Email Marketing Solutions

I’ve worked with a client in the food and beverage niche since January of this year (2023). 

They run a number of sales and promotions throughout the course of the year, (more than I’d like to see, but that’s a topic for another blog post) but they run TWO major ones that account for a significant amount of revenue.

One is their Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign. Like most ecommerce businesses, this is a massive revenue generator.

The second is prime day in July.

During the two days when the ecommerce giant is running their own sale, my client runs a parallel sale knowing that online traffic is going to be higher than normal.

This isn’t novel, many ecommerce companies run some form of prime day sale. And for my client, this is their biggest revenue driver of the summer.

And this year, we KILLED it!

My client didn’t want any information shared about their company or brand, so I’m going to try and share as much as I can about HOW we did so that you can do the same.

Just understand that some of the names/basic info may be changed to protect my client.

Before I jump into what we did this year, let me give you a baseline for what this client did last year.

Same discount, same time frame.

Prime Day 2022 did $27,282.92 in sales attributed to email. The email announcing the sale had 1,060 unique clicks and $18,736.76 in revenue…

Providing Value First

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share some of the other things that we’ve done this year that have led to improved email performance.

Email is a relationship building channel and you cannot build solid relationships with your subscribers in a few days or a week.

It takes time.

Subscribers want to get to know your brand. Learn about your values. Discover more about your product and how it can help them.

Prior to this year, this client has sent mostly “sales flier” emails.

Very well designed, eye-catching, “BUY NOW” emails.

And with 1-2 discounts or sales every month, this strategy was driving some revenue. Especially for a consumable product.

But there was little to no relationship building or “value” emails included in their strategy.

So this year, I focused on changing that. 

From educational emails, to entertaining emails, and a few inspirational emails… we’ve focused on providing a lot of “value” to our subscribers this year.

We’ve introduced them to the brand owners, to different products, and to the history of the product.

We’ve shared benefits of use, different features, and stories from other users.

And we’ve reduced  the number of big promotions or sales every month.

My goal for every client is to send about 4 “value” or relationship emails for every one “sale” email.

We haven’t quite gotten to that ratio yet… but we are close.

I lead with this, because I truly believe that this year’s prime day campaign wouldn’t have been so successful if we hadn’t been focusing on relationship building for the better part of this year.

Which all led to this ONE email…

Prepping The Sale

What was so special about this ONE email?

We used it to preview the sale…

I’m on a LOT of email newsletters. And rarely do I see companies that preview a big sale.

Typically you don’t know about it until you get that first email.

And if it’s a short sale, you may not have time to think about what you want/need to purchase.

Especially if the brand has a lot of products and options.

Indecision creeps in and before you know it, the sale is over.

To maximize this sale, I wanted to prepare our list BEFORE we sent that first email.

So 24 hours ahead of time, I sent a special preview email…

Copy That Was Used

Here’s what the copy looked like…

“Headline: July 11-12, Mark Your Calendar For Our Biggest Sale Of The Summer

[Product Image]

%FNAME%,

Get ready for [Brand’s] biggest sale of the season!

Tomorrow and Wednesday, you’ll have access to the biggest discount that you’ll see all summer.

We promise, you won’t see another deal this good until Black Friday!

All [list of different, best selling products]… EVERYTHING ON THE WEBSITE will be included!

So fill up your cart with your favorite [products]; tomorrow’s email will have more details.

-The [Brand] Team

[CTA – Prepare Your Carts]”

Psychology Behind Why This Works

There are a couple psychological factors at play here that I want to highlight.

First of all, is urgency or fear of missing out (FOMO).

“Tomorrow and Wednesday, you’ll have access to the biggest discount that you’ll see all summer.”

This line introduces the urgency factor. Anyone who’s been on this brand’s email list knows that they have their fair share of discounts and sales.

So there are people who are just waiting for the next one.

But here, I introduce the idea that this sale is THE sale.

Don’t miss out.

Secondly we have an open loop…

Notice that I didn’t share specifics about the sale other than it would include everything on site and that it would be the biggest sale of the summer.

I want a reason for people to open the next email.

Hence this line… “tomorrow’s email will have more details.”

And finally, you have to remember that people want to be told what to do.

If you leave it up to someone else to make a decision… it’s highly likely that no decision will be made.

So at the bottom of the email, I finish with a strong CTA.

“Prepare your cart”

I don’t want people to just read this email and go, “Oh cool, they are having a prime day sale.”

I want them to go in and actually put items into their cart.

Because if they do that, they are making a commitment.

And when they get the next email, they are much more likely to make the purchase.

End Results

So… how did we do?

Email #1:

$25,241.39 in revenue with 1,274 unique clicks. That’s $6.5K more than the 2022 version with over 200 more unique clicks.

Overall, we saw over $10K more in revenue just from email (that doesn’t include our SMS campaigns which weren’t run in 2022)

More opens… more clicks… more purchases

Mission accomplished.

Summary

Hopefully that was helpful.

Here’s how you can replicate this succes…

First – focus on providing value to your list and building relationships

Second – a few times a year, when you’ve got a big sale or new product, make sure you are sending at least one preview email to prepare your list.

Three – focus on urgency and open loops. And don’t be afraid to tell your subscribers what they should do.

What Should YOU Do Next?

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