Services
Email Marketing
Newsletters and announcements to people who asked to hear from you, sent from a domain that authenticates, with the boring compliance parts handled.
- Sending domain
- Platform setup
- Signup that is honest
Overview
What this is
The short version, before we get into what is included and how it runs.
Email is the only channel where you own the audience. Search rankings move, ad costs rise, and a social account can be closed by someone you cannot phone. A list of people who asked to hear from you is yours, and it keeps working when the other channels have a bad quarter.
The work splits in two. There is the plumbing, which is a sending domain that authenticates, a platform that suits how often you actually send, and a signup that is honest about what someone is agreeing to. Then there is the part that decides whether it works, which is having something worth sending and sending it on a schedule you can keep.
We will tell you early if the honest answer is that you do not have enough to say yet. A quarterly note that people read beats a monthly one that trains them to ignore you.
Deliverables
What you get
Everything below is part of email marketing as standard, rather than something added to the invoice later.
- Sending domain
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up on a subdomain, so campaigns authenticate and a bad send cannot damage the reputation of the mailbox you take orders on.
- Platform setup
- An account on a platform sized to how you actually send, wired to the site. We will not put you on an enterprise tool to send eleven emails a year.
- Signup that is honest
- A form on the site that says what you will send and how often, with a record of when and where each person agreed. That record is the thing you need if anyone ever asks.
- Template
- One template in your identity that survives Outlook, Gmail and a dark-mode phone. Tested in the clients your list actually uses, not just in the platform preview.
- Campaigns
- Written, built and sent. Usually a monthly or quarterly note, plus the announcements that have a reason: a new service, a price change, a seasonal deadline.
- List hygiene
- Bounces removed, unsubscribes honored immediately, and inactive addresses retired rather than mailed forever. A smaller list that opens is worth more than a big one that does not.
- Reporting
- Delivered, opened, clicked, unsubscribed, and what those people did on the site afterwards. Open rates have been unreliable since Apple started prefetching, so we weight clicks and what follows them.
- Automations, where they earn it
- A welcome note, or a follow-up after a job. We add these when there is a real trigger, not because the platform has a page for them.
Process
How it works
In order. Each stage starts once the one before it is signed off.
- 01
Audit and setup
What list you have, where it came from, and whether you are allowed to email it. Then the sending domain and the platform.
- 02
Signup and template
The form on the site, the consent record behind it, and one template tested across the clients your readers use.
- 03
Send
A schedule you can actually keep, and the first few campaigns written and sent with you rather than at you.
- 04
Review
What got opened, what got clicked, what happened on the site afterwards, and what to change next time.
FAQ
Questions we get asked
If yours is not here, use the contact form and we will answer it directly.
Can you buy us a list?
No, and we will not send to one you bought. It is the fastest way to get a sending domain blacklisted, it breaks the terms of every reputable platform, and in most of the places your customers live it is against the law. A list you built slowly is the only kind worth having.
How often should we send?
As often as you have something worth reading, which for most small businesses is monthly or quarterly. Pick the interval you can sustain in a busy month, not the one that sounds ambitious in January.
Will this hurt our normal email?
Not if it is set up properly, which is why we send campaigns from a subdomain with its own authentication. A marketing send that goes wrong then affects the marketing subdomain, not the address your customers use to reach you.
What do we even write about?
The questions you answer on the phone every week. A job you finished and what was awkward about it. A seasonal deadline people forget. If we are writing the site copy for you as well, this is the same interview material used a second time.
Is a newsletter worth it for a small business?
It is if you have repeat customers or a long decision cycle, and it usually is not if every sale is a one-off emergency. We would rather say so before you buy it. For a plumber taking 2am calls, listings and ads do more; for a firm people hire once a year, a list is the cheapest way to still be there when they need you.
How much does it cost?
Most websites start around $3,000 for a straightforward build and land between there and $15,000, depending on the page count, how much writing is involved, and anything the site has to do beyond displaying information. Custom applications with accounts, payments or a database behind them are scoped and priced separately, because they are software rather than pages. You get a range in writing after discovery, before anything starts.
Tell us what you need built.
No pitch deck and no discovery fee. Most engagements start with a single site, and we add the rest only when it earns its place.
- Send a short brief, or just a link to the site you have now.
- We reply within two business days with questions, or a time to talk.
- You get scope, sequence and a price range in writing before anything starts.