← The Email Sound Booth with Liz Wilcox
The Email Sound Booth with Liz Wilcox
Episode 74: The Contract You Didn’t Know You Signed
00:09:50
I read an awesome (if you’re a geek like me) article about email marketing where the GOAT of email said something really simple but impactful. I’m gonna share it with you now in hopes that it gives you perspective every time you sit down to hit send.
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Hey, friend. Liz Wilcox here and you are listening to episode 74 of the email Sound Booth podcast. That's the name of this podcast. Yeah, And I am Liz Wilcox. That is my name. And what are we talking about? Oh, that's right, email. And today I wanted to give you a little perspective. So over the holidays I was reading a lot about email marketing, you know, trying to keep up with the times here so that you don't have to read boring articles on email. I'm an email geek. Leave it to me. Anyway, I, I got, I read this thing by Chad White. So if you don't know who Chad White, he literally wrote the book on email marketing. I'm pretty sure it's called Email Marketing Rules and it's now in its fourth edition. Don't read it. It will totally overwhelm you. But I've read it. I know the things. Chad is, of course, his name is Chad White, right? But he is the absolute expert when it comes to email marketing. He's been in the game for decades now. Anyway, I was reading one of his articles and he said there are two social contracts that subscribers, inbox providers, AKA I call them the Internet gods, right? And marketers us, have with each other. And I just wanted to read them to you to give you a little perspective for the next time you sit down to hit send. So this will be a really super short episode. So the first is the contract between you and the Internet gods, right? You and, you know, all those spiders crawling around the Internet, all the gatekeepers of Internet, the inbox providers, you know, Apple, Microsoft, Google, et cetera. Right? Yahoo. So this is that first contract and it says, he writes, send emails that recipients not only tolerate but engage with or your emails will be junked or blocked. Right? This is Chad White's words, not mine. But wow. I was like, oh, yeah, it really is that simple when we think about. Because I get so many questions about, you know, will this affect my deliverability? Can I put this word in there? Do emojis affect me getting in the junk folder? How can I get out of promotion? Etc. I think Chad boils it down so. So, well, right between you and the Internet gods. So I'm going to read it again. Send emails that recipients not only tolerate but engage with, or your emails will be junked or blocked. That means that it's not enough to just have emails that people allow in their inbox. Remember, it says not only tolerate, but to engage with. And actually when I was in college, I have a bachelor's in education and One of the first classes I took was, you know, back in the 90s, we were taught to, you know, to tolerate. You know, you tolerate other cultures and communities. But, you know, now we've learned that to tolerate is not enough. You know, like I tolerate when a toddler is crying on an airplane, but I'm not happy about it. I'm just tolerating it. Right. And so you've got to send emails. You've got to do more than just tolerate. You have to accept. Right. You have to, you know, if you want to live in a more symbiotic, mutually beneficial world, we shouldn't tolerate other cultures. We should accept, learn from, grow with. Right? It's not enough to tolerate. That's not how you get peace. Right? And so let's relay that into the inbox. Right? It's not enough that if you send me emails, I tolerate them. The Internet gods want me to engage with your emails. Right. Or the Internet gods are going to junk or block them. So that is the social contract that we have with the Internet gods, that we have with these email, email service providers, inbox providers, etc. Okay, so does that make sense? So that's, that's really your only job. Send emails that people will engage with or you're going to get junked. You're going to get blocked. That's it. Simple, right? I mean, sounds simple, but that's why I have, you know, my email marketing membership. Right. I digress. So the second contract that you signed and you didn't know is actually between you and your subscriber. And this one might be a little more obvious. So this is, you know, from the, from the reader's perspective. And Chad writes, send relevant emails at a reasonable cadence or we will opt out. Right. That seems obvious, but I'm, I'm, you know, with Chad's words, I'm hoping to just bring it to the forefront of your mind. I'm going to read that again. Send relevant emails at a reasonable cadence or we'll opt out. So you got to send relevant emails. Let's talk about that first part. Right? Did I sign up for this? Like, if I signed up to learn more about what, what's going on in pop culture today. Are you sending emails about what's going on in pop culture today? Right. I see a lot of this with my EMM folks of, well, I'm switching gears. I'm pivoting my email list, signed up for X, but now I want to talk about Y. And then they wonder, you know, how do I How do I switch gears here? And I normally advise, like, well, if it really is, you know, going from X to Y and it's not like x.1 or half x, right. Then you normally just junk that whole newsletter, junk all those email addresses, because, you know, this is the social contract. Send relevant emails or we'll opt out. It's no longer relevant. For example, when I had my RV travel blog, I didn't take that email list with me. When I started teaching email marketing, I sold that email list. Well, I sold the entire business, not just the list. And I started fresh. Right? And so a lot of us have this problem of, well, we haven't sent relevant emails, right? And that leads me into the second one. At a reasonable cadence, you have to have both. You have to have relevant emails and you have to have them at a reasonable cadence for engagement, right? Which is what you need to keep having your email sent from that first contract. Right? And so sending at a reasonable cadence, number one, that means enough so people actually remember you and remember that your emails are relevant to them. And then second, you know, you have to tell them how much you're going to email them, and it's up to them to decide if that's reasonable. Right? Like in Q4 of 2023 and 2024, I sent daily emails. I told them, hey, I'm gonna go from weekly to daily. Here's my reason why. Here's why I think it's reasonable. Here's why I think it's relevant. Hope you stick around. And the majority of people did. Some people opt out, but that's the social contract that I have between myself as the marketer and my subscribers. Right? And so between you and them, you get to decide as the business owner, hey, I think this is reasonable and these emails are relevant, but the subscriber gets to decide for themselves if they think the same, and then, you know, if they'll stay or opt out. Right? So I'm going to read those again and hopefully this just gives you some perspective again of, you know, when I sit down, what are the jobs I'm doing, what did I promise, and what am I going to get in return? Right? So between you and the inbox Internet gods, we'll call them, send emails that recipients not only tolerate but engage with, or your emails will be junked or blocked. And then the social contract between you and your subscribers, send relevant emails at a reasonable cadence or we will opt out. Okay. If you want to read that full article, I am going to put it in the show notes for you along with our regular links. Now, if you want emails, if you want help with emails that your subscribers will not only tolerate, but engage with, if you want to learn how to send relevant emails at a reasonable cadence, if you're not already, of course, I want you to join Email marketing membership. It's $9 a month, always open. But you should join now because. Well, because it's now, you know. Do you want to wait another month to start, you know, fulfilling your promises on these social contracts? I don't think so. Link in the show Notes Email Marketing Membership, nine bucks a month. Cancel anytime. As always, I am Liz Wilcox. You are awesome. And I'll see you on the next episode of the Email Sound Booth. It.