The subtle art of making the most of your list without spamming. Let’s rewind. And go back to the basics. Do you know the difference between email campaigns and email flows?
Email campaigns are broadcasted emails.
And flows are basically automation.
With email campaigns, you decide when you contact your subscribers. And flows are triggered by the action they take. If you’re still unsure check out the material on Klaviyo’s website because the main topic of this post is gonna be email campaigns.
Time for the advanced stuff
You might be thinking that email campaigns are not really worth it and will just result in a break-even outcome at best. And the truth is… you may be right! If you still need to optimize and properly scale your client acquisition process (a.k.a. The front end) it’s best to focus on that.
However, if client acquisition is like an automated money-making machine for you and you are looking to build your brand equity, as well as maximising the revenue you can make with your existing customer base, then email campaigns can be one of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal.
Here’s your brand new checklist on how to send campaigns properly:
Create an actual plan in Google Sheets
Focus on your most engaged subscribers
Mix up content and sales
Think about upsell opportunities and segment accordingly
Consider using Reveal to learn more about your subscriber base (it’s free until January 2021)
Focus on your best selling product(s)
Consider running a sales event once a month (even if there is nothing to celebrate)
Truly consider the tone of voice for your audience. What kind of language are they using? Do they respond more to visuals or powerful copy?
Use smart send time to find out the best time to contact your list
Decide your main focus on ratios. Short term revenue vs long term branding. What is the main priority? Is it 90:10 or more like 60:40? Decide.
The checklist is quite long, right? Let me elaborate a little more on a few of the checkpoints. One of the biggest game-changers for us recently has been to truly research your customer base. Find out what else are they interested in (apart from your product) and talk to them about these things.
This is actually a really powerful networking best practice too. When you see someone you want to connect with. And they are famous for this one thing. If you ask them about that they will put you in the ‘fangirl’ category. However, if you ask them about this one thing they secretly (at least they think so) are passionate about, their eyes will light up and they cannot shut up.
You can apply this to your subscribers too.
For example, we have a Paint On-Demand client for whom we started sending content emails about famous female artists/painters from the past, and here is a really interesting case study about this client. The audience is mostly female and obviously has at least some interest in art history. These emails are absolutely killing it.
We also work with a British fashion store with a hipster vibe. And then when we thought about it we realised that the PDE (Primary Driver of Emotion) for them is tattoos and Rock & Roll. So we just started writing about our favourite Rock & Roll bands and the coolest tattoo ideas of 2020.
Let’s talk about segmentation
The 2 big categories of segmentation we tend to focus on is email engagement and purchasing history. This perfectly illustrates the all-time dilemma of email marketers. On the one hand, we wanna help our client make as much money as possible today. But on the other hand, we also want to make sure that people are actually interested in the content we are sending so that they keep paying attention to us in the long term.
As Gary Vee says: “The currency of business is attention.” And before you stone me for mentioning his name, he is right, because money follows attention. So what does that mean for your email campaign strategy? If you focus on short term hot money and only send promo emails you might make good returns in the first weeks or months. But it is just a matter of time before you totally burn out your email list.
Because here is what will happen:
People will start associating your emails with right hooks (calls to action, aka basically asking you to buy something).
Therefore they will start losing attention.
And you will start losing money (in the medium-to-long-run).
This is why we also have to take into consideration the long term effects of your actions.
Now, if you make $16,743 per month with a generic dropshipping store that sells any shiny object you see on AliExpress, chances are you should not focus on sending interesting content via email campaigns. Just wanted to clarify with this caveat. Back to those that have an actual brand.
And you realise that “Engaged in the last 30 days” is not the only segment you should utilise, now ask yourself:
What are product combinations that keep getting repeated?
What are the products that people tend to buy together?
Google Analytics is your best friend when thinking about these. Do you have a necklace, a ring, and a bracelet with the same theme? Which one sells the most? The necklace? Okay good. Here is what you do:
You target people who already bought the necklace and have not bought the other 2.
You create a segment in Klaviyo (obviously you use Klaviyo).
And you send an email to your necklace buyers.
Hey there!
I hope you are loving your necklace.
I love this product because of X, Y, Z.
Anyway.
I wanted to let you know that there is something else we have that you might like.
Well.
2 things actually.
This bracelet.
[PRODUCT IMAGE]
And this ring.
[PRODUCT IMAGE]
And here is what they can look like ALL TOGETHER.
[EPIC IMAGE CONTAINING ALL 3 PRODUCTS]
[CALL TO ACTION BUTTON]
Boom. There goes your million dollar one-shot-one-kill email campaign. This requires proper effort to create all the content and truly analyse buying patterns. And this is the point! It is supposed to be hard.
So just to recap
Here is what you should pay attention to when thinking of your monthly email campaign strategy:
Create the plan
Focus on people who actually read your content
Offer a lot of value first. And then promote.
Think about upsell opportunities and segment accordingly
Consider using Reveal to learn more about your subscriber base
Focus on your winners.
Sales events.
Master the tone of voice.
Use smart send time to find out the best time to contact your list.
Decide if you want to maximise profits or build your brand.
Let me know in the comments which of these steps you are most uncertain about.
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