Andrea Bustos, Account Manager & Marketing Assistant at Hustler Marketing:
First thing to know is you should always prioritize the quality of your data-base. When you have a well-created list with potential buyers or customers to work with, your Email and SMS Marketing strategy will be easier than you think.
In order to increase your conversion rate, there are a few things you should keep in mind, first of all, consider to offer them a nice incentive in order to subscribe to your list. Your email and SMS strategy should work together as one but treated differently. You can send not only offers but nurturing content to your email subscribers while focus on exclusive sales to your SMS subscribers. It’s pretty normal to have less SMS than email subscribers so treat them as VIPs and give them early access and extensions to make them feel valued, this will certainly help boost your conversions.
For both media channels, you should also consider automations, since these will help you optimize efforts and resources while generating engagement and revenue. Some of the basic flows you must have are: Welcome, Post-purchase, Added to Cart, Checkout Abandon & Browse Abandon flow. All of these need to be aligned to your brand, your tone of voice and the customer journey in order to give them what they are looking for in order to complete the purchase, engage or upsell.
Last thing but as important as the above mentioned, is to make sure your segmenting appropriately your list, this will help you not only with deliberavility but also with performance. You don’t want to spam your list, what for some might be useful or convincing, for others won’t. So, think well of your content and the people you want to address your message before sending it.
Brian Roisentul, Level up your email & sms marketing strategy with BSR Digital
If you have an e-commerce brand, you'd probably want to setup the following email/sms structure:
1. Automated flows (2-3 emails each, to start off with)
a. Welcome series
b. Abandoned cart
c. Browse abandonment
d. Post-purchase
2. Ongoing email campaigns: to educate your subscribers, build authority, and stay top of mind.Now, what to communicate is a different story, and it all starts with the basics: there's a fine line between being spammy and providing value. You definitely don't want to be spammy, right? So, you'd want to think of ways to add value to your potential and existing customers.
There are typically 3 phases customers go through:
1. Acquisition: turn people into customers
2. Activation: get them to use what they bought from you
3. Retention: increase AOV/LTV
1. Acquisition: here we'd want to think about the problems they have and what we can do for them. If done right, that'd add value and position yourself as an authority. For example, if it's an automated flow, think about evergreen content that will apply to each scenario.
2. Activation: if they've bought once from you, you'd want to educate them on how to use the product (if it makes sense for what you sell). For example, if you sell beard wax, you can create content around the right ways to use it (ie. the right amount, the right procedure, etc.), or even some cool ideas of hairstyle.
3. Retention: think about the following scenarios: will your customers run out of the products they've bought from you? Is there a valid up-sell/cross-sell? Is there a benefit for them if they refer you a client? Did you run out of stock and would like to create a "Back in stock" SMS alert? If you're doing a Flash Sale, send them an email & sms campaign.
Last but not least, remember to periodically clean & segment the lists properly to avoid the spam filters, and to maximize the value you deliver.
Max Finke, Director of Growth and Partnerships at Coast Digital
I have always used two phrases to describe email and sms marketing. The first is "money on the table" and the second is "treat them as a human.
"A poorly set-up email and sms strategy leaves "money on the table" and this can be the detrimental to many brands, especially as they are just getting started. In my experience, many brands will skip the conversion and retention step which includes email and sms and think that ads are the most important aspect to scale their business. Unfortunately, this is what leaves the money on the table since there will be no strategy behind capturing customer information and turning them into a loyal purchaser. To avoid this mistake, brands should invest in their core automations for both email and sms as well as split test a variety of ways to capture customer information on site.
The core automations that typically drive the most revenue are the welcome series, abandon cart series, cross sell and upsell series, and browser abandon. For capturing customer information, I typically recommend JustUno, as they have a variety of pop-ups that you can test to see what works best for your brand. Also, it is never too soon to begin collecting phone numbers! Start now with a double opt in or collect it with the purchase.
The second phrase is "treat them like a human." It may seem obvious but behind every legitimate email address is a human being and they like to feel special. The best way to make somebody feel special is to acknowledge their behaviors and to tailor your communication towards those behaviors. How you do this through email and sms is through segmentation of your list. You should know what products individuals have purchased so that you can recommend complimentary products. You should know who has engaged with your brand in the last 30, 60, 90 days. You should know who HASN'T engaged with your brand in that timeframe. The more segmented your list, the better because it makes your customers feel special and that is the key to successful email and sms strategies.
Carmen Alldred, Marketing Strategist at Blend Commerce
When the news broke that Apple was going to be blocking third-party cookies, Brands and Marketers alike have been forced to rethink their approach to customer personalisation. We can no longer understand a person by simply taking a proverbial stroll through their browser history. Cookies may be going away, but personalisation is here to stay.
Klaviyo makes it exceptionally easy to send targeted messages to your customers to build brand loyalty and brand community, and help you get the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Creating these exceptional and personalised experiences is key to building an engaged customer base that comes back for a second and third time.
How personalised experiences can improve your conversions:
Customer-first Data is a reliable and effective way for brands to give their customers a personalised experience. Klaviyo’s Multi-Step Signup Forms allow you to collect detailed customer-first data, like first names, birthdays, personal preferences, or interests to help you provide a highly personalised experience to your customers.
Multi-Step forms make it easy to collect consent for multiple marketing channels while learning about your subscribers without intimidating visitors with chunky forms.
"It’s not enough to let your customer get to know your brand—brands have to take the time to get to know each customer."
Matt Schlicht, CEO of Octane AIOctane AI Conversational Pop Up’s
Octane's Conversational Pop-Ups are an interactive and innovative experience designed to collect opt-ins, ask your customers about their needs and preferences (collecting invaluable zero-party data) and make personalised product recommendations that can be added to the cart - right from a single pop-up.
How to Personalise your Email Flows:
Like with all email flows, segmentation is essential. But specifically with Welcome Flows, you need to understand where your customers are in their journey. Segmentation will increase their customer experience, increase their personalisation, and find areas of your store that they perhaps didn’t know existed.
Start by segmenting customers by their source. It's all very good and well to know they’ve signed up, but knowing WHERE they’ve signed up from, will give you a unique insight into how different customers interact with your store after the sign-up process.
For example, by segmenting your Welcome Flow based on whether a customer signed up from a discount offering vs a customer who signed up through your Newsletter form, you’ll be able to target the messaging to those two different customer types, as well as differentiate a customer who is truly here for your brand, or a customer, who really just wanted the discount and is more likely to unsubscribe in the near future.