Here’s the problem I had.  I was using lots of different tools for email marketing purposes.  I had an email provider; MailChimp, a CRM; Contactually and finally, a drip tool; Woodpecker for slowly dripped content.

None of these tools were talking to each other, my lists were not segmented well, and updates were not happening across all tools when an unsubscribe happened or an email bounced.

I needed a single solution, here’s the background to my problem and eventually what I did.

Problem With CRM Tool

I used Contactually, it was great it kept all my communications with a client or potential client in one place.  I could not send out a bulk email due to daily sending limits.

There was no automated unsubscribe so I was manually removing people from my list.

Problem With Email Tool

MailChimp is great for sending out newsletters, and it has automated tasks to a certain level, but it did not do my 90 days reach out well (see below).  It could do drip work for lead magnets and onboarding.

Using it as a CRM was none existent.

Problem With Drip Tool

I can send out automated 90 days reach outs, drip campaigns to onboard new maintenance clients and my email course “So you are hiring a developer for the first time”.

The drip tool was limited to a certain number of email sends per day so bulk sends were not possible.

I could record client details in a section called snippets.

My ARS Process

I have a continuous quality improvement process going on in my business called ARS, which stands for automating, reducing and systematising.  My email marketing was in dire need of an ARS review (I’m 46 and sniggering like a schoolboy as I write ARS review).

Automate – I want all of my email marketing to be automated.

Reduce – I want one service not three for my email marketing.

Systematise – I want repeatable processes for sending emails and adding new leads/clients to that process.

I wrote about my ARS process in depth in this post Kiss my ARS

My Email Marketing Needs

Here are my needs for mail marketing.

Newsletters – I want to send out a weekly bulk email to my mailing list when I publish a new blog post

90 day reach out – I send out a reminder email every 90 days to my clients to check if they need any help with their WordPress site, it’s a light touch courtesy email.  I have approximately 3500 people on my list, so I send out 50 reminders per day, this, in turn, keeps my funnel full and a steady stream of work is generated.  I’ll write about the benefit of automated reach out in its own blog post next week.

SYAHD – this is a lead magnet email course that is dripped out over 5 days, one email per day. You can check out my free course So You Are Hiring A Developer? Avoid The Pit Falls!

Maintenance onboarding – this is a 6-day onboarding email series explaining aspects of my maintenance plan.

Sales and Offers – much like a newsletter I want to send out offers and sales en-mass as a bulk email.

Over and above sending out emails I also have some organisational needs for my email marketing.

Segmenting – I want to segment the people on my lists into maintenance clients, people at the top of my sales funnel who I don’t want to bombard with sales messages, one-off project clients and potential clients.

Automated cleaning – I want to clean my list automatically and not have to edit things by hand.  I want an unsubscribe so people can opt out if they don’t like my work or need my services.  I want to remove bounced or false email addresses.

Status – I want to be able to add a status to an email address if they reacting in a certain way, for example, if they respond to a marketing message, or if they are douche bags and I want to blacklist them 🙂

My Solution

The penny dropped when my drip solution Woodpecker created an integration with a bulk send service mailgun.com so the sending limit was lifted and I could send bulk emails.  I brought everything into Woodpecker. And dropped MailChimp and Contactually.

Email capture – all of my emails are captured by forms created using Gravity Forms.  I have the Zapier addon installed so all captured emails are pushed into Woodpecker.  I can tag and

I can create basic CRM features by recording the last work request against their record.

Newsletters – I can create a new campaign and send out details of my latest blog posts to my full list.

SYAHD – I’ve created a 5-day campaign which drip feeds my course, I have a Gravity Form which connects to that campaign.

Maintenance Onboarding – I have a 6-day drip campaign which sends out details of my maintenance plan to new clients such as reporting issues, invoicing, the work we will do etc.

Offers – It’s coming up to Cyber Monday so I can send out a bulk email to my entire list.

Woodpecker automatically updates bad emails, offers unsubscribe links and

It’s Not Perfect

I only have basic CRM features, I don’t have an entire history of contacts, but to be perfectly honest just the last request for work is enough.

Wrap up – How I Combined CRM and Email Marketing Into One Tool

Tidying things up and automating things in my business is a very satisfying thing for me, as a solopreneur having tools in place that free up my time is a great thing.

The fewer things I need to do means more billable time. Having a full funnel of leads is a very reassuring thing, but more about that next week.

Photo Credit: onecog2many Flickr via Compfight cc