Tips for more successful email marketing campaigns

Hello,

BFCM is behind us, there are still a few days left, and we will slowly say goodbye to 2022. Are you already making 25-30% of your revenue from email marketing? Great, then you've more than done your homework, and you're on the right track.

Q4 is the time when email marketing comes to life the most. Investing time in quality content, strategy preparation, and preliminary testing pays off. But if you are not happy with the results in Q4 yet, you are most likely just at the beginning or have yet to reach your full potential.

Below you will find some basic information and beginner's mistakes that we usually see the clients we work with make.

1. "Send to all" 🙈- Sending emails to the entire database.

Unfortunately, emails are often sent to the entire database instead of to the appropriate segments. Such practices are surprisingly also used by companies that have been on the market for a long time and, most of the time, have a concrete list of subscribers (500k+).

Why are there better ways than to send the same email to the entire base?

It doesn't make sense to send your emails to Nicole and John, who subscribed a year and a half ago, maybe even made a purchase, but haven't opened your email even once in the last ten months.

Doing it this way, you strongly influence the open/click rate metrics, and with that, you also influence the deliverability itself (and believe me, you don't want to play with that).

Usually, it goes like this: if your emails have a terrible open/click rate, email providers conclude that your content is irrelevant and "protect" their customers (your base) from your emails 🙈. That means that sooner or later, your email will end up in the spam, or the emails will not be delivered at all.

There is a high probability that you will needlessly pay a much higher cost for the email marketing platform—more about this below.

2. You chose an email marketing platform solely based on price.

When comparing the prices of two platforms, you quickly decide on the cheaper one, especially if you are starting out, and cost optimization is still essential.

I understand, but is it really that much cheaper?

Take a good look at all the platform features, think about what you need, and choose the one that will make your work easier. If you spend 3x more time on the operational part within the platform or need some additional tool because your platform does not provide everything you need, make sure you count that in as well.

Remember to check what kind of report the platform offers! This may not be the most important thing at the beginning. Still, you will quickly realize that it is necessary to build a quality list and "nurture" it from the very beginning if you want email marketing to be successful in the long term.
Of course, this also means that there will be the need for personalized content, which is far from just a *name* in the subject line or the first paragraph of the address.

Also, be careful when comparing prices. Most EM platforms do indeed charge a usage based on the size of the entire database.

Some differences between Klaviyo and Mailchimp:

Mailchimp charges the cost of using the platform on the entire base, Klaviyo on active profiles. (Example 1: Client X has 800,000 contacts, of which only 360,000 have opened/clicked on an email in the last three months - active profiles. So you have to compare the price at Mailchimp for 800,000 contacts and the price at Klaviyo for 360,000 active profiles; Example 2: Client Y has 50,000 contacts, of which only 23,000 have opened/clicked on the email in the last three months).

Mailchimp segmentation is list-based. Klaviyo segmentation is global per account. This means you can segment the base in Mailchimp only by a separate sheet, but Klaviyo creates a segment from all sheets. Example: you have six lists. With the campaign, you want to segment the base that bought X in the last three weeks. In Klaviyo, one segment will be enough; in Mailchimp, you must create six segments separately for each sheet.

Klaviyo creates a subscriber profile and uses AI to predict when the customer will most likely make a purchase again. You can target specific ones who visited your website at X time, viewed certain products/categories X times in the last week, or segment them according to their buying habits. You can sync the created segments and lists with Facebook and target your email database with ads. Mailchimp does not allow advanced segmentation and sync with Facebook.

Mailchimp opt-in forms are based on the lists, and Klaviyo forms are based on your desire. This means you have to create a new list in Mailchimp for each new form you make. In Klaviyo, you can create several different forms and collect contacts on one common list.

3. You send emails on Thursday at 11:00, just like Mr. Google said.

Make no mistake; I love Google:) But, for choosing when to send your email campaigns, you should test it on your database instead of general Google advice. Check which day of the week stands out the most regarding the number of purchases made in your online store. For example, if it's Tuesday and Sunday, start with them. The next step is to test the time. Find your winning combination and stay consistent.

P.S.: Q4 is not an ideal time for testing, as this is the time of various promotional campaigns, which can strongly impact customers' buying habits. Most likely, you had an increase in purchases on Friday due to the Black Friday campaign, not because Fridays generally do better than other days of the week.

Best regards,

Klara

WeScale Email Marketing Manager and Certified Klaviyo Expert on Deliverability