This isn’t going to be one of my typical blog posts. It’s a little off the cuff, and it’s short, and I’m not that concerned with SEO. I had a little epiphany this week, and you probably shouldn’t be having these kinds of epiphanies in your mid-thirties:
Email marketing is MORE than what you create and send through your email service provider.
And I KNOW this conceptually. I’ve worked in this space for a decade. I’ve helped businesses optimize their transactional email, which isn’t flashy in the least, to get them higher overall engagement.
Email marketing is everything.
This week was spring break in our school district, and when school is closed, so is my daycare. I have three children: a five-year-old, a two-year-old, and a four-month-old. My youngest stays home with me all the time, but my Big Kids are not conducive to a productive day’s work. If they’re at home, I have to be on high alert just keeping them fed and alive.
So spring break week wasn’t going to be my most productive.
And Tuesday, I didn’t have any reinforcements. No help from the mother-in-law, hubby working out of town, AND IN AN ACT OF PURE FOOLISHNESS, I’d scheduled the Big Kids for a dentist visit.
On Tuesday, I was not going to get any work done.
And even though my clients are wonderfully laid back, and we’re in a space where most things wouldn’t qualify as an emergency, I wanted to make sure that in case anybody needed to reach me, they knew what was up. I woke up Tuesday at 4:30 am for my morning routine, and dashed off this little autoresponder:
Subject: I’m going to be a litttttttle sloooooow…..
Hi there! It’s spring break, which apparently means, NO DAYCARE! While I was able to finagle the wondrous assistance of my mother-in-law for part of this week, today is the day I get ZERO assistance. And I have to take three kids to the dentist. By myself.
Send help.
If your email is urgent, please call my cell phone at 509-301-6025. Otherwise, I look forward to getting back to you tomorrow when the cavalry arrives!
Spring Break! WOO!
E
I got so many lovely responses from my clients that contacted me for one reason or another on Tuesday. It turned into a bright spot in my hectic day.
Also, the angels from the heavens intervened, my husband got off work early and took the kids to the dentist, and I ended up getting in a solid 3 hours of work.
Hallelujah!
What’s my point? I am a working mom, and I am not shy about this on my website or in my personal branding. It’s right over there in the sidebar! I’m a Mom + Wife first, then I’m a storyteller and an email marketing maven and a customer experience advocate. My autoresponder, while dashed off in the early morning hours before coffee could kick in and convince me to write something more buttoned up, was 100% on brand for me. If you aren’t amused by my autoresponder, then I AM NOT FOR YOU! That’s terrific. Feedback, not failure. Or as Ariana Grande would say, Thank you… NEXT!
And while my brand is a little quirky and playful, yours might be more buttoned up and polished. This works, either way. Are your order confirmations sterile and out-of-the-box? Inject your brand story of heritage and legacy with a one or two-sentence addition in the P.S.
Summin’ it up
Think of some areas where your business story is told, be it transactional messages, password reset emails, your vacation autoresponder or simply the signature of your email. Are you injecting your brand story in these customer touchpoints?
Come up with three things you can do this week to add your brand essence into a customer-facing communications outlet!
What are some examples of email storytelling you’ve seen that really made you feel personally connected to recently? I’d love to hear in the comments below!