Huckberry's head of marketing Ben O'Meara on creating emails people actually want to read

This week's guest on the Glossy Podcast is Ben O’Meara, the head of marketing at Huckberry. Sure, it's a men's retailer, but Huckberry isn't just trying to sell stuff. It also wants to tell stories, including one about a merino T-shirt that can be worn for 72 hours without smelling all that bad by the end of it.

"It's anti-microbial, you don't have to wash it, it doesn't stink... you can wear it for multiple days on end," O'Meara said. "So let's call it the 72-Hour Tee [we decided]. But if we're going to put that stamp on this product we better sure as hell make sure that we stand behind it. And if we're going to tell you you can wear it for three days -- [let's make sure] we've actually done that before." Ahead of an international flight, O'Meara threw on a shirt, before later stopping a stranger in Iceland to ask, "Can you smell my shirt?"

Huckberry turns its travels and product tests into content for its email newsletter, which goes out to more than 1 million readers three times a week, O'Meara said. Some 20% to 30% of them open it to browse through its journal entries, music recommendations and product promotions, and Huckberry sees a spike in sales as that happens. "It's definitely our most profitable channel," O'Meara said.

On this week's Glossy Podcast, O'Meara spoke about Huckberry's origin story, its email and video strategy, and its balance of owned and partner brands.