The Brand
Mimi and Lula is an award-winning children's accessories brand. Having recognised that email was an underperforming area of their marketing strategy due to lack of time and resource, they came to Eastside Co for support.
Our brief was to help them understand how they could grow their list of subscribers, engage with them more effectively, communicate at key points on the customer journey and increase revenue.
How We Did It
Email Design: The Fundamentals
Our email marketing and brand design team audited the incumbent emails and made recommendations for improvements which we then implemented.
The audit started by recommending the introduction of language and colours to better reflect the personality of the website and brand.
A link panel in the header and footer was suggested to subtly provide shortcuts and help drive traffic into key areas of the website.
Focusing Attention
The old email design didn’t provide enough visual cues to separate the different content areas, and therefore caused the content to appear as one single block. We used the established design of the website to fix this: using the dividing lines, content spacing, colour changes, imagery and type formatting.
We highlighted ways to show off the products more effectively by bringing them to the attention of the viewer. The best approach for this was to give the images more context and show that they are interactive.
Our brand designer also reduced the number of fonts in the emails to 3 - littering emails with too many fonts can create a distracting, disjointed experience.
Next Steps: Implementing New Ideas
Mimi and Lula already had a good sized database to tap into; the next step was using our support to segment and communicate with subscribers effectively for better results.
Our recommendations included implementing ‘re-engagement’ mechanisms like a Customer Winback and a Sunset Flow, to encourage unengaged subscribers to re-engage, and if not, label unengaged profiles as they lapse.
New flows such as a Birthday Flow offers the email subscribers an incentive to shop with the store and buy presents for their child or relatives. By introducing a flow that triggers annually alongside a suite of core flows, email subscribers receive opportunities for engagement all year round.
Keeping It Personal
Segmenting countries with a significant subscriber base such as the UK, US, Europe, and the rest of the world enabled Mimi and Lula to share country-specific offers or messages.
We also proposed an ‘exit intent’ pop-up strategy to deliver the 15% discount incentive helps capture those who are about to leave the site. This may help convert shoppers about to leave the site by offering them a monetary incentive to complete their purchase.
Automated For Efficiency
Automated flows are email sequences triggered by customer behaviour, for example, making a purchase, subscribing, or browsing the site. They are a valuable tool - once they’re set up, they run in the background and help engage subscribers and make sales.
Thanks to the integration with Klaviyo, customer information is available about spending habits and interaction with the brand, which update in real-time and can be used to target active profiles with automated flow messaging.
Welcome Flow
Our recommendation is always to invest time in perfecting this series, as this is statistically the most successful within an account. As the first email many customers will engage with when they learn about a brand, It should be the most impactful, representative of brand aesthetic, ethos and message, with a clear call to action (CTA) or next step for the reader to take. After increasing newsletter signups by 183%, we were able to implement an improved welcome flow to boost revenue by 252%.
Cart Abandonment Flow
This is one of the most important flows for any business. It will upsell any products in your customer’s cart, but will also create an opportunity to encourage buyers with additional incentives. We improved revenue from this flow by 60%.
Browse Abandonment Flow
A nurturing email flow for new and old subscribers alike. The goal of this process is to turn visitors into paying customers by reminding them of the products they’ve browsed on your website, using timely and relevant emails. We were able to improve this sequence to bring more people back to Mimi and Luna.
Customer Winback Flow
This provides an alternative to win back lapsed customers by encouraging them to make a purchase if they haven’t done so in the last 6 months. It also provides an opportunity to implement ‘list cleansing’ activities.
We always recommend varying content within emails and Mimi and Lula was no exception: if there is always a focus on selling products, it can be a turn off for the audience. Nobody likes being sold to.
A better approach is to build ‘credit’ with your audience by sending non-sales content over time to add value, and then occasionally cash in this ‘credit’ you’ve grown, by discussing products or sales when your subscribers will be more receptive to such an offer. This approach helped better engage the audience for improved open rates and more sales.
The results speak for themselves, with a revenue increase of 148%, unique email opens up by 139%, and newsletter signups increased by 183%.
Email, while one of the oldest digital marketing tactics, remains one of the most effective, with an average return of £29 for every £1 spent.
If you’d like to talk to our email marketing team about how we can enhance your email designs, flows, content and strategy to grow subscribers, engagement and sales, contact us today for a chat.
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