Tactical Email Marketing - TribeTalk EP 14

Check out this TribeTalk from our Marketing Specialist, Kathryn Betancourt chatting with one of our Growth Specialists, Courtney Corner and one of our Project Managers, Deanna Spallone.

Instead of discussing paid traffic, today's TribeTalk focuses on another element we talk about often here at EmberTribe, EMAIL.

We answer questions such as: "Where to start with email?", "What should you test?", and "How can you easily create consistency?". 

Where do I start? 

Choose a platform for your email marketing. A few suggestions if you haven’t chosen one already are HubSpot, Klaviyo, or Mailchimp. FYI, you will have to pay for a tool to integrate your Shopify. 

Next, you’ll want to build your list by capturing emails. Where should you start capturing emails? You can build your list with a subscribe option on your website, information from purchases, and run a campaign to opt-in for a chance to win a gift/shopping spree. 

For your Initial email campaigns, start with a welcome series for services/Cart abandonment. For eComm businesses, these are people with high intent so use email here to push them over the line to purchase with a time-sensitive discount, creating urgency. You want people to make a decision to purchase so they don’t miss out on such a sweet offer.

Now that you got that setup, what’s next?

Build out more campaigns and test everything! Send yourself a test of each email and make sure to click photos, CTAs, links, check different devices, etc. before launching. The last thing you want is a mass email with your CTA button going to your “Summer Sale” page when you are trying to push your new “Fall Catalog”. 

Pro-tip, a few tools for testing your emails that we like to use are EmailOnAcid and Litmus PutsMail.

Keep in mind mobile-friendly content! 60% of people open their emails on their phones. Something to consider is the subject line has to be shorter for it to fully appear on a mobile device. They usually show about 70 characters depending on the device. 

Increase ROI by using customer-centric strategies such as personalization, segmentation, and responsive design (vs. hard sales and email blasts). We recommend using personalization across all automations, transactions, promotional streams. For context, emails with first names in the subject line often have up to 2x higher open rates.

Use automation to be the trigger for campaigns to send an upsell, cross-sell, delight, or to request a review. Triggered emails result in higher CTR. 

Make sure to include reviews and user-generated photos. These will build your brand's credibility and authenticity as current and potential customers view what others are saying about your business. 

For ongoing emails that are not automated focus on creating consistency. Make a calendar plan. Have template(s) pre-built to save time. Stick with themes so that you aren’t having to recreate the wheel every day i.e. Friday promos, Monday tips, etc. 

Have specific promos just for email subscribers that you don’t run on social. Give them first access to upcoming promos (save the date/or early access) and then use this exclusivity as a hook to get more subs for your email list.

Don’t Stop Experimenting...

Try testing things like timing, segments, offers, and triggers unique to your industry/client (each with unique benchmarks). 

If you want to go further, run A/B tests on subjects or design. Then compare the results of campaigns by the open rate for subject lines or CTR/conversion rate for design. 

Check Google Analytics to leverage which day/time is best for sales, average repeat purchase information, and potential segments to test. 

What are you testing with your marketing emails? Leave us a comment below.