Hello and welcome to the Working Image Podcast. I'm your host, Jarrod Michael Gordon. This is episode 12 Email marketing. Let's get started. Email marketing is when a single email is sent to a large number of people. It's also known as sending an e-blast. We all get them. We all unsubscribe to a bunch of them. We don't want. Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn't work. But why do we keep getting these emails? Because it's the number one way to market your business. That's right. You heard me correctly. Email marketing is the number one way to market your business today. Think about it for a minute. There are plenty of emails you unsubscribe to or de delete immediately, but there are a number of them that you don't. Maybe it's for your favorite store, a bar, a restaurant, a brand, whatever it may be. What matters is that there are some emails you do want to see whenever they come out and you keep them, and that's why it's the number one way to market your business because there are people who look forward to getting emails with new information about their interest and those emails convert to leads. But how do you begin with email marketing? That is all about the list building. You have to build a list of email addresses that you can send to. However, there are rules you need to follow, even though there are companies out there that will sell you an email list, you won't be able to use them on platforms such as Constant Contact or MailChimp. More on them later. But it is against the law to use bought email lists. So you have to build your list little by little. You see, people have to opt into your email marketing campaign. They have to want to be on the list. So buying a list means that people didn't opt into your actual email marketing campaign, and that's why it's against the law. Some ways you can build your list are, first off, have a contest. People love a drawing. If you have access to several people to see your company, you can have a contest or a drawing to win a prize, and all they have to do is give their email address in their name, uh, in exchange to enter into that drawing. What do I mean by that? Well, maybe you have a table at the local street fair or you are sponsoring a table at a community organization event, whatever it may be. But if you can get people in front of you where you're offering this prize and they have to give you their name and email address to sign up, they will. People love to win things and they will take advantage of that. Number two, put a newsletter signup area on your website. State that the newsletter will contain information or tips and tricks about your industry and discounts on your products and services. People will sign up for that as well. Finally, number three, use your existing list of customers to send emails to regularly. This list will be your best repeat or referral business source because these people have already worked with you and are willing to do it again or refer you to a friend for new business. Now, for the rules, and by rules I mean laws. That's right, actual laws that you have to follow in order to participate in email marketing. Let's go back in time. For those of you who remember email at the turn of the Century, there was a lot of, shall we say, inappropriate unsolicited emails being sent to our accounts every day by the hundreds, if not the thousands. It got so bad that people were abandoning their email addresses and creating new ones. So Congress passed the CAN Spam Act in 2003, which requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce specific laws to get a handle on unsolicited emails. Now, I'm not gonna list all the rules here, but they include things like having an unsubscribed option on every email requiring the address of the sender noted on the email and truthful subject lines, so as not to mislead someone to open the email. These rules and many others must be obeyed or your company will face criminal charges and fines. If you want to read more about the CAN Spam Act, I've put a link in the show notes, so you're probably wondering how to send emails and stay within the law. Well, I'm sure you guessed it. There are services you can pay for and they will make sure that you stay within the law. Some of these services are Constant Contact, MailChimp, Salesforce, and many more, but those are some of the big companies. Most small businesses use either Constant Contact or MailChimp. Each of these services also help you build your email list with various robust tools, so they help you with your list building and you obey the law. Your company is now safe to begin email marketing and not have to worry about you breaking any laws. It's fairly simple what to send in each email, educate your customer on your industry, and offer incentives to your products or services. When you're educating people, you are establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry and who doesn't like discounts on services or products. Even if you're an industry that isn't known for giving incentives such as a lawyer or a contractor, you should still educate your customer or slash client to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. You never know who will need the information you provide and what kind of business it could lead to, but remember, consistency is key. Just like social media marketing, you must make sure you send out emails regularly. I don't care when you send it, just be consistent. Well, that's a lie. I do care a little bit about when you send it. You want to stay away from Monday mornings and Friday afternoons. Obviously, that is when people are just starting and ending their work week and email marketing doesn't go over well during those times. Also, you'll start to learn what times are best to send your individual marketing emails from the data. Those email marketing services will provide you when creating your email. You might feel the need to put a lot of information in it. There is no need to put 10 pounds of junk in a five pound bag. A lot of business owners make this mistake with all forms of advertising and it doesn't work. Stick to one main point in your emails. If you have more than one topic or point, well, then that's another email to send out, right? Your audience isn't going to change the way they read their email. You're not gonna change their habits, so you have to work within their habits. Most people scan an email and then decide what action to take. It's your job to make the email clear and easy for them to scan. Have you ever heard of tldr that stands for too long? Didn't read, so they'd delete the email? Don't let that happen to your email. Also, your email will get stopped by some spam filters and go straight to junk mail. That's just the cost of doing business. Junk mail filters can catch marketing emails by how the email is designed. If your email has lots of images and call to actions everywhere, it's gonna get caught up by most junk mail filters. The best version of a marketing email that will almost always get through junk mail filters are the ones that look like regular emails. That's right. Don't put anything fancy in email, just text, and maybe one image. This doesn't mean every marketing email you send has to be dull. It just means less is more. You will learn what works and doesn't work for you, but less is always gonna be more. So now you're ready to start. Go to mailchimp.com or constant contact.com and open up an account. Upload your list of current customers or clients, even if there's three of them. Just upload the list, keep your email to one main point, and be sure to send them out on a regular basis. And remember, email marketing is the number one way to market your business today. Well, that's it for episode 12 of The Working Image podcast, email marketing. All the necessary show links and information are in the show notes. If you have any questions, email theworkingimage@gmail.com. We know your time is valuable. Thank you for using some of that time to listen. Take care, everyone.