that, Zach. I hope you never lose sight of that part of yourself — I really like that about you. Here’s my last question: How can anyone out there make today better?

That’s a great question. It’s something I’ve been working on myself, so if you’re struggling, you’re not alone. I think the first step is to unplug from the internet, from all the bad news that seems constant. And then, really recognize that no matter how bad things get, there are things to be grateful for.

For me, having a wife who sticks by me through thick and thin already makes me richer than a lot of people. We often take those things for granted. So I’d say, take a moment to appreciate what you have. Even if you don’t feel grateful right away, sometimes you just have to practice it until it becomes real.

I’ll work on that with you.

Gratitude is so simple when you focus on it, and sometimes we all just need to unplug. Thanks for saying that, Zach.  And thank you for spending time with us—it’s always a joy.

I’m glad to hear it. I appreciate it. See you.