Part III of the SSU course covers email marketing strategies, and explores how to boost wine sales with effective messaging, content, and tools related to email.
3. Easy to measure
It’s easy to track performance, do A/B testing, see
what works and what doesn’t.
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4. A top sales channel
Email should be a top source of traffic and sales on
ecommerce websites
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5. Email assists other channels
Email may not always get credit for the final
purchase, but it will usually be a top traffic channel
for assisted conversions.
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6. Listbuilding tips – make it obvious
Include a mailing list signup prompt on every page,
in an obvious place where people will see it.
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8. Listbuilding tips - offer an incentive
Give visitors a reason to sign up for your mailing list,
like a one-time discount or free tasting for two.
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9. Listbuilding tips – pay employees
Offer tasting room staff .50 cents per email they
collect
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10. How one winery grew their list 500%
http://www.mikemeisner.com/blog/featured/how-one-wineryincreased-mailing-list-500-percent/
11. More listbuilding ideas
Attend pouring events, and require people to sign up
to your mailing list.
Create promos and contests, require entry through
email signup.
Consider what gets you to offer up your email?
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14. Welcome campaign with resources
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Links to top selling wines
Interview with winemaker
Quick tips
Wine club 20% discount (not
shown here)
• Upcoming events
• Social media links
• Upcoming promotions and
invitations to exclusive events
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15. Welcome email with nothing
No images. No logo. Just plain
text. Missed opportunity for a
good first impression.
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16. Frequency
Consistency
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Stick to a deployment schedule (weekly, bi-weekly,
monthly)
Mix informational emails with promotional ones
Don’t be afraid to turn it up during the busy season or
other times of year when you can take advantage of a
promo
18. Segmentation
Content is King. Segmentation is Queen.
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Varietal preferences (Special offer on Reds)
Locals (Come to our next event)
Order history (We’ve missed you)
Club join date (One year anniversary together)
Credit card set to expire (Update your profile)
20. A/B Testing
Use split testing
to send slightly
different
versions of an
email to one
half of your list.
Compare
results.
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21. A/B testing - response
Test basic elements
such as:
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Cart discount vs. free
shipping
Subject lines
Placement of call to
action buttons
Using company name
vs. personal name in
“from” line
23. Rendering tips
Width of the creative does not exceed 600 pixels
Structure the creative with <table>'s, Do not float <div>'s
to position anything
Use inline CSS to style your fonts versus basic HTML;
i.e. span style =“” vs. font face = “”
Don’t use a <body> tag to set a background color. Wrap
a 100% table around the creative and set it's bgcolor
instead.
Define the height & width of your images within your
<img> tags.
Do not use the <style> tag within the <head> tag.
Do not use <p> tags. If you would like to specify line
breaks, do so using <br />
Use Premailer to clean formatting and HTML
http://premailer.dialect.ca/
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24. Spam and mailing lists
SPAM – unsolicited bulk email
Do not buy email lists. End of story.
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25. Avoid common pitfalls
Their email offered 25% off their 2009 Zinfandel, with
50% off to wine club members. However, both the link
from the email and the site itself offered 50% off to
EVERYONE.
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26. Avoid common pitfalls
Offered a discount of 25% plus free shipping on a
selection of wines. But the cart did not offer the free
shipping. This was true for any amount, though the
test order was for a case.
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27. Always be testing
• Other errors include a winery that sent an email offering 15% off on a newly
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released $40 Cabernet. But the Buy link brought you only to the home page of the
winery that was featuring a different Cabernet, at $100, with no discount. The user
had to search the site to get the wine advertised and discounted. They should have
used a landing page.
A winery sent an offer for 20% off all wines. The link took you to their list of wines,
but only showed the regular prices and gave only their established discounts of 5%
and 10% depending on quantity ordered.
One multi-brand owner sent a separate email for each of its brands. Each email
showed the wines of one promoted brand, but the buy button went to just one
winery, presumably the email they created first, and forgot to change the link.
One winery offered a “today only!” sale. Except the wines were not on sale when the
email arrived. When contacted, the winery said “We thought the email would arrive
the next day.”
Another winery promised free shipping on a case order, but neglected to limit that to
ground shipments. A customer could place an order for free priority overnight. If
these orders are automatically processed, it’s a money-losing proposition.
So check your work! Send it to a co-worker who did not work on that email.
Whoever spent time creating the email will usually not spot the errors.
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28. On writing
80% of people will read your headline, but only a
small fraction will continue
Use “Power Words”
Mix up your greetings
Keep it short
Call to action above the fold
Use deadlines to sell
Include numbers in the subject
Be personal, “Your are not alone”
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30. Summary
Focus on building list.
Set up a decent welcome email.
Split test subject lines, content, calls to action.
Mix informative with promos and offers
Check for mistakes
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31. Resources
A/B Testing
7 myths about email marketing
How A/B split testing works
A/B split testing
Subject line testing scenarios
Exposure
Winerymailinglists.com
Wineberserkers.com
Services
Try a cart abandonment campaign
free for 30 days
Email marketing audit
http://www.litmus.com
http://www.mailchimp.com
Formatting
Premailer. The preflight check for
HTML emails
Copywriting
37 tips for writing emails that get opened, read, and
Data/Analytics
clicked
Email marketing dashboard for
Subject line strategies to increase open rates
Google Analytics
The Perfect Subject Line
Landing Pages
The anatomy of a high converting
landing page
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