Show Notes
You’ve selected your target market – Episode 101 – and you’ve put a marketing and advertising plan in place – Episode 102 – but tied up into both of those things, and something that will absolutely make a difference in your long term success is Lead Capture.
Simply put:
1. How do you get people’s information so you can market to them?
2. What do you do with that information.. so you can market to them?
But first, YOU have to embrace the reason you want to collect people’s name email address. It’s so you can email them.
Why do YOU want to email them? So you’ll be more successful and make more money. Because you understand that email marketing is what drives a huge amount of retail success. Look at your own email inbox and think about how often that’s inspired you to buy something.
Why do THEY want you to email them? Because they’ll save money. (Sale) They’ll learn about the latest products/options (exclusivity, prestige). So they won’t forget.. something. (Holidays/Gifts/Occasions)
Gut Check: Go back to your email inbox and find the most recent 3 marketing emails from a business you recognize – why did you sign up for those lists? It will be the same for your customers.
With that in mind – let’s talk about ways to capture prospect information:
The How – Using your Marketing and Advertising methods from the last podcast to send them:
On your website:
– Website Pop up
– Alert Bars
– Contact Page
Off your website:
– Facebook Leads
– Chat bot
– Onsite signup sheet
– Local Event Sign up
– In Store Sign up
– Sign up customers manually
But WHY are they signing up? Offering a Lead Magnet
– Coupon
– Limited time offer (freebie)
– Free Design Guide
– Win something
– How to….
– Guide to picking apparel for business
– How to get the best deal on event t-shirts
– How to not get ripped off on custom t-shirts
– T-shirt sizing guide for custom apparel
Reasons why customers sign up … aka newsletter
– To keep in touch
– Learn about new apparel coming out
– Specials, offers, discounts
– Reminders to do things…. e.g. back to school are you ready?
The key to it all:
The key to building a good list is having people who want your emails.
That doesn’t mean they love every email you send every time. It means that they want to remain on your list and don’t want to unsubscribe. When your email is relevant in subject matter or timing, they react.
E.g. You don’t open every email from Home Depot, but you are thinking of remodelling your kitchen, and an email comes out about how to pick paint colors. You may have deleted the past 3 emails, but you didn’t delete yourself from the list because you still liked getting them.
This is what you want from your customers and potential customers.
Build a list of people who like getting your emails. When the email and timing is right, it will cause them to take action!
Transcript
Welcome to the Custom Apparel Startups podcast, your best source for information, news, tips and tricks to get you off the ground running, and earn success with your custom apparel decorating business. So, get ready to soak up some knowledge!
Now, here are your hosts, Mark and Marc!
Mark S: Hey, everyone! Welcome to episode 103-A of the Custom Apparel Startups podcast. This is Mark Stephenson, from ColDesi.
Marc V: And this is Marc Vila, from Colman and Company. Today we’re here to talk about email lead capture systems.
Mark S: And this is A, because this is the fourth time that we’ve recorded this same podcast. But the first three times, Marc Vila was juggling, and he didn’t quite do it right.
Marc V: Actually, this is the first time during the recording of this podcast, that you’ve mentioned some sort of magic or trick, and I actually didn’t bring it with me this time. I’ve had it with me all the other times, and this is the one time I didn’t bring it. It’s on my desk.
Mark S: That’s great. So, even if you watch the video, there will be no juggling or close-up magic today.
Marc V: Unfortunately. There will be next time. I’ll have two tricks next time.
Mark S: This is episode number three of our business plan series, our marketing plan series. It’s all about capturing leads for email.
Marc V: At this point in time, listening to this series, you’ve picked a niche, and you’re kind of figuring out how you’re going to market to that niche.
Mark S: You’ve done your advertising marketing plan.
Marc V: You’ve got a plan. One of the next things to do is to get people – is to capture a lead, get people to provide you with, specifically for this, their email address, in various ways. And really, the number one reason is because – well, a few reasons.
They’re not going to buy from you right away, necessarily, so you get to email them and remind them. Then, you get to keep in touch with them over the long term, as well.
Mark S: That’s really what a lead is. A lead is somebody that is interested or potentially interested in what you do, but they haven’t bought anything from you yet.
Marc V: Yeah. Everybody who is in your niche is a potential customer. They’re the large-scale audience. Then, everybody who has visited your website and provides you some contact information, or your social pages or an event or something like that, they become a lead. They become a hot person that you can market to, that has a much higher potential of buying from you than just quote/unquote “anybody in your niche.”
Mark S: Let me set this up realistically for you guys. You are all, right now, you are all leads for ColDesi and Colman and Company, because you have found us online, you’re listening to the podcast, and there will be various opportunities when you get emails from us and things like that, for you to voluntarily give us your email address.
Marc V: They’re all potential customers. Then, as you come to our various websites, we’re going to ask you to sign up for an email list, for various reasons. We’re going to talk about why you would want to sign up for those, and why your customers would want to sign up for yours.
Mark S: Simply put, we are going to talk about two things. It’s how do you get peoples’ information, so you can market to them? Then, we are going to do, what do you do with that information, so you can market to them?
Marc V: Perfect! Really, one of the things that you wrote, and I love it, is you just put you have to embrace the reason you want to collect someone’s email address is so you can email them.
Mark S: Yes. This is all stemming toward the countless conversations that I have with people that feel bad about emailing people. Like “I really am not comfortable.” I’ve got an outside client that I’ve been working with for years, who still has a hard time emailing people once a week. “I really don’t want to bother them.”
Marc V: The other thing is, so many people poorly manage their own inbox, that they feel that every email that they get that’s marketing is spam, even though they signed up for the list.
Mark S: Yeah. We’re definitely going to talk about that.
Marc V: Even though you went to Bed Bath and Beyond, and you gave them your email address, and they emailed you, and you didn’t click the Unsubscribe button. Then, you get an email from them every day, and you’re tired of getting this spam. That’s on you.
Mark S: Yeah. Unless you picked somebody’s pocket and snagged their email address out of it, then you got their email address because they gave it to you. So, why do you – Marc Vila, why do you want to email somebody?
Marc V: Because if I have somebody’s email address, I’ve got a greater percent chance to make more money from them.
Mark S: Okay.
Marc V: That’s pretty much as simple as it is. Email marketing is something that works. The first time we filmed this podcast -.
Mark S: The first time?
Marc V: Yeah, or maybe it was the second time.
Mark S: It could have been.
Marc V: We talked about how your email inbox is a place of business now. It’s not a place of social, like it was in the 90s. In the 90s, eight people were on an email chain together, and you shared funny pictures and party planning.
Mark S: I feel like that was 2010.
Marc V: Yeah. I mean, not me.
Mark S: I get it.
Marc V: But whatever it was, like 90s, 2000s, when email was exploding, and there wasn’t Facebook messenger, and text messaging wasn’t easy.
Mark S: You and your friends and family would all email each other.
Marc V: Yeah, you’d email each other. “Email me those pictures.” If somebody says “Email me those pictures” now, if somebody says that to you, you’re like -.
Mark S: Let me actually physically dial your phone number. I’m making the circle thing.
Marc V: So, emailing is a place of business, now. Now, that is normal. “Can you email me a quote? Email me the receipt. Your receipt’s in your email. The delivery confirmation will be in your email.” When you order something online, you get an email notification. If you lost your password, you get an email notification for that.
Email is a place of business, and that’s really what that is. When you’re receiving email marketing and you’re sending email marketing, that is perfectly acceptable, because that’s where it belongs.
Mark S: One of the things I want you guys to do is to open up your own email inbox, and look at all of the last 50 emails that you’ve gotten. Or if you’re like my wife, the last 100 emails you got since 2:00 this afternoon, because she’s on everyone’s list.
Look at the companies that are emailing you, and how many of them have actually inspired you to buy something. It’s a lot.
Marc V: And sometimes you have to think a little deeper than that, like “I’ve never bought anything from Home Depot, because of an email.” It’s like “Well, I just thought of Home Depot and emails, and I’ve been there recently and bought something,” so those two things could be related.
Mark S: They might be.
Marc V: So, Mark, why would they want you to email them?
Mark S: Okay. Why would I sign up, me personally sign up? Well, I sign up for tons of emails, because people are offering information that I might be able to use one day. You know, marketing is a 24-hour mindset. I know you and I are both always looking for more information and trends, and things like that. So, I get tons of great information from people emailing to me.
People might sign up for your email list, because they want to be informed about something. I also sign up for things if I think I might get a discount. I’m part of some, like J. Crew has a coupon list, so I signed up for their coupon list, in case I want to buy something. And I am on the Home Depot list, and I signed up so I can maybe save some money.
Marc V: Yeah. People want your emails, because they’re going to stay informed about your business. They’re going to have an opportunity to save money. They’re going to get to learn some information they might not have had before. Or just a general like for your company, and they just want to know what you have to say.
That’s one of the simple ones people forget about, is sometimes, people are on lists because they like window shopping at those companies. They like hearing their stories. They like reading their newsletters and blogs.
Mark S: Another good one is – not me – I just want to be clear about that. But a lot of people, guys especially, might like to sign up for an email list if they bought their wife an anniversary present or birthday present from a company, because that company will email them a reminder for the rest of their lives, so they’ll never miss another birthday or anniversary. Maybe that’s the same for your t-shirt business.
Marc V: Is that still a real thing, where people don’t know when their wife’s birthday is?
Mark S: I forgot once. I don’t want to talk about it.
Marc V: Okay, because I hear about that. That’s a weird thing, to me.
Mark S: I know when it is. I just don’t always remember that day. Like I remember the day before, all the way up to reminding myself before I go to bed. Then, I’m at work for half a day, and I forgot to say happy birthday!
Marc V: Now that we’ve got all of that in mind, let’s go ahead and talk about some different ways to capture somebody’s email. After that, we’ll focus on what you’re going to do with it, and why they’re going to sign up for it.
Mark S: I feel like we need to change that “capture” thing. Because it’s almost like you’re chasing somebody down, grabbing them by the ankle. It’s really – how are you going to inspire people to offer you their email address, to sign up for your list, to be contacted by you? Let’s look for ways to inspire someone to give you their information.
Marc V: And I’ll say with that, it’s not just about having a place for them to sign up, or like “Oh, if I give somebody something for free.” Inspire is the right word, because you’ve got to want to do it.
The first thing is if you have a website and people go there, you want to do your best to get their email address.
Mark S: And there are some mechanical things that we’ll go through. The first one is, if you go to any of the ColDesi websites, if you go to ColmanandCompany.com, you’re going to find what’s called a popup. That is when you go to a website, after you’re there for a certain period of time, usually 30 seconds or a minute, then a little box will pop up, and it will encourage you to give that company your email address.
Marc V: And these popups – that’s one word for it. But there’s slide-outs and slide-downs, and there’s all different things that you’ll see. Things appear on the screen.
Mark S: Interstitials, I’ve heard that before.
Marc V: Interstitials? I haven’t heard that one before. I want to figure out how to do those. There’s oftentimes different things you see, that all work. You mentioned the popups. Typically, if somebody is going to a website, and they desire to be on an email list, they’ll scroll to the top or the bottom of the page, because that’s where it’s most commonly found that says “Sign up for our newsletter,” “Sign up for coupons,” etc. So, that’s an opportunity as well.
The other place people will go is the contact page, the contact us page.
Mark S: That’s where you’re also going to link, throughout your website. If you have an “about us” page on your website, you should link to a contact page. You want to make it easy for people to get in touch. It could be even your phone number. You can encourage people to call you, and then ask for their email address, at that point.
Marc V: When somebody is on your website, just having a slide-out or a pop-out or a header, or anything like that, just it existing is going to capture a certain number of emails.
Mark S: And I’m surprised. Marketing is all about testing ideas. So, I was working with somebody and they had this kind of original email newsletter box that came with their website template, and it was terrible. It was ugly, it was the wrong color, it had tiny text. So, I tested it against one of the big new modern ones; lots of white space, great colors, nice font, and the new one performed significantly worse.
So, anything is better than not having any at all.
Marc V: For sure. A couple of things to consider, if you’re going to put some sort of an email inspiration box -.
Mark S: I think that’s great! We’re starting a new trend.
Marc V: But if you want to try to get an email, while somebody comes to your website, and you want them to get your email, the biggest thing you can do is capture their attention for a couple of seconds. That’s it. Because what happens is somebody is in the lane to look through your website. That’s what they’re doing. They’re reading something, watching something, and something slides out or pops up.
The first thing that you do in a situation like that is “get out of my way!”
Mark S: Close it! Why is this thing in front of me?
Marc V: Yeah. “I’m in the middle of reading something. Don’t interrupt me.” However, if what does interrupt them, or what slides out, however your style is going to be, says something that gets them to stop for a moment and say “Okay, well, I was reading something. Let me see what this says.” If you can get them to do that, and then read through the next line, that’s 80% there, of getting them to want to sign up for your list.
Mark S: Absolutely.
Marc V: Then, what you offer there is going to help. But it doesn’t matter what the offer is, if you can’t get them to stop for a couple seconds.
Mark S: We’re going to talk about that, too. We’re going to talk about offers, or lead magnets, to get people to sign up.
Marc V: Like you said, on your website, there’s going to be popups and sign-up forms, and different things like that. These are all standard. If and when you sign up for an email software, an email [inaudible 14:25] provider -.
Mark S: Like MailChimp or Constant Contact.
Marc V: As you sign up for these, they’re going to have all types of tools. Also, whatever website platform you’re using is going to have plugins for all of these, as well, where you can turn on what might be referred to as a lead box or an email capture box or an email signup form. All of that stuff is standard, now.
Mark S: Or an inspiration location. That’s it.
Marc V: Don’t search for that, because you will not find it.
Mark S: What if people aren’t arriving at your website? What if they’re engaging you on social media?
Marc V: That’s great. Social media has this kind of pre-built in for you, in a way. Facebook has a signup form. If people go to your Facebook page, if you have traffic there, then typically, there’s a signup form.
Mark S: Yeah. There are three dots at the top of your Facebook page, if you do not have a signup form, where you get to pick what tabs are displayed. You would find one of those tabs to activate, that is “sign up.”
Marc V: Yeah, “sign up.” So, you’ve got that. If you have a Facebook group that you work out of or a forum that you work out of, that’s outside of Facebook, you can sticky a post to the top, and that could include a link to your website, with a signup form. Remember, you want folks to see that post, read it for a couple seconds, and take the action. So, you’ve got to think about that.
Mark S: Our next example is a chatbot. This kind of applies to a website, as well. You might go to some websites, and immediately you’ll see down in the lower left-hand corner, a box to chat pops up. Some of those are built in. There are some great service providers. If you want to get a little deeper into it, it’s not hard to put chat on your website.
And even if you’re not there monitoring it, you can give people the opportunity to leave their email address.
Marc V: The chat could just be for the email signup, really.
Mark S: It can be, say “Hey, we’re not here, but please leave your email address.” But Facebook has a great tool for setting up messenger responses. Where when you go to message somebody, you get a series of options, which includes “subscribe to my email list.”
Marc V: Or you can put a link in that message, too. Somebody messages you, it says “Hey, I don’t monitor Facebook messenger all of the time, but I always answer my email. Sign up here to learn some basic information,” or whatever it might be.
Mark S: Yeah. And even though we’re building an email list, it does not mean that that only happens online. There’s also, let’s talk for a few minutes about local event signup.
Marc V: Yeah, local. I think that that’s fantastic. We’ve talked plenty of times about doing local events, doing craft fairs and farmer’s markets and school events, and all of these things, where you can either come for free or do charity, or pay for a booth. You have tons of people that come by and see you, they look around. Most of them probably don’t buy, which is typical.
Mark S: Don’t feel bad.
Marc V: Yeah. Most people that go to the mall don’t buy from every store. Nobody does, basically. So, nobody is going to go to a fair and buy from every booth. But a lot of people will come by and check you out. While they’re there, if you’ve got a nice little offer, an interesting reason for them to sign up, maybe you have an iPad with a little signup form, and all of that stuff is prebuilt with a company like MailChimp or Constant Contact, or one of those. They have all these forms that you can just have right open there in an iPad.
Mark S: That’s how it works. Whether or not you have a website, you’re going to sign up for one of these email services, like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or one of the others. Inside that email software are a variety of ways for you to make those little boxes. There are templates and everything. You can just pick one. That’s what we’re talking about.
Marc V: Yeah. You can have one of those on your phone, to capture it. You could have it on a little iPad or on your laptop. Those are things we highly recommend.
A printed Excel sheet and a pen can work, too.
Mark S: I was just going to say, but don’t let the need to sign up for an email service and get a form, and do an iPad, don’t let those things stop you from collecting email addresses at an event you’re having this weekend.
Marc V: Yes. If I forgot to, and wasn’t prepared to sign up, I would find a pen and a piece of paper, and I would start drawing lines. I would put Name, Email, and whatever else I’d want to know.
Mark S: I did that last month. I did a speaking engagement for a small group, and I forgot to bring anything. So, I stopped at Walgreens on the way, picked up some small legal pads, and I just passed them around and said “Here. Everybody put your email address on here,” which is perfectly valid lead capture. Except I couldn’t read about 20% of them.
Marc V: That’s why you want the online one. But it’s better than nothing, and you should do it. In-store signup is similar to that, if you have a retail location.
Mark S: It’s the same thing, really, except that if you’re working a trade show event – I’m talking to one of our customers now, who does a local market, a kind of local market once a month, and doesn’t make a ton of money at it. But she doesn’t take email addresses down, now. Imagine that you are making a couple hundred bucks for every event, but 200 people pass your booth, and 25 people buy shirts.
If you can get 10 people, even if you get those people that have bought shirts with cash, just to give you their email address, look at all of the potential you’ve got for selling more.
Marc V: You get to thank them for visiting you, which is just nice. A thank you note goes a long way. So, just sending a thank you, “Hey, thanks for stopping at my booth. Here’s a reminder of who I am.” I went to one of those, speaking about the local events, I went to one of those markets at this mall that we go to. And there was a – I’ve told you this story before, I think.
There was this booth with, they had these little paintings that were really cool looking. I walked by, and I was like “Oh, that’s pretty cool! $40? That’s not bad. That’s cheap.” Then, I got distracted, and I walked away. I didn’t buy anything. Then, I thought about it like a week or two later. I was like “I remember…”
Then, I was like “I have no clue who they are. I don’t know their name.”
Mark S: You may or may not go back to that event next week.
Marc V: I may or may not go back. They may or may not go back. And if there was an opportunity that was obvious to me, to sign up, like “See pictures of our new paintings every week, via email,” I probably would have typed it in real quick. Then, I would have gotten an email, and eventually, after receiving a few emails, maybe I would have had a couple beers and I got an email. The next thing you know, “I’m going to buy it!”
Mark S: That would have been the least expensive thing you’ve ever bought in that situation. I really like this idea, and encourage everybody to think about it this way, to draw a line between a popup on a website and collecting emails in person.
The way email capture normally works on a website is, if you go to any of the ColDesi sites, somewhere between 30 seconds and a minute, or if you scroll down a page to a certain spot, an email box will pop up and encourage you to give us your email address.
So, if you think about that and do that in person, you’ll have the same kind of success. If someone comes by your table at a market, or if they’re in your retail shop, and they’ve been there for five minutes, they’re obviously moderately interested in what you do, and they’re not ready to take action yet.
So, I want you to be that popup. They’re here for a certain amount of time. They can always X you, to get you out of the way. What you’re going to do is you’re going to pop up, you’re going to encourage them to give you their email address, and then you’re going to move on.
We’re going to talk about ways to do that. But it’s very similar to someone’s in your store, they’re shopping around. They’ve been looking at these custom bags that you’ve done for fifteen minutes. You’re going to go over to them and say “Hey, I see that you’ve looking at these for a long time. I don’t know if you’re ready to get anything or not, but I would love to let you know about our winter collection when it comes out. Do you want to give me your email address? Here’s an iPad, here’s a legal pad, here’s a post-it note. Just put it down. I normally don’t sign people up.”
Marc V: It’s great that you mentioned that, because when you’re at the local events, in the booths and stuff like that, or even a traveling event or whatever it would be, you oftentimes have two, three, four people coming up at once. And you can’t tend to them all.
Some of them are looking to buy, and completing a transaction. Other times, you’re just like “Hey, if you have any questions.” But if you’ve got an easy place for them to sign up for an email, you can tag everyone real quick. Just be like “Hey, sign up for my email list. Every time we get new products, I announce them that way, and you’re going to love to hear about them.” Just say it real quick.
Mark S: I have got to draw a contrast between what you just said. What you said, basically, was “Can I help you? Do you have any questions?” or “I’ve got something for you. Give me your email address, even if you’re not ready, and I’ll do this.” That is so much stronger. Over time, you’ll make so much more money by doing that, because that is a real pro tip, that if you go to any busy trade show, very few people do that.
They’re in the “Can I help you?” camp. But we’re going to talk about lead magnets next, which are reasons, inspirations for people to sign up for your list. If you do that, if you see people around your booth or in your store, and you just say “Hey, I’m here of course, if you have any question. But your email address – in exchange, I will do this.” It’s a huge win.
Marc V: Yeah. There’s a million ideas and gimmicks you could do, to think of, when you’re in person. “Hey, if you sign up for my email list, I’ve got a free gift for you.” “Sign up for my email list. I’m going to be giving something away.”
Mark S: That happens 100% of the time, by the way, if you go into a big retail store. When you’re standing at the cash register, what’s the first thing they ask you?
Marc V: Yeah. That’s the key, right there, is that you’re a small business owner, and you walk into a big store at the mall. You can realize the size of your business, compared to the size of just like The Gap. You realize you’re dwarfed to nothing. But every customer that comes in there, they are asking for an email address.
They’re asking for phone numbers. They’re collecting information, and then they’re reaching back out to customers again. “Come back to The Gap!” You’ve got to take a lesson from them. They’re doing that because it works.
Mark S: Yes. 100% of the time, it works.
Marc V: That’s exactly why they’re doing it, is because it works. So, if The Gap is collecting everyone’s emails, then you should be doing the same way. Sometimes, they do offers, and sometimes they offer the email receipt. There’s all different things. But other times, the cashier is just like “What’s your email address?”
Mark S: Right.
Marc V: Actually, when I worked in an auto parts store, we had to put peoples’ email. This was like 1998-99, and people, especially auto parts customers, they would just be furious that I was asking for their email address.
Mark S: “You want my email address?” That’s because only their friends emailed them. It wasn’t a time when it was just business anymore.
Marc V: Yeah. So now, what else? We’ve got a bunch, right?
Mark S: I think now what we should do is kind of run through a quick list of what are technically called lead magnets. What these are, are reasons, ways to inspire people to give you their email address.
Marc V: Correct. Just saying “Sign up for our email” will generate a small amount of emails. If you want to generate more emails, you need to test, as you mentioned earlier, and try out different things. You experiment. You think of different ideas of things you’re willing to do.
Mark S: I have one quick example. You may have found the podcast, because you saw an ad on Facebook for our ebook on how to get into the custom t-shirt business. And to get that ebook, you had to give us your email address, which I think was a great exchange, because you got something with a lot of value, for free. And we got your email address.
So, that ebook was a lead magnet. You could do some kind of piece of content like that, in order to inspire somebody to give you their email address.
Marc V: Yes. What you’re looking for is that even exchange of information. You want to provide somebody something enough of value that their email address is worth.
Mark S: The common stuff is like a coupon, or something.
Marc V: Yeah. A coupon, that’s the standard one, and maybe that works for your business. If you sell t-shirts online, and it’s slogans and designs and things like that, and you can say “Get a free shipping coupon,” then that makes sense, because they’ll get a coupon code. They’re going to be shopping online, and at the end, they can plug in the code, and they get their shirt shipped for free.
Mark S: Makes sense.
Marc V: Some other things you put in here are like a limited time offer or a freebie.
Mark S: Yeah. I like this. It’s kind of a slightly different take on a BOGO. It’s not really a coupon or a discount promotion. What it might be is “If you give me your email address, you’ll be eligible for a free cap with every order.” Or “You’ll get 10% more custom shirts than you order,” just for safety’s sake.
Marc V: “Sign up for our email list, and when you order ten shirts, you get a free hat, a custom hat.” That’s great, too. I like that one a lot, because they’re going to do it, just in case. “I’m not sure if I’m ordering yet, or when I’m going to order. But heck, I’m going to order 20 shirts. Getting two hats for free would be sweet!”
“Especially it says it’s a $40 value. I was thinking I was going to get a cap, anyway.” At that point in time, “I’ll give you my email address.” Nowadays, most folks know that they are willing to give up that email address, because they know that there are unsubscribe buttons and junk buttons, and all of that type of stuff that you can do.
So, if you decide you don’t want the emails anymore, you know you can get out of them. It’s low risk for them. You just need to find something that’s worth that little risk of giving it up.
Mark S: I agree. So, that’s a limited time offer. There’s also something you put in here, like a free design guide. What do you mean by design guide?
Marc V: On the free design guide, we had talked about that if you’re going to make custom tees for folks, and you sell birthday tees and bachelor party tees, and you do all these types of custom event types of things, that maybe you provide them somethings of value that says “Listen. I’m going to help you design a t-shirt. Go ahead and download this.”
You give them the tips and tricks, like how big things should be, and what colors look good on what colors, and stuff like that.
Mark S: That’s a great idea. Also, it will save you some trouble, too, so that’s a win-win. Because you should say that the files need to be in this format, “We need to have a good high quality file. It’s got to be ready.”
Marc V: You educate your customer.
Mark S: They might just like that.
Marc V: A similar one is like a sizing guide.
Mark S: That’s good, too.
Marc V: The magnet could say something like “Ordering shirts for other people? Get our free sizing tips and tricks, to help people pick sizes.” Because what happens is, go ask anybody in the world right now, “What size shirt are you?” And you’re going to get way longer than “large.”
Mark S: “What kind of shirt is it?”
Marc V: That’s true. So, you can have a little guide that you download, to maybe help the people. Because if you’re doing lots of custom orders, maybe the person in charge of purchasing for a company is the one putting all of this together. Or the youth group organizer for the church is putting this all together, and giving them a tool to make their job easier is worth their email address.
Mark S: It absolutely is. That would be a good email address to have. Right? Because they’re going to do that on a regular basis.
Now, we’ve got some others down here, like you could give away something.
Marc V: Win something.
Mark S: It could be “win something.” It could me more of an article kind of thing, where it’s “How to get the best deal on event t-shirts.”
Marc V: “How to not get ripped off on buying custom t-shirts” is one that popped in my head. Again, you’re exchanging information, inside information, making people feel comfortable buying from you. There’s a lot of things that this is doing.
Mark S: Yes. Also, kind of an approach that you might consider, depending on your clientele, some people buy custom t-shirts, or they might be buying your branded t-shirts because they’re different, because they associate some kind of prestige with it. So, you could add them to an exclusive club. Say “Hey, give me your email address, and what I’ll do is I do limited designs.”
Marc V: “Be the first and only to know about limited designs.”
Mark S: Yeah. “I made 50 of these shirts with this design. That’s it. Then, they’re retired. If you’re interested -.”
Marc V: You could have something that comes up when they go to leave the page, that says “Hey, don’t go yet! Sign up for our email list. We have new designs every week. See what they are!”
Mark S: That’s an exit popup.
Marc V: Yeah, an exit popup.
Mark S: Another one we didn’t mention. I think there’s a lot of things that you can do, if you sit down and you think about all of the situations where you bump up against your customers; on your website, on Facebook, in person. Brainstorm and think of reasons of what would inspire people to give you their email address. What’s going to be a fair exchange?
Is it discounts? Is it some kind of an exclusivity to a deal? Is it a freebie? Is it just reminders? “Do you want seasonal reminders of when you should be buying t-shirts?” “Do you want holiday t-shirt ideas?” “I’ll send you a reminder that it’s Father’s Day coming up, and I send out every year, four different dad designs.” That way, you’ve got this sort of built in ongoing relationship with people, that works.
Marc V: It’s really great, the capturing of this. We’ve had people on our email list for like three years, that eventually purchase something. Right?
Mark S: Yeah.
Marc V: All the time. They don’t want to forget you, just as much as you don’t want to forget them, when they sign up. Which is why when you see a popup that says “New t-shirt designs every week! Sign up!” somebody signs up, for all the reasons why they didn’t buy. “I really don’t have the budget for $50 to spend on t-shirts, but I want to come back. I don’t want to forget this website. I’m interested again. I don’t like these designs. I saw some that were sold out. I liked those. I want to see what the new ones are going to be.”
There’s all these types of reasons why people come to your website or come to your Facebook page, and leave. Give them the opportunity, because plenty of them want to be on your list, and they want to hear from you.
Mark S: I do just kind of want to stop and talk about the psychology of people getting your emails, a little bit. Because you’re right. Long-term, they’re interested in what you’re doing, or they wouldn’t have given you their email address. Like at ColDesi, we sell a huge variety of things.
We have more than one person that was looking for an embroidery machine three years ago, that have bought a UV printer recently. They have nothing to do with each other, other than maybe it’s decoration technology. But you know, if you came in looking for some heat transfer vinyl, and you end up looking at a Digital HeatFX t-shirt transfer printer, that’s a win for you, and that’s a win for us.
Because we got you on our email list, and we educated you about everything in the market. We made regular different kinds of offers that we thought might interest you. Then, you picked one.
Marc V: Yeah. Somebody comes to your website or your Facebook page or an event, and at the event, it was a strawberry festival, and you had a bunch of strawberry themed apparel you were selling. You sold a bunch, but you also got a bunch of email addresses. Then, you send an email out. “Thanks!”
A season goes by, and you send an email out to everybody who signed up for that list at all of the events you’ve been to, and the email says “By the way, we do custom tees for events. If you’ve got a birthday party, a family reunion, a corporate event, call us up. We’ve got the best shirts, the best deals!” blah blah blah.
Then, the phone or the email replies are going to happen, especially when you’ve built it up. “Oh, I remember you from there! I didn’t even know that you did custom orders. I’m glad you messaged me!”
That type of stuff happens every day.
Mark S: Or you could let them know that you’re going to be at the kumquat festival, as well, or the blueberry festival. “I do all these fruit festivals! I’m going to let you know.” By the way, there are both a strawberry festival here in the Tampa Bay area, and a kumquat festival.
Marc V: That’s very true. I’ve only been to the strawberry one.
Mark S: No one goes to the other one.
Marc V: I haven’t been to the strawberry one since I was in high school, probably.
Mark S: Good story.
Marc V: Let’s talk about what I think is kind of the key to all of this, is you want to build a good list of people that want to receive your emails. That’s the whole point.
Mark S: It’s really important.
Marc V: It’s not about having the biggest email list. It’s not about every single person who gets your email every day buys from you. It’s not either of those two extremes. It’s having a list of folks that, when they get your emails, sometimes they’re too busy to read it. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. They’re still interested.
They might peek at it and read it. “It’s not relevant to me today,” but they like getting your emails. They’re not unsubscribing. That’s why I get the Lowe’s emails and the Home Depot emails. That’s why you do, too, because you have a house, and you do upgrades occasionally, and you’ve dreams to do upgrades in the future.
You have a fear of missing out. You don’t want to miss out on deals. You also know that there’s new things that come out, and you want to know about them, because “I know we’re going to replace this kitchen one day.” So, you see the email. “Oh, these cabinets!” You’re thinking about it, and then one day you guys are talking, and you get an email the next day. It says “Painting Guide.”
“You know what? Yeah! We were talking about the kitchen.”
Mark S: “Let’s pick some paint!”
Marc V: You start reading it. Then, you pick a color, and it’s a color just available at that store. The next thing, you go there and you buy the paint. But you received ten emails before that, that didn’t matter. But that one was the one, and then Boom! The magic happens.
Mark S: At the bottom of every email, the top of some, there is a place to unsubscribe. You cannot send out, through an email service, an email without a spot to unsubscribe. You just physically can’t do it. You will get people that reply to your emails and say “Please take me off your list.”
I always respond with “I went way down to the bottom of the email that you replied to, and I pressed the unsubscribe button.” I just had to say that. For all of you, if you are getting too many emails from us, don’t reply and say “Oh, my god. I get so many emails. Take me off your list.”
Marc V: Just go hit the unsubscribe.
Mark S: And your customers will do the same thing, if they really want to. They don’t get mad.
Marc V: No. They don’t get mad. They’re used to it. Anyway, you build a list of people who like getting your emails, who are interested in your product, who showed interest at some point in time. The folks who signed up, and they really are not interested, “Oh, yeah. I saw you at that event because I kind of liked the strawberry shirts, but I’m a nudist. I’m never going to buy a shirt. Let’s be honest.”
Mark S: That explains the beard!
Marc V: They go ahead and they unsubscribe. That’s fine. They’re off the list. Then, all the other folks want to be there. Eventually, they’re going to buy something from you, and you’re going to make more money.
Mark S: I’m sorry. Now, I’m just strangely distracted by the idea of closeup magic and nudism.
Marc V: I wasn’t the nudist! It was that dude who unsubscribed!
Mark S: That’s good, because I’m not going to that performance!
Marc V: Because he never wears a shirt. I don’t know what he was wearing at the strawberry festival.
Mark S: Something strawberry? Listen, this has been really potentially useful for you guys, if you take action and do these things.
Marc V: What are the actions they could do right away?
Mark S: The first thing that you can do is if anything is happening for you over the next couple of weeks, as far as a live event, or if you’re in your store, immediately buy a legal pad and a pen. And then, work up from there. Just make the commitment to be the human popup.
Marc V: Now that you’ve got a mental commitment to it, go online and search for “email service provider,” “email marketing company,” something like that. You find one that’s, especially if you’re small, that’s free. MailChimp, stuff like that, Constant Contact, they usually have a free startup mode that’s up to 1,000 people is free, whatever it is.
There’s a ton of those out there. You find the right one, sign up for it, get it all set up. It’s not that hard. They’ll have videos.
Mark S: Yeah. Video training and everything. You can do it.
Marc V: So, you do it. You get signed up. Now, you’ve got that. If you’ve got a website or Facebook, you figure out how to connect to those, so you can get the form on your website or you get the form on Facebook. Then, if you use Instagram a lot, have a link to it in your bio. Twitter, same thing; link to the bio, in signing up for that.
Mark S: There are free videos literally everywhere, for all of this stuff.
Marc V: Absolutely, including this one.
Mark S: Good point!
Marc V: That’s what I would say, is sign up for that. Then, just kind of make a commitment that you’re going to do different things, whether it’s get people to sign up in your store, at live events, online.
Mark S: I really think this would be a good set of show notes, when this comes out, for you to print out. Just print it out and use it, kind of as a virtual checklist, to go through and make sure that you’re doing all of these things, because we’ve covered a lot. And some of it is not going to be a “right now” kind of a thing. It’s going to take you a little bit.
But I promise, it’s worth it. You are going to build an email list, and after you get about 100 or so people on it, it’s really going to start making you money. You’ve already paid for everyone that sees your table, sees your shirt, comes to your website, sees your Facebook page. In one way or another, you’ve already paid for those eyeballs, so take advantage of it.
Marc V: Absolutely. In the long run, this is something that will definitely make you money one day. You’re going to do it a bit, you’re going to go to three events, and you’re going to send out an email afterwards, and nobody’s going to reply. Whatever. But then, you’re going to go to your fourth one, your fifth one, or after six months of having it in your store, or whatever it is, then you’re going to shoot something out, and somebody is going to respond back and order 100 shirts from you. You’re just going to be like “Man!”
Then, you’re addicted.
Mark S: You know what? I like this one so much, I think we’re just going to keep renaming this one, and we’re just going to republish it under different names.
Marc V: Sounds good!
Mark S: Alright, everybody. Thanks for listening today. This has been Mark Stephenson, from ColDesi.
Marc V: And Marc Vila, from Colman and Company.
Mark S: You guys have an amazing email inspiration capture business!
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