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Email Marketing Tips from The 2 Regular Guys

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Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. This week, we will briefly review marketing planning and social media, but plan to really dive deep into email marketing. Aaron and Terry will show their strategies for avoiding the spam filters and bring you their experience with email marketing. Aaron has been creating and planning email marketing for nearly 15 years, and Terry has been sending a successful Screen Printing newsletter weekly for years. Learn how to bring in business by sending emails correctly.

Sponsored by: Equipment Zone and Siser N.A.

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!!

News

SGIA Golden Images are now accepting entries. This is your chance to win worldwide acclaim for your newest products — and to lay the groundwork for an outstanding SGIA Expo! Winners will be announced this summer, so you can make the most of your award and display the coveted Product of the Year jewel at your 2017 SGIA Expo booth.

OKI Data Americas in booth #1007 at NBM Indy, will be showing its innovative color technology from its LED printers line. You can get hands-on with the Pro6410 NeonColor, which made its fluorescent debut at ISS Atlantic City in March. You can also check out the latest innovation in its industry-leading line of white toner printers that provides opportunities in textile markets varying from ceramics to apparel. OKI Data’s newest tabloid-sized white toner printer provides an efficient and inexpensive way to create full-color graphics on both light and dark-colored substrates. Be among the first to see it in action when OKI conducts it’s “Raising the Bar for The Decorating Market” in-booth seminar each day of the show at 11:00 a.m. Also, OKI Data and their partners will be offering some great promotions. Fruit of the Loom will be giving away six dozen free shirts with the purchase of one of OKI Data’s 920WT, 711WT, 831TS, Pro6410, Pro8432WT. Neenah Paper will also be providing up to $150 in free paper, while OKI Data is giving away a free black toner cartridge with purchase of Pro6410 NeonColor.

Email Marketing

Marketing Planning

  1. Started with Planning because if you don’t have a plan, you might as well not waste your time.
  2. There are lots of excuses which I have used all of them. (5 Most Common)
  3. Plan starts with honest assessment of “Who are you?” and don’t just take your own word for it – Ask Employees, Outside Friends, and Family, Customers
    1. Have them describe your company as an Elevator Speech
  4. The Core of a good marketing plan is a SWOT Analysis
  5. Your Plan must have a budget (Money and Time) gives you something to track and measure as it will hold you and the plan accountable.

Social Media

  1. Find where your customer are on social media, and trust me they are on social media
    • The World has 7.3 Billion people and 2.3 billion of those people have Social Media Accounts (Over 30%)
    • 78 percent of Americans have at least one active social media profile
    • China has 1.3 Billion people / Facebook has 1.7 Billion Monthly Active Users
  2. How to use your time wisely on Social Media
    • First and foremost Social Media is all about being Social. PERIOD!
    • 1 of 10 Rule for posts of sales messages.
    • Social Media was designed to be a Social Interaction Platform, not a marketing platform, we are just using it as such so we must follow their rules.
    • Complete profiles. Put your website on the profiles. Opportunity to drive people to your website which is the goal
    • Schedule your posts! Hootsuite and Buffer

Terry: Let’s get back on track Aaron. I’ve got to think that Email Marketing has got to be a tricky one to deal with. It’s really easy to hit the “delete button” without even opening an email.

Terry: OK, makes sense, but all I can think of is SPAM and not the tasty kind.

  • Would I want to read this? This is really the starting point. When you re-read what you’ve written, you should constantly be asking yourself, “Would I keep reading? Or would I stop?”
  • Am I speaking as I wish to be spoken to? The tone is hard to master: you need to be yourself and find a “voice” that makes sense to your customers and your business. You should always sense-check whether you’re talking in a way that is respectful, professional and consistent.
  • Can I cut more out? Most people have a nasty habit of repeating themselves and writing too much. There’s nothing wrong with long copy (it often converts better) but long does not equal effective by default. Get someone to proofread your content and, if you need to, cut the crap!
  • What is the call to action? Having a single call to action and repeating that CTA is something you should aim for in every email you send out. Keep it simple, keep it direct and make sure your customers get where you’re going with it.

Terry: So how do I go about sending email marketing. Do I just put all the emails in the To: Field and hit send?

  • Need to find a service. Using your regular email will not only hurt your marketing but could hurt your business communication.
  • Features to look for: Easy to Create, Easy to Manage Your List, Easy to Grow your list, Links with Social Media, Provides tracking you can understand and take action on and finally, fits your budget.
  • Top 5 Services – Topica, GetResponse, Constant Contacts, AWeber, and Mail Chimp

Terry: What types of emails should I be sending through these services?

  • Surveys, Newsletters, Inventory Notifications, Testimonials, Educational and Promotional.

Terry: Do you have a final marketing comment for our listeners?

  • Follow us at 2RegularGuys on Social Media and reach out to us with the #2RGMarketing and we will send you a little Marketing Care Package. Reference Guide and SWOT Template.

Aaron: Terry how about you, what things would you like to make sure our listeners understand about marketing from your experiences.

  • Staying in front of your customers and potential customers – my newsletter
  • Even my “sales” posts are more informational

Other Events

Trade Shows

  • NBM Indianapolis – Jun 1 – 3
  • IPIC (International Print + Imaging Conference) – Jul 10 – 12
  • ASI Chicago – Jul 12 – 13
  • NBM Long Beach – Jul 20 – 22
  • NBM Secaucus – Aug 17 – 19
  • ISS Orlando – Sep 7 – 9
  • NBM Denver – Sep 8 – 9
  • ISS Ft. Worth – Sep 22 – 24
  • SGIA (Specialty Graphic Imaging Association) – Oct 10 – 12
  • NBM Charlotte – Oct 26 – 28

Terry’s Books

Screen Printing: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Direct to Garment: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Scheduling and Estimating Production Time for Garment Screen Printing Just $2.99 as an e-book

This show is brought to you for a full hour by:

Equipment Zone, with 20 years experience selling garment printing equipment nationwide. Equipment Zone offers the new Epson F2000 SureColor direct-to-garment printer, their own VelociJet-XL DTG printer, and the all new SpeedTreater-TX automatic pretreat machine with a full 16”x24” pretreat area. Equipment Zone also carries a full line of DTG inks and supplies. Go to EquipmentZone.com

Siser North America’s new and improved website! Just recently Siser NA’s website was updated with a ton of new colors, helpful tools, and fun things to read. Head over to www.siserna.com and check out for yourself. A new great add-on to the site is the “Cutter Settings”. You will be able to get an idea of how you should have your vinyl cutter set up for each Siser material type. Then find out how each Siser product is applied, with the instructions available right there for you. Have you heard about the EasyPatterns™? There is a whole separate tab that will show all the different printed patterns Siser offers. Then while you’re at it, check out the Siser Blog. Get a great scope of all the “out of the box” ideas you can achieve with Siser HTV!

This show is for the listeners so please make sure to ask us some questions or give us some topics you would like us to discuss. Also, if you have any event or upcoming items related to our industry that you would like us to bring up on the show, please contact us via our Facebook Page. Also, make sure to interact/follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Google +. You can also find information over at our YouTube Page.