The part of sustainable ethical email marketing that you're not thinking about enough

When I onboard a new client, I send them a long list of assets and systems I need access to.

I call that list “the 150% list”because it’s rare that a company has all those things to share with me, and that’s fine. I ask anyway.

In case you’re curious, that list contains more obvious things, like access to the company’s Email Service Provider, their overall business/marketing strategy, and brand values, but also less obvious things, like customer journey maps, website heat maps, or recorded calls between Sales/Customer Success and customers/clients.

All of these are important for me to understand both the bigger picture of what’s been done so far and where the company is headed, and the details that might be falling between departments.

Depending on what I get from my client, how big their team is, the systems they’re already working with, and their existing knowledge or expertise, I can start assessing the complexity vs. sustainability of their new email strategy.

After all, they can get the most hyper-personalized, luscious, and intricate email strategy from yours truly, but if they’re not able to be consistent with implementing and testing it properly, that strategy will be pointless.

Companies that bring me in want to up their ethical email game and know that there will be a new learning curve involved - but I see it as my responsibility to make sure that their people won't get burned out in the process.

There’s a time and a place to do more (and better), just like there’s a time and place to do less (but better).

I do not expect teams of 5 to execute or know as much as teams that are 10 times bigger.

And it’s not realistic to ask them to get as much done.

(Important note, because I’m always asked about it: I strongly believe that 1 newsletter a month is the least any company needs to send if email is a part of their marketing strategy. There are exceptions to every rule, but most companies that only show up once a quarter can’t grow mutually beneficial relationships in the inbox or expect to see good results from this channel. On average, a working person gets 3,630 emails a month - can you honestly remember an email, any email, that you got a month ago?)

In my business of one, I can only do so much in a given week:

There are weeks where I find time to send 2 emails a week, ones where I only have enough time or energy to send “only” one newsletter, and rare occasions when I allow myself to skip sending anything for an entire week or two.

Because I know that my relationships with my subscribers are stronger than that.

I know that they won’t miss me terribly if I missed a week (and honestly, they most likely won’t even notice. I’m not offended). And I know they’ll see my name in their inbox again, and soon enough (unless something truly special happens).

Every strategy I develop has flexibility built into it so we can keep things consistent yet sustainable… Even if we’re not showing up in the perfect way or ideal frequency. 

Because none of us humans are perfect, and even Beyonce only has 24 hours in a day.

If you know that you must up your email marketing game, but do that in a sustainable way that won't burn your team out - let's have a chat about what that could look like for your brand.