Email Marketing 101: Setting up flows + campaigns
Email marketing can be a challenge for new brands to get off the ground. There’s so much jargon, so many moving parts, so many things you could do. There’s also a ton of room for advanced strategy in the form of A/B testing - and then once you actually start sending emails, there’s so much data to analyze!
My goal today is to clarify the basics of e-commerce email marketing so that, even if you’re totally new to it, you have a clear starting point to work from. We’ll be covering the differences between campaigns and flows, two words you may have heard thrown around alot but that can be confusing if you’re just getting started. I’ll also help you to prioritize what to work on first, and start thinking about your customer’s journey and how you can personalize content so that they feel nurtured, which is a huge part of email marketing success. Onwards!
First off: what are campaigns versus flows?
Here’s the simplest way to remember these terms: campaigns are one-off emails - a newsletter, an announcement - while flows are ongoing email communication that have to be prompted by an action. (Think about it: flows are just flowing along in the background, doing their job!)
Campaigns are standalone emails meant to communicate news and showcase brand content. They tend to be less tailored to the individual customer (although they can be!) and more about nurturing a general understanding of your brand and its products. Have you posted a new styling guide on your site? Send a campaign linking to it! Did a celebrity wear one of your pieces recently? That’s right - you can send an email campaign covering that.
Flows are emails (or sequences of emails) that are sent automatically based on a customer’s unique journey within your brand. Whether they’ve just signed up for email marketing, or have made several purchases in the last year but then stopped buying, those are all steps in a customer’s journey. Flow sequences are built out in advance in your email marketing platform, and then deployed automatically to the relevant customers. Flows tend to do a lot of behind-the-scenes heavy lifting. Your goal is to tailor your flow messaging to be as effective and personalized as possible so that your customers feel nurtured - and want to come back for more.
You and I both know that not everyone visiting your online store will become a buyer.
But what if I could help you to bump up that percentage?
Which type of marketing emails should I prioritize?
As a (broad) rule of thumb, I recommend you start by building out an email flow framework that makes sense for your brand. Then, once you have your flows working away in the background, pivot to getting a consistent campaign schedule up and running.
Remember: the frequency of your email campaigns is way less important than their content and relevance.
With that in mind - let’s get started!
Getting started on your email marketing setup
As an e-commerce brand owner, your email marketing goal is to strike the perfect balance that caters to your customer’s wants and needs without feeling spammy. Since we’re getting strategic, it’s time to take a moment to think through your business and product assortment: How do your customers currently like to engage with your brand? What types of content get the most traction from your other marketing channels? How often are you hoping customers will come back and make repeat purchases? Do you have a specific launch or discount schedule you’ll be following?
Take some time to subscribe to your competitor’s email lists and get a feel for what they’re doing. What do you, as a customer, like about their emails? Where are they losing you?
Your brand is unique, which means your email marketing strategy will be as well. But, keeping that in mind, I do have some flow recommendations to get you started! Let’s go.
Priority Flow #1: Welcome Series
I see many people make the mistake of thinking they can skip the Welcome email setup. After all, what’s the urgency? You’ve already gotten the subscriber onto the list, which is the biggest hurdle. But think of it like this: Welcome emails provide a great opportunity to gain new subscriber’s trust while they’re highly engaged (since, after all, they just made the effort to sign up for your list). Welcome emails also have far higher open rates than general marketing campaigns, which means any messaging you include here is more likely to be seen and acted on. So, how can you leverage that to your advantage?
Build trust by letting the customer get to know your brand, and setting expectations for future messaging. Now is not the time to be stuffy - thank the customer for being here, using your unique brand voice and perspective to show them why you’re different. Let them know when they can expect to hear from you - do you drop new products frequently? Will you send out a blast if one of your products is sighted on the red carpet? Help prepare them to be engaged going forward.
Explain what makes your products different (and maybe highlight some best-sellers). Do you have an amazing sustainability or carbon-neutralizing program? Spotlight it here! Want your customer to browse your top five bestselling products? The welcome email is a great place to do that.
If you want to get advanced, you can set up a second email in the welcome flow series with product highlights. Schedule it to deploy a couple of days after the initial welcome message.
Priority Flow #2: Optimized Order Confirmation Email
The only email type that gets opened more than a Welcome email is an order receipt. I’m sure you intuitively open these when they land in your inbox. But have you considered what a great opportunity order confirmation emails provide to build brand loyalty?
You don’t want to go overboard with additional messaging here - keep the bulk of the email straightforward and to the point. But, consider including something like:
An invite to follow your brand on social, or subscribe to your newsletter
A bounce back discount for next time (like free shipping on their next order, within a certain time frame)
The inside scoop about an upcoming promotion
Keep it simple, but use your order confirmation emails to plant seeds that will encourage customers to come back for more.
Priority Flow #3: Abandoned Cart Sequence
Abandoned cart emails aren’t a magic bullet to recover lost sales, but they work in enough cases that it’s worth the time to set this flow up early on. You can use an abandoned cart flow to create urgency - say, by sending an email a day after the cart abandonment letting the customer know that inventory is running low for their product. Or, you can sweeten the deal by offering up a discount like free shipping or a small percentage off (after a couple of days, of course).
I’d also suggest using your abandoned cart flow as a way to build trust with the customer, especially if you sell luxury or other big-ticket products. Ask them if there’s anything you can help them with, or if they have any questions. Show that you (or someone on your team) is available. You won’t recover every sale, but even if you only land 5-10% of abandoned carts back with this flow, it’ll be worth it.
Priority Flow #4: Winback Sequence
Winback flows go out after a customer has made their first-ever purchase, encouraging them to come back and shop again. These are amazing for increasing revenue since repeat customers don’t require any additional acquisition costs (like ad spend). When building your winback flow content, consider: is there anything you sell that could be considered an “impulse buy”? Or, do you offer something complementary to what the customer already ordered - for example, if you sell enamel clutches, could you invite the client to order a cuff in a matching color?
The timing of your winback flow will be highly dependent on the type of products you sell. For example, a fine jewelry brand might want to wait several months, even a year, before circling back to first-time customers, while a cosmetics brand might follow up within a week or two. Once you’re ready for it, winback flows are a prime opportunity to A/B test what timing works best.
Now to the fun part: campaigns!
As I mentioned above, your goal with campaigns should be to create relevant, useful content that will make your customers look forward to your emails. You don’t need to commit to a firm sending cadence when getting started! Instead, focus on creating the most helpful content you can. Back to the celebrity example from above: maybe your customers would love to get a styling guide in their inbox based on how Rihanna wore your product. (Look at you go! You snagged Rihanna!) Or, maybe what they really want is a preview of your brand’s Black Friday deals. The point is: you should have a reason for the campaigns you’re sending. That’s a key way to keep your content from feeling spammy.
Once you’ve gotten started sending out an initial campaign or two, you’ll want to focus on metrics like your open and click-through rates to see what’s working (and what’s not). A tip: if you want to improve open rates, you have to adjust either the time you send your emails or the types of subject lines you’re using. There are basically endless ways you can improve your campaign strategy: this is a marathon, not a sprint!
Wrapping up: what next?
This guide is meant to help you dip your toe into the big, wide world of e-comm email marketing. You don’t have to have everything figured out right now - the best thing to do is start hitting send on some emails so that you can gather further information, and improve your strategy from there.
That being said - if you’re ready to go further down the email strategy rabbithole, I have an article on designing emails that convert that’s a great next step.
Are you feeling like you’re ready to go email expert mode? Then check out my giant guide to email segmentation - I bet you’ll find it useful.
Have questions? Get in touch. I answer all messages personally.
