An Email Snob Interview with Justin Premick

For this next installment of the Email Snob Interview Series, I talk email with Justin Premick, Director of Education Marketing at AWeber.

ScottWritesEverything.com: Justin, thanks for joining me.

Justin Premick: Thanks for asking me to do this interview. I’m looking forward to it.

SWE: I’d love to know how you got your start in email marketing. Tell me a bit about your background.

JP: I got into email marketing through a combination of ennui, spontaneity, and dumb luck.

I was studying/teaching Spanish literature and linguistics… and I got bored of it. So I moved out to Philadelphia with a girl I was seeing at the time and started looking for work. I started out in customer service at AWeber and learned email marketing on the job.

SWE: Given your deep involvement in the industry and the Email Experience Council, what would be your recommendations for someone who’s looking to get involved in the “conversations” of the industry?

JP: I love that the email industry has so many passionate voices! There are so many places that those conversations happen because we get so excited at the chance to talk about email.

I’d start in two places: Twitter and the Email Marketers Club. There’s a ton of good discussion and thought leadership happening on Twitter, but I think for someone new it might seem intimidating to get actively involved in that right away.

The Email Marketers Club gives you a place to get your questions answered, while Twitter lets you see what ideas and questions more seasoned folks are kicking around.

SWE: The conversations in both places can be very informative and sometimes quite entertaining. Let’s talk more about that “someone new.” If you could say one thing to someone who wants to break into the email marketing industry, what would it be?

JP: Testing: learn it, live it, love it.

… As a #2, I’d suggest they start reading/listening/absorbing as much information as they can. The amount you have to learn keeps growing every day.

SWE: Who is your biggest influence in the industry? Why?

JP: Oh man, so many people.

Mark Brownlow, because he brings so much nuance and high-level thought to discussions. Andrew Kordek, because he walks the walk and challenges me to remember the MARKETING part of “email marketing.” Kevin Hillstrom, because he’s laser-focused on data and proving what works.

Tons of others, but I’ve already gone over my limit by two people…

SWE: Good stuff. Let’s keep it going. If you could name one book that you feel every email marketer should read, what would it be? Why?

JP: The first book I ask new members to my team to read isn’t actually an email marketing book at all. It’s “Influence” by Robert Cialdini. It talks about the psychology of persuasion and marketing, and a lot of concepts (reciprocity and liking, for example) are critical to understanding what works in a relationship marketing medium like email.

SWE: Interesting choice. Haven’t read it yet… (adding to my list now)… What about a blog?

JP: Mark Brownlow’s no man is an iland. Without question.

SWE: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing email marketers today?

JP: Setting expectations–and in doing so, understanding all the parts of our email campaigns fit together. Subscribers don’t see things like opt-in forms, thank you pages, welcome messages, newsletters, etc., as discrete experiences. All of those things come together to create ONE experience.

I think one reason we see so much talk about relevance and improving it by focusing on one part of our campaigns (segmenting, for example) is that we’re trying to compensate for some other part of our campaign where we cut corners or just didn’t think the experience through. The best segmentation in the world doesn’t fix poorly set expectations; at best, it mitigates the ill effects.

SWE: We’ve all heard about Facebook’s Project Titan. Given what you know of it, how do you think Project Titan will affect the industry as a whole?

JP: I have yet to read anything that convinces me this is a huge deal.

Yes, it’s Facebook. Yes, they’re a social network. Yes, they have a ton of users on their network that might possibly start using the email platform. Yes, there will probably be some rendering and deliverability quirks.

But it’s not a redefinition of email from where I’m sitting–heck, from what I’ve read, they’re going to have POP/IMAP support, which means for some users it’s just another address they can pipe into Outlook, Gmail, etc.

I may change my tune as more information comes out, but I’m not losing any sleep over Titan currently.

SWE: If there was one thing you could tell either clients or ESPs, what would it be?

JP: You’re neither as good or as bad at email marketing as you think. Don’t get down on yourself, but don’t complacent.

SWE: I like that. I’m curious–how has your work in the email marketing industry affected your personal use of email?

JP: I sign up to more email lists than I used to, and I can’t get a marketing email without looking at how it renders with images off. I’m constantly critiquing little things like ALT text and from lines.

SWE: What’s your favorite thing about email marketing?

JP: There’s always a higher goal to shoot for. 5% opt-in rate? Make it 10. 30% of people clicked through on your last email? 70% of your subscribers were unimpressed with it. I love that your campaign is never perfect, never complete, and that there’s always room for improvement.

SWE: Let’s stay in that goals conversation. What is one thing you’d like to try with email that you haven’t done to this point?

JP: I’d like to experiment more with design… try wide emails, for examples. Most of my emails are pretty conservation stylistically at the moment.

SWE: Last question. If you were stuck in an elevator with the CEO of a company that doesn’t utilize email, what is your “elevator speech” for email marketing?

JP: I wouldn’t pitch so much as ask questions: How do you advertise? What’s your cost per sale? What do you use to retain customers and attract repeat business? Then I would talk about how email can help complement those tactics.

Bottom line: You and I know email works. But not everyone does. So get a foot in the door, and then let the numbers speak for themselves.

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About Justin Premick

Justin Premick is the Director of Education Marketing at AWeber, an email marketing service in Huntingdon Valley, PA. He helps businesses become better email marketers through educational articles, videos, webinars and other content, and represents AWeber online and as an attendee and speaker at conferences around the world. You should follow Justin on Twitter here.

Tagged as: email snob interview