Newsletters can be a great way to keep in touch with our customers and fans - but remember folksy’s rules
"In using Folksy you agree not to contact your buyers unless they have opted-in to any further communication (through any channel - phone, mail or electronic).
You can ask your customer if they would like to opt-in to marketing based communications from you at the point at which you deliver the goods, for example in any literature you send with your item (or if they were to contact you for any reason), but you must not assume that they have opted in unless they have expressly chosen to do so. No one likes unsolicited communication.
Spam is a modern monster so let’s not feed it!"
There are various free newsletter sites available to use - I use mailchimp which offers a double opt-in and easy opt-out, so nobody gets irritated by unwelcome newsletters that they haven’t signed up for. Newsletters should only ever be sent to people who have deliberately signed up - and even then, it’s easy to forget we’ve signed up, so always make sure people can opt out easily.
Thanks for sharing this info Heather. I don’t currently have a newsletter but keep reading that I should have one, so will be interested to hear other folksier’s views.
yup. I know there are other things available. I chose mailchimp because it’s free and relatively easy.
I suspect, now that convos always give our email address out, we will get more people not realising our addresses shouldn’t then be used without our permission.
Something that always annoys me is when I find myself back on the list for a newsletter I know I unsubscribed from…
I also know I really should do a newsletter (more for the art than the ffflowers) and I have started to set one up using mailchimp but my heart isn’t in it. Can’t think of anything to say!
People sometimes say it’s important to be regular, but I think (like you!) it’s more important to have something to say. bit like blogging - no point in blogging every week just for the sake of it, I need to have something to say.
All I have to say at the moment (as you know!!!) is ‘my lovely new studio is waterlogged sniff’ which is useful for people waiting for pieces to know (and I have mailed them individually) but not of much interest to anyone else. Except perhaps in a schadenfreude sense?
I have a newsletter, and I too use mailchimp. It’s still very new (second ever newsletter went out today, actually…) so I’m still finding my feet with it. I’m hoping to manage a monthly mailing. As I have a website with a yarn shop, there should always be something to plonk in a newsletter - new lines, shows I’ll be at, discounts, etc. Fingers crossed! I’m not quite sure how to drive people to it and make the best of it though. I have links on my blog, website and FB page. It’d be ace if it could be added to the social media bits at the top of our folksy shops too.
I agree it’s infuriating to find yourself on a list you didn’t sign up for. The worst offender I’ve found is Tesco!
