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
Different Reasons for Writing a Float Center Business Plan – DSP 204
Writing a business plan can often feel like you’re throwing hard work into the void. If you’re not getting a bank loan, who’s going to see it? What’s the point of it if all the numbers are going to be different?
Graham and Ashkahn break down their experiences of starting Float On without a business plan and how useful it was writing one later, as well as how they’ve used that business plan to help dozens of other centers get funding and open their doors.
Is there any Reason to Not Let Someone Float during Menstruation? – DSP 203
Some float centers include a restriction in their wavers stating that people can’t or shouldn’t float during their menstrual cycles. Is there a valid reason for this?
Graham and Ashkahn clear up the confusion around this situation and why float centers started doing this and what every center should know about policies like this.
How Many Times Should A Float Center E-mail about Deals? – DSP 202
Let’s say you’ve got a discount going on and you’re counting on your email mailing list to get some traction. How many times should you email? A lot? A little? Well, the answer depends on who you ask and your own business philosophy.
Ashkahn and Graham share Float On’s philosophy on reaching out to mailing lists and how they reached those conclusions.
Should my Float Center Have Dynamic Pricing? – DSP 201
Dynamic pricing AKA changing prices based on demand or availability, is a pretty common tactic in certain industries. Airlines do it with tickets. Restaurants and bars do it with “happy hour” to get people to come in during slow times.
Graham and Ashkahn weigh in on this practice as it pertains to the float industry and, if you are going to do it, how to do it right so you get the most bang for your buck without confusing your customers.
How Many Managers Does it Take to Run a Float Center? – DSP 200
Not every float center owner wants to be tethered to working their shop for the rest of their lives. In fact, even some that enjoy that work immensely can be doing their business a disservice by focusing on day-to-day operations as opposed to dedicating their time to marketing or expansion.
So how do float center owners get out of the shop? How many managers (Or Taco Supremes as they’re called at Float On) does it take to effectively replace the shop owner at a business. Ashkahn and Graham have successfully implemented a system at Float On that allows them to be much more hands off on the business than when they first opened and they share how got to that point and how their business structure has evolved.
Latest Blog Posts
The Many Floaty Things We Are Looking Forward To…
Although we encourage people to live in the current moment, the team here at Float Tank Solutions is anxiously looking forward to what’s coming up at the 2015 Float Conference on August 13-17th. Admittedly, we’re a little spoiled being allowed behind the scenes access...
The 2015 State of the Float Industry Survey
Prior to the 2014 Float Conference we set out to get a snapshot of the floatation industry while we had the majority of the community in one place. From that survey we gathered the only statistics we have on floatation and publicly released those findings in our 2014...
Finding the Right Temperature for Your Floaters
What is the Perfect Float Temperature? I am sure we have all heard of the skin receptor neutral temperature that float centers preach. The sacred 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems to be the temperature that most centers set their tanks’ water to. We even do it at...
How to Properly Wake a Floater
aka What to Do when You’ve Got a “Sinker” There are multiple ways to let your floaters know that it is time to get out of the tank. According to float lore, the first centers to open back in the 70’s used to wake people up by popping open the hatch and giving the...
