How do you do your email marketing?

[Ecom man]

So a little over a month ago I begin doing email marketing. With close to 2 million in sales via ecommerce last year I figured there is no time like the present. I'm currently using klaviyo and have all of their recommended flows set up . (Abandoned cart, abandoned browsers, upsell/cross sell, multibuys etc.) I just did my first regular email campaigns this last weekend.

So here is the question/ discussion to all of you experienced email marketers. What if any additional automated emails do you send to buyers/ sign ups and how often/ what do you send for email blasts?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ZeroTo100]

So a little over a month ago I begin doing email marketing. With close to 2 million in sales via ecommerce last year I figured there is no time like the present. I'm currently using klaviyo and have all of their recommended flows set up . (Abandoned cart, abandoned browsers, upsell/cross sell, multibuys etc.) I just did my first regular email campaigns this last weekend.

So here is the question/ discussion to all of you experienced email marketers. What if any additional automated emails do you send to buyers/ sign ups and how often/ what do you send for email blasts?

I tend to like email better than any other form of marketing - to be honest. I know social is huge and it's easier now than ever before to put yourself in front of your target demographic, but the truth is those networks have total control over your account. You can find yourself investing a boatload of time building out a following only to have your page shut down.

I have always favored doing viral campaigns for event launches or in this case product launches for growing my list where users share the page themselves to their friends and win things like skipping the line to buy, discounts, free product, etc...

In terms of how often I would send, I never liked the idea of pissing people off on my list by blasting them too often. I would send 2 or 3 poke emails (just what I call them) and then 1 sale email. I've seen companies like foundr blast people out and IM'ers sending 1 or 2 emails a day. Have you tracked what your competitors are doing?

 

[AllenCrawley]

So a little over a month ago I begin doing email marketing. With close to 2 million in sales via ecommerce last year I figured there is no time like the present. I'm currently using klaviyo and have all of their recommended flows set up . (Abandoned cart, abandoned browsers, upsell/cross sell, multibuys etc.) I just did my first regular email campaigns this last weekend.

So here is the question/ discussion to all of you experienced email marketers. What if any additional automated emails do you send to buyers/ sign ups and how often/ what do you send for email blasts?

Let's have lunch soon. I too use Klaviyo and we can compare notes and I'll give you a behind the scenes of what's working for us.

Our abandon cart flow is doing very well. I've also a few different followup flows for lead magnets that do very well.

We have a customer winback flow (two emails) that has successfully reactivated customers that haven't purchased in 90+ days.

I have a New Customer Email flow (one email) that thanks a first time customer. I do not attempt to sell anything in this email. I do not even link to products, just a web address but it has brought in over $300 in additional sales.

I have a repeat customer flow (one email) that thanks them for returning and how much it means to me. Again, no overt selling but it also has brought in over $300 in additional sales. These are not huge amounts by any means but I find it interesting a "thanks for being our customer" by the founder of the company with no sales message is actually pulling additional revenue.

We just finished our Labor Day Event email campaign which brought in a good number of sales. I segment our lists during these types of campaigns. I can send up to 10 emails during a campaign depending on how I segment or how many segments I'm targeting. Combine email countdown timers and on product page countdown timers and our conversion rates are pretty dog gone good.

Some stats from our Labor Day campaign:

• 37% email open rate
• 5% click thru rate
• 8.97% conversion rate
• 61% repeat customer rate

I usually have at least 3 campaigns per month.

I tend to like email better than any other form of marketing - to be honest.

As do I. I do use Instagram and Facebook combined with our email campaigns.

 

[Ecom man]

I tend to like email better than any other form of marketing - to be honest. I know social is huge and it's easier now than ever before to put yourself in front of your target demographic, but the truth is those networks have total control over your account. You can find yourself investing a boatload of time building out a following only to have your page shut down.

I have always favored doing viral campaigns for event launches or in this case product launches for growing my list where users share the page themselves to their friends and win things like skipping the line to buy, discounts, free product, etc...

In terms of how often I would send, I never liked the idea of pissing people off on my list by blasting them too often. I would send 2 or 3 poke emails (just what I call them) and then 1 sale email. I've seen companies like foundr blast people out and IM'ers sending 1 or 2 emails a day. Have you tracked what your competitors are doing?

Nope literally just got started so have no idea what competitors are doing.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ecom man]

Let's have lunch soon. I too use Klaviyo and we can compare notes and I'll give you a behind the scenes of what's working for us.

Our abandon cart flow is doing very well. I've also a few different followup flows for lead magnets that do very well.

We have a customer winback flow (two emails) that has successfully reactivated customers that haven't purchased in 90+ days.

I have a New Customer Email flow (one email) that thanks a first time customer. I do not attempt to sell anything in this email. I do not even link to products, just a web address but it has brought in over $300 in additional sales.

I have a repeat customer flow (one email) that thanks them for returning and how much it means to me. Again, no overt selling but it also has brought in over $300 in additional sales. These are not huge amounts by any means but I find it interesting a "thanks for being our customer" by the founder of the company with no sales message is actually pulling additional revenue.

We just finished our Labor Day Event email campaign which brought in a good number of sales. I segment our lists during these types of campaigns. I can send up to 10 emails during a campaign depending on how I segment or how many segments I'm targeting. Combine email countdown timers and on product page countdown timers and our conversion rates are pretty dog gone good.

Some stats from our Labor Day campaign:

• 37% email open rate
• 5% click thru rate
• 8.97% conversion rate
• 61% repeat customer rate

I usually have at least 3 campaigns per month.


As do I. I do use Instagram and Facebook combined with our email campaigns.

Wow those stats are super. I sent out one blast for Labor Day that did
16.7% open rate
1.9% clicked
3 sales
Granted this was the first email blast I've ever done so it was just sent out to anyone who has purchased so far this year which I'm sure isn't the best way to do it.

 

[johnp]

I just want to weigh in. I don't exactly do email marketing the same way as some people in the ecomm space, but some of my recommendations still apply. My response is based on:

- Doing email marketing for a SaaS

- Email marketing for a physical products business, but not a traditional ecomm store. I hate to use this word because I know that it's so hyped up right now but I send my ecomm traffic to funnels and use email marketing to support the buyer journey through the funnel.

- And my response is also based on things that I have learned at my day job at a transactional and email marketing platform.

klaviyo

I have heard great things about klaviyo. I personally like ActiveCampaign. But I do know that klaviyo is really good for ecomm stores.

So here is the question/ discussion to all of you experienced email marketers. What if any additional automated emails do you send to buyers/ sign ups and how often/ what do you send for email blasts?

I'm a big fan of behavioral based emails. I.e, if someone is on a landing page selling red baseball hats then they might get an email about the the red baseball hats. Or, I may even put them into a whole follow-up sequence if other various tags are triggered (all this assuming that I have their email to begin with).

how often/ what do you send for email blasts?

I guess that I have three types of email campaigns that I send.

1. Highly relevant sequences that are only sent to people based on an action that they took. Example - If someone opts-in to a discount then they will be entered into a follow-up sequence that only they will get, which is related to the discount. Think drip campaigns and marketing automation.

2. Behavioral based emails - This could be if they visit a certain page x number of times, bounce on the checkout page, etc...

3. Then I'll also send out email blasts to everyone. Sometimes as often as 5 days per week.

I also use email to warm up traffic. I like to think that web traffic comes in 3 different temperatures. Cold, warm, and hot. The first time that someone encounters your brand they are pretty cold. I use email (combined with custom audience ads on FB) to warm them up. But that's a whole different topic.

So, depending upon the business that I'm emailing for, and the nature of the consent from the subscriber - it's not uncommon for someone to receive more than 3 emails in a day from me. That doesn't always happen, it just depends on the subscriber's entry point into my funnel.

The less engaged you are with me, the less email that you're going to get. That's my general rule.

On another note, now speaking from some of my experiences of working in the industry:

Email clients like Gmail want to see engagement based messages. Meaning that you have super segmented lists and emails are sent based on engagement, which should be pretty easy for ecomm stores. The numbers are showing that email is moving in this direction and the general email blast is becoming less effective.

Personally, I don't think the email blast is ever going to die. You have to look at your own ROI on a blast and decide what to do. But with that said, I would definitely look into setting up a few really simple engagement based campaigns by sending email based on what users are doing. A simple low hanging fruit campaign is an Abandoned cart sequence.

Start with one follow-up email if someone bounced from the checkout page. Then get more advanced by adding in some rules like:

If user came back to site then tag them and put them difference bucket and into a difference sequence.

If user did not come back to site then send follow-up emails x, y, and/or z -- turn that single email that you started with into a sequence.

 

[johnp]

Wow those stats are super. I sent out one blast for Labor Day that did
16.7% open rate
1.9% clicked
3 sales
Granted this was the first email blast I've ever done so it was just sent out to anyone who has purchased so far this year which I'm sure isn't the best way to do it.

When you get more advanced with email, start split testing various layouts, design and copy.

1.9% click is good. I'd take that any day. But after some crazy split testing I managed to get over a 11.5% click rate on an email blast. So there is always room for improvement.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AllenCrawley]

I just want to weigh in. I don't exactly do email marketing the same way as some people in the ecomm space, but some of my recommendations still apply. My response is based on:

- Doing email marketing for a SaaS

- Email marketing for a physical products business, but not a traditional ecomm store. I hate to use this word because I know that it's so hyped up right now but I send my ecomm traffic to funnels and use email marketing to support the buyer journey through the funnel.

- And my response is also based on things that I have learned at my day job at a transactional and email marketing platform.



I have heard great things about klaviyo. I personally like ActiveCampaign. But I do know that klaviyo is really good for ecomm stores.



I'm a big fan of behavioral based emails. I.e, if someone is on a landing page selling red baseball hats then they might get an email about the the red baseball hats. Or, I may even put them into a whole follow-up sequence if other various tags are triggered (all this assuming that I have their email to begin with).



I guess that I have three types of email campaigns that I send.

1. Highly relevant sequences that are only sent to people based on an action that they took. Example - If someone opts-in to a discount then they will be entered into a follow-up sequence that only they will get, which is related to the discount. Think drip campaigns and marketing automation.

2. Behavioral based emails - This could be if they visit a certain page x number of times, bounce on the checkout page, etc...

3. Then I'll also send out email blasts to everyone. Sometimes as often as 5 days per week.

I also use email to warm up traffic. I like to think that web traffic comes in 3 different temperatures. Cold, warm, and hot. The first time that someone encounters your brand they are pretty cold. I use email (combined with custom audience ads on FB) to warm them up. But that's a whole different topic.

So, depending upon the business that I'm emailing for, and the nature of the consent from the subscriber - it's not uncommon for someone to receive more than 3 emails in a day from me. That doesn't always happen, it just depends on the subscriber's entry point into my funnel.

The less engaged you are with me, the less email that you're going to get. That's my general rule.

On another note, now speaking from some of my experiences of working in the industry:

Email clients like Gmail want to see engagement based messages. Meaning that you have super segmented lists and emails are sent based on engagement, which should be pretty easy for ecomm stores. The numbers are showing that email is moving in this direction and the general email blast is becoming less effective.

Personally, I don't think the email blast is ever going to die. You have to look at your own ROI on a blast and decide what to do. But with that said, I would definitely look into setting up a few really simple engagement based campaigns by sending email based on what users are doing. A simple low hanging fruit campaign is an Abandoned cart sequence.

Start with one follow-up email if someone bounced from the checkout page. Then get more advanced by adding in some rules like:

If user came back to site then tag them and put them difference bucket and into a difference sequence.

If user did not come back to site then send follow-up emails x, y, and/or z -- turn that single email that you started with into a sequence.

My head hurts.

@Ecom man what's the size of your list? How did you build it?

 

[johnp]

My head hurts.

Haha imagine working in the industry. Email is complicated. Not just form a marketing perspective but also from a deliverability and technical perspective. The way that you email a list of 5,000 subscribers can be different than how you email 83 million people. That's not to mention things like IP warmup, spoofing, traffic shaping, whitelabeling, etc...

I have a love hate relationship with email. I don't want to derail this thread, so to simplify what I said, my advice to anyone like ecom mman who is starting out with email is to:

1) Focus on keeping it simple.

2) Simple does not mean ONLY sending out email blasts because that's becoming less effective (in most cases).

3) Focus on building your email Sender Reputation in the early days by sending good, engagement based email. Some info about sender score (Link to hubspot's blog post)

 

[Ecom man]

My head hurts.

@Ecom man what's the size of your list? How did you build it?

Depend on which list lol. I use wheelie app to give away discounts/get emails. That list that spun but didn't purchase is 800. List of people who have made 1 purchase this year is 6500, people who bought 2+ time is 720.

For the Labor Day sell I sent out a blast to the 6500 people who have purchased from us in 2017. The stats in my previous post are from that blast.

I currently have 7 active flows in klaviyo for this particular site that is bringing in $600 a month in sales. I have another site that is doing better and the 7 flows are bringing in a little over 2k a month in sales.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[freddyshelton]

Email marketing can be embedded in SMS Marketing. For email marketing, we require email address. So, I collect the list of email address with the help SMS Marketing or text services survey.

 

[Sheps]

Gents if someone were brand spanking new to both E-com and email marketing, what resources would you suggest for getting their email game going?

I'll get Klavio, but it's the "what next" step that I'd like to get stuck in to. Speed through that learning curve, ya know?

 

[AllenCrawley]

Gents if someone were brand spanking new to both E-com and email marketing, what resources would you suggest for getting their email game going?

I'll get Klavio, but it's the "what next" step that I'd like to get stuck in to. Speed through that learning curve, ya know?

Do you already have a website up and running?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Sheps]

Do you already have a website up and running?

Coming this week. Should be up and running by the weekend (hoping to get some weekend IG shoutouts)

 

[AllenCrawley]

Coming this week. Should be up and running by the weekend (hoping to get some weekend IG shoutouts)

At minimum, I would have an email link sign up on your IG profile for those interested in knowing when you launch. IG stories teasing of the upcoming launch with CTA of signing up for launch notification. To sweeten the deal I'd also tell them you'll include a $10 gift card (or something of good perceived value).

 

[Sheps]

Any advice on where to learn about the content of the emails and the email sequences @AllenCrawley?

Thanks for the tip on the IG opt in!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Hvazquez07]

Active Campaign FTW. Depending on what entry-point they have (lead magnet, webinar, tutorial, etc), I send them a specific 10-day sequence (called Indoctrination) where I share some more value and pitch them with the first product of my funnel.

But I do agree that some people will open and click every email you send out, while others will just occupy space on your Autoresponder, so why treat them the same?

 

[AllenCrawley]

Any advice on where to learn about the content of the emails and the email sequences @AllenCrawley?

Thanks for the tip on the IG opt in!

I got some emails templates from Ezra Firestone. Klaviyo's blog is fantastic as well.