We <3 our customers

Ever heard of Jay Baer?

He’s kind of a big deal in the marketing world – think the most re-tweeted person in the world by digital marketers (seriously, you can look it up). People pay attention to what he has to say because he truly knows his stuff: He’s written several best-selling books, is a highly sought-after speaker, and leads Convince & Convert, a group of strategic advisors who work with organizations to make digital marketing and customer experiences remarkable.

Convince & Convert is a top-shelf brand in our industry, so we were super excited when they chose Emma for their own email marketing. It was kind of like a star athlete choosing to go to your gym, or a world-class chef eating at your restaurant. And since they’re pros at this stuff, here’s a little peek at their expert email strategy.

WHAT DOES EMAIL MARKETING AT CONVINCE & CONVERT LOOK LIKE?

Convince & Convert’s email strategy primarily revolves around their main newsletter, Definitive. They describe it as “high-grade digital marketing guidance, topically sorted, and curated to the max.” At this point, over 40,000 people have opted into receiving the newsletter every Monday through Thursday.

Jess Ostroff, Convince & Convert’s Managing Editor, said, “Our strategy is a little different than the typical brand because we’re not really trying to sell anything – we’re trying to build up an audience.”

She’s found tailoring their communications to their individual recipients has been instrumental to that goal.

“Subscribers now have the option to choose which type of content within the digital marketing realm they want to receive, and it’s been incredibly helpful for us to segment out those different audiences. I also love looking at our click map and seeing which piece of content in each newsletter is getting the most engagement.”

Acting on that data has been crucial when it comes to practicing what they preach as a marketing company and serving their audience the most relevant content possible.

HOW DOES IT FIT INTO THEIR LARGER STRATEGY?

“The goal of our daily emails is to establish thought leadership for Convince & Convert and create an avenue for our paid sponsors to get visibility,” said Kelly Santina, Convince & Convert’s Head of Operations and Media.

But their team is highly selective about who (and what) they’ll include in each newsletter.

“We have paid sponsor slots in the newsletter, and we only work with sponsors whose messages we really believe in. The idea is that if we build trust with our audience, they’ll engage with the content because we haven’t proven our content to be valuable. We promote things that are relevant and useful, like a free download of an eBook, that are directly related to what our audience might want from a social media advisory company.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Though they’ve already set up a welcome series, Jess and Kelly can’t wait to start amping up their automation.

“Now that our audience is getting so big and comes from so many places, they don’t always know everything there is to know about our brand, who Jay is, and all the things we do,” Jess said.

The solution? “We’re putting together an automated drip campaign that will help subscribers surface the resources that might be useful to them – for instance, telling people who signed up from a blog post about our podcast. It’s all about educating people in the most user-friendly way possible.”

WHY EMMA?

“We’ve used 4 or 5 different email platforms over the years,” said Kelly, “and it’s always interesting to see how they’re different. Emma’s success team has been very helpful in tailoring our campaigns to our audience.”

They’ve also been incredibly impressed with their customer experience. (That’s a huge score for us, coming from people who literally write books on this stuff!)

“I feel like we’re still learning a lot, and your support team has been awesome every time we’ve had any sort of question or need help learning how to do something. It’s been really nice working with people who genuinely want to see us succeed.”