If you’re on Instagram you'll probably follow Carol, most people do! Her folk art nature inspired designs and surface patterns have a cult following and her products are all truly beautiful.
Carol approached me to help her create and build a regular newsletter. Like many business owners she wanted to be able to keep in contact with followers, without relying on solely social media accounts owned by large companies. Building an email list and keeping your readers inspired and entertained is key to helping build your brand and customer retention.
It's safe to say Carol and I took our time behind the scenes planning the newsletter and testing different formats. We wanted to make sure we got the design and the layout right from the offset, in order to keep the consistency of what has become a beautiful and inspirational newsletter.
Maggie Magoo Designs
Maggie Magoo Mail - Spring Newsletter
I suggested to Carol that she saw her newsletter as a magazine, with regular articles that her readers could come to expect and enjoy. Since getting out into nature and walking with Maggie is one of Carol’s main hobbies and inspirations for her work, every edition has a section on her latest adventures, so her readers can watch the seasons change and the inspiration for her designs unfold. I even suggested she creates a colour palette from these walks, which she does and kindly offers the readers the opportunity to use them as inspiration for their creative work too.
Her extensive collection of vintage crockery is also featured in every edition and Carol talks about the pieces, their history and where she salvaged them from. Carol also shares her love of other independent businesses - every edition of Maggie Magoo Mail showcases several other artists. Of course there's always also some product promotion involved and sometimes even first access and sneaks peaks too!
We decided it was a nice relaxing read, so Sunday evenings would be a lovely time to put them out into the world. And we were right, with an average open rate of 67.3% (for context the Mailchimp average is 21.33%!) and some lovely feedback from Carol’s subscribers from all over the world, we are definitely on the right track!
Ultimately I think a newsletter should enhance your brand, let your inner circle get to know you more and make your readers feel something! In Carol's case I think that feeling is being at one with nature - and what a wonderful world we live in! I know that after seeing them go out into the wild, I always feel like I want to go for a forage in the forests or a day trip to the coast myself!
