Greetings from LHCHQ, where the newsletter has been on hiatus but the rest of us have been grinding. 2021 was a pretty solid year for us, professionally at least (our quarantine-addled personal lives.. maybe not so much). We doubled the size of our business, made some sweet new merch, and hired a bunch of Very Awesome People who we’ll introduce you to over the coming weeks. Meantime we’ll be upgrading our workwear wardrobes, stepping in slush puddles, and making ourselves scarce whenever it’s time to do Carhartt shit.
We Hope This Email Finds You Well
From Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan rom-coms, to Nigerian Royalty desperately in need of a Western Union, to chains threatening ancient curses for not forwarding, email has been through a lot. But unlike your Hotmail account, it’s still around and kicking, and even as new forms of communication have sprung up around it, it’s become ever more relevant (and sophisticated) as a marketing channel.
Why then, does no one in our industry talk about it?
You won’t see it written up in the trades, and no one’s email campaign ever won them a Cannes Lion or even a retweet from Garyvee or Brené Brown. And, let’s face it, email isn’t sexy — it’s no Moonpie Twitter account or Casamigos Tequila campaign. But you know what it is? It’s effective — time and again, it’s proven to be the best way to communicate with an audience.
Not only does organic social media reach a maximum of 5%, and closer to 2% for most brands, but the majority of millennials actually prefer email to any other form of marketing communication, and the majority of all humans with emails (about 4 billion users) check their email at least once a day. Not to mention that email communication is essentially free. No paying for Facebook eyeballs, or TV time, or billboard space, no need to pony up for a likeable radio voice or a blimp to circle your customers’ favorite hangouts. Just hit send.
If you’re willing to look past the latest breathless article about the Metaverse, email is in fact having its very own renaissance of sorts. Substack’s subscribers jumped from 100,000 in March 2020 to 1 million in November 2021, two thirds of subscribers actually like getting sent branded emails at least once a week, and 35% of marketers send their customers 3 to 5 emails a week. And if you’ve read this far, it’s definitely driving more engagement than our TikTok (ed note: launch LHC TikTok).
Of course, those on the demand gen side of marketing have known email is the best channel for years. Revenue from email was valued at $7.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027. Email also generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is a 4,200% ROI, which is way better than blimps (citation needed).
Which is all to say, please forward this to 7 people before midnight or face the consequences.
Klient Korner: CLOUDERA
It’s 9pm, do you know where your kids are? They probably are not increasing their data literacy – but they could be! Welcome to the next great American kid’s book, which we produced for our clients at Cloudera in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club and Ready AI.
The book, “A Fresh Squeeze on Data,” is democratizing data literacy. With Cloudera, we partnered with a team of educators to create a resource for all kids that helps the adults in a kid’s life start them early on all things data, analytics, and problem-solving. It’s never too early to get kids hooked on #data and #content, and personally, we can’t wait to someday work for one of the kids who read our book!
What We're Listening To
While we’re not quite ready to give up our Spotify subscriptions, we do love ‘ol Uncle Neil which is why we’re devoting our attention to the incredibly analog universe of the NYA. Sure, who wouldn’t want a website that’s mocked up to look like a dusty file cabinet (with about the same degree of functionality). It’s no Pono player, but it’ll have to do for now.