MailChimp for Agencies: The 50th Issue
Issue 50
Milestones are always a good time to pause and reflect. So for our 50th issue, we called a few of the folks who’ve graced this space in past issues and talked to them about what they’ve been working on, what they’ve learned, and what else we can learn from them.
Here are the highlights.
Olivia Hutto
The Sweet Spot Between Freelancer and Agency
If designer Olivia Hutto’s name seems only half familiar, that’s because the last time we spoke she went by Sarah — a name, it turns out, that she shares with a lot of people.
“This year at Hubnet I met 5 different Sarahs in my professional sphere,” Hutto says. “I just kind of snapped — I decided to start going by my middle name, even though it felt a little crazy at first.”
For Hutto, whose freelancing business was originally built on the name Sarah, it was the perfect chance to put her branding expertise into practice.
“I created a new logo, a new company, and a new website. The experience really made me dig deep into my processes and the advice I give my clients,” Hutto says. “I also partnered with Mavenly, who I work with at Switchyards, and they helped me frame the rebranding to clients and on social media.”
“One thing I learned is that you really do have to go with your gut instinct,” Hutto says. “You know what’s right for your business, and you have to trust yourself instead of second-guessing. As nervous as I was at first, once I committed, it was totally freeing and awesome.”
Julia McCoy
Trial and Error: A Copywriter’s Journey
As a writer, Julia McCoy’s fear of public speaking wasn’t really much of a problem — until she accepted an invitation from MarketingProfs University.
“Over the 6 years since I started my business, one thing that keeps coming up is the importance of public speaking,” McCoy says. “I went to school for nursing. I’m completely self-taught as a marketer. Taking that invitation was the next step in my education.”
As it turned out, she enjoyed the experience — so much so that she decided to launch her own podcast. It’s a medium that allows her both to talk about content marketing and network with others in the industry.
“The last episode I recorded was with Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute,” McCoy says. “As you do a show like this, you build connections with people, and those connections have led to so many more opportunities, including the launch of my content strategy certification course.”
And in case we didn’t think she was busy enough, McCoy is also writing 2 books. “But those probably won’t come out until next year,” she says.
Paul Jarvis
Email Automation and Your Business
For freelancer Paul Jarvis, the old saying is true: Necessity is the mother of invention.
“For the projects I sell, I needed to connect data on payments through Stripe with the e-commerce analytics I get from MailChimp,” Jarvis says. “That’s where the idea for my latest project came from.”
The end result is an app called Fixtail that easily interfaces with MailChimp. But Jarvis didn’t originally intend it for public consumption.
“I started to realize the demand for the app because of the course I teach on MailChimp. I’d take students live through my account and they’d see all this data and want to know how to access it. That’s when I realized we should launch it as a product,” Jarvis says.
Dylan Smith
Thirteen Pro-Tips for Email Design
London-based web designer Dylan Smith has been weaning himself from the freelancing world to spend more time working on email marketing — which might be our fault.
“Last year I won MailChimp’s patron ticket to Litmus Live, and that’s where I met my new company’s founder,” Smith says. “I owe it all to the Chimp!”
The new job has also helped Smith get back to his roots.
“Now I’m doing design, UX, and front-end code on the product,” Smith says. “It’s good to get back to that, while still being involved in email and working on tools to help make email easier for people.”
And after his time working as a freelancer, having a few co-workers around has been a pleasant development.
“It’s been refreshing to get away from the friction of interacting with clients and negotiating budgets to work with people who understand the challenges of email,” Smith says. “It’s been a fun — and different — sort of work.”
Ken Honeywell
How to Fix Your Broken Newsletter
President of Well Done Marketing Ken Honeywell has guided the agency through a rapidly changing environment in which clients are more involved with marketing than ever.
“We have to be nimble,” Honeywell says. “We have to think tactically. And if there’s one thing that comes up in any discussion with a prospective client, it’s the question of how they use email. Strategically, email is so easy to customize and segment that, more and more, I look at it as the thing you have to do right.”
The agency’s good work has also attracted attention from the state of Indiana.
“We were just awarded a professional development grant,” Honeywell says. “We expect to add several new positions over the next few years, and the grant will help us train staff as the agency grows. But beyond that, the grant is just a nice affirmation that we’re heading in the right direction.”
“You know what’s right for your business, and you have to trust yourself instead of second-guessing.”
Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith, founder of Really Good Emails, is ready for the next big breakthrough.
“There’s a lot more talk lately around interactive email,” Smith says, “and the prophecy I’ve been making for a while is that once people are able to do their shopping in email it’s going to be a game-changer.”
The Really Good Emails subscriber list continues to grow at a rate of about 300 people per week, which keeps Smith’s team busy. But he still hasn’t seen the full potential of email microshopping realized by anyone — yet.
“We’re really geeked out to see who will be the first to explore that space,” Smith says. “People subscribe to our newsletter because of how we curate and talk about what’s being done. I’m looking forward to when someone does microshopping really well, and we can talk about why it works.”
Austin Woodall
Since we last interviewed him, Studio Science’s Austin Woodall has been pursuing a very specific field of study.
“My wife and I just had our first child in June, so perfecting my dad jokes will be a big goal for 2017,” Woodall says.
Professionally, Woodall has been just as busy. For most of the year, his time has been invested in web and mobile development. “I’m super excited to finally get back into building mobile apps. Later this year, I’ll be launching my first one in the app store,” Woodall says.
Further Adventures in Email
When we launched MailChimp for Agencies, our goal was to shine a light on agencies of all stripes who are using MailChimp to help their clients and grow their businesses.
In nearly every way, the experience has exceeded our expectations. We’ve been consistently surprised (and delighted) to learn about all the innovative ways folks are using our platform to solve problems, serve clients and customers, and make the world a better place.
Finally: We’d be remiss not to mention how grateful we are for you, our readers. We’d like to thank you personally for helping to make MailChimp for Agencies an unqualified success. There are still so many great stories to tell. Let’s keep going, shall we?
This first appeared in MailChimp’s newsletter for agencies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
