Every year I tell my Team: BFCM isn’t won on the big weekend, it’s won in the months leading up to it.

Which is why, at Hustler Marketing BFCM starts the first week of August. We take a company-wide two week “Call Free Hustle” at the end of July, which means reduced hours and a break from Zoom. Come August, we’re ready to tackle the busy season with fresh minds and renewed enthusiasm for the months ahead!

Here’s what the ideal lead up to BFCM looks like for us:

August: Progress Without Pressure

August is about crafting BFCM strategies for our clients. Looking at results and trends from last year, checking the change in audience behavior, analyzing every data point we can find. Our Account Managers are busy drafting customized and store personalized strategies, that include timing, angles, number of emails/SMSs, segmentation, design styles, possible offers (even though these usually change a few times before the big day😊). It’s critical to get going this early, for several reasons:

• It pushes clients to start thinking about BFCM early instead of scrambling in October.
• It gives everyone enough time to adjust or completely change the strategy if needed.
• It leaves space to digest, refine, and stress-test the offer before locking it in.
• It gives clarity on supporting assets like landing pages or other things that need to get done.

But most importantly, it gets the ball rolling.

Starting early creates a smooth domino effect. An early strategy means an early to-do list, which means assets are briefed and produced on time. That gives you plenty of room for revisions, early approvals, and final template building. With multiple rounds of checking, any errors are caught well before launch, and the result is “simple”: 1000+ emails flawlessly sent to 115 million recipients.

September: From Strategy to Structure

Once the preliminary strategy is done in August, we discuss it with our clients and agree on the number of additional emails we need to send to achieve the desired outcome. Usually, this happens in September. At this stage we would love to move on to briefings, but one key element is missing, the actual killer offer. In fact, this year the biggest grain of sand in our well-oiled machine was the delay/change in offers.

We are as flexible around this as we can be, but in an ideal world, we have deadlines for certain steps during the BFCM preparation, and we stick to them.  Like Strategy approved, number of emails confirmed, all briefings are done. It’s important to stick to these so the copywriters, designers, and the template specialists have enough time to do their jobs. Without deadlines in place, November would be absolutely overwhelming for the creative Team. 

October: Check, Check, and Check Again

We aim to get all BFCM briefs done before mid-October and spread out the completion dates over the next 30 days. This way, our creative Team is busy but not swamped. We want all templates to be done 2-3 weeks before the sending date to give us enough time to get feedback, do revisions and have time for a few rounds of QA. 3-4 rounds of QA to be exact. 

And here we arrived at the single most important rule of “How to have a fire free BFCM”. 3 different people checking all links, banners, discount codes, copy, and everything that’s on the template. After each stage of development, the creators check his/her own work, that’s obvious. But during a busy period like BFCM it’s easy to make mistakes. Which is why we do 3 rounds of comprehensive checks on every single template.  These are carried out by the Account Manager, their supervisor, as well as the template specialist. This is the key to how we not only survived, but aced the last 4 BFCM seasons.

November: Nothing Left to Chance

Because we really care about quality, our Account Managers atHustler Marketing make use of a “Campaign check list.”This is a simple Google form which is filled out with each campaign scheduled. It has questions about segmentation, settings, subject line checking and so on. It’s not long, but it’s enough to catch the remainder of the mistakes right before sending. Oh yeah and one more important detail: we ALWAYS schedule our campaigns one or more days before Black Friday. The email solution providers can get overwhelmed and become unavailable. If your campaigns are not scheduled, you won’t be able to send them. This has happened before, but thankfully not to us! (Because we preschedule ;)

Well, as I said, that’s the theory. Now, back to reality.

Clients have a million things to do before BFCM, email & SMS are just a small fraction of their worries. This means our deadlines become super fluid. If the strategy cannot be signed off in time, it causes a domino effect of everything else being delayed. Not to mention, when a client changes their mind about the offer or strategy at the beginning of November after everything has already been briefed…

We plan for these changes and the additional workload in advance. Because we have strong systems and processes in place, and because many of our clients adhere to agreed deadlines, we have the capacity to absorb last-minute revisions, edits, or even complete reworks.

BFCM is the high season for digital marketing agencies. The workload will increase and it will be intense whatever you do. The closer we get to BFCM the more tired the Team is, and that’s inevitable, that’s just part of the job. However, if you prepare in advance, set deadlines, try to get your clients to stick to those deadlines, and do your best to give enough time for all different parts of the creative process, it’s manageable. With careful planning and preparation, we’ve succeeded for several years in a row, and all without making any mistakes!

Think again. While thousands of email marketing agencies dot the U.S. landscape, how many boast a truly global team of over 30 account managers? How many have crafted stunning, high-converting emails for more than 65 diverse clients, from local businesses to international powerhouses? And how many, in less than two short years, earned one of just eleven coveted spots on the Klaviyo Partner Advisory Council?

Only Hustler Marketing.

So, why is it exactly that these traits make us a top email marketing agency in the United States? Let’s dive into those three key reasons: our diversity, our portfolio & our results.

Diversity

For us, diversity isn’t just a buzzword, it’s our distinctive imprint. Hustler Marketing’s Account Manager Team is made up of over 30 individuals from different continents and cultures. This means that we have first hand experience selling to several major demographics in the United States. 

But that’s only half the story. Not only are our account managers culturally diverse but so is our outstanding creative team. Our experienced copywriters, designers and translators are based all over the world but with a greater emphasis in North America and Europe. In other words, we know how to speak the language of your target audience, both culturally and literally. 

One perfect example of how our diversity makes us a top email marketing agency in the United States is the phenomenal work we’ve done for Indestructible Shoes. This speciality shoe company sells comfortable and extremely protective footwear for diverse market segments.These include construction workers, chefs, outdoor enthusiasts and even military/security personnel.

Evidently, there is no one magic bullet for all of these segments. They all have different needs, characteristics, preferences, etc. This is precisely where our diversity as a company plays in. By leveraging our company’s collective experiences in so many different niches, we are able to attend to each of these segments effectively. 

But don’t just take my word for it, let’s look at some numbers. 

This past November we raked in over $165,000 with over half coming directly from campaigns. What’s more, we contributed 23% of total revenue for Q3 all while maintaining a healthy 19.3% Open Rate.

While I could write volumes about how we create spectacular emails for our clients I think it would be better to let the art speak for itself.

Our Portfolio

With over 65 clients in numerous market niches, our portfolio is as diverse as our account managers. Although I would love to present them all, let’s just take a look at two of our largest U.S. Based clients

BlendJet

• Market niche: Portable kitchen appliances / health focused

Blendjet 2 Launch

Halloween Blendjet

Jerky

• Market niche: Consumer goods

December Free Shipping

Flavor of the Month 

So now that you have seen our creative work, how are our results? 

Our Results

Many claim to be among the best, but numbers speak. For that reason, let’s look at some numbers that show that Hustler Marketing is a top email marketing campaign service provider in the United States. 

For the month of November we raked in close to 6 million dollars from email, 700k from Black Friday alone. Percentage-wise, that month we contributed 26% of total revenue across all of our clients. For one client in the indoor plant growing niche we even accomplished to drive 70% off all Black Friday revenue through email! 

That’s just one month, we work wonders for our client’s all year round. For a client with no prior email email marketing, we went from $0 to $289,000 a month in a span of less than a year! Check out the full Eternity Modern Success Story here.

For another client in 2019 we raked in over 600k during the Black Friday madness. This year, for the same client we brought in over 800k and increased our revenue contribution by 88%! Check out the full Blendjet Success Story here. 

As you can see, Hustler Marketing is more than just your average email marketing agency. We are a diverse team with experience handling diverse target audiences. We also have a steller in-house design and copywriting team that work wonders for our clients. Finally, we have a proven track record of generating and maintaining substantial revenue for all of our clients, both those with and without previous email marketing. 

In fact, “client love” is one of our busiest internal Slack channels. We love seeing our clients win. And getting recognition for playing our part in that is an amazing bonus. That’s why we’re so excited to be the winners of Best Retention Marketing Agency for EMEA at this year’s Yotpo Partner Awards.

Keep reading to find out how we did it!

What are the Yotpo Partner Awards?

For eCommerce folks, Yotpo hardly needs an introduction. Yotpo is a cloud-based content marketing platform for managing and analyzing user-generate content like reviews, ratings, and photos. Yotpo helps businesses leverage this content to build trust with potential customers, increase online presence, and boost sales.

The Yotpo Partner Awards recognize excellence with Yotpo’s partner ecosystem. These awards spotlight agencies and technology partners for innovative strategies and exceptional performance in multiple categories.

The category we featured in was retention marketing, and the work that helped us net this award was our partnership with Sunwarrior

Sunwarrior: Helping Earth-Conscious Customers to Crush Their Limits

Sunwarrior provides plant-based, earth-friendly supplements that support athletic performance and provide essential nutrients for a holistic self-care regimen. Sunwarrior’s brand combines a youthful, go-getter vibe with a values-driven ethos. That combination has made them a major player in the health and wellness eCommerce space.

In other words: Sunwarrior is the kind of eCommerce brand that marketers love to work with – and we are grateful for the privilege. Hustler Marketing supports Sunwarrior with retention marketing (email & SMS marketing) and UGC ads. Our thriving partnership is what enabled us to bring home this awesome accolade.

Let’s take a deeper look at that partnership and the work that the Hustler Marketing team has done to help Sunwarrior achieve their marketing goals.

Activating a Passive Subscriber Base Through Innovative Retention Marketing Strategies

Sunwarrior was already a successful brand when they approached Hustler Marketing. They had a large subscriber base, but they realized that they were not getting maximum value from it. There was a real opportunity to uncover new revenue through strategic retention marketing.

To make that happen, Hustler Marketing developed a retention marketing plan that included Yotpo’s tools. They leveraged Yotpo SMS for targeted marketing campaigns, and Yotpo Loyalty to enhance post-purchase experiences.

By integrating Yotpo solutions with Hustler Marketing’s creative efforts in this way, they were able to move the needle on Sunwarrior’s retention revenue. The results included a 63% repeat buyer rate – a huge 152% increase – and 344X return on investment from SMS flows. Their highest-performing campaign achieved s 54X ROI.

This multi-faceted collaboration showed exactly what’s possible when you combine cutting-edge eCommerce tools with a team that genuinely cares about a brand’s success.

Full-Service Marketing Solutions: Retention Marketing & UGC Ads

As Sunwarrior super fans, we’re also proud to support this trailblazing brand with UGC ads and ad creatives. Through this service, we help Sunwarrior to expand their reach through paid social media advertising, tapping into hot trends and creating memorable content that engages new audiences and converts more customers.

Reach out to our friendly team to learn more about Hustler Marketing’s award-winning team could do for your brand. Who knows? Our partnership could be the next big thing in eCommerce marketing!

But if you want to run a profitable business and increase conversions, there’s one you want to make sure you never miss: CRO (conversion rate optimization).

CRO is the epitome of the old adage “small changes make a big difference.”

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at:

• What CRO is, and why it’s necessary
• Easy ways to increase conversions that you can begin implementing immediately
• A quick case study on how one company optimized their pop-ups for higher sales

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?

Good question. Let’s start by breaking down CRO’s definition, and more importantly… why it matters.

Conversion Rate Optimization basically means removing all roadblocks from the customer journey that would keep them from a desired action—namely, finishing a sale, signing up for a list, or opting in to a promotion.

In addition to removing friction, we also focus on increasing motivation towards that action. For example, not just removing an annoying pop-up, but also adding testimonials to the home page to increase trust.

As for eCommerce Conversion Rate Optimization, that specifically happens in the digital space. It involves creating an engaging user experience, whether it’s with a pop-up, a landing page, or an entire sales funnel. When done right, it creates an environment that increases revenue—without the need to increase traffic.

Whether you’re looking for a conversion rate optimization consultant, or you’re keen to take on the task yourself, optimizing your conversions means thinking like your customer, and thinking small to think big.

If the social proof isn’t visible, the buttons don’t stand out, objections aren’t handled or benefits shown aren’t relevant to your ICP, it can result in a lost sale. By focusing on these small points, we can “plug the leak in the boat,” and ultimately spend less time and effort on customer acquisition.

In the long term, CRO stretches your marketing dollars further by increasing motivation and showcasing value while reducing friction and anxiety.

And if you’re here for the TL;DR… eCommerce Conversion rate optimization translates to increased sales, better cost-effectiveness, and a smoother user experience. Which means no matter where you’re at in the digital marketing space, it should be top of the to-do list.

How to Increase Conversion Rates With CRO

Just like using a few good keywords doesn’t necessarily land you on the front page of Google, conversion rate optimization is also easier said than done.

That’s why for this article, I called in the help of our resident CRO expert, Carlos Valdivia. After wading through countless A/B Tests, Revamps, Audits, and Focus Groups, he’s come away with tons of invaluable knowledge for exactly what makes a website user experience run smoothly.

Here’s his take on how to score bigger conversions more quickly without having to pay for more traffic.

3 Best Practices From a Conversion Rate Optimization Consultant

1. Increase AOV with Cart Cross-Sells

Cart cross-sells can seem like a small thing, but they can be extremely valuable when trying to increase AOV. Increasing a customer’s AOV doesn’t just save time and effort, it’s essential for building a sustainable, profitable brand. 

This is because a higher AOV means you need fewer customers to make the same amount of money, leading to lower acquisition costs. A classic win-win.

What’s a Cart Cross-Sell (And How to Implement It)

Cart cross-sells are a simple—but highly effective—way to snag impulse buys as a customer moves toward checkout. It involves recommending additional products to customers based on their taste, often in a row of thumbnails under their current selection.

If you’ve ever been reeled in by a “You may also like…” row of suggestions under your Amazon order, then you already know how effective this strategy can be for getting more items into the cart.

According to Carlos, a well-executed cross-sell can significantly increase the total amount customers spend during their shopping journey, as long as you follow these rules:

• Make sure the recommended products add value to what’s already in the cart.
  In jewelry, this could be a complementary item from the same collection. In apparel, a pair of sweatpants to go with a sweatshirt. Or in supplements, it could be a vitamin that improves the effectiveness of the first product.

It’s particularly helpful when you can showcase higher-priced or premium products that customers might not have considered otherwise. By highlighting these items as part of the checkout process, you can introduce customers to options they weren’t even aware of—helping both them and you in the process.

• Secondly, leverage user data and customer insights. If you can analyze their past purchase behavior and understand their preferences, you can personalize your customer’s cross-sell recommendations. This naturally results in a better, more streamlined user experience and a more primed buyer.
  

2. Implement a Post-Purchase Funnel

While attracting visitors to your website is crucial, the journey doesn’t end once a purchase is made. In fact, Carlos recommends including a post-purchase funnel after checkout, since it can significantly impact Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

At first, this might go against logic. Your customer just bought, so should you really push them to buy again? The reality is, though, that customers are actually more likely to buy in the post-purchase phase, because at this point you’ve already answered all their objections and removed the necessary roadblocks.

Which means this presents another opportunity to master the art of the cross-sell.

Cross-Selling in the Post Purchase Funnel

Once your buyer has made it through checkout, that doesn’t have to be the end of the customer journey. In fact, you still have their full attention for a short time, making it a great moment to make them an exclusive offer.

Before your Thank You page, you can include one or two upsells (a complimentary offer that pairs well with what your customer purchased). You can also add a downsell as well (this is a generally cheaper item that’s offered if the first upsell is declined.)

Apps like Reconvert and Aftersell can help you do exactly that.

In terms of copy, make sure to use action words that promote FOMO and motivate them not to miss out.

By strategically recommending complementary items or offering exclusive deals to existing customers, you can capitalize on their recent purchase and encourage them to make additional purchases, thus boosting overall conversion rates and those coveted average order values.

3. Optimize Your Pop-Up Strategy

Pop-ups can be a powerful tool in your eCommerce conversion rate optimization arsenal—nudging visitors into your email list, tempting them to opt into a sale, or urging them take advantage of special offers.

But it’s important to remember that a little can go a long way. When overused or poorly implemented, pop-ups can also disrupt the customer experience and actually hinder conversion rates. 

That’s why it’s crucial to become a pop-up professional. Effective pop-ups strike that delicate balance between capturing a person’s attention and not overwhelming them. While one or two strategically placed pop-ups can engage your visitor and encourage a desired action, bombarding them with a barrage of pop-ups can quickly backfire.

To Pop-Up or Not to Pop-Up: A Quick Case Study

Nobody likes being pelted with pop-ups (that’s why those old pop-up blockers used to be so popular, right?) But that doesn’t mean your customer will mind a few here and there. Especially when they offer a discount or something they’re personally interested in.

Case in point: Carlos recently did a CRO audit for one of our Hustler Marketing clients. In it, they discovered an issue with a certain pop-up that kept, well, popping up.

For some customers, it would appear 3 times throughout their customer journey. This meant that:

1. It was disrupting the customer experience, which increased bounce rates.
2. It was creating confusion and frustration since the discount would only work once.

This point of annoyance wasn’t just upsetting buyers, it was actively chasing some of them away.

When he replaced the pop-up with a clickable icon in the corner of the screen, it removed that friction for the user while keeping the offer available for those that wanted it.

With this simple fix, they saw a 16% increase in revenue from new visitors by the end of the month. That’s proof that small changes go a long way.

You Don’t Have to DIY Your CRO

Optimizing your site or sales funnel for conversions can be a daunting task. If you aren’t sure you want to do it yourself (or if you want to know you’re getting the best advice possible), consider calling in the pros.

Our Conversion Rate Optimization Consultants can help you navigate the rocky road of CRO—and turn it into a smooth path towards higher revenue.

(After all, CRO is all about removing those customer roadblocks.)

To get a headstart on maximizing your profit potential, get in touch with a Conversion Rate Optimization Consultant today.

In this article, we’re taking a deep dive into text only emails:

• What they are, and why they work.
• A plain text email case study.
• Plain text email tips and best practices.

Do Plain Text Emails Really Have a Place in eCommerce Email Marketing?

A plain text email is exactly what it sounds like: no images, no GIFs, no buttons. Also known as “text only”, these emails are simple and straightforward. In the right hands, plain text emails can do wonders for eCommerce store revenue.

The reason is simple. There is something intimate and personal about email as a communication channel. Emails feel like a one-to-one interaction, unlike, say, videos. Plain text emails amplify this effect. They can even bring up to 51% more clicks, under the right circumstances.

These emails are also cost effective and easy to produce. And because they’re light on design elements, they’re easy to read on mobile. That’s perfect for urgent or short communication, like apology emails or personalized offers.

Bonus Points for Deliverability

Another benefit of using plain text emails is the impact on deliverability. Because they have no code or special elements, these messages are less likely to trigger the spam filter or land in the promotions tab, helping deliverability and domain reputation.

Plain Text Email Brings 3X Campaign Revenue for Online Sports Retailer

In July 2023, one of our longstanding sports brands had an interesting problem. Open rates were healthy, but click rates had slumped to an average 0.42% for a few consecutive weeks. Campaigns were generating $3500 on average.

So, they had a great product, a loyal community, and decent revenue. But the Hustler Marketing team knew they could do even better.

The Account Manager responsible for the store decided to experiment with plain text emails. The team crafted a short, direct plain text email with one of the store’s most common discount offers.

There wasn’t anything remarkable about the offer itself – the store regularly offered subscriber discounts like this. But the team thought that putting it in a plain text email could boost lagging click rates.

Emails were scheduled for Sunday afternoon in the recipients’ time zones. This was a calculated risk. In low-competition periods like Sunday afternoon, it’s more likely that readers will open your email. But, it can also irritate them. The Hustler Marketing team took this decision in light of their deep knowledge of the store’s audience.

After carefully segmenting that audience, they hit the send button.

The Results: 300% Boost to Campaign Revenue

The first plain text campaign earned $4550, a 30% increase over the average.

Two weekends later, they repeated the experiment using the same offer. This time, revenue soared to almost $11,000.

The experiment had paid off. With the help of Hustler Marketing team, the brand had discovered a way to bring variety their email marketing strategy and engage certain segments of their audience in a more effective way.

Plain Text Email Best Practices for eCommerce Email Marketing

So how did the team achieve these results using such a simple tool? Let’s explore some strategies for effective text-based campaigns.

If you’re using Klaviyo, it’s pretty simple to set up a plain text email using the platform’s intuitive controls.

But before you hit send, make sure your email has these elements:

Get your list segmentation right: make sure you’re targeting the right email addresses. For example, it’s a good idea to exclude people who have already made a recent purchase.

Add a personal touch: consider signing off with the name of the store owner. You can even use this in the subject line. Make readers feel like you’re communicating directly with them.

Keep it simple: emails should always be easy to read. Make sure the copy is clear, with a straightforward offer that the reader can easily understand. Provide a link and clear call to action.

Make it look good: it’s important to present the email well. Use a font that makes sense for your brand. You can also emphasize important information with colors and different font sizes, and bullet points for an easy read.

Pick the right time to send: as we saw earlier, send time really matter. You may need to A/B test to identify the best day and time. This comes down to understanding the audience and researching their preferences and behaviors.

What Not do Do: Common Plain Text Email Mistakes

You may be worries that sending messages in plain text could make your brand look unprofessional. That’s a legitimate concern.

To avoid compromising your brand image, keep these factors in mind:

• Don’t use plain text for campaigns with many product showcases. For a multi-product showcase, product images are important, so it’s better to go with a designed template.
• Be very clear about the purpose of the email. You don’t want the reader to think that something has gone wrong with your emails. They must understand exactly why you’re communicating in this way.
• Take a consultative approach with your team. Consider testing different text lengths and tonalities to figure out what will work best for your audience. Let your copywriters take the lead here.

Plain Text Email Success: the Right Message, at the Right Time

Knowing how and when to use plain text in email marketing takes experience and deep knowledge of a brand’s audience.

At Hustler Marketing, each Account Manager leads a multi-disciplinary team of email marketing professionals. This pool of world-class talent provides the agility and flexibility it takes to identify and exploit email revenue opportunities.

Check out our case studies to learn more about our solution-oriented approach to eCommerce email challenges. 

When deliverability is low or unstable, sales and revenue suffer. In this article, we’re taking a look at a jewelry eCommerce brand who succeeded in boosting sales by addressing complex email deliverability issues.

About the Store: Leaders in Personalized Jewelry eCommerce

Personalized jewelry is a growing eCommerce vertical, with more and more customers expressing a preference for customized pieces over pre-made ones. Our client is a leader in this space. They provide premium quality pieces that capture personal narratives.

These aren’t spontaneous, low-cost buys; they’re high-value purchases. Because of this, trust is crucial for this brand, as with most jewelry eCommerce brands. For our client, fluctuating email deliverability challenged this trust, limiting the reach of their email channel and posing a risk to both their sales and their hard-earned reputation.

Deliverability Challenges: Reaching the Primary Inbox

The store had fluctuating deliverability for some time. The Hustler Marketing team were well aware of this, and they managed to keep major issues at bay through targeted actions:

• Carefully segmenting the audience
• Avoiding any “spammy” words that might affect reputation
• Adding hidden texts on campaigns to improve text to image ratio 

These strategic measures helped to satisfy Gmail’s algorithm and get campaigns into the primary inbox. But the team also recognized the need for a more permanent solution to improve email deliverability. So, they came together to design a strategy that could finally get the store past these issues.

The Solution: Creative and Technical Teams Come Together to Improve Email Deliverability

This action plan centered on the account’s reputation. At the outset, the team had a transparent conversation with the client. It was important that they understood that the strategy would involve a short term reduction in revenue, followed by a gradual, sustainable increase. In the long term, this tradeoff would be worth it, because it would mean more emails in primary inboxes.

Once everyone was on the same page, the work began in two phases.

Phase 1: Restoring a Solid Email Domain Reputation

The Hustler Marketing team knew that the account’s reputation was the bedrock of future success. So they devised a multi-faceted approach, combining insights from copywriters, designers and Klaviyo experts.

Here were the main actions they took:

Copywriting practices to improve email deliverability:

• Shortening campaigns to be more focused and reader-friendly
• Ensuring campaigns contained a more text-based and informative style
• Meticulously avoiding any language that could trigger spam filters 
• Including more motivational, inspirational and informational style newsletters to build authority and trust

Interactive design elements:

• Interactive content was added to campaigns. For example, asking readers to vote for their favorite products, or adjacent topics like their favorite vacation spots boosted click rates, enhancing account reputation

Technical and strategic fixes:

• Offering promotional discount codes if they replied to emails. This resulted in a high number of replies, delivering a major boost to reputation
• A GlockApps spam test was performed on a weekly basis to track improvements and figure out whether the plan was working

What About a Dedicated Sender Domain?

The team chose not to set up a dedicated sender domain at this time, although this might seem like the obvious quick fix to improve email deliverability. When you set up a dedicated sender domain, it’s important to make sure your reputation is already healthy. If it isn’t, it will be extra hard to achieve that with a new sender domain. Once that more basic problem is solved, it makes sense to start warming up with a new domain.

Using GlockApps, the team was able to regularly check whether emails were reaching inboxes. They could respond quickly to issues that these tests detected.

Phase 2: Combining an Improved Reputation with a New Sender Domain

With the account’s reputation already on the rise, it was time to set up a new sender domain and warm up the list once more. The team began sending only to highly engaged readers. From there, they gradually increased the segments.

Campaign 1 – Super Mega Engaged Segment – No more than 20/30k profiles
Campaign 2 – Same as Campaign 1
Campaigns 3 & 4 – Super engaged, no more than 30/40k profiles
Campaigns 5 & 6 – No more than 50k profiles
Campaigns 7 & 8 – No more than 60k profiles
Campaign 9, – No more than 80k profiles
Campaigns 10 to 19- No more than 100k profiles

They very gradually moved towards more design-heavy campaigns once it became clear that this style was getting more clicks and orders.

At this point, the account’s reputation was much better. But email campaigns were still landing in the “promotions” tab. The Hustler Marketing team wanted to go the extra mile and get them into the “primary” tab. 

Improving Email Deliverability Through Strategic Promotion

To do this, they sent subscribers 3 teaser emails. These emails let the audience know two things:

• A very exciting promotion was coming, SOON
• It would only be live for a limited time
• They would need to move the email to primary to get a notification when the sale began

This was a spam-free, genuinely helpful message that got readers to perform the key action themselves. Of course, the promised sale arrived on time, and it was exciting enough to achieve huge results. 

This really helped finalize the team’s deliverability project. By this time, reputation was in a great place, open rates were stable, click rates were healthy, and the emails were landing in primary.

Revenue Follows Reputation and Improved Email Deliverability

It didn’t take long for email revenue to pick up as the team predicted it would. With more emails and email flows landing where customers would actually see them, the store saw a gradual but healthy uptick in sales from June to September:

Email flows saw a 69% improvement in revenue attributable to email. Campaign-based email revenue grew by 31% in the same period.

Without the long-term vision and expertise behind this strategy, that revenue would have remained out of reach.

Check out our case studies for more expert insights and email marketing toolkits.

When Gain The Edge, one of our client stores that sells socks decided to launch a new product – a white-gold grip variant – our expert account management team, led by Marko, made a recommendation to launch the product with a pre-order option for the first time ever. For this, we had to employ a Shopify app (using a free 30-day trial) that allows pre-orders natively.  This allowed us to create awareness of a soon-to-be-launched product and also test the waters even before the actual product drop and without any additional costs. 

Normally, we would bundle up various products within a single campaign but for this campaign, we only focussed on the new launch. We had a single-point agenda for the campaign. Build up hype for the new product.

But here’s what! The campaign ended up doing more than just building up the hype and fetching revenue beyond any expectations. Here’s how the campaign journey progressed:

Phase 1-  Pre-Order Campaigns

Oct 2nd: First email announcing the pre-order of the limited release socks, fetched 180 orders.

We followed up with 3 more preorder emails, changing up things a little. We also added a few more products in the subsequent emails which also sold quite well proving that new products help not only create awareness for new product but also push up the sales of old products. 

Phase 2 – Post product launch

Oct 16, on the day of the actual launch, we enabled a countdown to stress on the limited-ness of the offer

Again, after launch, we sent more re-sends of the same campaign with minor variations but to the same segments.

Within 3 days of the campaign running, it netted an unprecedented, almost 1% of its entire revenue for the entire month!

Since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, here’s a screengrab from Klaviyo for the actual metrics of the campaigns:

The special part of this campaign was that nearly 75% of the entire revenue from the campaign came from the sale of regular products and rest from the new product launch!

“We personally think that it shows the customer that we are innovating as a brand and not just being a boring one-product brand. It wakes them up and makes them want to purchase more even if they ain’t necessarily [sic] buying the new product that’s dropped”, says the CEO of the brand about the campaign. We couldn’t have expressed it better.

Lessons for ecommerce brands and marketers from this case study:

✅ Do launch new products every once in a while. Once in a month is good. People like brands that keep innovating and keep things exciting.

✅ Rehash old products along with new products as the fresh intake of traffic on new products also helps push sales of old products.

✅ Revisit your vision and brand story and bake it into your emails with every new launch as new audience may be receiving it for the first time.

✅ Campaign resends are not only important but crucial for email marketing success. The average resend fetches 20% more revenue than the original.

✅ Do test out pre-orders for new products as they help you not only build hype, but enable you to test the waters and plan your inventory beforehand.

However, for this international women’s day, decided to take a step back this time, and take the opportunity to move the needle towards a better place and go beyond the lip service.

Should women’s day be relegated to another day of promotions, “women’s day special deals”, bubblegum pink, and all the tropes associated with the day?

Look, we’ll be honest. Email marketing is ultimately geared towards getting more opens, clicks, and getting more sales. But the path to that doesn’t have to be laden with offers and flashy deals. Email marketing offers a unique chance to communicate to your customers in a way no other channel can. Be it crafting beautiful copy with no word limit, (hey Facebook!) or using the email template as a canvas to create art, email marketing is truly an unfettered medium. So why not use it as a force of good, and break the clutter from the usual “50% off” deals all the women are going to be flooded with!

This women’s day, we celebrated women. The famous ones, the non famous ones, the successful ones, the celebrities, the everyone women. Women form the story, the subject, the content, and the message in these emails.

At a time, when feminism has never been as outspoken as before, and marketing is making all the right moves for women.– here’s looking at you dishwasher ads targeted to men– email marketing has an important role to play in forming and changing the narrative for the better. Through this piece, we look at a selection of some the emails we put together for consenting clients that went a little above the pink-themed promotional emails, and celebrated the day with a little more substance.

For Hydr8M8, one of our DTC clients that sells fitness-related products, we designed a newsletter that sought to highlight and elaborate the accomplishments of 8 women across fields and verticals.

In a marked departure from promotional, offer and product-led emails, for another merchandise and clothing store, we highlighted the many facets of women — everyday women – across ages, shapes, skin colour, professions, and personalities.

(And as an aside, this email also serves as a brilliant example of how to create a stunning storyboard using just stock images, without it looking as dead.)

To stay on brand, and yet do a similar celebration of women we should know about, for a sustainability focussed brand, we decided to do a customised list for celebrating notable women environmentalists. This visualisation was done along with complying with the brand’s own unique style of illustration and imagery,

For a women’s fashion brand, we gave the beautiful fashion shots and fancy imagery a break, and honoured the important women who changed the course of history. The email really shone and won as much love from the clients as from the customers – all women.

The women’s day emails weren’t limited to highlighting notable or famous women. We also wanted to celebrate the everyday women. Here in this email for a custom art client, we did that with some evocative copy.  We also went beyond the email to ensure that all the art featured in the women’s day special emails was done by women and featured the female form.

These are but some of the best examples of the nurturing emails we did for women’s day for some of our clients. And by no means, we didn’t do the regular promo and offer led emails for some of our other clients. In the end, email marketing is what a brand makes of it.  Enhancing sales through a promotional offer is desirable, if typical, but bringing about a positive change in the mindset, even if for a day? Coming to an inbox near you.

But let’s rewind a bit and see how we got there.

It’s no secret that Black Friday is the biggest occasion for any ecommerce brand. But this year was doubly special. Buoyed by a push in ecommerce due to the pandemic lockdowns, all the brick & mortal store losses were ecommerce’s gain. And just as Adobe had predicted, this year turned out to be the biggest Black Friday in years.  Shopify reportedly processed $2.4Bn worth of products on Black Friday and the season saw a 76% YoY increase in sales!

For us at Hustler Marketing, we knew that our task was cut out for us, but it was one we were prepared for and then some.

Preparations for Black Friday had started months before the event, with our account managers, strategists and creatives going into overdrives on the clients’ Black Friday campaign strategy for the big week. Meetings with clients fleshed out the campaign direction, the offers, and the creatives. We even pushed out educational content on Black Friday email marketing strategies and design best practices on our blog. This was also one of the longest BFCM seasons as Black Friday promotions started as early as Nov 12 and went on for a few days after.

Our team worked day and night strategizing, planning, designing, adapting and delivering campaigns through the whole week.

Here’s just a glimpse of what went behind ONE campaign, courtesy a round of appreciation for some of our rockstars at Hustler who made amazing results happen for Blendjet and another client.

Needless to say, our designers rose to the occasion. What’s a great Black Friday campaign if not for showcasing some of the best of promotional email designs? Here’s just a couple.

And now the results:

1. Email Marketing fetched a revenue of $5,871,773 or $5.87 million across our 50 clients

The overall store revenue for the clients was $22 million so essentially email marketing drove 26% of the overall store revenue across 50 clients including the ones that did not do campaigns.

The Email Revenue for the same stores in October was $2.47 million, meaning the email revenue contributed a boost of over 137% increase during the Black Friday month.

2. Blendjet, one of our clients who had made $600k from the Black Friday month last year beat their own record clocking $805,204 in email marketing revenue with $461,893 coming in from campaigns and $343,311 from flows this time round. Their email contribution went up to 16%, an increase of over 88% compared to last year.

3. One of our clients in the indoor plant growing niche, recorded 71% of their total revenue from email marketing in the cyber week alone.

4. Between Nov 20-30, our top 25 clients had a sales trajectory that looked like this:

Highlights:

• The revenue starts to go up gradually right from Nov 22 (the Tuesday before Black Friday)
• The top client had a total revenue of almost $100K on Black Friday with $30k contributed by email marketing alone. That means without email, that $30k was lost!
• The Revenue jumps to over 100% on Nov 27 – Black Friday.
• Revenue comes down slightly on the Saturday and Sunday following but still remains above average
• Cyber Monday (Nov 30) sees as much spike in revenue as Black Friday (even though the campaign contribution is a bit lower.)

5. Between Nov 23-30 or the Cyber Week, here’s how the Flows And Campaign Emails panned out.

Highlights:

• While on normal days, Flows (automated emails) perform better than Campaigns, on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Campaigns drove over 50% of the email revenue and almost 25% of the overall revenue.
• Campaigns continue to remain strong due to a strong push on extended BF campaigns

6. Revenue numbers breakup by total store revenue vs email revenue alone on Black Friday and Cyber Monday alone

Highlights

• Email drove 34% and 30% of overall revenue on Black Friday and Cyber Monday respectively.
• Campaigns drove almost 3x revenue that of Flows on Black Friday while they drove a little over 2x of Flows.

All in all, to say it was a big month for ecommerce is an understatement. That Email Marketing drove an average of 26% of the stores’ revenue during such a big month, specially with other paid and organic promotions running on social media, search and display etc. is no mean feat.

We are proud we helped our clients achieve an extra $5.8 million or 3x of their regular email revenue during this crucial month at no extra cost to them. But really, it’s client love like this that really motivates us to do what we do and hustle just that much harder.

If you want to see your store or a store you know achieve similar results from email marketing,  hit us up or book a call for a free consulting session.

Wish you a great Holiday Season ahead!