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:
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
Foreign.
Speaker B:You are listening to the Horse Radio Network, part of the Equine Network family.
Speaker B:Hey everybody.
Speaker B:Glenn, back with you, founder of the Horse Radio Network and host of Horses in the Morning, the daily podcast for the last 15 years.
Speaker B:Welcome to the WESA Retail Roundup.
Speaker B:I cannot believe that we are less than a month away from heading to Dallas.
Speaker B:The Retail Roundup is your go to virtual hub for all things retail.
Speaker B:Join panel discussions, learn from webinars, share your thoughts, ask questions and and connect with your community.
Speaker B:We host a virtual event or share educational content every Monday on the Retail Roundup Facebook group.
Speaker B:You wanna search for that?
Speaker B:If you haven't joined it yet, just search for Retail Roundup on Facebook.
Speaker B:Today we're gonna learn about the importance of a well thought out email strategy for retail businesses.
Speaker B:And we had our retail business probably over 20 years ago now and email was, we had a well thought out email strategy then.
Speaker B:So it's funny how things change, but yet they don't in many ways.
Speaker B:So we're gonna talk about what doesn't.
Speaker B:And I couldn't think of anybody better to join us for that than my old friend.
Speaker B:She's a business strategist for the, for inside the horse world and outside.
Speaker B:And that's Jamie Samples of Yellow Barn Media.
Speaker B:Hey, Jamie.
Speaker A:Hi, Glenn.
Speaker A:Thanks for having me.
Speaker B:Where are you from again?
Speaker B:Up north, right?
Speaker A:Michigan.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Now you've been to WESA many times?
Speaker A:I have.
Speaker A:Probably five or six years, I think.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:In Dallas.
Speaker A:Yes, Dallas in January.
Speaker A:Much better Dallas in January than Michigan in January.
Speaker A:So it's always a welcome flight down.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Or Dallas in summer when it's 110 degrees in the shade, you know.
Speaker B:So tell us about Yellow Barn Media.
Speaker B:What's that?
Speaker A:So the short version is Yellow Barn Media is a marketing company that was built just for, to serve the equine space.
Speaker A:So we offer social media marketing, email marketing, Facebook ads, all things marketing.
Speaker A:But mainly the interesting and exciting thing is I've been able to serve the horse industry and, and we all know the horse people were a little bit interesting and weird and different.
Speaker A:So I've been able to serve kind of my people for, I don't know, 16 plus years.
Speaker A:So it's been, it's super fun and it's been a super blessing to serve this part of the industry.
Speaker B:And I'm venturing to guess that most people listening to this have a, have a email program necessarily a strategy.
Speaker B:I think they're two different things.
Speaker B:They send emails out, right.
Speaker B:And they do it that, you know, and I, I'm guilty of this too.
Speaker B:It's kind of the last minute thing 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 put something together in two minutes and send it out.
Speaker B:We're all guilty of that, right?
Speaker B:That's something that's just human nature.
Speaker B:And it's funny how I, you know, we were the second ones online, my wife and I, back in the old days with a tax store, we were the second ones.
Speaker B:And back then email was, was a thing and it was becoming more important a thing ob as the Internet was growing.
Speaker B:And I'm shocked when I take a look today at how many of the strategies are the same and really haven't changed a lot.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's all.
Speaker A:Well, and the thing is too, I think with any strategy but email specifically, consistency, that's the biggest challenge problem.
Speaker A:But also you're going to win if you're the most consistent with email and you do actually have a strategy instead of just throwing it out there.
Speaker A:It's so important.
Speaker A:And yes, it intermixes with all of the other strategies, but it's one that's ours.
Speaker A:Like your email list is your own.
Speaker A:And that to me is why I absolutely love email.
Speaker A:And I think it's so powerful for any business, but really for the horse industry.
Speaker B:And we've all learned that through social media recently, especially when you take a look at what Facebook did to us a couple years ago, changing their algorithm and our business pages just went down the tubes.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:I mean, we were doing well with Facebook and then they just, they pulled the rug out from underneath it.
Speaker B:But, and so you don't own that, right?
Speaker B:You don't own that space, you don't own Instagram, you don't own TikTok.
Speaker B:They boot you.
Speaker B:And we've all known people that have gotten booted very hard to get back yet your email, it's always there.
Speaker A:Yeah, I, early on in my business, I don't know, I probably had grown my Instagram to about, I think 3,800 or something.
Speaker A:And it was way back in the beginning.
Speaker A:And one day I woke up and I was like, my account got hacked and I had no Instagram, so I had to start a brand new one.
Speaker A:And it was just a pain.
Speaker A:But yeah, that's, I preach email.
Speaker A:People are always like, Jamie, out of all the things, you're always like, make sure you're doing email.
Speaker A:And I'm like, because it's your own and it's it's measurable and you can kind of control it, right?
Speaker A:You can grow it if you want to, you can utilize it when you need to, but it's that like direct connect to people.
Speaker A:It's incredibly powerful.
Speaker B:So there's a couple aspects we're going to talk about today where you have to talk about two.
Speaker B:There's two fundamental things.
Speaker B:One is building an email list and what it takes to do that.
Speaker B:And then the second thing is your, your actual content, your email strategy, including, well, what you said, the number of times when and content.
Speaker B:So we're going to break those down into two parts.
Speaker B:Let's start with part one, which is building the list.
Speaker B:It's the first thing you've got to do, right?
Speaker B:I mean, you got to start building a list, you're sending it to no one.
Speaker B:And I'm assuming that most people listening to this have some kind of list or they've done something or they've gotten the names through orders online or whatever it is.
Speaker B:So what's step one for a strategy involving building the list?
Speaker B:And this is for small REIT to medium sized retailers or manufacturers?
Speaker A:Yeah, in my opinion, really the first step is to just do it.
Speaker A:Get a plan, write something down.
Speaker A:A lot of people just say, I mean, I have heard this time and time again, people just say, well, I want to do it.
Speaker A:Okay, well just do it.
Speaker A:I mean, just do the thing.
Speaker A:So write it down.
Speaker A:Look at, do you have 25 emails already?
Speaker A:Do you have 200?
Speaker A:Like, take an inventory of where you're at.
Speaker A:Are you already using an email service provider?
Speaker A:If you are what you like about it?
Speaker A:Is there something you don't like about it?
Speaker A:How many emails do you have?
Speaker A:What have you been doing?
Speaker A:Maybe you've been sending sporadic emails for, let's just say a year.
Speaker A:Go back and look at the data, pull your top three and figure out, okay, get yourself a good starting point.
Speaker A:So the first step, Glenn, is just do it.
Speaker A:Just make, force yourself to just do it.
Speaker A:And then really take a good inventory of where you're starting from.
Speaker A: or you're starting from: Speaker B:While we're on the service providers you mentioned that, is there, you know, there's a bunch of them out there.
Speaker B:Is there one that you like that's affordable version?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I actually had like A top three and it depending on where you're at.
Speaker A:Like if you're baby beginner and you're just starting and you have tech overwhelm and you're like this is just a lot.
Speaker A:Mailchimp is the easiest one to start with.
Speaker A:It's pretty, it's very affordable.
Speaker A:It'll do most of the things you need to just get you started.
Speaker A:Because also what I find is people don't get started because of the tech overwhelm.
Speaker A:So mailchimp and then I use Course Business Manager which is my favorite.
Speaker A:It's an all in one CRM.
Speaker A:It's a little bit higher tech but it will do so much more as you grow.
Speaker A:So there's a couple there.
Speaker A:I have a bunch more but those are kind of my top two.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I use mailchimp before and you know, it was constant contact.
Speaker B:I've also used.
Speaker B:It's a little more complicated and a little more expensive than mailchimp.
Speaker A:Well and let me throw in there too.
Speaker A:Another one.
Speaker A:If you are a medium sized retail and you're really looking to grow and you're.
Speaker A:You really want to get a robust email, maybe you've been doing it but you really want to level up.
Speaker A:Take a look at Klaviyo.
Speaker A:Klaviyo.
Speaker A:It's yeah, Klaviyo is going to, it's going to cost you a little bit.
Speaker A:However, the amount of money and this fluidity of your funnel and your emails, it's going to level you up really fast.
Speaker A:So it won't matter how much it is honestly.
Speaker B:So has Klaviy.
Speaker B:This is off the topic completely.
Speaker B:But have mailchimp and Klaviyo also brought AI into the mix?
Speaker B:Kind of an AI assistant I think.
Speaker A:Everyone has at this point.
Speaker A:If they haven't, I don't use a lot of them but many of them do have and if you're new to tech and things like that and it's a little bit scary that AI sometimes can help because it can fill some things in and just kind of help bolster what you're trying to do.
Speaker B:Okay, so let's go back to acquiring emails.
Speaker B:We all.
Speaker B:There's many ways to do it.
Speaker B:One is obviously you're getting orders in from your, from your online store.
Speaker B:Now there's rules around that too.
Speaker B:And they're getting pickier.
Speaker B:They've been getting pickier and pickier on that over the last 10 years for sure.
Speaker B:Can I get an order in with an email?
Speaker B:Do I have to have the thing on the order form that says do you want to be on the email list and it has to be checked for me to add them to my email list?
Speaker B:Legally.
Speaker A:Legally, yes.
Speaker B:Okay, there I thought that was a short, sweet answer.
Speaker B:You should have that check block.
Speaker B:Do you want to be get promotional emails?
Speaker B:That's usually what it says.
Speaker A:And most people will check it because they want to get updates on their order and things like that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So you have different levels of buyers and their education as far as.
Speaker A:But yes, the checkbox.
Speaker B:What trouble do I get in if I just add everybody and ignore the checkbox?
Speaker A:I mean, I'm gonna say this.
Speaker A:It's like all of the people that don't follow the Facebook rules and they run all these giveaways and they get like tens of thousands of comments.
Speaker A:They're breaking all of the rules.
Speaker A:Can you get shut down?
Speaker A:Yes, you can.
Speaker A:Will you?
Speaker A:I can't tell you that.
Speaker B:Well, and mailchimp and those.
Speaker B:All the services do monitor how many people are.
Speaker B:Are tagging your emails as spam.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And they will shut you down if they get too many.
Speaker B:They'll.
Speaker B:Yeah, they'll put you on pause or they'll just shut you down.
Speaker A:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker A:And you know, it is getting to the point too where this is a whole side note, Glenn, for another day.
Speaker A:But depending on what you're saying in your emails and what the topic is, you also can get shut down.
Speaker B:That's one we won't have time for today.
Speaker A:That's a whole nother.
Speaker B:Let's hop in.
Speaker B:Your horsey emails about products.
Speaker B:You're not saying any of those things.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So now the other thing, obviously on the website we see so many people now or so many websites with the pop up banner trying to get your email address.
Speaker B:It pops up.
Speaker B:It's annoying.
Speaker B:We all hate it.
Speaker B:Does it work?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So exactly what you just.
Speaker B:By the way, I hate that it works.
Speaker A:Well, let me tell you it works.
Speaker A:And I personally will tell you, you it works because if I want to purchase something, if I know I'm going to XYZ Tax shop, if they don't have a pop up with like a value add, I'm disappointed.
Speaker A:As a buyer now I'm a different level of buyer.
Speaker A:However, we had, we just had a supplement company.
Speaker A:They finally let my partner and I put a pop up on their website before.
Speaker A:They were totally against it because they said exactly what you said, Glenn.
Speaker A:They were like, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker A:In their first 24 hours with the pop up, I think they made $1,200 of sales.
Speaker B:And see the thing about that is you can directly track the ROI on that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And everything in business, the more you can measure things, the more you can do things like do more of what works and less of what doesn't.
Speaker A:If your pop up isn't working the right way, switch up the language, the hook.
Speaker A:There's a lot of things to talk about with strategy, but to answer your question Glenn, 100% it works.
Speaker A:And people love saving.
Speaker A:And I think, I don't know the exact stat but as a retail business, acquiring that first client, if you can, even if you lose a little bit of margin in that first client, getting them to buy the second and third and fifth time is a whole heck of a lot easier.
Speaker B:That is true.
Speaker B:So what, what have I know there's been all kinds of studies on what should be on those pop ups and what's most effective.
Speaker B:What have you found with dealing with your horsey clients?
Speaker A:100 a coupon and it, you know, generally I have two clients.
Speaker A:They do and again margin plays a part but they do between 10 and 25 on that first sale or they do maybe not a bogo but they do like depending on the margin of course.
Speaker A:Buy one, get one X off or, or sometimes it's free, sometimes it's as simple as free shipping and we know how much shipping is right now.
Speaker A:So it really is dependent on the business, your margins, what the numbers look like.
Speaker A:But in order to acquire that first client, you want to get them.
Speaker A:You want it to be like a drool worthy like oh yes, here's my email.
Speaker B:I want the coupon and that it also has to be because we're so quick at closing those now, they have to look good.
Speaker B:The pop ups have to have something on it that catches your attention.
Speaker B:It can't just be boring text.
Speaker B:It has to have something on it that's going to pop out at you before.
Speaker B:So because we have gotten so quick at closing those down now hitting that X.
Speaker B:It's true.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Well and sometimes, you know, some people will do a quick video or sometimes now they'll do something animated.
Speaker A:I'm still a sucker for just text.
Speaker A:If it says save 25% off, give me your email.
Speaker B:That's big and bold.
Speaker B:It's not in little black 14 point font, right?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A: d it's also not font from the: Speaker A:Let me just say that right out loud.
Speaker B:No Comic Sans.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Is that the most effective, those two things, the most effective way for manufacturers and retailers to get the email?
Speaker A:I think that is the Most simplistic way to do it.
Speaker A:But the other way that I've seen with retailers is do a really good giveaway.
Speaker A:People love giving, like if they can get entered to win X dollars to your store or maybe a prize pack and you don't want it to be something that's worth $20.
Speaker A:Like just, just FYI, you want to do a good giveaway, think it through, put it together.
Speaker A:But that's very easy to get people to give their emails if it's a giveaway.
Speaker A:Because who doesn't want to be entered to win something cool?
Speaker B:I'll tell you.
Speaker B:Stateline Tech does a giveaway every month.
Speaker B:They do a monthly giveaway and it's always 4, 3, 4, $500 worth of stuff.
Speaker B:And I know for a fact it works for them, right?
Speaker B:And on there is the email address and they do have a little checkbox.
Speaker B:Do you want to be, you know, get our promotions or whatever.
Speaker B:But yeah, so they wouldn't keep doing.
Speaker B:They've done it for 10 years and they wouldn't keep doing it if it didn't work.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:It's super simple because really, honestly, as humans, who doesn't want to win free stuff, right?
Speaker A:Especially horse people.
Speaker A:We're like, can I have 62 hoof picks?
Speaker A:I mean, I probably don't need 62 hoof picks, but if I won them, I would find something to do with them.
Speaker B:We've on Horses in the Morning, we've given away almost $100,000 in stuff over the last 15 years.
Speaker B:But one of the things I will recommend, and Stateline Tech actually does this well, and I'm only using them as an example here because I know them or I know, I know what's on their website.
Speaker B:They've been a sponsor for ours for 15 years, but they announce who the winner is and it's listed right there on the page.
Speaker B:So one of the things people go and sign up and say, I wonder if they ever give this away.
Speaker B:You always think that to yourself.
Speaker B:When we do it on horses in the morning, we make an announcement about who won and what state they're from.
Speaker B:So you know, somebody actually did win it.
Speaker B:That's important.
Speaker B:On your website, on maybe on the same giveaway page, landing page, you have put the winners for the last couple of months.
Speaker B:Because that, that's credibility and means a lot to people.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because otherwise they sit there thinking, did they really give it away?
Speaker B:And you know what?
Speaker B:You could get away with probably not doing it for a Period of time.
Speaker B:And so this was just, it's just transpar.
Speaker A:Yeah, of course, 100%.
Speaker B:You know, where does email marketing fall into the whole social media scheme?
Speaker B:We've done a lot of sessions here talking about social media.
Speaker B:In your opinion and importance, where does it fall?
Speaker A:Well, for me, because we own social media, I think it's really important.
Speaker A:Now I would never say like you shouldn't do social media.
Speaker A:So many people come to me and say, well, I have limited resources, I'm a one person show, I'm trying to do 62 things, how can I do all of it?
Speaker A:I don't really have the magic answer to that.
Speaker A:Some of it you just have to hire it out.
Speaker A:But email, as far as level of importance, I mean you need to obviously have a website that's working and functioning.
Speaker A:You need to have a social presence.
Speaker A:But I really feel like your email marketing is your own list.
Speaker A:It's manageable, it's measurable, it's something that is 100% yours.
Speaker A:If you're investing your time and your energy into learning how to do it or whatever, it doesn't matter how you do it, you're investing a lot of time and you can measure where that time, how it's returning to you, if you will.
Speaker A:So I mean, email is just, I mean, I don't know how else to say it.
Speaker A:It's just if, when you look at the numbers, the numbers are insane.
Speaker A:When you do a welcome series and we can maybe if we have time we could talk about that.
Speaker A:But I think that it's, it really has to be married with social media.
Speaker A:But a lot of people say, well, I'm just going to do social and kind of wing it and I'll do my email whenever.
Speaker A:And they don't include it as a serious part of the strategy.
Speaker B:So consistency gets back to that again.
Speaker B:And I want to get into content here and talk about what should be in the emails.
Speaker B:Now I've gotten the names and I'm consistency.
Speaker B:How often?
Speaker B:Like I say right now, if somebody's starting a podcast, they should do it twice a month.
Speaker B:Weekly is too much, you'll burn out.
Speaker B:Twice a month seems to be ideal for building an audience and not having the person doing it, the host burnout.
Speaker B:So what, what's a good starting strategy for email?
Speaker A:I would say no less than twice a month.
Speaker A:Because again, if you're a one person show, it'd be better for you to set a reasonable expectation for yourself to be like, I'm going to do it twice a month, I'M going to use that data and look at what days and times are best.
Speaker A:But twice a month, I feel like is going to be your best option for success.
Speaker A:Some companies do it two or three times a week.
Speaker A:I don't want to get all of that.
Speaker B:Yeah, me either.
Speaker B:I get the daily ones too.
Speaker B:And they're tough.
Speaker A:Yeah, but a lot of them.
Speaker A:Here's the other thing too.
Speaker A:If, speaking of content, if they're really good, even if I don't read all of them, I'll open the ones that I have time for or that have a really good headline that caught my attention and.
Speaker A:But I'm not going to unsubscribe or get off the list.
Speaker A:So, you know, that's something too.
Speaker A:Is like content related.
Speaker A:If your emails are really good, a lot of people say, I don't want to make my audience mad.
Speaker A:If you're not sending.
Speaker A:This is what I tell people.
Speaker A:If you're not sending garbage and you're not selling all the time and you're actually trying to build a relationship with these people, they're not going to unsubscribe.
Speaker A:They're not going to report you as spam.
Speaker B:I think too one of the things that I've seen with I was just analyzing today as I knew we were going to do this, I was looking at some retailer emails I get from all different types, not just horse.
Speaker B:And I was going, which ones have I opened in the last month?
Speaker B:And it's been interesting.
Speaker B:I. I have opened the ones that also provide value, not just product.
Speaker B:Here's what's on sale.
Speaker B:I opened the ones that they may have.
Speaker B:They may have an article in, you know, a short article in each one.
Speaker B:In addition, there may be a sale thing.
Speaker B:I tend open the ones that cover four or five different things in an email rather than just these are the 10 things on sale this week.
Speaker B:They'll have an educational piece on.
Speaker B:On helmets or whatever and saddles or whatever.
Speaker B:What have you found is working as far as retail and manufacturing like that?
Speaker A:Well, definitely.
Speaker A:I love opening an email with a how to.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Like how to tie a wild rag.
Speaker A:I'm like inept.
Speaker A:I cannot do that.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So if someone's like, I have a three minute video on how to tie a wild rag.
Speaker A:I'm going to open it.
Speaker A:I'm going to.
Speaker A:I'm probably going to forward it to a friend.
Speaker A:To be honest, I like the how to.
Speaker A:Or it's summertime, like how to make your own fly spray at home.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Even if you're a tack Shop and you sell fly spray.
Speaker A:People think that's counterintuitive, but that's a whole nother conversation.
Speaker A:But value added, You're 100, right?
Speaker A:I feel like works really well.
Speaker A:Of course we're always selling.
Speaker A:The underlying thing is we always selling, but we want a relationship first.
Speaker A:And I've been to many, many over the last like year specifically and the last few months, I've been to some conferences and people are like, you know what, it's going back like 20, 30, 40 years when it's like you built that relationship on a handshake, you looked at people in the eyes.
Speaker A:We are longing for those relationships.
Speaker A:And people think, well, can email do that?
Speaker A:It can when you do it right.
Speaker A:So yes, you need to sell, but you also need to build a relationship.
Speaker A:And I think value added content does that.
Speaker B:The other thing I would say too, and that's the reason podcasts have become so popular, is you have a relationship with the host.
Speaker B:You're listening to the host all the time.
Speaker B:You come for the content, but you stay for the host.
Speaker B:And that's the reason it's a very intimate experience with the podcast.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It's the same with, you know, the first podcasters were actually bloggers who sent out emails.
Speaker B:They were basically emails of their blogs.
Speaker B:That's what happened years ago.
Speaker B:They were the first podcasters really because you developed, you wanted to get their email to read what they had to say.
Speaker B:So one of the things I think that is a mistake for anybody doing an email campaign is they don't allow personality into their emails.
Speaker B:The personality of your store that people get when they come into your store should also be reflected in your emails.
Speaker B:If you have a fun, vibrant, funny, entertaining staff and your store is set up that way, then make your emails that way.
Speaker B:Don't make them all serious.
Speaker B:They come to you because they like you.
Speaker B:You know, in our, like here in ocala we have 10 tax shops.
Speaker B:We're lucky within 10 miles of we have 10 tag shops.
Speaker B:It's crazy.
Speaker B:So obviously we're going back not only the ones that have the product that we like, but also it's the atmosphere that we like is the one that you're going to tend to want to go back to.
Speaker B:Same with emails, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And it's interesting, when you were talking, I was thinking about a client that I worked with a few years ago.
Speaker A:They're in a downtown area.
Speaker A:People love them, even non horse people.
Speaker A:They're a western store, not really a tax store and, but all the town, the town loves this place.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:For many reasons.
Speaker A:And I could list all the reasons, but very specific reasons.
Speaker A:They came to me and they said, we want to do our emails like this Big Box Store.
Speaker A:Okay, I won't name names like this Big Box store.
Speaker A:This is how we want to do them.
Speaker A:And I was like, no, no, no.
Speaker A:And they're like, we're hiring you to do it.
Speaker A:This is how we want to do it.
Speaker A:We want you to mimic this.
Speaker A:And I'm like, okay, well, I had already said that I wouldn't recommend doing that, but you're the customer.
Speaker A:I'll do it.
Speaker A:We did it for about 90 days.
Speaker A:And they're like, email sucks.
Speaker A:And I was like, no, it doesn't.
Speaker A:But how about we now turn around and how about we take the personality of your store, how about we simplify your emails, and we add in some of the sass that comes out of your store and make it.
Speaker A:Make your email feel like your store and you can guess what happened.
Speaker A:Their emails, you know, started getting a higher open rate.
Speaker A:People started coming in the store and they're like, oh, my goodness, we love your emails.
Speaker A:And, you know, I trained one of the girls in the store to write their emails, and they're like, they're doing so much better.
Speaker A:And I'm like, yes, they are.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I.
Speaker B:This makes a lot of retailers mad.
Speaker B:So I apologize in advance.
Speaker B:So I started Tack of the Day years ago, and I started that website, and it was very.
Speaker B:It's very.
Speaker B:Everything was tongue in cheek, and I made fun of the products and we sold a ton of stuff.
Speaker B:And the biggest complaint about it I have when I see complaints about Tech of the Day online now is it has no personality.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker B:It doesn't have that, you know, because I was very irreverent.
Speaker B:I came out from it, the horse husband side, and.
Speaker B:But people open the emails and they came back to see the product every day to just.
Speaker B:To see what I wrote, even if they weren't interested.
Speaker B:So, again, you know, that hasn't changed, right?
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's that.
Speaker B:It's that whole.
Speaker B:That attitude.
Speaker B:It's an attitude.
Speaker A:Well, and I'll say this, too.
Speaker A:I think fear plays a little part in that, because people now, this day and age, they don't want to get canceled.
Speaker A:They don't want to have this fine line and.
Speaker A:Or they don't want to offend someone, which is.
Speaker A:That's a good thought.
Speaker A:But also, like, you know, I tell people on, like, my YouTube channel and stuff, like, I talk about my business and my family and and some things and I'm like you can still like you're talking about, talk about the tack in a silly way or an irreverent way or whatever way because people are going to want that, that so definitely be true to yourself and your business and, and don't have you don't I think want it to your point with content.
Speaker A:Don't cram your email with just pictures and links like this is what we sell.
Speaker A:Buy the stuff that gets like that's not exciting.
Speaker B:What are you seeing works in email now and what, how long.
Speaker B:I know there's also an ideal length because that beyond that nobody looks so well for it.
Speaker A:It's a little bit different for different industries but I would say short and concise with one topic or can you.
Speaker B:Do more than one thing?
Speaker B:Segment.
Speaker B:Let's call them segments.
Speaker B:Can you do more than one segment in an email?
Speaker A:You can and I would say for every retailer try do something for 90 days.
Speaker A:90 days.
Speaker A:90 days.
Speaker A:I personally I'm not a retailer but I just shifted the way I did my emails.
Speaker A:I totally scrapped my old way and I do very short emails that are almost no pictures now.
Speaker A:For retailers it's going to be different.
Speaker A:But to your question for the retailers that are listening, you can put some photos in there but the more photos that are in there the harder it's going to be for it to load.
Speaker A:I I and most people don't want to do 13 scrolls down.
Speaker A:They're just not the stuff past like one or two scrolls they're never going to see.
Speaker A:So take your most important how to tip blog product that matches that time of the year item that you know is going to sell that.
Speaker A:Everyone has to have fly spray right now.
Speaker A:So of course you can put that right at the top.
Speaker A:But I think you don't want to put 16 topics in there.
Speaker A:You want it to be as clickable as possible.
Speaker A:And decision fatigue is a real thing.
Speaker A:So unless you're someone who has a real big personality and you know already people are opening it, if you're just starting you need to test and measure some things.
Speaker A:But most certainly I try to make it now to where I have one primary button that's clickable to get them to do the thing I want because decision fatigue, people will look at it and be like it's too much.
Speaker A:I can't make one more decision.
Speaker A:So I feel like short feel that.
Speaker B:Way about life actually.
Speaker A:Yeah, well and it's hard because if you're a retailer and you just Got in all new stuff.
Speaker A:I, I do have a few retailers I worked with where they just dump all the new products in an email but they have a huge list of people that have been following them for years.
Speaker A:They can do that and people just buy and they literally have to put hardly no effort into their emails.
Speaker A:They dump in new products and people buy.
Speaker A:But they've also been doing it a really long time and they have found that works for them.
Speaker A:I wouldn't recommend that to someone who's just getting started or they're like, I've been doing it but like now I'm serious about it.
Speaker A:I would say the shorter the better.
Speaker A:And you can share a handful of products and, but just not too much.
Speaker A:It's too much information at some point.
Speaker B:So what's a good open rate?
Speaker B:What percentage is a good open rate?
Speaker A:You want to try to be between 25 and 35%.
Speaker A:I, and for my clients I honestly shoot for like 40 to 45% which I feel like in the retail space is pretty high.
Speaker A:If you're getting 25 to 35% consistently.
Speaker A:I would look at, you know, you want a good open rate but then your secondary thing is the click rate.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And the open rate for me really hinges on, and I preach this all the time.
Speaker A:Please, for the love of Pete, do not create a subject line that says new item drop like, like get creative, use chat GPT.
Speaker A:Use your brain and figure out a subject line that's going to stop the scroll.
Speaker A:So the click rate I feel like, and the subject line, those are like, you've got to get really good at your subject line.
Speaker A:So that's kind of a content piece.
Speaker B:Well, and you have a couple free sessions coming up about emails too.
Speaker B:We don't really have time to get in the subject lines which we could spend a whole hour on.
Speaker B:But I'm sure that's one of the things you're going to be covering coming 100%.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So yeah, so then we always used kind of the same as you.
Speaker B:25 to 35% was a good open rate.
Speaker B:And then believe it or not, 3 to 5% was a good click through rate.
Speaker B:Is that still true?
Speaker A:Yeah, it is.
Speaker A:And that's like real scary.
Speaker A:I feel like I know, you know, like, like when you hear that you're like ew.
Speaker A:And that's why you have to grow your list because when you look at the numbers and you reverse engineer the whole point of it, it's to get clicks.
Speaker A:We want them to do what we are asking them to do.
Speaker A:So that is still the correct number.
Speaker A:Obviously, as with anything, we always try to increase those numbers.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:All right, before we run out of time, what's the biggest mistake people or companies make with their email?
Speaker A:Well, I'm going to say, honestly, like, the number one thing I see is lack of consistency.
Speaker A:That is, it's not.
Speaker B:If I say the 15th and the 30th, I got to do it.
Speaker B:The 15th and the 30th.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A: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 for the day, but get it on your calendar.
Speaker A:Create a system that works for you, for your life, because all curveballs come, but maybe sit down and create both of them at one time and then schedule them.
Speaker A:So consistency is not a sexy answer, but that is the answer.
Speaker A:It's lack of consistency is why most people fail at email marketing.
Speaker A:There's also 20 other reasons, but that one's the.
Speaker A:The biggest.
Speaker B:It's funny, that's the same with podcasting.
Speaker B:People aren't consistent and they.
Speaker B:They don't do well in podcasting.
Speaker A:It's anything.
Speaker A:Going to the gym, working out, eating healthy.
Speaker B:It's YouTube channel.
Speaker B:I know exactly the YouTubers we watch.
Speaker B:I know exactly that their show comes out on Monday, and if it's not on Monday, then I'm going to, you know, I'm disappointed, You know, so, yeah, it's true.
Speaker B:It is true.
Speaker B:It becomes habit.
Speaker B:And even if the subconscious habit of seeing that email come in because they know it's coming from you, it's.
Speaker B:It's there.
Speaker B:It's subconscious.
Speaker B:And a lot of times, but they know.
Speaker A:Well, and like you said, I get disappointed.
Speaker A:Like, there are emails that I know come out on Sundays, and if they don't send it, I'm like, oh, bummer.
Speaker A:Even though I don't always read it on a Sunday, if I'm scrolling and I don't see it, I'm like, oh, man.
Speaker B:It's true.
Speaker B:It's true.
Speaker B:Same with podcasts.
Speaker B:It comes out on Monday.
Speaker B:They might not listen to Tuesday, but they know it was out.
Speaker B:Yes, yeah, yep, same thing.
Speaker B:It's funny how a lot of this just intertwines.
Speaker B:It's just human nature and habit is what it is.
Speaker A:Yeah, well.
Speaker A:And it's all part of business building.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So anything that we're talking about today, you can apply that to updating your website, to your SEO, to anything marketing related.
Speaker A:It's consistency and figuring out your audience and serving them and speaking their language.
Speaker B:We have just barely touched on email marketing.
Speaker B:I mean we really have.
Speaker B:We could talk about, we could do a session for four hours on this and you are going to.
Speaker B:So tell people how they can get your free stuff.
Speaker B:Free sessions here.
Speaker B:Coming up on email marketing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I have.
Speaker A:You can just go to any of my social medias under Yellow Barn Media and there are links to the free masterclasses that I'm doing.
Speaker A:And the dates, there's a couple dates.
Speaker A:So all that information is there.
Speaker B:August coming up in August.
Speaker A:Actually the last week of September, the last week of July, there's two and then there's one the first week of August.
Speaker B:Oh, great.
Speaker B:Terrific.
Speaker B:So that's first step is if you want to learn more, just go to yellowbarnmedia.com check it out and, and all your contact information is on there so people can reach you through there.
Speaker B:You do consulting, you help people with their email.
Speaker B:You help companies do of all sizes do this so they can reach out to you for that too as well.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:100%, anytime.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I highly recommend Jamie, as you can tell, just with her answers here today.
Speaker B:She, you know, she, she's, she's concise, she knows what she's doing and she'll get results for you.
Speaker B:So I can vouch for that.
Speaker B:I've known her for a long time.
Speaker A:Thank you, Glenn.
Speaker A:It's been a pleasure knowing you and fun too.
Speaker B:Thank you, Jamie and I hope to see you at WISA coming up.
Speaker A:Yes, hopefully.
Speaker B:And thank you for joining us today for WESA's retail roundup.
Speaker B:I say it both ways and in every show I say it both ways.
Speaker B:WISA and wesa.
Speaker B:So I've just resigned myself to the fact that I don't know which is actually right and I've been told both are right.
Speaker B:So I'm just going to say it both ways and I'm covered.
Speaker B:If you missed part of this, you can catch the audio version.
Speaker B:Head on over to Wisdom by Wesa.
Speaker B:Obviously we do this video as well, so you can catch it on the WESA Trade Show YouTube channel.
Speaker B:Be sure to follow the website@wesatradeshow.com we just booked our hotels and all that stuff for August.
Speaker B:So excited about that.
Speaker B:We're going to be coming in for a couple days.
Speaker B:We'll be there, my wife and I who host the Wisdom by Wesa podcast.
Speaker B:We'll both be there on Wednesday and Thursday all day.
Speaker B:So we're going to be walking around doing what we usually do, which is interviews for new products.
Speaker B:So companies that have new products will be there doing interviews in your right in your booth and putting those out of special episodes.
Speaker B:Listeners love to hear about new products, so check all of that out and don't forget to sign up on Retail Roundup on Facebook.
Speaker B:You'll get all the details for everything there.
Speaker B:You can find me at Horses in the Morning.
Speaker B:As of you don't know this yet, Jamie, and I don't think Sophia does either.
Speaker B:I think she's listening from WESA today too.
Speaker B:I am no longer the boss for the first time in 18 years at Horse Radio Network, I have been replaced.
Speaker B:I sold the company, believe it or not, three years ago and my contract was for three years after and I've signed a new contract now where I'm just staying on and hosting Horses in the Morning.
Speaker B:And Ashley, who we hired two years ago, who's 10 times better than me, is now running Horse Radio Network and for the first time in 18 years I am not.
Speaker B:And I have to say I didn't know how I'd feel about, you know, giving my baby away.
Speaker B:But I am very happy about it and I am glad I don't make the decisions anymore.
Speaker B:So this happened last Thursday.
Speaker B:Business owners are going to relate to this.
Speaker B:This happened last Thursday.
Speaker B:It was official and I got a whole bunch of emails on Friday that were business related emails and I forwarded them all to Ashley and said, your problem now.
Speaker B:So it's so exciting.
Speaker B:I just get to do the fun part which is host shows this one and Horses in the Morning and do the fun stuff.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So that's kind of exciting on my end too is I can just do fun things now.
Speaker B:So thank you all.
Speaker B:There is hope for all those business owners out there that someday you too can sell it and have a life.
Speaker B:So 100 hours a week can be gone.
Speaker B:Thank you all.
Speaker B:Horsesinthemorning.com so you could find us and of course check out WESA at all the places we mentioned.
Speaker B:Thank you Jamie.
Speaker B:Yellow Barn Media.
Speaker A:Thank you for having me.