Hello everyone. I’ve been on Folksy for about 5 months and want to start an email strategy. Would love to share thoughts on which platform to use (Mailchimp?), whether you set up a PO Box rather than list your address in emails and tips for encouraging sign up. Thank you!
I have a mailchimp newsletter thingy (just the free version) and it is really easy to use. I’ve linked the newsletter sign up to my facebook account but I’m not sure anyone has ever used it. Most (if not all) of my sign ups come from people visiting my studio on open days and then wanting to know about other open days I might have (I have a book they can leave their comment and contact details in). Sending out a newsletter with open studio details has proven very effective at getting people to the events, less effective at getting them to spend online but that might just be the way I word it. Because they have normally already visited my studio I’m happy to use my studio address on the email (indeed since I’m normally encouraging them to a studio open day I have to make sure the address is in there) so haven’t felt the need for a PO box. Because of the way mailchimp works they have found that you get better delivery rates if you have an email like sales@sashagarrett…com rather than sashagarrett@hotmail or yahoo…com.
Hopefully that helps in some way I’m just not sure how.
Sasha
Thanks Sasha. I am tempted by Mailchimp. I can see that Open Days are a great idea for encouraging sign up as people are a bit fatigued with giving away their email address to be bombarded just with sales messages. IT sounds as if you are creating a nice brand experience. I’ll keep musing about the address thing. a PO Box costs £200 a year which is a bit off putting when you are starting out!
Love to hear what other people do to make email work for them x