Taking my Mailing list seriously, so a first question....

[dannytaurus]

@Lindon You could also look at Sendy. I bought a license a while ago but not got around to setting it up yet.

It's a one-time $69 fee and you self-host it, so another few dollars a month for a small shared server.

It sends using SES at $1 per 10,000 emails.

https://sendy.co

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus said in Taking my Mailing list seriously, so a first question....:

You could also look at Sendy.

Looks like it's just for newsletters though rather than automated marketing?

[dannytaurus]

@Lindon I should also clarify that I run ads too. I do £40/day in one campaign with 4 ads, all on Instagram.

I haven't emailed my list since November last year, and the last email before that was August. So the consistent revenue I'm getting now is mostly ad-based rather than mailing list-based.

However, I still swear by the mailing and will be working to build it up more this year.

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey It's got some nice features like campaigns, webhooks, autoresponders, etc. But like I say, I haven't dug into it yet. I bought the license on a deal, more out of curiosity.

Newsletters is basically just marketing emails under a slightly nicer name.

Autoresponders
Automate your marketing by setting up a series of emails in drip campaigns to automatically follow up with your subscribers at time intervals you set. Or send emails annually or one off emails at a specific date. Keep your subscribers engaged and your brand at the top of their mind.

Rules & Webhooks
Decide what happens when something happens - by creating 'Rules'. For example, setup a rule to get notified by email when a scheduled campaign starts sending, trigger a webhook when an autoresponder is sent, unsubscribe someone from a list when they're signed up to another, and so on.

Custom fields
Create custom fields to store more than just 'name' and 'email'. Not only can you store more information about your subscribers, you can use them for list segmentation or personalization tags in your newsletters for a more personalized experience.

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus said in Taking my Mailing list seriously, so a first question....:

marketing emails under a slightly nicer name

Kind of, but I like proper automation with node based tools to build out logic flows for sending emails.

This kind of thing

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey Yeah, I don't ever see myself doing that amount of automation. It feels too forced and contrived to me.

I've tried it before with different products (non-music related) and I ended up spending more time endlessly tweaking campaigns than actually making the product better.

My strategy over the last 3 years has been quite sparse:

Products: one launch email with a time-limited discount code, then one reminder email 2-3 days before the code ends.

Marketing: maximum one email per month with a product-specific discount code, only sent to those that don't own the product.

On top of that I've sent out a couple of cross-sell discount codes ("Since you own Product X you might like 20% off Product Y") and a DAW survey.

I do have it on my list to send out a post-purchase email, something like "Hope you enjoy Product X, here's a 20% discount code for your next purchase". It's easy to set up in Gumroad, just haven't got around to it yet. It would be very easy to measure the performance too. That's more like the kind of thing you posted above.

EDIT: just read through this again and I think I'm actually just very lazy!

[resonant]

@Lindon I haven't used Sendy yet, but I am using Amazon SES. You should use Amazon SES too.

AFAIK, it is the cheapest one. Sending emails to over 100,000 contacts costs over $800 with competitors like MailChimp. But with Amazon SES, it might not even cost $20 :D

I am combining Amazon SES with the Newsletter plugin. But as @David-Healey says, Fluent CRM is better.

[DanSound]

I use Sendy + SES and it's very cheap in comparison with Mailchimp and other services. Probably the cheapest option you can find.

It has some basic automation like autoresponders plus with a bit of scripting you can automatically move subscribers to different lists. For example if you want to move email from your regular list to the list of actual buyers.

[Dan Korneff]

I'm using the same as @David-Healey FluentCRM and Amazon SES

[Lindon]

@resonant said in Taking my Mailing list seriously, so a first question....:

@Lindon I haven't used Sendy yet, but I am using Amazon SES. You should use Amazon SES too.

AFAIK, it is the cheapest one. Sending emails to over 100,000 contacts costs over $800 with competitors like MailChimp. But with Amazon SES, it might not even cost $20 :D

I am combining Amazon SES with the Newsletter plugin. But as @David-Healey says, Fluent CRM is better.

OK well Im using TheNewsletter plugin too, well its on my system - as I've pointed out Im not really using it at all.

So Im a complete novice at this stuff - how do I connect TheNewsletter to an Amazon SES account?

[David Healey]

@Lindon https://www.thenewsletterplugin.com/documentation/addons/delivery-addons/amazon-ses-extension/

[Lindon]

@David-Healey yep just found that myself... loks like I will need to upgrade TheNewsltter to Professional ...

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey @Lindon @Dan-Korneff @DanSound @resonant

What are everyone's feelings on how many emails to send per week/month?

I send barely any emails, partly out of an over abundance of caution against pissing off my customers, partly laziness.

But I'm on a few lists where I get an email almost daily.

Also, what are you emailing them about? Product awareness? Offers/sales/discounts? Education? Third-party stuff?

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus I send a monthly email that gives some useful tips or guidance relevant to the user. This is an automated sequence, I think I have about 3 years worth of emails set up, each time someone joins the mailing list they start at the beginning of the sequence.

When I'm doing a launch I'll send 3 pieces of pre-launch content spaced 2 days apart. This is useful free stuff relevant to the product I'm launching. I'll follow this with an email to let them know about the new product.

Then for the launch period (7-14 days) I'll send an email every other day to those who haven't purchased. Giving them more info about the product (take from my sales page) and answering any questions that have come up since the start of the launch.

For anyone who buys the product they go into a post purchase sequence where I send them some free bonuses that compliment the product, I also check in and see if they need any help or support. After a week I send them an email asking them to leave a review.

[resonant]

@Lindon said in Taking my Mailing list seriously, so a first question....:

@David-Healey yep just found that myself... loks like I will need to upgrade TheNewsltter to Professional ...

Yes, you need to upgrade to pro. After upgrading, you'll need to install the Amazon SES plugin too and obtain data like the Access Key ID, Secret Access Key...etc. from Amazon SES.

The installation is a bit cumbersome, but once it's installed, it's definitely worth it.

[resonant]

@dannytaurus Your concern about not upsetting subscribers is justified. But you can overcome this with a good email marketing plan. People who don't want emails will unsubscribe anyway.

But I think keeping an up-to-date and active list is much more important, so you need to manage your email campaigns well.

• You can send monthly discount coupons (every month) to those who make purchases. Additionally, a one-time fresh thank you coupon code for users who make a purchase would also do the trick.

• Flash sale emails (monthly or weekly if you have too many products).

• If you create blog posts or videos (useful content for users), emails related to these will get good engagement.

• You can send emails encouraging reviews (even offering discount coupons in exchange for reviews).

• You can also send special launch campaign emails for new products, user reviews, etc.

If the email content is somehow useful for users, I think you shouldn't worry about those who unsubscribe; as they are gradually eliminated, you will build a core, active audience.

[DanSound]

@dannytaurus I sell sample packs and similar products, so I send emails for every release - usually twice a week.

[Dan Korneff]

@dannytaurus said in Taking my Mailing list seriously, so a first question....:

What are everyone's feelings on how many emails to send per week/month?

I think frequency matters way less than intent and value. As long as the email is useful or interesting, you can send a lot. Plenty of companies send emails every day because… it works. But spammy “BUY NOW / 50% OFF / LAST CHANCE” emails every other day is a good way to make people lose interest.
Our weekly “New Monday” blog gets great engagement because it’s not a sales pitch. Luke does a great job at giving you a new perspective on how to think about sound.
https://korneffaudio.com/blog/
Most of our email automation revolves around how to get the most out of a new product. Give them tips and tricks, as well as real life uses. We'll occasionally throw in an upsell, but those are secondary.
In our marketing meetings, we always ask ourselves "would I open this email?". Most of the time people unsubscribe because the email stopped being worth their time.