Scale & Strategy
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This is Scale & Strategy, the map and compass of business newsletters (we show you what's ahead).
Here’s what we got for you today:
- 6 steps to writing emails people actually open and act on
- Blue Origin Launches Its First NASA Mission, Lands Rocket Booster
6 steps to writing emails people actually open and act on
Your inbox is chaos, and so is everyone else’s. If you want your emails to actually get clicked instead of dumped into the void, Joe Cunningham makes it simple: know your “why” before you even think about hitting send.
- Clarify the objective.
Every email gets one job. Not three. Not “kind of this, kind of that.”
Is the goal a meeting? A webinar signup? A video view?
Pick one and make the subject line, preview text, body, and CTA all point at it.
- Clarify the key + supporting metrics.
If the goal is webinar attendance, measure clicks and registrations.
If you’re testing messaging, track unique opens and unique click-to-opens.
Whatever success looks like, decide it upfront and write it down.
- Prepare the brief.
Yes, you need a brief. Email isn’t a free-for-all.
It should cover two buckets:
• Operations: logistics, timing, targeting
• Messaging: what the reader needs to feel and understand
When those two are aligned, everything gets easier.
- Outline the email.
Use frameworks. They exist because humans are predictable.
Once your brief is dialed in, the outline basically writes itself.
Pick the structure that matches the message and run with it.
- Draft the email.
AI is great here, but only if it actually knows your audience, voice, product, and style.
A tight messaging brief can get you 80% of the way there even on a sprint.
- Edit the email.
This is the difference between “archive” and “action.”
Audit every line:
• Does it support the core objective?
• Does it create the right emotional pull or make a strong argument?
• Is there proof or storytelling backing it up?
• Does the CTA match the promise?
A little structure up front and some ruthless editing at the end turns random email blasts into emails people actually respond to.
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Blue Origin Launches Its First NASA Mission, Lands Rocket Booster
Blue Origin finally notched a real win: first NASA mission, first booster landing, and a clean deployment to Mars-bound science hardware. Bezos got his W.
Here’s the sharper, tighter version:
Blue Origin Launches Its First NASA Mission, Lands Rocket Booster
Jeff Bezos’ space shop just pulled off its biggest flex yet: New Glenn successfully flew cargo for the first time and dropped two NASA satellites on their long road to Mars. Even better, the booster stuck its landing on an Atlantic barge about 10 minutes after launch, something it failed to do on its maiden flight earlier this year.
The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral just before 4 p.m. ET. The payload: two small NASA satellites for the Escapade mission, which will study Mars’ atmosphere, magnetic fields, and help explain how the planet lost its air. They’ll take the scenic route and arrive around 2027.
Bezos was on the livestream looking genuinely fired up, and for good reason. Landing the booster is the key to reusability, faster launch cadence, and, frankly, having any shot at closing the gap with SpaceX, which has been nailing landings for years.
With this mission, Blue Origin joins SpaceX as the only companies to pull off orbital booster landings. More players are trying, but these two are still the ones actually doing it.
New Glenn’s development dragged for about a decade, and although Blue Origin hoped for at least six missions in 2025, that’s not happening. The company says manufacturing is finally speeding up, and Bezos has been on record saying the whole operation needs to move faster.
This launch also marked New Glenn’s first flight for an external customer. Weather delays and a solar storm pushed it back, but it ultimately went up clean.
Upcoming missions include Amazon’s satellite-internet launches, multiple Pentagon national-security flights, and a company-built lunar cargo lander scheduled for early 2026. That moon mission is meant to be a demo before Blue Origin starts flying customer payloads and works toward its NASA astronaut lander.
SpaceX and Blue Origin recently submitted accelerated plans to NASA for their next-gen lunar landers. Whoever gets humans back on the moon will have bragging rights for the next half-century.
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