Listen to this email on audio (which has a few extra notes and an insider scoop)
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Our New Consent Practices for Black Friday (And What I Did Last Week)
Hey!
I’m back from British Columbia and writing to you on Thursday evening with a cider to my left and a belly full of GLICO curry stew made with scavenged root vegetables. Not bad for bare cupboards.
Here’s the highlight reel from my trip:
Let’s start with this Airstream which had everything you could want in an AirBnB, from the Tushy bidet to a Naloxone kit under the sink to a pristine copy of Lover’s Rock by Sade on vinyl, plus a record player and handmade chunky wool blankets to snuggle under.
Day 1—
>> Left for the airport at 3am
>> Checked in (early!) to a budget hotel that shall not be named
>> Successfully renegotiated a 12-person dinner reservation gone unexpectedly MIA
>> Hiked Capilano Canyon for two hours before hosting said dinner
>> Almost fell asleep at the table after a 21-hour day
Days 2 to 4—
>> Spoke at my first event since The Before Times – executed to perfection by Alex Cattoni
>> Worked out at 5am every morning despite the dirty tissues and abandoned water bottles littering the hotel gym (gross!)
>> Spent $575 on a silk shirt from Holt Renfrew because I felt insecure*
>> Made the audience LOL at least ten times
>> Frowned about the hierarchy of different-coloured lanyards while also enjoying being the highest rank
>> Sat across from Danielle Laporte at dinner and tried to be cool about her not taking an interest in me
>> Got told again and again, “I wish you’d done a keynote”
Day 5 and 6—
>> Rented a car for the second time in my life
>> Had a 48-hour love affair with a handsome stranger I met on the ferry
>> Stayed in a converted Airstream which isn’t linked because no one on Bowen Island wants anyone else to know about Bowen Island – don’t go, it’s terrible
>> Kayaked around the Salish Sea with the guy from the ferry
>> Took two 2-hour outdoor baths and tried (unsuccessfully) to listen to the trees like Mary Oliver writes about in her poems**
>> Played hours of retro Nintendo games in the Airstream
>> Optimistically purchased a 1000-piece puzzle on the way home
>> Fell into my bed at 12:10am last night
Every one of those bullet points is a story with rich characters and side plots. A book or two at least. I have a tiny hangover from the richness of my life right now. Life is doing life so good.
One of these days it’ll do life another way but with everything I’ve been through, maybe I’ll be okay.
On a business note, we’ve solidified our offer and sales strategy for Black Friday.
We’ve been doing Black Friday offers since 2018 and they’re always profitable. We sometimes double-dip, first with an October sale of our Black Friday Template Pack (which starts today, FYI), and then with a Black Friday promo of our own sometime in November. The digital-only version of Email Stars has always done well, though we’re trying something new this year.
Now is the time to be thinking about it if you plan to run a Black Friday promo.
A few weeks back on a membership call I bemoaned, “Are we really doing this again?” and two members piped up to tell me their point of entry into my world was our Black Friday sale. They were two of my oldest and bestest customers, and that was all I needed to hear.
One tweak we’re making this year is that you won’t get the promotion unless you click, “I want to hear about the Black Friday sale.”
Usually for promos we use implied consent, meaning unless you tell us you don’t want the promo, you get the promo. But for this one we’ll use express consent, meaning you have to tell us you want it in order to get it.
So click that link if you want to see it. We plan to send three emails on Black Friday (Nov 29) and that’s it. I’m also conceptualising Giving Tuesday, what charities I want to promote, and how. I have a few ideas percolating.
That’s it for this issue of Emails, But Better.
Hit “reply” if you have Big Black Friday Feelings you’re still working out. So here for that.
‘Till next week
Tarzan Kalryzian [she/they] |
*All I had was an oversized rugby shirt that no one would’ve even known was expensive The salesperson at Holts was so helpful I fell victim to the law of reciprocity and spent an embarrassing amount of money.
**From “At The River Clarion” by Mary Oliver:
You don’t hear them at all if selfhood has stuffed your ears
And it’s difficult to hear anything anyway, through
all the traffic, and ambition.
She was actually writing about the river, which would've been easier to hear. Maybe I’m not stuffed with selfhood after all. Everything is hard to hear above the Donkey Kong soundtrack so maybe that’s it.
