Episode Details

What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Ruari Baker, Co-Founder and CEO of Allegrow.

Summary: Your fancy AI personalization messaging strategy doesn’t mean anything if you don’t also have a strategy for email deliverability. Ruari busts long-standing myths about HTML vs plain text, why open rates died with Apple's 2021 privacy changes, and why the spam complaints visible in your marketing platform represent a fraction of reality. You'll walk away with 3 deliverability tactics that will help you reach the inbox and stay there: implement multi-subdomains to isolate high-risk traffic, adopt contact risk scoring that transcends basic validation and start using Google Postmaster to see your actual reputation metrics. Escape the promo tab without sacrificing design, resurrect damaged domains, and find out why traditional seed testing is worthless. If you depend on email, this might be the best 40 minutes you’ll spend this month.

About Ruari

• Ruari started entrepreneurship early (at 18 years old) and joined a startup accelerator where he received mentorship from top tech founders in the UK as well as his first investment
• He co-founded Direct Software, a GDPR-first marketing automation solution where he gained a deep understanding of email deliverability
• Today, Ruari is Co-Founder and CEO of Allegrow, an email deliverability platform to help emails reach the primary inbox, not the spam folder

Plain Text Emails Will Always Outperform HTML Emails When it Comes to Inbox Placement

The HTML vs text email question hangs over every marketer's campaign planning session like a dark cloud. Ruari slices through this persistent debate with razor-sharp clarity. Context dictates winners here, not blanket rules. For outbound sales, plain text creates an authenticity that HTML instantly kills. Think about it—you craft personal emails without fancy formatting. The second your recipient spots that polished design, their brain categorizes your message as "marketing material," and your personalization efforts crumble.

> “You can't just simply say 'always plain text, that's better.' The reality is there are still good business reasons for using Rich HTML, and that's why it is such a popular way to send emails from a marketing perspective.”

Email providers have learned to associate complex formatting with promotional content that users often ignore. Your deliverability suffers accordingly. Yet HTML emails persist for good reason:

Large subscriber lists benefit from HTML's clickthrough tracking capabilities
E-commerce companies generate higher engagement when customers see products directly
Visual brands communicate their identity more effectively through designed templates
Data-heavy messages become more scannable with proper formatting and hierarchy

The winning strategy lives somewhere in the messy middle. "If you're using HTML for legitimate marketing emails to an opted-in list, implement these practices to maintain deliverability," Ruari advises. Clean your entire list monthly—remove invalid contacts, keep bounce rates low, and eliminate potential spam trap subscriptions. This simple 30-day hygiene ritual dramatically improves your sender reputation with both ESPs and inbox systems.

HTML devotees should strategically incorporate plain text messages at key points in the subscriber journey. These unadorned communications slip past promotion folder algorithms, landing you in the primary inbox. This placement success creates a virtuous cycle, improving future message placement—even for your HTML campaigns. You must also implement a sunset policy for engagement maintenance. When subscribers show zero activity over your predetermined period, place them into a final-attempt workflow. No response? Remove them proactively. This keeps your engagement metrics healthy, the exact data p