Email Marketing Solutions

In the ecommerce world the email argument tends to revolve around “designed” emails vs text-based emails. Should you go with highly designed, pretty emails or emails that are written like a letter?

I have my own opinions on this… but for today I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter which route you go with if you don’t get these three things right.

Email is powerful because your messages can be tailored specifically to customers in different phases of their journey.

Specific messages to top of funnel (TOF) audiences but different messages to middle of funnel (MOF) or bottom of funnel (BOF).

Or looking at it from the five stages of customer awareness, you can send specific messages to your problem/solution aware audience, your product aware audience, and your most aware audience.

BUT FIRST… these three pillars right.

Let’s dive in.
First Pillar – Deliverability
Emails are wasted when they wind up in the SPAM folder. The promotions tab is a little bit better, but still not ideal.

You need your emails to land in the primary inbox in order for the best chance that they are opened, read and clicked.

Hitting the inbox is not some magical act. Gmail doesn’t use a randomizer to determine which emails land in the inbox, promotion, or SPAM folders.

There are a few concrete steps you can take to improve your deliverability, land in the inbox, and make more sales!

The first step is to make sure you have your sender policy framework (SPF), domainkeys identified mail (DKIM), and domain-based message authentication, reporting, and conformance (DMARC) set up.

If you are using Klayivo as your email service provider (ESP), set up a dedicated sending domain using the steps that they provide. This will take care of SPF and DKIM set up. DMARC will have to be done manually.

If you are using Active Campaign, MailChimp, or another ESP, look into their help articles to find out how to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

DMARC has been the forgotten middle child of these three acronyms. If you have SPF and DKIM set up correctly, DMARC is the final gatekeeper and often doesn’t have much work to do. But… as SPAM becomes more prevalent and the need for email authentication is more important, 2023 is DMARC’s time to shine.

Next set up a BIMI – brand indicators for message identification.

BIMI serves as yet another way to authenticate your mail AND it helps you stand out in the inbox.

BIMI is the picture that shows up in that little circle next to the from line of an email when viewed on a mobile device.

If 2023 is DMARC’s time to shine… BIMI will be it’s dance partner.

Once you have all of these technical elements set up it’s time to focus on two key aspects of your email body.

First – make sure to have alt text for EVERY picture in your email. Accessibility is important and email providers check to see if it’s there.

SO for both deliverability purposes and to make sure that everyone on your list can enjoy your emails, make sure to have robust alt text for every image.

Second – pay attention to SPAM words. You can find lists of SPAM words in various places and many are going to be obvious.

But the list is long and some words seem fine. Mailmeteor dot com has a list of 750+ words that could trigger SPAM for instance.

Here are a few innocent words that land on that list:

certified
click
expire
finance
free
limited time
off
phone

The list goes on. You might read this and think… well there’s nothing that I can write that won’t trigger the SPAM filter.

But here’s what’s important. Thankfully SPAM filters are more complex. They don’t move every email with the work “free” into the SPAM folder. There are other factors that are taken into account.

For example, sender reputation and context are both important.

So pay attention to these SPAM words. Use them sparingly. Try to avoid them in your subject line as much as possible.
Second Pillar – Segmentation
If you spent 2022 blasting your entire list and getting low (sub 20%) open rates and poor click rates… then this is the year to start segmenting.

While you may want to show off with the size of your list… it’s not pure size that makes a difference. It’s the engagement.

You’re going to have a segment of your list that is simply there because they signed up for your initial offer and then have ignored your emails ever since.

Or maybe you have a segment who was initially engaged, but then never purchased and they went from a MOF audience to a TOF audience. Maybe they found another product that solved their problem.

Either way you have people on your list who are UNENGAGED. Sending them emails is a waste of time and money.

The first thing you should do is set up an engaged segment and an unengaged segment for your list.

Then stop sending mail to the unengaged segment. Johnny, who hasn’t opened or clicked on an email in 6 months, isn’t going to open tomorrow’s email and buy something.

Sending to your engaged segment does two things.

First – it tells Google, Apple, Outlook, Yahoo and the other email providers that people want to open, click, and engage with your email. So there’s a higher likelihood that the email lands in the inbox.

Second – it allows you to trim the fat off your list. ESPs like Klaviyo and Active Campaign charge you based on the number of active subscribers you have. So if you suppress the people are are unengaged, you’re going to save money every month.

After you have your initial segments (engaged and unengaged) set up, you can break down the engaged segment into different groups.

People that have never purchased, purchased once, purchased multiple times, purchased a low value item, purchased a high value item, subscribed to a service, VIP customer, viewed a particular product…. Etc. etc.

Each of these smaller segments can get different targeted messages.

You should send your MOF audience (engaged people who haven’t purchased) different messaging than your BOF audience (people who have purchased at least once).

And you should send your VIP customers different messages than people who have purchased one low value item.

The more people get customized messages that make them thing “wow this was sent JUST to me!” the better your results are going to be.

Eventually, if you wanted to revisit those unengaged subscribers before suppressing them, you can work on a sunset flow or a winback flow to try and re-engage them.
Third Pillar – Cadence
People signed up for your list to get your emails. And your including an unsubscribe link in the event that they change their mind.

So the worst thing you can do for your email marketing strategy is to NOT send emails.

Make sure you have a campaign calendar set up at least two months in advance and that you are sending a MINIMUM of one email per week. I would argue that it should be at least two or three per week.

Build in “value” emails along with “promotional” emails. You’re going to churn and burn your list if you only send “FLASH SALE” emails.

Now “value” emails should still be selling. They just do it through a different method. By providing entertainment, education, or inspiration… you can provide value AND sell your product or service.

I wouldn’t send more than 1 “FLASH SALE” email for every 3 “value” emails.

Lastly, make sure you are testing sending times and days.

Figuring out when your list is most active in their inbox can lead to massive results.

Is sending on a Tuesday or Wednesday better? Is your list active on the weekends? Is a morning send better or an evening send?

These are things you just have to test and optimize.
In Summary
TL;DR

Improve deliverability through setting up SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and BIMI
Send to your engaged segment
Create a campaign calendar, send more emails, test sending times and days

How quick can you see results if you put these steps in place?

For one client, we saw open and click through rates TRIPLE immediately after segmenting. And within 2 months we almost doubled revenue from email.

For another client, after setting up a dedicated sending domain, segmenting, and creating campaign calendars, we 5x’ed the percentage of revenue from email within 3 months.

You implement these results in Q1 and you’ll set yourself up for success for the rest of 2023.