These Vegan YouTubers Turned Entrepreneurs Solved Discount Emails
How an unlikely couple figured out customer segmentation and made over half a million through email.?
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If your inbox has looked anything like mine these past few weeks, it’s been loaded with “THIS IS THE YEAR’S BIGGEST SALE” and “U DON’T WANT 2 MISS THIS :).”
But honestly, every time another brand pings me with a discount code, all I can think is, Guess they’re getting desperate.
To be fair, these are desperate times.
ECommerce retail sales took a nosedive last month, at which point brands began a race to the bottom--blasting out mass discounts to any email address they’d collected in the past decade.
Fashion brands have sent out so many discount codes that conversion rates for retail sites are actually higher than they were this time last year, even though average order value has remained constant.
What does that mean?
It means that brands are talking past consumers.
Let’s take a look at a brand that doesn’t.
They’re called Annmarie Gianni Skin Care and they were founded by rogue vegans/ budding YouTube stars Kevin and Annmarie Gianni in 2008.
The couple started their skin care line after literally taking their show on the road, when they set off on a years-long, cross-continental trip in an RV powered by vegetable oil.
But their brand didn’t really take off until they implemented segmentation, grouping customers by sets of criteria to personalize their online shopping journeys.
This is how two vigilante health vloggers made over $600k in one year.
RENEGADE HEALTH
The Giannis’ Renegade Health Show is a decade ahead of its time: Kevin and Annmarie investigate the best natural care products and practices as they travel across the country.
As the Renegade Health Show picked up a following, viewers kept asking Annmarie about her skincare regimen. The couple looked through the ingredients on Annmarie’s products. Imagine their horror when they couldn’t pronounce a single one.
Kevin and Annmarie decided to take matters in their own hands. They found an herbalist named Bunnie in Arizona, whose skincare products felt “alive, with a palpable energetic vibration.” They teamed up, but business really started moving years later, when Annmarie and Kevin enhanced their email marketing.
77 AUTOMATIONS (BUT A CLICK AIN’T ONE)
Annmarie and Kevin created 77 automators based on different customer criteria, including past products ordered, time elapsed since last purchase, and predicted purchase date.
“My goal was to eliminate cold, impersonal batch and blast emails, and use automation to send pre-defined messages to give customers a better, more customized experience as they went through the purchase cycle,” stated Kevin.
Kevin and Annmarie segmented their customers based on chosen criteria, then sent them messages specific to their shopping journeys. Their emails’ open rate saw a sharp increase.
Their post-purchase emails, sent to customers who had just made a purchase, included coupons tailored to the number of items the customer had ordered. Shoppers who purchased over five items got a special loyalty email that included an exclusive price discount and an opportunity to share their skincare journey on the Annmarie Skin Care blog.
Customers who purchased a certain number of products received a price discount on their birthday and a note expressing Annmarie’s gratitude. (The click-through rate on these suckers? 32%.)
Email might feel like the dinosaur of the digital age, but it’s still around because it works. While these personalized emails look a little dated, they generate more engagement than glossy Instagram ads because they’re uniquely targeted.
After a year of using their email automators, Annmarie Gianni Skin Care made over $600,000--a 350% increase in business.
BYE, BYE, BATCH-AND-BLAST
Sure, everyone loves a sale. But not everyone wants to shop one right now. So hone in on the customers who will take advantage of your discounts, not the ones who will use your discounts to take advantage of you.
A batch-and-blast discount reeks of desperation--it’s like a guy on the street trying to sell you tickets to his comedy show, or perfume for a girlfriend you don’t have.
That’s why segmentation and personalization are absolutely key to using discount emails wisely. So find your inner rogue vegan and learn to automate; it just might make your sales worthwhile.
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