It’s hard to improve things that don’t bring results. It’s as hard to be the first who implements innovations never used before. However surprising it may sound though, improving existing solutions that already work well is even harder.

How to Make Promo Emails Work More Efficiently

Business: online store of elite cosmetics and niche perfumes Aromateque with several physical shops in major cities of Ukraine.

Task: increase revenue and transactions by optimizing promotional campaigns.

KPI: sales and revenue.

CDP: our platform.

A client contacted the agency of complex Internet marketing Adindex.ua with a request to upgrade their email marketing strategy. Previous promo emails sent based on the existing contact base demonstrated consistently good performance, that’s why we decided to implement only minor design changes: redesign old email templates and create new ones for special occasions. The main focus was made on creation of automatic messages in order to build a trusting relationship with customers and increase brand loyalty.

We came up with a trigger map (post-purchase recommendations, discount alerts for favorites, new arrivals, etc.), approved it, and were ready to launch a campaign, but faced unexpected technical issues. Website programmers couldn’t quickly catch up with campaign settings.

While integration was in progress, we decided to revise the promo campaigns and look for additional growth opportunities.

Below, there are a few tips that helped us increase email marketing revenue by 44,02% over the next five months.

Don't Neglect Reminder Emails

For e-commerce, it’s normal to send two, three and sometimes even four emails reminding of current sales. It makes sense as users are getting more selective every year, and few people rush to buy your product right after learning about the price drop.

We carried out our first experiment with reminder emails on March 8, International Women’s Day. Shortly before, we sent subscribers the first email about a big cosmetics sale. Discounts were good and numerous, but the campaign, nevertheless, brought zero results. The day before the end of the sales, we sent another email, which generated eight sales (for comparison, previous average click-through rate with a later purchase was 1% to 3%).

After that, we repeatedly sent email reminders, and they always (!) demonstrated better results than the first emails.

Note: sending email reminders doesn’t mean flooding users’ inboxes with duplicate messages. You need to either segment the subscriber base (for example, exclude from the campaign contacts who have already made a purchase) or change the content of the campaign. We usually used the second option due to the relatively small contact base. We changed promo products and brands, so that even people who have already made a purchase could find something interesting.

Attention to Details

Even if you don't have the possibility to automate email marketing, use the user behavior data to optimize your promo campaigns. Campaign reports and Google Analytics will help you with this. If you see that people open emails, have a high CTR, spend much time on the site and browse through many pages, but still don’t buy - it's time to remind of yourself.

You don’t necessarily have to send an email with the same goods or offers. Any event can be a good opportunity to get in touch with your customers. Any reminder of your company’s existence is enough to reactivate your passive customers.

Get Creative with Design

It would seem that if you offer a good product on favorable terms, it doesn’t matter how to present it. In fact, it does matter, especially if you offer exclusive goods. It is important to understand that you sell the mood, not the product.

Module blocks, colors and fonts, composition and general style are not just a set of pompous words. These features determine how easily the customer would perceive the message you send. The more satisfying it’s to read your emails, the more often people would open them and eventually buy.

And, of course, in addition to the basics of design, make sure you set the right mood for your campaigns. From time to time, change the template, mix long emails with short ones, change the color palette, etc. Don’t forget about graphic elements: beautiful images and funny gifs always do the trick.

Make Your Campaigns More Interactive

Modern technology has moved far enough; a subscriber now can interact with the content straight in the email body. Color-changing CTA buttons and rollover elements that demonstrate the product from different angles can make an email more dynamic and interesting.

Although interactive elements have been known by email marketers for a while, we still rarely receive emails with dynamic content. Don’t miss a chance to stand out!

Sense of Urgency

Classics that never gets old. Its best tool is a countdown timer that shows how much time the user has left until the end of the sale. It’s important not to abuse the technique, otherwise clients can get immune to it.

In our campaigns, we used a timer not more than once a month, and not earlier than a day before the end of the sales. The effect has always been spectacular.

Instead of Conclusion

You’ve probably read about some (or even all) of these methods once or twice. But, as our experience suggests, there is a big gap between "know" and "apply." It is always useful to double-check whether all possible resources have been already employed.

In case you’re new to email marketing and want to make more of it, contact us and we’ll be happy to help you.

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