How to Boost ROI with Proven Email Marketing Tips | PODCAST #1
FAQs are frequently asked questions when it
comes to email marketing there are a ton of them today's episode we're going to address some
FAQs run email Papa forms text image ratio inside of your emails and whether you need to Discount
to generate Sales Plus we're going to discuss the buy with prime option you keep seeing pop-up
and storage website and give you some advice on Crafting Easter email campaigns so thanks
for being here I'm Greg zakowitz an e-commerce marketing expert I've been involved with email
for more than 15 years believe it or not here at Omnisend my goal is to help companies improve
their email programs and increase their sales and I'm Gabe Macaluso director of customer success
here at Omnisend I get to help brands on a daily basis Implement those email strategies and well
Greg maybe the great grandpa of email marketing I'm simply the grandpa of email marketing and
have been an email and e-commerce for about a decade [Music] correct did you know email
marketing can generate an Roi a 40 to 1.
I did not but as a former
pirate as if Roi I like nice all right here's how it's gonna work we have
five topics to cover today we're going to spend three minutes on each topic and then move on
whether we are done or not easy enough right before we get started go ahead and click that
like And subscribe button if you have any email FAQs you want us to answer leave them in the
comments section and we will try to get to them our first topic is sign up formscape Brands
constantly want to collect more information along with email addresses but how much info
should they actually ask for on signup forms great question to start off with and this
is something I'm super passionate about it's always that constant struggle between
quantity and quality so I'm personally a fan of a one email address or one block of
input and just hey let's collect capture that email address and then through two-step
forms or the welcome series that's where you can start engaging with your audience and
getting more and more information from them this is funny because we've talked about both
of us being in email for so long right so uh close to 17 years for me all in and my advice is
on this is completely changed so it used to be you know probably a decade ago eight years ago
hey you should collect uh birthday right to get a birthday message off to people and you should
be collecting this and right now I I have pivoted that to exactly what you said so email I like
SMS at the exact same time as well I think it it makes a lot of sense you can always do SMS on
two-step forms as well perfect solution for you but I would keep it very simple and you mentioned
automation so this is something I want to talk about a little bit and I know you've got your uh
your own feelings on this which is awesome but you know I always ask when I used to consult clients I
would say well what are you using the information for because they want birthdays or they want zip
codes or or whatever they're asking for right and they'll be like well I want a segment I'm like
well are you going to use that in the welcome series and most of the time the answer is no I'm
like well use the welcome series to collect it if you want to do it then but if you're not diverging
paths and using splits on it it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to be asking for that because
you want to focus on that conversion yeah and I think honestly it really depends on your brand
and your brain voice so if it may makes sense to collect that information if you're going to
redirect People based on how they fill out that form then 100 like you should absolutely
do that and we can always kind of fall back at the acronym of ABT always be testing right so
you know do I run a pop-up form with one field what's my submission rate how is that pop-up
performing and then even Downstream looking at the number of conversions in that welcome series
is that driving more engagement to get that inbox warmed up with that user that contact versus if
you're asking for things it's starting to simple as like men versus women okay that's an easy kind
of diversion if you're a sporting goods store are you doing running swimming biking like all of
those little things can definitely add to the experience that the brand has with that with that
contact but if you're not going to use it and you don't have the bandwidth to do it then don't give
yourself that extra layer of work to collect that information unless you're going to be effective
which I think exactly what you said and totally agree with what your point there so gender is the
interesting one because if you're say a fashion retailer right that's the one where I would say
again are you going to use in the welcome series I would say you probably should if you're reflecting
it you never know who people are shopping for that is the one thing and that's where a click based
welcome series might come in handy but the gender is the one thing also if you sell the B2B and
B to C right so gift baskets are you shopping for yourself or for corporate those might be too
insensitive if you want something uh but those like you I would kind of leave it at that email
address SMS and I'd kind of move on collect it later and the bell has run any last comments Gabe
so many more but we'll save it for another episode perfect our second topic today Greg
is text to image ratio and emails Greg the old best practice was for companies to
strive for 60 40 text to image ratio we still see it referenced in Google searches and all of those
email expert bloggers when a company asks you this question what do you tell them I tell them the key
word you just mentioned old right could could you be any old right so going back to my first few
years that we used to send all text emails when I first got into this thing right uh going back
to years it was an issue right so there's some validity to that that has changed so much in the
last I don't know 14 years all right emails are mostly image based now most of the text that's in
that are in there for a lot of brands are actually in built into the image itself right so it's
image based text uh there are some things with B2B where it probably still holds true a little bit
versus D to C but you know I'm checking my phone I am not reading I have glasses these things
have the strongest prescription in the world I I don't have time for text right so give me
the images give me a little bit of text big letters I'm good because I'm checking on my phone
and that's where I leave it you're not going to wind up in the spam folder because you have image
based emails yeah and I completely agree one of my favorite kind of anecdotes if you will is When
someone tells me that you have to have a 60 40 text image ratio I go so what does 60 tax to 40
image look like so if I have a giant hero image does that mean I need to write three paragraphs
of text is it the size of the text the length of the text like no one actually understands what
this ratio means it's like oh well the image is 500 pixels that means I need to write you know
a thousand words like no one actually knows what that ratio means I think someone just planted
it as like a joke like hey this is what we're gonna tell people and no one actually knows
what it means it's the guy who creates a Spam fold the spam filters early days they're like
yeah you know what would be good some text here yeah yeah I don't know what's good I don't know
60 of it okay let's go yeah right so here's the one thing with text image ratio which I'm sure
you get in your client's kit and everyone you've worked with before is welcome series we talk about
automation here right so card abandonment you can have some images and you're gonna probably have
some text in there that's natural welcome series all right and this is one of these best practices
that I have you know skewed away from but telling brand stories and things like that in there and
that's usually text based uh I don't think you need that stuff I don't think that's the purpose
of the welcome series anymore and this is again where I've kind of shifted over the years with
my advice but that's the one thing is like well I need to tell my brand story I need to tell you
a little bit about the brand shouldn't I put text in my messages there not so much for the ratio
but for the fact you have text in there I would say no convert what would you say yeah I think
it's interesting you know I I'm a fan of brand story and I that it'll be interesting to see how
this time transitions because especially as the last couple years as we were going through
covid it just offered that experiential bit of shopping right so you go into a really
fancy store in like downtown and you're gonna get that story like how did you create this brand
so I think that welcome series when we weren't able to have that in-person experience definitely
allowed kind of that brand story but I think when we talk about the Brand Story So Many Brands want
their specific thought and their specific you know style guide well if it's not a Google website font
it doesn't matter what you put in there or what text your EST is going to let you import into the
editor like it's not going to display so the only guaranteed way to make sure that your Brand's
font shows up in these you know long blocks attacks is by collie Greg you have to create an
image so now the real question is the guy the guy or girl who created this text image ratio
just text in an image count as text or image so we'll leave it at that avoid text image ratio
we are so over on that Bell we're gonna get three Bells Bring It On upstairs so avoid the text
image ratio it doesn't matter use it when it's smart think about how you read your own emails
and we'll if you have any if you have any strong opinions on this leave a comment for us all right
third topic today let's stay inside of the email itself many Brands will discount inside their
emails this is a favorite question we always get advice from many it tells you that if you want to
drive sales you need to send those discounts okay ship Brands discount if they send an email okay
so I could go on very a variety of different team engines on this topic so let's see if I can
control my 80d and keep it focused on one and I think I'll go with this one right so discounts
[Music] I'm gonna pause there because I have a good point but I lost transition so editor do
your thing so discounts are an interesting thing because people always talk about do I offer a
unique coupon code where I just have a coupon code that gets leaked and I think you have to
remind yourself as a brand owner if I'm giving a discount I still have margin and you have to ask
yourself if 10 people use this leaked discount code is that better than two people using a unique
coupon code how many of those 10 people would have actually converted at full price or not and what
kind of margins do I have so to me it's like if you're willing to give up that margin to a select
group of your audience like I have no problem with that coupon code getting leaked if it's going to
drive more conversions for me so I think that's the first bit of it the second bit of it is how
much do you discount and you have to walk this fine line of not cheapening your brand and making
sure that the discount is actually worthwhile for people to act you can't offer you know 20 Monday
through Thursday and then offer 40 every Friday because then people learn your discount cycle so
to me it's like it's spread them out iterate and intermix and like you know again we can go all
sorts of topics have other thoughts that I want to get into but I'm going to pause right there
because I want to I want to hear your thoughts on what we should do with this account inside the
email so do you need the discount absolutely not right look at luxury Brands they're they've got
different value ads things like that so you don't need to now are you in an industry where there's
a lot of comparison shoppings you might have to right I I'm with you where I think selective
discounting right you don't you don't predict what's going to happen so when I shop I always
look for a discount no matter what I'm buying even if it's a rare discount from a brand I will still
if I can't get it through a welcome message a card abandonment message and yes I will abandon a card
to see if I get one how do we all do that and then I wait a few days to see if I get it unless I
really want to make that purchase I do a quick Google search I don't need to go on RetailMeNot
and stuff like that it's just not for me but I will do a search here I'll try maybe one code
and then if I really want I'll bite the button I'll buy the thing but here's the challenge right
if it's something where I can get it out maybe on Amazon and with them now and now I'm cross
comparing you might lose me to Amazon where your margins get cut a little bit more if you're still
the seller so you probably want me on the site it's I think if you're a brand you're kind of in
a no-win situation I think your first Point's the best point Gabe and I think we if you throw it on
the screen that's the one is it better to have 10 people use a code and protect your margins get
those 10 sales or two people use a personalized code fewer sales but bigger margins that it's not
cutting into and I think that's the biggest thing here yeah that's the Bell that's the Bell there
it is and you know this actually kind of segues perfectly into our next topic because I when
you're talking about comparison shopping and like Amazon they do it right like the amount of times
I pull up my Amazon shopping app when I'm standing in Walmart to like scan products be like is this
a good deal like they they've got they get it that being said okay if you just admitted you
go to Walmart hey wow hey okay it's the only it's the only Big Box store on the island so
Walmart it is it's 25 minutes to Target five minutes to Walmart they've got it they've got
we love you Walmart yeah we've got a monopoly on the market and that's gonna be a whole another
topic we can talk about is membership at Walmart right like would love to know the numbers on
that so um but anyway we digress we digress um we're talking e-commerce and we're spending our
waking hours in brick and mortar locations okay so moving on from question about email marketing
question about e-commerce industry in whole and buy with prime Amazon the Juggernaut so some
companies are seeing up to 70 of store sales pay using buy with prime so we've seen that little
button everywhere a question for you do you see sticking that's sticking around and if so will it
become the default for anyone who's a Prime member you know so this is interesting because buy
with prime is different than Amazon pay right so you see Amazon pay on Shopify sites which just
kind of brings your info over makes the checkout easier buy with prime for those that don't know
you can obviously do a quick Google search this is actually on a third-party website you make
the purchase buy with prime you put your info in and you're at 3pl with uh you're using Amazon
for 3pl so fulfillment so your order is just kind of handled through Amazon so you get the quick
shipping you get the free return stuff like that will it stick around too soon to tell I think
it will right so I think Amazon pays something I haven't used it yet I don't use Amazon pay when
I have the option because I'm okay using credit cards I think pry with prime will stick around but
I don't think it's going to be like if I go buy say a pair of jeans from XYZ retailer I'm using
buy with prime right I think when we talk about things like lawn equipment or Hardware type stuff
or things like that I think those things are to me a little more natural for yeah I'm gonna buy
over there I'm going to ship it over you know price check it over there and I just know it's
easy for me I think to me I my sense is that's where people are going to be using it um you
know but Shopify has their own competition this right so they've got their own thing which I think
Amazon's got that name brand to it I think that's where it's at so I've I've dominated two minutes
worth of this talking yeah I'm gonna give a minute over to you Gabe no I think you're absolutely
spot on I think Amazon pay unless they launch their own smartphone which they had the Lord
knows they have the money to be able to do it but the adoption I think is full of trying with it
yeah and they yeah they play but unless they have that like that thing going for them because I've
started using Apple pay I got my wife to use it my wife is like the antithesis of like wanting to use
technology she absolutely like hates that she's she's gonna you know be the one but the sticky
note on the back of the remote to like which buttons does she put to get on the TV but anyway
that being said I think the buy with prime I think is absolutely gonna stick around I think people
will love that convenience and if people are smart about the way they kind of market and push this
as an option of like hey you can still support the the small business the local business the the
direct to Consumer business versus just going to Amazon and you know this goes back to and I don't
know what the latest stats are but you know for a while like Amazon product search was actually a
higher percentage than going to Google because the idea being if I'm gonna search for a backpack
I know I can go to Amazon search backpack and I'm buying a backpack that I've already narrowed my
focus versus if I go to Google Search backpack you know am I getting a backpack trip am I getting
you know school backpacks hiking backpacks like there's all kinds of things that can come up on
a Google search so we already know that Amazon is starting to dominate that product search so now if
I can use that same kind of convenience but have a specific brand I want to buy from and feel like I
can support them then you know whether or not it's actually gonna give them a bigger margin or if
it's simply like a concept of like green washing that's where we're at so we are so over the three
minutes here but we're I'm going to spend another minute here uh we got Hector Salamanca in the
background from Breaking Bad just like slamming the Bell over and over again so uh so here's
the thing what Amazon says with this right they say okay the biggest challenge we we hear
from stores is driving traffic to the website and Amazon obviously has a traffic built in
now Amazon's not dumb right they're trying to get sales over there but they're also using
it to say okay buy some sponsored ads on Amazon we'll redirect you from Amazon to your website
so you get that traffic you own that custom relationship but you use the buy with prime so
they're getting the ad money from there which you're spending but instead of taking you to
an Amazon store Page or taking you back to your website so they're breaking the user experience
a little they're just reverse engineering it a little bit but it's appealing for people looking
for traffic and it cannot stand out there so uh all right so that's where we're at our
final topic today this is what we've been teasing everyone we've been leaving that
egg around I like what you did earlier uh earlier again with leaving eggs around so our
final topic today involves planning the Easter email marketing campaigns I can't talk anymore
an average customer spends approximately 180 on Easter shopping each year three main drivers of
this obviously food gifts and Candy we all know food and candy are probably those two but gifts
are there I know this is increasingly popular especially I'm kind of buried into giving gifts
for Easter that is not chocolate which is not something I'm used to so Gabe what should Brands
be aware of when planning their Easter email campaigns or should they plan them at all yeah
great question so I you know yes yes you should definitely attend Easter campaign and the idea
here is like any gifting campaign any holiday where you're going to be gifting things to other
people is about making it as easy as possible so obviously you know who your demographic is you
know if it's buying from you if you are selling items for kids you are putting together bundles
and packages that's like hey Mom and Dad one by here's the bundle this is everything your kid
will want um and you know we do the same thing in our house where it's a Lego set Hot Wheels
LOL dolls whatever right like you can do those types of things so you can absolutely kind of do
like a mini gift guide and what a great kind of opportunity to experiment to see like how do your
consumers react to these gift guide ideas as you start kind of already starting to think about
holiday right like like the big holiday so you you start thinking about that in June and July
so this is a great kind of way to sample that of like hey do our people actually interact with it
and of course like if you're more of a spiritual brand then obviously you can have you have that
whole angle this is a huge time of year for you if you're not that like whatever the angle is and
I have a lot of fun with it like especially around Christmas time that you can use this as Easter too
like if your dress is like dressed to impress are you meeting the family for the first time uh are
you treating yourself you spent all day cooking or you're gonna spend all day cooking and getting
your family ready for the pick like perfect picture like treat yourself just Rejuvenation I
mean like literally you can go any sort of product vertical and position is like how do you treat
yourself how do you treat those around you yeah and there's a there's a stat that I was when I was
looking at this topic uh you know the question you always get as a consultant is the same thing
you get around uh that Christmas time right do I say Christmas do I say Hanukkah do I say happy
holidays same thing for Easter it's obviously a religious holiday I think it has broader context
with just general acceptance though as a holiday more than half the people who do not celebrate
Easter still plan on shopping Easter sales right they use the discounts there so I would say it's
okay to use Easter if you're on from uncomfortable with it you could always use spring and kind of
use those Easter pastel colors uh any advice from your side okay yeah I know I totally agree I think
Easter in general in the spring is about rebirth light joy and those are all things that resonate
extremely positive with purchasers so again any kind of angle there we know like uh we're
recording this just ahead of St Patrick's Day so I don't know when this is going to be released
but you know we're gonna get a thousand subject lines like it's your lucky day or it's time to get
lucky we know that's coming so Easter gives you way more broad uh flexibility in terms of those
subject lines where it's excellent uh you know if we can really get in all the different funds but
you can also just say hey it's it's time for a new wardrobe right if the weather's getting warmer you
can start doing the spring releases for clothing all that kind of stuff warm weather again every
vertical is going to have something you just have to find your angle and run with it yep absolutely
so we are well over time we are terrible at this hopefully we get better over time with this but
we are just like if I was working a radio again I'd be getting hammered for not hitting the brakes
on time so uh we do have one more bonus FAQ for today but a friendly reminder if you have any
email FAQs you want us to answer leave them in the comments section um so here's the here's
the bonus question I know Omnisend is a free plan but do you have any discounts for Omnisend
premium plans all right that's a totally chill question here I I slipped that in someone didn't
ask that of course we do check out the link in the promo code in the video description and enjoy your
discount I'm Greg zachowitz and I'm Gabe Macaluso thanks for watching everybody and don't forget if
you have an email marketing question drop it in the comment section below and if you're interested
in more email marketing tips be sure to check out this video on email marketing secrets for
Success until next time happy marketing
