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Hello Inbox Apprentice,
This week I've been battling the elements - not in a coding sense, just the hurricane-like rain on my semi-new electric bike.
I've done over 150 miles in the last fortnight which I'm proud of, but also that I haven't driven when it's rained a bit (which I'm embarrassed I've done more than a couple of times!)
I've been trying to keep vaguely in shape (I'm told round is not a shape!) and have been listening to the fab The Secret Barrister audiobook about how criminal justice works in practice in the UK, which I found fascinating from my days covering court as a reporter some years ago.
I've also been reading Pat Flynn's Superfans, which talks about a pyramid of fandom and comes into my point for today:
Email marketing is a tool that can help convert your casual audience into readers, engaged subscribers, customers and raving fans. A great way you can do that is with automated sequence, for example a welcome series or about a free download.
Once you get the automation sequences up and running, email can definitely help take those customers to your raving superfans by gently nurturing them.
The temptation is to open Mailchimp (or email platform of your choice) and start bashing away at creating an unlimited number of automation sequences.
I find, and always recommend, drawing out the process - how will people get this email and what's the sequence they'll get. I've got a couple of resources I'll share over the next couple of weeks about automated sequences I think you'll find useful for your business.
Enjoy this week's Emails, Explained. and have a great week.
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Emails, Explained: Permission Expires
I've started a weekly YouTube channel, and thought where better to share some of these short email tidbits than in my own newsletter?
This week I argue that if you haven't emailed your list for six months, you should probably ask them if they're still interested if you start emailing them.
I was there. I had a few hundred people on my list and life got busy and I didn't email them for a while. So when I got back up and running I emailed them all and asked if they still wanted to get them. I lost 75% of them, but it's the right thing to do.
The risk is otherwise that a handful of folks won't remember who you are and mark you as spam 😢
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Upcoming Event: Father's Day
21st June is the Father's Day.
As I said in my email about Mother's Day, it can be a really difficult time for some and if there is a way to let people opt-out of Father's Day emails only, they can pick up automatically after it's over.
It's the most kind thing you can do to help and readers really love it.
I've copied in what I said about Mother's Day below and it's all super relevant and transferable for Father's Day. I'm very fortunate to still have my dad as a part of my life, but many others aren't and it can be difficult.
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Mother's Day
It can be a very difficult holiday for many, especially the recently bereaved, so it's really important to think a bit before sending out a campaign for Mother's Day.
 Just because you're sending an email doesn't mean you shouldn't take a moment and be human - would you want to be promoted to after a recent or major loss?
Superdrug have done a great job on this and it's gained them some amazing praise and feedback on social media for being thoughtful.
It's just a simple email about whether you want to get their emails (click the image to see a readable version) - that has a one click "I don't want to receive Mother's Day emails". |
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Some great praise for the Superdrug (and other) Mother's Day opt-out campaigns:
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Get it wrong and it can go badly. Take this message on social media from someone who didn't want to get mother's day emails and when unsubscribing, was shown a discount for mother's day.
It obviously comes across as insensitive and if they can't opt-out of just Mother's Day, they can only opt-out of everything.
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In MailChimp this can be done by adding a separate field in the signup as a tickbox for "Don't send me Mother's Day emails" - you could do the same for father's day.
Then when you send campaigns, exclude people who have this ticked.
If this makes sense for your business and you want to know more about how to do this, just let me know and I can walk you through it.
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Email Of The Week
 Every week, I'll choose an email I've received to talk about - Click on the image to see the full size.
This week it comes from the very talented Jo Walters, from 25 Dots, who I met when I was working in students' unions some moons ago.
As a marketer, I'm a big fan of branding. You'll notice this email and almost every logo or creative I use has the same shade of green - it's a thread that unites everything together.
This email is a great example of how to do that creatively, with the dot theme as the footer background (clever!)
It's also a superb example of exactly the right amount of text and images. Image, a couple of paragraphs and then a button. Rinse and repeat. This is what email marketing essentially is and it's superb to see done so simply and effectively.
The hyperlinks in the text and the different calls-to-action on the button really drive the message home in various ways to ensure maximum absorption.
It's clear, concise and drives the reader to where they need to go.
VERDICT: A great example of how simple email marketing can be with great branding and clear action steps. |
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Send me your emails! Add businessname@emailexamples.com to your newsletter list and I'll showcase the best in the Email of the Week block.
This email newsletter will always be a bit of a work in progress. Think it's great, or that's something's missing? Just hit reply and let me know.
Until then, have a great week and always Let's Send Better Emails.
Many Thanks,
Jon from Inbox Hero
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