Email marketing can increase your ROI by 40x. On today’s episode of MORE podcast, Ricardo talks with Valerie K, an email marketing specialist and manager who helps strategize and develop email marketing collateral. They discuss two email service providers, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact, and how you can utilize them to improve your organization. 

How did Valerie get into her role?

• She was a teacher for several years, and she was a professional development coach at her elementary school. While great with students and parents, she was beginning to get burnt out.
• A mentor teacher helped her get a position at a school in Abu Dhabi. She traveled the world and learned a lot. She made traveling a part of her lifestyle, and she learned that she had the power to learn and accomplish anything.
• She took some free coding courses and decided she wanted a change of career. She enrolled in a coding boot camp and was exposed to tech.
• After graduating from the coding boot camp, she quickly dove into email marketing.

What are Mailchimp and Constant Contact?

• In Valerie’s opinion, these are two of the easiest email service providers to use. They are intuitive and have many templates already in place. 
• It’s good to have great imagery in your emails. Try using free image sites such as pixels to add beautiful images to your emails. 
• These services will help you to craft a great subject line. They give you tips on how to increase your open rate.
• Great analytics. These ESP’s give you great analytics so that you can improve your email marketing by knowing what works and what doesn’t. 

Where do you get email contacts to add to your ESP?

• If you have a website, you can add a pop-up that prompts users to submit their email and join your email list. 
• Social media is a great way to get contacts. 
• If your business is more in-person, offer discounts in exchange for email addresses. Use a QR code to make it easier.
• Some people buy lists, but Valerie doesn’t recommend it because of legal issues and the risk of getting put in spam. 
• It’s not about how many people you have, it’s about having people who really want to hear from you. Quality over quantity. 

Who would benefit the most from using an email service provider? 

• Small business owners. They can use these ESP’s to develop your email voice and connect with your customers. 
• Influencers. It is a great idea for influencers to be able to connect with their followers away from social media as well. 
• Most everyone should be investing in email marketing. 

How are these ESP’s different from others?

• They are intuitive. They are easy to use for individuals who aren’t comfortable coding. If you aren’t very tech-savvy you are better off using Mailchimp and Constant Contact. 
• They have simple layouts that make it easy to style your emails. 

What can users expect once they start using these services? 

• Figure out how to use the program and ease yourself in. Start small and make sure you are saying things that are meaningful. 
• Mailchimp and Constant Contact integrate well with your website along with Canva. 
• They are also more affordable than other email service providers. 

Last advice from Valerie and Ricardo

• Optimize your subject lines. The subject lines are gold. 
• Avoid too many graphics. Imagine you are writing a note to a friend. Something personal. 

Valerie’s book and podcast recommendations

• Jasmine Guillory 
• Find me: A Memoir by Viola David
• Becoming by Michelle Obama

To connect with Valerie, find her on Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, and her website. 

This podcast is brought to you in part by MI Group:

MI Group is a tech company that assists you with billing technology solutions, full-service digital marketing, and hosting and maintaining your digital assets. With over 12 years of experience and a team of over fifty passionate business professionals, MI Group is your key to taking the next step to success. Visit migroupco.com to learn how we can help you and your clients reach your business goals.

This podcast is brought to you in part by mMessenger.co:

mMessenger.co is the ultimate SMS software that allows you to send messages to people in over 100 countries across the globe. Notifications, alerts, or any message you want to send can be done from the comfort of one website. Visit mmessenger.co for a free trial and to learn how you can use SMS to reach more customers.

This podcast is brought to you in part by MI Digital Hub:

MI Digital Hub is the all-in-one digital experience to help you improve your digital marketing experience. Suppose you want to understand your current online positioning and how your presence appears. In that case, MI Digital Hub gives you a high-level view of SEO, performance, listing, social media, and any online presence that might impact your business. Get a free snapshot of your performance by visiting midigitalhub.com to see where you are now and where you need to go.