Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Entrepreneur: Selling your product through email marketing, the Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, Dave Charest tells you how to succeed.

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Entrepreneur: Selling your product through email marketing, the Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, Dave Charest tells you how to succeed. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: It's the show that she is the secrets of success
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: experience firsthand by Marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: will know he's giving me advice on many occasions. And
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: in case you didn't notice, I'm not broke. You know
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision make
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: because it's what he likes to do, it's what he
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: likes to share. Now it's time to hear from my man,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations.
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  Speaker 1: Here we go, McDonald welcoing backing money Making Conversation master Class.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: As you know, the interviews and information that this show
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: provides are for everyone. It's time to start reading other
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: people's success stories and start living your own. My guest
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: is the director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: He's also a speaker, host and podcast obsessed with helping
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: small business owners find time for online marketing since two
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: thousand and six. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Dave Shahrast how.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Are you doing, sir? I am doing great, Rashaan, thank you
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: so much for having me with you tonight.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I, you know, I would like to
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: believe I'm a marketing and branding expert. You know, I
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: people tell me that. I tell myself that to build
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: my own confidence and as part of my resume. What
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: exactly in your version is marketing when you when you're
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: looking at a product and and how and what is defined?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Why do you define marketing? I should ask you that question, sir.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: All right, that's a great question. I think you know,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: and in simplest terms, and you know, I'm typically talking
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to small business owners, and I say it like this
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: because of that, because I think oftentimes, you know, small
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: business owners are business owners first marketers by necessity, right,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: So these aren't folks necessarily with the business degree or
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: the marketing degree and all of that. And so I
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: just described it like this. Marketing is really all about
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: communicating with the people that have an interest in what
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: it is that you do and what you offer, right,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: And that's that in its simplest terms, it's that, right,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: And so it's really thinking about how do you communicate
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: on a regular basis build those relationships because we know
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: people do business with people they know like and trust,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: and how do you do that on a consistent basis,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: so that your business is top of mind and people
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: think about you when they're looking for what it is
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: that you offer, or when somebody says to them, hey,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: do you know somebody that does such and such or
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: has this type of thing, and they're going to think
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: of you first as well. So at the simplest level,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: it's really about that, just communicating your.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Network up and that's doing it constantly correct Dave, not
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: just doing it every once in a while, because a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: lot of people miss that boat too. They don't realize
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that marketing and I always tell people if you drove
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: by a store like Target, and then if you drove
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: by the seven days a week and four days a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: week the sign never came on at night, you would
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: go you would you would think there's a problem over
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: they're going or Target has issues. It has to be
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that sign has to be consistently on at that time
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: at night so people can get a rhythm and eventually
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: go in. Because everybody doesn't go in when they drive by,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they will go in when they feel the need to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: go in there or sell. Balking tool is putting in
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: place to invite them into the business. Are the experience correct?
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely. That's a great point. And I think a
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: mistake we often see people make a lot of the
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: times is that, I mean, you've probably experienced somebody listening
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: has gone through this where you're like, oh, I've got
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: this thing going, I'm going to talk to somebody about it.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna say something about it. But then you're not
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: there any other time, and then you're like, oh, well,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: there wasn't much of a response to that, right, And
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: it's often because you haven't been consistent, you haven't been
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: showing up, and you haven't been there keeping your business
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: top of mind, starting to build those relationships. And it's
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: through that. It's that consistency that then when you ask
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: for something, when you're providing value, right, you're doing these things,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: and you ask for something because you've been there, that's
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: what makes that thing work better.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And oftentimes, I mean you see this when people, you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: people often talk about like an overnight success or something
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: like that. Right, What we don't see is all the
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: years of consistent effort that somebody put in to get
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: to that point. We just see the success part, right, right.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: And so there's really it's the same thing with marketing, right,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: It's a consistency. It's showing up, it's being there, and
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: at a certain point that you really start to see
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: that take hold because then people are really kind of
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: noticing and you're showing up there all the time, and
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: the reality is, you know, unfortunately you have to say that, like,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: not everybody is thinking about your business as much as
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: you are. And you know, right.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Right, that's important people say that. You know, just because
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: you love that hamburger, don't mean everybody gonna love that hamburger,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: you know, because some people might say, I prefer Turkey
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: burgers or I prefer you know, Phish burgers, and so
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: it's important that you understand that there's a percentage of
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the public is not going to buy your product or
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: don't see value in your product. So that means that
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: you have to target your product to that audience consistently.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And that's where I think a lot of people either
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: get frustrated or they don't understand how marketing actually work
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: or how you know, you know they acting. I would
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: love when you open the door of your first day
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: of your business that is a live waight outside we
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: were all. That's the dream of every entrepreneur, no matter
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: what you do but it doesn't happen that way. What
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: does happen is consistent marketing. And that's why I was
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: excited to bring you on the show because of the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: fact that you work for a company will use a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: small business director of success at Constant Contact. What exactly
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: is constant contact?
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: So constant Contact. We're a business that really we're driven
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: by this mission of helping small santal and we do
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: that by providing online marketing tools that are designed specifically
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: for small business owners. You know I mentioned earlier business
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: owners first market to buy necessity. You don't need a
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: degree or you don't need to hire a team to
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: figure out how to use our tools that are designed
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to be easy to use, something that you can do
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: and if you need to, you can actually pick up
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: the phone and talk to somebody and will help you
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: with something if you need that guidance as well, because
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: we know time is of the utmost importance for small
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: business owner is wearing many hats and sometimes you just
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: got to get something done and you don't have the
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: time to go, you know, search and figure out how
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: to do it if you don't know how to do it,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: and so we try to provide that for pre bill
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: as well. And so really the idea is in the
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: name Constant Contact. Right, we were talking about consistency and
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: marketing all the time. It's about how do you stay
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: in touch with those most important people for your business
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: and you know, again keep your business top of mind,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: how do you communicate it and build those relationships? And
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: that's we provide the tools to help people do that.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Cool. I'm talking to Dave. He's the director of Small
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Business Success at Contest Constant Contact. One of the thing
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: that I really enjoyed when I was looking at your
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: bio was that your background is social media marketing because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: emails and social media marketing, you know, those are two levels.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Because you know, there's television out there, there is radio
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: out there. Sometimes your budget can't hit those lanes. They
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: can't hit you like those lanes, but when it comes
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to emails and social media, that can fall in your budget. Now,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: when you look at Constant Contact, is that an email
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: based platform.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: Or what is it? Yeah? So I think the core
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: of our platform is about email. I think if you
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: think of any digital or online marketing strategy, really email
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: is the core of that. Right, That's the thing that
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: kind of drives everything that you do. You know, you
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: bring up social media. I think that's a great channel
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: for engagement and reaching new people. But the issue with it,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: of course is that you're kind of playing on rented land, right.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: So whatever channel you decide to spend or focus your energy,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: you know, it's all these days really driven by algorithms, right,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: and so or if a site goes down or something happens,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: like you have no control over that. And what we
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: often recommend is, yes, like use those channels, but always
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: do that with an eye towards bringing people closer to
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: your business and into a space where you own that contact, right,
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  Speaker 3: And so that means either an email address or an
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  Speaker 3: SMS number a text number that gives you the ability
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: to then say, okay, I want to contact people at
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: this time, and it allows you to reach the customer
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  Speaker 3: directly in a place where they've invited you, like giving
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: you that contact information. So you're going to have a
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: better relationship there as well, just from the start, and
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: it allows you to do that on your terms, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: you own that list as as the phrase goes, right,
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  Speaker 3: the money is in the list. It's those people that
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: you can contact on a consistent basis that are going
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: to be more beneficial to you at the end of
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: the day. And it's really about using each of these
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: tools in unison together to again keep your business top
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: of mind.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: You know, it's really important that because we're talking about
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: marketing now, Dave, and when I was managing Steve Harvey
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: we created the Steve Harvard Morning Show. We had an
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: email database of about about eight hundred thousand emails and
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: uh and and then we then then social media exploded.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Everybody got gotta get Twitter, you gotta get a Facebook,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: gotta get it, Instagram, gotta get all that. And what
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I discovered this is Rishid McDonald. I'm just saying, I'm
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: an authority, is that somebody might like you, follow you
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: because of a hamburger, a dress, a movie that you posted.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: There's so many reasons why people can like you or
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: follow you. What I've discovered, and you can really validate
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: this if it's true. When someone makes a conscious effort
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to put in their name and an email address, that's
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: a different type of person than a person who likes
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: something or follows something on social media. That's a much
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: more I think investment that they're making in the email,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and that's much more valuable, I think asset than a
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: social media person.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Am I wrong when I say that?
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Or can you correct?
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: You know, you're one hundred percent correct. I'm over here
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: shaking my head, which plays really well on the radio.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: But yeah, like that's it exactly right. Like it's it's
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: that act of somebody raising their hand and then opting
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: in to receive messages for you. It's almost like like,
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: think of it like this. It's somebody walking into your
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: store and saying, hey, I want to buy something, right
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: or I want to learn more about what it is
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: that you have here. And that's a lot different from
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: somebody if we use social media. As you know, the
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: litnus here is like somebody just driving by the store
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: and like looking in the window. They've actually stopped the
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: car and they've come into the store, right, somewhat similar
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: to that, and so that's why that's so much more powerful.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: And you know, you mentioned some big numbers here, you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: in terms of eight hundred thousand, which again i'd love
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: to talk about, like what are some of the things
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: that you've seen with that, But I think it's also
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: important to recognize that you don't need to have eight
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: hundred thousand right, depending on your business, particularly if you're
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: a local business, a small business owner, you know a
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: couple one hundred people, you know, you know some a
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: thousand people. Sure, the more you have, the better you're
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: going to do it in a certain pace. But sometimes
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: you know, one hundred people on your list can be
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: very valuable to your business, depending on the nature of
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: your business.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: And that's what I want to talk to about, because see,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: people get caught up in the you know, the celebrity numbers,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the million you know I call the blinding body Kardashian members.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: You know, you think you got to have all those
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: type of numbers to be successful, all the tremendous engagement
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: of views, of shares and all that. Because Antoia, that's
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: what I said. I that's why I was excited, because
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I know I was going to talk to someone who
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: had invested knowledge of what social media is and also
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: has a clear understanding of the email relationship in creating
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the business relationship that happens because of the fact that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: when you send that email out and I'm just this
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: is my recommendation to small businesses in general, is that
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I threw out the number eight hundred thousand. I just
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: threw that number. This is Steve Harvey. Okay, he's on
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the radio five days a week. He can get a
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: number like that. But you don't need a number like that.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: You can need a but you need to start start
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: developing it. And like you said, when I was as
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: a stand up comic years ago, I would go into
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: cities and I put my little cards down and ask
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: people to fill out their names. And then when I
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: came back into town, I was sitting out mailing lists
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: and letting people know I would come and they would
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: show up. And so really the bare bone basis is
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the relationship that emails can create for a growing business,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and as the business grows, it allows you to market
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: it consistently based on the product of the type of
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: business that you've created.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Correct. So I love what you're saying here, right, And
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: if you think about just the dynamic of it, right,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: where someone has given you their information and you're able
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: to reach them in a place where right, it's like
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: our inbox, right, and it's kind of like a more
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: personal space. Right, It's like where we typically get messages
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: that are kind of one to one and you can
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: really start to make those connections with people and it
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: sounds like this is what you're doing right, like yeah,
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: and you can organize people in a way where you're
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: saying like, Okay, I met these people in this town.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: I met these people in this town, and then you know,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: you can let start to let them know like, hey,
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be in your town at this time,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: and they feel like you're talking to them in many ways.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: And that's why people, you know, show up because you're
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: able to again reach them where they are in that inbox,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: in a place that's personal. You're able to kind of
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: you know, segment, you know, make a smaller list of
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: people that you want to talk too, specifically so you
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: can target them. But it's really about at the end
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: of the day, building that relationship. You know. And again,
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: as I mentioned earlier, we do business with people we know,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: like and trust. Come to your show, they start to
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: feel like they know you, they like what you've done,
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: like it just adds to all of that, which again
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: makes it it easier over time.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Tool No, don't go anywhere invited. When we come back,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: we're going to ask Dave about what's driving the current
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: spike in the small business. What are the percentages the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: open rate percentages that you should be shooting for when
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: you have an email mailing list. Also recommendations on launching
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: your business and top marketing tips for entrepreneurs. So a
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: lot of information. When you come back from this break,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I am talking to the director of Small Business Success
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: at Constant Contact. I call them Dave.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: with Rashawn McDonald. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making Conversations
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: As we start these small businesses, and because the big
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: business has got the money, they got the budget, they
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: got the manpower. But as we start an idea and
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: idea has to have a plan tied to it. And
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: you always hear people talking about their friends, family and
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: church members. You know, the great thing about a mailing
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: list is that those church members can be part of
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: your mailing list. Your friends can be part of your
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: mailing list. Your friends can add their friends to your
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: mailing list, which means that expands your network, which means
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: that you have value your tentacles, I like to call it.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And so when I talk to you Dave in regards
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to and Dave is the director of Small Business Success
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: at Constant Contact, the driving what is having a current
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: spike in new small businesses currently?
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: You know, I think there are a few things going on,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: and I think if you look at the I think
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: the US Census Buro is looking at about like five
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: point five million new business applications in twenty twenty three.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: And then as we kick into the new year here
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: you're seeing things happening right now because there's typically a
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: seasonal spike in January, right, But there are a few
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: things that I think are at play here that new year.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: As I mentioned, I think we're also seeing some places,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: you know, bigger businesses have some layoffs and things like that,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: and people are kind of in this position where, you know,
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: if the events of twenty twenty have taught us anything,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: it's it's there's just really this realization that really nothing
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: is guaranteed, right, Jobs aren't guaranteed, what's going on in
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: the world isn't guaranteed. And I think that's a wake
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: up call for a lot of people where they're feeling like, hey,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: you know, this is a this is an opportunity for
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: me to do something for myself, right And if there's
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: then that inkling, this is something where I have control,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: I'm not, you know, when I'm putting in the hours,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I'm doing them for a purpose that's not to serve
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: someone else, but to serve myself and to serve my family.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: And I think there's something in that attitude and that
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: determination and grit of people that you know, take that
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: step to start a business that's just coming to the
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: forefront here. And I think we're just seeing that in
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: terms of the numbers.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: You know, the numbers. We all play a numbers game.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And the magic word that keeps popping up in the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: world that we live in that is ai AI. You
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: know how is that? How is that playing a role
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: into our Because I'll tell you this. When I started
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: my mailing list back in the day with Steve Harvey
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: and I, we had to have your first and last name.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: We'd ask for your birthdate, we asked for your your
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: phone number, we asked for your address, we asked for
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: your male or female. We've asked for your level of education,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: we asked for your income, and I also asked you.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: You know, of course, if you gave me your address,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I found out I knew what city and state you
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: live in. Is an AI basically all you need is
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: just a person email address. Correct.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think we're getting to those places
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: where AI can help kind of fill in some of
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: the blanks for sure. But I think what's really interesting,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: and you mentioned all of those things that used to collect,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: and I think those are still, you know, really good
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: things to gather, because I think there are a few
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: ways AI really comes into help here. I think, you know, again,
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: it's it's always like a time thing, right, and so
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: you're able to create content faster. I think about some
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: of the ways we apply it at Constant Contact, and
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: so you know, it can help you create, you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: an email about a promotion that you're having at your
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: restaurant or at your store, or whatever the case may be.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: It also allows you if you think about using like
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: the AI components and some automation, so like email automation
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: together it really helps you kind of send more timely
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: content and then really get recommendations and ideas for things
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: that you may want to try next to help you
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: even get better results. But I think you know to
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: your point about collecting all that information. As you start
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: to collect information and have more data, that's where AI
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: really comes in. I think the most interesting part is
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: because it's able to process a lot of data in
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: ways that you know, humanly like you get you just
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: don't have the ability to process it that fast and
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: then make predictions as to things that you should do
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: or what would be the next best message to send somebody.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: And that gets really interesting again depending on the nature
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: of your business. So this is I'm thinking more along
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: the lines of like e commerce at this point. Right,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: So if you're selling physical products or those types of
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: things where you know, like, let me give you an
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: example here. Let's say like you sell coffee, right, and
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: you have one customer that drinks one cup like me,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: I'm laying with coffee. But then you got another customer
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: that that that you know, drinks five cups a day.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: There's going to be a vast difference in how soon
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: someone is going to need to replenish their cop be supplied, right,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: And so AI can start to process data like that
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: and start to say like, hey, it looks like John
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: is going to need coffee before Dave is going to
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: need coffee, and so I'm going to send messages to
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: keep Dave kind of like you know, helpful educational messages,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: things to keep them engaged, that type of thing. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: I'm going to send you know, the buy now or
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: time to replenish type of thing email a little later
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: than John, who I'm going to send that you know,
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: three weeks from now, because that's based on his drinking patterns,
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: this is when he's probably going to need to buy more. Right,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: So you can really start to because like there's this
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: promise in email marketing that marketers talk about all the time, right,
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: is this idea of sending the right message to the
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: right person at the right time, like that whole thing.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: And and oftentimes we do that still kind of to
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: a whole group of people. But when you start thinking
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: about what AI can allow you to do, it's using
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: that automation as well. You can really start to live
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: into that and do that on an individual basis where
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: you're you know, you're really sending the right messages to
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: individual people. And I think that's really where it's most interesting.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Right, you know it's really interesting is that you know
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the open rate, that's that's the tailtale sign and the
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: value of a mailing list is that opening rate? What
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: is what is a good open rate? And what? And
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: then because you have bouces and bouce means that's a
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: bad email and you know you should remove it from
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: your stack or so if you have depending on the
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: brand or the setup you have, sometimes it's automatically removed.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: But what is a good open rate that we should
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: be shooting for? And how often should someone sent out
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: of the email blast a week?
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: I love those I love those questions. All right, these
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: are great questions. So a couple of things to think
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: about here. I think you know, on average, across all industries,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: I think a constant contact we're seeing with our customers
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: open rates to be around thirty six percent. Typically in
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: the industry that has been around twenty percent. And there's
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: like some inflation in there, I think primarily because of
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: there are things going on with like Apple devices and
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: things like that where they're opening emails but not necessarily
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: it's not actually a person opening the emails, so there's
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: like some inflation there. So I think what you should
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: do is and you can actually if you search constant
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: contact open rates, you'll find you can find across all industries,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: or you can look at a specific industry and see
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: where those averages are. Now, I want to say this
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: with a caveat those averages are good to be trying
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: to give you a gauge on hey, how am I doing.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: But the goal should be to work your own averages
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: and try to beat those right, And I think that's
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: what's important. I think we can. You know, to your
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: point earlier, when you're thinking about social media and seeing
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: all of these large numbers of followpers, it's easy to
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: get distracted by those things when that's actually that's somebody else.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: You need to really refocused on yourself. So I think
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: that's one thing. So if you're in there, that's a
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: good game. You mentioned we were talking about open rates
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: when we're talking about how often a cent, So I
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: think this is another thing where it depends on a
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: number of factors. At the very least, and use these
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: as a gauge as well, because you want to kind
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: of try different things to see what works best for
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: you and your audience. But at the very least, we
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: try to say to people you know, at least send
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: once a month. That's probably we're used to email now
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: it's a little bit different from back in the day
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: when this first kind of started. But what you're trying
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: to do is so you can probably send a little
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: bit more frequently, but what you're trying to do is
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: to find that right path of being consistent. Most people
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: that I've talked to and have seen a high level
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: of success try to send on a weekly basis. But
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: if you can't do that, maybe every other week or
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: maybe it is once a month, Right, you get a
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: weigh that with what you can actually do based on
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: what your other responsibilities are. But again, the idea is
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: to have something that's consistent because it's that consistency again
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: that is going to keep you top of mind and
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: showing up. And we've seen this play out so many
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: times with people. I can share a story with you
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: here if if there's some time here. But this is
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: a real estate agent who he's been sending a weekly
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: email since two thousand and seven, and in that email
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: he shares his expertise and his analysis of the housing market,
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: all of that kind of stuff, and since twenty seventeen
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: he closes one hundred deals a year and he doesn't
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: do any prospecting. Why because he shows up in people's
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: and bucks every week consistently and offers them advice on
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: what's going on in the market, lets them know, and
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: then whenever they want to buy or sell something, who's
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: the first person they think of?
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Right, So, and we've seen this across.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: It becomes like a family member, a friend, an advisor,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: a confidant because that name's familiar, you know. It's like
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: it's like going to your favorite coffee shop, your favorite restaurant.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: You go in because you feel comfortable.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, And it's just knowing it's it's there. It's
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: being that you're looking forward to it at a certain point. Right.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: And it's the same with people listening to your show. Right,
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: It's like people know the show is on at a
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: consistent time and time, so they come and they listen
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: to it. It's the same kind of thing. And so
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: it's that consistency I think is the number one factor
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: that helps you determine. But you got to weigh it
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: with what can you do and commit to so that
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: you can show up consistently.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: They let me tell you I usually take phone calls.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: This segment was so engaging. I didn't take any phone call,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: which means if you are comfortable, I want to invite
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: you back on my show next month because I think
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: we've only just scratched the surface of what I'm trying
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: to educate my audience about marketing and especially this constant mark,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: because we haven't even gotten into Yes, now you have
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the open rate, it's open, but they have toge again,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: engage into your what you've sent. We haven't even gotten
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: into that portion because there's another click that has to happen.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: They can open it, but they also have to click
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: which you sent them. I'll become engaged with what you
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: sent there. So I just know that we need to
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: talk more and I want to. I want to appreciate
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: you calling in. This the first time we've communicated, and
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just overjoyed that the information that my
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: audience is getting from this relationship that I've created with you.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: And if you have time, please come back next month.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: I would love that. Thank you so much.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Cook. This is Dave. He's the director of small business
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Success at Constant Contact. We'll be back with more money
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: making conversation. This is it. I gotta say goodbye, thank
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: everybody for listening to the show, and I'll be back
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: next week. This is Rushan McDonald. Keep listening and we
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: will keep giving you great advice. Again. Thank you, Thank
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: you Dave for coming on the show. Bye bye, thank.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: You for joining us for this edition of Money Making
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: Conversations Master Class. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: McDonald is produced by thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc.
• 25:54
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• 25:58
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• 26:02
  Speaker 4: remember to lead with your gifts.