As many of you may already know, I lost my younger brother last week suddenly and without warning.  It hit me and my family like a nuclear bomb and even after the heartfelt support of family and friends at the funeral and wake, we still are left with an empty hole in our hearts.

Why am I telling you this?  Because, this event has driven me to the conclusion that I need to do more for the world around me.  I am not a doctor so I won’t be developing any cures.  Nor am I am drug rehab therapist who will be putting out a revolutionary new therapeutic method to give the millions of homeless folks hope and a new direction.  Nor will I be running for public office as I don’t have the gumption or finesse of a politician.  But, what I do have to offer and what I consider myself to be pretty darn good at is email deliverability.  This may be small potatoes in a lot of people’s eyes.  Heck, most people probably don’t even know what it is (as I personally experienced when trying to explain it to my family over dinner after the memorial service).  But, if it does mean something to you and you do use email as a conduit to convey information for whatever purpose (be it marketing, informational, social networking, or just broadcasting transactional data), I will make a commitment to you.

My offer is this.  I will help you, in my free time (as I do need to maintain the day job to pay bills) to make your marketing program a success.  I know lots of people – consultants, deliverability professionals at email service providers (ESPs), and in-house companies who send on their own behalf.  I know a lot of vendors from the foundational email server side, to the software platform, to the email creative and reputation side.  If I can’t get an answer for issues you’re having, I’ll put you in touch with someone who can.   You will get unfettered access to my own expertise I’ve built up over the years – may not be what you want to hear, but it will be what I believe to be true for you to have success with getting your mail delivered and more importantly engaged by recipients.  Deliverability is nothing without a well thought out and executed marketing program to back it up.

This isn’t a pitch.  No strings attached.  My time in this case is free. 

What do I get out of it?  It’s just a way for me to put my mind at ease knowing I am doing something I love and have a passion for and hopefully will make the email landscape better for us all one email sender at a time.  And a small contribution on my part to make to the planet we live on in hopes of keeping email alive and viable.

Please feel free to email me directly at chris@chrisawheeler.com.

Full disclosure: I do this full-time for an ESP, but am no way representing them in efforts to help folks in the community who are not associated with Bronto.  This is of my own volition and completely independent from them.

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability at Bronto
@ChrisAWheeler