Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
In this sports analogy laden episode, Graham and Derek talk about effective copywriting tactics when writing out an email to the loyal customers of float centers across the globe.
They line out the importance of focusing on a short, sweet, and simple message, while outlining some strategies at Float On that are used with that in mind.
Show Resources
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Alright, hello everybody.
Derek: Hey, hey, hey.
Graham: Once again, we are joined by Derek Wyatt, and I am Graham Talley. We will be talking a little bit about marketing, because that’s Derek’s realm of expertise.
Derek: That’s right, Bob.
Graham: I can’t believe I couldn’t think of the word “expertise” there for a second. Today’s question is “how long should an email marketing blast be when that marketing blast is big?” Sounds like a tongue twister.
Derek: Long enough to keep their attention, but short enough to get the point across. I don’t know.
Graham: I think they’re just saying when they’re emailing a bunch of customers, I assume not like a newsletter is what I’m seeing.
Derek: Right.
Graham: When they’re doing a deal or, probably a deal is usually what a big email blast would be about. I guess a special event maybe, like you’re hosting an anniversary party at your shop or something, you might send out an email blast for them.
Derek: Historically, I’ve sent very short emails. I can’t think of too many cases in all of my marketing where I side on the long form side of email copywriting.
Graham: Yeah, I guess that’s why I was trying to just draw the distinction between an email newsletter versus a blast. Email newsletters, I feel like, yeah, give some news, keep it long, conversational. You want to give some people information.
Derek: Nobody wants to read that. No, but I mean, so think about the person you’re emailing. How frequently do you email them? If you email them more frequently, you probably want to keep them short. If you email them once a month, like a newsletter, then it’s probably okay to go a little bit longer, especially if it’s things in there that are going to provide them value. As long as you’re saying something that your general audience on your list is going to be interested in getting, say it, and then be done with the email. If that has to be a two page email, then it has to be that. That was the right length for email.
Graham: Even your terminology there, like “has to be two pages”. I can tell that your psychology is just keep it as short as you humanly can.
Derek: 100%.
Graham: Yeah, so that’s where I was going with the email blast too. Again, maybe newsletters get a pass, because they are newsletters. You’re sharing news. An email blast, usually you just want to get one thing across to the audience. You should be able to get that thing across pretty succinctly.
Derek: Right.
Graham: I’d almost say for every paragraph that you add, you’re going to lose 10% of people.
Derek: That’s sounds like an excellent made up number. I would agree.
Graham: Yeah, yeah, it’s based on nothing, but it gives you kind of a at least a mental idea of what’s going on, which is if you can keep it short and to the point, I would say two to three paragraphs max, for a usual newsletter blast, then you can actually get people’s attention, and if you tell them very succinctly what you want them to do and what the benefits are, like, “We have a sale on floats, and I want you to buy them, and this is going away soon.” That is a successful blast.
Derek: I want to steal a page out of this marketer I know. His name’s Graham Talley. He likes to give the TL;DR, the two long; didn’t read gist of an email up top, and then he wants to be long winded. He does it in the P.S. section below his signature.
Graham: The old Graham Talley Special, I call it.
Derek: That’s right. The Graham Slam.
Graham: Here’s a little bit more about the Graham Talley Special.
Derek: It’s the Graham Slam Special. It’s 3.99. Graham, tell us your thoughts behind why you do that.
Graham: And this is great, I was actually going to give them this later in the episode, so happy you gave me a little alley-oop pass there.
Derek: Fast forward. That’s right, Bob.
Graham: The idea being get your most important stuff up front, right? If you do want to share some news, like you installed a new float tank, which is awesome, and now people have a greater choice to choose from, and you want to say that you’re doing a deal on floats, and you want people to buy them, up front, the first paragraph, be like, “Hey, we’re doing a deal on floats, and you should buy them, and we have some exciting upgrades they made to the space that you can read about below, but mainly, we like you. You’re on our mailing list. Here’s your deal. See you later. PS, just let me tell you about my awesome new tank, and all the cool things it does, and it has a starlight ceiling, and the transducer speakers are better mounted.” That way, the main thing, if they’re not going to read that far, there’s an obvious to click buy the discounted floats button. If they are curious about what upgrades happened, then it just naturally divides people into groups, and neither one is disappointed.
Derek: Right.
Graham: Whereas if you lead with the upgrades to the float tanks, some people are going to be like, “Oh, this is just an update post,” and then leave, not realizing they could save money. Then that way, only the people who really were interested in floating are going to get all the way down the bottom essentially. So you’re unnecessarily screening out people who would have taken advantage of the deal otherwise.
Derek: I mean, you know, we’re trying to get people to unplug, so why would we want to take two, three minutes of their time reading an email that’s indulgent about us, right? We want to convey the information they need to know, and let them be on their way, let them be able to finish their work day, click out of their emails, and go home.
Graham: Yeah. I definitely, that also changed my opinion on length of emails in general, when I read a nice essay on the amount of other people’s time you waste by being long winded. If you’re blasting out even to 10,000 people, and it takes them 15 seconds longer to scan or read your email that you sent out, that’s a collective one billion man hours or something. I don’t know, I didn’t sit down to to do the math, but it’s a lot of actual man hours that you’re spending, even though it’s 15 second increments, just on reading an email. So a little more philosophical for why not to have a long email, but also very, very true.
Derek: Right. As I think Tim Ferriss quoting somebody else says, “Your inbox is other people’s agenda.” Don’t burden somebody with more stuff to do.
Graham: Plus we’re not Proust. People aren’t going to take the time to read our humongous sentences, nor should they. We’re essentially, we’re marketing to them. This isn’t fine literature, so yeah. Don’t get too attached to the length and beauty of your own prose.
Derek: If you want to have length and beauty in your prose, write a blog. Write a blog, and then maybe email a link should they want to read and click through. Now you sent them an email with a headline that’s, “Click here to read this long piece.” Then if they want to read it, they can do that.
Graham: Yeah, that’s even like an extended form of the P.S. kind of thing that I do on newsletters.
Derek: Right.
Graham: We’ve done that before too, where it’s like P.S., here’s more about what I wanted to say, but you’ll have to click it to go to a blog post. That way, the letter stays short. There is more content for people who want it.
Derek: As an online marketer, with that blog piece that they read, they now visited your website, so your Facebook pixel will now track them, so you can re-target them with ads later. You’re welcome.
Graham: Put all those mattress ads up on their screen.
Derek: Absolutely.
Graham: Or whatever it is we sell. What is it? Floats? That’s right. Not mattresses.
Derek: Water mattresses.
Graham: Yeah, water mattresses. So short. Keep them short. That’s the short answer to your question.
Derek: I think we should keep this podcast short, because I feel good with it.
Graham: It’s too late. It’s too late for that.
Derek: Damn.
Graham: Gone over the deep end.
Derek: Well, let’s talk about long emails.
Graham: If you have any questions at all that you want us to answer, head on over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. And we’ll do it. We’ll answer them.
Derek: Alright. Take care everybody.
Graham: Bye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Monthly Budget for Float Centers – DSP 305
Graham and Ashkahn break down the real truth about how closely they watch their budget for Float On on a monthly basis.
The truth is… not much. As it turns out, monthly expenses for float centers don’t have huge variations unlike businesses that rely on retail, for example. Graham and Ashkahn explain they developed a sense for what’s within reason.
How to Sign on Float Ambassadors – DSP 304
Float Ambassadors have been with the industry since the beginning, but gained popularity sometime in the last few years. What are ambassadors and how to float centers find them? When they do find them, how do they get them to represent floating?
Graham and Ashkahn share their experiences with the practice of finding float mavens out in the world and the impact they’ve had on Float On.
How do you Talk about Psychedelics? – DSP 303
It’s no secret that the inventor of the float tank, John Lilly, was also an early psychonaut and used the tank for mental exploration in conjunction with LSD. Not everyone in the float community appreciates this shared history and some actively try to distance themselves from it given the taboo nature of psychedelics.
Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on psychedelics and floating and how, as a business, they can be completely separated while still being important, as well as explaining why some people might reasonably decide to disassociate from them.
What About 75 Minute Floats? – DSP 302
Most float centers divide on floats offered between 60 or 90 minute floats, but some split the difference right down the middle and offer 75 minutes. Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on this tactic, what they see as the pros, cons, and things to consider when implementing it.
Free Floats for Teachers – DSP 301
Graham and Ashkahn give their perspective on the pros and cons of giving free floats away for teachers. Giving out free floats is the Float On way and giving them to a specific group of people who could really use them sounds like a good idea.
The guys break it down and address some of the concerns any float center may have about running a program like this.
Latest Blog Posts
The Basics of Float Tank Sanitation
Some of the most common questions you’ll get as a float center operator involve the cleanliness of the tanks. This post will be an introduction to some of the most commonplace sanitation methods used in float tanks. These are generally either chemicals that go in the water or devices that attach to your filtration system. We’ll be discussing chlorine, bromine, ozone, UV, and hydrogen peroxide, which accounts for the sanitation methods used on nearly every float tank on the market.
Testing and Maintaining Float Tank Water Quality
Editors Note: This is a revision of a past blog post, updated to reflect the most current sanitation methods and standards
In a perfect world, you could just pour water and salt into a float tank and it would stay pure and clean and fresh and salty forever. In the real world, conditions in the water are constantly changing, so keeping your water safe and clean takes a fair amount of vigilance.
This post covers how we maintain basic water quality in the float tank, except for sanitization methods, which will be covered in their own beastly sanitation blog post. Stay tuned for that coming out next week!
Floating, mental health, and wellness
This post will explore the intersection of floating with the concepts, beliefs, and experiences related to mental health and wellness, with a focus on anxiety and depression. I’ll explore my own story as it relates to floating before diving into the current intersections of floating and mental health, with a look at past, current, and potential opportunities for research and personal growth.
Massage, Acupuncture, and Float Tanks… A Chat with Sandra Calm
We’ve seen lots of float centers that aren’t just float centers.
Many have massage, some offer counseling, some have yoga classes next door. Lots of people start out either by incorporating float tanks into a larger business, or with float tanks only being one of many modalities at their center. Being specialists in floating, Float On has not mastered anything else.
So, to help gain insight into this growing aspect of the industry, we contacted our old friend, Sandra Calm. She started up The Float Shoppe here in Portland with her husband and podcast sensation, Dylan Calm, back in 2011. When they first opened, they had just two float tanks, and slowly added acupuncture, massage, counseling, along with two more tanks. Talk about expansion!
She was more than happy to take some time for the industry to help us understand just what it’s like to run a center with multiple services by answering some questions.
