My Email Marketing Baptism

Let’s call it baptism by fire. Or .. how about jumping in the deep end and not knowing how to swim. Whatever you call it, it’s been quite the adventure. While I have used CRM since the late 80’s, all of this is totally new to me.

In the past, I have lightly experimented with email marketing, first with Mailchimp and later with Mailerlite. These were limited attempts and neither yielded much, if any, success. I never could seem to build my email list and no list equals no results. Drip campaigns and email blasts were never a part of either.

Fast forward to 2024. As a Nimble CRM solution partner, I have a fairly extensive contact database. This now comprises my lists. While Nimble has always synced email with my Google Workspace accounts, their introduction of the ability to send group, one-off, messages was a huge step towards email marketing.

Late in 2024 Nimble next introduced email sequences allowing me to create drip campaigns. Now we are entering true email marketing territory. Next Nimble is on the cusp of releasing their own internal bulk mailing platform combined with the ability to generate HTML emails from templates or you can build your own.

This bulk mailing address(s) is designed to allow for mass mailings and can be used with both Nimble’s group messaging and email sequencing features. Better yet, it eliminates the need for a third-party application, two separate databases, and these messages are attached to contact records in Nimble vs. only in that separate application. Everything is unified in Nimble.

While this all sounds well and good, it has created its own set of challenges which have necessitated me having to delve deeper into the intricacies of email marketing. Much of this is driven by the fact that I am using my Nimble contact database vs. an email marketing list that has been built for that specific purpose. Typically, an email marketing list is generated by …

Making an offer, say an eBook, in exchange for your agreement to receive my marketing materials.
This constitutes an opt-in to do so as well as you supplying me with a verified email address.

This methodology means that you have expressed an interest in my services, you have given me a valid email address, and you have agreed to allow me to send you promotional materials. Conversely, none of these permissions have been secured with my Nimble contacts.

This means that …

I have to carefully clean and verify each email address that I wish to send to or risk a high bounce rate and/or be labeled as a spammer. Either would be very bad.
I need to carefully segment my lists to include people who should have an interest in, and be open to, my messaging.
My messages must be specific to each segment list.

While on the surface, none of this is too difficult technically, it does require a ton of work. There are a variety of tools to verify email addresses for deliverability. I am experimenting with those now to find the best solution for my needs. This involves time and money. These applications are not free.

I also need to build both sequences, drip campaigns, as well as templates for newsletters etc. that will be sent via group messages. And don’t even get me started on the messages themselves. I am not a marketer or an email marketer. My messaging sucks and I am leveraging ChatGPT to assist me with that.

I will also want to create a way to leverage Nimble’s web forms and web hooks to create newsletter opt-in offers and forms. One feature related to this, which is not available at least at this time, is a website pop-up to do so. I will need to calculate a way to direct visitors to the form itself probably by embedding it into my website posts and pages as well as my emails.

I’m 71 years old so why in the hell am I even doing this now? Well, for three reasons …

I like learning.
I need to be in a position to advise my Nimble clients.
Lacking hobbies, this takes that place.

Honestly, at this stage of my life, me leveraging these features to their fullest extent is just not on my personal roadmap. I don’t need the money and I have no desire to work full-time.

Please be sure to check out these top 100 sales blogs on Feedspot. I am honored to be one of them!

Are you thinking about a CRM? If you would like to explore whether or not Nimble CRM might be right for you, please book a free 30-minute Zoom consultation with me by going to my calendar. To learn more about our Nimble training and implementation services, please visit our Nimble CRM training services page.

In addition to Nimble CRM, I also offer sales training and training on LinkedIn as well as getting started with AI (Artificial Intelligence). I can even assist with hiring new salespeople with initial interviews and pre-hire DISC personality assessments.

I would also be happy to connect you to managed I.T. and telephony services or to a marketing professional who I know and trust or to an automated yet personalized and human-to-human LinkedIn prospecting system. Please reach out to me at craig@adaptive-business.com for an introduction!

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!