38,522 subscribers, no flows, no campaigns, and no strategy. How I’m going to take this brand’s email marketing from 0 to hero.

All great things had to start from somewhere. Michael Jordan didn’t wake up one day as the best basketball player in the world. Microsoft started in a garage. Amazon was just a crazy idea to sell books online.

And there’s no downloadable template that you can buy and install in your email marketing software that’ll have you generating massive revenue immediately.

A great email marketing channel takes time to build correctly.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take too long. 

I’ve been handed the keys to an ecommerce store that generated half a million dollars last year… with NO email marketing channel.

Today I’m going to walk you through my strategy to get this brand up and running within two months.

And follow along on my LinkedIn and Twitter where I’ll share updates as I build.

Let’s jump in…

Step 1 – Set Up Core Flows

The first order of business is to create the three core flows. 

Welcome 

Abandon Cart

Post Purchase

Why are these three flows the core flows?

Because these are the three highest revenue drivers for an ecommerce store AND more importantly, these flows are triggered when subscribers are the most active.

They’ve either just joined the list, they’ve put a product in their cart with the intention of purchasing, or they’ve just made a purchase.

One of the key things that I’ll be focusing on during the first 30 days is deliverability.

Open rates, click through rates, bounce rates, and spam rates.

These flows will all help with deliverability as they tend to have higher open rates and higher click through rates than campaign emails.

Time is also a factor here. So while I’d love to build out a browse abandon, abandon cart, win-back, and sunset flow… These flows aren’t as important and they can wait.

I’ll be building out a welcome flow with 5 emails (maybe 6), an abandoned checkout flow with 3 or 4 emails and a post-purchase flow with about 4 emails.

You can go back and read some of my previous blog posts if you want to get a deeper insight into these flows, but for now we are going to keep this surface level.

Step 2 – Create and Test Pop-Ups

This step goes hand-in-hand with step 1 because the offer that we use for our pop-up has to be congruent with our welcome email.

But seeing as how this brand currently has NO pop-up running, getting one up on sight is paramount.

To start, we will just be using Klaviyo’s pop-up options. But in the future I may move to a third party tool with more options.

For now, Klaviyo has all of the capabilities that we will need to get started.

A few offers that I’m excited to test…

Free shipping on first order

X% off

Free customization

Entry to win a free product

Over the first two months, I’ll be creating some different versions and A/B testing them to see which ones convert the best.

My goal: 5-6% conversion to start.

Step 3 – Analyze List and Segment

• Sending to this entire list would be a death sentence
• Going to start by looking for recent subscribers, active on site, or recent purchasers
• Create small segments of subscribers who are “most likely” to engage with email

I mentioned earlier that this brand has a current list of around 38,000 subscribers. But they’ve never been emailed or contacted in any way…

Most of these emails will be useless. Unfortunately.

But there may be some that we can re-engage.

So to start, I am going to be looking for small segments of subscribers that are most likely to engage with emails.

This will include subscribers who have recently joined the list. Subscribers who have been active on site. And Subscribers who have recently made a purchase.

I’ll also be setting up my standard segments that will auto populate as subscribers complete certain actions. 

[Grab my FREE Klaviyo Segmentation Mini-Course for more information on these segments.]

Step 4 – Create Campaign Strategy

Time to focus on campaign strategy.

The goal here… start small and build.

My initial focus will be to re-engage as much of the list as possible. This means that I’ll be writing some simple, plain-text campaigns that are attention grabbing and give subscribers the options of re-engaging with the brand or unsubscribing from the list.

Sending re-engagement campaigns to the entire list would be a death sentence for deliverability. So instead, I’ll be sending out campaigns to smaller segments (1K-5K subscribers per segment) to start.

Over the first 4-6 weeks, I’ll be sending out 1 campaign email per week. I’ll probably send this one campaign email multiple times to different segments over the course of the week.

And then for the second 4-6 weeks, my goal is to bump up my sending frequency to twice a week. Allowing me to target some specific segments and move away from re-engagement campaigns.

Ultimately, I want to increase from there to sending 3+ emails per week using good segmentation strategies.

I always like to plan out at least 30 days ahead for campaign strategy (60 when possible), so I’ll be focusing on my long range campaign strategy early in the process.

Step 5 – Build Out Additional Flows

Once we’ve got a solid start with our core flows and campaign strategy, it’ll be time to build out additional flows.

These will include:

• Browse Abandon
• Win-Back
• Sunset
• VIP
• Abandon Cart

Goal is to automate as much of the subscriber journey as possible.

I’ll also be monitoring my first three automated flows to ensure that open rates and click-through rates are strong. 

3 Other things I’m Focusing On

• Close eye on deliverability
• Implementing SMS
• Purging the list.

While doing all of the above, there are a few other components that I’ll be keeping a close eye on.

First – Deliverability

This is key for any email marketing channel, but especially important when you’re first starting.

Building a solid sending reputation and keeping out emails out of the SPAM folder is going to be of the utmost importance.

I’ve already run some preliminary tests and our domain is good. No black lists or major issues that I need to be concerned about. And we will be on a shared sending domain with Klaviyo which will help as I get up and running.

Second – SMS

SMS marketing is going to be a key differentiator for ecommerce brands in 2023. Those that do it well will stand out from the crowd, and those that do it poorly will hurt their subscribers base.

And those that ignore it, will be left in the dust.

I’ll be experimenting with some different ways to grow our SMS subscribers. This brand targets a younger audience, so getting SMS right will be a huge boost.

Third – Purging the list

Right now we have a large, unhealthy list. I need to get it in shape asap.

So once I’ve finished going through the re-engagement campaigns, I’ll be focused on purging the list.

No sense in paying for subscribers who aren’t going to open or engage with my emails.

Summary – TL;DR

So there you have it. My five steps for building out a kick-ass email marketing channel.

Here’s the summary:

>>Step 1 – Set Up Core Flows

• Welcome
• Abandon Checkout
• Post-Purchase
• Flows where customers are most aware and most likely to open and click

>>Step 2 – Create and Test Pop-Ups

• Start with some different offers (this will impact welcome flow)
• Create different variations and A/B test
• Shoot for 5-6% conversion

>>Step 3 – Analyze List and Segment

• Sending to this entire list would be a death sentence
• Going to start by looking for recent subscribers, active on site, or recent purchasers
• Create small segments of subscribers who are “most likely” to engage with email

>>Step 4 – Create Campaign Strategy

• Start small, focus on re-engagement
• First 4-6 weeks, one campaign email per week. Only sent to most active subscribers
• Second 4-6 weeks, two campaign emails per week. 
• Increase from there.

>>Step 5 – Build Out Additional Flows

• Browse Abandon
• Win-Back
• Sunset
• VIP
• Abandon Cart

>>3 Other things I’m Focusing On

• Close eye on deliverability
• Implementing SMS
• Purging the list

What Should YOU Do Next?

1. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter 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. 
3. If you need an email list manager for your brand or business, send me an email at ben@henkenmarketing.com or fill out this form and I’ll be in touch.
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