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Tell us how you got into Email and started Spike.

Email for me started in 2001 when I was helping sort out a database for a car dealership. It was printed on reams and reams of dot matrix paper from their old CRM. It was a lot of work and I wanted to know what would be done with it. It turned out my girlfriend’s stepdad was selling them a do-it-yourself email marketing platform. When I learned what email marketing was, it was a massive aha moment for me. Here was a way for a person to stay in contact with hundreds or even thousands of customers. Spike started in 2004 after working with her stepdad to build a reasonably successful business and taking it all himself. It was a crazy time. I got four weeks of rent in the bank and just had to go for it. Shout out to Jill McClatchy from Titirangi Harveys, my first client. It grew quickly from there.

Which New Zealand companies should we subscribe to for email inspiration?

Can we consider the Email Love one? I don’t subscribe to many NZ companies apart from some retailers and the companies we work with. Although it amazes me how well Briscoes do with some of the worst formatted emails ever.

How do you approach a new email design?

Goals first – what do they want to achieve with their email marketing?

The content – what will they send to achieve those goals?

Design – what emails do they like? That can be a good starting point. Then, think about how to lay out the content. Draw it up – black and white. Then, start to fill it out, test the template, get sign-off and so on.

What could most small businesses improve when it comes to email marketing?

Their Thank you page and message and their welcome series. Most are neglected and rubbish because they use the standard templates instead of making them their own and giving the customer a great experience from the word go.

What’s in your email marketing toolbox?

Hardware:

• Macbook Air M1 and either an LG Monitor or an Apple Monitor.

Software:

• Affinity Photo and Designer
• Canva
• Excel
• Google Sheets
• Text Edit.

What is your favourite email campaign of all time?

One we did for Warehouse Stationery, which started with a software mistake that sent an email to 37k customers instead of 199, cost me $10k in insurance and made around $400k. It was amazing!

What skills do you think are most important when it comes to email marketing?

Not listening to those naysayers who keep saying it’s dead – it’s not.

Copywriting: You need to be able to write in a way that connects with your audience and drives action. This is vital for good subject lines.

Understanding customer psychology: Learning about yourself and what drives you. It helps you then learn about other people and what drives them to engage with your emails and your business and buy from you.

Data analysis: If you’re not tracking results or testing, you’re just guessing. Being able to adjust what you’re doing based on metrics is crucial.

Design sensibility: Design is super important. I say you should send less more often. That means keeping email content and calls-to-action simple so people get the point immediately and take action.

What is your advice for new email peeps entering the industry?

This is one of the best industries in marketing. You get to apply every marketing and psychological tactic you can think of at a higher frequency than most. And you can get super geeky and into the weeds of deliverability and spam, or you can stay on the marketing side. It’s a great industry to be in. I LOVE Email!

Much love,
Andy

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @emaillove