Every Monday, we send the newest Founders Letter to everyone on our email list. You can subscribe to the list here.
There are really two types of people who journal…
The ones who follow a specific rhythm and framework and the ones who just free flow. What matters is finding what works best for you. To be up front, this particular weekly email is going to be way more of a free flow. That’s intentional. This is a space to chronicle the journey. You’re essentially reading our actual thoughts and experiences of building an email marketing agency.
The idea comes from what’s called the “build in public” initiative. Usually, it’s tech companies that engage in this practice. The founder decides to press launch by announcing some janky software program they cooked up and are launching in alpha or beta version.
However, we see this more as a shareholder’s letter.
(By the way, if you haven’t read the Amazon shareholder letters over the years, you can get them online. Worth reading.)
And our shareholder letter is our way of communicating what’s happening at Red Kraken Creative, along with discussing larger business principles.
Make sense so far?
It’s also us using the same strategy we deliver for you. We ought to drink our own medicine, after all.
Email, at least weekly.
Personality-driven.
Text-focused.
With a call to action.
Now with a light preamble out of the way, let me take you…
Behind the Scenes Before Pressing Launch
The idea for Red Kraken Creative came from frustration. There was a gap in the marketing ecosystem for law firms. Still exists, of course, but we intend to close it.
Email marketing.
Most firms use it sparingly, if at all.
However, email is a stupendous marketing channel. Significant rates of return. Unfortunately, it’s not glamorous. You don’t have the ability to “go viral” with email, and people sure do love seeing the impressions counter tick up on social media posts. But the same thing that allows you to go viral on social is the same reason you’re always at risk: the algorithm. One day you’re in front of the largest audience you’ve ever experienced, the next day you’re “throttled” and can’t come close to even your past average.
Social media encourages gaming the system and gimmicks. It teaches marketers to ignore fundamentals in favor of cheap tricks.
Email, on the other hand, is about the fundamentals done right over a long period of time.
But getting back to us pressing launch…
We realized this gap needed to be filled and we could fill it in way that was good for us and for the law firms we work with.
Now, at the time, we were also in the process of building the Catalyst program for Law Firm Alchemy, developing a new course, planning out mastermind meetings, and being attentive parents/spouses in our respective families. This just meant building core pieces behind the scenes. Develop the business model, handle the partnership contract, set up bank accounts, create the website, etc.
Because both of us have high standards and operate with intention, we checked extra boxes before pressing launch.
This wasn’t going to be a half-hearted “let’s see what happens” moment.
It was/is a flag planted.
We set up Red Kraken Creative to be the real deal from day one. Well-considered onboarding. Strong set of writers. Processes that work.
And that’s why we’re excited it is finally here.
We’re ready.
We saw the gap.
We built exactly how we wanted the gap to be filled.
And now it’s time to bring even greater success to the law firm owners who work with us.
You’ll see a lot of lessons coming up from before the launch, ranging from values alignment to figuring out our marketing message. It’s going to be fairly candid. That’s the point. Let’s enjoy the journey and share it with you, our shareholders. You “invested” when you jumped on the list.
And hopefully…