💡 Cracking the Code: Email Marketing Tactics That Drive 80% of Your Results in 2024 📧🚀
Master 2024 email marketing with pop-up surveys, aggressive welcome series, plain text emails, and targeted content to boost engagement and revenue efficiently.
As the holidays approach, expect an influx of gift purchases across the next few months — an annual event that’ll only be heightened by the post-COVID e-commerce shopping boom.
Even more so, broader delays in global supply chains are trickling down to affect availability and shipping for e-commerce brands across all segments. Our recommendation? Beat this year’s slowdown by getting a head start on your seasonal campaigns, promotions, and more.
We’ve laid out four steps below that every alcohol brand should take to beat the annual gift rush, while also maximizing the profitability and potential of this concentrated shopping period.
Step One: Time Blocking
First, you can start building out a major messaging campaign by looking ahead on your calendar and selecting key dates to lay out a time frame from early November up until Christmas.
Specifically, we recommend blocking out three primary phases for your campaign delivery.
Pre-Black Friday
By pushing messaging campaigns out as early as mid-November, you’re gearing folks up for the holiday season around the corner, as well as letting potential buyers know to keep an eye out for a promotion in the works.
More importantly, you’re setting your brand up to start the season on a strong note — and to not get caught unprepared by the sudden arrival of Thanksgiving crunchtime.
Thanksgiving & Late November
From Thanksgiving onward, particularly that first weekend including Black Friday, you’ll want to host and advertise some kind of actionable event, i.e. a special release or promotional discount, to jumpstart customers into their seasonal shopping cycles.
Cutoffs for Christmas
Finally, you’ll want to round out the season by selecting a cutoff date for placing new orders.
Seven to 10 days before December 25th is a safe bet for buyers to receive a bottle at their door by Christmas Day, and reminders should be sent out in the days leading up to this cutoff.
In terms of the broader time crunch that’s anticipated due to global supply chain slowdowns, you should emphasize the convenience of purchasing from a domestic brand paired with the reliability that you offer for a timely, safe delivery of your product.
Step Two: Spice Up Your Specials
Once you’ve laid the initial groundwork, it’s time to elevate your campaign by crafting it into something creative and exciting for the spirit of the season.
In other words, your buyer’s inbox may be flooded by holiday deals, but you can capture their attention and help them recognize the thoughtfulness through your core brand messaging.
For instance, Far North Spirits is offering a holiday two-pack for drinks that’ll warm you up in the colder months. Imagine a whiskey, rye, or bourbon for your spicy cocktail or mulled wine.
Ultimately, you’re working with the inventory you have and considering which themed products can play into people’s holiday spirit — even better if it’s in a bundle to boost your AOV.
On the other hand, this period offers a practical opportunity to look back at the year’s releases and offload any remaining inventory through a unique discount or exclusive holiday promo.
Step Three: Ramp Up Your Promotion Game
Next, consider the tactical logistics of your promotions. After all, it can be tricky to time promo launches, depending on whether your customer pool skews toward early or late gift grabbers.
There are two general approaches you can take: 1) offering enticing deals early on to preempt other sales or 2) holding off until late in the buyer’s window to pull the trigger on your promo.
The former can snag early shoppers, or at least convince late shoppers to try an early purchase, but could also lose its appeal by mid-December when fresher deals are dropping every day.
The latter can appeal to buyers who play the long game and wait it out for the most optimal deal, but can still ultimately result in you losing out on early or average shoppers.
Ultimately, there’s no gold-standard method and you’ll need to use your judgement depending on what aligns with your brand’s target demographic, metric goalposts, and even inventory.
For instance, returning to your campaign calendar, you can skew discounts away from marking down products and toward offering cheaper, faster shipping as Christmas creeps closer.
Step Four: Email Marketing On Deck
As we pointed out in our advice for email marketing, setting up your email flow so your comms can run seamlessly is a simple yet essential step of the process that’s easily overlooked.
We recommend starting with a quick info sweep: pull last year’s seasonal purchase data and make sure that customer cohort is consistently re-engaged early on.
In turn, your team won’t be stressed out and frantically attempt to piece together the perfect layout in MailChimp just a few days before Thanksgiving — which circles back to our larger point: the holidays are a time of year with promise of high ROI for your alcohol brand.
You can utilize this opportunity to the max by planning thoroughly and creatively, not stressfully executing a last minute, makeshift campaign.
If your brand has these moving parts staged within the first weeks of November, you should be ready to hook the earliest seasonal shoppers and take full advantage of the holiday rush.
Sit Back and Enjoy the Holidays!
Once you’ve got these steps locked in — a killer campaign calendar, creative promos, and ready-to-launch email marketing — you’ll be the one leading the holiday rush, not falling behind.
Whether your user base is composed of individuals shopping for friends and family or corporate customers with high-volume needs, Accelpay is the platform of choice for your alcohol brand.
To get access to our instant storefront setup and stress-free bulk ordering, get started here.
Driving Email Marketing Results in 2024
Let’s dive into some game-changing email marketing tactics for 2024 that will help you get the most out of your campaigns.
Email Marketing Essentials for 2024
In 2024, the key to email marketing success is focusing on the 20% of tactics that drive 80% of your results. By honing in on strategies like surveys in popups, an aggressive welcome series, plain text emails, and highly targeted content, you can significantly boost engagement and revenue.
The Basics You Need to Cover
Before diving into new ideas, let’s make sure these fundamentals are in place:
- Google’s New Deliverability Rules: Starting February 2024, bulk email senders must authenticate emails using SPF and DKIM and maintain low spam rates. Non-compliance may result in emails being flagged as spam or blocked, impacting deliverability and sender reputation. Stay compliant to keep your emails from getting flagged as spam.
- Efficient Tools: Switch to platforms like Shopify and Klaviyo for seamless integration and efficient email management. If setting up something simple with your agency, like a post-purchase flow, takes two months and costs five figures, it's time for a change.
- Essential Flows: Set up key email flows—welcome, post-purchase, "at risk," and abandoned cart—to keep your audience engaged. An "at risk" flow targets customers approaching their predicted next order date but haven't purchased yet. Klaviyo provides a predictive attribute for this, or you can use an average to determine the timing.
- Regular Emails: Aim to send emails three to five times a week. Avoid over-segmenting your list. Keep your core sending pool to engaged subscribers—those who have clicked an email in the last 3-6 months. Focus on educational and brand-related content to keep your list engaged. Remember you’re trying to make sure you’re top of mind when the consumer is ready to purchase.
- Engagement Strategies: Use various subject lines, sending frequencies, and offers to retain subscribers before they churn. Try testing these using Klaviyo’s built-in tools. When your subscribers stop opening and clicking your emails, it’s challenging to re-engage them. Experiment with different subject lines, sending cadences, and offers, targeting interaction points before a user opens an email.
High-Priority Tactics
- Survey Popups: Swap SMS captures for a survey question to learn about key pain points or motivations. Use this data to personalize welcome emails and boost conversions.
- Aggressive Welcome Series: Maximize conversions by sending 2-3 emails within the first 24 hours after a sign-up or purchase. Push the pop-up offer and create urgency, then transition to softer storytelling content.
- Plain Text Emails: Stand out with plain text emails to improve deliverability and encourage responses. They often look more personal and less like marketing, which can increase open and response rates. Plain text emails are also less likely to be flagged as spam and can improve deliverability. Plus, they load faster and are easier to read on mobile devices.
- Targeting New Prospects: Develop content that turns prospects into buyers and keeps new customers engaged. Framework: Prospects and newbies need to know what you can do for them. They don’t care about your Facebook group or exclusive collab. They want to know about your hero product and why it matters. Test best sellers, educational content, or successful paid social landing pages. Above all, make it about them.
Strategies to Optimize Email Marketing
Recency Matters
Your audience's interest can wane quickly. Many prospects lose interest within 24-48 hours, and subscribers disengage after 7-14 days if your content isn't relevant. Subscribers disengage after 7-14 days if content isn't relevant. Keep your content timely and engaging to maintain their attention.
Focus on Your Loyalists
A small segment of your subscribers, typically 20%, generates 80% of your revenue. Cater to this group with personalized content and exclusive offers to maintain their loyalty. Run segmented offers for this group, try content focused on this segment’s frequency or use case.
Constant Acquisition
To keep your email list growing, continuously attract new subscribers with compelling offers, like significant discounts or exciting giveaways. A strong acquisition strategy is vital for long-term success. Boost your opt-ins with compelling offers. Think juicy rebates of 20% or more or exciting giveaways.
Two Approaches to Email Marketing
You can manage your email list in two main ways:
- Advertising Approach: Maximize impressions with product-focused emails and urgency triggers. This might mean sending 5-10 emails weekly to keep your brand top of mind. Brands using this strategy might send 5-10 emails weekly to their entire list, maximizing the chance someone opens, clicks, and converts. Content becomes almost irrelevant.
- Community Approach: Focus on engagement by sending helpful or entertaining content, often in plain text. Strong copywriting can be more effective than flashy designs.
Conclusion
These strategies will help you optimize your email marketing efforts in 2024. For brands with revenue under $30M, focus on customer acquisition and engagement to drive growth. Remember, to fully commit to either strategy, whether it's personalization with strong copywriting or high-frequency sending, ensure alignment with your brand team.
Need help with your email marketing? AccelPay offers complete automation and campaign strategy services, from design to copywriting and implementation. Let us help you succeed. Contact us here to talk to a team member about growth marketing services!
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Braxton Freeman
Grolsch