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Loyalty Programs: How Much Should Your Rewards & Points Be Worth?

This guide will help you determine the optimal value for loyalty points. We’ll dive into essential pricing principles, effective strategies, real-world...

Francesca Nicasio

Content Strategy Manager

Fun fact: 20% of customers stated that rewards programs influence their choice of where to shop. 

There are clear benefits to having a loyalty program. However, there are also some hard truths: Just because it’s driving customers doesn’t mean it’s making bank. Businesses that fail to recognize they’re overspending on rewards or misjudging their importance are more likely to suffer losses. 

To create a successful loyalty program, be sure to check whether its benefits outweigh the costs right from the outset. This means taking the time to calculate loyalty points accurately and making sure that you’re valuing your program’s points in line with your business goals and targets. 

This comprehensive guide will help you determine the optimal value for loyalty points. We’ll dive into essential pricing principles, effective strategies, real-world examples, and common challenges.

By the end of this guide, you'll be able to set yourself up to achieve consistent and lucrative returns from your loyalty marketing strategy.


 

What are loyalty rewards?

Loyalty rewards are incentives offered by businesses to encourage and reward repeat purchases by customers. They can come in the form of:

  • points
  • discounts
  • exclusive benefits

…all of which are designed to build and maintain a strong, loyal customer base.

Think of it this way: loyalty rewards are the currency of customer appreciation, and that’s why some of the world’s most customer-centric brands — including Starbucks, Sephora, and Amazon — invest a great deal in their loyalty and rewards initiatives. 

These companies know that loyalty programs encourage repeat purchases while nurturing relationships with their customers. 

Rewards programs also have a tangible impact on sales metrics. Some programs require reaching a specific cash or credit card spending threshold for loyalty points. This encourages higher splurging in a single transaction to increase basket size and average transaction value. 

In fact, our research shows that on average, a loyalty member spends 72% more than an anonymous shopper.

Principles of pricing rewards

Pricing customer loyalty rewards requires a balance between attraction and sustainability to ensure immediate engagement and long-term profitability. Your rewards must be enticing enough to capture attention without compromising your profit margins or undervaluing your products.

Giving back value in a loyalty program-1

You can achieve this balance by keeping the following in mind:

Considerations when pricing rewards

To calculate loyalty points more accurately, consider the following factors when designing your program.

1. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV is the overall expected revenue from customers throughout their engagement. Thus, it helps you determine the maximum reward program investment while maintaining profitability.  

Customers with a CLV above your average CLV indicates that they are long-term customers who are engaged and loyal. You can offer them high-value rewards, such as VIP events, limited-edition products, or loftier monetary rewards. Conversely, lower CLV shoppers can enjoy modest rewards like free shipping on certain thresholds to encourage ongoing engagement while retaining positive ROI.

2. Cost of rewards

Cost of rewards is a key metric to avoid overspending. Your total loyalty point rewards cost mustn’t exceed the incremental benefits generated by increased customer spending. 

Note: Incremental benefits don’t only mean higher sales. It can also include non-monetary benefits like increased customer retention, improved brand loyalty, and more word-of-mouth referrals.

Add the product/service, fulfillment, and administrative expenses associated with granting rewards to get your total cost of rewards. Then, compare that against the benefits to analyze the potential return on investment for different reward options.

For example, if offering a free product as a reward incurs a direct cost of $5 to your business, you should ensure this cost is more than covered by the additional spending or engagement the reward generates.

3. Competitive positioning

This factor influences your offering’s perceived value relative to competitors. If your competitors offer similar rewards at a lower price point, you may need to tweak your pricing strategy to stay competitive. Otherwise, you can justify a premium price with unique, high-quality rewards.

You can even go a step further by identifying areas where competitors fall short and strategizing to fill those gaps. Conducting market research analysis can be helpful in such a case. 

"On average, transactions made by loyalty members are worth over 60% more than anonymous transactions. Imagine even just 5% of your customer-base joins your loyalty program, and spends 60% more per transaction. Think what that would do to your bottom line."

- Rory Moss, Loyalty Expert

4. Economic conditions

Economic conditions can intensify market competition. During downturns, shoppers become more price-conscious and seek value for money. You can choose to engage in price wars or offer aggressive pricing strategies (i.e., offering higher-than-normal loyalty points) to gain customers.

Since this external factor is inevitable, you can only mitigate their effects to some extent. Leverage predictive analytics to anticipate shifts in demand and adjust your pricing like you would for competitive positioning.

5. Market demand

Responding to market demand for loyalty program rewards involves monitoring purchasing patterns, survey results, and industry trends. Insights from these activities shed light on which reward types appeal the most to your customer base.

When market demand for exclusive events is high, customers perceive these offerings as valuable and are willing to pay premium prices for them. Thus, you can charge more for experiential rewards.

Pro-tip: Market demands fluctuate. Continuously monitor your pricing strategy’s performance and adjust it as needed.

Point structuring

Customers may perceive the program as less valuable if it doesn’t meet their expectations or if the loyalty point bonus takes too long to accumulate. It can lead to decreased participation and engagement. 

Altering value perception

Here are two ways to structure a well-designed points system that serves your (and your customers’) needs:

Point Valuation

Set a monetary value for each loyalty point. It can be a fraction of the average profit margin per transaction or your CLV. 

For instance, if each loyalty point is valued at $1.00, the program becomes straightforward and highly perceivable in terms of value, making it easy for customers to understand how much they’re earning with each transaction.

It’s best to start with a conservative point value. After monitoring customer response and performance metrics, make adjustments to obtain the optimal point value.

Point-to-spend Ratio

Specify the number of loyalty points‌ customers will earn for every dollar spent on purchases. A higher ratio encourages more frequent purchases to accrue points faster. Meanwhile, a lower ratio delays point accumulation but helps reduce program expenses. 

Industry benchmarks are a good reference point, but maintain it in line with your objectives. For instance, if the goal is to increase customer retention, opt for a higher ratio to encourage repeat purchases and ongoing engagement.

Refer to these price structuring options when deciding on the reward types you’ll offer. But before we get into these, here are more strategies to calculate loyalty points more accurately.

4 steps to sustainable rewards pricing

Follow these practical strategies to optimize your reward pricing while keeping the loyalty program compelling and aligned with your financial goals.

1. Understand cost-based pricing vs. value-based pricing

Cost-based pricing focuses on covering loyalty program expenses and guaranteeing profitability, while value-based seeks to connect rewards with perceived customer value.

Cost-based pricing calculates the direct costs associated with providing rewards. It’s a safer option for startups or small businesses with limited resources. It sets prices based on tangible costs rather than uncertain market factors or vague perceived value. 

Here’s a simplified illustration without factoring in retention rates, seasonal fluctuations, competitor strategies, and other pricing factors. 

You’re running a loyalty program, costing you $22 per individual ($15 for reward product costs, $5 for marketing expenses, and $2 for administrative overhead). If you aim for a 20% profit margin, you should be earning $27.60 per customer enrolled ($22 total cost per customer / 0.8 profit margin).

Value-based pricing, on the other hand, doesn’t focus on cost recovery. You calculate loyalty points pricing based on its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. It’s ideal for businesses that value brand reputation, such as luxury goods and high-end technology.

For instance, you could offer personalized services or products not available to the general public. This approach enhances their perceived value and can justify a higher points requirement, encouraging more purchases and engagement from members.

2. Incorporate customer feedback and insights from your data

Feedback lets you understand what your customers truly value. Solicit their ideas through surveys, reviews, and direct communication channels. 

In addition, data analytics can help you see exactly what works and what falls flat in your program. It tracks key metrics like CLV, redemption rates, and engagement levels. Use these insights to tweak your offerings and personalize rewards based on each customer base’s behavior and preferences.

3. Define your objectives

Your loyalty program’s objectives ensure that each reward contributes to attaining your bigger goals. Specify your target goals, whether it’s increasing customer retention or boosting sales.

Review your current reward offerings and assess how well they support these goals. Suppose your initial objective is to boost customer retention, but you notice that reward redemption rates are low. You can adjust your reward structure to include more experiential rewards or exclusive perks to pique more interest.

4. Analzye competitors and position yourself strategically in-market

Your competitors can overlook market gaps — and that’s where you come in. Study their offerings, including their reward types, pricing strategies, and program features. Recognize their shortcomings and make them your strengths.

Let’s say your findings show competitors lack flexibility in redeeming rewards. In this instance, having multiple redemption channels (e.g., online, in-store, and mobile) can help make your program stand out in a crowded market.

3 examples of successful rewards pricing structures

Check out these three brands that have captivated customers and driven business growth through their loyalty programs. Here are their real-world success stories:

American Airlines

american airlines rewards program structure

The American Airlines AAdvantage® program offers elite status to frequent flyers with exclusive privileges such as priority boarding, systemwide upgrades, and extra baggage allowance. AAdvantage members can also earn bonus miles with partner airlines with every purchase using any Citi®/AAdvantage® Aviator® credit card.

Anyone can enroll with no annual fee, suggesting that value-based pricing can be as profitable as cost-based pricing. The AAdvantage® program’s longevity speaks volumes about its success. The increased engagement and revenue from more airline bookings and card purchases outweigh the reward costs, resulting in a favorable bottom line.

Neal's Yard Remedies

Screenshot 2024-03-21 at 9.36.25 AM

After decades of successful sales, Neal's Yard Remedies wanted to take the next step. It was time to undergo a digital transformation to offer a truly omnichannel experience. Unfortunately, their old POS was complicated to use and lacked an open API. Neal’s Yard Remedies wanted to find a POS and loyalty solution that worked seamlessly with their ecommerce platform to deliver that omnichannel experience.

Now, Neal’s Yard Remedies run an easy-to-use loyalty program across all their sales channels. It’s clear how to earn points, and there are multiple ways to earn. For a purchase, their points to spend ratio is set at 5:1 (customers earn 5 points when they spend £1). They’ve opted for a simple framework for rewards too: 500 points are worth £5.

Alpha60 

Screenshot 2024-03-21 at 9.43.24 AM

Alpha60 takes a different approach. Brand Manager Kelvin explains that Alpha60's loyalty program is about 'surprise and delight', rather than a promotional tool used to incentivize sales.

As part of the customer-first approach, ALPHA60 decided to make the loyalty program as simple as possible. Spend a thousand dollars, get a thousand points (a 1:1 points-to-spend ratio), get a $50 voucher.

“We try not to complicate it too much and add different things in, and that really works for us. I think it’s because it’s simple for people. It’s easy for customers to understand.” Kelvin believes simplicity helps customers get more invested with their points: they always know when they have a voucher ready to redeem.

Challenges in pricing rewards

The most common types of loyalty rewards include:

  • Percentage-based discounts
  • Fixed dollar discounts
  • Free shipping
  • Free products
  • VIP experiences

Each ​​loyalty program reward has its cost implications. For instance, percentage-based discounts work well with price-sensitive customers or low average order values. They encourage larger purchases or more frequent visits, although they could hurt your bottom line if applied to high-value items.

If shoppers mostly have higher and varying average order values, setting fixed dollar discounts on specific thresholds or repurchase intervals can make pricing predictable.

E-commerce and online businesses benefit from free shipping because it eliminates potential barriers to online purchases. But you’ll have to set an average order value before you hand it off to your customers. Otherwise, it’ll erode your profits.

Offering free products or samples can boost product discovery and your loyalty program's perceived value. But like free shipping, the total cost shouldn't exceed the incremental revenue or engagement they generate.

VIP access or experiential rewards are an excellent option for building a loyal customer base. It helps enhance brand trust and differentiation by fostering a sense of belonging among top-tier loyalty members. To ensure profitability, only offer this reward when increased engagement and CLV can justify the expenditure of delivering such experiences.

Here’s a table to simplify your comparison:

Reward type

What

Good for

Consider

Percentage-Based Discounts

Customers receive a certain percentage off their purchase.

Businesses with a low average order value (AOV) or those selling commodity products where customers are price-sensitive. This can encourage larger purchases or more frequent visits.

It might eat into margins if not carefully managed, especially for high-value items.

Fixed Dollar Discounts

Offers a fixed dollar amount off, which could be on the next purchase or once a certain points threshold is reached.

Businesses with higher and varying AOVs, as it provides a predictable cost that doesn't fluctuate with the price of the cart. It's also appealing for businesses that want to encourage a minimum spend.

Ensuring the discount threshold doesn't undercut profit margins is essential. It's also less enticing for low-value purchases.

Free Shipping

Free shipping on orders after reaching a certain points number or as a tiered benefit.

E-commerce businesses or those with a significant online presence. It's particularly effective if shipping costs are a known barrier to purchase.

Should be balanced with shipping costs to avoid eroding margins, especially for low-margin products or very distant shipping destinations.

Free Products or Samples

Offering free products or samples once customers reach a certain tier or points level.

Retailers with high-margin items or those looking to introduce new products. It encourages exploration of your product range and can enhance the perceived value of the loyalty program.

The cost of goods given away should be carefully considered against the incremental revenue or engagement they drive.

VIP Access or Experiential Rewards

Providing access to exclusive events, products, or experiences for top-tier loyalty members.

Brands with a lifestyle component or those looking to build a community among their customers. Works well for businesses aiming to enhance brand loyalty and differentiation.

The cost of creating these experiences should be justified by the increased engagement and customer lifetime value they generate.

To minimize costs while maintaining attractive rewards, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your investment across multiple reward types to target diverse audience segments. It won’t alienate customers who may not prefer a particular reward type. If you still can’t decide, talk to an expert for tailored advice.

Free Download: PDF and calculator for structuring your points and rewards

For more loyalty program optimization insights and tools, download our new PDF and calculator on pricing points and rewards. 

Download ebook on structuring your loyalty program

Notable trends in loyalty rewards

60% of brands claim experiences are indispensable for their success. Consider delivering experiential loyalty program perks they can’t get elsewhere to drive stronger brand advocacy.

Cutting-edge AI and analytics tools are another innovation that can help refine your reward pricing strategies. With online shopping, AI algorithms can track the most viewed, added to cart, and purchased products. Understand these patterns to maximize your pricing strategy on popular items.

Businesses also gather and analyze customer data in real time, urging more personalization and dynamic pricing. That way, you can streamline the redemption process with reward recommendations or one-click redemption. Implementing dynamic pricing could mean offering personalized discounts or bonuses tailored to individual customer profiles.

With so many emerging trends, it can be difficult to know where to begin. So, start with investing in the right loyalty software to harness these innovations and create highly effective reward systems.

Optimize your loyalty program today

Well-priced rewards inspire more loyal customers, reduce churn rates, secure repeat business, and differentiate your brand. All these benefits rely on how you calculate loyalty points and manage reward offerings.

With smart loyalty software like Marsello, customer-centric rewards with consistently high ROI are now more feasible than ever. Here’s our detailed guide to building a loyalty program that resonates with your audience.

 


 

Get advice from a loyalty expert and start driving repeat sales.

Book a demo

 


 

Read more: 7 Steps To Building A Profitable Loyalty & Rewards Program

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    How to Implement SMS Marketing

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    SMS Marketing receives some of the highest engagement rates. Make the most of text message marketing within your marketing strategy with our top tips.

    Getting customers to pay attention to your brand is becoming more and more of an uphill battle.
    Email inboxes are overflowing. Social media is saturated. Even with the right messaging and the right tools, there is sometimes too much noise to be able to stand out.

    So, how can you make people actually see your marketing efforts?

    Enter SMS Marketing; the marketing channel that receives some of the highest open rates and engagement.

    In this post, we’ll be giving you an in-depth look at SMS marketing. You’ll learn what it is, why it works, and the best practices for developing an SMS marketing strategy that's cost-effective and boosts your bottom line.

    Let's get started.

     

    What is SMS marketing

    Short Message Service (SMS) marketing is a strategy where businesses use SMS messaging to send timely and relevant short-form content directly to a customer's mobile device. 

    The uses of SMS marketing span from informative (i.e. letting someone know that their order is ready for pick up) to promotional messages, like alerting customers to your latest special offer.

    SMS marketing can be used for an even broader variety of purposes, such as:

    • Abandoned cart notifications
    • Giving out discount codes or coupons
    • New products arriving in-store
    • Order/shipping confirmations
    • Loyalty or VIP programs
    • and many more.

    Because it allows for such direct and personalized brand communications, text message marketing is a fantastic tool for building customer loyalty and driving repeat purchases. It enables customers to be better informed about your brand’s activities, while also giving them the tools they need to take action quickly and effectively.

    SMS Marketing: The Numbers 

     

    "48.7 million consumers have willingly opted to receive SMS, while 58% say they
    would be happy to hear from their favorite brands multiple
    times per week."

     

    Text messaging is hardly a new innovation. Mobile phones with full keyboards have been around since the late nineties. So, why is SMS marketing receiving so much hype from marketers?

    Many brands worry that SMS marketing messages might come across as intrusive – but this view is not supported by consumer surveys. By the end of 2020, it’s estimated that 48.7 million consumers have willingly opted to receive SMS, while 58% say they would be happy to hear from their favorite brands multiple times per week.

    Why? The answer is simple; internet-capable devices have given us unprecedented connectivity with businesses and brands. This gradual shift towards mobile eCommerce is a clear sign of our increasing desire to shop on the go; 56.7% of shoppers are now going “mobile-first”, while only 6.7% primarily use desktop for online shopping. 

    56.7% of shoppers are now going "mobile-first", while only 6.7% primarily use desktop for online shopping. 

    "56.7% of shoppers are now going "mobile-first", while only 6.7% primarily use
    desktop for online shopping. "

     

    As we become more reliant on cell phones to help organize our lives, our responsiveness to these devices only grows. A whopping 90% of customers will open a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it. 

    With this in mind, let’s look at a few more reasons why your business should consider SMS marketing.

     

    Why businesses should engage in SMS marketing

     

    1. It’s conversational

    When consumers are interacting with a brand, they want to feel as though they’re talking to a real person. But it’s easy for many B2C communication tools, such as email or even live chat, to feel stilted and lacking in personality.

    SMS is a winning communication channel because it presents a much more intimate touchpoint with consumers. It’s fun, free-flowing, and puts us more in the mind of talking with a trusted friend rather than a business.

    It also makes us far more receptive; over half of Americans say that a text with a coupon code is more effective than a targeted digital ad!

     

    "Over half of Americans say that a text with a coupon code is more effective than
    a target digital ad!"

     

    2. It can be used to amplify your other marketing efforts

    The secret to a good marketing strategy isn’t down to the number of marketing tools you use; it’s about whether you can make them work together to reinforce brand messaging and reach a bigger audience. 

    With its high engagement and low time investment, mobile marketing can be used to drive customers to much larger pieces of content via links and CTAs, such as blog posts, podcasts, and videos on your social media channels. 

     

    3. It’s cost-effective

    We all know that marketing can get expensive, especially when you’re balancing a lot of different strategies at once. And as eCommerce grows more competitive, customer acquisition costs will only rise. 

    After a slight knock with the onset of the pandemic, digital ad costs are increasing once again – yet struggling more than ever to reach the right target audiences. 

    SMS marketing campaigns offer businesses a far more affordable alternative because the associated costs are low. Unlike other forms of content, you don’t need to invest in graphic designers or content writers to create messaging that resonates with your audience. 

     

    An iPhone screen with an SMS campaign offering 15% off on a customer's birthday.

     
     

    How to develop an SMS marketing strategy

    Ready to craft your SMS marketing strategy? Consider the following steps.

    Decide on your objectives

    First things first: What are you hoping to achieve through SMS marketing, and how are going to measure it? The latter part of this question is particularly important; if you don't know whether you've hit your goal, it's very difficult to track whether your expenditure was worth it.

    Let's look at a few sample objectives, and how you can measure them:

      • Brand awareness. Brand awareness is a less tangible entity that can feel difficult to pin down. However, there are several metrics, such as SMS open rates and referral traffic to your website, which provide a good picture of whether customers are searching out your content.

      • Growing your subscriber base. This is important when you're starting out with SMS marketing. Metrics such as your list's growth per month/quarter and your subscriber drop-off rate can be used to gauge whether your messaging is striking a chord with your audience.

      • Boosting sales. If you plan on using SMS to inform customers of your latest specials in-store, it's a good idea to insert a trackable link within your message that directs people to a specific landing or product page. This makes it easy to see whether your SMS has helped to boost conversions.

     

    Develop a system for customers to opt-in

    Building a contact list isn't just about gathering phone numbers; by law, to use SMS, you also need to get permission to contact customers this way. 

    According to the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), it's unlawful to send consumers promotional messages unless they have given their number voluntarily and also given their consent to receive communications. You also need to give them a straightforward opt-out method.

    There are two main ways to allow customers to opt-in; by getting customers to text a specific keyword to a short code set up by your brand, or by adding a tick-box option when your customer is accessing gated content or going through online checkout (in the same manner as asking permission for email communications).

    Have a strategy to grow your contact list

    Your customers aren't going to sign up for your SMS marketing if they don't know it exists. If you're going to grow your SMS contact list effectively, you need to put effort into marketing this communications channel through your other media outlets.


    You can do this through the following methods:

    • In-store signage
    • Verbal communication
    • Email
    • Digital marketing (i.e. social media or influencer marketing)
    • A banner on your website
    • Flyers containing QR codes

    Find the right SMS marketing platform

    SMS marketing automation software that allows you to send bulk SMS messages, so it’s a good investment for both emerging and established retailers. For starters, it simply isn't workable to have staff members laboriously sending out text after text. You'll also gain valuable data insights that will help to refine your SMS strategy.

    So, what should you be looking for in SMS marketing software? Here’s a quick checklist:

    • Intuitive workflows that require little training time
    • Ability to schedule SMS by date/time
    • Ability to integrate with other marketing/eCommerce tools
    • Extensive data relating to open rates and CTR (if relevant)
    • Ability to scale as your activity grows

    Check out Marsello’s marketing platform, which allows you to run targeted SMS campaigns to drive customer engagement and sales. With Marsello, you can easily schedule messages and measure your results to continuously improve performance. 

    Marsello also integrates with leading POS systems and eCommerce solutions, so you can connect all your retail platforms and offer a seamless experience across multiple channels.

     

    Man in a white shirt scrolls on his cellphone

     

    Best practices for SMS marketing

    Let's take a quick look at some of the suggested best practices for SMS marketing.

    Know who your customers are

    Before you start sending any messages, you should build a picture of what's going to resonate with your subscriber list. Where is your audience located, and how will this affect what time you need to send messages? Which products are your best sellers, and most likely to produce the highest conversion rates from promotions? 

    As a retailer, you have a lot of data at your fingertips to help answer these questions, such as your sales history and Google Web Analytics. If you use a CRM, this is a fantastic way to track your customers' journeys and tailor SMS touchpoints to what is most informative at each stage.

     

    Keep your communications to the point

    A single SMS message can only contain a maximum of 160 characters, so you need to keep your communications short and sweet.

    You can do this in two ways. Firstly, make sure that you limit the use of complex wording that could confuse customers. 

    Secondly, make sure that you have a reason for messaging your customer. If you're running a promotional deal you think they'd be interested in, limit your SMS to only the important details, such as the discount i.e. 20% off, and the date it finishes to help drive urgency to purchase.  

     

    Choose the right time of day

    When it comes to marketing, timing can be everything. This is certainly true for text message marketing. For example, waking your customer up at an ungodly hour is likely to result in some resentful feelings towards your brand. 

    Not to mention, texting your customers outside of “waking” hours — i.e., between 8 am and 9 pm in their local time — is a violation of the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act). Non-compliance can land your company in legal hot water, so be sure to schedule your messages accordingly.

    Based on our data, the right sending times will depend on your industry. For example, we’ve found that fashion retailers see the best results when they schedule their SMS campaigns between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.  

    So the best scheduling best practice is to test different time slots and see what works best for your audience.

    The right sending time varies from industry to industry. Fashion retailers see best
    results when scheduling their SMS marketing between 9 am and 1 pm,
    meanwhile, specialty stores see best engagement results from1 pm to 4 pm.

     

    Personalize your messaging

    If your SMS marketing only involves mass texts and promotional messages, you're going to see customers unsubscribe in huge numbers. 

    Because unless communications feel tailored to them, they have little reason to feel excited when they receive a message.

    Making sure that you use your customer's name is an easy way to make an SMS feel more personal. To really improve your interactions, consider allowing your customers to set preferences when they sign up. This could include asking them how often they'd like to hear from you, and what kinds of content they're interested in (i.e. specific product categories or order/delivery notifications).

     

    Focus on adding value

    This is the golden rule of any marketing campaign; if you're going to boost sales or brand engagement, your starting point needs to be what you can offer your customer - not what they can offer you.

    For example, if you want to boost engagement on social media, simply running Facebook ads isn't going to create any meaningful change on its own. Instead, consider running some form of sweepstakes that you can promote via SMS message. Because it offers your customers a clear incentive, they're far more likely to get involved.

     

    Brands that are doing SMS marketing right

    Federation +

    New Zealand streetwear brand, Federation +, knows first-hand the power of an SMS campaign when paired with their marketing efforts. 

    In December 2020, they sent a Boxing day-themed SMS campaign that encouraged customers to shop with a 20% discount both in-store and online. With a 95% delivery rate and 8% click rate, Federation +’s last SMS Campaign for 2020 saw an impressive 11% conversion rate! 

    Read about Federation +'s marketing.

    Federations SMS campaign overlaid on branded imagery

     

    Parker Panache

    Marsello customer Parker Panache intelligently used one-off SMS campaigns to build a buzz around their annual Black Friday sale, one of the biggest events in the retail calendar. In conjunction with other marketing tools, they used SMS message blasts to spread the word by taking advantage of the medium's high open rates. It certainly paid off, with their total ROI reaching 240x over the two months leading up to Black Friday.

    Parker Panache sends Seasons Greetings SMS to promote 20% off in-store and online sale.

     

    American Eagle Outfitters

    American Eagle was an early adopter of SMS marketing, and this strategy has clearly paid off.In the 2015 holiday season, their "legendary gifts" campaign gave consumers the chance to win $10,000. The 12-day campaign took place across SMS, email, and social media and required customers to 'opt-in' to receive personalized URLS that directed them to their daily gift. As well as winning the grand prize, customers were also in to win exclusive discounts and perks.

    These creative efforts helped American Eagle to reach more than 8 million email and SMS subscribers within the 12-day period, with a 60% SMS click-through rate.

     

    Final words

    Ambitious marketing campaigns can be challenging to coordinate for some businesses, especially due to time and budget constraints. SMS marketing is a highly engaging strategy that takes advantage of our attachment to mobile devices to deliver exciting updates in real-time. As retail grows more mobile-based, this marketing tool is only going to grow more effective at driving sales and brand awareness. Our take? The sooner you get started, the better.

    Create new & look-a-like audiences with Facebook Audience Sync

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    Easily use social media ads to retarget current customers or acquire new customers using the Facebook Audience Sync feature from Marsello.
    The Marsello and Facebook Logos feature alongside a Facebook Ad carousel by NZ-based retailer, Madame Fancy Pants.

    Facebook advertising can feel like a minefield, particularly when it comes to creating perfected audiences. Now, you can automatically import your custom segments directly from Marsello with Facebook Audience Sync, saving you time and also ensuring your audience is always up to date!

    The Facebook Audience Sync feature allows you to easily carry over your custom segments to your Facebook Ads Manager account where you can start creating compelling ads that convert customers. You don’t have to load a new audience every time you want to create ads; in fact, the Facebook Audience Sync is designed to update every hour, so it’s always up to date, ensuring that your marketing reaches all your desired customers. 

     

    The world of social media marketing might feel a little overwhelming when you first get started, but by automatically loading your customer segments to your Facebook Ads Manager account, it’s easy to create promotional marketing campaigns that target both new and existing customers – this is where Facebook Audience Sync changes the game. The hard work is done for you as you easily sync custom segments to Facebook with just a few clicks! 

     

    There are some things you’ll need to ensure you’ve done before you can use the Facebook Audience Sync feature. Let’s delve a little deeper.

     

    Getting started with Facebook Audience Sync

    First thing’s first, you’ll need to ensure your Facebook Ads Manager account is set up and ready to go before you can sync your Marsello custom segments.

     

    Once your Facebook Ads Manager account is all ready to go, you can navigate to the Add-ons page in your Marsello admin and easily find the Facebook Audience Sync feature. Here you can connect your Facebook Ads Manager account to your Marsello account by completing the required Facebook permissions and following the set-up steps.

     

    And when you’ve completed the set-up process, you’ll be able to start syncing your selected Marsello custom segments to your Facebook Ads Manager account. Connecting your Marsello account to Facebook opens up a wide range of marketing possibilities to various customer groups and not just those who you’ve added with the Facebook Audience Sync feature. 

     

    One important note: as we’ve touched on, the Facebook Audience Sync tool allows you to create Facebook ad audiences directly from your Marsello custom segments – emphasis on the “custom segments”. By this, we mean that you can only sync segments that you’ve created yourself. If you haven’t created any yet, you can learn more about custom segments in our help center

     

    One question you may have is, “How can I sync my RFM segments, i.e. Loyal Customers?” And it’s actually very easy! All you need to do is create a copy of your desired RFM segment (these are your ‘Loyal’, ‘Best’, ‘At-risk’ segments, etc.). From here, you can easily sync this new custom segment across to Facebook Ads Manager (make sure you name your new segment so that it’s easily distinguishable). Your segment will appear in your selectable Ads audiences as “Marsello: ” so if you named a copy of an RFM segment as Facebook-Audience-Loyal-Customers, it would be easily distinguishable in both Marsello and Facebook Ads Manager.

    Now that we’ve got the need-to-know feature information out of the way let’s explore how you can get creative with your custom audiences and Facebook campaigns.

     

    How to create Facebook ads that convert customers

    There are a few different ways to break down social media ads, usually based on your goals. For the sake of keeping things simple, we’ll look at ads as tools for either retargeting or acquisition – meaning you’re using ads to either engage your current customers or attract new customers. 

    Let’s break down these two advertising goals while showcasing how you can use Facebook Audience Sync to create innovative yet straightforward ad campaigns.

     

    Retargeting Existing Customers with Facebook Ads

    According to Niel Patel, 72% of customers are inclined to abandon their carts while shopping. That’s huge! Creating retargeting campaigns might be old news at this stage; however, it isn’t always easy to know how much retargeting is too much. Here’s a hint: your campaigns don’t have to be restricted to powerful tools like email marketing and dynamic retargeting tactics (such as AI-driven product recommendations). Integrating your retargeting efforts into your social media marketing campaigns can be a powerful way to re-engage shoppers in new and exciting ways.

     

    With Facebook Audience Sync, you can easily create audiences from your Marsello custom segments. Your RFM Segments can also be a starting point as they help you to target specific groups of customers who are already organised by data-driven AI. For example, the Lost and At-Risk segments could be fantastic audiences for a win-back retargeting campaign that aims to re-capture those less active customers. 

     

    Note: Remember what we stated earlier – you’ll need to create custom segments that are duplicates of your RFM segments if you’d like to market to these.

     

    Let’s look at a few stats that really break down the effectiveness of retention marketing:

    Infographic with stats about the success rates of retention marketing and acquisition marketing.

    Now, these stats aren’t to say that one form of marketing is better than the other; they’re included here to remind you of the power of marketing to current customers. There are huge gains to be made from marketing to both new and existing customers – you just have to be clever about how you approach your marketing tactics.

     

    With Facebook Audience Sync, once you’ve synced the segments that you’d like to advertise to, you can easily add these segments as the audience for your campaigns. All you need to do is ensure you know what your goal for each campaign is, who your audience is, and what actions you want your customers to take. A common CTA for retargeting customers is ‘Shop Now’, as your marketing to customers who already know your brand, have shopped with you before, and maybe need a wee nudge to shop with you again.

     

    We briefly touched on marketing to RFM segments like At-Risk or Lost customers. Consider the following examples of how you could use retargeting to engage some different customer groups:

    • An example of how you could create innovative campaigns to engage your At-Risk or Lost segments is to design a win-back campaign that retargets these customers after they’ve abandoned their cart. Whether you’re offering shoppers a discount or simply reminding them of your most popular products, remember that your ad should be compelling, concise, and inviting to that particular customer group.

    • You could create a targeted campaign that actively re-engages your ‘Window Shopper’ RFM segment (which is customers who’ve visited your online store but not shopped with you). This campaign could offer this audience anything from a sneak peek to an exclusive collection, to a one-day sale. 

    Acquiring New Customers with Lookalike Audiences

    Customer acquisition can feel like a big task – how can you possibly market to someone who has never heard of your store and whose contact details you don’t have? 

     

    This is why the Facebook Audience Sync feature is so exciting – acquisition marketing is perhaps one of the most effective ways that you can put the Facebook Audience Sync feature to use!

    When you sync your selected custom segment, you can then use this customer list and as the base for a Facebook lookalike audience; this will allow you to target Facebook users who ‘look like’ your customers, be that age, location, gender etc. The more specific you make your lookalike audience settings, the smaller the audience will get, but this will also increase your likelihood of generating traffic. 

     

    So here’s an example of this in action:

    • Stage 1 – You want to create an ad that reaches a wide range of people who have similar interests to your customers, but you don’t want to include any current customers in that list.

    • Stage 2 – You create a custom segment in Marsello that includes all your customers and title it ‘All Customers’.

    • Stage 3 – You sync that list using the Facebook Audience Sync feature.

    • Stage 4 – You use Facebook Ads Manager to create a ‘Lookalike Audience’.

    Creating a lookalike audience will help you to reach Facebook users who are similar to your current customers. When you consider that 2.60 Billion People use Facebook worldwide, that’s a tremendous amount of potential for reaching customers that you otherwise may not have had a way to contact.

     

    But smart marketing includes knowing how to get the best results from a very specific audience. You don’t want to create an audience that consists of a huge number of people only to lose money because most of these people will either ignore your ad (as it doesn’t apply to them) or click on your ad but won’t engage in a way that helps you meet your goal.

     

    Did you know you can go one step further and exclude your existing customers from your Facebook ads? 

    Acquiring New Customers While Excluding Existing Customers

    To exclude your synced Marsello custom segment from your ad audience, you simply need to create a ‘Custom Exclusion’ in your Facebook ad settings. By excluding your current customers, you’ll have a super-refined audience which is based on your current customers (who are proven to like your brand), you’re also avoiding paying for engagement from your already loyal customers.

     

    From here, you’re free to design robust, captivating ads that encourage Facebook users who may not know anything about your brand to click on your ads and shop with you. Remember this as you create your ad: you want to excite, entice, and engage your new audience. Niel Patel has you covered when it comes to social acquisition communication, so don’t be afraid to dig around and look at what the pros are doing to master their social media marketing.

     

    Ready to combine all these tactics together?

     

    Remember those retargeting ads we mentioned? Why not get really creative and make a retargeting campaign that captures those customers from your lookalike audience who clicked on your ad and visited your store but did not make a purchase, turning your acquisition campaign into a brilliant retargeting campaign, all while excluding any current customers from your audience.

     

    Our final piece of advice: no matter what kinds of social media campaigns you create, make sure you’re keeping track of the results, and your ad spend. Set yourself a budget and don’t be afraid to experiment, but don’t let yourself put money into campaigns that feel like they could do with a refresh or an overhaul. Tracking is the best way to ensure your ads are seeing the results you expect. Just make sure you’re tracking the metrics that apply to your marketing.

    Madame Fancy Pants uses a Facebook ad carousel to marketing a 15% off discount featuring leopard print Birkenstocks over a swimming pool.

    Omnichannel retailer, Madame Fancy Pants, is a prime example of retailers using Facebook ads to engage a wide range of customers. Recently, MFP created the Facebook campaign shown in the image above. The campaign targeted a lookalike audience based on their current customers, but they went a step further (as suggested in the section above) and excluded the following audiences:

    • any user who is an existing MFP customer and accepts marketing

    • recent shoppers as they made a purchase.

    MFP saw a 3.2x Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and an almost even mix of in-store and online spend over the month that the ad campaign ran. 

     

    Final words

    As we’ve broken down, your Facebook advertising strategy can be a powerful tool to accompany any of your promotional marketing. However, you have to ensure your Social Media marketing is done right, and that starts with ensuring that you’re marketing to the right audiences.

     

    With Facebook Audience Sync, it’s easy to create custom audiences and then develop targeted ad campaigns that work specifically for those customer groups. Whether you’re excluding that customer group while creating a lookalike campaign, or marketing directly to a specific segment, all your Marsello custom segments can be synced to Facebook Ads Manager in just a few clicks.

     

    Start syncing

    Email Marketing Best Practices Guide for BFCM 2021

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    Halloween, Hanukkah, or BFCM – picking your marketable holidays is just the first step. Send undeniable emails this season with our email marketing guide.

    It’s common knowledge that holiday email marketing is both essential and fiercely competitive. Not only do you have to ensure you’re standing out to customers by creating beautifully crafted emails that meet the following best practice guidelines, but you also have to schedule those emails to send at the perfect time to land in front of your customers – the right message to the right customers, at the right time!

    Get on top of your holiday marketing by mastering it early! We've designed the following infographic to help you confidently create campaigns for BFCM, and all the holidays surrounding it.

     

    Email Marketing Best Practices Infographic:

     

    Alt tag: An in-depth infographic that gives retailers a step-by-step set of instructions on how to create email campaigns that appeal to customers and stay out of spam filters. The advice includes giving customers the option to unsubscribe, adding calls-to-action, including product images and clear branding/logos, suggested email sending times and including a holiday offer to entice customers in.

     

    Whether it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or even President’s Day, picking your marketable holidays is just the first step.

    As you can see, there are many components that go into creating a winning holiday marketing campaign. So what else can you do to ensure you’re capturing your customers’ attention? 

    We've put together a few simple steps and tools you can use to make sure you're prepared for Black Friday/Cyber Monday and any other holiday during the season! And all of this is easy to master with Marsello's features: 

     

      • Plan ahead with a marketing calendar – Prepare for the upcoming holidays with the help of the Marketing Calendar feature. Whether you need a reminder of the upcoming holidays’ dates, or you want to schedule a series of holiday-specific campaigns, the Marketing Calendar makes this easy. Learn more.

      • Make use of pre-made email templates – If you’re strapped for time, one of the most effective ways you can create a campaign that you know will capture customers’ attention and keep you out of their Spam folders is by using pre-designed email templates. Not only can you customize your campaign to ensure it fits your brand, but you can also schedule your campaign for the future, helping to save you time now and down the line. Learn more

      • Boost your email campaigns – Seeing lower than expected email open rates? Never fear; that’s a common complaint at this time of year! Automatically resend email campaigns with a different subject line to everyone who didn’t open it the first time around! Learn more.

      • Send SMS campaigns – Follow up your holiday email campaign by sending an SMS campaign to those customers in your chosen segment who have opted-in to your SMS marketing. Learn more.

      • Offer loyalty points promotions through campaigns – Offer a points promotion for the days of the holiday and then focus your holiday email marketing campaign around that points promotion. Use enticing deals like double points to ensure your brand is in front of customers’ minds before the holiday has even arrived. Learn more

      • Make the most of data-driven customer segmentation – All signs point to personalization! Market-specific emails to different customer groups and watch as your engagement rates increase. Read how Spanish shoe brand, Yuccs, did just this last year over BFCM and saw outstanding results! Learn more about Customer Segmentation

     

    Now you’ve got all the tools you need to get started, head across to your Marsello admin and start creating.

    Alternatively, sign up today or book a demo.

    Get Marsello

    How to create customized automated campaigns to drive sales

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    Custom automations are perfect for requesting reviews, offering a post-purchase service or a timely cross-sell. Read more to learn how to use this feature.

    Retailer using Custom Automations to trigger an automated email to all their customers in 2 days time.

     

    Custom Automations are here! Now, you can easily design and enable your own custom email and SMS automations, giving you full flexibility with your automated marketing campaigns. By pairing this new feature with Marsello’s other tools, such as RFM Segmentation and your loyalty program, you’ll be able to create the perfect email flow or SMS Campaign that stands out and sees results.

    With Custom Automations, the options are endless. Automate campaigns that send to specific customer segments or trigger when a customer makes a purchase. Automated flows are perfect for requesting reviews, creating a referral email series, offering a post-purchase follow-up service or a timely cross-sell, just to name a few ideas.

    Let’s check out an example of a retailer who’s seen success using Custom Automations. 

     

    Home Goods Hardware encourages window shoppers to complete a purchase

    Window Shoppers can be notoriously tricky to convert to loyal customers. This hasn’t dissuaded Home Goods Hardware, though. The beautifully branded homewares store, based out of Australia, was one of the first to create a Custom Automation and we love their ingenuity.

     

    Email that welcomes customers by saying, “Thanks for joining the family” and offers them a 15% off discount on their first purchase.”

     

    The campaign features just one simple email that welcomes customers within the Window Shoppers (those who’ve created an account with the store but not completed a purchase) segment and encourages them to make a purchase with a 15% off discount code. With a 49% open rate and 7.5x ROI, Home Goods Hardware are reaping the rewards of automated marketing and we love that they’re doing so by targeting smaller customer groups. There are only 512 customers within their segment and with a 4.2% conversion rate, they’re really making the most of a potentially forgotten customer group.

     

    Read more about Home Goods Hardware’s success with Custom Automations.

     

    To create a similar style of Welcome Newsletter to Home Goods Hardware, try customizing and enabling the “Welcome Newsletter Sign-ups” template found at the bottom of your Automations admin. This easy-to-use template is set up to target customers who’ve only just signed up (1 hour after they’ve created an account), and encourages them to make a purchase by offering a 10% discount. Customers then exit the flow when they have made an order or the flow ends. 

    Let’s take a look at how you could use Custom Automations.

     

    Integrating customized automations into your marketing

    First thing’s first, the Custom Automations feature isn’t restricted to email campaigns! With the incredible open rates of SMS marketing (as much as 5x that of email marketing), they’re a powerful tool to add to your marketing campaigns. 

    This isn’t to say that email marketing is anything to be sniffed at! With a drag-and-drop email builder, customizing your emails to showcase your brand and products is as easy as selecting what content you’d like to include. 

    As we mentioned, Custom Automations are perfect for asking customers to leave reviews, incentivizing referrals, following up with customers after they’ve shopped, welcoming customers who’ve shopped recently, and more. Let’s break down some of these ideas

    • Requesting Reviews – The ins-and-outs of requesting reviews and customer referrals are quite similar when it comes to defining an audience; you’ll want to target customers who are loyal and have shopped recently. Add a delay to your automation that targets customers 5-7 days after their purchase, giving them time to receive the product (if bought online) and use it. Make sure to be clear where you would like them to leave a review too! If you use social media most often, add your Social Icons with the email drag-and-drop builder. 

    • Incentivizing Referrals – Much the same as requesting reviews, target loyal customers! Try setting up your automation to target customers who have shopped recently (last 5-7 days), and shopped more than three times. Remind them that this is an easy way to earn loyalty points and that their friend will also receive a gift too (ensure you’ve enabled your referral program within your Loyalty Program settings).

    • Post-purchase Follow-ups – If you’ve got a product that needs to be replaced regularly (subscription-based beauty products would be one example), you could create an automation flow that reminds customers to refill their order after three or so months. 

    • Welcoming Customers – Welcome new customers who’ve not yet made a purchase. Similar to Home Goods Hardware’s campaign, you could target customers who have signed up within the last day but not yet made a purchase, Each message within your flow could incrementally offer your customers a slightly higher discount, encouraging them to make a purchase. Alternatively, you could simply customize and enable the Welcome Newsletter Sign-ups automation which is found within the Automations tab of your Marsello admin.

    Let’s delve into the actual set-up of automated flows to help you understand these ideas a little better.

     

    Setting up your Custom Automations

    You’ll find Custom Automations under the ‘Automation’ section of ‘Marketing’ within your Marsello admin. Once you’ve elected to create a Custom Automation, you’ll have a range of options that that help you set up your automation flow.

     

    The creation of an Automated Campaign which requires the selection of Email, SMS, Points or Time Delay.
     
    1. Name your automation. While your customers won’t see this, it will help you to find the automation within your admin and adjust or track its results.

    2. Choose your trigger. Depending on what trigger you select, this will dictate how your customers enter the automation’s funnel. This essentially means that your customers must complete a specific action to receive your automation. Your trigger options include:

      • When an order is completed – When a customer makes a purchase, they will enter the funnel for your automation.

      • When a customer enters a segment – When a customer has been added to the segment because they have met the segment conditions. This is where your Custom Segments come in useful and allow you a lot of flexibility with marketing to specific customer groups.

      • When a customer signs up – When a customer has signed up via the POS, eCommerce, or an email collection features. 

    3. Choose your audience. Select which Customer Segment(s) you want to target with your automated campaign. Not only can you opt to use the pre-existing RFM segments found in Marsello, but you can also create your own segments. For example, if you wanted to create a campaign to say, “thank you for your first purchase” that’s specific to just your online customers, you could create a segment that specifically excludes customers who shop in-store. The beauty of custom segments is that you can really drill down into specific sets of customers and create targeted marketing that not only sees results but really engages those customers and helps to foster their loyalty to your brand.

    4. Choose your ‘exit conditions’. These are the conditions which specify when a customer will leave the flow. There are two options, which include: 

      • ‘When a customer makes an order or completes the automation flow’ – This is the default setting and ensures that the customer will leave the flow when they complete a purchase, or (if they do not complete a purchase) they will receive the entire automation flow. This condition is best used when the goal of your campaign is to incentivize customers to make another purchase.

      • ‘When a customer completes the automation flow’ – Automations with this exit condition will deliver all messages within the flow to the customers, regardless of if they make a purchase or not. This condition is best used when the goal of your campaign is to build a relationship with your customers, encourage loyalty or provide education.

    The options don’t end there when it comes to customizing your Custom Automation. Let’s take a look at the finer details of setting up your automation flow.

     

    How to customize your automated flow

    As we mentioned, with Custom Automations, you aren’t just restricted to email marketing. Why not follow up an email with an SMS to really make use of those powerful open rates? Perhaps a time delay could help improve your open rates by positioning your messaging at a better time for all customers? 

    For clear instructions on how to add-to and customize your automation flow, we’ve created an in-depth help article.

     

    In-app window showing that retailers must set their custom automation settings.

     

    This part of the customization process will allow you to add time delays, emails and/or SMS to your automation flow, as well as making it simple for you to award loyalty points. Details of each of these additions are as follows:

    • Time Delays – Adding time delays to your flow will enforce a delay between the end of the previous step (usually when the first message is delivered), and the next is due to send. It’s best to ensure a decent delay time to give your customers time to view your first message; we recommend around 48 hours.

    • Emails   Add an email as a step in your flow. It’s common to add a time delay before adding a new email to your flow. Once it’s added, customize your email to suit your messaging, branding and goal.   

    • SMS – Add an SMS as a step in your flow. As with email, it’s common to add a time delay before adding an SMS to your flow. Remember, SMS customization is more restricted than email and there are some content requirements that you’ll need to ensure you take note of. Check out the Custom Automation help centre article to help you craft an undeniable SMS addition to your campaign

    • Loyalty Points – Adding loyalty points as a step will automatically add a specified amount of points to your customers’ accounts. Simply input the number of points you’d like to award and select how you would like to let your customers know that they’ve accumulated points. 

    Let’s check out an example of a retailer who’s seen success using Custom Automations.

     

    Final words:

    Looking forward to creating your first Custom Automation? Check out our Custom Automation help centre article to help you create powerful automation flows that your customers will love.

    We’d love to see what Custom Automations you come up with – if you have an automation flow that you’re proud of, feel free to let us know by contacting us in our website chat window. 

    This feature is now available for all MarselloPro users. Not a MarselloPro user? Upgrade or sign up today to access Custom Automations and many more exciting features.

     

    Create Custom Automation

    Boost Your Campaigns and Help Your Retail Marketing Stand Out

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    Re-engage customers who haven’t opened your email campaigns by resending your email with a refreshed subject line. Introducing, Boost Email Campaigns!
    Marsello’s feature, Boost Email Campaigns, allows retailers to resend an email campaign 48 hours after it was originally sent. With a new subject line and a time delay, customers who didn’t open the first email are sure to open the second.

     

    On average, email marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing technique, but with so many emails landing in customers’ inboxes, it can sometimes be tricky to get noticed. Why not give your campaigns a little boost by resending emails with a different subject line to everyone who didn’t open it the first time around?

    Our data shows that boosting a campaign can increase open rates by as much as 30%! With the new Boost Email Campaigns feature, you can easily resend One-off Email Campaigns with a new subject line to capture the attention of customers who may not have noticed your first email. Invite them to shop with your store by boosting your campaigns and take the hard work out of promoting your email campaigns. Let’s dig a little deeper into the feature itself.

     

    Boost Campaigns With Marsello

    The Boost Email Campaigns sub-feature is an addition to the popular Email Campaigns feature that is simple to use no matter whether you’re boosting an already existing campaign or starting from scratch. 

    To boost your campaigns, you have two options:

     

    Option One – Set-up from scratch:

     

    An email boost set-up with the secondary subject line of "Limited Restock: The Darcie Halter Dress"

     

    The first step is to create a new email campaign from the Campaigns Admin. Once you have created the subject line for your new campaign, you will then find the added option to boost your campaign. From here, the process is easy! Select ‘Boost Campaign’ and create a new subject line for your new, boosted campaign; then, save your settings. This second email will only send to those customers who did not open the original email and it will be scheduled to send automatically after 48 hours.

     

    Option Two – After the first campaign is sent: 

     

    Up to 46 hours after a One-off Email Campaign has been sent, you can choose to boost the campaign and re-send it to customer who did not open it within the first 48 hours.

     

    So, you’ve decided to boost a one-off email campaign after you’ve already sent it. Using the Campaigns Admin, you will be able to boost your campaign, although this option is only available for 46 hours after the campaign was first sent. To boost your campaign, simply find the recent campaign you would like to boost in your Campaigns Admin and you will see a ‘Boost Campaign’ button alongside it. Simply select this button, add a subject line for your second campaign, and save your boosted campaign. 

     

    There are some points to note at this stage: 

    • After 46 hours, the ‘Boost Campaign’ button will automatically be greyed out and will no longer be available for that campaign. 

    • As with setting up your boosted campaigns from scratch, your second campaign will automatically copy the content of the original campaign but use the new subject line. 

    • The 48-hour send delay applies to the original campaign’s send date and time – this means that if you scheduled your first campaign to send on Monday at 12 PM, then boosted that campaign 45 hours later, your boosted email would then send on Wednesday at 12 PM. 

    No matter which way you decide to do so, once you have saved your boosted campaign, your email content will then automatically be duplicated for the second email but the new campaign will instead use the second subject line. 

    This new subject line is essential! It’ll differentiate your new email from your original and is crucial to helping your campaign stand out to your customers. Don’t be afraid to get creative but remember there are a few golden rules with email subject lines! Let’s cover the basics, just to be sure:

    1. Keep it simple. No more than 10 words and 60 characters (remember, emoji’s use multiple character spaces so keep them to a minimum) is a pretty standard industry recommendation. 

    2. Avoid special characters and limit your punctuation. Adding too much punctuation can make your emails look like spam. Refer to tip one.

    3. Use emojis sparingly. We touched on this but it’s actually really important. Depending on the operating system your customers use, they could see your emojis differently and this could have a real effect on the success of your campaign. Emojis should support your message, but not replace words or feature too heavily. 

    4. Keep it relevant. Your subject line should indicate why you’re getting in contact and what the customer can expect from your email. 

    5. Be creative. Help your campaigns to stand out with subject lines that are too good to miss! ‘Exclusive Online Sale – Today Only’ is much more informative than, for example, ‘Sale Now On’ and really invites your recipients to open your email and make a purchase before they miss out.

    Let’s break down our previous example from the above images, taken from The Little Atelier.

     

    The same email set-up with the secondary subject line of "Limited Restock: The Darcie Halter Dress"

     

    In their first campaign, the fashion-focused retailer lets their customers know that they’ve re-stocked an item. While their loyal customers would be the most likely to open the email, other customers are likely to be excited that a popular item has been restocked. The subject line is informative if a little simple. In the future, the store could choose to add a little more detail or even promote re-stocked items with a deal like an exclusive loyalty program Points Campaign where customers earn extra points for purchases over a set timeframe.

    In the boosted campaign, The Little Atelier uses a subject line that creates a little more urgency. While the item has been restocked, supply is limited. This implies that customers should get in quick to avoid missing out. One option to add a little more power to this boosted campaign could have been to add a phrase like ‘Don’t miss out.’ 

    Note that in both subject lines, the emojis are used sparingly and support the content of both the email and the subject itself. 

     

    Final Words

    Boosted campaigns are shown to have remarkable results – as we’ve mentioned. With a 30% increase in open rates alone, it’s no wonder why so many retailers have asked us for this feature. Combine those results with the already astounding power of email marketing and you’re using proven, long-lasting, tried and true tools of the trade to engage your audiences, while also ensuring that no customer is left behind.

    Looking forward to using the Boost Campaign feature? Learn all you need to know from our help center article on how to boost your email campaigns.

    We can’t wait to see what results you see too and we’d love to hear about your success. Let us know how your boosted email campaigns do in the comments section below!

     

    Boost CampaignGET MARSELLO

    Discover Email Campaign Templates Designed for Customer Engagement

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    Create consistent, recognizable, and beautiful emails with previously designed email templates! Learn how to navigate Marsello's Email Templates Library.

    With a variety of options to choose from, Marsello’s Email Campaign Templates Library gives you numerous designs for creating stylish newsletters, announcements (such as sales and promotions), updates on stock, and more using the One-off Email Campaigns feature! Each template is designed so you easily create beautifully on-brand emails that see results, without hours of effort and edits.

    Let’s dig a little deeper and learn about each template type.

     

    Basic Templates

    With full customization available, the basic email templates allow you to edit the design of each email so that it best suits your store’s brand, helping your customers to instantly recognize who they’re receiving mail from. You’ll have the flexibility to create emails that truly embody your store without having to start those email designs from scratch.

     

    Marsello's in-app email template library with 6 templates

     

    Themed Templates

    Created by professional designers with years of experience in email marketing, these templates are ready for you to simply add in your store’s branding and relevant content, review, then send! With everything from color palettes to fonts, themed templates are designed to do the hard yards for you.

     

    Marsello's themed email templates within the app

     

    Custom Templates

    This is where things get really exciting! You can now create your own custom templates, allowing you to save the designs of emails you know your customers love so that you can use those designs again in the future. Either save a previous campaign as a template or start from scratch and create your own email marketing masterpiece. 

     

    Marsello's in-app email templates with custom themes.

     

    Final Words

    Email templates allow you to easily replicate the same style throughout your communications and create a recognizable experience for your customers. In turn, your customers look forward to your emails and the likelihood of them engaging with your communication efforts increases. Increase your email marketing ROI and start exploring and designing emails that excite new shoppers and loyal customers alike.

    Excited to start using email templates? Learn how to navigate Marsello’s Email Template Library and get ready to start using them for yourself.

     

    GET MARSELLO

     

    How to Encourage Ecommerce Sales Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

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    To help you navigate post-pandemic retail and knock it out the park, we’ve compiled some tips on using online channels to encourage sales and engagement.

    No matter what type of retail store you have, there’s a high chance that your business has been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

    Cities all over the world are enacting ‘Safer at Home’ orders and quarantine measures, and these actions have left many retailers no choice but to temporarily shut down their physical operations. Some countries are even requiring businesses to close unless they’re deemed an essential service.

    With most consumers staying home, it’s quite evident that the only way to reach them is through digital channels.

    Here are some tips on how to use online channels to encourage sales and engagement during this period.

     

    1. Keep your channels tightly integrated


    If you have an existing brick-and-mortar store and want to bring your sales online, the first step you should take is to integrate your online and offline systems. 

    Doing so will help you set up your sales channels correctly, so your inventory and sales data will be synced between your physical and online stores. Plus, you’ll save time from having to re-enter your product information and you can eliminate human error due to doubling up on data entry. 

    It’s best to use systems that are already compatible with each other, so get in touch with your POS solution provider and ask them about the eCommerce platforms that they integrate with. Be sure to discuss the types of data that are synced between systems and talk to your provider about how to get set up quickly and efficiently. 

    For best results, choose solutions that can also connect to your marketing software, so you can seamlessly launch email, SMS, and customer engagement campaigns for driving sales. 

    Pro tip: Did you know that Marsello integrates with leading POS and eCommerce platforms? Connect Marsello to your existing solutions so you can easily automate your loyalty marketing efforts and deliver a seamless customer experience.

     

    2. Promote relevant products


    The needs of your customers during the current coronavirus health crisis have shifted, so your marketing has to evolve along with these changes. Part of doing that involves promoting products that are relevant to what your shoppers are experiencing. 

    Go through your current catalog and look for items that consumers need at this time. For example, if you’re a furniture retailer, then now would be a great time to promote your office products, since most people are working from home. Selling books or gift items? Look for products that people would help people navigate what could be a high-stress situation.

    Here’s an example from the crystal store Energy Muse. Since many people are experiencing coronavirus stress and anxiety, Energy Muse recently sent out informative content on how to use the crystal Black Tourmaline to alleviate negative emotions.

    What’s good about Energy Muse’s message is it led with informative content. Rather than a hard sell, the email’s first call to action took people to a video in which Energy Muse’s founder-led viewers through a guided visualization to relieve stress and anxiety. 

    And should people choose to purchase the crystal, there’s a second CTA towards the lower part of the email. 

     

    Energy Muse uses a one-off email campaign to communicate clearly with their customers.

     

    Note: While this tactic can be effective, your marketing efforts shouldn’t be exploitive. For example, if you’re an apparel retailer that’s suddenly selling hand sanitizer, you’ll only forge distrust with consumers – and potentially get your ads banned.  

    Sites like Facebook are prohibiting exploitive tactics in ads by banning promotions for things like face masks.

    If you’re planning to market relevant products, stick with items that are already in your catalog or ones that are truly in line with your brand. 

     

    3. Tap into influencer and community marketing


    Digital content consumption is likely to increase in the coming days and weeks as more people turn to the web. Consumers are spending more time on websites and social media – with most doing it to pass the time, keep up with the latest news, and seek inspiration and entertainment.

    Consider tapping into that online attention by teaming up with influencers or even your existing customers. Send them product samples or create joint content pieces together. 

    Encourage your community to tag you in their posts. Emphasize the fact that with many businesses being forced to close, customer engagement (even if it comes from no-cost actions like liking or sharing posts) goes a long way. 

    Check out this post from home decor store Pretty Little Home, which thanks customers for the support that the community has shown the business. 

     

    Pretty Little Home uses influencer marketing to reach out to more customers.

     

    “Whether it’s a like, tag, share, or order on the website... It really means the world especially at a time like this,” read the post. 

     

    4. Spread the goodwill


    We’ve known for a while that good deeds and corporate social responsibility can drive customer engagement and loyalty. That’s why if your business can afford it, consider launching an initiative designed to help those in need during this crisis. 

    It can be a charitable campaign, a special offer for the less fortunate, or even a job opportunity. One brand that’s doing this well is the fitness store Gymshark. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, many gyms have been forced to close their doors, resulting in trainers and fitness instructors losing their source of income. 

    To help out, Gymshark announced that it’s offering an hourly rate to personal trainers struggling to find work. Trainers would be doing online workouts in partnership with the brand and earn money while they’re at it. 

    The post was widely shared on Instagram and thousands of people liked and commented on the post. 

     

    Gymshark offers personal trainers a covid-19 deal.

     

    5. Constantly reassure your customers


    Building trust is more important than ever. You won’t be able to drive sales if shoppers don’t feel safe and secure buying from you. That’s why you need to constantly reassure your customers about the health and safety precautions that you’re taking to keep everyone safe from COVID-19.

    How often are you cleaning and sanitizing your store? What are you doing to protect your staff? What measures are you taking to protect your customers? Be specific and outline everything in your customer communications assets (e.g., email, social media, in-store signage). 

    A good example of this practice in action comes from LA Cafe in Downtown Los Angeles. While the restaurant is closed to diners, LA Cafe still accepts online orders that can be picked up or delivered. 

    To make people feel safe about ordering, LA Cafe published a detailed post outlining everything that it’s doing to address COVID-19 concerns. 

     

    The LA Cafe uses Instagram and social media to communicate COVID-19 changes.

     

    6. Run promotions


    If sales are slow (and they likely are during this period), it may be a good idea to run a promotion to entice people to buy. 

    Do note that you’ll be competing with plenty of other brands for shoppers’ attention, so you want your promotions to be as relevant as possible. The best way to do this is to send offers based on each customer’s shopping history and brand interactions. 

    Consider the case of the designer footwear retailer Bulo Shoes, which couples Marsello's loyalty program with email marketing automation to send marketing messages that are always on-point. With Marsello’s help, Bulo Shoes’ automated emails are set up in segments based on customers’ previous behaviors. The store runs separate automated campaigns for first-time customers, abandoned cart recovery, lapsed customers, and to wish customers ‘Happy Birthday’. 

    By sending automated emails that are triggered by customers’ actions, Bulo Shoes are able to reach out to customers in the most relevant and timely way, and thus maximize both revenue and customer engagement.

     

    Bulo Shoes use automated emails to run promotions that target their customers following actions like making a purchase.

     

    What if you can’t sell or fulfill orders?


    The new measures and policies around COVID-19 have been particularly tough on SMBs that are deemed “non-essential”. In addition to store closures, some businesses have been forced to shut down their offices, facilities, and fulfillment centers to slow the spread of the virus. In such cases selling and fulfilling orders – even those made online – isn’t achievable at this time. 

    If you’re in this predicament, try the following tactics:

    Delay shipments and offer generous rewards

    If you can still technically sell online but are unable to fulfill orders, you could run special promotions to get people to buy. That’s what Madame Fancy Pants, a Wellington-based retailer is doing. Due to the coronavirus, the team at Madame Fancy Pants are unable to ship out products in the time being. But they’re still taking orders online, with the commitment to fulfill those orders once isolation measures have been lifted. 

    To encourage people to buy, Madame Fancy Pants sent out a one-off email campaign using Marsello. The email lets their customers know that Madame Fancy Pants will be rewarding shoppers with double loyalty points for their full-priced purchases.

     

    Madame Fancy Pants keeps customers up to day using Marsello’s One-off Email Campaigns

     

    Enable Wishlists

    Another tactic for keeping your customers interested and excited while you’re unable to fill their orders is to allow them to create wishlists of the items you usually stock. Check out our recent blog on top apps for Shopify for ideas on which apps you could use to integrate this feature into your store. 

    Wellington-based pet products retailer, Smack Bang, have done a wonderful job of communicating this recent update with their customers through their social media channels. Check out this Facebook post (note that they’ve even pinned it to ensure customers see the update) that lets their customers know that although they’ve had to shut up shop with the COVID-19 lockdown enforced in New Zealand, their customers can now create wishlists on the Smack Bang online store. 

     

    Smack Bang uses Facebook to let their customers know that they can now create wishlists.

     

    Consider digital products 

    If possible, sell digital products like ebooks, digital art, online consultations, or even courses. 

    One retailer that’s currently promoting digital products is Vroman’s, Southern California’s oldest independent bookstore. Like many other retailers, Vroman’s had to temporarily shut down its operations because of the coronavirus. 

    To continue driving sales, Vroman’s is encouraging shoppers to purchase its ebooks and audiobooks instead, and the bookshop provides instructions on how to do this on social media and on its website. 

     

    Vromans goes Omnichannel

     

    Sell gift cards

    If you’re not offering gift cards online yet, now is the time to sell and promote them. Digital gift cards give your customers the chance to support your business so you can secure much-needed income. In turn, your shoppers can enjoy your products and services once this crisis is over. 

    Consider the example of Pink Marble Studio, which offers lashes, nails, and waxing services. The company recently started offering gift cards online that customers can redeem at a later time.

     

    Pink Marble Studio offers gift cards

     

    Retail tip: For more results, sell these gift certificates at a discount rate to further entice your customers to make a purchase. 

     

    Keep up with social media and content marketing 

    Just because you can’t sell online, doesn’t mean you can’t connect with your customers. Maintain an active presence online by regularly updating your social media accounts and sharing valuable, ‘non-salesy’ content with your audience. 

    Doing so will help you grow your platform, traffic, and follower counts so that when business picks up again, you can hit the ground running. 

    We love this example from Australian wholefood retailer, Bare Wholefoods:

     

    Rough &amp; Bare uses Instagram to update customers and encourage them to keep shopping.

     

    Bare Wholefoods cleverly show that they’re still actively and safely delivering customers’ orders with a photo of outgoing orders ready for shipping. They add a message of genuine gratitude to their customers for their continued loyalty and support. Updates like this help customers to feel confident that they will get the products they’ve ordered, and also gives them the morale boost of knowing they’re helping support the local economy. 

     

    Notify customers with stock updates

    Chances are you’ll find that changes to shipping or production translate to slower restocking times – you may even find yourself out of stock or running low before you can restock, but there’s plenty you can do to keep your customers shopping with you.

    We’ve mentioned using wishlist tools that enable customers to create lists of items they’d like to buy that aren’t currently available, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Why not let your customers know when their desired items are back in stock and actively prompt them to shop with you.

    Online multi-brand retailer, The Iconic does a great job of this. When an item or size is out of stock, customers with a registered account are prompted to automatically at the item to their wishlist and sign-up for a ‘back in stock’ email, all through a beautifully designed pop-up. Notice the clever addition of product recommendations that may get customers to shop in that session anyway.

     

    The Iconic ties their Wishlist and Back in Stock tools to create a seamless experience for customers.
     

    It’s tough, but hang in there

    We know that the current retail environment can feel far from ideal. The best thing to do right now is to focus on things we can control. If you’re a retailer, these include your customer communications and marketing messages; do your best to stop on top of them, so you can keep driving sales. 

     

    Use SMS Campaigns to Reach More Customers and Drive Sales

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    Power-up your promotions with SMS reminders, clever campaigns or even ask your customers for feedback. Learn about Marsello's SMS Campaigns feature here.

    SMS campaigns are quickly paving the way in a new era of marketing. With estimated open rates of 99% and read rates of 90% in the first 3 seconds, SMS marketing is the best way to ensure your marketing reaches your customers and is fast becoming a necessary tool in any retailer’s kit. So what does this mean for you and your customers? What do you need to know before you get started, and how can you make sure you’re getting the most out of your SMS campaigns? 

    First thing’s first…

    Introducing Marsello’s SMS Campaigns feature!

    What is Marsello’s SMS Campaigns feature?


    Found in the ‘Campaigns’ section of your Marsello admin, Marsello’s newest feature allows you to send one-off SMS messages to your customers who have given express permission to receive SMS marketing from you (more on this later). If you’re not already a user, you can try Marsello free for 14 days here.

    SMS campaigns are available to Marsello Pro retailers through an add-on subscription. Once you’ve chosen your subscription package, you can start sending SMS campaigns to customers who have opted-in to receiving SMS marketing… although there’s an art to SMS marketing to ensure you’re making the most of it.

    When you consider that SMS marketing has the highest engagement levels of any marketing medium, it’s no wonder why they’re so effective when paired with email marketing campaigns.

    So what’s all this about customers opting into receiving SMS marketing?

     

    TCPA & TCIA Compliance


    As is the same with email, SMS marketing is bound by permissions – your customer must opt-in before you can text them; this means that to send campaigns to any of your customers, they first have to have given express permission for you to do so. The ins and outs of these laws can be found in this Marsello Help Centre article, however, the main things you need to keep in mind are as follows: 

        • You must get express written permission from your customers that they agree to receive both email and SMS from you before you send them any marketing messages. This means that the opt-in must clearly describe exactly what your customers are agreeing to.

        • You must give your customers the option to opt-out of SMS marketing within every SMS message (Marsello does this automatically for you) while also including your store name so that customers know who is contacting them each time.

        • You are bound by your customers’ waking hours. This means that you are only able to message them between the hours of 8 am and 9 pm in your customers' local time.

        • There are several restrictions, which means you cannot market illegal or dangerous goods through your marketing messages.

    While we’re at it, we recommend keeping records of your customers’ permissions. Opt-in and opt-out lists are equally as important as each other. Make sure to read our help articles thoroughly to ensure you’re complying with all messaging laws.

    So you’ve got your customers’ permission, how do you get your SMS marketing underway? What should you be sending to your customers?

    Breaking down SMS marketing


    Although we’ll cover this in more detail in our upcoming blog, ‘SMS Marketing Best Practices’, this is the perfect opportunity to show how some retailers are nailing their SMS marketing campaigns.

    The opportunities for SMS marketing are endless. Whether you’re looking for customer reviews, aiming to retain and engage your customers, or pushing an unmissable promotion to your customers, SMS campaigns are a powerful tool with proven results in customer engagement. Just think about how often you check your phone and read your message – depending on your settings, some phone’s personal assistants will even read them out to you unprompted. 

    Now, just think of the pulling power this has for getting your customers to make a purchase or complete a call-to-action. 

    One of the most effective ways that you can use SMS marketing is to back up your promotions and email marketing campaigns. For example, if you’re planning a one-day-only Black Friday promotion, you want as many of your customers to know about it and shop with you. So why not be inventive and let them know with more than just an email.

    Clothing retailer, Parker Panache nailed this with a memorable Black Friday SMS campaign.

     

    Notice how they cleverly link to their store URL to get customers shopping or browsing right away!

    Marketing guru, Neil Patel recommends creating SMS drip campaigns. The idea is to send customers automated SMS messages based on how long they have been subscribed and to use this to incentivize customer loyalty. The model has great potential, and while Neil recommends the following, there are plenty of ways that you could scale this to suit your business: 5% coupon right after a customer opts-in to your SMS marketing campaigns; 10% off after 3 weeks; 20% off after 2 months. 

    To recreate something similar to this, you could create three separate campaigns. The first would trigger to act as a welcome message when customers first complete a purchase (you’d need to create a segment for this). The second triggers after a customer has been with you for six months (another segment). Then a final message that says ‘Thanks’ to your customers for staying for an entire year (and hopefully offers them an incentive to shop with you).

    Or, why not simply message customers once with a one-off coupon promotion. It’s increasingly common to receive SMS marketing that offers customers a percentage discount when they use a certain code at the checkout, for example:

    Holidays are the perfect time to get in contact with your customers. Good Dog’s adorable Valentine’s campaign is the perfect example of keeping it to the point, and even being a little bit subtle.

    Final words:


    SMS marketing is arguably an unrivaled marketing tool and the perfect companion to your email marketing campaigns and promotions. And with great power comes great responsibility (as they say); by this we mean, you need to ensure your marketing campaigns are compliant with all relevant laws. And compliance isn’t the only thing you need to be thinking about.

    With the 160 character restriction and incredibly high open rates, it’s vital that you’re keeping your messages concise while also convincing your customers to covert (be that shop during your promotions or simply visit your website to join your loyalty program). There are numerous ways you can structure your campaigns and messaging, so keep an eye out for our upcoming blog on SMS Marketing 101. 

    Until then, remember that SMS Campaigns are now available with Marsello as a Marsello Pro add-on feature. Learn more about the Marsello SMS Campaigns pricing.

     

    Create campaign GET MARSELLO

    How to Improve Email Deliverability: 9 Proven Steps

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    Ensure your emails are delivering exactly how you expect and learn how to stay out of your customers’ spam folders with our 9 tips for deliverability.

    marsello-blog-Improve-Email-Deliverability-banner.jpg

    We talk about email marketing quite a bit here on the Marsello blog, and for good reason – it continues to be one of the most effective ways to drive sales and engagement for retail brands. That’s why it’s so important to continuously build your list, optimize your copy, and run winning campaigns.

     

    However, all the optimization in the world won’t help you if your messages aren’t being delivered. And the truth is that a significant chunk (20% according to Return Path) of emails don’t even reach the inbox. 

     

    But you don’t have to be part of that statistic. By implementing the right steps and best practices, you can maximize your email deliverability and ensure that your messages actually hit the inbox of your audience. 

     

    Read on to learn exactly what you need to do. 

     

    1. Improve your email sender reputation

    Think of your customers’ inbox as an exclusive club that bans shady characters. When the gatekeepers deem a sender as having a poor reputation, their messages are sent to the spam folder. 

    When it comes to sender reputation, email service providers typically look at two things: your IP reputation and your domain reputation. 

     

    Here’s a breakdown of these two components and how you can improve them.

     

    IP reputation

    Emails are sent from an IP address – a unique identifier that ties a device to a specific network. Think of it a bit like a fingerprint for your emails. It tracks where emails come from, the reputation of that ESP (email service provider) and the email account itself. If you have a reputation of sending spammy emails, there’s a good chance that messages sent from that IP will be automatically flagged as spam and your emails won’t land front and center in your customers’ inboxes.

    In the world of eCommerce and physical store email marketing, brands can send emails using a customized domain name if their marketing provider has this function (Marsello makes this easy for retailers. Learn more here).

     

    How can you improve your IP reputation?

    Marsello-created graphic of a computer monitor with tick embedded over it

    Choose a good email marketing platform – If you’re opting for a custom domain (also sometimes referred to as a shared IP address), make sure you’re using a reputable email marketing platform. The best-in-class email marketing companies work hard to keep the reputation of their IP addresses in top shape by giving their users the tools and education they need to comply with anti-spam laws. 

     

    Most email marketing platforms also have systems that prevent abuse and spam. Marsello, for example, has an abuse-prevention system called SpamAssassin, which checks for spam traps, abuse complaints, and hard bounces.

    Marsello-created graph of inclining graph

    Gradually build up your IP’s reputation over time – If you’re using a dedicated IP address for your email marketing efforts, you’ll need to build and maintain its reputation yourself. 

     

    Much like with building financial credit, developing a solid IP reputation entails having a solid track record of sending high-quality emails. This means having high open rates and minimal spam flags from recipients. 

     

    If you’re using a new IP address for your emails, you can build up its reputation by only sending messages to a small but active list of people who love your brand. This will help boost your engagement metrics, which sends the message that you’re a high-quality sender.

     

    In turn, this boosts your reputation, which ultimately increases your email deliverability. 

    Marsello-created graphic. An outline of a person with a smiley-face in a conversation bubble.

    Monitor your reputation – If you’re suffering from poor email deliverability and you think your IP address is the culprit, then use a tool like Sender Score to check the IP’s rep. 

    Sender Score lets you enter an IP address, and its system will score it based on how reputable it is. The higher the score the better the reputation. 

    Sender Score's homepage allows you to check the sender reputation for your web domain

    Domain reputation

    When it comes to domain reputation, your messages are evaluated based on your sending domain, instead of, or in addition to your IP address.

     

    Email service providers have different metrics for evaluating messages, but Gmail (arguably the #1 email provider in the world) seems to favor domain reputation over IP. 

    How can you improve your domain reputation?

    Build up a good rep – A good domain reputation must be earned. Just like with building your IP rep, your domain needs to come across as reputable and high-quality for email service providers to not flag it as spam.

     

    You can do this by sending high-quality messages to an engaged user base and increasing your metrics over time. 

     

    Monitor your domain reputation – Check your domain reputation using a tool like MX Lookup Tool, which checks a domain against common blacklists. 

    MX Lookup also allows you to check your domain reputation.

    2. Steer clear of spam traps

    Spam traps are email addresses used by email service providers to catch malicious senders. They look just like a typical email address, but they’re not used by a real person. Their only purpose is to catch spam, so when a person or company sends a message to a spam trap email, the provider can flag or blacklist the sender. 

     

    There are a number of ways that providers can set up spam traps. They include:

     

    Pristine traps – A common one is called a pristine spam trap, which is an email address that is publicly displayed on a website BUT isn't visible to normal users. Pristine traps are meant to capture bots that are scraping the web for email addresses. 

     

    Expired or inactive email addresses – These are email addresses that have been deactivated by the company that issued them or by email service providers. In some cases, companies and providers may decide to reactivate these email addresses for the purposes of catching spam. 

    How to avoid spam traps

    Spam trap email addresses can sometimes end up on the list of senders with good intentions. Here’s how you can ensure that your list stays spam-trap free:

     

    Don’t purchase email lists – The email addresses that end up on lists for sale are often obtained through unethical means (like scraping the web). When you buy a list, you may end up with a handful of spam trap emails on your hands.

     

    Clean up your lists regularly – A great way to make sure that you don’t have spam trap emails on your list is to prune it. Identify emails that have no engagement over the last six months or so, then remove them from your list. 

     

    You should also clean up email addresses that have returned a hard bounce (i.e., when emails are undeliverable). Hard bounces indicate that an email address is no longer valid, and should thus be removed from your list. Some email marketing platforms do this for you automatically, so check with your provider to see if this is a feature they offer. 

     

    3. Make it easy for people to opt-out

    Giving people an easy way to opt-out seems counter-intuitive, because most email marketers want to keep people on their list. 

     

    However, making users jump through too many hoops just to unsubscribe is doing you more harm than good.

     

    Here’s why:

     

    When people can’t easily unsubscribe from your emails, they may end up marking it as spam – which, as you already know, will hurt your email deliverability. 

     

    So, resist the urge to hide the unsubscribe button. Instead, have a clear, clickable link on all your messages, and allow your subscribers to opt-out in just a click or two. 

     

    Check out this footer from the email of PetConnect. A standard location for the unsubscribe button is at the bottom of the footer, and PetConnect keep it simple. The last piece of their email gives readers the option to unsubscribe. While it’s not advertised and encouraging for customers, it is easy to find, underlined and simple to understand. Although with emails that cute, who’d really want to unsubscribe?

    PetConnect adds an 'unsubscribe' button to the bottom of their emails.

    4. Customize your ‘from’ name / sender field

    One of the reasons you may have poor email engagement rates is that people don’t recognize you when your messages hit their inbox. When users don’t know the sender, they’re more likely to delete the message without reading it, or worse, mark it as spam. 

     

    That’s why you should ensure that your sender name is consistent with your brand and is easily recognizable by users. 

     

    If you’re marketing yourself as “Bloom Skincare” then you shouldn’t send messages from “Jane Smith”. Instead, have your brand name in the “from” field of your emails – i.e., “Jane from Bloom Skincare” or “The Bloom Skincare Team”.

     

    This email from CAUSEBOX serves as an excellent example of a retailer that uses a real person behind each email, while still including their brand name.

     

    A CAUSEBOX email sent from Hannah at CAUSEBOX

    5. Avoid misleading subject lines

    Another temptation you may have is to write intriguing or exciting subject lines without having content or offers that actually live up to the hype. 

     

    Avoid this tactic at all costs. 

     

    While ‘creative’ subject lines may get people to open your message, they will likely mark your email as spam if the content doesn’t deliver on the subject line’s promises. 

     

    Instead, find ways to write exciting subject lines while still being upfront with the email’s content. 

    Take a look at the following email from GILT, an ecommerce site that sells luxury goods. The subject line – $99.99 Sunglasses SALE. Believe your eyes – is straightforward and tells customers exactly what they’re getting. But it’s also cleverly written and compelling because, well… who doesn’t like $99 designer sunglasses?

    GILT's sunglasses

    6. Don’t use spammy words

    Another subject line tip? Avoid spam-trigger words, phrases, and characters. 

     

    Hubspot and Simply Cast shared a long list of words and phrases to avoid, but here are the top ones that apply to retail and ecommerce:

    • Words like “FREE!,” “Guarantee,” and “Clearance”

    • Using ALL CAPS

    • Having “RE:” when it’s not a reply

    • One-word subject lines

    • Excessive use of exclamation points (!!!)

    • Excessive use of characters like “$$$”

    • Excessive use of emojis

    7. Stick to a consistent email schedule

    Irregular sending patterns can raise flags, so strive to find the best sending schedule that works for you, and avoid changing things up too often. 

     

    There are no one-size-fits-all rules when it comes to when to send emails and how often to do it. Since every company is different, you need to find a time and frequency that resonates with your audience. 

     

    One way to do is to gradually test out different sending patterns and frequencies, then measuring the performance of your messages. 

     

    When you find a good email sending pattern, stick with it. 

    8. Send emails that people love

    We’ve covered the tech-related side of increasing email deliverability, and while the tips above are solid best practices, they won’t guarantee that your messages will be seen and opened. 

     

    At the end of the day, the best way to boost the deliverability of your messages is to send emails that people open and click regularly. 

     

    How can you do that?

     

    Simple; send messages that your subscribers love.

     

    Create content that’s so compelling, people actually look forward to hearing from you. It’s a simple tip, but it’s not always easy to do, particularly when you’re competing with hundreds (if not thousands) of other brands for people’s attention. 

     

    Follow these pointers and examples on how to send messages that subscribers can’t help but click:

     

    Keep it super relevant

    Segment your customers based on their demographic details and shopping behavior, and use that data to inform your email marketing. 

     

    For instance, if you know that a shopper has kids, then you can send them mom-centric emails. Or, if you keep track of the purchase histories of your customers, you can leverage their data to craft email content and offers based on their profile. 

     

    Stitch Fix did this really well when it launched its kids line, Stitch Fix Kids. The subscription service reached out to members who ordered maternity clothes and sent them an exclusive invite to the service.

    marsello-blog-Improve-Email-Deliverability-keep-it-relevant.jpg

    Ask for their input

    Requesting for customer feedback doesn’t just help you gather more intel, it also shows that you value your customers’ opinions. Most shoppers – 71% according to this study – are happy to offer their feedback when asked. So, these types of messages will likely generate higher engagement (which is great for email deliverability – yay)!

     

    Buda Juice, a speciality pressed juices distributor, puts this tip to good use. The company sends feedback requests to customers to measure their satisfaction. Buda Juice crafts messages that are easy to read and act on, so the whole customer experience is smooth and convenient.

    A BudaJuice email which contacts customer feedback prompts

    Send a timely message

     

    Use different events and holidays as opportunities to engage with your audience. If you haven’t done so yet, create a marketing calendar with events throughout the year, and then craft seasonal content for each occasion. 

     

    Need help doing this? We've put together a calendar schedule highlighting best days and times to send your holiday email campaigns to make sure you never miss an opportunity. Download it for free here.

    Marsello's holiday email marketing schedule

    Here’s another tip: keep track of each customer’s birthday and send them a timely perk that they can use on their special day.

     

    Australian clothing retailer, Búl, for example, sends members of its rewards program a $20 voucher 7 days before their birthday. To make sure customers don’t miss out on the deal, Búl also sends them an email on the day of the customer’s birthday and then a final email to remind them to use the $20 voucher. The final two emails of this flow also include product recommendations designed to pique customers’ interest and get the shopping. Read more on the success of Búl’s Happy Birthday Email Flow in their recent case study.

     

    marsello-blog-Improve-Email-Deliverability-bui.jpg

    Pro tip: did you know that you can use Marsello to reward your customers on their birthday? When you set up "Happy Birthday Rewards" on your loyalty program, you’ll be able to automatically award birthday celebrants with extra perks on their birthday!

     

    9. Analyze your email marketing reports

    You know what they say: you can’t improve what you don’t measure.

     

    The same thing applies to email deliverability. If you want to increase your deliverability rate, then you need to track the performance of your campaigns. 

     

    In particular, you should keep an eye on:

    Open rates – This will shed light on the performance of your subject lines, so you can determine if your copy is getting people interested in reading the rest of your emails. 

     

    Click-to-open-rate (CTOR) – CTOR measure the number of unique clicks relative to the number of unique opens. It's a good measure of how an email's content has performed. A high CTOR could indicate that your subject line and email copy are working well together and reaching the right people. Conversely, a low CTOR could mean that your email copy isn't resonating with readers and there might be a disconnect between the subject line and content of the email. 

     

    Bounce rates – Pay attention to email bounces – particularly hard bounces, because these indicate that an email address is invalid. You want to remove those emails from your list ASAP to avoid falling into spam traps. 

     

    Final words

    You need to take a number of steps to improve email deliverability, and while some of them aren’t sexy, they are absolutely necessary if you want to land on your customers’ inbox.

     

    If you haven’t done so yet, take the time to evaluate your email marketing efforts. Check your reputation, clean up your email list, and review your content calendar to ensure that you’re sending top-notch messages. 

     

    If you do the above consistently, you’ll not only boost your email deliverability, but you’ll increase your reputation and engagement in the process!

     

    7 Ways to Create Holiday Campaigns That Convert

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    Create compelling holiday campaigns with our 7 actionable steps. Learn from leading retailer examples and key takeaways.

    Email may not be the newest craze in the world of digital marketing, but it continues to prove itself as the most effective channel for omnichannel businesses, particularly during the holiday season. 

    As marketing powerhouse Neil Patel has mentioned, email has nearly three times the number of accounts as Facebook and Twitter combined – 2.9 billion! Campaign email marketing continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, however, it’s essential that any business owner or marketer understands the anatomy of a good email and takes note of evolving trends.

     

    Infographic showing conversion rates of email and social media marketing  – 6.06% for email, 1.9% for social.

     

    The popularity and effectiveness of email marketing are undeniable, and while that’s generally a good thing, it also presents one obvious challenge: because email is so popular, it can be difficult to stand out in the competition while staying true to brand messaging.  

    So how can you ensure that your emails make the cut? 

    To help answer that, we’re putting the spotlight on a handful of email promotions that you can use as inspiration for your own holiday marketing campaigns.

     

    Retention first


    Before you can start your holiday email marketing campaigns, it’s vital that you get your customer retention strategies sorted. Why? Because these are the long-term marketing tools that will keep your holiday season customers coming back throughout the remainder of the year. 

    Consider some of the following retention strategies:

    • Create an undeniable loyalty programloyalty programs reward your customers for completing purchases with you and considering the high-spend rates of the holiday season, they’re a powerful way to keep your customers coming back as they see the rewards quickly. Go one step further and add VIP tiers to keep customers excited about shopping with your store again and again. Offering customers seasonal rewards can also help them to feel appreciated during a busy and expensive season. If they feel rewarded for shopping with you, the chances of them shopping with you again increases hugely.

    • Automate your email flows – creating automated campaigns that trigger as a result of specific actions (or lack thereof) is a proven retention strategy. Examples of these include emails that welcome first-time customers (and include a discount); win-back emails targeting a customer who hasn’t shopped with you for a certain time period (usually around 60 days); abandoned cart recovery emails designed to draw customers back who added items to their cart but didn’t complete a purchase; birthday emails that trigger on a customers birthday and offers them a small reward and discount to thank them for their loyalty.

    • Forms – either embedding forms or creating them as pop-ups can help to capture customer details (namely emails) and funnel those customers into your direct retention marketing channels such as email campaigns and social media targeting

    • One-off email campaigns – whether you’re creating newsletters, stock updates, business updates, one-off sales, or even competitions, cleverly curated one-off emails should be a huge part of your retention strategy and are a powerful place to incorporate other tools like customer segmentation (we’ll get into this more, later). 

    • Customer feedback – show customers that you want their opinions, can take their feedback, and that you’re open to learning and growing with them. It’s important that your customers feel listened to and appreciated, and gathering customer feedback is a proven way to do this.

    • Boost your best email campaigns – So you’ve diligently created a beautiful holiday marketing strategy and you’ve crafted the email and SMS campaigns to match. One way that you can ensure they get in front of more and more of your customers is to give your campaigns a boost. This is where you essentially send the same campaign to those who have no opened the email after a set amount of time, but with a new subject line.

    Learn more about Marsello's features

     

    Incorporate themes into your emails

    This may sound obvious, but many merchants continue to send uninspired and generic emails during the holidays. Don’t be one of them! Write and design your emails in such a way that they embody the holiday that you’re celebrating while staying true to your brand and excite your customers along the way. 

    So if it’s Christmas, your campaigns should reflect the joy and cheer that people experience around the season. If you’re sending emails for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, then your design and messaging should bring about excitement and a sense of urgency. 

    Go through your marketing emails and ask yourself the following questions:

    • Do they contain key holiday terms? (e.g., ‘gifts’, ‘happy holidays’ or ‘it’s Christmas’)

    • If not, have you considered adding a seasonal emoji to make your message more in line with each holiday?

    • Is your color palette in line with the holiday you’re celebrating but also complementary to your branding? (e.g., black and white for BFCM, red and green for Christmas)

    • Is the design of your email relevant to the season?

    • Is the written and visual content of your email relevant to the season?

    • Are you positioning your products as holiday purchases? (e.g., ‘Dresses for your next holiday party’ vs just ‘dresses’)

    Here are a few holiday email examples you can use as inspiration.

     

    OSMOSE creates an immersive theme for Chinese New Year

    OSMOSE, a Singapore-based specialist in women’s fashion, knew that Chinese New Year was the perfect holiday to market to their current customers. The overarching theme of their email was the color red, which is considered a symbol of luck and prosperity during the hugely popular holiday. In fact, red is the official color of Chinese New Year. They encourage email recipients to “paint your wardrobe red” to “welcome a prosperous new year”. Check out their gorgeous customized email flow below.

     

    Osmose's chinese new year themed featuring red-themed outfit ideas.

     


    Area 51 keeps customers informed with holiday season in-store hours

    When the holiday season came nearer last year, Area 51 took the opportunity to remind their customers of their hours over that season, but they also sweetened the deal by offering 20% to their online customers, making sure their customers knew that online shopping at Area 51 was still an option.

     

    Area 51's holiday opening hours
     
    Brandini Toffee creates a holiday-themed product
     

    Brandini Toffee knows the importance of personalized marketing and carefully curated customer service – and they know that these two things go hand-in-hand. To encourage customer engagement and create a personalized, holiday-themed shopping experience, Brandini created a Christmas product called ‘Red Box’ which included 1lb and 2lbs of their famous toffee. They then made the deal all the sweeter by adding free shipping on orders over $70.

     

    Brandini Toffees Red Box email campaign offering free shipping

     

    Alex and Ani positions their existing merchandise as gifts

    Alex and Ani took one of their mainstay products and positioned it as a holiday gift. With the adorable content, beautiful design that fits their branding, and their three top products, Alex and Ani curated a stand-out email sure to be successful with their new and returning customers.

     

    Alex and Ani created a holiday gift guide on their website

     

    Allbirds offers a holiday-themed giveaway to incentivize purchases

    Last Christmas, sustainable sneaker company, Allbirds, went above and beyond in offering customers a festive deal – they created a festive-themed version of one of their products: Christmas shoelaces. These were added as a special offer for customers who shopped during the holiday season, but not before customers were reminded to make sustainable choices with their gift-giving and purchases. We love the way they’ve included their branding, marketing, calls to action, and ethos into one snappy and beautiful email.

     

    AllBirds email saying 'give cosy, get creative' on a grey background with a 'shop now' CTA.

     

    UGMONK created a holiday gift guide with clever segmentation

    When UGMONK released an email gift guide last year, they didn’t just stick to the mainstays of ‘gifts for mom’ or ‘his & hers’ organization. With guide sections such as ‘cozy comforts’ and ‘mountains’, they were able to curate a guide that would appeal to anyone.

     

    UGMONK's holiday gift guide

     

    PRO TIP:Did you know that Marsello's holiday email flows come with seasonal templates? No need to design an email from scratch; just take on of our best-practice templates, designed to keep your customers coming back, and then tailor to your business.

     

    Personalize your campaigns

    A well-written and beautifully designed email won’t be effective if the content is irrelevant to the recipient. That’s why you should always incorporate personalization into your campaigns

    Studies show that eCommerce emails with personalized subject lines have 29% higher open rates so really it’s a no-brainer – personalization and loyalty go hand-in-hand. And with the growth of email marketing (expected to reach an astounding 4.3 billion users by 2022!!), you should be utilizing every tool at your disposal to help you increase open rates and stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds.

    So consider incorporating tricks and tools like customer segmentation, purchase history included in email content, and wish lists. Being able to easily tailor the content of your messages to each user will help you to reach them on a personal level and improve customer engagement drastically.

    Take a leaf out the playbooks of these companies:

     

    Yuccs uses clever customer segmentation to target different groups

    Spanish shoe designer, Yuccs, are leaders in creating stylish, comfortable sneakers that bridge the gap between function and fashion. Because of this, they have a clear vision for their brand and how they present it to their customers. During the holiday season, Yuccs created a similar email campaign but with notable differences that catered to two separate audience segments: loyal customers and Facebook leads!

    Both emails were Black Friday-themed and both were marketing the same products, however, the images and messaging were designed to cater more to the specific customer groups. Loyal customers were given the benefit of the doubt with ‘you already know’ messaging. They were encouraged to make the most of undeniable holiday prices and get organized for Christmas. Meanwhile, the segment created from Facebook Leads received an email that encouraged them to make a purchase and convert to loyal customers with the message “take advantage of our most exclusive discounts of the year”.

     

    Yuccs' holiday campaigns with 'loyal' and 'facebook leads' customer segments highlighted.

     

    Federation + recommends products that shoppers might like based on their browsing activity

    Federation + is an infamous streetwear brand in New Zealand, and a large part of this is their dedication to forming a distinguished, stand-out brand that excites customers both in-store and online, creating a seamless omnichannel shopping experience.

    Good email marketing stands out while also encouraging customers to convert. It’s that simple. There are plenty of tactics to mastering this, and one of the simplest is using smart product recommendations. Federation + does this by adding a product recommendations block to their welcome email, encouraging customers to make a purchase with a 10% discount, followed by showcasing products that are similar to the others that customer has viewed and that customers like them have previously purchased.

     

    Federations automated Welcome email overlaid on a black background

     

    Barebones recommend products based on previous purchases

    If you’re marketing to existing customers, then use their purchase data in your product recommendations. This is a good way to show customers that you’re paying attention to their shopping habits. And if you implement this strategy in a friendly way (like what Barebones is doing in the example below), you’ll encourage people to continue shopping at your store.

     

    An email from Barebones that offers customers 60% off with an end of season sale.

     

    PRO TIP: Marsello's holiday email flows make it easy to send personalized product recommendations. Simply drag and drop the product widget onto your email, and it will automatically populate with the top 3 items that your customer is likely to purchase, based on their shopping history, and the shopping histories of customers like them.

     

    Create campaign

     

    Run compelling and creative offers

    In an age when numerous brands are vying for shopper attention, it’s imperative that you craft offers that are both compelling and creative. 

    There aren’t any one-size-fits-all promos that would work for every campaign, as your offers would depend on your customers, merchandise, and objectives. For example, if you’re trying to move slow-moving inventory, then multi-buy promotions (e.g., “BOGO,” Buy 2 get 1 free, etc.) would be the best offer type. On the other hand, if the goal is to increase order values, then conditional offers (e.g., “Free shipping on orders over $75”) would be a better way to go.

    Have a think about the right type of offer for your campaign, and once you’ve decided on the type of promotions to run, inject holiday some themes to make them relevant.

    Consider the following:

     

    Flynn Skye shows shoppers how much they’re saving

    You know what they say, showing is better than telling. Apparel retailer Flynn Skye puts this nugget of wisdom to good use by creatively “slashing” their product prices. Check out the image of their email below and you can clearly see the original price crossed off and replaced with their promotional pricing.

     

    Flynn Skye advertise for cyber monday on their store with a colourful photo showcasing one of their dresses
     

    Fossil uses some holiday puns

    Last year, accessories store, Fossil, created vibrant and on-brand emails with a cute differentiator – a stand-out, festively decorated pun. They wished that their customers “have a tree-mendous holiday” and then drew attention to their early access sale and perks such as gift wrapping. 

    Witty content, cute imagery, on-theme colors, and simple design make this email stand out to customers and invites them to shop.

     

    Fossil sends customers the message 'Have a Tree-mendous Holiday'

     

    Girlfriend Collective runs a giveaway

    Meanwhile, the team at Girlfriend Collective ran a giveaway and used email marketing to promote it. The subject line was direct to the point and powerful: “Free stuff! (It’s giveaway time.)” and the body of the email touched on the holiday season, with the lines like: “The holidays are stressful. Giveaways aren’t.”

     

    Girlfriend's Giveaway Alert email campaign offering customers a holiday season freebie

     

    Animate your emails

    A cool way to stand out is by incorporating a bit of animation in your messages. Why not insert a moving GIF image in your holiday messages, to really get them to pop? Have a look at the following example:

    Búl’s Colorful Flash Sale

    We love the way Australian retailer, Búl, uses GIFs and block coloring to stand out while staying on-brand. Check out their gorgeous spring sale email (leading into the Australian holiday season)! It not only showcases their beautiful clothing but also their stylish email design is simple, easy to understand, and clear in intent. And it’s so simple! P.s. notice their addition of Afterpay, allowing customers to ‘wear now, pay later’. A fantastic way to entice customers into making a purchase now.

     

    Bul uses colorful GIFs to advertise an upcoming flash sale

     

    The Vans Holiday Gift Guide GIF

    Vans really know how to stand out with their customers when it comes to creating the best holiday emails. They took the opportunity to stand out and show their creative “off the wall” brand with a GIF featuring a skater and some subtle holiday imagery. While this may not be great for mobile optimization (which is incredibly important for avoiding spam filters), Vans is a hugely popular retailer which means they have a little bit of freedom to play with less-optimized email content because their customers are likely to recognize their emails.

     

    Van's Off The Wall uses a GIF to advertise their holiday gift guide

     

    Instill a sense of urgency

    Urgency can give your promotions an extra boost, so find ways to use it in your campaigns. Things like a looming deadline or fear of missing out (FOMO) can really drive people to act.

    Use these emails for inspiration:

    BioLite reinforces that sense of urgency with sale dates

    Being clear about your sale terms and timing can give your customers the sense that they should buy sooner rather than later for fear of missing out.

    BioLite has created this sense of urgency by reminding their customers exactly when their sale ends and leaving that reminder in bold. They’ve then gone the extra mile and suggested some of their categorized top picks.

     

    BioLite's Labour Day Sale announcement banner on their website marketing 15% off.

    Udemy uses a countdown

    Want to get more visual with your FOMO messaging? Countdowns can do wonders. If you’re running a promotion that’s approaching a deadline (ideally 24 hours or fewer), throw in a working countdown in your emails so recipients know exactly how much time they have left before the deal is gone. 

    Here’s a great example from the online course provider, Udemy:

     

    Udemy's Cyber Monday countdown timer
     

    Optimize the timing of your campaigns


    Timing may not be everything, but in email marketing, it’s pretty darn important. Showing up in someone’s inbox at just the right time can mean the difference between a conversion or a missed opportunity, so optimize the scheduling of your emails as much as possible. 

    The best way to do this is to rely on your subscribers’ data. Pay attention to when people are opening your messages and visiting your website, so can determine when to schedule your emails. 

    Read our email marketing best practices guide to learn more about suggested timing.

     

    Take me to guide

     

    Evaluating previous campaign performance can also help. Do morning emails work better than messages sent in the afternoon? What about weekdays vs. weekends? Go through your past campaigns and see if you can spot patterns around timing. 

    Industry data can also offer insights that you can use in your campaigns. Does your email marketing provider have any data on which email time-frames work best?

    Below is an excellent case study of email timing optimization done right:

     

    eBags increases conversions by 65% thanks to timing optimization

    Online luggage supplier, eBags, decided to switch up their email schedules by optimizing their timing based on when each subscriber signed up to their list. 

    According to Econsultancy, eBags "carried out research based on the hypothesis that if users were available to sign up to an email list at a certain time, then they would be far more receptive to receiving an email at the same time as when they signed up.”

    The experiment proved to be a success. As Econsultancy reports, eBags saw the following results after the experiment:

    • Increased click-through rates by 20% 

    • Increased conversion rates by 65% 

    • Increased average order value by 45% 

    • Increased overall revenue per recipient by 187%

    The moral of the story? Well, there’s a couple! Don’t be afraid to experiment based on your customer data, and optimize your emails to suit that data. If you know that you see the best results from emails that are scheduled for 10 am on a Tuesday, then schedule away! If you’re not sure when to schedule your emails, fret not …

    Marsello analyzes the shopping habits of customers at your store (and at businesses similar to yours) and then recommends the best time to send your emails.

     

    Final words

    Email marketing can elevate your campaign performance, but only if you do it right. To boost your marketing success this holiday season, keep your messages relevant and personalized and throw in some compelling offers for good measure. To top everything off, optimize the scheduling of your messages you can get in front of your subscribers at the perfect time. 

    Run Retargeting Facebook Ads to Your Custom Audiences to Maximize ROI

    ClockIcon  READ
    Read the first in our Marsello Mini-Series to learn how to export your customer segments and run retargeting ads to shoppers who are most likely to convert

    thumbnail3-01

     

    Did you know that you can use Marsello to improve your Facebook ads? On average, it takes around eight touchpoints to convert a cold lead into a buyer, so utilizing retargeting ads alongside your other marketing channels makes for a truly powerful combo! Just follow the steps below to export any of your customer segments and run retargeting ads to shoppers who are most likely to convert. 

     

    Infographic: Customers who see retargeting ads are 70% more likely to convert

     

    Fun fact: Visitors who are retargeted with ads are 70% more likely to convert.

     

    Step 1: Create a custom audience
    Log in to your Marsello app, select the ‘Customers’ section in the navigation menu, and then click on ‘Segments’.

     

    Select ‘Create Segment’ to start building your audience. To use an example, let’s say you have a popular collection of items in your store called ‘The Blue Series’. You’ve just added a new product to the collection, and you can’t wait to let your customers know!

     

    PRO TIP: Pair an email marketing campaign to this segment with your new Facebook ads to ensure that you interact with your customers wherever they happen to spend time online.

     

    Try building out an audience of people who’ve purchased from your ‘Blue Series’ in the last few months, like so:

     

    The 'Create a Segment' page in Marsello's app

    When you’ve included all the conditions you need, click ‘Save and Create Segment’. 

     

    If you need help creating a segment, check out our Help Center article here for more info.

     

    Step 2: Export your audience

    Once you’ve saved your new segment, go back to your ‘Segments’ dashboard, find the one you just created, and click ‘Export Segment’ from the drop-down menu, which will start a download of a CSV file with your new, custom audience!

     

    PRO TIP: Facebook will only serve ads to audiences of a certain size, so try to create an audience of at least 1000 emails so Facebook can match as many as possible to its users.

     

    Step 3: Import your audience into Facebook

    Open up Facebook Ads Manager, and go to ‘Audiences’ from your navigation bar:

     

    Facebook Ads manager

    From there, click on ‘Create Audience’, and select ‘Custom Audience’.

     

    Select ‘Customer File’, then ‘Use a file that doesn’t include LTV’. Upload the CSV you exported from Marsello, and hit ‘Upload & Create’. 

     

    Step 4: Create an ad campaign to target your new audience

    It will take Facebook some time to match the emails you uploaded to users on its platform, but you can start building your ad campaign while the audience is populating.

    In Ads Manager, click the green ‘Create’ button and start designing your Campaign. Once you’re at the Ad Set level, click into the ‘Custom Audiences’ block and select the audience you just uploaded. 

     

    Once you’ve set all your audience filters, continue to the ad level, write up some killer copy to convert your customers, upload a captivating image, and hit ‘Confirm’. 

     

    Your brand-new Facebook ad campaign will start running once the audience has populated at least 1000 users, so you can sit back, relax, and watch those sales start rolling in! And remember, don’t be afraid to use more than one channel to market to your segments. 

     

    Export a custom audienceGET MARSELLO

    How to Create Compelling One-off Email Campaigns With Marsello

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    Learn how to use the Campaigns feature from Marsello to send one-off emails like newsletters, promotions, or stock updates to a certain customer segment.

    Infographic of conceptual New Arrival emails

    It's no secret that email marketing is the powerhouse behind many successful retail marketing strategies. With email campaigns, it's easy to send one-off emails to your customers to engage with shoppers in countless ways.

    To name just a few ideas: newsletters, promotions, or new stock updates to your entire database, or just to a certain customer segment. With Marsello, you’ll find the email campaigns feature under ‘Campaigns’ in your Marsello admin.

    Let’s drill down and see what Marsello's email campaigns feature means for the future of your email marketing.

     

    Target specific groups with behavior-based segmentation

     

    Marsello's Customer Segmentation Grid

     

    If you’re going to put time and effort into developing compelling email marketing (and you should!), you want to make sure you’re getting a notable return on investment (ROI). Much like setting your audiences with paid advertising, directing your email marketing to specific segments based on customer’s shopping behavior is a powerful (and some would argue essential) tool that will go a long long way to helping you retain, engage and convert your customers.

    Above, you can see an example of Marsello's customer segmentation grid. This calculates customer segments for you based on an industry-renowned calculation known as RFM – organizing your customer database based on their individual purchase recency, frequency, and monetary spend. Learn more about customer segmentation here.

     

     

    Marsello Insights for a retailer's Best Customers

     

     

    When you couple customer segmentation with marketing that encourages that specific group to complete a CTA, or call to action (think directive prompts such as: "use a discount code", "complete a purchase", or "leave a review"), and you ensure the email is intentionally geared towards the customer group your marketing to, you’re much more likely to get the results you’re hoping for. Read how Yuccs used customer segmentation to increase conversion rates and maximize customer engagement during BFCM.

     

    Create eye-catching emails

     

    Happy Easter holiday email campaign

     

    Creating your one-off emails is simple. With email templates ready-built with your logo, you’re already one step closer to having beautiful and recognizable email flows made from scratch. Marsello’s drag-and-drop email builder also makes adding your content super easy.

    Simply click the email block you’d like to add, drag it into your email where you’d like – no design knowledge necessary.  

    Features to include in your email designs

    • Product recommendations block: increase the chances of your customers completing a purchase by recommending products to each customer based on products they’ve bought previously and the purchase histories of other customers just like them.  

    • Referral program merge tag: increase customer referrals by including your customers’ unique referral link in emails, making it simple for them to refer their friends and earn rewards for doing so.

    • Social media links: increase your social media following by including your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages in your email campaigns.

    When you’ve finished creating your one-off email campaign, send it when the time best suits you! You can either send the email immediately or schedule it for a time that would be most likely to resonate with your customers – automating your emails to trigger as a result of certain actions or based on timing is proven to have a drastic effect on your open rates so Marsello gives you the flexibility to set this to suit you and your customers.

     

    Use real-time reporting to maximize ROI

    To fully understand your marketing and if it’s getting the results you intended, you need to understand your reporting. How many of your sent emails have been opened (open rate)? How many of the customers opened those emails, then went ahead and clicked the CTA (click-through rate)? Finally, what proportion of your emails directly resulted in a sale (conversion rate)? There are plenty of metrics to measure your email marketing success by, but we want to be sure you’re getting exactly the data you need to succeed.

    For every email campaign you send, Marsello provides accurate real-time reporting, giving you insight into statistics like those mentioned above. You’ll also see stats like:

    • Revenue generated from your campaign

    • Number of orders

    • Total number of emails sent (helping you to track database growth)

    •  
    We sent a new stock alert out and saw great results. We gave our Best Customers segment ‘Early Access’ which we got some lovely feedback on in-store. And then followed it up a few days later to all our other segments. We moved over half our new stock in just a week, which we’ve never even been close to before! Now we need to get more in. Not a bad problem to have!
     
    – Olivia Johnson - Good Dog Collars


    How retailers are using One-off Email Campaigns:

     

     

    Learn how Sigi Skin’s success helped them see a 48% increase in day-to-day revenue following a One-Off Email Campaign for Mother’s Day.

     

    Learn more about campaigns

     

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