Email and SMS marketing that gets the money already sitting in your list.
Setting up and running an email and SMS system, also known as email marketing. You've already paid to bring these customers in, they gave an email or a phone number, bought once and it's been quiet since. It's the only channel where you don't pay for every inquiry again, and in most businesses it simply isn't running.
A reply from me personally, usually within the hour during Israel working hours.
Last updated:
Email and SMS marketing, also called email marketing, is building a system that talks to the customers you already have: a welcome message, a reminder for an abandoned cart, a note to customers who haven't bought in six months and an update to your best customers before everyone else. At Mr. Make this is built by Lior Zabari, who has worked with marketing systems for 15 years and connects them to what actually happens in the business.
The difference from advertising: in this channel you don't pay for every inquiry. The list is an asset you hold, and the marginal cost of one more message is pennies.
Clients I've worked with
From the family business to the international brand.
- iCount
- Mr. Alex Jewelers
- Best Brilliance
- the123
- Ninja School
- PTravels Club
- Genesis Tours
- Proof
- Rogel
- Sahbook
- Coravana
- Crewzz
- Padel Time Club
- Semicom
- Smartair
- Suncar
- Amadora
- Skeep
- Fratelli
- DAFNI
The only channel you truly own
In paid advertising you rent attention. On social you're a guest of an algorithm. The list is the only thing that stays yours even if an account is suspended tomorrow or the cost per click jumps.
A marginal cost of pennies
A new paid lead costs tens to hundreds. A message to a customer already on the list costs a fraction of that. Same sale, completely different price.
The second customer is cheaper than the first
Someone who already bought knows you, and the persuasion starts from an advanced point. Most businesses pour almost the whole budget into bringing a first customer, and then neglect the second purchase.
Runs without you
Once the system is built it works on weekends, on holidays and while you're at a client. You don't have to remember to send.
Measurable to the last cent
Every message is tied to the revenue it brought. It's one of the few channels where that number is almost entirely clean.
One customer journey, written once and still working
This isn't a mailing list that gets a newsletter once a month. It's a series of messages sent according to what the customer did, in the channel that fits the moment.
Sent a minute after sign-up, when interest is highest. In most systems I've seen it's also the most-opened email, simply because it arrives at the right moment.
A short message with one link. No discount, just a way back to where they stopped.
Content that keeps you top of mind. Anyone who sends only promotions loses the list within months.
Sent only to those who didn't buy, and only once. This is the flow that brings the money back fastest.
Your best customers get early access. It costs nothing and keeps people for years.
Want to see what I'd switch on for you first?
What I actually build for you
Cleaning and organizing the list
Who is really there, who is a duplicate and who is a dead address that only hurts you. A bloated list costs money and lowers deliverability.
Setting up or cleaning up the platform
I work inside your platform, and if there isn't one we choose one that fits the size and the budget.
Connecting to the real data
From the store, the CRM or the calendar. Without it you can't send according to what the customer did, only send everyone the same thing.
Writing the messages
Emails and texts written the way a person writes. A translated template sounds exactly like a translated template. Short in SMS, clear in email.
A consent, unsubscribe and documentation layer
Where the customer consented, when and in what wording. An unsubscribe that takes effect immediately and syncs between email, SMS and the CRM.
Deliverability and domain health
SPF, DKIM and DMARC settings, a dedicated subdomain for sending and gradual warm-up, so the messages reach the inbox and not spam.
A message that landed in spam is money burned
You pay for the send whether it reached the inbox or landed in spam. Every percent that falls along the way is money paid that did nothing, and in most cases the reason is three technical settings nobody touched.
Domain authentication
SPF, DKIM and DMARC define who is authorized to send in your name. Without them Google and Microsoft filter by default.
A separate subdomain
You send marketing from a dedicated address and not from the main domain, so one failed campaign doesn't hurt your business emails.
Gradual warm-up
Start with small volumes and grow. A first send to 10,000 people from a new domain is the fastest way to get blocked.
Ongoing cleaning
Anyone who hasn't opened in a whole year lowers your standing with the mail providers. Better a small list that's read than a big list that's blocked.
The legal side (Israeli law), in a business owner's language
This is the part that turns email marketing from profit into risk. Section 30A of Israel's Communications Law (Telecommunications and Broadcasting) allows the court to award compensation of up to 1,000 shekels for every message sent knowingly, without the claimant having to prove damage. And note the wording: the law sets a presumption that the sending was knowing unless the advertiser proved otherwise, meaning the burden is on you and not on the claimant. That's exactly why documenting consent isn't bureaucracy but the defense itself. It's a ceiling subject to discretion and not a fixed amount, and in practice lower amounts are usually awarded. Still, on a list of thousands of recipients without valid consent, the cumulative amount that can be claimed is large, and I build the system so the question never comes up at all. This section describes Israeli law. If you send from the US, the UK or the EU, the rules differ in the details (CAN-SPAM, PECR, GDPR), and the same consent and unsubscribe layer is where compliance starts in every one of them.
| What's required | In email | In SMS |
|---|---|---|
| The word "Advertisement" | Required, in the message subject | Not required |
| The advertiser's name | Required | Required |
| Address and contact details | Required | Not required |
| A way to unsubscribe | Required, including a valid web address | Required |
In practice most senders of marketing SMS add the word "Advertisement" out of habit. In an SMS the law requires only the advertiser's name and the way to unsubscribe.
You may send to an existing customer without explicit consent, but only if all three conditions together are met
- The details were given during a purchase or negotiation for a purchase, and you told them at the time that the details would be used for marketing.
- You gave them a chance to say they refuse to receive advertisements, in general or of a certain kind, and they didn't.
- The message relates to a product or service of a similar kind to the one they bought.
This is where most businesses fall: condition 1 is almost always met, conditions 2 and 3 almost never. Legal pages that present the three as an "or" are simply wrong.
There is no consent by silence
Consent must be explicit, in advance and in writing. For this purpose the law also recognizes an electronic message and a recorded call. A pre-ticked checkbox isn't consent, and the burden of proving it was given is on you.
Unsubscribing as the recipient chooses
They may refuse at any time, at no cost beyond the cost of sending the message itself, in writing or in the same way the message arrived, as the recipient chooses. "Call our service center" isn't a valid unsubscribe mechanism.
A bought list is a gamble
There's no consent in it, and the burden of proving consent is on you. In addition, sending to a list made up of a random sequence of addresses, or to someone who already refused, denies you the option of claiming you didn't know.
The liability is personal too
The section imposes a personal duty of supervision on the corporation's manager and on whoever is responsible for marketing, to prevent the criminal offense in the section. If an offense was committed, the officer is presumed to have breached their duty, unless they did everything possible to fulfill it. That's exposure separate from the civil claim, and proper documentation is exactly what gets you out of it.
The information here is a professional explanation and not legal advice. It's based on the wording of Section 30A of the Communications Law (Telecommunications and Broadcasting), 1982, as of Amendment 76 from October 2022. Before a large campaign it's worth having a lawyer go over the wording.
I don't sell you a platform. I build inside the one that fits.
I don't get a commission from Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign or the Israeli platforms (ActiveTrail, smoove, InforU), so the choice is made by what fits you: whether there's a store, whether you need SMS, how many recipients and what the budget is. Many businesses already pay for a platform that sits idle, and then the job is to switch it on and not to replace it.
How to choose a mailing platform, and who wrote the guide you read
If you searched Google for "choosing a mailing platform", most of what you got was written by mailing platforms. That's not necessarily deception, but it does explain why every such guide happens to conclude that the author's platform is right for you. I don't get a commission from any of them, and these are the eight things I actually check before I recommend.
| What we check | Why it matters | When it's critical |
|---|---|---|
| Real Hebrew and RTL support | Not just a translated interface, but an editor that produces an email that looks right in the inbox and isn't broken from the right | Always, for a right-to-left market, and it knocks out more platforms than you'd think |
| SMS in the same platform | Same list, same unsubscribe, same consent documentation. Two separate platforms create gaps that end in a lawsuit | When there are reminders, RSVPs or deliveries |
| Connection to the store or the CRM | Without the data on what the customer bought, you're left with a newsletter for everyone. Abandoned cart requires a real connection and not a manual export | For every online store, without exception |
| Depth of automation | Whether you can build conditions, waits and branches, or there's only "send after two days". Most of the money in email marketing is in the branches | When the system passes three or four flows |
| Deliverability tools | Domain authentication, a dedicated subdomain, a complaints report and block data. Without these you're blind when something starts to fail | When the list passes a few thousand recipients |
| Pricing structure | By recipients or by messages. A big list with rare sends and a small list with frequent sends pay the exact opposite | Always, and it changes as the list grows |
| Support in your language and your hours | When the send gets stuck on Sunday morning, support that answers on Monday afternoon California time is a problem | When there's nobody technical in the business |
| Full data export | The list, the consents and the documentation are yours. A platform that makes exporting hard is a platform that's hard to leave | Before you sign, not after |
When to send an email and when an SMS
It's not a question of which is better but of what fits this message. SMS costs real money per send and goes straight into the customer's pocket, so it's reserved for urgent, short things. Email is almost free and carries much more information. A good system uses both, each in its own role.
| What we check | SMS | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per message | A fraction of a cent | Cents to a dollar, and it adds up fast |
| How much information fits | Images, links, products, long text | A line or two, and one link |
| Urgency | Read when convenient | Read within minutes |
| Risk of annoying | Low, easy to ignore | High. One unnecessary SMS produces an unsubscribe |
| What must appear in the message | The word "Advertisement" in the subject, the advertiser's name and address, contact details and a way to unsubscribe | The advertiser's name and the way to unsubscribe only |
| The natural role | Newsletter, abandoned cart, winning back a customer who went quiet, a product launch | Appointment reminder, order confirmation, a sale ending today, a delivery on its way |
Why open rate no longer says what it used to
Almost every email report opens with the open rate, and it's the least reliable number in the report. Open rate is measured with a tiny image loaded from the server when the message is opened. Since Apple launched Mail Privacy Protection in 2021, the iPhone Mail app preloads that image through a proxy server, whether the recipient opened or not. This applies to Apple's Mail app for whoever approved the setting, and not to everyone who holds an iPhone, because many people open Gmail on the device. Still, the share of reported opens that never happened is large enough that the number can't be compared to an industry average.
Revenue per thousand sent
The only number I really track. Take the revenue attributed to the flow and divide by the number of messages that went out. It lets you compare a newsletter to an abandoned-cart flow, one month to another and a big list to a small one, without the list's size distorting the picture.
Click rate out of sent
Watch the wording. Most platforms show clicks out of opens, and that's a number inflated exactly as much as the opens are inflated. A click is a real action by a person, so dividing by the number sent gives a clean figure.
Unsubscribe rate and spam complaints
Two health metrics. A rise in them is the early warning that frequency is too high or the content isn't relevant, and it arrives months before deliverability starts to fall. A spam complaint is far more serious than an unsubscribe.
Inbox placement rate
Not how many were sent but how many actually reached the primary inbox and not Promotions or spam. It's measured with separate tools and not in the platform's report, because the platform only knows that it sent.
The five mistakes that cost the most money
These aren't beginners' mistakes. They recur in businesses that have been sending for years, and each of them has a price that can be calculated.
Sending only a newsletter
A newsletter is a broadcast to everyone at the same moment. The real money is in messages sent to one person because of something they did: signed up, looked and didn't buy, abandoned a cart, bought and didn't return. Those run in the background forever and produce without anyone pressing send.
The price: all the revenue the flows would have producedKeeping a bloated list
Recipients who haven't opened in two years don't become customers, but they do pay twice: they raise the platform price charged by list size, and they lower your reputation with the mail providers, so even those who do want to receive end up in spam. A small list that's read is worth more than a big list that's blocked.
The price: needless platform fees and falling deliverabilitySending from the main domain without authentication
Without SPF, DKIM and DMARC, Google and Microsoft filter by default. And when you send marketing from the main domain, one blocked campaign also hurts the quotes and invoices you send customers. It's a few hours of setup that prevents a problem that takes months to fix.
The price: business emails that disappearAn unsubscribe mechanism that doesn't really unsubscribe
An unsubscribe that takes effect only in email and not in SMS, or that syncs to the CRM once a week, produces exactly the situation the law fines: a message sent to someone who already asked to stop. It's not a small technical glitch, it's exposure to a class action.
The price: compensation with no proof of damage, per messageDisappearing for six months and then sending to everyone
A list that received nothing for eight months no longer remembers who you are. A sudden send to everyone after a long pause produces a wave of spam complaints, and that's the thing that burns a domain fastest. After a pause you come back gradually and start precisely with whoever was active.
The price: the domain, and sometimes for goodWho it's for, and who it isn't
Email marketing isn't a channel that fits every business, and I'd rather say so here than in the fourth call. The simple rule: this channel talks to people who already know you. If there are almost none, there's nothing to start from.
An online store
The best fit there is. Abandoned cart, a complementary-product recommendation and winning back a customer who hasn't bought in six months are flows that produce from the first month, because the data already exists in the store.
A business with repeat purchases
A clinic, a hair salon, a garage, a physical store with a club. When the customer returns every few months, a reminder at the right time is the difference between a regular customer and a customer who went to the competitor because they remembered them first.
A service with a long sales cycle
Consulting, real estate, insurance, large projects. Someone who inquired and didn't close hasn't disappeared, they're just not ready yet. A sequence of emails over months keeps you top of mind without you having to call.
When there's no list and no traffic
A business with no previous customers and no site that brings visitors first needs a source of inquiries. There's no point building a marketing system for a list of forty people. In that situation I'll send you to paid advertising first.
A strictly one-time sale
Some products are bought once in a lifetime and have no complementary product. There, email marketing won't pay back the investment, and it's better to put the same money into referrals and reviews.
When there are no documented consents
If the list was collected without documenting who approved and when, we start from that. I don't build a system on a list whose consent can't be proven, because the one who gets sued in the end is you.
The price structure, with no percentage of sales
| Component | Who gets paid | How it's set |
|---|---|---|
| Setting up the system | Me | A one-time cost, by the number of flows and connections to your systems |
| Ongoing management | Me | A fixed monthly retainer. Not a percentage of sales and not by the number of sends |
| The mailing platform | Directly to the provider | By list size and message volume. You pay directly and not through me |
| SMS | Directly to the provider | A price per message. Here quantity really matters, so we send only to those who need it |
Questions about email and SMS marketing
Am I allowed to send marketing messages to a customer who bought from me once?
Only if all three conditions of Section 30A(c) are met together: the details were given during a purchase or negotiation, you told them at the time that the details would be used for marketing and gave them a chance to refuse, and the message relates to a product or service of a similar kind. If one of them is missing, you need explicit prior consent.
I bought a list of leads. Am I allowed to send to it?
No. There's no consent from the recipients there, and the burden of proving consent is on the sender. Sending to a list made up of a random sequence of addresses or numbers also negates any claim of good faith. It's one of the fastest ways to end up in a class action.
What must appear in a marketing SMS?
Under Section 30A(e)(2), an SMS only needs to state the advertiser's name and the way to unsubscribe. The full requirements, including the word "Advertisement" in the subject, an address and contact details, apply to an electronic message such as an email.
Does the law apply to WhatsApp too?
The section doesn't say "WhatsApp", but it defines two tracks: a "short message", meaning a message delivered over a telecom network to the recipient's terminal equipment, and an "electronic message", meaning a message that travels over the internet and can be stored and retrieved. By the wording, WhatsApp actually fits the second definition, whose requirements are fuller. The classification hasn't been settled unambiguously yet, so I work by the stricter version: prior consent, marking it as an advertisement, the advertiser's name and contact details, and a simple way to unsubscribe.
How much money does it really bring back?
It depends on the size of the list, the deal value and the purchase frequency. The calculation is simple: number of recipients times the percentage that return in a month times the average deal value. A list of 2,000 customers, an average deal of 450 shekels (about $125) and a 2% monthly return is 18,000 shekels (about $5,000) a month. You can calculate your own number in the calculator above.
How soon does the system work?
The first flow, usually a welcome or abandoned-cart flow, goes live within two to three weeks. A full system with connections to your systems and a complete customer journey takes one to two months, depending on how fast we get access to the systems.
I have a mailing platform and I don't use it. Is it worth switching?
In most cases no. If the platform meets the requirements, it's better to switch it on than to pay for a migration. I work inside your platform, and if it really isn't suitable I'll say so with a reason and not as a default.
Why do my emails land in spam?
In most cases because of three settings that were never configured: SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which verify that you're authorized to send from the domain. After that come domain warm-up and cleaning dead addresses. It's a few hours of technical work that completely changes the result.
I send a newsletter once a month. Is that enough?
A newsletter is a broadcast to everyone. Most of the money in email marketing comes precisely from messages sent to one person based on what they did: signed up, abandoned a cart, bought, or went quiet. Those run in the background all the time, without you having to remember.
Who gets sued if the mailing is illegal, me or whoever manages it?
In the civil claim the advertiser is sued, meaning the business on whose behalf the message was sent. Separately, the section imposes a personal duty of supervision on the corporation's manager and on whoever is responsible for marketing, to prevent the criminal offense, with a presumption that the duty was breached unless they did everything possible. That's why I build the consent, unsubscribe and documentation layer as part of the system and not as something handled after the first campaign.
What is email marketing and how is it different from a newsletter?
Email marketing is any proactive sending of messages to a list of recipients who gave consent, by email or SMS. A newsletter is one kind of it: the same message to everyone at the same time. The practical difference is that most of the revenue in this channel doesn't come from the newsletter but from automatic messages sent to one person following something they did. A newsletter requires someone to remember to send. An automatic flow works even when nobody touches it.
What counts as a good open rate?
It's the most common question and the least useful. Since Apple's Mail Privacy Protection in 2021, the iPhone Mail app preloads the tracking image that measures opens, even when the recipient didn't open. In markets with a high iPhone share this inflates the figure in a way that can't be quantified precisely. So I compare month to month within the same business and not against an industry average, and the number that decides is revenue per thousand messages sent.
How do you build a mailing list from scratch?
You don't buy it. You collect it from the traffic that already reaches you: a form on the site with a real value proposition and not "subscribe to our newsletter", collection at the checkout or at the end of a service, and sign-up inside the purchase process with a clear explanation of what the sign-up is for. At every collection point you need to document exactly what the customer approved and when, because the burden of proving consent is on you. A list of three hundred people who signed up willingly is worth more than ten thousand that were bought.
How many times a month should I send?
There's no single number and it can be found through measurement. I start at a low frequency, watch the unsubscribe rate and spam complaints, and raise gradually until they start to move. An online store can send four times a month with no problem, and a clinic that sends once a week will burn the list. More important than frequency: the automatic flows don't count in this calculation, because they're sent to one person at a moment that's relevant to them.
Can I send on WhatsApp instead of SMS?
Commercially it's tempting because the cost is lower. Legally it's not simpler but stricter: WhatsApp fits the law's definition of an "electronic message", so the full requirements apply to it and not the reduced requirements for SMS. In addition, WhatsApp Business limits proactive sending to pre-approved templates and blocks accounts that receive reports. I work with it only when there's explicit, documented consent for that channel.
What is the difference between email marketing and marketing automation?
Email marketing is the channel, automation is how you run it. Sending a newsletter is email marketing without automation. A message that goes out automatically four hours after a cart is abandoned, and only if the customer hasn't completed the purchase in the meantime, is automation. In most businesses the platform already paid for supports full automation and nobody switched it on. That's why my first job is usually to switch on what's there and not to replace the platform.
What happens to the list if we stop working together?
The list, the consents, the documentation and the flows stay with you, in your account, with the provider you pay directly. I don't hold the account and I don't sit in the middle of the payment. You get a full export whenever you ask, and when we part ways the system keeps running. A channel that is your asset is the whole idea of email marketing in the first place.
More in marketing
Let's start with what you already have
Tell me how many people are on the list and what you send today, and I'll come back with what I'd switch on first.
Prefer to talk? +972 52-877-5515