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Scott Kirsner from The Boston Globe posted a video interview on his blog today with Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact.  We’re really big fans of Gail here at HubSpot.  She is, as we say in Boston, “wicked smart” and an exceptional entrepreneur (ConstantContact went public last year).  HubSpot is fortunate enough to have Gail on our board of directors. 

Oh, and by the way, Gail knows a thing or two about email marketing.  ConstantContact has over 200,000 customers.

But, you’re probably not here to hear me gush about Gail.  On to the quick tips.

Quick Tips From An Email Marketing Maven

1.  It’s all about relevance.  Be interesting.  Don’t be self-serving.

2.  Keep it short and sweet so people read it immediately.  “I’ll get to it later” is the kiss of death.

3.  Don’t revert to your “formal” voice when writing.  You’ve got a personality, show it.

4.  Put a teaser in the email, and a link back to your website.  Engage them there.

5.  Links in the email are great because they’re trackable.  You can figure out what’s working.

6.  Once a month is about the right level of frequency for most small businesses.

7.  Two things that get your email opened: #1:  “From” and #2 “Subject”. 

8.  Most important:  Be Empathetic!  If you “listen between the lines” in the video, you’ll see several times where Gail suggests asking yourself “how would you react?”

All things considered, we’d rather you focus on inbound marketing.  But, if you’re spending some energy on email marketing, you might as well do it well and get your messages read.

I had such a great time yesterday at the local meetup for Music City Marketers. We spent a good 7 or 8 hours together, sharing resources and ideas and then grabbed dinner together afterwards as well.

Its a fairly small group, usually ranging from 10-30 people. There were about a dozen of us that met up yesterday so it was small enough to really pack in a lot of networking.

The lady on the far left in the photo above is Sonya Nave, and it was her first time joining us. She does graphics & copywriting, so that was a great connection. The guy on the far right is Zack aka techshaman and is very skilled at blog design & cover graphics - another great connection made.

Interesting to note is that everyone in the photo above is an Elite Member at my primary site, except Sonya of course since she was new to the group. But particularly interesting to me was to hear how many of the Elite Members are working together on the side now.

Several have partnered up on projects, they have formed accountability groups, etc. All of it was news to me, but I was really pleased to hear it. The SSWT community makes up some of the best people on the ‘net… I’m biased of course, but it truly has grown and taken on a life of its own over the years.

The man standing behind me in the photo above is Kirk Ward, and yes - he really is that tall (8 ft or so I think). I would guess that it takes that kind of height to house all of the personality that man has!

To my left (right of me in the photo) is Quinn Moore then Gary Leggett, and behind them is David Dutton and then Russell Portwood. Russell organizes the Knoxville TN meetups, the next one being November 15th.

I’ll close by sharing a few photos…

Kirk and his infamous note-taking system…

The seating arrangement was intentional (I’m deaf on the right side)

Make it a point to join us for a future meetup, or find local groups in your area. You’ll be glad you did! And be sure to join the SSWT Community online if you’re not already involved. Between the interactive newsletter, weekly webinars, discussion forum & elite group… there’s a lot of cool stuff going on

Best,