025 - Email Marketing: Lessons from a 40% Revenue Surge

Welcome to a new episode of Women Powering E-commerce! Join us as we delve into the journey of a female e-commerce entrepreneur, exploring the highs, lows, and strategies that lead to success. Today's focus is on a pivotal aspect of modern business – email marketing. Let's dive into how this entrepreneur transformed her e-commerce business by harnessing the power of effective email marketing.

Unveiling the Overlooked Gem: Email Marketing

In the bustling world of e-commerce, email marketing often remains underestimated or even neglected. Our entrepreneur candidly admits that she too had once overlooked its potential. However, a turning point came when they realized that a whopping 40% of their revenue was now being generated through email marketing. This realization became the catalyst for change.

The Shift to a Strategic Approach

The journey began with an internal meeting involving Ashley, the email marketing specialist. The entrepreneur had become tired of pouring funds into paid ads and decided to focus on email marketing's untapped potential. A decision was made to invest time, effort, and money into revamping their email strategy. The results were more than impressive.

The Blueprint for Success

The first step was crucial – they crafted a comprehensive email marketing strategy. The entrepreneur emphasizes the importance of coupling revenue growth with enhanced customer experiences through emails. No longer would their emails be plain and uninspiring. The revised strategy was meticulously planned for the next 90 days, marking the commencement of their transformational journey.

The Three-Phase Approach

Quick Wins and Account Refinement

The journey kicked off with quick wins and necessary account adjustments. By fixing issues in their email platform, they set the foundation for future success.

Flow Creation and Revision

A comprehensive overhaul of existing flows took place. These flows, previously neglected, were now strategically designed to cater to various customer touchpoints, including welcome flows, post-purchase flows, upsells, cross-sells, and more.

The SMS Advantage and Advanced Strategies

The team embraced the power of SMS flows and implemented advanced strategies. The focus was on optimizing communication and building stronger customer relationships.

Ongoing Refinement and Testing

The journey didn't end with the three phases; it marked the beginning of an ongoing refinement process. The team consistently fine-tuned flows, sent regular campaigns, and embraced the joy of A/B testing. The entrepreneur admits that witnessing tangible results from tests every few months was incredibly satisfying. This approach perpetually fueled improvements and growth.

Measuring Success with Key Metrics

Metrics guided the entrepreneur's path toward success. They tracked open rates, click rates, and place-order rates, constantly comparing them to industry benchmarks. This data-driven approach provided insights into where improvements were needed, and where they were excelling.

The Remarkable Transformation

A year later, the results were staggering. From a starting point of 18.7% of revenue generated by email marketing, the business had surged to an astounding 40%. This achievement far surpassed the industry's 25-35% benchmark. The shift in approach, from an overlooked channel to a strategic powerhouse, had paid off handsomely.

Key Lessons Learned

Expertise Makes a Difference

Devoting focused attention and hiring an expert in the field led to unprecedented growth. The shift from 18.7% to 40% in revenue proved the value of specialization.

Customer Experience Matters

Enhancing customer experience through emails, not just chasing revenue, reaped immense rewards. Caring for customers translated to loyalty and trust.

Data-Driven Decisions

Testing and learning from data is pivotal. The A/B testing approach, such as experimenting with different CTAs, exemplified the necessity of informed decision-making.

Conclusion

The transformation of this e-commerce business serves as an inspiring testament to the power of email marketing. From being overlooked to becoming a cornerstone of revenue generation, the journey highlights the importance of strategy, expertise, and ongoing refinement. As the entrepreneur continues to strive for even greater heights, we're reminded that success in the e-commerce realm demands a commitment to innovation and adaptation.

If you found this journey enlightening, share this episode with fellow entrepreneurs who can benefit from the insights. Together, we can empower more women in the e-commerce world. Stay tuned for more episodes and remember to follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep growing, taking action, and embracing the potential of every opportunity.

Episode Transcription

025 - Email Marketing: Lessons from a 40% Revenue Surge

025 - Revolutionize E-commerce Success: Mastering Email Marketing's Power

(00:00):

Welcome, e-commerce empresses, to this episode of Women Powering Ecommerce. Join me every Tuesday and Thursday as I take you behind the scenes of my journey as a female e-commerce entrepreneur. Together we'll explore the highs, the lows, inspiring you to take action and achieve your own business goals. So let's get started.

(00:33):

Today I want to talk about email marketing. It's definitely something that sometime is overlooked, sometime not. Definitely something I overlooked for a long time and that we actually took care of last year, and that's really what I want to share with you today.

(00:50):

Last week we were meeting with one of our team members, Ashley, the one who's taking care of our email marketing. So he does that full-time, and we usually have one meeting a month to review last month's performance, metrics, and strategy for the upcoming month as well. And it hit me, 40% of our revenue is generated through email marketing now, but last year it was not like that. I'll tell you what we were doing later, last year. But about a year ago we were looking for ways to increase our revenue, and I was a little sick of throwing money down the paid-ads hole. And we realized we never paid attention, consistent attention to our email marketing, so we thought that it would be a good time to do it, and we felt that investing in a little bit more than that would be time, effort, and money well spent.

(01:47):

So what we did is we hired someone who specializes in email marketing, and he is such a gem. We were lucky, we were very lucky. He's done a good job, an excellent job I should say. And I'm just going to walk you through what we did, because it's hard to know where to start, what strategy to take, and where do you... You know, you can't do everything all at once, so how do you do it? At least how did we do it?

(02:19):

So step one, we had an email marketing strategy done. And we told our email marketing person that our main focus was to increase revenue, yes, but we also while giving the best customer experience from our emails, because before emails were just plain drab, and they cut to the chase, and that was about it, they didn't really offer a good customer experience, so we tried to... I really wanted to put a little bit more emphasis on that, and in the end the return was going to be increased revenue. If customers feel cared for, usually they'll be loyal and come back. So that's the first thing we did.

(03:02):

We asked that person that we hired, "First thing, please do an email marketing strategy." Which he did wonderfully, he planned out the next 90 days. And after that it was just about... Once we approved the strategy, it was about implementing the strategy. We divided that into three phases.

(03:23):

Phase one, and I think no matter what changes you make in a certain department, starting with quick wins is always the best thing to do. It's just so much more motivating to start off with. So that's what we did, we started with some quick wins we could find, and we also had to fix a few things in our Klaviyo account, so that's what we did. And it was pretty quick, and went well, and then we were all ready for phase two.

(03:52):

So phase two, what we did is create and revise flows. We had a lot of flows going on, but like I said, we hadn't really paid that much attention to email marketing, so to be honest, it was a mess. So it wasn't really... Nothing was strategic. We had maybe a welcome flow, some after like post-purchase flows here and there, but nothing... There wasn't much thought put behind this.

(04:21):

So we created whatever needed to be done to fill in some gaps, and we also revised the actual flows that we had. And we also relaunched campaigns that had not been running, honestly because we just had been lacking time. When you don't have one person to take care of that specifically, and you're just trying to manage marketing in general, then you just do your best. So, of course, you miss out on some things here and there. So we did that, and the flows that we either created, or relaunched, or revised, were just your general flows and a little more like upsell flows, cross-sell, winback flows, sunset flows, etc. So that was for our phase two.

(05:10):

Once we did that, we decided to go into phase three, which was to do more SMS flows. We integrated SMS... We already had some SMS flows going, but again, same thing as our campaigns and usual, nothing too strategic, so we decided to put a little bit more emphasis on our SMS, because they do usually a very good job. And so we did the SMS flows, and we also worked on some more advanced strategies.

(05:45):

Now, fast-forward to a year later, once all of this is done... It took us 90 days to do, but then after that we just kind of fine-tuned a few things. And so a year later now... So what do we do on an ongoing basis? So right now we continuously improve our flows, we send out regular campaigns, and we do, and this is my favorite part, we do ongoing A/B testing. I love it because we get to see concrete results every couple months from our tests, and it's just nice to see which tests won. So when we have a winner we implement that, and then we continue testing and testing, and it's just fun to see everything improve, because you're continuously testing. It's very satisfying. So that's one thing we do on an ongoing basis, and of course we measure, measure, and measure.

(06:44):

So what do we measure every month? So of course we follow a few metrics, we try to keep it simple, but the email metrics that we measure are open rate, click rate, place-order rate, but we certainly measure those against the industry benchmarks and see how we perform compared to those. So, for example, if the open rate benchmark for our industry is 46% and our results are 60, well, that's excellent, we keep up our good work. Of course we try to improve that, but we know at least we're doing good. And lately I think that our click rate benchmark was a little bit over 1%, and our results were a little under that, I think was .7. So when you see that, you're like, "Okay, that's a very fair result, let's work on that a little more next month."

(07:39):

We also measure our lead capture visitors, so desktop versus mobile. Also flows that have been updated in the last month, we always update them regularly, so we just go over that and make sure we're always updating flows, just to make sure we're always improving everything. There's always something you can improve. So, for example, last month we were improving our post-purchase referral program flow, and we were able to see the work that was done.

(08:08):

We also measure and at least pay attention to the campaign updates, and that's where most of our A/B testing is done. So last month we tested one CTA versus two CTAs in our email, and so that's one thing we were measuring and testing things on. Lately we also tested a dramatic CTA versus an attention seeking CTA. So, for example, a dramatic CTA would be take me there, that would be the button, or the attention seeking is just your basic read more button. And for that, our winner was the dramatic one, take me there, our audience preferred that, so now we're doing much more of that. We also review our campaign calendar for the next month, usually when we do those meetings. So that's what we do on an ongoing basis, and the results have been tremendous.

(09:06):

So couple weeks ago I was just curious and I decided to actually go back and see where we started from, because we measured on a monthly basis our actual results and improvements. Beginning of the episode I told you we're now at 40% of our revenue generated by email marketing, which is amazing, but where did we start at? And I went back to check what that stat was, and we were at 18.7% last year. 18.7% of our revenue was generated by email marketing, compared to now which is at 40%. That is incredible, and it was so worth the move, so definitely we would redo it.

(09:51):

And I also checked the benchmark in general for email marketing in our industry for the revenue, and most brands should be generating at least 25 to 35% of their total revenue from email, so I was really happy to see that, because we're definitely above average now, compared to before we were far behind. So we'll definitely continue to go down that route and continue to improve our email marketing. Well, I don't know if we could hit maybe 50%, that would be amazing, but we'll see. For now we're just always working on improving.

(10:29):

So when I circle back and look back to the last year, there are a few things I learned with the email marketing, let me share those.

(10:37):

First thing I learned is that paying attention to email marketing and getting an expert's help can make a big difference. Because when you focus on one thing and get someone who knows it well, well, that's when you can see amazing results. And that's what we saw. I mean, like I said, our email revenue went from 18.7% to 40% in only one year. That's crazy.

(11:01):

Lesson number two, improving customer experience within our email marketing strategy is really important. Okay, so our main goal was not only to generate revenue, but also provide the best customer experience through emails, and I think we did a good job at that. We still have a bit to go and a bit of things we can improve, but I'm really satisfied if I compare to what we had last year.

(11:25):

So the third thing I learned is that testing and learning from data is definitely really important, I knew this, but it just confirmed it to me once again. You have to try different things. You have to take your data, analyze, test new things, check out your data again. It's just that circle that you got to keep going. You can't just put something into place, just hope it works, that doesn't work. So you have to test A/B tests, especially with email marketing, and for example, like we said, different buttons or ways to say things can really make a huge difference. So this way you can keep improving and stay ahead in the online business world.

(12:11):

All right, so that's what we did in the last year with our email marketing, we went from below average results to above average results. So overall we're satisfied and we will continue to see how we can improve on an ongoing basis, and we will always try to improve our strategy, but we're doing pretty good. So if you found some of the information useful, please share this episode with someone you think will benefit from it. Your support is definitely crucial to help us inspire more women entrepreneurs in the e-commerce business.

(12:45):

Thank you for being part of this journey with me, I hope you gained valuable insights and inspiration today, to keep growing and taking action towards your goals. Please follow me on social media, also follow us on your favorite podcast platform to get notifications every time a new episode is uploaded. See you next time.