Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What is Email Marketing?
- Capturing Subscribers: The Welcome Mat Strategy
- Four High-Powered Email Campaigns
- Crafting Email Blasts That Drive Sales
- Enhancing Email Deliverability
- Essential Email Marketing Tools
- Key Email Marketing Metrics
- Finding Inspiration
- Prioritizing Tests for Optimization
- Conclusion
- FAQs
Introduction
Email marketing remains one of the most effective digital marketing strategies to drive sales, build brand loyalty, and engage with customers. Its efficiency is well demonstrated by the success story of AppSumo, a company that grew its email marketing list from 800,000 to over 1.8 million subscribers. By sending carefully crafted emails to a targeted segment, they managed to increase their revenue dramatically from $4,000 to $30,000 per email.
In this blog post, we'll deep dive into the email marketing strategies employed by AppSumo, focusing on practical steps and insights you can implement to similarly boost your own email marketing efforts. Whether you're new to email marketing or looking to optimize your current strategy, this guide will provide valuable insights and actionable tips.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing involves sending emails to a targeted list of subscribers interested in your offerings. Effective email marketing campaigns deliver what subscribers opted in for, including blog posts, product offers, usage instructions, surveys, audience engagement questions, and valuable information.
Capturing Subscribers: The Welcome Mat Strategy
One of the keys to AppSumo's email marketing success was their use of a custom "Welcome Mat" popup, which added 25,000 highly qualified emails to their list. This tactic demonstrates the importance of offering something directly related to your products or services to attract high-quality leads.
Tips for Effective Welcome Mat Implementation:
- Make an offer directly related to your products to attract a highly qualified list of buyers.
- Add display rules to avoid showing the Welcome Mat to existing subscribers, mobile users, and visitors on checkout or pricing pages.
Four High-Powered Email Campaigns
1. Welcome Email Campaign
A personalized welcome email based on the source of the lead can significantly enhance engagement. AppSumo uses a waterfall flow setup that sends custom welcome emails depending on the lead's source, such as webinars or giveaways.
Key Elements of a Welcome Email:
- Personalize the opening line based on the lead source.
- Set expectations by informing subscribers about the frequency and type of emails they will receive.
2. Abandoned Cart Email Campaign
An abandoned cart email campaign aims to re-engage customers who added items to their cart but did not complete the purchase. Sending a reminder within 24 hours can increase the likelihood of conversion.
Best Practices:
- Send an initial email within two hours of cart abandonment.
- Consider a follow-up email at 6, 12, or 24 hours if you don't sell time-limited deals.
3. Past-Purchase Email Campaign
Segment your buyers and send follow-up emails promoting complementary products to enhance sales.
Example Strategy:
- Identify complementary products.
- Send targeted emails to buyers of the initial product, highlighting the benefits of the complementary product.
- Track clickthrough rates to measure the campaign’s success.
4. Re-Engagement Campaign
Segmenting your email list into active and inactive subscribers and sending re-engagement emails to the latter helps maintain a clean and effective list.
Steps to Run a Re-Engagement Campaign:
- Filter your list for subscribers inactive for over 120 days.
- Send an enticing offer or exclusive content to re-engage them.
- Remove subscribers who do not engage with the re-engagement email to preserve your list's quality.
Crafting Email Blasts That Drive Sales
Email blasts can generate significant revenue when done correctly. AppSumo employs a three-part formula:
Formula for Success:
- Subject Line: Create curiosity to encourage opening the email.
- Preheader Text: Summarize the content to draw readers in.
- Call to Action (CTA): Place a clear and compelling CTA in the top third of the email.
Examples of Successful Email Blasts:
- Clothing Products: A 20.3% open rate and $4,516.25 revenue.
- Food Products: A 38.4% open rate and $4,780.93 revenue.
- Health Products: A 13.6% open rate and $2,518.42 revenue.
Enhancing Email Deliverability
Segmenting your email list can greatly improve email deliverability. Sending emails only to active subscribers who have engaged within the past 90 days ensures higher engagement rates and better overall email performance.
Implementation Tip:
- Use email marketing tools to set up active subscriber segments based on recent engagement.
Essential Email Marketing Tools
1. SendCheckIt
A free tool that rates your email subject line to improve open rates by analyzing readability, length, sentiment, and other factors.
2. Litmus
A paid tool that tests your emails across 100+ clients for broken links, missing images, and spam issues, enhancing deliverability and presentation.
Key Email Marketing Metrics
1. Open Rate
Aim for an average open rate of around 20.81%. A significant drop signals a need to adjust your subject lines or sender reputation.
2. Click Rate
The average click rate stands at 2.52%. Monitor this to ensure your email content and CTAs are engaging.
3. Unsubscribe Rate
Maintain an unsubscribe rate below 0.21%. Higher rates may indicate irrelevant content or too frequent emails.
Finding Inspiration
Utilize resources like Really Good Emails to find and legally modify professionally designed emails suitable for your industry.
Prioritizing Tests for Optimization
Running consistent A/B tests to isolate variables can reveal what resonates best with your audience.
High-Priority Tests:
- Subject lines (clever vs. informational).
- Email templates (design, copy length, CTA placement).
- List segmentation (active vs. inactive subscribers).
Conclusion
By leveraging these strategies, you can transform your email marketing efforts, just like AppSumo. Start with capturing high-quality leads, implement proven email campaigns, craft engaging email content, and consistently optimize your strategy using data-driven insights.
FAQs
1. How often should I clean my email list?
It's recommended to run re-engagement campaigns and clean your email list every three months to maintain high deliverability rates.
2. What is a good open rate for emails?
A good open rate varies by industry, but aiming for around 20.81% is a good benchmark across all sectors.
3. How can I improve my email click rate?
Improve your click rate by writing clear, compelling calls to action, segmenting your email list, and ensuring your email design is mobile-friendly.
4. Should I personalize my email subject lines?
Personalizing subject lines can increase open rates. Tailor them with recipient names, interests, or other relevant details.
5. How do I avoid being marked as spam?
Ensure your email content is relevant, avoid spammy words, maintain a clean list by removing inactive subscribers, and test your emails with tools like Litmus.
