Bloggity bloggity blog. I’ve been writing here for (redacted) year and see no end in sight. I love blogging and I’d totally do it in a vacuum, but this tribe of bloggy people I’ve been able to connect with? I’m so grateful to have found them. Hands down the best thing about blogging is all the people I’ve met because of it. And I got to spend last Saturday morning with a bunch of them! Yay!
The most recent AZ Blogger Meetup event was in partnership with Say Hi Society and it was a whirlwind! Say Hi Society puts together mini conferences with speakers to help bloggers and other influencers improve their game. The AZ Blogger Meetup group provides a network for local influencers so we can support one another. I’ve been to so many events over the years and am a big fan.
(I’m also friends with the organizers of both groups, though, so I’m a little biased.)
By the way, that little booklet in the first pic? It’s from Chatbooks and we each got one. It’s like a tiny yearbook for the event, with everyone’s photos and contact info and space to take notes. So handy! I’ve already used it to get in touch with and follow some new friends.
After some meet and greet time, we heard a presentation from the founders of Mommy Mailbox (which I now totally want a subscription to) about marketing and collaboration strategies they’ve used successfully. Then we took a break to be pampered a bit. Reachel of Cardigan Empire provided color draping and style profiling for everyone, and Lindsey of Painting You Pretty gave us mini makeovers and makeup tips.
Turns out I am a “clear spring” and look fabulous with a grey cat eye. Two thumbs up for learning new things and feeling pretty!
Next Matt, the chief marketing officer from Tanga, shared some great tips on email marketing. He gave me so much food for thought…but I’ll come back to that in a minute. Because first: food.
To be honest, I should’ve eaten breakfast before I went. Stonyfield provided the most delicious yogurt for us to snack on at the beginning, but by the time lunch rolled around I was getting pretty hangry. Breastfeeding a 20 lb baby will do that to a person. Kneaders to the rescue! Sandwiches and pastries galore! Huzzah!
I promise I don’t just go to events because of the food…but I’ll also confess having good food isn’t going to hurt your chances of getting me there. Also those little fruit tartlets are life changing. Just saying.
We got swag bags filled with Happy Socks, BabyLit board books, and a darling mug from Kern + Flourish (who was also there and is a delightful human being). There was a photo booth, obvs, and a corner to paint your nails and get your hair braided by Harley, who is a hair genius…basically we got all kind of spoiled. Add that to spending a few hours sans kiddos with so many of my blogger friends, and it made for a lovely Saturday morning.
Back to the email thing, though. I’ve really been thinking about it since last weekend and would love to hear your input.
Feisty Harriet and I got to talking about how we’ve both been purging our inboxes and unsubscribing from most of the email lists we’re on. If I don’t want to be bombarded by emails, why would I turn around and bombard my readers with them? It seemed a little disingenuous.
And yet, as Matt said, those of you who read my blog–you people are great, by the way, and your hair looks marvelous today!–you’re already invested and interested in whatever it is I’m providing here. If emails add more value to what you’re already getting here, wouldn’t you want that? I’m intrigued by the idea of maybe a quarterly newsletter, or using email to better engage with y’all.
Honestly, I avoid subscribing to emails when possible. Maybe I’m one of the rare few, though, and other people prefer getting stuff sent straight to their inbox.
So assuming you slogged through this whole post, I’d love some feedback. Would you subscribe to an email list if I had one? What kind of stuff would you like to see on it? Be honest; if you’re totally opposed to newsletters I want to know. The last thing I want is to waste any of our time! Which team are you on: team email or team unsubscribe?
Big thanks to Chrissy of Let Me See You Sparkle Photography for providing all the photos you see here. And another big thanks to all the generous sponsors of this event. Getting #PamperedByPampers was delightful!
Well, you know my opinion on emails. I’ve also been thinking about this though, if you had DIFFERENT content than what I already see (blog, twitter, instagram), I’d for sure be interested. But as I already follow and comment and like and whatever on those accounts, if it’s just a “here’s what you missed!” I’m less interested, because I didn’t miss it. Ya know?
xox
I’ve had many of the same thoughts about a newsletter (which is why I haven’t had one. . . ), but he really did help me think through a lot of things.
So glad you came!
I’m glad I came too, even if I got nothing out of it but a morning with tasty snacks and no kids! Fortunately I came away with more than that, but you know what I mean. I’m an easy customer to please. And we should talk shop one of these days. I’m clueless and can use all the advice I can get!
I kinda feel the same about emails…. I usually don’t subscribe to ’em, and when I accidentally do, I usually never open them. But yeah, it seems like he made a lot of good points about them, so I’m a little confused/torn.
Right? It was such a good presentation, and if I were really trying hard to market myself I’d be all over it. I’m slow to adapt new stuff anyway, though, so maybe in another decade I’ll start doing emails. Ha!
First of all: Arizona bloggers are way cooler than Indiana bloggers.
Secondly, I hate email newsletters that then require you to click over to the site. I feel like they’re just doing it to get more clicks/money. Over the years, I have unsubscribed from all but two sites that require clicking over rather than reading in email or in a feed reader. But I know you’re working to really grow your site, so that may just be the business-y avenue that it needs. 🙂 Either way, those are my two cents BUT I will always click over for you because I love you to pieces.
I cringe when people want me to “click to read more!” Ugh. I think if I did do an email, it’d be unique content and any links would likely be to old related posts (like I do in regular posts) or to other people (again, like I do anyway). I know more clicks and pageviews = more money, but I don’t want to do things that make me feel shady just to make a buck.
And I’m glad you’d click over for me. I have a fan! 😉
Ugh, my thoughts exactly. I’m so torn about newsletters. Matt made me think I need one, but all other times I hate the idea… Blogging is weird. But blog friends are the best!
Team unsubscribe, for sure, but I’ll read anything you write in your blog! ☺
I think for me to sign up for an email newsletter I need to be getting something really worth my while! Something that will truly benefit me. I unsubscribe all the time, because I hate getting a bunch of mail clogging up my inbox.
On a side note, you are so luck you live near such a good network of blogging! I just moved to Indiana from Utah and I seriously took for granted the blogging network back in Utah. Indiana has almost nothing!! I feel like the odd one out, out here 🙂
Also, I’ve been seeing a lot of you on Instagram and I love it!
http://www.caseylandblog.blogspot.com
I’m with you: unless I’m getting super discounts or useful info, I’m out. Oh email. Why you gotta be so great and so obnoxious at the same time?
AZ has so many creative people, it blows my mind sometimes. I really am so lucky to be part of this community. You and Rachael should get together and help Indiana step it up!
#unsubscribeallthethings!
Really though, I’m a super bad email reader. I like email to just be a place for conversations/business. I love following bloggers on Facebook to know they’ve updated their blog. That is the #1 thing that gets me to read blog posts.
Good thing I recently made a FB page, huh? 🙂 I kid…except not really. I’m the same way. One more “no emails” vote!
Matt shared some really great thoughts. And I always feel bad trying to build my email list subscriber when I never subscribe. 😉 Good things to think about…