5 Things I Like About My Father-in-Law’s Email Marketing
Mike, Kelly’s dad, is a basketball skills trainer and owner of The Edge Basketball, and for the past 22 years he has been communicating to basketball families in Colorado, his target audience, via a weekly email newsletter we all affectionately call “The Newsie.”
It’s an amalgam of a schedule of events, shoutout to kids, some self-promotion, promotion of other local businesses, and travelogue / fashion blog / zany monologue straight from Mike’s brain, and I look forward to it every week.
I also think it’s a fantastic example other small businesses can learn from.
Here are 5 things I like about it:
1. He loves writing it
You know who else looks forward to it every week? Mike.
You can really tell when marketing is insincere, don’t you think? Mike’s isn’t. He has an amazing amount of reverence for his newsletter, in part because it has helped provide his livelihood all these years, and so he takes care in writing it every single week. He knows from helping literally thousands of kids improve over the years that the service he offers works, and he’s happy to show examples because every example is the story of a kid that he is really proud of. And even if he’s busy and that week’s Newsie is a little short, just like his shooting, he never misses.
Authentic marketing is easier for a business to do, and the bonus is that it usually connects much better with your audience. Combining his passion for creative writing with his passion for The Edge in this newsletter has created the perfect vehicle for Mike to bring his authentic voice and enthusiastically show up for his business, and that’s pretty cool.
2. It celebrates the kids who put in effort
In Mike’s gym you are pushed to try new things and build your skills without fear, because it’s all about getting better, not winning and losing.
In that spirit, the Newsie is full of stories and pictures and videos of these young ballers pulling off new moves, or being celebrated for their streak of showing up to workouts, or receiving shoutouts for making a team or having a good game. It really is heartwarming and inspiring.
Plus, these kids are good!
3. He is constantly getting his target audience to sign up
Mike’s list grows in two ways—word of mouth from happy parents, and word of his own mouth from him talking to families at basketball games anywhere and everywhere in Colorado. This is an effective list-growth tactic for Mike because he would go to bball games and talk to people for fun anyway. (Seriously, his Christmas present this year was a homemade t-shirt that says “Mayor of Basketball”)
If I had a cheeseburger for every time I’ve heard “I’ve gotta get you signed up for my newsletter” and “Did you read my Newsie?” I’d be a happy man, and that’s because Mike has such confidence in his ability to help kids get better at basketball and because he knows the Newsie has real value, so he’s not afraid at all to tell people about it.
Even if you just need to know what time to drop your kids off at the gym, that info is there up top quick and easy. Then, if you’re curious, you can see some of the proof of other kids improving and decide that it’s time for your family to join the fun, sit back and take time to decide while being entertained by Mike, or opt out. It’s a very fair ask.
4. He would struggle to get it to anybody if not for Heather (& Kelly)
As with many things, Kelly’s mom Heather is the secret to actually making the Newsie happen, because as talented as he is on the court, Mike is rather hopeless on the computer (unless it’s online shopping for the next Seasoned GQ photoshoot):
Heather takes what Mike has written and formats the email, uploads and includes any pictures or videos, pairs creative graphics with Mike’s musings, and actually sends the thing, making her the real star here.
Also, it’s a process that Kelly developed and taught her mom, so it shows to me that the Kind & Funny approach to empowering small businesses to find personal, practical marketing strategies is one that can really work.
5. It makes me laugh
The Newsie always has a touch of humor, like when Mike calls himself “Sir Fix-a-Shot” when promoting his shooting clinic, but sometimes he is really on one, and on those days the Newsie goes delightfully off the rails. Those are my favorite ones, and I’ve saved a bunch over the years.
Here’s one about the value of working with an expert:
Would you trust a surgeon who has not been to med school to operate on your innards? For that matter, would you trust a tree surgeon to snip your branches had he/she not received some arduous arbor training. Hardly. I pity the fool who has.
Here’s a regular old sales message:
Saturday Shooting Clinic
Shot in the Dark or Shot in the Arm? It's your choice. Many kids are literally shooting like they are in a dark, pitch black gym for all the success they are enjoying. It doesn't have to be that way. Let there be LIGHT!!
My Saturday shooting clinic can be a real shot in the arm for your youngster's confidence. Yeah, sometimes there's a little pinch when the truth serum hits your innards but it's a small pain to pay for what you get. You can't put a price on knowledge and experience. I got both in spades and I'm dealin' Saturday!
I don't claim to cure the crud and heal the sick but I do know a trick or two about straightening out your shooting profile.
Lemme have at it. Will wonders ever cease? Not while you're matriculating on my hardwood.
I can take three shooters tomorrow.
And here’s Mike promoting his debut novel:
If you are a reader who enjoys a compelling, breathless yarn or just wants to get some insight into what makes Mike tick (good luck with that), treat yourself to a copy of PEOPLES CHOICE and you will not regret it.
If you think Mike (I've found myself referring to myself in the third person lately--I don't consider myself a big deal--not yet anyway) is pretty funny in his newsletters and demonstrates playful, side-splitting banter in the gym, you are in for a WHOLE OTHER LEVEL of wit and keen insight in Mike's debut novel (FULL DISCLOSURE I have penned twenty-five screenplays--I am hardly a neophyte). Mike can turn a peerless phrase at the drop of a hat not that I've dropped any lately, hats not phrases. The phrases flow like the Amazon River.
Enough badinage: hark to Amazon (the wholesaler not the river) and one click will change your outlook on life. Mike needs your affirmation to say nothing of your $4.99.
Mike is out here every week practicing his creativity as a natural extension of building his business, and I find that quite inspirational.
Wanna sign up for the Newsie for yourself? Need some skills training? Contact Mike at www.theedgebasketball.net. Want to go play basketball? jed@kindandfunny.com.