Hello, You Magnificent Human Being!
Marketing departments have ruined everything.
Building an email list used to be easy, especially if you didn't ask anyone whether they wanted to be included. They got your emails, no backsies. There was some attrition, of course, and it upset a lot of people, but the collateral damage was considered justifiable by marketing executives. Besides, they weren't doing anything illegal, so regulators weren't too fussed.
Regulators are very fussed now. And building a list is more work now. That's good. Because it means your list is full to the brim with people who love hearing from you.
You'll find some suggestions in this issue of the dispatch to help you grow a list full of people who love getting your newsletter.
Breaking Up Is Hard
(Work we think is far from norm & al )
The clever people: Nexus Studios
A short story about Oatly: BACK IN THE DAY, 30 OR SO YEARS AGO, THERE WAS NO OATLY—JUST SOME RESEARCHERS AT A FAMOUS UNIVERSITY IN A COUNTRY MISTAKENLY KNOWN FOR POLAR BEARS ROAMING THE STREETS. THEY NERDED OUT ON WAYS TO TURN OATS INTO MILK AND CREATED A PRODUCTION PROCESS TO KEEP THE BETA-GLUCANS (BIG, SCIENTIFIC WORD FOR “SOLUBLE FIBER”) INTACT SO THAT WE AT OATLY COULD GO CRAZY MAKING ALL KINDS OF OAT DRINKS AND OAT CREAMS AND OAT SPREADS AND A BARISTA-EDITION OAT DRINK...
More on the Oatly website (BEWARE: Oatly has a sense of humour and you will keep clicking on their short videos until you realise you should have been working for the past hour on some spreadsheet or other—and have to explain the time to your boss as 'research'.)
Open Me 30% More
What can you do to increase your email open rates? We can't guarantee it will work for you, but here's a small tip that boosted one client's open rates by 25-30% over six months: add a positive emoji to your subject line.
The client's open rates were solid at between 30-40%. Not spectacular, but still ahead of the benchmark for their industry. For the past six months, we've added an emoji to the subject line. Open rates since doing so have been between 40-50% (peaking as high as 53% on one occasion).
CAUTION: correlation is no indication of causality. Perhaps something else is causing the uptick? Better subject lines, for instance. Or it might be dumb coincidence.
If you do try this suggestion, though, maybe you could let us know whether you see any benefit?
How to Avoid the Bear Trap
Have you ever wondered how to build your newsletter email list?
Let's start with the list you already have. The list hiding in plain sight. The list you can compile from your existing email contacts.
But tread carefully—like you would if you were crossing a field of bear traps at night. You can't simply harvest email addresses from your contacts and drop them into an email list. Not if you want to be GDPR compliant, anyway. You must get their consent first.
Here is a suggestion.
You have among your email contacts people you know well and would feel comfortable sending an email simply asking them to sign up. But you have to do this individually. No group email. No bcc.
Example email:
"Hello, you magnificent human being!" [alternatively, use their name].
"Did you know I produce a regular newsletter about how you can be even more magnificent [alternatives: about the industry you're in/a particular topic/solutions to a specific problem/etc.]? Everyone who subscribes to it is beaming even more brightly with magnificence as a result [alternative: says it's very useful and insightful].
"I think you might like it too. But there's only one way to find out. Would you mind subscribing to it for an issue or two, and letting me know what you think? If you'd rather not, that's OK. But if you do, I'd love to know your thoughts. (And you can unsubscribe at any time.)
"If you're intrigued and would like to know how to become more magnificent [alternative: more about the topic of the newsletter], there's a special sign-up page here: [link to your GDPR-compliant sign-up form].
"Thanks ever so much,
"Creator of Magnificence [alternatively, use your name]"
(You might need to adapt the text to your own personality, circumstances and newsletter subject.)
This is a painstaking process, because you have to email everyone individually. And you may only get a few sign ups to your mailing list. But you are addressing an audience that already likes you. So it will almost definitely get you over the first hurdle in building your list: going from zero subscribers to one subscriber.
Socially Attractive
Are you using your social media presence to promote your newsletter?
For instance, with a post like this:
“Do you adore cheese? (We’re guessing you do, because we’re all about cheese and you wouldn’t have followed us if you didn’t like cheese.) If you think cheese is the best thing ever, you might like monthly cheesy goodness emailed to you directly. Yes? Well, we create a newsletter every month that’s stuffed full of cheese. It’s cheese, cheese, cheese from start to finish. And it’s free! If you’re BIG into cheese, there’s a sign-up form here: [Link to your incredible cheese newsletter sign-up page]”
Don’t forget to add a picture of cheese to your post.
Also, don’t forget to substitute cheese for what it is you actually do, otherwise you’ll end up with very disappointed subscribers and believe me you don’t want to upset cheese lovers. (Just toss the phrase ‘vegan cheese’ into a group of turophiles and see what happens.)
Dispatches from Paradise
This is a picture of paradise from the February issue of the newsletter we produce for BiteSize Café Bakery. We drew it ourselves. (OK, we didn't. We got it from the US National Gallery of Art's collection of public domain images.)
Here's how we used it: BiteSize Dispatch February 2022
New Work: Video
Ballyvolane House in Co. Cork is the kind of place where royalty stay when they visit Ireland. And it's the sort of place where smashing gin is distilled. (We can neither deny nor confirm a connection between the two.) And it's the type of place that would invite us to make a promotional film that can be included in newsletters.
An unabashed plug for S&T:
We create videos and put them in your dispatches
Your next step...
Thank you for welcoming us into your inbox again. It's a delight to be let in.
If you have any feedback on this issue of the dispatch or any other comment, you can reach us here: hello@showandtell.ie. Your thoughts will be welcomed with open arms.
See you again at the end of April,
Roger, Anne & Paul