The LunchBreak Marketing Podcast

Jason and I recently attended Digital Summit here in Atlanta. If you haven’t attended the conference before, you should. They come to most of the major cities across the United States. Head on over to their website and check it out. You won’t regret it.

While we were at the conference we learned so much more about marketing from several leading experts in the field of marketing. One of those experts sat down with us to speak about email marketing. Michael Barber is the owner of Barber&Hewitt and got his start working alongside Jay Baer. That’s right, Jay Baer. During his presentation, “Make Email Great Again,” he presented how we as marketers are missing the mark when it comes to email marketing and gave us valuable tips to make email great again.

In part one of this two-part interview, Micheal covers four of his seven tips on how we can be great at email. Here are the first four tips he covers in part one:

• Authentication
• Design
• Subject Lines
• Interactivity

Michael has graciously given us his presentation slides for our listeners to have for future reference. Download it here and follow along in this podcast.

You can also read our blog entitled, the same as Michael Barber’s presentation, “Make Email Great Again,” here as well.

Enjoy!

• 2:00 How this interview came to pass. We take you an incredible journey of how a simple graphic brought our paths together.
• 3:40 Michael tells a little about himself and why he is an authority to speak on why we all suck at email marketing.
• 4:05 Michael casually mentions his start in marketing with Jay Baer. No biggie.
• 5:42 Michael presents some stats on why we are bad email marketing. There are several stats that are staggering of how bad we are doing when it comes to the best marketing channel we could be utilizing.
• 8:28 The first tip to making email great again is authentication. You are doing all of this work around email for nothing if you aren’t getting into the inbox. That’s why this is the first tip and the most important tip.
• 9:19 Second tip to making email great again is design. With the rise of mobile users and smart watches, it’s important to design your emails to be responsive, just like your website.
• 12:02 I want an Apple Watch! Who is going to help me get one?
• 13:40 The third tip to making email great again is subject line. They matter. So follow his tips so you will grab the attention in the inbox.
• 15:51 The fourth tip to making email great again is interactivity. Don’t just use interactive content just to use them, but use them if it is relevant and if it enhances the message of what you are trying to communicate.

This podcast was recorded at Brooklyn Cafe in Atlanta, GA. The food was outstanding, the atmosphere was incredible, and the staff did a fantastic job. If you’re in the area, be sure to check them out.

Welcome back to part two of our sit down with Michael Barber of Barber&Hewitt. Last week, Michael gave us a run down of how we are doing email wrong and how as marketers, we are wasting this amazing marketing channel.

As we continue our conversation from last week about email marketing, Michael gives us the three final tips on how to make email great again. If you missed last weeks podcast, we covered:

• Authentication
• Design
• Subject Lines
• Interactivity

In this week, we cover these three tips:

• Automation & Triggers
• Always Say Hello
• Be Human

If you did happen to miss last weeks podcast, go back and listen to get the full conversation.

Michael has graciously given us his presentation slides for our listeners to have for future reference. Download it here and follow along in this podcast.

You can also read our blog entitled, the same as Michael Barber’s presentation, “Make Email Great Again,” here as well.

Enjoy!

• 1:33 The fifth tip to making email great again is automation and triggers. Michael talks about making our emails timely, targeted, and relevant. To do that, you have to gather great data.
• 2:53 Thanks Amazon for being creepy! You have opened the door for the rest of us to be creepy. Thumbs up.
• 3:48 Jason uses the word parlay again.
• 4:35 You MUST setup a Welcome email series. It’s the single most important email campaign you will ever work on.
• 5:45 The sixth tip to making email great again is always say hello. By saying hello, you are making the client feel more comfortable with you and your brand. Take the opportunity to say hello when you can.
• 6:25 The seventh tip to making email great again is to speak to the recipient like a human. Stop using the marketing mumbo jumbo and create emails that are applicable to your recipients.
• 8:53 Of all the tips he has given, the number one thing you should be doing is making sure you are authenticated. If you aren’t getting into the inbox, you are wasting time.
• 10:05 You heard it, folks, we will be doing MORE graphics with Michael.
• 10:45 Jason and Zack recap the conversation while adding a couple of elements to the conversation.
• 12:35 Jason took a look back at what Hotmail looked like back in the day. Nothing has majorly changed with email. The only thing that has changed is how marketers have started to use it and how people interact with their inbox.
• 15:15 Jason has Gmail emails from 2007. WOW! That’s crazy.
• 17:05 94 Billion SPAM messages sent a day. WOAH! We are screwing this up, guys!
• 17:50 78% of emails are marked as SPAM. Come on, guys!
• 18:35 92% of people who are on the Internet are sending and receiving email on a regular basis
• 21:55 Setup and opt-in for people to select how many times they want to see your content in a month. It will increase your open and click-through rate.
• 25:54 Think about setting up a re-engagement campaign to get more people to re-engage with your email. Get your list active.
• 30:02 It boils down to that email is just two people having a conversation. That’s how we make email great again.

This podcast was recorded at Brooklyn Cafe in Atlanta, GA. The food was outstanding, the atmosphere was incredible, and the staff did a fantastic job. If you’re in the area, be sure to check them out.

In a world where DIY websites are becoming more and more prevalent and more and more business are turning to these websites, it’s important to understand that just because you CAN do it yourself doesn’t mean you should. In this podcast, the guys take a look at what all goes into a professional website and what the cost should be.

This podcast is helpful for the business owner who is struggling with the idea of tackling their new businesses website on their own in order to save a few dollars. It’s also helpful for the website designer to have the confidence to stand behind the prices they have set.

By the end of this podcast, we hope that you understand what all goes into a website. If you’re that business owner, we hope that you leave with a clear understanding that sometimes DIY doesn’t mean you get the best results you want. If you’re that designer struggling with how to price out your services or terrified to price your websites at what you deserve, we hope you leave with the confidence you need to get out there and start earning what you’re worth.

Like always, be sure to subscribe, like, rate, and share our podcast wherever you get your podcasts from. The more support, the more LunchBreak Marketing we can provide.

Enjoy!

• 1:40 Zack’s wife, Perrie, is the one that sort of brought this whole conversation together all from a YouTube ad. No worries, we didn’t name any names.
• 2:45 We crack jokes about other professions where you wouldn’t just say, “I will just do it myself,” but in reality, with websites, people are starting to have that same attitude. What they don’t understand are the intricate parts that come along with a website.
• 5:35 Sure you could hire your cousin or your nephew who just finished college, but without that professional website designer, you aren’t going to get the best results out of your website.
• 6:50 Your website is your digital front door. If you had a brick and mortar building, you would make sure that the entire building looked great because you want to make a great first impression and have people continuing to visit you. Your website is the exact same thing.
• 8:25 If you want to read more from our blog, “How much does a professional website cost?”, you can here.
• 8:38 Think of your website as an employee rather than a tool. It’s working for you 365 days a year or as Zack said, “365 days a week.” Haha.
• 9:50 Jason breaks down the math. Your website is working 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That’s 8,760 hours a year that your website is working for your company. WOW!
• 10:25 If your website cost you $10,000, that means your website will be working for a $1.14 an hour. You can’t find anyone willing to work for you at $1.14 an hour.
• 11:00 Your website is your admin team, your lead capture (sales team), content provider, and so much more. It’s your most valuable employee you will ever have.
• 14:35 Listen up! If you’re a company looking to redo your website, here is where you really need to pay attention.
• 14:45 The first thing you should know about building a website is, don’t go cheap.
• 17:15 The problem with these flat rate website companies is that they are batching the work and could be killing your website performance. It may look good, but it won’t perform well.
• 19:05 The next thing you should know when thinking about what your website should cost you is what should be involved in it.
• 20:00 Think about all of the expenses it would cost you to hire people internally to get your website built and maintained. Then figure up the cost of what it would cost you to get your website out there (content writer, SEO professional, etc.).

Jason originally started out on a quest to make a valuable resource for designers. It sucked. It was nothing and barely more than a go-to-resource for him to bookmark some links. If you even care, here’s the link to those design resources.

Then, enter Brian Dean and the Backlinko blog. Jason is an avid reader of Brian Dean’s content and research, so when he heard about Dean’s Skyscraper Technique, he wanted to try it out. So, Jason’s newest blog, 500+ Free Resources for Successful Marketing Pros, is the beginning of a test to try out this new technique.

In today’s podcast, we discuss some of our favorite resources from the list. We reminisce on our favorite stock photo websites, their features, how they’ve changed and what we love about them. We also chat about Chrome extensions and Zack’s bizarre attachment to Safari. Then, we move on to fonts and other applications. Be sure to check out the blog and be sure to let us know if we’ve left any apps out! Cheers.

• 3:00 This is the Skyscraper SEO technique that Jason mentions. It’s all about making the best resource around. Check out Brian Dean on Twitter.
• 3:26 Someone ELSE in the restaurant has a squeaky chair. It was NOT Jason. Haha
• 3:53 Seriously, this is a 6+ month project!!!
• 4:31 Zack uses Safari. Whyyyyyy!?!?!?
• 10:37 Check out The Unsplash Book. Let us know if you have it and what you think.
• 13:48 StockSnap.io! The Kraken has been released!!!
• 16:49 .OFF? No. Just, no. Jason, it’s .OTF! .OFF is not a font file extension...
• 20:16 I use TinyJPG on the daily. Like seriously. The best way I’ve found that you can optimize photos for the web is to grab a stock photo, place it in Photoshop using the Legacy “Save for Web” feature, reduce the dimensions and quality. Then, upload it to TINYJPG to drop down the file size some more. What’s your method?
• 22:09 Here’s the video from Kraken Unleashed – the new VR ride at SeaWorld Orlando.

Our format is simple: each week, a few of us get together at lunchtime to discuss marketing and design.

We’re excited for the future of this show. It began as an off-hand idea and within a few weeks of format testing and searching for the perfect spots to record, we dove right in and began the show. We’ve already got some great guests on board to be on the show from all corners of the marketing & design world. From premium web hosting to email marketing, marketing automation, and beyond, we’re happy to bring great conversations with industry experts to you.

If you want to connect with us directly, send us a message on Twitter at @lunchbreakmkt.