#61. Leverage Two-Way Communication With Customers For More Engagement And Sales | Podcast

Vira: 0:16

So today we will be talking about 3 things you need to know about 2-way communication in Klaviyo. Spoiler alert, we will talk both about SMS and email. So that’s going to be a quick episode, but an interesting one.

Alissa: 0:52

Hello. Hello everyone. Welcome to yet another episode of Email Einstein. Vira and Alissa here. We are two email marketers at an email marketing agency called Flowium. We are super passionate about email marketing and because we love what we do, we want to share our insights with you. Flowium is one of the fastest growing email marketing agencies in the world. We specialize in providing a premium full-service e-commerce email marketing experience for all of of our clients, and our service is tailored specifically for your business, and it’s designed to help increase your online retail revenue. We deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment. That’s what we’re all about here at Flowium. And today’s episode is going to be short and sweet.

Vira: 1:36

Vira, take us away. Short and sweet. Let’s try to fit it into like 20 minutes or so. We’re like experimenting with different formats. So spoiler alert, this one will be more like a conversation between two nerdy email marketing writing friends. We want it to be more like informal, yet still educating, educating, educative. English second language. Well, anyways, you guys. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, we will be talking about two-way communication with your customers. And when you’re using email marketing, like to communicate to your audience, you’re not just like trying to sell them stuff, even though most companies are using email primarily to like sell product, but remember that you’re also like building relationship with a customer, right? And any relationship, virtual or like regular relationship with your friends in life, they actually flourish when two parties or like two people engage in dialogue, right? That’s why we believe in two-way communication with your customers. And email communication is actually a great way to let your subscribers know about your brand, about your business and organization. But also it’s also a great opportunity for you to hear back from your customers and to do something with that information. So today we will be talking about 3 things you need to know about 2-way communication in Klaviyo. Spoiler alert, we will talk both about SMS and email. So that’s going to be a quick episode, but an interesting one. So stay tuned.

Alissa: 3:10

Okay, here we go. So the 3 things that you need to know about 2-way communication in Klaviyo. Having the right communication between your brand and your audience is how you create meaningful connections, building your brand’s identity and reputation. Introducing Flowium’s Brand Voice course. Create your voice, tone, and learn how to represent your brand across multiple channels. Find out more at flowium.com/brandvoice. So the very first thing is kind of obvious and it’s kind of common sense, but one of the things that we’ve started to realize is that common sense isn’t always so common. So it feels like this first point needs to be stated, which is you need to make it easy for your subscribers to actually contact you.

Vira: 3:55

Yes. And that’s a big one.

Alissa: 3:57

Like massive. And I think when we business owners or we’re doing marketing for these brands, we think that like, oh, we own this channel and we’re the only ones who should be contacting these people. They should never contact us. And that’s a really bad mindset to have because when you’re communicating with your clients or your customers, you want to make sure that you’re communicating to them and not at them. You’re not talking at them. You’re talking with them and making them part of the conversation. About how you’re going to speak with them, how you’re going to communicate with them, how you’re going to reach them and target them specifically as your audience, how you’re going to better your brand, your products for them, all of that stuff. It’s not possible if you make it impossible for them to contact you. So I get this all the time, Vira, you probably do too. Emails sent from a no-reply address. That—

Vira: 4:43

Oh gosh, yes.

Alissa: 4:46

Gotta take a deep breath here. That is a thing. So annoying. That is so annoying because it makes it seem like what I have to say about my experience with that email or the message is irrelevant to you as the brand who’s sending me that no-reply email. That is not okay. Even if you don’t have the bandwidth or it’s unlikely that you will answer every single customer email that comes through, at least give the customer some level of a platform to respond back to you or say something back to you. The no-reply just doesn’t cut it. And like people like Vira and I who were, yes, we’re in this industry, but even aside from that, as customers of different e-commerce brands, There is nothing more annoying than being told— it’s basically like saying like, okay, I’m going to tell you this thing, but shut up. You can’t say anything back to me. And like, that’s not how it works in real life. Can you imagine if you went to a brick-and-mortar store and the sales associate approached you and they said, hi, I’m going to tell you about all the promotions that we have. Please don’t say anything back to me. I’m going to walk away and you are not allowed to ask me any questions. The customer would walk right out the door. I know I would. I worked in retail. Like, that would not fly in any store.

Vira: 5:55

That’s like what you described, Alissa, is like Ukrainian marketing, like literally that’s how we roll back home. But I totally, I totally agree with you. I see what you’re saying. Yeah.

Alissa: 6:07

It’s just not appropriate. So what you need to do is you need to send your emails from an address that actually accepts replies and it doesn’t have to be your personal one. You don’t need to give like your blood type, your telephone number, your social security number to your customers. That’s a little over the top, but even if you could like set up a shared inbox, from an address from your brand. That’s like marketing@mybrand.com or like customer@mybrand.com, whatever it is. Even if it’s fake, just make sure that your customers can actually reply to something and that you will see it too. Because honestly, the feedback that you’re going to get, yes, you’ll have to filter through it. Yes, there are some crazy people in the world who are going to give you some really random, weird suggestions, but you’re going to get a lot of feedback from real-life people who are receiving your emails in real time that will be useful to you. And it helps you get a pulse check on the people that you’re talking to. So above all else, just make sure that in all of your emails, you are sending from an email address that actually accepts replies. You’re also including the name of your company, which is like kind of just by law, along with a physical address, potentially a phone number if there’s a phone number, making sure that you have your company website on there, links to social media. And if there is some kind of customer service avenue that you have that you can share with customers, include that in every single email because it will save a lot of headache and it will save a lot of lost customers that you will potentially have. So that’s the first one. That’s a good one. It’s obvious, but it’s just do it. Just do it.

Vira: 7:34

Common sense is not that common, right? Yeah, exactly.

Alissa: 7:38

Exactly. Yeah.

Vira: 7:39

My second one is kind of— I’m kind of going to build on what you already said. And the second thing that you need to know about two-way communication in Klaviyo is that you can actually invite two-way communication with each and every email you are sending. If you’re only using this channel as a one-way street to, like, spread your message, blast everyone with information about your company, you are missing out on like a lot of opportunities to engage with your customers, to hear about their journey with your brand and just like to learn more about your brand from their standpoint. Right. So here are some examples of what we did with our clients. And Alissa, maybe you have some more examples. So the welcome email, that’s basically your first point of contact with your new customer. Sometimes we do this. How did you find us kind of email? So the best way to start basically asking the readers the feedback about your brand is the first point of connection. So yes, they will respond to you. They will have this feeling that they are engaging with like a real brand and not like a fake marketing bot. But also you will be getting brownie points from different platforms like Yahoo or Gmail or stuff, because when the system sees that someone is responding to your email, that means that the email is relevant. And in the eyes of those like platforms, it means that you are legit. So your sender’s reputation is going to improve, your open rates will improve, your click-through rates will improve, and eventually your revenue will improve too. So experiment. Do the A/B test for your welcome email. Send the regular email and also do the welcome. How did you find us? And you will see an amazing, amazing feedback, I’m sure. Another one that we are often doing with our clients, and I know Alissa, you did with a lot of your clients, that’s for sure, is share your success story. Guys, you wouldn’t believe how much good feedback and good content and good like user-generated content we receive every time when we send those emails, especially with the brands who are very like mission-driven, you know. So it’s like another type of like the content that we are using, like to foster conversation, to build the community, but also to promote your product as well. Because later on, the same story that the customer send to you, it can be repurposed in your like later campaigns or like your later newsletters. And that’s— I know, Alyssa, that you did it with one of your clients, right? You had the customer stories or something repurposed.

Alissa: 10:10

Yeah. So we were— we’ve been doing like a lady of the month for this brand on a monthly basis. And it’s awesome because now we’ve taken that content and we’re putting it into our pre-purchase, our post-purchase, our exit intent. That’s actually become our exit intent offer now where it’s like, hey, click here to join our community of amazing women. And then the first email features a story from one of the women that we’ve had share their stories too, which is like, it’s a lot of fun. It humanizes the brand a bit more. And like, I think it’s getting better, obviously, but there are a lot of brands who still use these very like thin, beautiful, stunning models who like look like they’re fresh out of a magazine. And even though those images are really pretty, and you can obviously appreciate the beauty of a person who looks like that, it’s not always realistic. And it’s not quite what we all look like. So it’s cool to see like real human faces that are also supporting and really buying into a brand because then you read their stories, you see them and you’re like, like, hey, I kind of look like that person, or yeah, hey, my story is similar to theirs. And it invites you to take part of that brand in the same way that that other person has. So it’s definitely very helpful, very helpful.

Vira: 11:13

It’s super powerful too. I mean, we’ve seen a big spike in conversions after we started using those like real customers’ stories, especially when they show how the product helped them to resolve certain issue or how it like helped them to achieve something. So yeah, it’s amazing content. Another way of utilizing this two-way communication is like literally sending something as simple as email saying like, hey, send us your thoughts, concerns, ideas, and pet peeves. Literally, we’ve done it with our clients before and it works like magic. Another one that I did and it was really successful is that we ask the customers to describe themselves in like 3 words, like what 3 words describe you the best? And that was a successful one because it helped us to basically understand who our client is, how they identify themselves, how they speak, and it helped us to like learn more about them and basically like cater to them even better. So every email communication should have like a link inviting recipients to talk back to you. Like the simple what’s on your mind email can be more powerful than a promotional email sometimes for sure. So definitely, definitely like utilize it. Remember that you are here for the long game. You are building relationships. You are not just like notifying your customers about your brand. You are here to build the long-lasting relationship. So invite two-way communication with every email.

Alissa: 12:39

Yeah, I love that. I like the pet peeves idea too, because it’s very like, what? Like it’s sometimes we think when we’re selling a product, right, that we are resolving a customer pain point when actually we’re resolving another customer pain point that we didn’t even realize was a pain point. So when you get the pet peeves back, you’re like, oh, this might be the angle that I should hit when I talk to my customers. So yeah. I like that concept a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. Okay. This is kind of my favorite one, which is like very shocking, Vira. I know it’s very shocking. I’m like so bought into SMS now. I’m talking to all my clients about it and everything, which is very bizarre, but only like after— this sounds cheesy, but after our podcast interview with Naveen from Klaviyo, their SMS specialist, I was like, okay, I get it now. Now I understand. And really I do. Like, I’m not just saying that like pump anyone’s tires or anything. Like I really do see the value in SMS. It’s not for everyone. And that’s the thing. that you have to determine, but that’s another podcast altogether that you’ll have to go back into the archives to listen to for more info. But so our third and final is don’t use one-way communication on a two-way channel. And that’s specifically talking about SMS. So this phrasing also applies to email, obviously, but specifically with SMS. I don’t know how many of you are receiving this. This is literally driving me nuts. Like sometimes I’m ready to throw my phone on the wall, but I get all these random text messages from these random brands. This is spam. We’re not talking about spam, but when I get those SMS messages or text messages, it makes me so mad. And when I reply and I don’t get a reply back or like a confirmation that I’ve opted out or anything, like I want to like freak out. So this is a really big one. And the nice thing is, is that, so in an SMS platform, so for example, like Klaviyo, I know this is applicable for a lot of other ones too. You can use the SMS marketing feature as a two-way communication with your client. So what happens is you can use SMS conversations is what they call it in Klaviyo, where you basically see incoming texts, but you can also respond. And then based on those conversations that you’re having with your customers, you can now improve the engagement on the existing SMS messages that you’ve already sent because you’re inviting a reply. So with SMS conversations, you have the ability to basically instantly respond to subscribers, which yes, that, that requires a little more maintenance on your part. You probably have to either shift someone’s responsibilities within your company or hire someone to take care of that for you or do it yourself depending on how you like doing things. But it’s the ability to respond to customer text messages is really, really cool because if they’re texting you and they’re like, hey, why are you bothering me? You know, or something like that. ‘Cause people get kind of feisty over text, I’ve noticed. You can respond back and be like, hey, you opted in, but if you want to opt out, just say this. And then so you can directly, listen, it’s not great to lose a subscriber, but also if you’re directly addressing the person and helping them achieve the goal that they have at hand, which in this situation, situation it would be to opt out or unsubscribe, you’re gonna win brownie points. So it’s better to win brownie points letting the customer dictate and do what they want than it is to lose even more brownie points than you’ve probably already lost and have someone finally figure out how to unsubscribe on their own, but now they’re even more mad at you ’cause you made it really hard for them.

Vira: 15:58

Right. So yeah, no, SMS was always like meant to be, right? To rechannel. So that’s native to the platform. I agree with you, Alissa.

Alissa: 16:06

And it’s great because when someone does respond, you can actually see their customer profile and you get context behind who they are, which is really cool. So you’re not just like texting like Susan from Wisconsin and you have no idea like what she is, if she’s bought, what she’s doing, like who she is or anything, but you get that information in Klaviyo, which is really cool. So a few really awesome examples of this kind of two-way communicating with SMS that you can use, right? So when someone abandons a cart, you can actually proactively ask your customer if they have any questions about the items in their cart that you would send kind of in the initial abandoned cart message, which is really cool. When you have a new product, Product announcement. If someone replies, you can invite customers to reply with questions that they may have about the new product, and then you can answer them as they’re coming in, which is super, super cool. Birthday or anniversary discounts. So you can text customers on their birthday or when they place their first purchase, or sorry, the date of their first purchase anniversary to ask if they’d like a discount to celebrate. So you can send a cool like, hey, happy birthday. Like, do you want a discount from us? Because we can hook you up for your birthday or whatever it is, however you want to do it. Order delivery questions. So you can follow up after a customer receives their order and make sure that they’re happy. Do they have any questions? Is there anything there? If they are happy, you could even take that opportunity to ask them for a referral or a review. So it’s really cool because it’s literally direct communication with the customer, but you’re doing it based on actions that they’ve taken and not just bothering them like, hey Susan, you gonna buy again? Are you gonna buy again? Are you gonna buy again? No, do it based on things that they’ve just done. And yes, it may come across as kind of creepy, but we’re kind of past that stage, right? In this digital world of like, it’s not really creepy anymore. It’s kind of expected. So follow up with that high, set the expectation high for your customers and let them know that you’re there to help them, to guide them and to answer any questions that they may have. Yeah. Just make sure that like when something is set up to have a conversation, you are opening the channel for that conversation and not shutting it down on the customer end, because that’s really going to tick some people off. So with That, those are the 3 things you need to know about 2-way communication with your customers. And yeah, short and sweet today.

Vira: 18:14

I love it. Short, sweet, and effective. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I’m sure you learned some new stuff, but if there’s anything else you want us to talk specifically on the podcast, reach out to us. Email to me, email to Alissa, alissa@flowium.com, vira@flowium.com. We want to hear from you. We want to know what what is interesting for you or like to you. Let’s turn it into two-way communication. Yeah, between podcast and you guys. So let’s connect. I love that. And don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. And if you leave us a review, um, you can get socks as well. Free socks.

Alissa: 18:55

Free socks. We just got a— we just got a screenshot of what they look like recently, and I was like, I need 100 pairs of these because they are cool. Not gonna lie.

Vira: 19:04

I don’t know if it’s ethical to leave my podcast a review. Like, I’m the host. Is it ethical? But I really, really want that socks.

Alissa: 19:13

I know, I want a bear. Um, and guys, I think Vira and Alissa are doing amazing. Yeah, right, right, right. I was thinking that. I think I asked Andriy that. I was like, can we leave a review? Will it be weird if it says like, Alissa Taggart? I think Alissa and Vira are doing a great job.

Vira: 19:31

I think Alissa is awesome.

Alissa: 19:37

We have fun here. We really do. Guys, make sure that you tune in next week. We have a very special guest. We’re really excited for this one. We are having Ricky from Saatva Mattresses come on and talk to us a little bit about their business and their email strategy. We’re even more excited because this is a mattress company. So now our usual example is going to come to life. I hope you guys are looking forward to it. We will probably ask him the age-old old socks versus mattress question in the Blitz Q&A. And as I’m sure you can imagine, he will probably answer mattress, but maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll answer socks and we’ll be like, what? But anyways, thanks for listening, you guys. We will see you next week and have a great week.

Vira: 20:21

See you next week.