In this short episode of the “Do This, Not That” podcast, hosts Jay Schwedelson and Kristin Nagel tackle one business question and one fun question related to Thanksgiving. Listeners can expect tips on re-engaging dormant email subscribers and a lively debate on classic Thanksgiving dishes.
Main Discussion Points:
– Strategies for re-engaging dormant email subscribers through “verification” style subject lines (e.g. “Are you still with [company]?”). This leads to high open and click rates.
– Ideas for effective verification emails for both B2B (focused on company or role) and consumer (focused on discounts/VIP status).
– Debate over whether mac and cheese counts as a Thanksgiving dish (yes), and hosts’ thoughts on best (cornbread) and worst (candied yams) Thanksgiving foods.
And MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, Marigold!!
Marigold is a relationship marketing platform designed to help you acquire new customers and turn them into superfans with their best-in-class loyalty solutions. Don’t take my word for it though, American Airlines, Honeybaked Ham, Title Boxing, and Notre Dame University are also customers!
Regardless of your size, check out Marigold today to get the solution you need to grow your business!
Transcript
Foreign.
Jay Schwedelson:We are back for another one of our short episodes for do this, not that. Remember, we do the longer ones on Fridays. But here we are midweek, we getting questions all week long and we do this thing.
Ask us anything where we answer one work question and one ridiculous question. And I'm here with Kristen who's one of the amazing producers of do this.
Not that she is the one who gets all the questions and then decides what it is that we're going to try to tackle. So Kristen, what is the work question for this week?
Kristin Nagel:The work question this week, Jay, is from Sonia in Charlotte. And here's the question. A huge portion of our database has not opened or clicked on any emails from us in over six months.
Do you have any suggestions to wake the dead?
Jay Schwedelson:Oh, waking the dead in email. Yes I do. And this is an important time of year to do this. I'll tell you what you shouldn't do.
If your plan, whether you're a business or consumer, is to send out an email that says we miss you, then you stink. You don't really miss them. Those emails are so weird when you get them. Please don't send out we miss you emails.
But here is what does incredibly well for both business and consumer and what is called is verification emails.
When you send out verification emails for both business and consumer to people that have not been opening or clicking on your emails in over six months, we see over a 40% increase over on these verification emails versus a standard email. Let me give you examples of what you should be thinking about sending out. First, let's talk about business.
If you send out an email to your database, people that are not open and clicked in over six months with a subject line of something like this, are you still with xxx meaning are you still with company name?
If you're the company that the person's at is Acme company, if the subject line says are you still with Acme company question mark, that verification style email crushes it. In B2B, you could also go not just with company name as what you're putting into each personalization.
You could do things like are you still focused on a particular thing?
So if you're targeting HR professionals, are you still focused on employee benefits question mark and you're asking the person to verify and they get nervous like oh my goodness, of course I am. Of course I still work at Acme company.
Of course I'm still focused on employee benefits and it really gets that engagement up from people that are ignoring your emails. So verification B2B side no brainer. On the consumer side, this is the perfect time of year to use verification because everybody wants discounts.
Everyone wants VIP status. So if your subject line says still want VIP discounts?
Question mark or confirm VIP status or holiday discount code, confirm needed, you are telling the person, listen, dude, I know you've been ignoring us, but if you still want to get the VIP treatment, you need to check out this email. So verification on the business side and consumer side is among the best ways to wake the dead.
To get those people that are ignoring your emails because they get a little bit nervous that they're going to lose out on something really important. So verification is. Is the route that I would go on for that before credit. Kristen hits me with the ridiculous question.
I'm excited to share that do this, not that. This podcast is exclusively presented by Marigold. Marigold is awesome. It's an email platform.
It is a roll up of a bunch of different brands that you know of in the email space. Whether it's a campaign monitor that I use or my Emma in the education space or a boatload of other great companies, they're all part of Marigold.
I use them to send out my emails. And they're also amazing for loyalty programs. They're incredible for all sorts of different marketing executions across the board.
So if you want to find out more about Marigold, go to meet marigold.com that is meet marigold.com. it's a platform that I use that I love. Check them out. Kristen, hit me with the ridiculous question this week.
Kristin Nagel:Ridiculous question is from Candice in Philadelphia. J. Is Mac and cheese a Thanksgiving dish?
Jay Schwedelson:This is an incredible question. First off, Kristen, do you believe it's a Thanksgiving dish?
Kristin Nagel:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I think so.
Jay Schwedelson:We would have never talked to each other again if you said it was not a Thanksgiving dish. Let me tell you something. This is a ridiculous question because of course, Mac and cheese is a Thanksgiving dish.
But if the question was what is my favorite Thanksgiving dish? It is cornbread. There's no question. It is cornbread.
I will tell you what I think is absolutely not that anybody asked the most disgusting Thanksgiving dish and that is candied yams. It is gross. You eat them.
Kristin Nagel:Yeah.
Jay Schwedelson:No, they're just. Honestly, first of all, they have a horrible name. I don't want to eat anything that's called a yam. What is a yam?
That sounds like, ooh, I have a case of the yams. They're disgusting, they're nasty, and they're totally gross. Let me ask you one other thing related to this.
Do you think that salad should be a part of the Thanksgiving menu?
Kristin Nagel:It can be a part of the menu, but I won't be eating it. I'm getting all the good stuff. The stuffing, the pie. The salad will be left over for days.
Jay Schwedelson:There should be no salad on any table at Thanksgiving. This is not the salad time of year. You eat a salad every day after Thanksgiving. So no salad, no candied yams, yes Mac and cheese, yes cornbread.
And that's the menu for Thanksgiving. I think we crushed it today, so make sure you check out our long episodes on Friday and keep the questions coming in. We love it. Take it easy.
You did it. You made it to the end. Nice, but the party's not over.
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