July 22, 2025 • 35 mins
This session dives deep into the crucial role of a well-crafted email strategy for retail businesses, exploring what truly works and what doesn't. Glenn will be joined by his long-time friend and business strategist, Jamie Samples of Yellow Barn Media, who will share insights on building email lists from scratch, acquiring emails effectively, and how email marketing can complement or even outperform social media for driving sales. Learn about content ideas to keep subscribers engaged, recommended user-friendly platforms, common pitfalls to avoid, and emerging trends to boost sales and engagement in the equine industry
WESA Retail Roundup July 21, 2025:
- Host: Glenn the Geek, Host of Horses in the Morning
- Facebook: Retail Roundup Facebook group
- Guest: Jamie Samples of Yellow Barn Media
- Presented By: Western English Sales Association
Chapters:
00:17 - Introduction to the WESA Retail Roundup
05:21 - Building an Email Strategy
10:31 - Effective Email Acquisition Strategies
17:43 - Building Relationships Through Email Marketing
23:04 - The Importance of Email Marketing Personality
34:17 - Transitioning Leadership and Business Dynamics
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
You are listening to the HorseRadio Network, part of the Equine
Network family.
Hey everybody.
Glenn, back with you, founderof the Horse Radio Network and host
of Horses in the Morning, thedaily podcast for the last 15 years.
Welcome to the WESA Retail Roundup.
I cannot believe that we areless than a month away from heading
(00:22):
to Dallas.
The Retail Roundup is your goto virtual hub for all things retail.
Join panel discussions, learnfrom webinars, share your thoughts,
ask questions and and connectwith your community.
We host a virtual event orshare educational content every Monday
on the Retail Roundup Facebook group.
You wanna search for that?
If you haven't joined it yet,just search for Retail Roundup on
(00:43):
Facebook.
Today we're gonna learn aboutthe importance of a well thought
out email strategy for retail businesses.
And we had our retail businessprobably over 20 years ago now and
email was, we had a wellthought out email strategy then.
So it's funny how thingschange, but yet they don't in many
ways.
So we're gonna talk about what doesn't.
(01:03):
And I couldn't think ofanybody better to join us for that
than my old friend.
She's a business strategistfor the, for inside the horse world
and outside.
And that's Jamie Samples ofYellow Barn Media.
Hey, Jamie.
Hi, Glenn.
Thanks for having me.
Where are you from again?
Up north, right?
Michigan.
Yes.
Yeah.
Now you've been to WESA many times?
(01:24):
I have.
Probably five or six years, I think.
Okay.
In Dallas.
Yes, Dallas in January.
Much better Dallas in Januarythan Michigan in January.
So it's always a welcomeflight down.
Yes.
Or Dallas in summer when it's110 degrees in the shade, you know.
So tell us about Yellow Barn Media.
(01:45):
What's that?
So the short version is YellowBarn Media is a marketing company
that was built just for, toserve the equine space.
So we offer social mediamarketing, email marketing, Facebook
ads, all things marketing.
But mainly the interesting andexciting thing is I've been able
to serve the horse industryand, and we all know the horse people
(02:07):
were a little bit interestingand weird and different.
So I've been able to servekind of my people for, I don't know,
16 plus years.
So it's been, it's super funand it's been a super blessing to
serve this part of the industry.
And I'm venturing to guessthat most people listening to this
have a, have a email programnecessarily a strategy.
(02:30):
I think they're two different things.
They send emails out, right.
And they do it that, you know,and I, I'm guilty of this too.
It's kind of the last minutething that we think, oh, I didn't
send the email out this month,or I didn't send an email out this
week, I got to get putsomething together in two minutes
and send it out.
We're all guilty of that, right?
That's something that's justhuman nature.
(02:51):
And it's funny how I, youknow, we were the second ones online,
my wife and I, back in the olddays with a tax store, we were the
second ones.
And back then email was, was athing and it was becoming more important
a thing ob as the Internet was growing.
And I'm shocked when I take alook today at how many of the strategies
(03:15):
are the same and reallyhaven't changed a lot.
Yeah, it's all.
Well, and the thing is too, Ithink with any strategy but email
specifically, consistency,that's the biggest challenge problem.
But also you're going to winif you're the most consistent with
email and you do actually havea strategy instead of just throwing
(03:35):
it out there.
It's so important.
And yes, it intermixes withall of the other strategies, but
it's one that's ours.
Like your email list is your own.
And that to me is why Iabsolutely love email.
And I think it's so powerfulfor any business, but really for
the horse industry.
And we've all learned thatthrough social media recently, especially
(03:55):
when you take a look at whatFacebook did to us a couple years
ago, changing their algorithmand our business pages just went
down the tubes.
Right?
I mean, we were doing wellwith Facebook and then they just,
they pulled the rug out fromunderneath it.
But, and so you don't ownthat, right?
You don't own that space, youdon't own Instagram, you don't own
TikTok.
They boot you.
And we've all known peoplethat have gotten booted very hard
(04:17):
to get back yet your email,it's always there.
Yeah, I, early on in mybusiness, I don't know, I probably
had grown my Instagram toabout, I think 3,800 or something.
And it was way back in the beginning.
And one day I woke up and Iwas like, my account got hacked and
I had no Instagram, so I hadto start a brand new one.
And it was just a pain.
(04:37):
But yeah, that's, I preach email.
People are always like, Jamie,out of all the things, you're always
like, make sure you're doing email.
And I'm like, because it'syour own and it's it's measurable
and you can kind of controlit, right?
You can grow it if you wantto, you can utilize it when you need
to, but it's that like directconnect to people.
It's incredibly powerful.
So there's a couple aspectswe're going to talk about today where
(04:59):
you have to talk about two.
There's two fundamental things.
One is building an email listand what it takes to do that.
And then the second thing isyour, your actual content, your email
strategy, including, well,what you said, the number of times
when and content.
So we're going to break thosedown into two parts.
Let's start with part one,which is building the list.
(05:21):
It's the first thing you'vegot to do, right?
I mean, you got to startbuilding a list, you're sending it
to no one.
And I'm assuming that mostpeople listening to this have some
kind of list or they've donesomething or they've gotten the names
through orders online orwhatever it is.
So what's step one for astrategy involving building the list?
And this is for small REIT tomedium sized retailers or manufacturers?
(05:44):
Yeah, in my opinion, reallythe first step is to just do it.
Get a plan, write something down.
A lot of people just say, Imean, I have heard this time and
time again, people just say,well, I want to do it.
Okay, well just do it.
I mean, just do the thing.
So write it down.
Look at, do you have 25 emails already?
Do you have 200?
(06:04):
Like, take an inventory ofwhere you're at.
Are you already using an emailservice provider?
If you are what you like about it?
Is there something you don'tlike about it?
How many emails do you have?
What have you been doing?
Maybe you've been sendingsporadic emails for, let's just say
a year.
Go back and look at the data,pull your top three and figure out,
(06:26):
okay, get yourself a goodstarting point.
So the first step, Glenn, isjust do it.
Just make, force yourself tojust do it.
And then really take a goodinventory of where you're starting
from.
And if you're starting fromzero, if you're starting from 25
or you're starting from 2500,you just have to know where you're
starting so you can make astrategy to know where you want to
(06:47):
go and how to get there.
While we're on the serviceproviders you mentioned that, is
there, you know, there's abunch of them out there.
Is there one that you likethat's affordable version?
Yeah.
So I actually had like A topthree and it depending on where you're
at.
Like if you're baby beginnerand you're just starting and you
(07:09):
have tech overwhelm and you'relike this is just a lot.
Mailchimp is the easiest oneto start with.
It's pretty, it's very affordable.
It'll do most of the thingsyou need to just get you started.
Because also what I find ispeople don't get started because
of the tech overwhelm.
So mailchimp and then I useCourse Business Manager which is
my favorite.
(07:29):
It's an all in one CRM.
It's a little bit higher techbut it will do so much more as you
grow.
So there's a couple there.
I have a bunch more but thoseare kind of my top two.
Yeah.
And I use mailchimp before andyou know, it was constant contact.
I've also used.
It's a little more complicatedand a little more expensive than
mailchimp.
(07:49):
Well and let me throw in there too.
Another one.
If you are a medium sizedretail and you're really looking
to grow and you're.
You really want to get arobust email, maybe you've been doing
it but you really want tolevel up.
Take a look at Klaviyo.
Klaviyo.
It's yeah, Klaviyo is goingto, it's going to cost you a little
bit.
However, the amount of moneyand this fluidity of your funnel
(08:13):
and your emails, it's going tolevel you up really fast.
So it won't matter how much itis honestly.
So has Klaviy.
This is off the topic completely.
But have mailchimp and Klaviyoalso brought AI into the mix?
Kind of an AI assistant I think.
Everyone has at this point.
If they haven't, I don't use alot of them but many of them do have
(08:34):
and if you're new to tech andthings like that and it's a little
bit scary that AI sometimescan help because it can fill some
things in and just kind ofhelp bolster what you're trying to
do.
Okay, so let's go back toacquiring emails.
We all.
There's many ways to do it.
One is obviously you'regetting orders in from your, from
(08:55):
your online store.
Now there's rules around that too.
And they're getting pickier.
They've been getting pickierand pickier on that over the last
10 years for sure.
Can I get an order in with an email?
Do I have to have the thing onthe order form that says do you want
to be on the email list and ithas to be checked for me to add them
to my email list?
Legally.
Legally, yes.
(09:17):
Okay, there I thought that wasa short, sweet answer.
You should have that check block.
Do you want to be getpromotional emails?
That's usually what it says.
And most people will check itbecause they want to get updates
on their order and things like that.
So.
So you have different levelsof buyers and their education as
far as.
But yes, the checkbox.
What trouble do I get in if Ijust add everybody and ignore the
(09:39):
checkbox?
I mean, I'm gonna say this.
It's like all of the peoplethat don't follow the Facebook rules
and they run all thesegiveaways and they get like tens
of thousands of comments.
They're breaking all of the rules.
Can you get shut down?
Yes, you can.
Will you?
I can't tell you that.
Well, and mailchimp and those.
All the services do monitorhow many people are.
(10:00):
Are tagging your emails as spam.
Yes.
And they will shut you down ifthey get too many.
They'll.
Yeah, they'll put you on pauseor they'll just shut you down.
Yeah, 100%.
And you know, it is getting tothe point too where this is a whole
side note, Glenn, for another day.
But depending on what you'resaying in your emails and what the
topic is, you also can getshut down.
(10:23):
That's one we won't have timefor today.
That's a whole nother.
Let's hop in.
Your horsey emails about products.
You're not saying any of those things.
Yeah.
So now the other thing,obviously on the website we see so
many people now or so manywebsites with the pop up banner trying
to get your email address.
It pops up.
It's annoying.
We all hate it.
Does it work?
(10:44):
Yes.
Yes.
So exactly what you just.
By the way, I hate that it works.
Well, let me tell you it works.
And I personally will tellyou, you it works because if I want
to purchase something, if Iknow I'm going to XYZ Tax shop, if
they don't have a pop up withlike a value add, I'm disappointed.
As a buyer now I'm a differentlevel of buyer.
(11:06):
However, we had, we just had asupplement company.
They finally let my partnerand I put a pop up on their website
before.
They were totally against itbecause they said exactly what you
said, Glenn.
They were like, no, no, no,no, no.
In their first 24 hours withthe pop up, I think they made $1,200
of sales.
And see the thing about thatis you can directly track the ROI
(11:28):
on that.
Yeah.
And everything in business,the more you can measure things,
the more you can do thingslike do more of what works and less
of what doesn't.
If your pop up isn't workingthe right way, switch up the language,
the hook.
There's a lot of things totalk about with strategy, but to
answer your question Glenn,100% it works.
(11:49):
And people love saving.
And I think, I don't know theexact stat but as a retail business,
acquiring that first client,if you can, even if you lose a little
bit of margin in that firstclient, getting them to buy the second
and third and fifth time is awhole heck of a lot easier.
That is true.
So what, what have I knowthere's been all kinds of studies
(12:09):
on what should be on those popups and what's most effective.
What have you found withdealing with your horsey clients?
100 a coupon and it, you know,generally I have two clients.
They do and again margin playsa part but they do between 10 and
25 on that first sale or theydo maybe not a bogo but they do like
(12:31):
depending on the margin of course.
Buy one, get one X off or, orsometimes it's free, sometimes it's
as simple as free shipping andwe know how much shipping is right
now.
So it really is dependent onthe business, your margins, what
the numbers look like.
But in order to acquire thatfirst client, you want to get them.
You want it to be like a droolworthy like oh yes, here's my email.
(12:52):
I want the coupon and that italso has to be because we're so quick
at closing those now, theyhave to look good.
The pop ups have to havesomething on it that catches your
attention.
It can't just be boring text.
It has to have something on itthat's going to pop out at you before.
So because we have gotten soquick at closing those down now hitting
(13:13):
that X.
It's true.
Yeah.
Yes.
Well and sometimes, you know,some people will do a quick video
or sometimes now they'll dosomething animated.
I'm still a sucker for just text.
If it says save 25% off, giveme your email.
That's big and bold.
It's not in little black 14point font, right?
Yes.
And it's also not font fromthe 1980s.
(13:35):
Let me just say that right out loud.
No Comic Sans.
Correct.
Is that the most effective,those two things, the most effective
way for manufacturers andretailers to get the email?
I think that is the Mostsimplistic way to do it.
But the other way that I'veseen with retailers is do a really
good giveaway.
(13:56):
People love giving, like ifthey can get entered to win X dollars
to your store or maybe a prizepack and you don't want it to be
something that's worth $20.
Like just, just FYI, you wantto do a good giveaway, think it through,
put it together.
But that's very easy to getpeople to give their emails if it's
a giveaway.
Because who doesn't want to beentered to win something cool?
(14:20):
I'll tell you.
Stateline Tech does a giveawayevery month.
They do a monthly giveaway andit's always 4, 3, 4, $500 worth of
stuff.
And I know for a fact it worksfor them, right?
And on there is the emailaddress and they do have a little
checkbox.
Do you want to be, you know,get our promotions or whatever.
But yeah, so they wouldn'tkeep doing.
(14:40):
They've done it for 10 yearsand they wouldn't keep doing it if
it didn't work.
Yeah.
And I.
It's super simple becausereally, honestly, as humans, who
doesn't want to win freestuff, right?
Especially horse people.
We're like, can I have 62 hoof picks?
I mean, I probably don't need62 hoof picks, but if I won them,
I would find something to dowith them.
(15:01):
We've on Horses in theMorning, we've given away almost
$100,000 in stuff over thelast 15 years.
But one of the things I willrecommend, and Stateline Tech actually
does this well, and I'm onlyusing them as an example here because
I know them or I know, I knowwhat's on their website.
They've been a sponsor forours for 15 years, but they announce
who the winner is and it'slisted right there on the page.
(15:23):
So one of the things people goand sign up and say, I wonder if
they ever give this away.
You always think that to yourself.
When we do it on horses in themorning, we make an announcement
about who won and what statethey're from.
So you know, somebody actuallydid win it.
That's important.
On your website, on maybe onthe same giveaway page, landing page,
you have put the winners forthe last couple of months.
(15:44):
Because that, that'scredibility and means a lot to people.
Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.
Yeah.
Because otherwise they sitthere thinking, did they really give
it away?
And you know what?
You could get away withprobably not doing it for a Period
of time.
And so this was just, it'sjust transpar.
Yeah, of course, 100%.
You know, where does emailmarketing fall into the whole social
(16:08):
media scheme?
We've done a lot of sessionshere talking about social media.
In your opinion andimportance, where does it fall?
Well, for me, because we ownsocial media, I think it's really
important.
Now I would never say like youshouldn't do social media.
So many people come to me andsay, well, I have limited resources,
(16:29):
I'm a one person show, I'mtrying to do 62 things, how can I
do all of it?
I don't really have the magicanswer to that.
Some of it you just have tohire it out.
But email, as far as level ofimportance, I mean you need to obviously
have a website that's workingand functioning.
You need to have a social presence.
But I really feel like youremail marketing is your own list.
(16:52):
It's manageable, it'smeasurable, it's something that is
100% yours.
If you're investing your timeand your energy into learning how
to do it or whatever, itdoesn't matter how you do it, you're
investing a lot of time andyou can measure where that time,
how it's returning to you, ifyou will.
So I mean, email is just, Imean, I don't know how else to say
(17:13):
it.
It's just if, when you look atthe numbers, the numbers are insane.
When you do a welcome seriesand we can maybe if we have time
we could talk about that.
But I think that it's, itreally has to be married with social
media.
But a lot of people say, well,I'm just going to do social and kind
of wing it and I'll do myemail whenever.
And they don't include it as aserious part of the strategy.
(17:34):
So consistency gets back tothat again.
And I want to get into contenthere and talk about what should be
in the emails.
Now I've gotten the names andI'm consistency.
How often?
Like I say right now, ifsomebody's starting a podcast, they
should do it twice a month.
Weekly is too much, you'llburn out.
Twice a month seems to beideal for building an audience and
(17:57):
not having the person doingit, the host burnout.
So what, what's a goodstarting strategy for email?
I would say no less than twicea month.
Because again, if you're a oneperson show, it'd be better for you
to set a reasonableexpectation for yourself to be like,
I'm going to do it twice amonth, I'M going to use that data
(18:17):
and look at what days andtimes are best.
But twice a month, I feel likeis going to be your best option for
success.
Some companies do it two orthree times a week.
I don't want to get all of that.
Yeah, me either.
I get the daily ones too.
And they're tough.
Yeah, but a lot of them.
Here's the other thing too.
If, speaking of content, ifthey're really good, even if I don't
(18:40):
read all of them, I'll openthe ones that I have time for or
that have a really goodheadline that caught my attention
and.
But I'm not going tounsubscribe or get off the list.
So, you know, that's something too.
Is like content related.
If your emails are reallygood, a lot of people say, I don't
want to make my audience mad.
If you're not sending.
This is what I tell people.
If you're not sending garbageand you're not selling all the time
(19:02):
and you're actually trying tobuild a relationship with these people,
they're not going to unsubscribe.
They're not going to reportyou as spam.
I think too one of the thingsthat I've seen with I was just analyzing
today as I knew we were goingto do this, I was looking at some
retailer emails I get from alldifferent types, not just horse.
And I was going, which oneshave I opened in the last month?
(19:24):
And it's been interesting.
I. I have opened the ones thatalso provide value, not just product.
Here's what's on sale.
I opened the ones that theymay have.
They may have an article in,you know, a short article in each
one.
In addition, there may be asale thing.
I tend open the ones thatcover four or five different things
(19:46):
in an email rather than justthese are the 10 things on sale this
week.
They'll have an educationalpiece on.
On helmets or whatever andsaddles or whatever.
What have you found is workingas far as retail and manufacturing
like that?
Well, definitely.
I love opening an email with ahow to.
Okay.
Like how to tie a wild rag.
(20:07):
I'm like inept.
I cannot do that.
Okay.
So if someone's like, I have athree minute video on how to tie
a wild rag.
I'm going to open it.
I'm going to.
I'm probably going to forwardit to a friend.
To be honest, I like the how to.
Or it's summertime, like howto make your own fly spray at home.
Okay.
Even if you're a tack Shop andyou sell fly spray.
People think that'scounterintuitive, but that's a whole
nother conversation.
(20:27):
But value added, You're 100, right?
I feel like works really well.
Of course we're always selling.
The underlying thing is wealways selling, but we want a relationship
first.
And I've been to many, manyover the last like year specifically
and the last few months, I'vebeen to some conferences and people
are like, you know what, it'sgoing back like 20, 30, 40 years
(20:50):
when it's like you built thatrelationship on a handshake, you
looked at people in the eyes.
We are longing for those relationships.
And people think, well, canemail do that?
It can when you do it right.
So yes, you need to sell, butyou also need to build a relationship.
And I think value addedcontent does that.
The other thing I would saytoo, and that's the reason podcasts
(21:10):
have become so popular, is youhave a relationship with the host.
You're listening to the hostall the time.
You come for the content, butyou stay for the host.
And that's the reason it's avery intimate experience with the
podcast.
Right.
It's the same with, you know,the first podcasters were actually
bloggers who sent out emails.
They were basically emails oftheir blogs.
(21:30):
That's what happened years ago.
They were the first podcastersreally because you developed, you
wanted to get their email toread what they had to say.
So one of the things I thinkthat is a mistake for anybody doing
an email campaign is theydon't allow personality into their
emails.
The personality of your storethat people get when they come into
(21:52):
your store should also bereflected in your emails.
If you have a fun, vibrant,funny, entertaining staff and your
store is set up that way, thenmake your emails that way.
Don't make them all serious.
They come to you because theylike you.
You know, in our, like here inocala we have 10 tax shops.
We're lucky within 10 miles ofwe have 10 tag shops.
(22:13):
It's crazy.
So obviously we're going backnot only the ones that have the product
that we like, but also it'sthe atmosphere that we like is the
one that you're going to tendto want to go back to.
Same with emails, right?
Yeah.
And it's interesting, when youwere talking, I was thinking about
a client that I worked with afew years ago.
They're in a downtown area.
People love them, even nonhorse people.
(22:33):
They're a western store, notreally a tax store and, but all the
town, the town loves this place.
All right?
For many reasons.
And I could list all thereasons, but very specific reasons.
They came to me and they said,we want to do our emails like this
Big Box Store.
Okay, I won't name names likethis Big Box store.
This is how we want to do them.
And I was like, no, no, no.
(22:54):
And they're like, we're hiringyou to do it.
This is how we want to do it.
We want you to mimic this.
And I'm like, okay, well, Ihad already said that I wouldn't
recommend doing that, butyou're the customer.
I'll do it.
We did it for about 90 days.
And they're like, email sucks.
And I was like, no, it doesn't.
But how about we now turnaround and how about we take the
personality of your store, howabout we simplify your emails, and
(23:18):
we add in some of the sassthat comes out of your store and
make it.
Make your email feel like yourstore and you can guess what happened.
Their emails, you know,started getting a higher open rate.
People started coming in thestore and they're like, oh, my goodness,
we love your emails.
And, you know, I trained oneof the girls in the store to write
their emails, and they'relike, they're doing so much better.
(23:39):
And I'm like, yes, they are.
Yeah.
But I.
This makes a lot of retailers mad.
So I apologize in advance.
So I started Tack of the Dayyears ago, and I started that website,
and it was very.
It's very.
Everything was tongue incheek, and I made fun of the products
(24:00):
and we sold a ton of stuff.
And the biggest complaintabout it I have when I see complaints
about Tech of the Day onlinenow is it has no personality.
It's just.
It doesn't have that, youknow, because I was very irreverent.
I came out from it, the horsehusband side, and.
But people open the emails andthey came back to see the product
every day to just.
To see what I wrote, even ifthey weren't interested.
(24:21):
So, again, you know, thathasn't changed, right?
It's.
It's that.
It's that whole.
That attitude.
It's an attitude.
Well, and I'll say this, too.
I think fear plays a littlepart in that, because people now,
this day and age, they don'twant to get canceled.
They don't want to have thisfine line and.
Or they don't want to offendsomeone, which is.
(24:42):
That's a good thought.
But also, like, you know, Itell people on, like, my YouTube
channel and stuff, like, Italk about my business and my family
and and some things and I'mlike you can still like you're talking
about, talk about the tack ina silly way or an irreverent way
or whatever way because peopleare going to want that, that so definitely
be true to yourself and yourbusiness and, and don't have you
(25:05):
don't I think want it to yourpoint with content.
Don't cram your email withjust pictures and links like this
is what we sell.
Buy the stuff that gets likethat's not exciting.
What are you seeing works inemail now and what, how long.
I know there's also an ideallength because that beyond that nobody
looks so well for it.
It's a little bit differentfor different industries but I would
(25:27):
say short and concise with onetopic or can you.
Do more than one thing?
Segment.
Let's call them segments.
Can you do more than onesegment in an email?
You can and I would say forevery retailer try do something for
90 days.
90 days.
90 days.
I personally I'm not aretailer but I just shifted the way
I did my emails.
I totally scrapped my old wayand I do very short emails that are
(25:53):
almost no pictures now.
For retailers it's going to be different.
But to your question for theretailers that are listening, you
can put some photos in therebut the more photos that are in there
the harder it's going to befor it to load.
I I and most people don't wantto do 13 scrolls down.
They're just not the stuffpast like one or two scrolls they're
(26:14):
never going to see.
So take your most importanthow to tip blog product that matches
that time of the year itemthat you know is going to sell that.
Everyone has to have fly sprayright now.
So of course you can put thatright at the top.
But I think you don't want toput 16 topics in there.
You want it to be as clickableas possible.
(26:36):
And decision fatigue is a real thing.
So unless you're someone whohas a real big personality and you
know already people areopening it, if you're just starting
you need to test and measuresome things.
But most certainly I try tomake it now to where I have one primary
button that's clickable to getthem to do the thing I want because
(26:57):
decision fatigue, people willlook at it and be like it's too much.
I can't make one more decision.
So I feel like short feel that.
Way about life actually.
Yeah, well and it's hardbecause if you're a retailer and
you just Got in all new stuff.
I, I do have a few retailers Iworked with where they just dump
all the new products in anemail but they have a huge list of
(27:19):
people that have beenfollowing them for years.
They can do that and peoplejust buy and they literally have
to put hardly no effort intotheir emails.
They dump in new products andpeople buy.
But they've also been doing ita really long time and they have
found that works for them.
I wouldn't recommend that tosomeone who's just getting started
or they're like, I've beendoing it but like now I'm serious
about it.
(27:40):
I would say the shorter the better.
And you can share a handful ofproducts and, but just not too much.
It's too much information atsome point.
So what's a good open rate?
What percentage is a good open rate?
You want to try to be between25 and 35%.
I, and for my clients Ihonestly shoot for like 40 to 45%
(28:04):
which I feel like in theretail space is pretty high.
If you're getting 25 to 35% consistently.
I would look at, you know, youwant a good open rate but then your
secondary thing is the click rate.
Right.
And the open rate for mereally hinges on, and I preach this
all the time.
Please, for the love of Pete,do not create a subject line that
(28:28):
says new item drop like, likeget creative, use chat GPT.
Use your brain and figure outa subject line that's going to stop
the scroll.
So the click rate I feel like,and the subject line, those are like,
you've got to get really goodat your subject line.
So that's kind of a content piece.
Well, and you have a couplefree sessions coming up about emails
(28:50):
too.
We don't really have time toget in the subject lines which we
could spend a whole hour on.
But I'm sure that's one of thethings you're going to be covering
coming 100%.
Okay.
So yeah, so then we alwaysused kind of the same as you.
25 to 35% was a good open rate.
And then believe it or not, 3to 5% was a good click through rate.
(29:11):
Is that still true?
Yeah, it is.
And that's like real scary.
I feel like I know, you know,like, like when you hear that you're
like ew.
And that's why you have togrow your list because when you look
at the numbers and you reverseengineer the whole point of it, it's
to get clicks.
We want them to do what we areasking them to do.
So that is still the correct number.
(29:32):
Obviously, as with anything,we always try to increase those numbers.
Right, right.
All right, before we run outof time, what's the biggest mistake
people or companies make withtheir email?
Well, I'm going to say,honestly, like, the number one thing
I see is lack of consistency.
That is, it's not.
If I say the 15th and the30th, I got to do it.
(29:53):
The 15th and the 30th.
Yeah.
And.
And honestly, for me, like,because I'm a perfectionist, if you
don't get it done on the 15th,but you get it done on the 17th,
okay, you get a grace pass forthe day, but get it on your calendar.
Create a system that works foryou, for your life, because all curveballs
come, but maybe sit down andcreate both of them at one time and
(30:13):
then schedule them.
So consistency is not a sexyanswer, but that is the answer.
It's lack of consistency iswhy most people fail at email marketing.
There's also 20 other reasons,but that one's the.
The biggest.
It's funny, that's the samewith podcasting.
People aren't consistent and they.
They don't do well in podcasting.
It's anything.
Going to the gym, working out,eating healthy.
(30:34):
It's YouTube channel.
I know exactly the YouTuberswe watch.
I know exactly that their showcomes out on Monday, and if it's
not on Monday, then I'm goingto, you know, I'm disappointed, You
know, so, yeah, it's true.
It is true.
It becomes habit.
And even if the subconscioushabit of seeing that email come in
because they know it's comingfrom you, it's.
(30:56):
It's there.
It's subconscious.
And a lot of times, but they know.
Well, and like you said, I get disappointed.
Like, there are emails that Iknow come out on Sundays, and if
they don't send it, I'm like,oh, bummer.
Even though I don't alwaysread it on a Sunday, if I'm scrolling
and I don't see it, I'm like,oh, man.
It's true.
It's true.
Same with podcasts.
It comes out on Monday.
They might not listen toTuesday, but they know it was out.
(31:17):
Yes, yeah, yep, same thing.
It's funny how a lot of thisjust intertwines.
It's just human nature andhabit is what it is.
Yeah, well.
And it's all part of business building.
Right?
So anything that we're talkingabout today, you can apply that to
updating your website, to yourSEO, to anything marketing related.
It's consistency and figuringout your audience and serving them
and speaking their language.
(31:38):
We have just barely touched onemail marketing.
I mean we really have.
We could talk about, we coulddo a session for four hours on this
and you are going to.
So tell people how they canget your free stuff.
Free sessions here.
Coming up on email marketing.
Yeah.
So I have.
You can just go to any of mysocial medias under Yellow Barn Media
and there are links to thefree masterclasses that I'm doing.
(32:00):
And the dates, there's acouple dates.
So all that information is there.
August coming up in August.
Actually the last week ofSeptember, the last week of July,
there's two and then there'sone the first week of August.
Oh, great.
Terrific.
So that's first step is if youwant to learn more, just go to yellowbarnmedia.com
(32:20):
check it out and, and all yourcontact information is on there so
people can reach you through there.
You do consulting, you helppeople with their email.
You help companies do of allsizes do this so they can reach out
to you for that too as well.
Right.
100%, anytime.
Yeah.
And I highly recommend Jamie,as you can tell, just with her answers
here today.
She, you know, she, she's,she's concise, she knows what she's
(32:42):
doing and she'll get resultsfor you.
So I can vouch for that.
I've known her for a long time.
Thank you, Glenn.
It's been a pleasure knowingyou and fun too.
Thank you, Jamie and I hope tosee you at WISA coming up.
Yes, hopefully.
And thank you for joining ustoday for WESA's retail roundup.
I say it both ways and inevery show I say it both ways.
WISA and wesa.
(33:03):
So I've just resigned myselfto the fact that I don't know which
is actually right and I'vebeen told both are right.
So I'm just going to say itboth ways and I'm covered.
If you missed part of this,you can catch the audio version.
Head on over to Wisdom by Wesa.
Obviously we do this video aswell, so you can catch it on the
WESA Trade Show YouTube channel.
(33:24):
Be sure to follow thewebsite@wesatradeshow.com we just
booked our hotels and all thatstuff for August.
So excited about that.
We're going to be coming infor a couple days.
We'll be there, my wife and Iwho host the Wisdom by Wesa podcast.
We'll both be there onWednesday and Thursday all day.
So we're going to be walkingaround doing what we usually do,
(33:44):
which is interviews for new products.
So companies that have newproducts will be there doing interviews
in your right in your boothand putting those out of special
episodes.
Listeners love to hear aboutnew products, so check all of that
out and don't forget to signup on Retail Roundup on Facebook.
You'll get all the details foreverything there.
You can find me at Horses inthe Morning.
(34:04):
As of you don't know this yet,Jamie, and I don't think Sophia does
either.
I think she's listening fromWESA today too.
I am no longer the boss forthe first time in 18 years at Horse
Radio Network, I have been replaced.
I sold the company, believe itor not, three years ago and my contract
was for three years after andI've signed a new contract now where
(34:25):
I'm just staying on andhosting Horses in the Morning.
And Ashley, who we hired twoyears ago, who's 10 times better
than me, is now running HorseRadio Network and for the first time
in 18 years I am not.
And I have to say I didn'tknow how I'd feel about, you know,
giving my baby away.
But I am very happy about itand I am glad I don't make the decisions
(34:46):
anymore.
So this happened last Thursday.
Business owners are going torelate to this.
This happened last Thursday.
It was official and I got awhole bunch of emails on Friday that
were business related emailsand I forwarded them all to Ashley
and said, your problem now.
So it's so exciting.
I just get to do the fun partwhich is host shows this one and
Horses in the Morning and dothe fun stuff.
(35:07):
So.
So that's kind of exciting onmy end too is I can just do fun things
now.
So thank you all.
There is hope for all thosebusiness owners out there that someday
you too can sell it and have a life.
So 100 hours a week can be gone.
Thank you all.
Horsesinthemorning.com so youcould find us and of course check
(35:28):
out WESA at all the places we mentioned.
Thank you Jamie.
Yellow Barn Media.
Thank you for having me.
Foreign.
You are listening to the HorseRadio Network, part of the Equine
Network family.
Hey everybody.
Glenn, back with you, founderof the Horse Radio Network and host
of Horses in the Morning, thedaily podcast for the last 15 years.
Welcome to the WESA Retail Roundup.
I cannot believe that we areless than a month away from heading
(00:22):
to Dallas.
The Retail Roundup is your goto virtual hub for all things retail.
Join panel discussions, learnfrom webinars, share your thoughts,
ask questions and and connectwith your community.
We host a virtual event orshare educational content every Monday
on the Retail Roundup Facebook group.
You wanna search for that?
If you haven't joined it yet,just search for Retail Roundup on
(00:43):
Facebook.
Today we're gonna learn aboutthe importance of a well thought
out email strategy for retail businesses.
And we had our retail businessprobably over 20 years ago now and
email was, we had a wellthought out email strategy then.
So it's funny how thingschange, but yet they don't in many
ways.
So we're gonna talk about what doesn't.
(01:03):
And I couldn't think ofanybody better to join us for that
than my old friend.
She's a business strategistfor the, for inside the horse world
and outside.
And that's Jamie Samples ofYellow Barn Media.
Hey, Jamie.
Hi, Glenn.
Thanks for having me.
Where are you from again?
Up north, right?
Michigan.
Yes.
Yeah.
Now you've been to WESA many times?
(01:24):
I have.
Probably five or six years, I think.
Okay.
In Dallas.
Yes, Dallas in January.
Much better Dallas in Januarythan Michigan in January.
So it's always a welcomeflight down.
Yes.
Or Dallas in summer when it's110 degrees in the shade, you know.
So tell us about Yellow Barn Media.
(01:45):
What's that?
So the short version is YellowBarn Media is a marketing company
that was built just for, toserve the equine space.
So we offer social mediamarketing, email marketing, Facebook
ads, all things marketing.
But mainly the interesting andexciting thing is I've been able
to serve the horse industryand, and we all know the horse people
(02:07):
were a little bit interestingand weird and different.
So I've been able to servekind of my people for, I don't know,
16 plus years.
So it's been, it's super funand it's been a super blessing to
serve this part of the industry.
And I'm venturing to guessthat most people listening to this
have a, have a email programnecessarily a strategy.
(02:30):
I think they're two different things.
They send emails out, right.
And they do it that, you know,and I, I'm guilty of this too.
It's kind of the last minutething that we think, oh, I didn't
send the email out this month,or I didn't send an email out this
week, I got to get putsomething together in two minutes
and send it out.
We're all guilty of that, right?
That's something that's justhuman nature.
(02:51):
And it's funny how I, youknow, we were the second ones online,
my wife and I, back in the olddays with a tax store, we were the
second ones.
And back then email was, was athing and it was becoming more important
a thing ob as the Internet was growing.
And I'm shocked when I take alook today at how many of the strategies
(03:15):
are the same and reallyhaven't changed a lot.
Yeah, it's all.
Well, and the thing is too, Ithink with any strategy but email
specifically, consistency,that's the biggest challenge problem.
But also you're going to winif you're the most consistent with
email and you do actually havea strategy instead of just throwing
(03:35):
it out there.
It's so important.
And yes, it intermixes withall of the other strategies, but
it's one that's ours.
Like your email list is your own.
And that to me is why Iabsolutely love email.
And I think it's so powerfulfor any business, but really for
the horse industry.
And we've all learned thatthrough social media recently, especially
(03:55):
when you take a look at whatFacebook did to us a couple years
ago, changing their algorithmand our business pages just went
down the tubes.
Right?
I mean, we were doing wellwith Facebook and then they just,
they pulled the rug out fromunderneath it.
But, and so you don't ownthat, right?
You don't own that space, youdon't own Instagram, you don't own
TikTok.
They boot you.
And we've all known peoplethat have gotten booted very hard
(04:17):
to get back yet your email,it's always there.
Yeah, I, early on in mybusiness, I don't know, I probably
had grown my Instagram toabout, I think 3,800 or something.
And it was way back in the beginning.
And one day I woke up and Iwas like, my account got hacked and
I had no Instagram, so I hadto start a brand new one.
And it was just a pain.
(04:37):
But yeah, that's, I preach email.
People are always like, Jamie,out of all the things, you're always
like, make sure you're doing email.
And I'm like, because it'syour own and it's it's measurable
and you can kind of controlit, right?
You can grow it if you wantto, you can utilize it when you need
to, but it's that like directconnect to people.
It's incredibly powerful.
So there's a couple aspectswe're going to talk about today where
(04:59):
you have to talk about two.
There's two fundamental things.
One is building an email listand what it takes to do that.
And then the second thing isyour, your actual content, your email
strategy, including, well,what you said, the number of times
when and content.
So we're going to break thosedown into two parts.
Let's start with part one,which is building the list.
(05:21):
It's the first thing you'vegot to do, right?
I mean, you got to startbuilding a list, you're sending it
to no one.
And I'm assuming that mostpeople listening to this have some
kind of list or they've donesomething or they've gotten the names
through orders online orwhatever it is.
So what's step one for astrategy involving building the list?
And this is for small REIT tomedium sized retailers or manufacturers?
(05:44):
Yeah, in my opinion, reallythe first step is to just do it.
Get a plan, write something down.
A lot of people just say, Imean, I have heard this time and
time again, people just say,well, I want to do it.
Okay, well just do it.
I mean, just do the thing.
So write it down.
Look at, do you have 25 emails already?
Do you have 200?
(06:04):
Like, take an inventory ofwhere you're at.
Are you already using an emailservice provider?
If you are what you like about it?
Is there something you don'tlike about it?
How many emails do you have?
What have you been doing?
Maybe you've been sendingsporadic emails for, let's just say
a year.
Go back and look at the data,pull your top three and figure out,
(06:26):
okay, get yourself a goodstarting point.
So the first step, Glenn, isjust do it.
Just make, force yourself tojust do it.
And then really take a goodinventory of where you're starting
from.
And if you're starting fromzero, if you're starting from 25
or you're starting from 2500,you just have to know where you're
starting so you can make astrategy to know where you want to
(06:47):
go and how to get there.
While we're on the serviceproviders you mentioned that, is
there, you know, there's abunch of them out there.
Is there one that you likethat's affordable version?
Yeah.
So I actually had like A topthree and it depending on where you're
at.
Like if you're baby beginnerand you're just starting and you
(07:09):
have tech overwhelm and you'relike this is just a lot.
Mailchimp is the easiest oneto start with.
It's pretty, it's very affordable.
It'll do most of the thingsyou need to just get you started.
Because also what I find ispeople don't get started because
of the tech overwhelm.
So mailchimp and then I useCourse Business Manager which is
my favorite.
(07:29):
It's an all in one CRM.
It's a little bit higher techbut it will do so much more as you
grow.
So there's a couple there.
I have a bunch more but thoseare kind of my top two.
Yeah.
And I use mailchimp before andyou know, it was constant contact.
I've also used.
It's a little more complicatedand a little more expensive than
mailchimp.
(07:49):
Well and let me throw in there too.
Another one.
If you are a medium sizedretail and you're really looking
to grow and you're.
You really want to get arobust email, maybe you've been doing
it but you really want tolevel up.
Take a look at Klaviyo.
Klaviyo.
It's yeah, Klaviyo is goingto, it's going to cost you a little
bit.
However, the amount of moneyand this fluidity of your funnel
(08:13):
and your emails, it's going tolevel you up really fast.
So it won't matter how much itis honestly.
So has Klaviy.
This is off the topic completely.
But have mailchimp and Klaviyoalso brought AI into the mix?
Kind of an AI assistant I think.
Everyone has at this point.
If they haven't, I don't use alot of them but many of them do have
(08:34):
and if you're new to tech andthings like that and it's a little
bit scary that AI sometimescan help because it can fill some
things in and just kind ofhelp bolster what you're trying to
do.
Okay, so let's go back toacquiring emails.
We all.
There's many ways to do it.
One is obviously you'regetting orders in from your, from
(08:55):
your online store.
Now there's rules around that too.
And they're getting pickier.
They've been getting pickierand pickier on that over the last
10 years for sure.
Can I get an order in with an email?
Do I have to have the thing onthe order form that says do you want
to be on the email list and ithas to be checked for me to add them
to my email list?
Legally.
Legally, yes.
(09:17):
Okay, there I thought that wasa short, sweet answer.
You should have that check block.
Do you want to be getpromotional emails?
That's usually what it says.
And most people will check itbecause they want to get updates
on their order and things like that.
So.
So you have different levelsof buyers and their education as
far as.
But yes, the checkbox.
What trouble do I get in if Ijust add everybody and ignore the
(09:39):
checkbox?
I mean, I'm gonna say this.
It's like all of the peoplethat don't follow the Facebook rules
and they run all thesegiveaways and they get like tens
of thousands of comments.
They're breaking all of the rules.
Can you get shut down?
Yes, you can.
Will you?
I can't tell you that.
Well, and mailchimp and those.
All the services do monitorhow many people are.
(10:00):
Are tagging your emails as spam.
Yes.
And they will shut you down ifthey get too many.
They'll.
Yeah, they'll put you on pauseor they'll just shut you down.
Yeah, 100%.
And you know, it is getting tothe point too where this is a whole
side note, Glenn, for another day.
But depending on what you'resaying in your emails and what the
topic is, you also can getshut down.
(10:23):
That's one we won't have timefor today.
That's a whole nother.
Let's hop in.
Your horsey emails about products.
You're not saying any of those things.
Yeah.
So now the other thing,obviously on the website we see so
many people now or so manywebsites with the pop up banner trying
to get your email address.
It pops up.
It's annoying.
We all hate it.
Does it work?
(10:44):
Yes.
Yes.
So exactly what you just.
By the way, I hate that it works.
Well, let me tell you it works.
And I personally will tellyou, you it works because if I want
to purchase something, if Iknow I'm going to XYZ Tax shop, if
they don't have a pop up withlike a value add, I'm disappointed.
As a buyer now I'm a differentlevel of buyer.
(11:06):
However, we had, we just had asupplement company.
They finally let my partnerand I put a pop up on their website
before.
They were totally against itbecause they said exactly what you
said, Glenn.
They were like, no, no, no,no, no.
In their first 24 hours withthe pop up, I think they made $1,200
of sales.
And see the thing about thatis you can directly track the ROI
(11:28):
on that.
Yeah.
And everything in business,the more you can measure things,
the more you can do thingslike do more of what works and less
of what doesn't.
If your pop up isn't workingthe right way, switch up the language,
the hook.
There's a lot of things totalk about with strategy, but to
answer your question Glenn,100% it works.
(11:49):
And people love saving.
And I think, I don't know theexact stat but as a retail business,
acquiring that first client,if you can, even if you lose a little
bit of margin in that firstclient, getting them to buy the second
and third and fifth time is awhole heck of a lot easier.
That is true.
So what, what have I knowthere's been all kinds of studies
(12:09):
on what should be on those popups and what's most effective.
What have you found withdealing with your horsey clients?
100 a coupon and it, you know,generally I have two clients.
They do and again margin playsa part but they do between 10 and
25 on that first sale or theydo maybe not a bogo but they do like
(12:31):
depending on the margin of course.
Buy one, get one X off or, orsometimes it's free, sometimes it's
as simple as free shipping andwe know how much shipping is right
now.
So it really is dependent onthe business, your margins, what
the numbers look like.
But in order to acquire thatfirst client, you want to get them.
You want it to be like a droolworthy like oh yes, here's my email.
(12:52):
I want the coupon and that italso has to be because we're so quick
at closing those now, theyhave to look good.
The pop ups have to havesomething on it that catches your
attention.
It can't just be boring text.
It has to have something on itthat's going to pop out at you before.
So because we have gotten soquick at closing those down now hitting
(13:13):
that X.
It's true.
Yeah.
Yes.
Well and sometimes, you know,some people will do a quick video
or sometimes now they'll dosomething animated.
I'm still a sucker for just text.
If it says save 25% off, giveme your email.
That's big and bold.
It's not in little black 14point font, right?
Yes.
And it's also not font fromthe 1980s.
(13:35):
Let me just say that right out loud.
No Comic Sans.
Correct.
Is that the most effective,those two things, the most effective
way for manufacturers andretailers to get the email?
I think that is the Mostsimplistic way to do it.
But the other way that I'veseen with retailers is do a really
good giveaway.
(13:56):
People love giving, like ifthey can get entered to win X dollars
to your store or maybe a prizepack and you don't want it to be
something that's worth $20.
Like just, just FYI, you wantto do a good giveaway, think it through,
put it together.
But that's very easy to getpeople to give their emails if it's
a giveaway.
Because who doesn't want to beentered to win something cool?
(14:20):
I'll tell you.
Stateline Tech does a giveawayevery month.
They do a monthly giveaway andit's always 4, 3, 4, $500 worth of
stuff.
And I know for a fact it worksfor them, right?
And on there is the emailaddress and they do have a little
checkbox.
Do you want to be, you know,get our promotions or whatever.
But yeah, so they wouldn'tkeep doing.
(14:40):
They've done it for 10 yearsand they wouldn't keep doing it if
it didn't work.
Yeah.
And I.
It's super simple becausereally, honestly, as humans, who
doesn't want to win freestuff, right?
Especially horse people.
We're like, can I have 62 hoof picks?
I mean, I probably don't need62 hoof picks, but if I won them,
I would find something to dowith them.
(15:01):
We've on Horses in theMorning, we've given away almost
$100,000 in stuff over thelast 15 years.
But one of the things I willrecommend, and Stateline Tech actually
does this well, and I'm onlyusing them as an example here because
I know them or I know, I knowwhat's on their website.
They've been a sponsor forours for 15 years, but they announce
who the winner is and it'slisted right there on the page.
(15:23):
So one of the things people goand sign up and say, I wonder if
they ever give this away.
You always think that to yourself.
When we do it on horses in themorning, we make an announcement
about who won and what statethey're from.
So you know, somebody actuallydid win it.
That's important.
On your website, on maybe onthe same giveaway page, landing page,
you have put the winners forthe last couple of months.
(15:44):
Because that, that'scredibility and means a lot to people.
Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.
Yeah.
Because otherwise they sitthere thinking, did they really give
it away?
And you know what?
You could get away withprobably not doing it for a Period
of time.
And so this was just, it'sjust transpar.
Yeah, of course, 100%.
You know, where does emailmarketing fall into the whole social
(16:08):
media scheme?
We've done a lot of sessionshere talking about social media.
In your opinion andimportance, where does it fall?
Well, for me, because we ownsocial media, I think it's really
important.
Now I would never say like youshouldn't do social media.
So many people come to me andsay, well, I have limited resources,
(16:29):
I'm a one person show, I'mtrying to do 62 things, how can I
do all of it?
I don't really have the magicanswer to that.
Some of it you just have tohire it out.
But email, as far as level ofimportance, I mean you need to obviously
have a website that's workingand functioning.
You need to have a social presence.
But I really feel like youremail marketing is your own list.
(16:52):
It's manageable, it'smeasurable, it's something that is
100% yours.
If you're investing your timeand your energy into learning how
to do it or whatever, itdoesn't matter how you do it, you're
investing a lot of time andyou can measure where that time,
how it's returning to you, ifyou will.
So I mean, email is just, Imean, I don't know how else to say
(17:13):
it.
It's just if, when you look atthe numbers, the numbers are insane.
When you do a welcome seriesand we can maybe if we have time
we could talk about that.
But I think that it's, itreally has to be married with social
media.
But a lot of people say, well,I'm just going to do social and kind
of wing it and I'll do myemail whenever.
And they don't include it as aserious part of the strategy.
(17:34):
So consistency gets back tothat again.
And I want to get into contenthere and talk about what should be
in the emails.
Now I've gotten the names andI'm consistency.
How often?
Like I say right now, ifsomebody's starting a podcast, they
should do it twice a month.
Weekly is too much, you'llburn out.
Twice a month seems to beideal for building an audience and
(17:57):
not having the person doingit, the host burnout.
So what, what's a goodstarting strategy for email?
I would say no less than twicea month.
Because again, if you're a oneperson show, it'd be better for you
to set a reasonableexpectation for yourself to be like,
I'm going to do it twice amonth, I'M going to use that data
(18:17):
and look at what days andtimes are best.
But twice a month, I feel likeis going to be your best option for
success.
Some companies do it two orthree times a week.
I don't want to get all of that.
Yeah, me either.
I get the daily ones too.
And they're tough.
Yeah, but a lot of them.
Here's the other thing too.
If, speaking of content, ifthey're really good, even if I don't
(18:40):
read all of them, I'll openthe ones that I have time for or
that have a really goodheadline that caught my attention
and.
But I'm not going tounsubscribe or get off the list.
So, you know, that's something too.
Is like content related.
If your emails are reallygood, a lot of people say, I don't
want to make my audience mad.
If you're not sending.
This is what I tell people.
If you're not sending garbageand you're not selling all the time
(19:02):
and you're actually trying tobuild a relationship with these people,
they're not going to unsubscribe.
They're not going to reportyou as spam.
I think too one of the thingsthat I've seen with I was just analyzing
today as I knew we were goingto do this, I was looking at some
retailer emails I get from alldifferent types, not just horse.
And I was going, which oneshave I opened in the last month?
(19:24):
And it's been interesting.
I. I have opened the ones thatalso provide value, not just product.
Here's what's on sale.
I opened the ones that theymay have.
They may have an article in,you know, a short article in each
one.
In addition, there may be asale thing.
I tend open the ones thatcover four or five different things
(19:46):
in an email rather than justthese are the 10 things on sale this
week.
They'll have an educationalpiece on.
On helmets or whatever andsaddles or whatever.
What have you found is workingas far as retail and manufacturing
like that?
Well, definitely.
I love opening an email with ahow to.
Okay.
Like how to tie a wild rag.
(20:07):
I'm like inept.
I cannot do that.
Okay.
So if someone's like, I have athree minute video on how to tie
a wild rag.
I'm going to open it.
I'm going to.
I'm probably going to forwardit to a friend.
To be honest, I like the how to.
Or it's summertime, like howto make your own fly spray at home.
Okay.
Even if you're a tack Shop andyou sell fly spray.
People think that'scounterintuitive, but that's a whole
nother conversation.
(20:27):
But value added, You're 100, right?
I feel like works really well.
Of course we're always selling.
The underlying thing is wealways selling, but we want a relationship
first.
And I've been to many, manyover the last like year specifically
and the last few months, I'vebeen to some conferences and people
are like, you know what, it'sgoing back like 20, 30, 40 years
(20:50):
when it's like you built thatrelationship on a handshake, you
looked at people in the eyes.
We are longing for those relationships.
And people think, well, canemail do that?
It can when you do it right.
So yes, you need to sell, butyou also need to build a relationship.
And I think value addedcontent does that.
The other thing I would saytoo, and that's the reason podcasts
(21:10):
have become so popular, is youhave a relationship with the host.
You're listening to the hostall the time.
You come for the content, butyou stay for the host.
And that's the reason it's avery intimate experience with the
podcast.
Right.
It's the same with, you know,the first podcasters were actually
bloggers who sent out emails.
They were basically emails oftheir blogs.
(21:30):
That's what happened years ago.
They were the first podcastersreally because you developed, you
wanted to get their email toread what they had to say.
So one of the things I thinkthat is a mistake for anybody doing
an email campaign is theydon't allow personality into their
emails.
The personality of your storethat people get when they come into
(21:52):
your store should also bereflected in your emails.
If you have a fun, vibrant,funny, entertaining staff and your
store is set up that way, thenmake your emails that way.
Don't make them all serious.
They come to you because theylike you.
You know, in our, like here inocala we have 10 tax shops.
We're lucky within 10 miles ofwe have 10 tag shops.
(22:13):
It's crazy.
So obviously we're going backnot only the ones that have the product
that we like, but also it'sthe atmosphere that we like is the
one that you're going to tendto want to go back to.
Same with emails, right?
Yeah.
And it's interesting, when youwere talking, I was thinking about
a client that I worked with afew years ago.
They're in a downtown area.
People love them, even nonhorse people.
(22:33):
They're a western store, notreally a tax store and, but all the
town, the town loves this place.
All right?
For many reasons.
And I could list all thereasons, but very specific reasons.
They came to me and they said,we want to do our emails like this
Big Box Store.
Okay, I won't name names likethis Big Box store.
This is how we want to do them.
And I was like, no, no, no.
(22:54):
And they're like, we're hiringyou to do it.
This is how we want to do it.
We want you to mimic this.
And I'm like, okay, well, Ihad already said that I wouldn't
recommend doing that, butyou're the customer.
I'll do it.
We did it for about 90 days.
And they're like, email sucks.
And I was like, no, it doesn't.
But how about we now turnaround and how about we take the
personality of your store, howabout we simplify your emails, and
(23:18):
we add in some of the sassthat comes out of your store and
make it.
Make your email feel like yourstore and you can guess what happened.
Their emails, you know,started getting a higher open rate.
People started coming in thestore and they're like, oh, my goodness,
we love your emails.
And, you know, I trained oneof the girls in the store to write
their emails, and they'relike, they're doing so much better.
(23:39):
And I'm like, yes, they are.
Yeah.
But I.
This makes a lot of retailers mad.
So I apologize in advance.
So I started Tack of the Dayyears ago, and I started that website,
and it was very.
It's very.
Everything was tongue incheek, and I made fun of the products
(24:00):
and we sold a ton of stuff.
And the biggest complaintabout it I have when I see complaints
about Tech of the Day onlinenow is it has no personality.
It's just.
It doesn't have that, youknow, because I was very irreverent.
I came out from it, the horsehusband side, and.
But people open the emails andthey came back to see the product
every day to just.
To see what I wrote, even ifthey weren't interested.
(24:21):
So, again, you know, thathasn't changed, right?
It's.
It's that.
It's that whole.
That attitude.
It's an attitude.
Well, and I'll say this, too.
I think fear plays a littlepart in that, because people now,
this day and age, they don'twant to get canceled.
They don't want to have thisfine line and.
Or they don't want to offendsomeone, which is.
(24:42):
That's a good thought.
But also, like, you know, Itell people on, like, my YouTube
channel and stuff, like, Italk about my business and my family
and and some things and I'mlike you can still like you're talking
about, talk about the tack ina silly way or an irreverent way
or whatever way because peopleare going to want that, that so definitely
be true to yourself and yourbusiness and, and don't have you
(25:05):
don't I think want it to yourpoint with content.
Don't cram your email withjust pictures and links like this
is what we sell.
Buy the stuff that gets likethat's not exciting.
What are you seeing works inemail now and what, how long.
I know there's also an ideallength because that beyond that nobody
looks so well for it.
It's a little bit differentfor different industries but I would
(25:27):
say short and concise with onetopic or can you.
Do more than one thing?
Segment.
Let's call them segments.
Can you do more than onesegment in an email?
You can and I would say forevery retailer try do something for
90 days.
90 days.
90 days.
I personally I'm not aretailer but I just shifted the way
I did my emails.
I totally scrapped my old wayand I do very short emails that are
(25:53):
almost no pictures now.
For retailers it's going to be different.
But to your question for theretailers that are listening, you
can put some photos in therebut the more photos that are in there
the harder it's going to befor it to load.
I I and most people don't wantto do 13 scrolls down.
They're just not the stuffpast like one or two scrolls they're
(26:14):
never going to see.
So take your most importanthow to tip blog product that matches
that time of the year itemthat you know is going to sell that.
Everyone has to have fly sprayright now.
So of course you can put thatright at the top.
But I think you don't want toput 16 topics in there.
You want it to be as clickableas possible.
(26:36):
And decision fatigue is a real thing.
So unless you're someone whohas a real big personality and you
know already people areopening it, if you're just starting
you need to test and measuresome things.
But most certainly I try tomake it now to where I have one primary
button that's clickable to getthem to do the thing I want because
(26:57):
decision fatigue, people willlook at it and be like it's too much.
I can't make one more decision.
So I feel like short feel that.
Way about life actually.
Yeah, well and it's hardbecause if you're a retailer and
you just Got in all new stuff.
I, I do have a few retailers Iworked with where they just dump
all the new products in anemail but they have a huge list of
(27:19):
people that have beenfollowing them for years.
They can do that and peoplejust buy and they literally have
to put hardly no effort intotheir emails.
They dump in new products andpeople buy.
But they've also been doing ita really long time and they have
found that works for them.
I wouldn't recommend that tosomeone who's just getting started
or they're like, I've beendoing it but like now I'm serious
about it.
(27:40):
I would say the shorter the better.
And you can share a handful ofproducts and, but just not too much.
It's too much information atsome point.
So what's a good open rate?
What percentage is a good open rate?
You want to try to be between25 and 35%.
I, and for my clients Ihonestly shoot for like 40 to 45%
(28:04):
which I feel like in theretail space is pretty high.
If you're getting 25 to 35% consistently.
I would look at, you know, youwant a good open rate but then your
secondary thing is the click rate.
Right.
And the open rate for mereally hinges on, and I preach this
all the time.
Please, for the love of Pete,do not create a subject line that
(28:28):
says new item drop like, likeget creative, use chat GPT.
Use your brain and figure outa subject line that's going to stop
the scroll.
So the click rate I feel like,and the subject line, those are like,
you've got to get really goodat your subject line.
So that's kind of a content piece.
Well, and you have a couplefree sessions coming up about emails
(28:50):
too.
We don't really have time toget in the subject lines which we
could spend a whole hour on.
But I'm sure that's one of thethings you're going to be covering
coming 100%.
Okay.
So yeah, so then we alwaysused kind of the same as you.
25 to 35% was a good open rate.
And then believe it or not, 3to 5% was a good click through rate.
(29:11):
Is that still true?
Yeah, it is.
And that's like real scary.
I feel like I know, you know,like, like when you hear that you're
like ew.
And that's why you have togrow your list because when you look
at the numbers and you reverseengineer the whole point of it, it's
to get clicks.
We want them to do what we areasking them to do.
So that is still the correct number.
(29:32):
Obviously, as with anything,we always try to increase those numbers.
Right, right.
All right, before we run outof time, what's the biggest mistake
people or companies make withtheir email?
Well, I'm going to say,honestly, like, the number one thing
I see is lack of consistency.
That is, it's not.
If I say the 15th and the30th, I got to do it.
(29:53):
The 15th and the 30th.
Yeah.
And.
And honestly, for me, like,because I'm a perfectionist, if you
don't get it done on the 15th,but you get it done on the 17th,
okay, you get a grace pass forthe day, but get it on your calendar.
Create a system that works foryou, for your life, because all curveballs
come, but maybe sit down andcreate both of them at one time and
(30:13):
then schedule them.
So consistency is not a sexyanswer, but that is the answer.
It's lack of consistency iswhy most people fail at email marketing.
There's also 20 other reasons,but that one's the.
The biggest.
It's funny, that's the samewith podcasting.
People aren't consistent and they.
They don't do well in podcasting.
It's anything.
Going to the gym, working out,eating healthy.
(30:34):
It's YouTube channel.
I know exactly the YouTuberswe watch.
I know exactly that their showcomes out on Monday, and if it's
not on Monday, then I'm goingto, you know, I'm disappointed, You
know, so, yeah, it's true.
It is true.
It becomes habit.
And even if the subconscioushabit of seeing that email come in
because they know it's comingfrom you, it's.
(30:56):
It's there.
It's subconscious.
And a lot of times, but they know.
Well, and like you said, I get disappointed.
Like, there are emails that Iknow come out on Sundays, and if
they don't send it, I'm like,oh, bummer.
Even though I don't alwaysread it on a Sunday, if I'm scrolling
and I don't see it, I'm like,oh, man.
It's true.
It's true.
Same with podcasts.
It comes out on Monday.
They might not listen toTuesday, but they know it was out.
(31:17):
Yes, yeah, yep, same thing.
It's funny how a lot of thisjust intertwines.
It's just human nature andhabit is what it is.
Yeah, well.
And it's all part of business building.
Right?
So anything that we're talkingabout today, you can apply that to
updating your website, to yourSEO, to anything marketing related.
It's consistency and figuringout your audience and serving them
and speaking their language.
(31:38):
We have just barely touched onemail marketing.
I mean we really have.
We could talk about, we coulddo a session for four hours on this
and you are going to.
So tell people how they canget your free stuff.
Free sessions here.
Coming up on email marketing.
Yeah.
So I have.
You can just go to any of mysocial medias under Yellow Barn Media
and there are links to thefree masterclasses that I'm doing.
(32:00):
And the dates, there's acouple dates.
So all that information is there.
August coming up in August.
Actually the last week ofSeptember, the last week of July,
there's two and then there'sone the first week of August.
Oh, great.
Terrific.
So that's first step is if youwant to learn more, just go to yellowbarnmedia.com
(32:20):
check it out and, and all yourcontact information is on there so
people can reach you through there.
You do consulting, you helppeople with their email.
You help companies do of allsizes do this so they can reach out
to you for that too as well.
Right.
100%, anytime.
Yeah.
And I highly recommend Jamie,as you can tell, just with her answers
here today.
She, you know, she, she's,she's concise, she knows what she's
(32:42):
doing and she'll get resultsfor you.
So I can vouch for that.
I've known her for a long time.
Thank you, Glenn.
It's been a pleasure knowingyou and fun too.
Thank you, Jamie and I hope tosee you at WISA coming up.
Yes, hopefully.
And thank you for joining ustoday for WESA's retail roundup.
I say it both ways and inevery show I say it both ways.
WISA and wesa.
(33:03):
So I've just resigned myselfto the fact that I don't know which
is actually right and I'vebeen told both are right.
So I'm just going to say itboth ways and I'm covered.
If you missed part of this,you can catch the audio version.
Head on over to Wisdom by Wesa.
Obviously we do this video aswell, so you can catch it on the
WESA Trade Show YouTube channel.
(33:24):
Be sure to follow thewebsite@wesatradeshow.com we just
booked our hotels and all thatstuff for August.
So excited about that.
We're going to be coming infor a couple days.
We'll be there, my wife and Iwho host the Wisdom by Wesa podcast.
We'll both be there onWednesday and Thursday all day.
So we're going to be walkingaround doing what we usually do,
(33:44):
which is interviews for new products.
So companies that have newproducts will be there doing interviews
in your right in your boothand putting those out of special
episodes.
Listeners love to hear aboutnew products, so check all of that
out and don't forget to signup on Retail Roundup on Facebook.
You'll get all the details foreverything there.
You can find me at Horses inthe Morning.
(34:04):
As of you don't know this yet,Jamie, and I don't think Sophia does
either.
I think she's listening fromWESA today too.
I am no longer the boss forthe first time in 18 years at Horse
Radio Network, I have been replaced.
I sold the company, believe itor not, three years ago and my contract
was for three years after andI've signed a new contract now where
(34:25):
I'm just staying on andhosting Horses in the Morning.
And Ashley, who we hired twoyears ago, who's 10 times better
than me, is now running HorseRadio Network and for the first time
in 18 years I am not.
And I have to say I didn'tknow how I'd feel about, you know,
giving my baby away.
But I am very happy about itand I am glad I don't make the decisions
(34:46):
anymore.
So this happened last Thursday.
Business owners are going torelate to this.
This happened last Thursday.
It was official and I got awhole bunch of emails on Friday that
were business related emailsand I forwarded them all to Ashley
and said, your problem now.
So it's so exciting.
I just get to do the fun partwhich is host shows this one and
Horses in the Morning and dothe fun stuff.
(35:07):
So.
So that's kind of exciting onmy end too is I can just do fun things
now.
So thank you all.
There is hope for all thosebusiness owners out there that someday
you too can sell it and have a life.
So 100 hours a week can be gone.
Thank you all.
Horsesinthemorning.com so youcould find us and of course check
(35:28):
out WESA at all the places we mentioned.
Thank you Jamie.
Yellow Barn Media.
Thank you for having me.
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