Service
You already paid for those customers. Write to them.
The names in your invoicing software already hired you once or asked for a price. We set up the sending, write the follow-ups and report in booked work, so the list stops being a spreadsheet nobody opens.
The list is probably sitting in your invoicing software.
Ask a service business about its email list and, in our experience, the answer is a shrug. Then you look in the invoicing software and find years of customers and a stack of estimates nobody followed up on. That's the list. It doesn't need a growth strategy before it needs a first email.
Before we send anything, we ask how those addresses were collected. What you're allowed to send, and to whom, is a question for your own counsel. Our own rule is shorter. We don't buy lists, and we don't write to people who have asked us to stop.
New names have to come from somewhere, and the website is the obvious place. In our Phoenix-area sample of 487 business sites, 31% had a form of any kind on the homepage, a count that lumps newsletter sign-ups in with quote requests. We didn't measure other pages. On the homepage, at least, most of these businesses weren't asking anyone for an address. Every website package we sell includes lead form capture, so a new site can start asking on day one.
Three emails we'd write before any newsletter.
The estimate follow-up. A short note a few days after a quote goes out, from a person's name, asking if there are questions. HomeService WebApp, a product we redesigned end to end, runs on the same idea: it watches outstanding estimates and flags the stale ones. For ServiceTitan shops, estimate follow-up has its own page.
The reminder. The filter, the tune-up, the annual inspection. You know when the next visit comes due and the customer has no idea. Written once and sent by date, it's the kind of chore automation is good for.
The note after the job. Thanks, the paperwork, and a link for a Google review. It goes to everyone, including the customer who might have a complaint. You'd rather hear that by reply than read it in public. A seasonal message can come after those, if you have something useful to say in it. We'd send fewer emails and have them read before we'd fill a calendar for its own sake. Good content gives a newsletter something to carry when you do want one.
An email nobody receives is a very private newsletter.
Good writing is wasted in a spam folder, so the plumbing comes first. The sending domain gets SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. We separate marketing mail from the receipts and confirmations your business can't afford to lose. And we clean the list. If the mail your website sends has already stopped arriving, that's a repair, and it comes before any campaign.
We have firm opinions on list hygiene because we built a product for it. Email List Refresh scrubs dead, invalid and bounce-prone addresses in bulk and syncs with Mailchimp, Klaviyo, SendGrid and ActiveCampaign. Addresses go bad on their own schedule. A list nobody has touched in years deserves suspicion before it gets a send.
Each campaign we set up carries a working unsubscribe link and your mailing address. We also wired email marketing into the platform we built and maintain for Jin Shin Jyutsu Inc., so it runs on the same platform as the rest of the operation.
Reported in work, with the soft numbers kept in their place.
An open rate is a soft number. It can tell you a subject line landed, and it can't tell you anyone hired you. So the monthly report leads with replies, booked work and repeat customers, then shows opens and clicks underneath for whoever likes them. Clicks run through the same conversion tracking as the rest of your marketing where your setup allows it. Unsubscribes go in the report too, since those are people telling you something.
We can't promise what a list will do. A few hundred past customers of a company with repeat work is a different asset from a few thousand addresses of unknown origin, and we'd rather tell you which one you have.
What it costs, and when not to bother.
Email marketing is ongoing marketing work, from $575 a month, priced by complexity, setup and budget. Your email platform bills you for its own subscription. If the platform you have works, we'll usually keep it. See the pricing page for the published rates.
If you sell something a customer buys once in a generation, a monthly newsletter is a lot of effort to stay remembered. A follow-up on open estimates may be all you need, and we'd start there. If you have no past customers yet, you need search or ads first. Email is a poor way to meet strangers.
How it works
From a messy export to a working list.
Dig out the addresses
We pull names from your invoicing software, booking tool and old exports, ask how they were collected, and clean out the dead ones.
Fix the sending
Domain authentication, a platform that fits your list, and marketing mail split from receipts and confirmations. Then a few test sends to real inboxes.
Write the follow-ups
Estimate follow-up, service reminder, after-the-job note. Short and in your voice. You read and approve each one before it goes out.
Send, read the replies, adjust
Each month you get a report on replies, booked work and unsubscribes. We rewrite what's being ignored and retire what isn't earning its send.
They made the technical side feel clear.
We talked about goals first — then platforms, content, search, and automation.
First class all the way!
From the prompt communication, being available seven days a week, to the nuts and bolts of getting our project completed on time and on budget — I highly recommend!
What feeds the list, and what counts it.
Content Marketing
Pages written to be found, read, and cited, one real subject at a time.
Conversion Tracking & Analytics
GTM, pixels, and call tracking, set up and tested so the counts mean something.
Market & Competitor Research
Know the field before you spend on it. Real analysis, not a hunch with a deck.
Price it in a minute
See what an email program starts at.
A few taps and the starting price is on screen. Tell us roughly how many past customers you have and what software they live in. The developer follows up by phone, text or email, your choice.
- Every price published on the pricing page
- 0% financing with 25% down. Financed projects are hosted on the DataCram platform for the length of the plan. Shopify stores can't be financed.
- One developer from first call to launch
What do you want help with?
Where should we focus? (pick any)
Locations
Rather talk? (480) 525-7582. 0% financing on any project, 25% down. See all pricing
Email Marketing: questions we hear a lot.
Which email platform should we use?
The one that fits your list size, your budget and what you want automated. We work with common platforms like Mailchimp and Klaviyo. If yours already works, moving it would be a cost with no reason behind it, so we'd usually stay put.
How often should we send?
Less often than you fear, and only when there's a reason. Most service businesses, in our view, do better with messages set off by something real, such as an estimate going out or a service coming due, plus the occasional seasonal note. Content you've already written can give those notes something to say.
Why do our emails land in spam?
We'd check domain authentication and list quality first, since those are the usual suspects in our experience. The fix is SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, a list with the dead addresses gone, and marketing mail kept apart from receipts. If the emails your site sends have stopped too, see website email not sending.
Can we email the customers we already have?
That depends on how you collected the addresses and what you're sending, and it's a question for your counsel. We aren't lawyers. What we can tell you is what we do: each campaign has a working unsubscribe link and your mailing address, and we don't use purchased lists.
How much does email marketing cost?
From $575 a month, priced by complexity, setup and budget. Your email platform charges separately for its subscription. Details are on the pricing page.
Who writes the emails?
We do, and you approve them. They come out short and plain, in something close to the way you talk. A note that reads like a person wrote it stands a better chance, in our view, than one that reads like a coupon flyer.
Start with the customers who already know you.
Tell us where your customer list lives and how much of your work repeats. We'll tell you which emails we'd write first and what the setup costs.