Commerce Accelerator Program

Session 3: Best Practices for Email Marketing August 28, 2014

The next 6 weeks Session 3: Email marketing Thurs, Aug 28 at 5:30pm PT Session 4: Creating a luxury brand/ developing your brand story Thurs, Sept 4 at 5:30pm PT Session 5: Social strategies that help you sell Thurs, Sept 11 at 5:30pm PT Session 6: “OND” prep call – Holiday Sales Strategies Thurs, Sept 18 at 5:30pm PT Session 7: Approaching restaurants Thurs, Sept 25 at 5:30pm PT Session 8: Building your customer base, referral programs, POS sales Thurs, Oct 2 at 5:30pm PT

Email drives e-commerce Brands that have no physical store front have built hugely successful businesses through email marketing.

The role of email in e-commerce •  Email marketing is one of the most successful, most cost-

effective, and most important features of your business. This is how you will generate sales year-round.

•  People are not naturally coming to your site. You HAVE to send them there.

•  Emails should make them want to make an immediate, spontaneous purchase that they weren’t otherwise considering.

The role of email in e-commerce •  Remember, email does not replace social media – it has a

similar but different role to play. •  Facebook is NOT sending your posts to ALL of your fans;

other social media streams (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) are running so quickly that messages can easily be missed. Emails are still the most effective way to get a response.

•  Remember, social networks are owned by social networks and could literally be taken down at any time. Your email list of customers and potential customers are the only traffic drivers YOU own and control.

Wine e-commerce •  Wine is not a need (for most

people!). It is a want that for those with discretionary income - and they have plenty of choices in how they spend their money.

•  The content of your email is critical to your success in having them click to buy.

•  You are literally competing with hundreds of emails in their inbox.

•  It is mostly an emotional purchase. If they like you they will want to buy from you.

The email sign up •  The email sign up on your website is a way to capture email

addresses from potential customers. •  These are people that *might* want to buy your wines but are

not ready to make a purchase. •  The sign up box should be obvious on your home page (top

right hand corner is a good place for this). •  Keep sign up simple: Name and email address is all you

need. Ask for more and you risk them not signing up.

Example: Email sign up •  Newsletter sign up

should be in a colored box that stands out on the page.

•  Do not ask for too much info. Name, email (and possibly zip) is sufficient. The less info you ask for, the more sign ups you will get.

Setting up email marketing 1.  Decide which email marketing provider is best for you 2.  Put the sign up box on your homepage (email provider

will provide the code) 3.  Set up your autoresponders (welcome email,

unsubscribe email) and double opt in 4.  Test it out yourself 5.  Add your customer list to your email marketing account 6.  Add any other lists to your email marketing account that

have opted in to receive info about your wines

Email marketing providers

Provider Cost Other info

AWeber Starts at $19 /month for up to 500 subscribers

Segmentation. Phone support. Subscribers must agree to get your email (double opt in)

Constant Contact Starts at $15 /month for 500 subscribers

Phone support.

MailChimp Send 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers for free.

Segmentation. No phone support.

iContact Starts at $14 for 500 subs per month Offers services for large senders

VerticalResponse Send up to 4,000 emails per month to 1,000 subscribers for free.

Phone support.

In order to make the most of the power of email marketing, you need to have the right email marketing provider. Here are the most popular providers. Each offer email design templates, tracking analytics (open rates, click through rate).

Single opt in vs Double opt in •  Single opt in: User does not need to confirm their email

address. •  Double opt in: User signs up then receives email. They

must click on the email in order to be added to your list. –  Pros: Eliminates “bad” addresses and spammers. Sign

ups are higher quality and are genuinely interested. Higher open and click through rate.

–  Cons: Less addresses on your list. Slower list growth. You get have a lot of email addresses that are duds and do not exist.

Email Design & Content •  Create a template that recipients will become familiar with. •  Email color palette, fonts, logo etc. should be consistent

with your website & your label. •  Visually should be clear what the call to action is. What do

you want them to do? •  Sales emails should create urgency: Give them a reason to

action this NOW (i.e: First 50 orders get 5% off) •  Test on mobile devices. People love to purchase from their

phones and ipads. •  Should include social media icons and links. •  Should include winery address, opt-out/unsubscribe option

Example: Email Content for Sales

Should include address

Visually it should be clear what the call to action is

Create urgency: Give them a reason to action this NOW

Should include social media icons and links

Should include social media icons and links.

Welcome email series •  Set up “autoresponder emails” that will be sent out

automatically. You can set up as many of these like. •  Welcome email should be sent out once they are

confirmed on your list. Thank them for signing up and explain what they can expect from you.

•  Second welcome email could be sent out to encourage them to connect with your brand on social networks.

Email schedule •  Create an email schedule or editorial calendar •  Plan out the next 6 months •  Emails can be 1 x per month, 1 x per week, whatever

you can commit to that is appropriate for your business. •  Factor in pre-holiday season series of emails •  Create a theme for each email

Email content ideas •  Charity / cause (if you have

one) •  News about YOU •  Recipes & pairings •  Restaurants featuring your

wines •  Blog posts •  In the vineyard

•  Wine offers •  Events •  Wine scores / awards /

accolades •  Press articles •  New releases •  Harvest update •  Holiday offers

Overall, your design must be compelling and content must be relevant. Remember, you have 2-3 seconds when people decide if they will delete the email or read it.

Example: Newsletter format

Create scarcity Create urgency

Call to action

Savings & limited time special stimulates sales

Upsell

Email analytics •  Your email platform will be able to show you how many people opened the

email, and how many people clicked through to your site. •  From there Google Analytics will tell you how they used your site or cart.

VerticalResponse – includes social tracking MailChimp – tracking by list type

Building lists •  Use every opportunity to get sign ups to your email list. i.e:

tasting events, dinners, any interested trade and media. •  Export your LinkedIn contacts and invite them in a separate

email to sign up to your wine email. Tell them it is your company and why you are passionate about it.

•  Tell your social networks to sign up for the list (Post the link on LinkedIn as a status update)

Tactics that work •  Test the time of day you get the highest open rate. For wine

later in the day or evening can work well •  Test the day of the week you get the highest open rate •  Avoid sending emails on holidays •  Test subject lines. Subject lines are incredibly important.

This is how people decide if they will open and read the email. You can also test what works by comparing different subject lines.

•  Test “From” or Sender field – sometimes coming from a person, vs a company works better.

Email marketing don’ts •  Be wary of offers to buy email lists or databases. In most

cases this is not a good idea. •  Do not add people without their consent. If you are manually

adding new people they should have agreed to subscribe either by signing up to a list (i.e: at a tasting) or verbally told you they want to sign up. If you have a double opt-in set up then they will then need to click on the email to be added.

•  Don’t send the same content each time. Keep the content relevant and varied.

•  Don’t email too frequently otherwise they will unsubscribe.

Email marketing – the future •  Personalization – e.g: Amazon, Netflix. Understanding

and predicting personal wine preferences, birthdays, anniversaries etc.

•  Segmentation of lists by interest: Breaking down your customer base by segments and understanding purchasing habits. (e.g: If you know they don’t like Chardonnay, don’t send them Chardonnay offers)

•  Passion points: Find out what they are passionate about and predict when they will want wine. i.e: football fans: mention their favorite team, offer pre-game special.

Questions, please!

mindy@TheWineFoundry.com @MindyJoyce

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