The Delicate Balance of Email Newsletter Management

Spring has certainly sprung in this week's Brewtifully Made, and with it comes a wave of nostalgia and the fresh scent of new beginnings. Remember the whimsical days of nursery rhymes and the curious, scuttling ladybugs of our childhoods? I'm taking you on a stroll down memory lane, sharing fond memories of these tiny symbols of the changing seasons. Let's embrace the vitality of March with a touch of reminiscence and a challenge to doodle the very harbingers of spring that have always sparked my imagination.

This episode isn't just about reflective creativity; it's also packed with practical insights for seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs alike. The art of email newsletters, discussing the importance of a direct line to your audience without inundating them with information overload. As I distribute my own monthly newsletter, I share my personal practices and the delicate dance of opt-ins and opt-outs, all while providing actionable advice for managing your content using tools like Mailchimp. Whether you're running a small business or juggling newsletters for various entities, tune in for a treasure trove of tips on connecting with your audience and turning every email into a golden opportunity.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hey, welcome back to Brutally Made Happy Friday, happy March. Oh my goodness, we are starting the third month of this first quarter already, and it is already feeling like spring around here, so it's very encouraging. I love the bright light, I love the heat, I love winter, but it's just kind of nice to have the doors open, the windows open, fresh air. It's pretty cool. We've had a lot of wind, though. So let's dive into this Friday's Doodle from Elo Lovey. I wanted to kind of use those again.

Speaker 1: 0:49

March one here is Ladybug One Ladybug. I love that. So springy, so sweet, reminds me of the nursery rhyme. I don't know, I always assumed everyone grew up with nursery rhymes. My husband did not, so I don't know. My brothers did, so I don't want to say it was just a guy thing, but I will say a nursery rhyme. And he's like what are you saying? He never heard of it or something. But you know, like Ladybug, ladybug, ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children are alone. So I just remember this illustration in the book that my mom would read Ladybug's family was under a teapot and it was like propped up, but this smoke was coming out the spout and she was trying to get home, to get her family.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Sometimes, when I think about illustrations and stories and nursery rhymes, they're really kind of scary. These are kids stories, kids rhymes, so funny. So doodle a Ladybug or two or three, and I love Ladybugs. They have that distinct scent too. It's so strange, and there are different colors. I always, you know, felt her red, but there's green, yellow and brown and dark, dark, you know red, and it's so odd to see them fly. Those wings, or the little dotted wings, are like layered. It's very, very interesting, but it just definitely reminds me of spring, so it's a good one.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Well, today I just wanted to talk a little bit about having control of your audience and using newsletters to do that. Today my newsletter will be distributed to people that have signed up, and it's just funny to see the evolution of newsletters and how it has changed the way that we communicate by email with people that are interested in stuff that we're doing and that you have that address, and the way that you are required to have them opt in to. You know, receive that information and you always have to have it opt out so people can take themselves off of a list. I mean, that's a requirement. They're kind of like the FTC, the federal transmission. They. You know it's a form of communication, so you need to be able to control that, and so it always like breaks my heart when someone comes off my newsletter list. I'm like, oh so sad because I try to make them very short. I try to make them just you know, content, that let you know what I'm doing for that month.

Speaker 1: 3:41

I always try to just send one a month. I don't take advantage of the fact that I have your email, my shop and stuff you can opt in to have notifications for different things like sales and stuff, and I don't really. I just don't want to bug people with it. I want to use it just for that one newsletter a month, and so I really try not to bother anyone other than that first email of the month has my newsletter and updates and links and things that I feel are interesting or important or I want people to know that maybe they can attend or sign up and take a class, and I just think that it's a great form of communication. And if you're small business to have a newsletter list, I think that's one of the best things that you can do. I personally use Mailchimp and there's like thresholds that when you get to certain viewers and attend, you know not attendance but list of names. The larger the list, the more it's gonna cost you. So I'm still able to use the free option and I love being able to put my artwork in there and I can put links in there and announcements, and so I manage.

Speaker 1: 5:03

You know quite a few newsletters for different organizations and for nonprofits and for small businesses and it is very hard to come up with content if you're not really like actively doing something. So you have to be really creative and you want it to be worthwhile to the person receiving it. But I always try to make them very quick reads. I don't want to have a ton of texts. I guess more or less I know when I receive newsletters I really do skim through and visuals help tremendously and I do click links and I do like to. You know, oh, you have a class going on or this or that, but to read a lot of text, I mean, I personally don't do that. So I try to craft my newsletters or work on newsletters with the same thought, because people are busy and you just want to get that highlight across and do it effectively and I just wanted to, you know, see if everybody is thinking about different ways to kind of like, maintain your audience and grab attention and communicate with people that are interested in learning about what you're doing and where you're going to be at and where your art is available.

Speaker 1: 6:25

All of that is pretty important and it's nice to be able to have an archive. I have all of my newsletters in an archive on my website. I try to wait a little bit for that last month's to go on the website just because I want people to subscribe to see it, but they're there. They're there, definitely, and if somebody forgot something or wants to go back and read something, they're on my site under newsletters with the signup form. What's really nice about MailChimp is that it makes a bunch of tools available to you at the different levels, and so I can have an integrated form for people to sign up to opt into receiving the newsletter and then it goes right into my contact list and I don't have to do anything other than you know. Hold those names once a month to do something special and thank you for following me and receiving the newsletter. So I put everybody's name into a random name picker and let it pick a name and that person will win a prize, and to me that's one of the best forms of advertising. So instead of spending that money towards, like a digital ad, I will take that, those funds, and that's what pays for that gift, and I love collaborating with small businesses.

Speaker 1: 7:49

This past month, in February, I gave a $50 gift certificate to Blueberry Road Harding Gifts. My friend, brenda Olson is a predator of that and it is a beautiful little website with great pieces of her artwork and then she's graciously put a bunch of us from our shared studio sessions from Wendell Still Masterclass into her, I guess, card shop and so we have some of our artwork on her cards and then she also sells on fair wholesale and they're available for all of the people that purchased her cards to stock in their stores. And that's just wow. I mean that just opened so many doors. It's been so much fun to see that grow and see how she's evolved that and I wanted to celebrate her and share her work and so, yeah, so that gift card was something I purchased and then the name was drawn and that person received it and then they can go spend it at her store. So I love doing that I always am open to collaborating with an artist or a small business that has something. I would even have you on to talk about it on the podcast interview video wise, so I can show off to shops or your artwork.

Speaker 1: 9:22

If you go to my YouTube channel, you'll see some of those in the past that have collaborated with me and talked to them by video and we shared that video and it's just another way, another layer, to gain awareness of what you're doing and also kind of get that networking aspect into it too. So it's not just a piece of paper that you get mailed out, it can be a digital thing and then you can embed those videos into the newsletter and there's just a lot of things that you can do. And those addresses that you have, as long as you honor them and keep them close and make sure that you don't sell those addresses. Don't do things like that. I mean, people are trusting you or the way for them to communicate and you don't want to take advantage of it. So just use it for your newsletter and any other really important communications.

Speaker 1: 10:19

But yeah, I know we're all just bombarded with tons of messages and emails and things like that, but if it is a small business, an artist that you like and they do have a newsletter. It does mean a whole lot for you to be part of that recipient list to get it to the artist and to the small business and it doesn't take that long to read through it and keep that in mind when you're crafting it, making sure that it's something that you can skim through quickly and you honor that recipient's time. And I always try to send myself a test, which is really nice with MailChimp you can send yourself the test email to make sure your links work and make sure I'm not spelling things too crazy. I type fast and my husband, he helps me. I'll check stuff. We still miss things. I'm human. It's not AI generated, it's me typing. But yeah, it's a nice little way to keep in touch. So that's one thing that I do to kind of layer my messaging and awareness of what I'm doing on top of all the social media that I'm trying to share on as well.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Going into a dozen days of the 100 day project, that's been a lot of fun. I'm having a lot of fun illustrating my lettering and drawing and dueling around the words and I'm really excited. I ordered a wall mural of one of them to put in our basement. We've been working on the creative spaces down there for me and a nice little movie nerd room for Brian, summer Wars room, movie room that we're putting together and well, for me too, and it's been a lot of fun watching that. I have to share some pictures because it's turning into a really cool spot and I'm anxious to be able to relax down there and then also just work.

Speaker 1: 12:32

So if I'm working on projects or sewing or painting or doing miniatures, I always felt very guilty about going downstairs and then he's up here watching TV and we're just like separated. I don't like that. We like to create together and he does a lot of 3D printing and modeling and dioramas and they're very good and he has a space there for that. But now if he just wants to like veg out and watch a movie or watch TV, he can do that in this new space that we cleaned up. And anxious to finish that. And I'm really excited about this little mural. I picked one of my two word phrases and made that into a wall mural and it's gonna be pretty cool, I hope, fingers crossed. It's a good test too, because I've been doing a lot of quoting for murals and got a couple of projects in the works publicly. I'm very, very excited about, super excited about. This. Beginning of the year has been tremendous art wise for a lot of projects and if you got my newsletter or getting my newsletter today, you'll see quite a few of those and paint by numbers have taken off and murals have taken off Just very excited.

Speaker 1: 13:54

So very grateful, very, very grateful for the opportunities that are coming my way. I just love having the chance to be creative and I just appreciate that tremendously. So I think communicating that in the newsletter is pretty important and I know that helped raise awareness with what I was doing on top of sharing it on social media. So it's been a success for me. So I just wanted to talk about that today and share a little bit of thoughts around that and how I do it, how I create it, what tools I use and maybe that's something you've been thinking about and you can just dive in on a free platform signing up for one, sending an owl, asking friends and stuff to sign up for recipients.

Speaker 1: 14:42

If you want to sign up for mine, go to tracydonbrewercom and then just see the newsletter link, click that. All the archives are there, but I would love to have you sign up for my newsletter and then you'd be part of the drawing to win a gift every month. So this month, for March, the gift is your choice of one of my two phrase illustrations that I'm doing, made into a 60 by 80 Minky Blanket Throw. So you will receive your choice of whichever one that you see out on my list from the 100 day project. You get to pick that and then I will send you that as a throw and you can wrap up and watch TV. So, oh, these little ladybugs, oh goodness.

Speaker 1: 15:33

So I hope that you have great plans for the weekend. I'm very excited. I have a flower arranging class and I'm taking at Lovely Ink Studios downtown Canton on Sunday. So Jude's classes have been so much fun and I'm looking forward to taking this and coming home with a beautiful arrangement and some knowledge on how to do it properly. So that's gonna be a class I'm taking Sunday. So I'm very excited about that and got a lot of art to do. I have a lot of drawing to do and painting, and very excited about that too. So have a wonderful March one. We made it through our leap day and we are going into spring and I am anxious for next week. I have my second guest on and you are going to love her and you're going to love what she does, because it's fantastic. So stay tuned, have a great weekend and I will talk to you later. Brutally made people. Take care, bye.