As it becomes more and more difficult to reach the right audience on social media, email marketing is becoming increasingly important. In this podcast, Lauren and Brian talk about how to create a successful email newsletter.
Learn more about Dogwood at DogwoodMediaSolutions.com. At our site, you can learn more about our staff, and the services we offer. Don't forget to check out our blog full of information while you are there. You'll also find links where you can follow us on social media and become an insider to really see what it's like at Dogwood.
As it becomes more and more difficult to reach the right audience on social media, email marketing is becoming increasingly important. In this podcast, Lauren and Brian talk about how to create a successful email newsletter.
Learn more about Dogwood at DogwoodMediaSolutions.com. At our site, you can learn more about our staff, and the services we offer. Don't forget to check out our blog full of information while you are there. You'll also find links where you can follow us on social media and become an insider to really see what it's like at Dogwood.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On this week's podcast, we're gonna be talking about how to create a successful email newsletter with Lauren Cuby. So make sure you stay tuned because we have lots of information to share. Hi, and welcome to the Dogwood Media Solutions podcast. I'm your host Brian Harris. And today I have another one of our most popular guests because she's been on here multiple times now for our podcast. It is the one and only Lauren Gumby.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And we have a slightly different title now for your position at this point. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's in transition. We, I guess that's the best way to explain it. Yeah. <laugh> account manager, project manager, taking on all the things is basically you would just say all the things Lauren can be Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Make sure things get done.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Pretty much. That's it. That's a pretty clear explanation, including our own email newsletters. You handle that for us here at Dogwood. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, along with several other responsibilities too. Just a few. Yeah. <laugh>. So, uh, today we're talking about how to create a successful email newsletter. And of course a lot, like most of the times you've written a blog post about it. And we're gonna kind of go through that blog post and, uh, explain some of the things more in detail that you wrote in the blog post. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so the first thing you mentioned, and I'm just gonna jump right into it cuz this is a limited time podcast. Yeah. <laugh>, um, define the purpose of your email newsletter. So when you said things like that, what are you, meaning define the purpose. Like that has nothing to do actually what you're writing. You're talking about like in the pre-planning? Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah. Pre-planning before you ever open up MailChimp or whatever else it is that you use for your newsletter. Having a purpose is so important because it's really easy when you don't really know why you have a newsletter to just throw random stuff in there and it can get long and confusing and people aren't really sure why they're subscribed to it because they're not sure what they're gonna get each time. And it just really makes your life more difficult if you haven't already come up with this is what it exists to do. And so these are the types of things that I'm gonna put in that newsletter.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
So what's the, what's the easiest way to start that process of defining the purpose? Yeah, I mean, do you look at other people's or do you just, do you write it down? Do you make yourself a guide? I mean, what was, how would you go through this process?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Um, I mean, for us it was a little bit of trial and error just figuring out like what people were interested in and what they weren't. Um, when we first started our, our newsletter, it was very focused on internal, you know, birthdays and, um, just kind of like fun, silly stuff. And that was fun and we enjoyed doing that. But what we saw was that it wasn't really getting the reactions that we wanted mm-hmm. <affirmative> and wasn't getting the engagement that we wanted. And so we realized over time that people were more interested in the resources and the, you know, hirings and that kind of thing. Um, so we, not that we got rid of the, the fun stuff about, you know, birthdays and Star Wars day and all that kind of fun stuff, um, but we just kind of parried that back a little bit and made it a little bit more focused on resources. So, um, some of it is trial and error, but I also think a lot of it has to do with the personality behind your company. What, what do you to do? And then kind of give the things that your clients or your audience are already looking for from you, and then just give it in a different way.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So one thing you're saying is that the purpose of the email can absolutely evolve too. Oh, of course. And because if it's gonna look like the company, your company, most companies that are successful are evolving also too. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so the newsletter has to grow with it or change with it because it's an outward representation for the company. Exactly. Okay. Well, uh, the next thing we talked about in your, in your blog post is about providing value now. And when I think of value, of course I think of money or something like that mm-hmm. <affirmative> saying something that's worth this amount. So when you're applying that into a a, an e-newsletter, uh, what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, so in, in the blog I talked about the 80 20 rule and um, if you have talked to me at all about marketing in person, you've probably heard me talk about the 80 20 rule, which basically just says that when you are providing content or um, for social or your newsletter or your website, whatever it might be, that 80% of what you give for your audience should add value to them. And then only 20% of it should be asking for something from them. Mm. And so when we're talking about providing value, we're not necessarily talking about, um, you know, sales or discount codes. Those are valuable. Right. But that's still asking them to come spend money mm-hmm. <affirmative> or to give you something, there's a call to
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Action
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Involved in that. Exactly. There's still a call to action with that. Whereas, you know, with um, resources like this podcast mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, we're not asking anything from you. We're just giving you resources that you can choose to take it or leave it. Um, and it provides value to you as a business owner. So that's the kind of things that we're talking about is not constantly, you know, come spend money, come give us something, come give us a review, come do whatever. It's not asking, asking, asking. It's trying to give more than you ask
Speaker 1 (04:42):
For. What's some other examples of things that we at Dogwood do that provide value right now that maybe someone else could copy and use themselves?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, I mean obviously we've got tons and tons of blogs at this point. We have almost five years worth of blogs mm-hmm. <affirmative> that we've, we've got out there that um, really give a lot of the behind the scenes of how to do things. And you know, people ask us a lot like, why do you tell people how to do what you do? Yeah, they
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Do. It's a constant question.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Right, exactly. But I mean really there's not a whole lot of what we do that's just proprietary information. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, a lot of it's out there. You just have to know how to do it. So, um, we do it just to show that we know what we're talking about. Yeah. We do it to hopefully help other people that are out there and maybe they'll start doing it and go, oh, this is too much. I need dogwood <laugh>.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah. Well I remember when I first started doing blog posts and it was just me and I did it a lot of times cuz someone would call or they'd email me and ask a question mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I was like, man, I can probably answer this question for a lot of other people at the same time. I was like, I'll just write a blog post about it. Right. And then people started picking up on it and I'm like, okay, well maybe this is a great way of also establishing that I know what I'm talking about. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that's, that was the part of that. And so putting that into the e-newsletter, when we started doing that, that was a, I think that was one of the first pieces where you were like, oh yeah, we're gonna put our blog post in that mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
(05:57):
And we even experimented with that because at one point we had um, an automated e-newsletter Right. Or a newsletter that would go out every time we did a post mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Which again, going through seasons of a business it made sense. Right. But now, you know, we're posting three, four blog posts a month that can get overwhelming Right. To, to a person to be getting that much content. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so we backed it down to we're basically, if you want to still get that, you can subscribe to the blog, you can look, watch our social media and as it's posted, but also our e-newsletter is a great way to get the once a month hit of it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it could be the snapshot. Exactly. And so any other business could do that same thing and they don't have to write three to four blog posts. It could be one a month. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, cuz then that blog post provides content for their e-newsletter for their social media and seo. Mm-hmm <affirmative> Beth talks about this all the time. Blogging and SEO go hand in hand. And so those blog pieces are huge. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And then the podcast being what we're doing right now mm-hmm <affirmative> another value added thing.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah. And even like our social media stuff, I mean it, even though it's not resource related as far as like here's how you do something. Mm-hmm <affirmative> or here's something that can better your company. Even if it's just something silly that made you smile like that's valuable that you're scrolling through social media and it made you happy instead of sad. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I mean just little things can provide value. You just have to kind of think about it.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Well this next thing is something I've heard you harp on many, many times. Me harping
Speaker 2 (07:15):
On things.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
<laugh> keep it short.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Keep it short. Yes. This is something that I am trying so hard that's rude. For those of you who don't know, I'm five foot two, I am the third shortest person on staff.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Look at you, you've moved up the
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Ranks. I know I used to be the shortest person on staff. Yep. But haha, very funny. All
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Was pretty good. It was, chase would be happy
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I'm sure. Yep. I'm sure
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Chase is her husband by the way. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Um, but as far as keeping your newsletter short, I think that one reason that people have such a hard time with this is because they think that if you aren't writing out a long paragraph long something that you can't possibly provide value. Um, and I also think that people are trying to make their newsletter, their e-newsletter too much like a physical newsletter. Mm. Because a physical newsletter Yeah. You have to cram in as much information as you can. Right. And it can be as long as you want it to, but you're trying to make that postage that you're spending worth it. Right. And you're probably only sending that out once a month. Right. Um, whereas an e-newsletter, you can send that out multiple times a month. You can do once a week, you can do once a month. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you can expand in ways that are not just written form.
(08:30):
Cuz on a regular newsletter, I can't click on a regular newsletter and it take me to somewhere else to go read more. Right. And so I think getting people to just wrap their minds around the fact that an e-newsletter is a completely different medium than a regular newsletter is the hard part. Um, but when you think about it, it makes so much sense that you would need to keep your e-newsletter short because, so this is one of the stats that I found um, when writing this blog was that the average office worker receives around 121 emails every day. That's a lot. That is a lot.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Emails I'm above average office worker.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Right. <laugh>. Exactly. And the average email open rate is only around 20%.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I bet you my average email open rate is less than that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Probably with how many Yeah. The
Speaker 1 (09:15):
More emails you get, the less you open.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Exactly. And so one really great way to get people to not care about your newsletter and to not read it is for it to take up too much of their time. Mm-hmm. It's just not, not gonna happen when you're a busy office worker and you have like five minutes at the start of the day to like look through what you've gotten when you open it and it's like five paragraphs before you ever get to anything of substance, you're not gonna sit there and read that. Yeah. That's not how that works. And also news, your email is so transient. I mean at least for us, like stuff comes in constantly mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So if I didn't read it when it first came in, if it wasn't a client email, obviously Yeah. Um, but if it's just like a newsletter, a promotion, whatever, if I didn't read it right when it came in, probably not gonna read it cause it's way down the list.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I've actually gotten really bad about email too because we use Slack for internal communications mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so I don't check my email near as often as I used to. Right. I mean it's, I might check it three or four or five times a day at the, at the most now mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I'll go in there and there's 40 email messages and the first thing I do is I scan who they're from and the subject matter mm-hmm. <affirmative> because that subject title is super important Right. To decide if I need to actually read it. And then all the other ones that are like, Nope, I'm not gonna read that, that's spam, that's promotion. I go through and will hit the check all at the very bottom and point mark is read. Yep. Never opened them.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Exactly. So what what we've found is that 20 lines of text are about 200 words is really the max amount that you need on your entire e-newsletter. Yeah. Which doesn't sound like a lot. Um, but you can do so much with that, um, if you are intentional about it.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah. One thing we didn't actually put in the blog post we might should even think about is we didn't talk about that subject line and how important that is too.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. I actually wrote another blog about emails that might have come out before this one. Okay. Or maybe afterwards where I think I talk about that. Okay. Um, this one or the, that one was about um, I don't, I don't know exactly how I made it different, but it was, it was more about those like AB testing and making sure that your titles are good and that kind of thing. So.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Well that'll be fun when we talk more about that or I'm sure we'll get there. Definitely another reason for someone to go subscribe to our blog post also.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Exactly. So much information
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And we're always putting out new things mm-hmm. <affirmative> that we can't even keep up with when we're putting them out <laugh>. So it's a good problem to have. I mean like literally we have so much information out there, which kind of leads into this next thing because you talked about how important it's to link out to resources mm-hmm. <affirmative> even in your email newsletter.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah. So this is one thing that I really didn't think about a whole ton until I started talking to some of my coworkers asking them like what types of newsletters did they really enjoy? And one of the things that Becca said was that she likes it when her e-newsletters have like a little snippet of whatever a blog or other resource is so that she can then decide for herself as a consumer if that's worth her time, so that she can then go click out and go read more. So she doesn't want something that is six paragraphs long. Right. She wants to be able to choose, oh that's interesting, or no, that's not really for me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then click on it and go somewhere else to be able to read more about it also allows you to then share that page or save that page for later Right. Or whatever. Um, so it just allows you to make a lot more out of that short 20 lines when you're linking out to things.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yep. Well that kind of leads into the next section. Uh, and this is something a lot of people and one reason why they choose to work with someone like us is they have trouble being consistent mm-hmm. <affirmative> and not even just an email newsletter, but just across the board because you get busy. Yeah. And you, you can't stay on a schedule. But that's a super important part of your email newsletter strategy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is that consistency.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah. Consistency in when you post and also consistency in what you're posting. Um, I think one of the things that people, uh, come to know about certain newsletters that they're subscribed to is what they're gonna get. You don't ever have to question like, uh, is this one gonna be worth it? Mm-hmm. Cuz you know what you're gonna get into. And I think that's why people stay subscribed is if it's something they're interested in and they trust that the people that are sending them stuff are sending them good resources, then they're gonna stay subscribed. They're gonna pay attention to it and they're gonna actually interact with the resources that you have. So, um, being consistent with the way things are laid out, the way you're presenting your information, the information that you're providing, and also when you're actually sending things out, is super important.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I know we've just gotten a lot of information about email newsletters. I know one thing we didn't really go into very much was about platforms and I know we've talked about that before and other things too. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you, you did mention MailChimp. Is there other ones out there that you've used that you'd say, oh yeah, this will be good too, or,
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Well, my boss loves MailChimp, <laugh> and that's all that I've ever used personally because they're good <laugh>, but I'm sure you have others that you've used. Uh,
Speaker 1 (13:59):
MailChimp is by far the best. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And one of the reasons why I always like to recommend it is one, beforehand they had this thing where you could get up to 2000 subscribers and 6,000 emails from month. It's actually gotten reduced recently gotten, it's been reduced recently now where it's not quite as much as it used to be.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It's still like 500, I think it it's
Speaker 1 (14:17):
502,000. Yeah. 500, uh, subscribers in 2000 emails a month, which is still a pretty good amount. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, especially if you're developing an email newsletter, um, where you don't have to pay for it. Right. So why would you not use something like that? Um, they've changed up a lot of how they build the, the newsletters too, but they're a lot more drag and drop now mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's actually made it a lot easier. Um, now that, that they, because it's a free service, you don't get the AB testing, which you talked about, if your subject lines right. About being able to test that you do lose some functionality that you might have some boxes where you might could have dropped a video or something like that, that you can't do that or mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, just little things that, that are gonna change and be different on the free version versus the other ones.
(14:54):
There's other programs out there. Constant Contact is one I've used it for. I just, I don't like it because I like being able to, and I'm not bashing Constant Contact. I just like being able to link the, my subscribe forms to my websites. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the MailChimp subscribe form that works for WordPress websites, which is what we majority make here, right. At Dogwood is it's a big piece of MailChimp mm-hmm. <affirmative> and it's so easy to connect your MailChip account up to those forms and collect email addresses. Right. And grow your newsletter. And so that's part of your strategy is you wanna see more people, you want to get the platform that makes it the easiest to subscribe. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, it's, it's one of those things too that if anyone wants to do it, uh, we can set up a through our MailChimp.
(15:33):
Cause we are a MailChimp, uh, partner and we can actually Agile into our MailChimp partner account. We can basically consult with someone and be able to help them set up a MailChimp account and then decide if you need to do the paid service. Which we actually, we've had some clients recently that had services they wanted to use. And so they're paying the $20 a month. It was $20 a month, which is not that much money. Not bad for a marketing platform like this is, um, to be able to send out emails and build a newsletter and have those connections and, uh, and getting your, your possible buyers in some cases or supporters in the case of nonprofits to be able to interact with you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I just, I go, I like MailChimp. Yep. So <laugh>. Yep. But, uh, yeah, another one too is my Emma.
(16:14):
I used, it's been a long time since I've used my Emma and I know that they've even made improvements to, but again, you don't have the, the, I haven't found that they have the interconnectivity where we can capture email newsletters mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, using other forms besides the ones that are built into like my Emma and stuff like that. Right. There's a lot of other ones too though. Was there anything else we wanted to talk about too as part of this? About the email newsletters or did we cover or your whole blog post you think? I think we
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Pretty much covered it. I mean, it's really not that complicated. I mean yeah, like I said earlier, a lot of the stuff that we do, it's just knowing what to do. And with this, that really is the long and short of it is trying things, seeing if it works, coming back, doing something new, if it didn't work or if it did work. You know, maybe you wanna try a new something that, um, you know, might be interesting to your folks. Like it's just so much fun to get to, you know, try something new, see if it works. Get to be innovative with the way that you're doing things. Um, so like doing a successful newsletter is not super difficult. It's just knowing the things to look out for.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
All right. Well I think at this point, you know, we'll still be in our under 20 minutes thing, which we've always tried to do. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so our next episode, you'll actually be back for this next one with who, um, do you remember what you'll be talking about? Uh, cause I know
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I'm sure you do. You're
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Gonna be talking about how to create a successful email newsletter. Um, let's talking about That's what we just did so dumb. That's what we did. So I'm like literally reading it from the list
Speaker 2 (17:39):
<laugh>, you're like, I know, I
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Know. It's gonna be plan your website content with keyword research. Yes. And you and Beth are gonna be talking about that
Speaker 2 (17:46):
One. So Yeah, I'm always fun to have Beth in the office.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I I know. I never see her. Never see her. You're always gone. <laugh>. I I mean she just doesn't hear, never hear. So I see her every once in a while. It's so sad. I I was actually, she actually, uh, was here a couple of times recently, so mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but it's not, not near enough I know. Is what the problem is. So, so if you like what you're hearing, you can head over to our website@dogwoodmediasolutions.com. You can check out all the other blog content. Cuz like Lauren mentioned, not only does she have the one we talked about today, there's a lot of other content too. In fact, if you go to our services area and you click on email marketing, you'll see a lot of those, uh, blogs that are about email marketing, uh, listed in the services. And same thing for other services, uh, like website building or anything else.
(18:26):
You're gonna see content inside the service areas. That's very much the content we're talking about that are part of those things. It's really cool function you set up there on the website. Thank you. Good job. So if you're looking to connect with us on our website, that that's definitely the best place to do that. Also, social media. All of our social media links are there on the website too. So the key is dogwood media solutions.com. You can find social media and contact there at the same place. Also, if you haven't already, if you're listening to this on our website right now, go ahead and subscribe to our podcast and make sure you leave us a review. Tell us the truth. We wanna, hopefully it's positive, you know, if it's not, call me and complain to me in person. You know, why not? Um, but you know, if it's good, which I hope it is, leave us a good positive review so others can hear about the po um, the podcast and hopefully find more people that want to be able to be, be helped by the things that we're sharing on this. Um, but we'll also say thanks for tuning in to the Dog with Me Solutions podcast. Lauren, thanks for joining me again. Of course. And I'm gonna sue your catch phase phrase, or do you wanna say it? You can go for it. All right. Well, until next time, happy marketing. Happy
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Marketing.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You say it better.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
<laugh>.