Email Marketing Solutions

When was the last time you sent an email without some form of promotion, sale, or special holiday?

Having worked with multiple ecommerce brands, I’ve experienced first-hand how the promotion calendar drives the email calendar.

Which is backwards.

You shouldn’t be creating new promotions every month just to have email content.

Focus on your email content first and then figure out where a promotion or a sale would fit appropriately. 

Of course, there will be big promotions that supersede this rule and you plan email around it. (Black Friday/Cyber Monday for example, Holidays, or any special dates specific to your brand.) But these should be the exception, not the rule.

Instead, use these 7 ideas to create email content that will educate, inspire, and entertain your subscribers. And of course, each one has a CTA. 

Because even when you focus on sending “value” emails, you should still be using every email to sell.

Idea 1 – Highlight your social media

Email and social media go together like peanut butter and jelly. Each one is great on their own, but together they make each other so much better.

Social media makes for great lead generation as people who are active with your social media channels are great people to have on your email list. And the inverse works just as well. 

If people are engaged on your email list, they are more likely to like, follow, subscribe, and engage with your social media.

Also, people are inherently skeptics at heart. So showing them multiple places where they can connect with you and your brand does wonders for building trust.

But don’t just tell your subscribers that you have an Instagram or TikTok account and expect them to follow. They aren’t going to join your Facebook group just because you have one.

Give them a reason (doesn’t have to be a great one) to follow and engage with you on social media.

>>Highlight a recent post

>>Use social to share insights that they can’t get anywhere else

>>Do give-a-aways or collaborations on your social

In short, make your social media something unique that people want to follow. Then help them get there with specific email campaigns.

Audience Segments

Recent purchasers (this also make great content for your Post Purchase Flow)

30-day engaged

Idea 2 – Feature your best product(s)

If you have multiple products, product lines, or variations, it can be difficult for a new customer to make that first purchase.

Simply because they have too many options.

So a great way to solve this is to send an email that highlights ONE of your best selling products.

You can send this email multiple times featuring different products, but each email should focus on ONE. Eliminate any decisions other than “Do I need this product? Yes or No”

Make sure to focus on the benefits of the product NOT the features. What makes this product special, unique, or better than other similar products on the market?

This can be even more powerful if you are collecting additional data on your subscribers through your pop-up or other emails.

That way you can target specific people who may be better suited for specific products.

For example – say you run a skincare company. You probably have a best selling product targeted towards women and a best selling product targeted towards men. You could send differentiated emails to each group.

Or you probably have different products that focus on different pain points… dry skin, oily skin, tough acne, etc. 

If you know what people are struggling with, you can send targeted emails to those segments.

Audience Segments

Subscribers who have not yet purchased (this makes great content for your welcome email)

90-day engaged

Idea 3 – Create a character for your brand

People prefer reading emails from a person, not a brand. We want a connection with someone.

So if you’ve been sending emails from the [Brand] Team or you’ve been sending emails without a sign-off line… this is a great opportunity to change that.

Start by creating a character who will be the voice behind your emails. This could be someone real (the owner, founder, marketing director, or even the marketing intern) or it could be someone made up.

People don’t care if John the marketing intern is a real person or if Beatrice the head of the sunshine committee really works there.

But they’d rather receive an email from John or Beatrice than from the “team.”

The great thing about creating a character is that you don’t have to worry about what happens if/when they leave. 

Audience Segments

90-day engaged

Idea 4 – Develop a “newsletter”

Newsletters aren’t just for B2B companies or the Marketing Brew. You can create a weekly or monthly newsletter for your brand as well.

What should you talk about in a DTC or B2C newsletter?

>>What’s new around your brand?

>>Any products back in stock

>>Upcoming launches, drops, or new products

>>Charitable efforts

>>Customer success stories

Make it informative, but keep the blurbs short. You want the reader to click through to your website to find out more.

I would recommend that you start with once per month and then up it to twice a month to start. Make sure you have good deliverability metrics before you go to one per week.

Why?

Because a newsletter is going to violate a few of the best practices for deliverability as far as email content.

>>use of different links

>>comes from a brand, not a letter from an individual

>>most likely will have multiple images

The benefits of a newsletter will outweigh the potential deliverability drawbacks. Just make sure the rest of your emails follow good deliverability practices to balance it out.

Audience Segments

90-day engaged

Idea 5 – Share customer testimonials/success stories

You can never share too many customer testimonials or success stories. The more you have the better. 

As a side note… are you asking for testimonials as part of your post-purchase flow? If not, this is a great opportunity to start doing so.

Don’t jam as many testimonials or reviews as you can into one email.

Focus on 2-3 MAX. Even better, craft an email around ONE customer success story.

Tell a story about what life was like before they started using your product. What were they struggling with, what had they tried in the past?

What was their frame of mind when they started using your product? Was there any hesitation? Why did they start using your product?

Then show off what life is like after using your product. The transformation is key! 

Keep this framework in mind when you ask for customer reviews/testimonials. Don’t just ask for a generic testimonial and hope that you get something good. Ask specific questions.

If you have enough testimonials, this could be an email template that you use once a week. And you can re-use these emails or put them into a welcome flow, browse abandon flow, or abandon cart flow.

Audience Segments

Subscribers who have not yet purchased (this makes great content for your welcome email)

30-day engaged

Recent Subscribers

Idea 6 – Tell the backstory of the company

We all prefer to buy from companies that we know, like, and TRUST. 

Telling the backstory of your company and how it got started is one of the best ways to do this.

Hopefully you are doing this in some format through your welcome flow, but this is an opportunity to go into even more detail.

Share your struggles, your why, and your successes.

Better yet, if you started the company because YOU were struggling with a particular problem that your product solves, talk about that.

Remember from earlier… email should be a one-to-one conversation. Not a one-to-many or a brand-to-many format like ads are.

So talk intimately to your subscribers and get a little personal with them.

It’ll build a community of lifelong fans and customers.

Audience Segments

Previous Purchasers

VIPs

Idea 7 – Just sell your product/service

• Lean into the copy and just sell the damn thing
• Remember to include multiple CTAs, but stay focused on ONE main idea
• Audience – 30 day engaged, no recent purchase

Sometimes you just need to lean into some really good copy and just SELL THE DAMN THING.

Keep these rules in mind…

>>Follow a simple framework, like Problem, Agitate, Solution (PAS)

>>Use a story when possible

>>Focus on the benefits

>>Keep the copy short (no 1000 word sales letters)

>>Use ONE link, with multiple CTAs

Audience Segments

30 day engaged with no purchase

Summary – TL;DR

If you skimmed here, I take no offense. Here’s what you missed

>>Highlight social media

>>Feature top selling products (one per email)

>>Create a character for your emails

>>Develop a monthly newsletter

>>Share customer testimonials

>>Tell the backstory of your company

>>Just sell the damn thing

What Should YOU do Next?

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for daily email tips and what’s working now
2. Leave a like or a comment on this post to let me know what you thought. Did I miss anything that you think is a MUST in a welcome flow?

If you need someone to build out a high-performing welcome flow for your brand or business, send me an email at ben@henkenmarketing.com or fill out this form and I’ll be in touch.