How our automations and campaigns helped this beauty brand make an extra 30% during Black Friday Cyber Monday
LED Esthetics
Industry: Health and Beauty Platform: Shopify
About the Brand
LED Esthetics is a brand that provides cutting-edge technology skincare solutions for all skin types.
They're poised to cement their position in the beauty and wellness niches as the primary resource for high-quality and science-backed tools, starting with their flagship product of anti-aging and anti-acne LED-therapy masks.
The Challenge
LED Esthetics signed up for eCom Maniacs BFCM Offer with the following objectives:
- Come up with a comprehensive plan for the BFCM 2021 Sale with offers
- Improve and build on their newly set up flows and update them to adopt the BFCM Strategy;
- Create a robust email campaign plan for the BFCM 2021 Sale using a variety of offers.
What was holding them back:
- The client did not have a clear marketing strategy for BFCM (Sends Cadence, List Cleansing, Sender Domain Warmup, Deliverability Check).
- They were not able to update and customize their Automations and Campaigns for BFCM.
Before BFCM
With eCom Maniacs' retention marketing strategy, the client's revenue KPIs grew by 35% in October for total revenue and 243% for Flows and Campaigns. They, however, have not laid any groundwork to maximize BFCM.
After eCom Maniacs
Despite Email Flows revenue falling 23% and Overall Email revenue falling slightly by 5% in November, Email Campaigns revenue still grew by 136%.
Overall Open Rates (32.2%) and Click Rates (2.41%) all improved compared to October 2021.
LED Esthetics saw list growths from Popups and Footer Email Flows. Popup-EM increased by 86% while Footer-EM also increased by 80%.
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LED Esthetics was off to a good start prior to BFCM when they signed up for our Email Retention Marketing Strategy.
As a result of our work on their email flow and campaign setup, their overall Email Revenue was already up by 243% in October. Total Revenue also increased by 36% from September 2021.
Additionally, their Q4 started strong with a 200% spike in October compared to just 0% in August.
Because of these favorable conditions, we were able to optimize their current setup and support our BFCM strategy.
OUR BFCM PLAYBOOK
• We implemented a Win-Back series to recapture audiences that were previously unengaged.
• We hyped the customer base by sending pre-BFCM Campaigns as early as 3 weeks before the sale.
• We used highly effective CTAs and offers, best-performing subject lines, and preview lines and scheduled these to go at the optimal send time.
Advanced Acquisition Strategy
We used the weeks before the holidays to increase excitement and acquire potential shoppers by using the marketing psychology formula of scarcity, urgency, and a 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” or “Get our guide on how to save for the holidays.”
Offers
Instead of relying on a typical 50% off discount during 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
This email aims to warm up the customer base and prepare them for the BFCM season.
Using a curiosity-provoking headline that mentioned "The Biggest Sale of the Year," we immediately increased customer anticipation and set the mood for the BFCM offer.
Our main copy strategically mentioned that an upcoming email would be sent prior to the BFCM launch date. This primed the customer to await the following email in the series.
Additionally, we encouraged customers to browse the online store in advance and pick out the products they hoped to purchase on BFCM.
Priority List
To play on prospective customers' FOMO, the Early Access opt-in allowed exclusive access to those who signed up 24 hours before Black Friday.
We initially ran a Popup series prior to BFCM. However, upon the client's request, the Popup was deactivated during BFCM. It is possible that this resulted in a 23% decrease in Email Flow Revenue.
Priority Launch
Customers received this sequence one day before the launch, with messaging that reminded them of their wise decision to sign up.
A VIP-only added discount is highlighted in this sequence to emphasize that this is a privileged perk available to only a select group.
As a final touch, we included an expiration date for the VIP discount to encourage immediate action.
Main Launch
The main launch was released on the sale day.
The client's list was segmented according to interest, price sensitivity, customer value, and level of engagement. We prioritized the client's most engaged segments since they were likely to bring the best results.
The email highlights the offer and duration of the sale. For this sequence, we highly recommend showcasing best-selling products.
Social Reminder
This email's purpose is to remind the customers that the sale is ending.
At this stage, we continued to utilize urgency by including 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 notable 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 had 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.
THE RESULT
Email Performance
In total, 23K successful emails were delivered, an increase of 22% from the 18.9K deliveries the previous month.
Overall Deliverability KPIs increased compared to the previous month. Open Rate went from 30.1% to 32.2%, while Click Rate stayed within industry benchmarks at 2.41%.
Despite the 5% decrease in Flow Revenue, Campaign Revenue increased by 136%, or $4.23K.
CONCLUSION
LED Esthetics profited handsomely from the BFCM Sale, improving sales revenue by 30% over October 2021.
Additionally, our BFCM strategy increased email revenue by $4.23K, which can be attributed to the BFCM Email Campaigns.
LED Esthetics earned $92.8K in revenue during BFCM, including $14.9K from email marketing.
Ready to talk strategy?
If you are serious about hitting record-breaking sales with retention marketing, contact us for a strategy call, where we'll share the most effective and advanced strategies we're using.
