#152. Rev Up Your 4th of July Sales with These Email Campaigns | Podcast

Vira: 0:41

Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to Email Einstein, the podcast by Flowium. I’m your host, Vira Sadlak. And today I’m joined by my colleague from Flowium, actually. And guys, today I’m very excited about this podcast because today we will be talking about all things 4th of July. And I’m joined by my colleague, Erik. Erik, say hi.

Erik: 1:04

Hi, I’m Erik.

Vira: 1:05

Yeah, I’m super excited to have you. In fact, you were one of the few American email marketing specialists who we hadn’t had on our podcast yet because majority of our team is now in Canada. So I’m really excited to have you here so you can give us your basically insights on what the real 4th of July is like in the States.

Erik: 1:29

Well, I’m happy to provide that context. I realize that we are a bit outnumbered by you folks up north, but I’m happy to be here and represent the Americans on the team.

Vira: 1:39

Cool. Yeah, because for me, the 4th of July is just like the day Will Smith saved us from aliens. Pretty much like the Independence Day reference. For those of you guys who didn’t watch it.

Erik: 1:50

I mean, it took me until high school to realize that’s not why we celebrate the 4th of July, that there was something else that happened. So, you know.

Vira: 1:57

That’s not a bummer. I mean, we do have our own holiday as well. We have Canada Day on July 1st. It’s big, but I assume it’s not, like, as big as you guys have it in the States. Everything is bigger in the States.

Erik: 2:11

That is true.

Vira: 2:12

Yeah. Erik, before we go to all of the juicy 4th of July stuff, let’s play a little this or that game. I just have this, like, patriotic lightning round of questions for you.

Erik: 2:27

Okay, I’m ready.

Vira: 2:28

Let’s do this. Hot dogs or hamburgers?

Erik: 2:31

Hot dogs.

Vira: 2:32

Fireworks or sparklers?

Erik: 2:34

Ooh, probably sparklers.

Vira: 2:36

Okay, classy, classy. Barbecue or picnic?

Erik: 2:40

Barbecue. I love a grill.

Vira: 2:42

Beach or backyard party?

Erik: 2:44

I think I’ll go backyard party. Again, with the grill, you know, you have to lug it out to the beach. The backyard’s already there.

Vira: 2:50

Okay. Cool. Then my next question, I’m not even sure if I should ask you, grilling or chilling?

Erik: 2:56

Well, is there really a distinction there? I mean, if you’re grilling, you are chilling.

Vira: 3:02

Okay. Okay. Where are you from again? What part of the States are you from?

Erik: 3:05

Originally, I am from Colorado. So, lots of chilling out there.

Vira: 3:10

Okay. I see. That explains a lot. Baseball game or movie marathon?

Erik: 3:16

Ooh, I think I’d go movie marathon. I’ve never been a huge fan of baseball, but it is, you know, it’s that quintessential American experience.

Vira: 3:24

Okay. And the last one, Independence Day, the movie, or Sandlot?

Erik: 3:29

Independence Day, the movie.

Vira: 3:30

Oh, have you seen Sandlot?

Erik: 3:32

I have.

Vira: 3:34

The Sandlot, I guess.

Erik: 3:35

It’s been a while.

Vira: 3:37

It’s so good. I think one of our previous clients, RSVLTS, I’m not sure if you worked with them or not. They basically did this entire thing about what is the most American movie of all time is. They had this huge survey. They asked thousands of people, and turned out that a lot of people think that The Sandlot is actually the most American movie ever created.

Erik: 4:01

Yeah, I can see that. Interesting. Yeah.

Vira: 4:04

Cool. Okay, okay. So let’s start. Let’s discuss all of the 4th of July stuff, like what to send, when to send. I mean, apart from winter powerhouses like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, there are a few holidays on the yearly calendars that Americans look forward to more than the 4th of July weekend. And I mean, it’s not just for the reason of celebration, but also for the reasons of sales. Because I read this number on Klaviyo blog that in last year, in 2020, the holiday celebration dissipated— was anticipated by almost 85% of Americans. And I don’t know what is it with like 85%, but on average, each individual intended to spend approximately$85 on celebration or like during celebration. Does it sound like accurate to you? Do you think these numbers are like somehow accurate?

Erik: 5:01

I can’t speak to the 85%, but for the $85, I can easily hit that getting, you know, the barbecue ready, getting all the food for the cookout. So absolutely.

Vira: 5:12

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Apparently it’s a big holiday, like for e-commerce people as well. For example, Klaviyo’s top performing customers reported that on average, the revenue attributed to their 4th of July email campaigns were$630,000, which is mind-blowing. And additionally, their SMS campaigns generated an average revenue of$36,000 each, which is insane if you think about it.

Erik: 5:43

Those are impressive numbers for sure.

Vira: 5:45

Yeah. But I mean, majority of my clients, for a lot of my clients, 4th of July is also a big deal and definitely one of the biggest sales of the years, especially for those who sell seasonal products, you know, but like, Erik, let’s talk about like segments, who to send to. Is that a good idea to basically bless your entire list with 4th of July promotions? Like, what are you going to be doing this year with your clients? And what’s your sort of like take on that?

Erik: 6:16

Yeah. So like you were just saying, you know, you have clients that are, uh, the 4th of July is really big for them, but segmentation is something that I will always be excited to jump into and talk about. So when you’re thinking about, you know, your brand and who you have in your list, you can really look at who’s in there to decide what sort of content you’re going to send, who to send it to, when to send it. And it all starts with knowing, you know, who you’re speaking to. So when you’re planning your 4th of July emails, you might think, yeah, like, I will send to my entire list. It’s the 4th of July, everybody knows about it, everybody should hear about, you know, the promotions that I’m running. But that’s not—

Vira: 6:53

Mm-hmm.

Erik: 6:54

really the best way to go about it. It is easier, but there can be negative consequences. You know, you can wind up in spam filters, and just— it’s, it’s generally better to make sure that you are segmenting out to send to the right people to protect your sender reputation and to make sure that those messages are received. So when I say segmenting, you know, that means dividing your list up into different groups based on the criteria of those people in those groups, and that allows you to be more targeted and send more personalized messages that are tailored to the right audience. So a few examples, you know, when we’re talking about the 4th of July, you can look at your previous year and segment out people who purchased around the 4th of July in the previous year. That’s a good one. You can also segment people who have purchased from you recently, you know, people that have purchased within the last 3 months, looking at that purchasing behavior. You know, you can kind of figure out what these people might be intending to do, whether they purchased recently, whether they purchased in the— around the of July last year. You can look at people who purchased from you ever or have never purchased, and that can also affect how you send that messaging. Specifically with sales and big promotions, you also always wanna know who your VIPs are. So you can look at people who have spent, you know, a certain amount of money on your store, and those that are purchasing above your store’s average order value, those will be your VIPs, you know, your high rollers. And those are the ones that you really wanna make sure—

Vira: 8:18

Cool.

Erik: 8:19

that when you’re sending out this messaging, when you’re sending out promotions, you know, maybe you’re giving them sort of advance notice because they’re your VIPs and you wanna let them know that they’re special to you. So they’re getting access to your deals before anybody else is.

Vira: 8:31

Mm-hmm.

Erik: 8:32

And you can keep this going, you know, you can look at people who have visited your website and not purchased or viewed a specific product but didn’t make that purchase, and people who, you know, have opened an email, didn’t make that purchase. And all of this allows you to really target what you’re sending, you know, especially if you do have products that are relevant for the 4th of July. having those people that have viewed those products and maybe received emails around them but haven’t purchased, you can really like zero in on them for the 4th of July.

Vira: 9:25

Yeah, yeah, no, that’s huge. And I like how you said that you can actually personalize the entire experience because in fact you can even do— you can even go as far as like personalizing promotions for your customers. Obviously it depends on your overall strategy for 4th of July. But I remember that last year we had this like high rollers. So for those who are high rollers, we offered like a better discount, but with higher minimum order. So they had to spend, say, like, spend like$300 to get 30% off or something like that. So everyone else received just like a flat discount, but it was lower. And VIP people, they received higher because we know that they tend to spend more. Or if you know that there are some people who purchase like multiple times from you, especially if you are like sending, selling, I don’t know, something that is like replenishable goods, like drinks or food or cosmetics. Cosmetic, makeup, stuff like that. If you see that person is constantly coming back for you and purchasing more and more of the same product, maybe it’s a good option to offer them some sort of discounting on your subscribe and save program if you have one. So yeah, you can customize that experience. That’s a very good approach to do that. Although be careful when you are personalizing experience, be careful not to send different offers to the same people. Yeah, so basically be careful with the segmentation. And you can do a lot with all those segments. But the next thing that we wanted to discuss with you guys is like what to send. And actually to help you find like the best 4th of July marketing strategies, we went into our inboxes and selected some of the examples that we liked. Obviously, there will be a lot more this year to discover. So if you want to find some good references, you can always go to Pinterest, go to Klaviyo, go to reallygoodemails.com. That’s my personal favorite resource that I use all the time for the reference. But a common practice is to do some sort of discounting or sales or promotions, stuff like that. Once you segmented your list, think about what you actually want to offer to your customers in your 4th of July emails. Maybe you can offer a discount on their purchase, like a percentage or a dollar discount. Maybe you can do some bundled offers or a bonus, like a free gift with a purchase or exclusive merch with a purchase. Or stuff like that, or some sort of perceived perk like free shipping. Believe it or not, free shipping still converts. It’s still a very hot promo that you can do. And if you’re not sure what will resonate with your audience, dig into data from your previous campaigns to understand what motivates your customers. And you still have a few weeks until 4th of July, so maybe you can even A/B test or split test different promotions just to see what resonates with your customers. I mean, your Independence Day promotions, they shouldn’t be limited to just one email. Ideally, if you are sending like promotion, it should consist of like series of different emails, like announcing the sale and then like few reminders. We’ll definitely talk about it later. But actually, this is like the example that I really like from Helix, the mattress company. They basically announced the sale early, but then they had like a series of like really cool reminders and stuff like that. That. And for them, it performed really well. Also, guys, if you have SMS, don’t waste your time. Make sure that you are going to send a few SMSs around the holiday as well, because this is a very effective way to communicate your promotions to your subscribers. And this is especially effective considering that subscribers, they mostly subscribe to 2 to 3 brands via SMS max, which means that your real estate on that subscriber’s phone is incredibly valuable. I’m not saying that email is not valuable. It is. It’s just in email, when you’re sending an email, you’re competing with so many brands. And when you’re sending SMS, you’re competing only with maybe like 2 to 3 or a few or something. So yeah, send quick SMS. It can even be like literally text without any like images or anything. Just Mention the promotion, the amount of money they can save, the code to use and stuff like that. And it is good to go. And you’ll be very surprised by the amount of revenue you can make with that small text. Whoa, that was a long rant. But you guys, we love a good promo. But there is so much more you can do with emails. And Erik, I know you have a few really cool ideas of what to send this holiday season as well.

Erik: 14:31

Oh, yeah.

Vira: 14:31

Let’s do this.

Erik: 14:33

Yeah. And just real quick, like you were saying with SMS, you know, it’s not necessarily competing with email. You know, it is that high-value real estate, but you can also use it to support and supplement your email marketing strategy. You know, as people are getting a lot of emails around the holiday, that SMS is going to be something that’s a lot more likely to stand out to them. So it can be a complement, not an either-or situation.

Vira: 14:55

Yeah.

Erik: 14:55

But looking at, you know, what sorts of things to promote, you know, you talked about sales. talking about promoting holiday-themed products. You know, if you— I mean, if you have a specifically patriotic brand, that’s pretty easy, but looking at what sorts of products are associated with the holiday, you know, we talked about grilling and chilling. What is a summer barbecue without a refreshing beer, right? So we have this example from Athletic Brewing Company that, you know, shows they really understand the importance of having a cold one at your cookout. In their 4th of July email, They, you know, highlighted this unique mixed 6-pack of their non-alcoholic craft beer that was promoted exclusively during the holidays. So this was only available during the holiday.

Vira: 15:39

Mm-hmm.

Erik: 15:40

And it really tied in, you know, people are thinking about their backyard barbecues, they’re thinking about having a cold refreshing beer. So having this dedicated bundle product where they’re selling these, these beers specifically for the holiday really really helps to tie into the messaging around the holiday and is just a great example for them, from them, of how you can tie in the product to the holiday. You can also tie into, like I said, if you have patriotic products, that’s great, but you can sort of emulate that looking at the themes of the holiday. 4th of July is the American Independence Day. Everybody knows, well, I don’t wanna assume, but I think most people know that we are the red, white, and blue. That’s our colors.

Vira: 16:22

Mm-hmm.

Erik: 16:23

And they are everywhere. around the 4th of July. So, you know, you can use this visual medium, you can use the design and the graphics in your email to tie into that using the red, white, and blue, you know, putting together an effective 4th of July email even if they’re not technically 4th of July products. So—

Vira: 16:41

Right.

Erik: 16:41

We see examples of this with some apparel brands. You know, we looked at Colonel Zebet using their 4th of July email as a medium for sharing an Independence Day mood board that highlighted some holiday-related products.

Vira: 16:53

That’s a popular one.

Erik: 16:54

Yeah.

Vira: 16:54

Yeah.

Erik: 16:55

And, you know, whether you want to dress up or dress down, you can feel confident that you’ll be on theme with this sort of 4th of July content in your emails. Another example from— oh, the word has just left my mind. From fashion brands, from apparel brands. There we go. I was just talking about it. Zappos, right? Shoe store. I think, you know, they’re pretty popular. And they used product placement here with this 4th of July campaign where they took Converse shoes in red, white, and blue colors and sort of arranged them to look like the American flag. And this is—

Vira: 17:33

Oh, typical idea.

Erik: 17:35

I love this image because it works on so many levels. You know, you’ve got the red, white, and blue obviously that immediately evokes the 4th of July, but then the choice of Converse as the shoe, you know, this was a shoe produced exclusively in the USA prior to 2001. And it’s kind of that like classic all-American shoe. They’ve got the Converse All Star, which—

Vira: 17:55

Exactly.

Erik: 17:56

I’ve never actually thought about it. I don’t think it’s like explicitly American All Star, but I see that star and that’s the first thing I think, America.

Vira: 18:05

Yeah, exactly. That’s how you picture Americans. I mean, I’m from Ukraine and that’s how we pictured you guys dressing.

Erik: 18:11

We’re all just walking around in Converse all the time.

Vira: 18:13

Yeah, like Converse and like t-shirts with like big American flags and like jean shorts for some reason. I don’t know. It looks very like ’80s now, when I, when I say that out loud, but that’s how we pictured you guys. And growing up, I always, for some reason, I pictured that America is like, California was America to me. The rest was like, whatever. But when I was thinking about like America, I was thinking about like California and those like school kids driving this like cool convertible cars. I’m like, man, I wanna live in, in USA. USA sounds so cool. But yeah, apparently USA, It’s different for everyone.

Erik: 18:49

I mean, you’re not too far off with the jean shorts. I got to go sort through my closet to make sure that I’ve got all mine ready for the 4th of July.

Vira: 19:02

No. Yeah, I really like that example of Converse. And yeah, it just shows you that you don’t even need to carry that patriotic products, right, to have some sort of 4th of July themed emails. You can just like create the collections with what you have, or you can highlight the products that you already have in stock. I mean, some brands, they do launch like special products around the 4th of July, but even if you don’t have one, that’s totally fine. But if you are a brand that is like USA made, like if you sell USA made products, well, this is definitely a holiday for you guys because it’s a great day to promote your USA made products. Williams-Sonoma, brand that sells premium cooking and entertaining essentials, they actually, in their 4th of July campaign, they specifically decided to focus on made in USA products. And as simple as it looks, they basically had just like an email saying like 20% off American-made favorites, discount code. That’s it. Pretty much very simple email, just like a header, discount code, CTA. Limited time only. And that was a really big campaign to them. The call to action was very clear and it reminded the visitors that they have limited time to save on those USA-made products. Very simple, very to the point, but it’s a great way to promote your products if you are made in America. Yeah. And if you want to stay away from promotions, there are a lot of brands who are just sending this simple celebratory emails. Not every email you send has to be about making a sale, even though, I mean, obviously revenue is a good thing, but sometimes building a relationship with a customer is just as important. And most of the time, a genuine July 4th message can do more good for you or your brand in the long term than any sale will. So even if you’re just holding a 4th of July, if you are not holding 4th of July sale, maybe just send a quick message telling your story or telling about your team and how you guys will be celebrating 4th of July. Or maybe you can tell a story of the brand if it’s somehow related to the holiday. And that’s actually what Vineyard Wines did. They started their brand on the 4th of July. So every 4th of July, they are celebrating it as sort of like a birthday of the brand. So they did this very cute collage with their team team and the pictures from like 20 years ago when they first started. They did this very sweet note from the founder telling the story of the brand and stuff like that. And basically they just wanted to thank their customers for support. And I think emails like this, they do mean a lot to your customers. They build a relationship within the customer and the brand. They put a human face on the brand. So they are really good. Make sure to send those messages once in a while and Yeah, if you don’t want to do the discount code, don’t do it, but just like make sure to connect somehow with your customers on this day.

Erik: 22:28

Yeah, and I love this example. You know, I’m looking at it, the collage of those pictures, it’s just, it feels so like fun and, you know, summertime vibes and the tagline, every day should feel this good. You’re right, there’s no specific promotion in here, but looking at this email, Just, it feels good and I, you know, I can see how effective that would be and it’s such a great opportunity to send something like this if you’re not gonna run a promotion. I also wanna say an example I’ve been seeing a lot of recently actually is, you know, ways to send around the 4th of July without promoting something if it isn’t necessarily related to your brand so much with pet brands. You’re seeing a lot of, you know, emails from pet brands that are, you know, offering helpful tips for keeping your dogs, you know, comfortable during the 4th of July fireworks. So it’s, you know, even if you’re not doing a promotion, if you’re not, you know, really tied into the holiday yourself, there’s still opportunities to reach out around the holiday and provide that connection with your list, you know, providing helpful advice or just a heartfelt message.

Vira: 23:38

Yeah, just like delivering the value, right? I really like that example that you just gave of the pet brands. I remember last year we have this like pet client who sells pet supplements for dogs. And like last year, one of the most successful campaigns that we’ve sent was actually those like calming supplements for puppies because apparently that’s a big issue for dog owners around the 4th of July with all of the fireworks and everything. And it was like literally one of the best performing campaigns for us. It even outperformed the 4th of July sale, believe it or not, just because we provided the value. We provided the instructions on how to use the supplement and like what other ways you can, like, how can you help your pet in like other ways or like what to do and stuff like that. And there are like a ton of ways on how you can deliver the value. Maybe you are, I don’t know, like the Maybe you’re selling drinks or something. I have the client who sells this, like, wellness drinks. Always around the 4th of July, we send this, like, mocktail recipes, like 4th of July wellness mocktail recipes. Or maybe you can send the 4th of July, I don’t know, like outfit tips if you are in the fashion or something. I love this aspect of, like, delivering the value, right? We always try to educate, entertain, or, like, deliver some sort of, like, value to the customer. That’s what email marketing is about.

Erik: 25:02

Yeah, and that’s, I mean, that’s one of my favorite things to do with email marketing because I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in, you know, looking at the returns, you know, the place order rate, the revenue percent, but, you know, the best way to encourage those purchases from your email list is to really connect with your audience and provide that, you know, less monetary value, something that might be more valuable to your customers than it is necessarily to you. But by doing that and fostering that relationship, you get to, you know, really build this rapport with your subscribers and then they are going to be supporters and fans of your brand for a long time.

Vira: 25:39

Totally.

Erik: 25:40

Looking at some more examples, we’ve got just, you know, talking about sort of getting creative with the messaging. You can also look at getting creative with how you tie yourself into the holiday, you know, finding a really unique niche to attach yourself to as a brand. So we’ve got this example from an online apparel brand, Homage, where they decided to associate themselves with hot dog eating competitions for a 4th of July campaign. So every year on the 4th of July in Brooklyn, New York, and this is news to me, but I’m not from New York, but I’m not new to hot dogs. Every 4th of July the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is held in Brooklyn. So this brand, Amaj, what they did is they tied into this hype around the event and they created a hot dog eating champion t-shirt. That is so cool. That just has— it’s this great, like, pretty simple design with a hot dog and big bold hot dog eating champion, and they promoted it in email with a guy that’s just got a big stack of hot dogs in front of him. But on top of that, they also, you know, tied into sort of the culture around the hot dog eating competition. You know, they paid homage with the past champions of hot dog eating competitions, and it kind of like tied it into, you know, this sort of all-American thing that we think of with hot dogs and hot dog eating competitions. And then they threw in an additional 30% off. off, uh, for the t-shirt. Um, and it’s just, it doesn’t immediately read as 4th of July to me, you know, seeing this, but it’s, it’s that quintessentially American. It’s fun. It’s got, you know, all of the right elements, the hot dogs, the celebration of, you know, being the very best. Uh, that’s, that’s, that’s one of our core ideals here in America. Uh, so definitely, I love this example.

Vira: 27:39

Yeah, no, it’s a good one. It’s a good one. And like, like that element of funny in the email, right? The element of humor in the email. It always makes emails better. And yeah, I mean, honestly, every year I look forward to receiving those emails from certain brands like Chubbies because I know that these brands, they will do an amazing job with their emails. And a few years ago, I received this amazing email from Chubbies, and it was, like, I guess, personalized based on location. So I’m in Vancouver, Canada, and when we think of summer and, like, 4th of July or July 1st, we often assume, or people in the rest of the world often assume that hot days and warm nights are like a given. Well, while for most of Americans, it’s typically is the case, for people in Vancouver or Seattle, Seattle, I don’t know, maybe even in Colorado, it’s not necessarily a thing. We have this chill night and stuff like that. And I was really impressed when they actually sent me this email saying, like, summer is different everywhere. It can be hot, it can be cold. Some people spell it with silent G in front of it. And a little birdie told me that your G summer weather isn’t always as hot as in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Rochester, Buffalo, yada, yada, yada. So they basically made this special collection of technical gear for less hot temperatures, and they sent me a specialized promotion for that collection. And honestly, I appreciate it a lot. So they basically did a sale on a sale. So they give me an additional discount to sell that collection. And I think for them, it’s also a great way to move that inventory around. Maybe it’s like an inventory that is being moved a bit more slowly compared to other products. But yeah, I was really impressed with that thoughtfulness, with that personalization and attention to details. And personalizing your email by location is actually a great way to connect with consumers.

Erik: 29:57

Absolutely.

Vira: 29:58

And it’s pretty easy to do as well. So yeah, definitely try that. How are your summers, Erik, in Colorado? I mean, probably that email would work for you guys as well. It really would.

Erik: 30:57

We actually have a joke in Colorado, and I know it’s not originally ours. We can’t claim it because I’ve heard other people say it, but it’s, if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes. Because our summers—

Vira: 31:10

That’s what we say about Vancouver as well.

Erik: 31:13

Yeah. So I know it’s not completely 100% original to Coloradans, but yeah, I’ve had snow in June in Colorado and I’ve had 115 degrees in the same month. Possibly the same year. So, you know, getting this message, especially if it is one of those colder snaps, would just be so— it would resonate so much more than like, feeling hot out there? Put on your shorts and go enjoy the summer breeze. I’m trying to come up with something off the spot, but you get where I’m going with this, you know?

Vira: 31:49

Yeah, no, totally.

Erik: 31:49

Having that target by location It just makes it so much more relevant.

Vira: 31:55

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that’s where segmentation comes in play, right? You can segment based on just like you said, the location based on their previous purchasing behavior based on whether or not they have visited your website. But like we kind of covered it, but the big question is like when to send your 4th of July emails. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Normally, this is just like what I do with my clients. Maybe your clients are different, but we try to start sooner. We start to, we try to start not on the 4th of July or even 2 days before 4th of July, but we try to give VIPs at least like a week notice, or we can try to give them some sort of like early bird sale access, like a week before everyone else does. Or if you are selling some 4th of July specific products, I don’t know, maybe you are in the firework business or you’re selling some drinks or snacks or something, make sure to start promoting it as soon as like, I don’t know, like a month in advance because you want to give your customers enough time to order it and for you to deliver it on time. So normally we send the first campaigns as early bird sale announcement followed by a few reminders. In that reminders, you can maybe talk about your bestsellers and why are they bestsellers and what people like and what people recommend and stuff like that. A few days before the 4th of July, July, we also like to give early bird access to all of the return customers and customers who receive the VIP emails but haven’t purchased or haven’t opened, haven’t engaged with those emails. So basically we give early access to return customers and then we open the sale to everyone else. And with big sales like this one, I like to send at least one email to master list. That’s not something that we recommend doing often. In fact, we hate bombarding people with like the same message. But if that’s your strategy once or twice a year, you can definitely do that. So we will have this like one big promotion that pretty much will go to your entire list minus obviously the people who have been suppressed. And then this email will be followed by a few reminders, 4th of July reminders in the AM reminder. And PM reminder. And then those reminders, again, we can maybe talk about the products, we can highlight specific products, we can give some recommendations or some relevant information and stuff like that. So yeah, try to be creative. Don’t oversend. But at the same time, this is like one of the few times in the year when you can be a little bit more aggressive with your emails because people kind of expect And besides, I don’t think they will be angry with you if they receive this like amazing deal in their inbox. So yeah, make sure to send enough and make sure to deliver some value to your customers’ inboxes as well.

Erik: 35:06

Absolutely. And yeah, on your point about sending to the master list just that one time, you know, that’s whenever I’m asked, can I send to my total list? This, my answer is No. And this is the one exception that I, that I offer, you know, if it’s, if it’s a really big sale, you know, you’re gonna send a lot of emails around that really big sale, and one, one of them can go to your whole list.

Vira: 35:27

Exactly.

Erik: 35:29

And also, like, looking at these reminders, you know, we’ve talked a little bit about SMS. This is also an opportunity for you to incorporate that in, you know, with that, like, last chance reminder as the sale is closing out, you can send an SMS just to make sure that you stand out for those people on your list that have, you know, opted in to be that sort of VIP. You know, you’re one of the 2 to 3 brands that they’ve signed up for that SMS for.

Vira: 35:52

Mm-hmm.

Erik: 35:52

So, if they’ve maybe missed the email, you know, you can send this SMS to anybody who hasn’t opened any of the emails on that last day of the sale and just get that last chance to make sure that they see the offer you’re providing. And if they are, you know, an SMS subscriber, they are inclined to be receptive to that. And then as I go on and, you know, talk about sending those last-minute reminders, we don’t have to stop the celebration, you know, at midnight July 5th. If you have been in America on the 4th of July, you know the celebration does not stop at midnight on July 5th.

Vira: 36:27

Mm-hmm.

Erik: 36:28

That’s when everybody gets home from the, you know, professionally organized firework show and starts lighting them off in their own driveway. So there’s no reason for your, you know, sending strategy to end specifically at that time either. We have a— we got this great example from Honest Brand that they sent on the morning of the 5th of July where, you know, they just presented this pretty simple graphic but effective. It’s the clock is ticking, and it was a GIF that’s like a ticking clock, and they were letting their subscribers know that, you know, they’ve got this sale and it ends tonight. So it’s the day after the 4th of July, but there’s still that urgency, and it’s a great opportunity for them to scoop up people that, you know, maybe they got buried in the inbox because so many people are promoting on the 4th of July, or maybe these people just got busy with their grilling and chilling, and they just didn’t have a chance to shop. So as those subscribers are going back to work, they’re going back to their regularly scheduled programming as it were, they get this last chance with that urgency of the ticking clock.

Vira: 37:35

Wow.

Erik: 37:36

There’s only a few hours left, you can still save. And it’s a great example of how you don’t need to necessarily limit yourself to just the 4th of July and those couple of weeks leading up where you’re doing all that prep. You can do sort of a last chance offer on the day after, or even, you know, the next weekend you can hit people up and say, hey, we had this sale, we thought it was pretty great. We noticed you didn’t, you know, get, get to save. So we opened it for you again. You know, just there’s ways you can, you can keep it going, keep tying into the holiday without it being specifically sending on the day of.

Vira: 38:14

Yeah, no. And it always surprises me like how much revenue this like last minute reminder campaigns or like last chance, the clock is ticking kind of campaigns, how much revenue they generate. It’s insane.

Erik: 38:25

Oh, yeah.

Vira: 38:25

And I mean, I honestly, even though I’m like from the world of marketing, this freaking emails, they do work for me really well. I’m like guilty of—

Erik: 38:34

Don’t you hate that when you just, you look at it and you see exactly what they did and you’re like, I know what you’re trying to do and it’s working.

Vira: 38:40

I know, right? But I also can appreciate the craftsmanship, right? So that’s, that’s what I tell myself anyways. Yeah, no. And, uh, and sometimes we even do basically like a higher discount once the main sale is like over. And if we want to like extend the sale, we can give that like extra discount. But in that case, obviously you need to make sure that you would exclude people who have purchased from you within this like 4th of July promotion already. You don’t want to make them angry.

Erik: 39:15

Yeah. You don’t want that customer satisfaction problem coming up. Everybody’s like, wait a minute, I want this better discount.

Vira: 39:23

Yeah, no, it doesn’t look good. It doesn’t look good. So yeah, it’s a good idea to like extend it. And especially now in the world of marketing, Black Friday is not one day anymore. It’s like a month-long celebration. 4th of July is also not a weekend thing anymore. You can like extend it. And I mean, for God’s sakes, we will be celebrating Christmas in July this year with like all of my clients. On the 25th of July, we’re going to have a big Christmas promotion. Like you can do whatever, like whatever is working for your, for your brand, honestly. But, but be sure to not, not be like too, too aggressive. So just like make it tasteful, you guys.

Erik: 40:01

And make it fun. You know, people—

Vira: 40:03

Yeah, totally.

Erik: 40:04

If you’re, if you’re gonna be in somebody’s inbox, you know, give, give ’em something that they can, they can enjoy receiving.

Vira: 40:10

Totally. Totally. Well, Erik, thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today. It was so fun having you on the podcast.

Erik: 40:19

Yeah, it was, it was great being here. You know, like I said, I’m happy to represent those of us south of the Canadian border. We are few in number, but I’m happy to be here. I had a lot of fun recording with you.

Vira: 40:31

Cool. Awesome. You guys, well, you still have 2 weeks, you guys, to prepare for the 4th of July, which gives you enough time to plan those campaigns, to schedule those campaigns. Start early. If you can start sending tomorrow, start sending tomorrow. It’s always a great idea to basically send different messages to different kind of audiences. And have a great 4th of July, everyone. Uh, we will talk to you next Tuesday. Bye.