The Need to Ban “Inbox Placement” with Lauren Meyer, CMO of SocketLabs

Making Sense of Martech

"There's a big difference between consent and attention — you still have to earn the attention." - Lauren Meyer

Lauren Meyer, CMO of SocketLabs, joins Jacqueline Freedman on The Hot Seat to discuss what marketers get wrong about email. She shares how to earn real engagement, why “inbox placement rate” is a lie, and how to prove email’s value inside your org. A must-listen for anyone in marketing ops, lifecycle, or Martech leadership who wants to make smarter, data-backed email decisions.

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our sponsor Hightouch.

Looking for a smarter way to activate your customer data? See what Hightouch can do for you at hightouch.com/msom.

Highlights

Learn why consent alone isn’t enough and how to earn lasting attention.

Discover how to win internal buy-in with small, proof-of-concept projects.

Understand why marketers must accept churn and stay consistent.

Cut through noisy metrics and drop “inbox placement rate” from your reports.

Get smart about measuring engagement post-MPP using replies, site visits, and revenue.

Spot vendor red flags: no one can “guarantee” inbox placement.

Episode Breakdown

2:16 — Epic Fail Story: The migration mistake that led to 3,000 spam complaints and a deliverability meltdown.

8:15 — The Consent Myth: Why consent is just the handshake and attention is the real battle.

12:54 — Fighting for Email: How to advocate for email internally with small proof-of-concept wins.

15:08 — Data Hygiene: The B2B vs. B2C data gap and why you should offer personal email sign-ups.

17:52 — Data Overload: Why giving marketers too much data leads to paralysis and bad assumptions.

19:52 — The Metric to Ban: Why “Inbox Placement Rate” is unreliable and based on robot “seed testing.”

22:06 — Vendor Red Flags: What to ask about human support and why no one can guarantee inbox placement.

25:02 — Post-APP World: How to measure engagement through conversions, replies, and site visits, not opens.

33:09 — AI Limits: The doctor vs. over-the-counter analogy for AI in deliverability.

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