Founder of popular Aussie pet brand ST ARGO, Tim, chats with MA about his experience with email marketing and his 1:2:1 strategy.

🎤 MarketingAlec

 

Having built a strong and engaged subscriber list of over 12k in 3 years, Tim explains his technique and top tips for his email marketing strategy. 

MA: When did you start doing email marketing?

TR: Probably started in late 2021. I noticed that we were doing the right thing in collecting emails on our website, but we weren’t doing anything to retain these subscribers or reward them for subscribing. 

MA: How did you learn about email marketing?

TR: I’m definitely self-taught. I get inspiration from replicating what I see from some of the brands that inspire me. Not necessarily within the same industry. I first started out by making it aesthetically what I wanted it to look like. The platform I use is Privy and I have found it helpful in teaching you how to use certain features to learn a bit. Whenever I’m unsure I’ll YouTube something. I’m also a big fan of testing different subject lines and CTAs to see what resonates with our subscribers.

💡 Need help developing your email strategy, but not sure where to start?
This article’s a great read.

MA: And what CTA have you found that works?

TR: For us, it’s finding the right mix of not too sales-y, but also offering value to our VIP list. A great tip to improving your CTR is adding personalization. Find out more on email personalization.

MA: There are so many email app options out there. What led you to Privy?

TR: It was a personal preference at first. I chose it because I don’t like going with the ‘main’ platforms because I know they’re going to be more expensive. And we were starting out really small. So I thought that by choosing a platform that was a bit cheaper, it would be limited, sure, but still achieve what I wanted at the time. I’ve not needed to swap it over since I started using it.

MA: What’s your biggest email marketing tip for someone starting out?

TR: Adopt the rule of 1 promo email, followed by 2 content or interesting emails. The 1:2:1 strategy. If you’re constantly just offering promos, it ‘cheapens’ the brand. But if it’s just fluff and info emails, people lose interest. I’ve found 1:2:1 a good mix.

MA: How often should emails be sent to your subscribers?

TR: I send an email every 5 or 6 days. It keeps it fresh and relevant without overwhelming their inbox or coming across as ‘spammy’. It differs at different times, though. During a sales period, we email subscribers once a day to remind them and encourage clicks.

💡 Find out more about the email marketing strategies to improve engagement.

MA: In your opinion, when is the best time to send an email?

TR: Depends on your industry and customer. For us, it’s Mon-Thurs after 7 pm for AEST (Sydney and Melbourne time).

I know Mail Chimp and other providers have auto-option to send based on audience preference. But I just test different times and look at the open rate over those times – not necessarily the click-through rate (“CTR”) as that has more to do with the content. But the open rate will tell you how active your audience is at that time. It’s all about testing.

MA: The best thing for CTR?

TR: Again, depends on the industry. For us in a consumer, lifestyle goods industry – it’s sales.

MA: What’s something that has worked well or not well for you?

TR: Business owners tend to think that their customers are more engaged than they actually are. Don’t go in with crazy expectations. They’re not interested in just receiving emails about blog after blog. Your business is the most interesting to yourself, not others. You have to provide customers/subscribers with some real value in the email, to retain them. 

MA: What is the top tip for preventing emails from landing in junk/promotions?

TR: Yeah, sometimes they do end up in the promos folder, which really affects the open and click-through rate. Your email can be flagged by Google (Gmail) for a range of reasons. Such as too many emojis, symbols, or percentages in the text. Just check in with this and continue testing. Ending up in promos is not a good place to be for an email as this folder is far less likely to be checked by the subscriber.

MA: Overall, tell us your ‘strategy’ in sending emails.

TR: There are a lot of parallels between socials and email, I’ve found. For example, for Halloween, we sent out an email with dogs dressed as Halloween characters that had really great engagement – measured in clicks to the website. This is something we also posted to socials. So these emails don’t necessarily have to offer value in the monetary sense through a sale or promo code. Giving your audience something includes making them FEEL something. In my experience, and in our industry, humor sells.

💡 Looking for some extra help to transform your email marketing strategy? Tim consults with top US marketing agency, ScaledOn. Check them out & unlock email success for your business.