How a jewelry brand's revenue grew +89% via multi-channel BFCM Strategy
D. Louise
Industry: Jewelry Platform: Shopify
About the Brand
D. Louise is a chic and timeless brand that specializes in creative high-quality and accessible waterproof jewelry for stylish people who want durable and long-lasting jewelry without having to spend a fortune.
Unlike jewelry that tarnishes and goes green after only a few wears, D. Louise guarantees for its pieces to not lose color even when worn daily, in the pool, or at the gym.
D. Louise is likewise passionate about promoting sustainable fashion and offers a lifetime warranty on all pieces.
Any items which have manufacturing defects are then recycled into new products.
The Challenge
This was the very first time for D. Louise to mount a BFCM campaign. This meant that although they had flows in place, none of these were optimized for BFCM.
They availed of eCom Maniac's BFCM Offer to achieve the following goals:
- Optimize their existing flows and update them per the BFCM 2021 Offers Strategy;
- Come up with a comprehensive email campaign strategy for the BFCM 2021 Sale using multiple offers; and
- Leverage the data and insights gathered from existing email flows to convert as many subscribers into paying customers during the biggest sale of the year.
What was holding them back:
The client had only one active Retention Marketing channel: Email.
The client had run campaigns previously, but not on a regular basis and with not so much success.
Before BFCM
Ever since D.Louise engaged our services in September 2021, they've enjoyed the benefits of our Advanced Retention Strategy.
However impressive these wins were, D. Louise's overall email marketing strategy was still not optimized and prepared for BFCM, the biggest retail sale of the year.
After eCom Maniacs
OUR BFCM PLAYBOOK
Our Strategy Breakdown
• Set up Flows that D. Louise had not previously explored, resulting in a more advanced approach.
• Refreshed Flow & Campaign email templates and designed a high-converting website Popup to increase list growth.
• Improved engagement rates through advanced segmentation. This meant ensuring each segment received relevant emails aligned with historical on-site behavior.
Using the engagement KPIs from eCom Maniacs' previous email Flows, we identified a segment to use for BFCM (180 days engaged, comprising 9.8k users).
Our strategy was to re-engage the audience and create excitement about Black Friday through various Campaigns, including a Win-Back Campaign, Testimonials, and a Founder's Story.
Afterward, we followed eCom Maniacs' BFCM strategy, which included first-time SMS Flow and Campaign integration for D. Louise.
SMS Automation and Campaign Integration
The client did not have previous SMS automation.
However, in just a short period, we set up and executed our SMS strategy, generating 244 subscribers; of those, 117 were new.
We were able to get 117 New Subscribers. SMS Campaigns are still an effective marketing channel to supplement the main BFCM campaign.
Advanced Acquisition Strategy
We used the weeks before the holidays to increase excitement and acquire potential shoppers by using scarcity, urgency, and a strategically placed valuable offer.
● Subscribe to Early Access - Targeted VIP customers or net new profiles and asked them to opt-in to receive BFCM discounts before the rest of the regular subscribers.
● Subscribe to SMS - “Join our SMS list and never miss a deal!” or “Join our SMS list for an exclusive BFCM offer!”
● Subscribe to Exclusive Content - For those looking to educate subscribers before the holidays, “Get our healthy holiday cookbook” “Get our guide on how to save for the holidays.”
Offers
Instead of relying on a typical 50% off discount for Black Friday Campaigns, we provided a range of high-value offers that the client could choose from, in accordance with which option would suit their business best:
• Bundle Deals - This offer is best for businesses with multiple SKUs. A bundle is usually comprised of best sellers or a combination of flagship and new products sold as a single package at a collective rate.
• Long-Term Discounts - Instead of discounting products or services for one-off purchases, customers can be encouraged to sign up for a yearly or monthly subscription at a significantly lower price. This forms the basis for various VIP programs.
• BOGO (Buy One, Get One) - A classic, where the customer gets 2 products for the price of 1.
• Holiday Perks - These perks are often cyclical and seasonal in nature. The offers usually go live in time for major holiday events. Some examples include free shipping, free gift wrapping, and guaranteed delivery date.
• Loyalty Perks - Loyalty offers, such as cash-back and rewards points, provide customers with incentives and benefits and may help foster long-lasting B2C relationships. In fact, 78% of buyers are more likely to buy from a company that offers a loyalty program.
• Creative Offers - Offers that are typically customized to the business' production and inventory pipeline schedule. Some examples include "Kick-off the Season Sale," "Early Bird Sale," "VIP Access Sale," and so on.
Here are other types of offer structures you can use for BFCM:
➔ Flat % off
➔ Flat $ off
➔ Tiered % or $ off
➔ Gift With Purchase
➔ Free Shipping
➔ Buy 1 Get 1
➔ Price Change Offer
A Multi-Channel Strategy
eCom Maniacs recommends a multichannel approach to all our clients as it is the most effective way to engage with prospects and maintain top of mind with consumers through various platforms.
What we recommended:
- Warm-up cold traffic in October and early November before the Cost Per Impression (CPM) spikes as BFCM approaches
- Launch primer Campaigns 21 days prior to Black Friday
- Decide on, and roll out, discount Campaigns
- Host offers on a dedicated landing page
The Dedicated Landing Page
A BFCM-dedicated landing page was essential to converting traffic for this project for the following reasons:
- A clear and concise message allowed us to funnel the audience to a page solely focused on a single message/call to action.
- A straightforward UX design helped visitors stay focused on the goal rather than distracted by numerous links leading them away from the page.
- A focused landing page allowed for quick loading time. The average person takes only 3 seconds to decide whether they will remain on a web page and explore its content.
- The targeted focus on the unique selling points helped highlight the offer's key benefits.
- A countdown timer encouraged a sense of urgency and created FOMO (fear of missing out). This tool grabs users' attention and functions as a highly-effective scroll stopper.
- Black Friday weekend is one of the busiest shopping periods. So, capture customers' attention with bold banners showing off your giveaways, offers, and exclusive deals.
The Email Flows
Otherwise known as the bread and butter of the eCom Maniacs BFCM strategy. Our email Flows are designed to deliver persuasive messaging that helps increase audience engagement.
Here's our simple but effective formula:
- A header that highlights seasonal deals
- A template that you can swap out in high volume/high engagement Flows (Welcome, Abandoned Cart, Browse Abandonment, etc.)
- Decreased time delays for Abandonment Flows (from 2 hours → 30 minutes)
- Updated subject lines to call out deals, add urgency, and highlight scarcity
- Countdown timers
- If someone viewed many pages, appeal to their indecision — if you offer gift cards, consider this option for a Browse Abandonment email: “How about a last-minute gift card?”
The eCom Maniacs 6-Step BFCM Sequence
Based on our market research and data insights, we predict that BFCM shopping will kick off earlier and last longer each coming year.
With almost half of all consumers purchasing early, we predict that more and more deals will appear earlier and extend well beyond December 24th.
A quick Google search for “Black Friday 2021” serves up plenty of content offering “early” deals to shoppers, many of whom are eager to get their hands on items that were in short supply in 2021 due to the market disruptions of 2020.
In this regard, we strategized and created a 6-Step BFCM Email Sequence:
The Hype Builder
eCom Maniacs launched “Warm-Up Campaigns," including Testimonials, a Founder's Story, and Win-Back Campaigns to kick off the BCFM strategy.
Win-Back Campaign emails perfectly complement our BFCM strategy as they aim to persuade customers to interact with a brand once again. The Win-Back email can also help improve Open and Click-Through Rates, and provide clients with unique incentives to come back.
We followed the Win-Back series with additional BCFM teasers to build hype. The teasers were released until November 22nd, when the BFCM sale officially began.
Priority List
The BFCM teasers were complemented by an Early Access Popup lead magnet that launched 3 days before the Black Friday sale.
We offered early access to the BFCM sale for D. Louise's customers.
This strategic decision was meant to evoke a prospective customer's FOMO (fear of missing out), as the Early Access opt-in allowed exclusive access to those who signed up a full 24 hours before the main Black Friday sale.
On the back end, eCom Maniacs updated the existing Popup and Abandoned Cart Flows by removing all ongoing discounts.
We did this to make sure of two things:
- That we were still collecting email subscribers with an attractive BFCM offer;
- That we were protecting the client's revenue health by ensuring we weren’t offering unsustainable discount levels, given the incoming BFCM deals.
The Priority List email was scheduled to go out five days before the main event. For this sequence, opt-ins are strongly encouraged.
Priority Launch
This sequence was scheduled to go out a day before the general launch with messaging that reminded the customer of their wise decision to sign up and thanked them for doing so.
More importantly, this sequence highlighted the reward of a VIP-only discount to emphasize that this was an exclusive perk made available only to a select few.
To cap things off, we included an expiration date for the VIP discount to inspire immediate action.
Main Launch
The main launch was released on the sale day.
We segmented D. Louise's list according to interest, price sensitivity, customer value, and level of engagement. In addition, we prioritized the client's most engaged segments since they would likely bring the best results.
This email highlights the offer and the duration of the sale. For this sequence, we highly recommend showcasing best-selling products.
Social Reminder
This email's purpose is to remind customers that the sale is ending.
At this stage, we continued to utilize urgency through the use of a countdown timer. This would provide an extra push that would encourage the customer to take action and participate in the sale if they hadn't yet.
One unique feature of this email sequence is that it also highlights social proof — through testimonials or the power of numbers (or, in this case, how many customers purchased throughout the sale).
Sales Closing
Think of this sequence as a "last call". This final email highlights the sense of urgency on the last day of the sale.
Here, we re-emphasize the discounts, indicate product scarcity, and include positive customer reviews.
Calendar Schedule
eCom Maniacs was able to maximize its BFCM strategy through close collaboration with D. Louise. We adapted our prepared BFCM email Campaigns to fit the promotions planned by the client (See Table 1)
THE RESULTS
New Subscribers
The addition of the Early Access Popup was key to collecting 518 new subscribers.
Email Performance
The Campaign's email KPIs also yielded excellent results, as seen in the increase in Open Rate (+13.21%) and Click Rate (+0.80%).
Email Revenue
There was a decline of 14% in the percentage of Email Revenue from October to November (see Graph 5).
However, Email Flows and Campaigns still generated £49.2K, a 62% increase from October 2021 (See Graph 6).
We speculate that because the client heavily leveraged social media alongside the BFCM strategy, there may have been a number of clients who did not need to rely solely on email to make a purchase decision. This is likely what led to lower Klaviyo attribution in November.
SMS Marketing
We had to be strategic with our use of SMS Campaigns during BFCM.
So, we ran 2 lean, yet effective SMS sends for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Both Campaigns generated 18 orders and yielded an additional $3.8k in revenue (See Graph 7).
CONCLUSION
Our BFCM strategy generated additional revenue of £49.2K as a result of email marketing. This represents a 62% increase over October 2021.
Finally, the integration of an SMS Marketing strategy added another $3.8K revenue for November sales.
With eCom Maniacs' robust BFCM strategy, D. Louise generated a total of £142K in revenue during the BFCM season in November.
This represents an increase of 89% from the previous month and an increase of 857% from last year (November 2020).
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