eric rochow

It seems the prevailing attitude is that Email is Dead. I find the contrary to be true. Email works great for reaching out to regular viewers of Gardenfork and Real World Green, and causes more people to visit our community site, The Greenhouse.

In every episode of Gardenfork and Real World Green, I mention that people can sign up for our weekly email newsletter with the email address on the lower third of the video.

When an email is sent to that address, an autoresponse is generated that includes a link to sign up on our web page on Constant Contact.

I started using Constant Contact after receiving a few emails from people using their service. I really like how they’ve got their site organized. A simple Drag and Drop system allows you to build an email to your liking. It allows me to build HTML emails from well designed templates, and if you are good at HTML or CSS, you can get up under the hood of the templates and customize them.

You upload your existing email list, and set up the automated sign up page that new subscribers use. You can ask for all sorts of demographic information or none at all. I ask for a name, city, state, and how they found out about the show, but do not require any information to subscribe, as I think that drives people away.

On most of their templates is a button to forward the email to friends, and another one to sign up to receive the newsletter.

The site also provides customizable Subscribe buttons you can put on your site. On Gardenfork the sign up button is right below the video player.

click the button to see how this works

Our email list is not large, but it is effective, especially with people who are not on Facebook. It is a personal way for me to reach out to viewers, and I see the effect the email has by the responses I get.

Don’t rule out email as a way to reach out to people, especially those outside the 2.0 fishbowl.