💌 002: Want a marketing career? Develop your email skills.

If you want to get good at marketing, or one day break into marketing as a profession, one of the best things you can do is get good at email.

What do I mean by that? Well, get good at writing emails that people care about. That can come in many flavors, all of which we'll continuously explore here on Forgematic.

Wait? Flavors? Are we talking about ice cream here, or email?

Mmm, Ice Cream.

Ok, sorry, forgot I was trying to teach something here.

Among the primary flavors are newsletters, cold emails (when you email someone out of the blue), and e-commerce/shopping emails (like the ones you get from your favorite stores). We'll explore these in detail in the future, since you have to adopt different messaging and strategies for each type of email.

Also, how to write good emails will come in a later issue. For now, I’m just presenting some of the reasons why you should get good at writing emails if you’re interested in marketing.

Really? But email seems so...boring. Why should I even care?

Sometimes the boring stuff is the best, plus I’m all about foundations and building blocks. Last week we talked about getting good at writing, and this week is about adding on to that a bit with writing email.

So just trust me on this. Also email was the first internet thing that most people could understand, and had it's own movie in the 90s.

Ok, but why?

Despite being constantly connected through social media, video calls, and group messaging -- email stands out. It’s stood the test of time for a reason, and it’s not going anywhere in the near future.

Ok enough trying to convince you why you should read this post. Let's examine why email is a good investment for learning.

Electric connection

First, and increasingly more important: there are no robots or magic formulas trying to decide which email to show you when. Everything arrives in chronological order, without algorithms in the middle. You get an immediate connection since you don't have to dodge algorithms when you send email.

Another thing, on the same idea, is that there isn’t a bot trying to guess how someone will react to the email based solely on their profile data. So some of the friction to constantly communicate with your biggest fans is gone.

One caveat, just because something is sent, doesn’t mean it’s viewed. We’ll cover that in the future when we explore each tactic in detail.

It costs nothing

Next, pound for pound, email delivers the biggest return on investment. Why? Once someone subscribes to your list, you can continuously reach them simply by sending an email. Also, outside of the costs of software, the cost to send an email is $0. The costs to run ads to reach your customers again = 💸.

So, if you want to get the most bang for your proverbial buck, opt for email.

This really works for you in the long run because someone who subscribes to your list can keep in touch with them as long as they subscribe. All this without having to spend a single $ on advertising. This is especially important if you run an e-commerce store and want to build loyalty and get repeat orders.

Sharing is caring

Sharing content through email is also easy because people can just forward it to their friends. Then, that person gets it in their inbox. No tagging on a specific network and then reaching out to say “hey look at this thing I tagged you in on IG/Twitter/ETC!”

So, do you think you could forward this article to a friend? Or even better, ask them to subscribe here? I know, I'm shameless af.

If you want your fans to share, remember, and use your content on a regular basis, email is the way to go.

Quick ways to get started and practice writing email

Try starting a newsletter about one of your hobbies or passions – you might be surprised how many people share the same interests. Try emailing your customers more frequently if you own a business. You may be surprised by how much of a return you can get if you send email content regularly.

You can start for free with Ghost (what I'm using for this) or Convertkit if you want a full suite of tools in addition to email.

Want to practice without e-mailing a bunch of people at the same time? You can still do it by sending a friendly email to your friends and family.

Learn even more

Here are a few places to go to kickstart your learning on writing email and industry trends

• Copyhackers - great if you want to learn to write online in general. They offer some expensive classes, but they are worth it once you start working and want to level up a bit.
• Converkit's email marketing guide - a good overview of the basics.
• Mailchimp's Email Marketing page - their whole tool is built around email, so their resources are great, especially if you own an e-commerce business.
• Mailshake's Cold Email Masterclass - check this out if you want to learn to write cold emails, which can be essential to landing new customers when your business is just starting out.

Which of the email flavors should we take a deep dive on first? Reply and let me know what you’re most interested in.

Until next time,

Forge 👋

PS: Next week's edition will be all about standing out on LinkedIn. It's pretty in depth and will be for premium subscribers only. You can upgrade your account here if you'd like to support Forgematic.