Email Marketing
A look at the state of email marketing in ecommerce...
This is Awkward…
I swear that email marketing is the weirdest of the marketings.
It’s like a love triangle between the customer, brand, and marketer.
Actually… maybe it’s more like couple’s therapy. Where the customer and brand (couple) have some minor communication issues, and the marketer (the therapist) is telling them that 30% of their happiness should be coming from therapy sessions, or they are just leaving happiness on the table…
Something like that.
Don’t Get Me Wrong…
I like email marketing. It is the one distribution channel that best ties together in all of your content and marketing efforts. If executed strategically, it is a beautiful thing.
But over the last couple years, it has developed a major identity crisis. All the players in this arena are on a different page.
It’s part of the process for the customer… it’s a “channel” for the brands… and it’s a lever to be pulled by marketers.
Let’s see if we can’t get everyone on the same page by the end of this piece…
The Email Marketing Complex.
The rhetoric around email marketing is troublesome. There are a few “numbers” that people like to throw around. Probably all sources from the same place.
This one is repeated the most:
For each and every $1 spent on email marketing, you will get back an average return of $36.
This is so incredibly misleading. It is not wrong or right or anywhere in between.
It basically says that if my monthly Klaviyo bill is $200 bucks, then I should be getting $72000 in revenue. Does that make a lick of sense?
Of course not. It discounts all the other costs - ads, content, salary (or agency) of email team - that go into your marketing mix. Even if all 72k worth of orders had at least 1 email touchpoint, it is wrong to attribute it all to one thing.
The other one is that you should be getting at least 30% of revenue from return customers. This one is equally egregious in my opinion.
If you are a CPG brand, or in cosmetics and skin care, then yes, you are killing it (your company that is) if you are under 30%.
But not all products need to be replenished. It just depends on the nature of the product…
Wait… that wasn’t my point. It is a point, but not the most important point.
What I want to point out is that the Email Industrial Complex uses this number because email is always involved in retention marketing, whether it is just regular win-back email flows, or part of a complex loyalty program that simple uses email as part of their program.
Remember my conversation with Jon Ivanco in episode 3 of this series? He points out how revenue is often attributed to email when in fact the sale was going to happen anyway.
Don’t Get Me Wrong.
I like email marketers… the ones that do it right at least. I have run email marketing and automation programs before, and there is more to it than meets the eye. The ones that are doing it right are a huge asset to brands.
How to tell the good ones from the bad ones? Simple…
If you are getting a consultation or pitch, and they throw out some vague numbers (such as 36 and 30) and how their emails will get you there… hang up.
If they ask about your business and other aspects of your marketing and customer journey, here them out.
Moving on…
The Brands.
In this situation, I feel for the brands. Email marketing is tough. Figuring out the right style and cadence takes testing. And time.
Most brands are trying to do their best for the customers and all the noise for the Email Industrial Complex gets in the way of thinking about email from the customer’s perspective.
So let’s go ahead and do that...
The Customer.
What is a customer telling you when they give up their email address?
One of two things:
I’m ready, gimme that discount code
I’m not ready, but keep me top of mind
We have talked a great deal about how we have trained customer to expect 10% off new orders… that is true. No getting around it.
So if they are ready, give them what they came for and pat yourself on the back. You did a good job.
But when they are not ready, and still give you an email address… that’s where the money is.
Customers have plenty of choices in both brands and where to buy. So if they tell you - Hey, I’m not going to buy right now, but here is my email address. Keep in touch - That’s awesome!
It’s like getting that cute someone’s number…
Ad nauseum.
If 10% of signups buy something right away. Cool. Let’s think about the other 90%.
They want to be kept top-of-mind. Learn something. Be entertained. Or tactfully nudged later when they’re not in the middle of their lunch break.
Most likely they don’t have their fingers crossed hoping for the same tired buy now email 30 minutes later - 8 hours later - 24 hours later - 3 days later… ad nauseum.
This is where the brand decides to be creative or boring…
In my conversation with Melanie Balke on the podcast, we talk about how brands can build affinity around their brand with creative content. Using personable reminders with personality.
Marketers glance at their numbers so much that they convince themselves to try out a few short-term tactics to bump up sales. Such short-sighted thinking had long-term effects on the customers and revenue.
Listen to our conversation about what happened when Eaze and Abercrombie & Fitch tried some short-cuts.
Ad Me Please…
Not a typo. When a customer adds their email to your signup, that is what they are saying:
I am allowing you to directly “ad” to me.
Remember this when you are making a new email strategy.
Brands get creative when it comes to ads. It has been proven again and again that boring ads underperform, they try their best to put their best foot forward.
Then they drop the ball and follow it up with transactional emails, or templated “Letter from the CEO” welcome series… ughh.
But if you put as much thought into your the messaging and strategy around your email program as you do with your ads… you too can claim you made $72,000 from $200 in email investment.