Jesse Hanley is a self-taught developer and marketer from Australia who lives in Japan. He launched Bento, an electronic mail service supplier, in 2018 after managing campaigns from his advertising and marketing company.
He says Bento is an artisanal supplier, akin to a high-end espresso store. He goals for self-funded progress and high quality prospects who search wonderful electronic mail deliverability.
He and I mentioned these targets and extra in our current dialog. The complete audio is embedded under. The transcript is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Inform us what you do.
Jesse Hanley: I run Bento, an Australia-based electronic mail service supplier working from Kyushu, Japan. We’re like a neighborhood artisanal espresso store in comparison with large gamers reminiscent of Klaviyo and Mailchimp. Our focus is ecommerce and SaaS, providing customized service.
Earlier than Bento, I ran a advertising and marketing company, the place I encountered electronic mail service suppliers and acquired extra concerned in advertising and marketing automation. After promoting the company, I totally transitioned to Bento. It’s been difficult, however the simplicity of the enterprise stunned me. If we offer good service, purchasers are keen to modify to Bento as a result of they wish to be heard and handled properly. I intention to develop Bento, keep self-funded, and guarantee wonderful deliverability to draw good prospects who comply with finest practices.
Bandholz: How do you distinguish your model from giants like Klaviyo and Mailchimp?
Hanley: We concentrate on deliverability and consumer expertise. I constructed options that I needed from my very own electronic mail advertising and marketing expertise. As an illustration, we provide batch sending, which permits customers to ship massive campaigns over a number of days. This helps ISPs assess the status of emails.
In the event that they make errors, customers can pause a marketing campaign, repair it, and resume with out stress. Bento additionally contains built-in protections in opposition to listing bombing and spam, plus an API for electronic mail validation. In contrast to bigger suppliers, Bento goals to supply a extra enjoyable, streamlined expertise. Prospects usually discover Bento simpler to make use of than opponents, particularly as we’ve improved the platform within the final two years.
Bandholz: We’ve used Klaviyo for 10 years. Transferring looks as if an enormous course of. What’s it like to modify platforms and recreate all emails, campaigns, and automation?
Hanley: Switching relies on the complexity of your automation. Primary flows like welcome emails and deserted cart sequences are simple emigrate. For extra complicated setups, my crew will help transfer all the things over. The largest problem is integrations. If you happen to depend on third-party instruments, Bento might not assist all of them, however there are sometimes options.
As soon as the info flows into Bento and automations are set, it’s a clean transition. The bottom line is guaranteeing important integrations are in place earlier than migrating.
Bandholz: What are a few of the finest deliverability practices for electronic mail entrepreneurs in 2025?
Hanley: Begin by getting the fundamentals proper. Guarantee DNS data embody SPF and DKIM so emails come out of your area, not the supplier. It’s essential that each one content material aligns together with your model to keep away from points with spam filters. You wish to guarantee photos and monitoring URLs are hosted by yourself area to forestall flags from shared sources.
Whereas IP status nonetheless issues, it’s much less of a priority when you comply with finest practices and keep away from sending unsolicited emails. A devoted IP helps keep away from sharing a pool with doubtlessly dangerous customers, particularly for bigger manufacturers.
Points usually come up from sign-up varieties that aren’t safe, resulting in spam sign-ups. It’s widespread for companies to unknowingly electronic mail numerous invalid subscribers, which harms deliverability.
Clear your lists recurrently to take away non-engaged customers and look ahead to spikes in sign-ups, particularly from unsecured varieties. Because of this, we take further steps to safe varieties and restrict spam at Bento. Implementing double opt-ins can even assist make sure the legitimacy of sign-ups. With these steps, companies can enhance listing high quality and optimize electronic mail advertising and marketing methods.
Bandholz: What’s on the roadmap for Bento?
Hanley: My objective is to maintain enhancing and deal with buyer wants as they come up. Most days, I get up, see what’s trending, and work on what conjures up me. Just lately, I labored on circulate automations. As we speak, I’m centered on a choice administration system for the unsubscribe web page, letting customers simply choose in or out of lists.
One function I’m constructing is an in-depth CRM to assist companies like Beardbrand handle buyer sorts, reminiscent of wholesalers. One other mission is a touchdown web page builder for creating opt-ins. Outdoors of that, I wish to proceed enhancing electronic mail advertising and marketing and automation.
Bandholz: How can listeners join Bento or attain out?
Hanley: Go to Bentonow.com. On X, @Bento. My private X deal with is @JesseTHanley.