The Email Marketing Toolkit: Essentials for a High-ROI (Workshop)
Social Media Marketing World
Anaheim, CA | April 28, 2026
What if each email you sent earned you a 2000% return on investment? Email marketing (yes, STILL) rocks the highest return on investment of any medium, garnering on average $20+ for every $1 you invest. That is, if you do it right. Is your email program up to snuff?
From content do’s and don’ts to using data to inform your program to the right ways to grow your email list, Jessica Best, self-proclaimed email marketing dweeb, will help you get your current strategy in the best shape it can be, and then teach you how to grow it to the next level so you can start earning a $20-to-$1 return on investment.
If you’re ready to use your content to drive relationships, relevance and revenue, let Jessica show you the power of ROI with email marketing.
What you’ll learn:
- 2 copy mistakes even savvy marketers (still) make
- What’s working — and accessible — in inboxes in 2025 (and beyond)
- How to grow your subscribers list to grow your revenue
- How to turbo-boost your email marketing — 4 ways to guarantee improvements to your ROI
Learn more and register at https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld
Past Events:
Email List Growth for the Future of Nonprofits
Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization Summit
Kansas City, MO | October 1, 2025
Email marketing almost certainly earns your highest return on investment of any marketing channel: it takes advantage of giving your donors and prospects control over what they get. Plus, 3rd party platforms like paid media and social media will continue to get harder to maximize in The Future™️.
It’s time to invest in your own 1st party data and GROW your email subscriber list. Email marketing can cultivate subscribers and convert to donors… but the first step is to capture them.
In this session, Jess will teach us the right way — and the wrong way — to grow your email list, from free tactics to paid campaigns, from quick wins to long-term strategies. Plus, she’ll point out how to get your program in order before you grow it to make sure you’re getting the most out of each subscriber.
What You’ll Learn:
- The WRONG way to grow your list
- Organic growth ideas (inexpensive)
- Paid and promotion-based growth ideas (fast)
- Keeping your list clean for better Future Fundraising
Email Marketing for Content Marketers: Drive ROI from Your Efforts (Workshop)
Content Marketing World
San Diego, CA | September 15, 2025
What if each email you sent earned you a 2000% return on investment? Email marketing (yes, STILL) rocks the highest return on investment of any medium, garnering on average $20+ for every $1 you invest. That is, if you do it right. Is your email program up to snuff?
From content do’s and don’ts — and trends — to using data to inform your program to the right ways to grow your email list, Jessica Best, self-proclaimed email marketing dweeb, will help you get your current strategy in the best shape it can be, and then teach you how to grow it to the next level so you can start earning a $20-to-$1 return on investment.
WARNING: Any data-phobes who hate measurable marketing, anyone who has perfect email marketing campaigns already, and those guys that send pharmaceutical ads in Russian need *not* attend.
Key Takeaways:
- Common mistakes we (still) see savvy email marketers make
- What’s working – and what’s pretty darn cool – in email marketing in 2025 and beyond
- How to grow your subscribers list to grow your revenue
- How to turbo-boost your email marketing — 2 ways to guarantee improvements to your ROI
Top 10 Email Marketing Campaign that WORK for Restaurants
National Restaurant Association Show
Chicago, IL | May 20, 2025
Email marketing is consistently the top Return on Investment (ROI) channel for restaurant and food brands, driving as much as 30x what it costs!
In part, that’s because email is one of the cheapest channels in your marketing mix.
But it’s also because email can be customized, targeted, and timed perfectly for each and every recipient. Plus, the folks on your email subscriber list have already said yes once: they want to hear from you!
Are you getting $30 in revenue for every $1 you spend in email marketing?
Jessica Best has over 16 years of experience in email marketing, marketing automation, loyalty, CRM, and data-driven marketing. She’s helped drive results & revenue using customer data for a wide range of food brands, including Applebee’s, IHOP, Dairy Queen, Fogo de Chão, Noodles & Co, Wingstop, Vienna Beef, SPIN Pizza, Boulevard Brewing Company, and many more.
Jessica is bringing what she’s learned working with Fortune 1000 brands to growing brands and franchises. In this session, she’ll share the 10 campaign ideas that work for EVERY restaurant and how you can put them to work for you (including how to get the data to do it).
4 Steps to Becoming an Email Marketing Queen (or King)
Digital Summit Dallas 2024 & Content Jam 2025
Dallas, TX & Chicago, IL
According to Wesley Snipes as Noxeema Jackson in the 1994 cult classic movie “To Wong Foo,” there are 4 steps to becoming a Queen. Jess can show you how each of them works in the world of email marketing too.
Can you stretch your marketing automation program all the way across the customer journey like Chi Chi Rodriguez’ head piece in the final scene? Don’t stop at monthly or weekly promo emails, use your whole wardrobe, aka marketing automation, and think beyond a tan cardigan that “gets the job done.” What would “biggest possible experience” look like?
This session is full of examples of both Style & Substance so you can dress up your email marketing program and become a full-fledged Email Queen (or King).
What You’ll Learn:
- Design and copy that lift results in emails
- 4 ways data can — and should — power your campaigns
- The biggest factor in getting to the inboxes of your subscribers
Data that Drives Email Marketing Relevance… and Revenue
Email Summit Denmark
Odense, Denmark | January 30, 2025
Marketers have fallen (back) in love with data. We wanted MORE DATA… and we got it. But has it made us better marketers? 84% of marketers say they have “enough” data: marketers average more than 8 data sources across their marketing campaigns. Still, marketers say reporting ROI is one of their biggest challenges.
You’ve got data, but do you have the data you need to achieve your email marketing goals? Jessica shares how to make data from a variety of sources useful in your email campaigns by making it work together.
This session will teach you the 3 steps to turn data into a useful tool for creating marketing, including ideas for capturing and accessing customer data and transforming it into personalized marketing at scale.
Key Takeaways:
- Determine if/which of your data ready is to power your email marketing program
- Acquire data so that it’s ready to use in marketing and sales
- Choose data to use in email that impacts the bottom line, a.k.a. bolsters email ROI
- Integrate multiple data sources, from easy plug-ins to robust data power tools
Lost in Translation: How Leaders Harness Perspective to Drive Digital Transformation
Digital Summit Tampa 2025
Tampa, FL
How many of you are in year 3 of a “1-year” data migration or Digital Transformation Plan? Marketing and Technology stacks grew exponentially in the last 5 years, and we know customers expect BETTER service than ever, with our leadership crying for faster solutions and for less cost.
But these projects seem to move as slow as molasses… Even with a clear point person, every team that needs to be consulted or assigned tasks has different priorities, different goals, and even different languages.
The problem with your Digital Transformation project is there’s something lost in translation.
Jessica Best has waded into the jungle on projects from Marketing to Customer Service, and from IT to Legal (!) and more. Using her trademark toolkit, has led a Point of View Shift and gotten alignment – and outcomes – with task force teams from 5 people to 45 people. In this session, she shares that toolkit with you! Get ready for an adventure: you’re going to learn a new perspective on cross-team projects and maybe even a new language.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to speak the language of another team to get clarity across “clique-like” teams
- Get alignment from other team members on what MarTech is right for you
- How to break Digital Transformation down into bite sized steps by Ease & Impact
Email Marketing Creative Best Practices in 2024… and Beyond
GPeC Summit: E-Commerce and Digital Marketing
Bucharest, Romania
May 22-23, 2024
Email marketing is a “cheater channel” because it starts with permission – meaning subscribers have already said “yes” to us once. Our audience has already agreed to read what we send, because they signed up for it. Because of that, it typically boasts the highest Return on Marketing Investment of any channel in the marketing mix!
But that high performance comes at a price: Design and writing for email marketing is… quirky. It’s not like web design or postcard copy. But if you can learn to bend it to your will… The payoff is worth it.
This session will teach you the frustrating funk of email marketing creative AND show off some of what the email channel does better than any other: how to use data to make it really work.
Key Takeaways:
- The anatomy of healthy email marketing design and layout in 2023 (and why it works)
- The rendering battle: how your email looks in 40+ different inboxes & devices
- Common content mistakes even savvy email marketers (still) make
- A peek at trends that work in email marketing in today’s inbox
An event coordinator’s nightmare, a speaker cancelled the night before our event. Jessica stepped in and easily gave one of the best presentations of the day. Jessica’s energy is infectious. Her zeal for all things digital is obvious and her charm keeps the audience’s attention. She’s one of those speakers that knows how valuable your time is and doesn’t waste a minute of it during her presentation.