Thread by @kdlafrance

In the last 65 days, Bombas has sent me 24 emails. 23/24 were 100% product or sales based.

That's roughly one PRODUCT #email every 2.5 days for the last 2 months.

I opened 3/24 (mass opened all today for image) and clicked on 1/23.

This is dangerous.

<thread>

Email marketing is a commodity for DTC brands.

As a solid benchmark: about 30% of #DTC brands revenue should be coming from email marketing.

💸💸💸

If you’re running $10 mil a year in revenue and email is driving 30% (or has the potential to drive 30% of your revenue), that’a $3 million asset. 😱

It needs to be treated as such.

First stop: Protect your list, focus on engagement.

👇

The amount you email a person should be very contingent on how engaged they are with your brand (and your previous emails).

AKA- with an open rate of under 15% and only a SINGLE click over the last 65 days, Bombas should have scaled back their frequency.

Here’s the problem: A lot of brands are sending 1 or 2 email blasts per week, with no real understanding of how the people within that list are engaging with them.

If someone hasn’t been engaging with your emails or your brand, and you’re *still* sending them 1-2 emails/week for the last 30, 60, 90 days, now you’re just spamming them. 👎

You’ve killed any brand equity that customer may have had with you 60 days ago (in this case). 🧦

The solution to this is one many marketers may not like. When we’re held to consistent metric reporting, the idea of scaling back sounds terrifying.

But this is the beauty of engagement segmentation...

If someone HASN’T engaged with you for a while, send fewer emails, instead of more.

If someone hasn’t engaged with a PRODUCT email, but has clicked on a CONTENT-PIECE, add them to a better, slow-nurture flow.

Let's workshop it 👇

Let’s look at two scenarios for a brand who just received a new subscriber (3-month test):

1. Send two product emails a week for 90 days.
2. Send 1-2 emails a month w/ deep content on community, mission, and product-adjacent topics.

For scenario 1:

Let’s pretend someone stayed for the full 90 days.

3 months of this and most people would go “unsubscribe, I’m out” And that’s that.

Your $$ asset (email marketing) just COMPLETELY severed a customer relationship- for no reason.

For scenario 2:

Most customers are going to open that first email, because they still *like* you as a brand.

Then, because you’ve trained them to expect GREAT quality, they’re going to open the next one…. and the next one… aaaaand the next one...

...and now your indispensable asset (email marketing) has just automatically created high brand affinity AND high chance of purchase.

(Not to mention the beginning of a trusting and authentic RELATIONSHIP. Hello, retention, my love.)

If someone hasn’t engaged with you for a while, consider them a high-risk for dumping you.

So instead of amping up contact (aka creeping out your crush by sending 8 unanswered texts)... back off email sends, and create highly targeted flows based on their previous actions.

Engagement doesn’t always mean more communication.

It’s not about sending MORE, it’s about sending better content at the right time, that people actually WANT to engage with.

#DTC brands email lists are an incredible asset. So ask yourself, how do we make sure we protect it?

Remember: Email should be driving somewhere around 30% of your revenue. As you continue to scale, that is going to turn into a multi million dollar asset. 💸

So you must protect it NOW.

👉 Focus on engagement.
👉Personalize the experiences.
👉Protect the relationships that are being built through this power channel.

On that note, I’m sorry Bombas, but this relationship has come to an end. 👋

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@lovevalgeisler this one's gonna make you cringey