Matt Ragland is a 10-year e mail marketer, first at ConvertKit and now at Good Individuals Digital, the Nashville-based company he launched in early 2023. His method to superior e mail efficiency is storytelling.
He informed me, “Manufacturers that excel at e mail advertising often inform a narrative to their superb viewers.”
In our current dialog, he and I addressed storytelling ways, e mail design, automation methods, and extra. Our total audio is embedded under. The transcript is condensed and edited for readability.
Eric Bandholz: Who the heck are you?
Matt Ragland: I run an e mail advertising and course-launch company known as Good Individuals Digital. We work with creators and ecommerce suppliers. We construct e mail and launch newsletters, normally for programs and knowledge merchandise. I’ve been within the e mail sport for nearly 10 years.
I do a number of issues within the creator financial system. I’ve a YouTube channel that’s just below 100,000 subscribers.
Bandholz: What’s your method to e mail advertising?
Ragland: I deal with a narrative or narrative. For ecommerce, manufacturers that excel at e mail advertising often inform a narrative to their superb viewers and embrace their merchandise. I want to see extra ecommerce manufacturers carry their clients into that story in a pure means.
Creators do a great job with tales, however many are horrible at promoting and selling. After which many ecommerce retailers are good at promoting, promotion, packaging, and positioning however not storytelling. Either side have a lot to be taught from one another.
Bandholz: E mail e-newsletter manufacturers equivalent to The Hustle and Morning Brew have grown to eight-figure valuations. Stroll us by that enterprise mannequin.
Ragland: Their income mannequin focuses nearly solely on promoting and sponsorships.
It prices little or no to start out an e mail e-newsletter. The Hustle and Morning Brew each went to a every day e-newsletter fairly early. I keep in mind listening to the Morning Brew founders. They launched the e-newsletter whereas college students on the College of Michigan. They requested folks of their enterprise lessons to subscribe on paper.
It began to develop naturally from there by referrals. That they had a strong referral program. Say I’m studying the Morning Brew, signal as much as be a referral associate, and ship it to you and 10 different individuals who join. I then get a sticker and a shirt. The Hustle did one thing related.
The opposite factor Morning Brew and The Hustle did nicely was paid acquisition of e-newsletter subscribers. Ecommerce has been nice at this for years. However extra conventional newsletters didn’t perceive the identical means as ecommerce sellers when Fb advertisements had been low-cost, round 2015. It felt like free cash.
Bandholz: Is there any new tactic in e mail advertising to take inspiration from?
Ragland: Lots of people really feel e mail advertising is previous and out of vogue. But it surely stays amongst the perfect kinds of direct advertising. When it comes to new ways, emphasize the story facet and ease — making the newsletters so simple as potential and slicing again on graphics.
Attempt making a e-newsletter look extra like a private e mail message. A good friend of mine runs a design studio known as Late Checkout. He publishes a design e-newsletter and stripped away all the visuals final yr.
He now sends one thing that appears extra like a letter to shareholders, which he calls “Greg’s Letter.”
Bandholz: The largest innovation to me is marketing campaign flows and automation. That’s how Klaviyo acquired traction over Mailchimp.
Ragland: Sure. Additionally, what Klaviyo did so nicely and nonetheless does is combine SMS.
The automation piece is large, as is the flexibility to have one entry level as the beginning for a whole circulation that may upsell, down-sell, and cross-sell. We applied it for an ecommerce shopper. As an alternative of the preliminary entry level of signing up for the e-newsletter or buying a product, we used a mid-life cycle automation primarily based on curiosity or intent.
For instance, a subscriber who clicks on a specific product or hyperlink in an e mail launches an automation much like cart abandonment, with cross-sells and storytelling round that kind of merchandise.
Bandholz: Your spouse is anticipating your fourth youngster. What’s your philosophy on how you can be a great dad?
Ragland: I need to be a great instance for my children. I need to present them what I imagine in and what being a great man is. I’ve been lucky to have a number of nice examples in my life. I’m shut with my dad, and he’s wonderful. He’s at all times been a giant supporter and fan of mine. My uncles have been wonderful mentors, and I’ve had lots of people in my life who’ve proven me that that is what it’s to be a great man and a great dad.
Bandholz: The place can listeners observe you and be taught extra about your e mail companies?
Ragland: Our company web site is MyGoodPeople.com — AutomaticEvergreen.com is our e mail advertising service. They will observe my YouTube channel or contact me on LinkedIn or X — @mattragland.
