Ask Brew

Get actionable insights from your email marketing data by asking questions in plain English

Coming Soon — Ask Brew is currently in closed beta with a small group of users. Please reach out if you’d like access.

What is Ask Brew?

Ask Brew will give you expert-level insights about your email performance through natural language conversations. Ask questions in plain English and get data-driven recommendations that combine email marketing expertise with advanced analytics.

Brew already uses these insights and performance data to automatically optimize the emails and automations it creates for you. The Ask Brew feature will give you visibility into this intelligence, helping you better understand the reasoning behind Brew’s recommendations and how your email marketing is performing.

Natural Language

Ask questions about your performance in plain English—no need to build complex queries

Key Metrics

See essential email performance metrics at a glance with opens, clicks, and more

Smart References

Use @ to reference specific emails, subscription groups, or audiences in your questions

Using Ask Brew (Coming Soon)

1. Access Ask Brew (Coming Soon)

   Access Ask Brew through the CMD+K command palette interface, which provides quick access to all Brew features.

   Press CMD+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) to open the command palette, then select “Ask Brew” to get started.

   

   The interface displays:

   • A chat interface where you can ask questions about your email performance
   • Key metrics cards showing your performance over your selected time period

   Once available, you’ll be able to access Ask Brew from anywhere within the Brew app using CMD+K without losing your current work. This means you can quickly check performance metrics or get insights while creating campaigns, managing automations, or working with your audience—no need to navigate away from what you’re doing or open a new tab.

2. Ask questions about your performance

   Once available, you’ll be able to ask questions in plain English about your email performance through the chat interface. Here are some effective questions organized by category:

   General Performance

   “What factors are most strongly correlated with email opens in my campaigns?”

   “Which days and times have shown the highest engagement for my audience?”

   “What’s the relationship between subject line length and open rates in my emails?”

   “Which specific email elements get the most clicks across my campaigns?”

   “Which specific content elements are driving the most unsubscribes?”

   Use @ to reference specific emails, subscription groups, or audiences in your questions. For example: “Why did @Welcome Series perform better than @Newsletter?” or “Which emails perform best with my @High-Value Customers audience?”

   Example of Ask Brew’s expert response:

   Question: “Why did my click rates drop in my last campaign?”

   Response: “Your click rate dropped from 3.2% to 1.8% in your last campaign primarily due to three factors:

   1. CTA placement - Your previous campaigns had CTAs above the fold, while this one placed them at the bottom
   2. Audience targeting - This campaign went to a broader audience with 40% less engagement history
   3. Send timing - You sent at 3pm on Friday vs. your usual Tuesday morning slot, when your audience has shown 28% higher engagement

   Try returning to your Tuesday morning send time and placing your primary CTA in the first section of your email for your next campaign.”

3. Explore key metrics through card interactions

   You can also click directly on any metric card to ask specific questions about that metric:

   1. Click on a metric card (like Open Rate or Click Rate)
   2. The system will automatically focus your question on that specific metric
   3. Ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into that particular aspect of performance

   Clicking on a metric card is a quick way to analyze a specific performance indicator without typing the metric name in your question. For example, clicking the “Bounce Rate” card and asking “Why did this increase last week?” is the same as typing “Why did my bounce rate increase last week?”

Key Metrics

Once available, the Ask Brew interface will display essential performance metrics in cards on the right side of the screen. These metrics will give you a quick overview of your email marketing performance at a glance.

Understanding Your Metrics

Emails Sent

The total number of emails delivered to recipients’ inboxes.

This metric helps you track your sending volume and consistency, which impacts your sender reputation and deliverability.

Open Rate

The percentage of delivered emails that were opened by recipients.

$Open\ Rate = \frac{Number\ of\ unique\ opens}{Number\ of\ emails\ delivered} \times 100$

Percentage of delivered emails that recipients opened. Influenced by subject lines, preview text, sender reputation, and recipients’ previous experience with your brand.

Industry average:

• 15-25% is considered average
• Above 25% is good
• Above 35% is excellent

Learn more about open rates

Understand how open rates are tracked and their limitations

Click Rate

The percentage of delivered emails that resulted in recipients clicking a link.

$Click\ Rate = \frac{Number\ of\ unique\ clicks}{Number\ of\ emails\ delivered} \times 100$

Click rate reflects how engaging and relevant your email content is, and how compelling your calls-to-action are. Strong CTAs with clear value propositions, appealing design, and strategic placement significantly impact your click rates.

Industry average: 2-5%

Learn more about click rates

Understand how clicks are tracked and why they matter

Bounce Rate

The percentage of emails that could not be delivered.

$Bounce\ Rate = \frac{Number\ of\ bounced\ emails}{Number\ of\ emails\ sent} \times 100$

Bounce rate primarily reflects the quality and hygiene of your contact list. There are two types of bounces:

• Hard bounces: Permanent failures due to invalid addresses or blocked domains
• Soft bounces: Temporary issues like full mailboxes or server problems

Target: Keep your bounce rate under 2%

Monitor this metric in the card on the right. If your bounce rate exceeds 2%, Brew may suspend your account to protect deliverability. Regular audience hygiene helps maintain healthy bounce rates.

Learn more about bounce rates

Understand different types of bounces and how to minimize them

Unsubscribe Rate

The percentage of recipients who opted out of future emails.

$Unsubscribe\ Rate = \frac{Number\ of\ unsubscribes}{Number\ of\ emails\ delivered} \times 100$

Percentage of recipients who opt out of receiving future emails. High unsubscribe rates may indicate that your content isn’t meeting audience expectations or providing sufficient value. Using subscription groups and a customized Preference Center can help reduce unsubscribes by giving contacts more control over what they receive.

Industry average: Below 0.5%

Learn more about unsubscribe rates

Understand how unsubscribes are tracked and managed

Complaint Rate

The percentage of delivered emails that recipients marked as “Spam” or “Junk”.

$Complaint\ Rate = \frac{Number\ of\ spam\ complaints}{Number\ of\ emails\ delivered} \times 100$

High complaint rates severely damage sender reputation and deliverability.

Target: Keep below 0.1%

Monitor this metric in the card on the right. If your complaint rate exceeds 0.08%, Brew may suspend your account to protect deliverability. Sending relevant content to engaged contacts helps maintain low complaint rates.

Learn more about complaint rates

Understand how complaints are tracked and their impact on deliverability

Selecting a Time Period for Key Metrics

You can select different time periods for the key metrics cards using the dropdown in the top-right corner:

• Last 7 Days
• Last 30 Days
• Last 90 Days
• Month to Date
• Year to Date
• All Time

The time period selection only affects the metrics displayed in the cards. When asking questions in the chat interface, you can specify any time period in your question (e.g., “What was my open rate in March?” or “Compare click rates between Q1 and Q2”).

Advanced Analysis Techniques

Remember that Brew automatically applies these advanced analysis techniques when creating and optimizing your emails and automations. Once available, Ask Brew will help you understand the “why” behind Brew’s decisions and give you deeper visibility into your audience’s behavior and preferences.

Comparing multiple emails or campaigns

Use @ to reference specific emails, groups, or audiences in your questions:

“Compare open rates between @Welcome Series and @Newsletter”

“Why did @Product Launch perform better than @Feature Update?”

“Show me click rates for all @Promotional emails”

“Which content performs best with my @Enterprise Customers audience?”

Brew will analyze the differences and explain potential factors influencing performance.

Analyzing time-based patterns

Uncover timing insights with questions like:

“What time of day do my emails get the most opens?”

“Is there a difference in engagement between emails sent on weekdays vs. weekends?”

“What’s the optimal sending frequency for my audience?”

These insights help you schedule future emails for maximum engagement.

Audience segment analysis

Compare how different audience segments respond to your emails:

“How do open rates differ between my customer and prospect segments?”

“Which audience segment has the highest click-through rate?”

“What content resonates most with my high-value customers?”

Use these insights to tailor future content to specific audience needs.

Content performance analysis

Analyze what content drives engagement:

“Do emails with video thumbnails get higher click rates than those without?”

“What subject line styles perform best for my audience?”

“Do longer or shorter emails get better engagement?”

These insights help you optimize your content strategy.

Need Help?

Our team is ready to support you at every step of your journey with Brew. Choose the option that works best for you:

Self-Service Tools

Search Documentation

Type in the “Ask any question” search bar at the top left to instantly find relevant documentation pages.

AI Assistant Chat

Click the sparkle ✨ icon next to the “Ask any question” search bar in the top left to chat with our AI assistant that’s been trained on our entire documentation.

ChatGPT/Claude Integration

Click “Open in ChatGPT” at the top right of any page to analyze documentation with ChatGPT or Claude for deeper insights.