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Rant and Rate the new sub show on Seller Sessions
Are email autoresponders worth the effort – a talk with Paul Harvey on email sequences, their importance in garnering reviews and the power of open rates, blacklists and inserts in securing your customer feedback.
- They worked ridiculously well when they started as customers thought Amazon was emailing them and so they always replied
- Now Amazon has put in more restrictions and they are in huge decline
- In Paul’s business now he puts hardly any effort into this marketing
- Danny has seen open rates dropping too over the last year
- Some software will give a Global blacklist and harvest out the people that have opted out of receiving emails
- Some you send will get bounced back and you’re able to setup a local blacklist to stop your emails firing to them
- You want to measure how many emails have gone out and what are the open rates
- Danny’s spoken to his supplier about separating open rates from emails that are ‘undelivered’ – the provider cannot pull this data out so the ‘open rates’ data is basically wrong!
- Let’s say 40 out of 100 have opted out – with a 10% open rate that’s 6 out of 100 that see your mails, and you pay for all 100 emails!
- It’s not the software company’s fault – Amazon has moved the goal posts
- Amazon may phase out the email sequences in the future
- What is going to replace this?
It’s all about the Numbers
- Paul is really anal about his numbers and analysed a lot around this
- Paul has tested a lot of email platforms across countries
- Their numbers for open and blacklist rates are not accurate – could be Amazon’s data that’s causing this
- Wanted exact numbers but can’t get it
- A lot of times when a user is blacklisted – they still get it!!
- Also, a repeat buyer that should not get the email sequence sometimes still get it!!
- Talking to some of these suppliers and asking how long they think emails sequences will continue, they’re pretty honest about the fact it will likely be phased out in the future
Amazon Autoresponders more creative ways
- There might well be other people getting great results from these tools and emails
- What we’re asking is – are there more creative ways to make better use of this?
- How to make better use of better data on blacklists, open rates, etc
Improve only one thing – this is it
- Improve one thing then focus on your SUBJECT LINE
- Build off Amazon like ‘Your Amazon Product is ready”
- It says Amazon and it’s vague on which product so they are forced to click
- Anything with Amazon can work well, maybe even mention coupon codes
- Anything that would make you open an email would likely work
- Focusing on things that are within ToS
- Short as it’s truncated
- Ask a question which helps
- If using emojis – test and make sure they display correctly
- It’s about getting people’s attention
Subject Lines that work
- Subject lines that work?
- Using the customer’s name would be good but some platforms don’t work with names
- reference the product name is the title saying it’s ready – feeds their excitement!
- Any type of question that helps them want to open the mail
Time for Inserts
- We know people use ‘inserts’ in products – how can you tie this in with your email sequence and amazon autoresponders?
- How to close the loop from your product insert to your email sequence
- Use of webkeys, scratch-cards in the product or packaging – gotta trust your customers to scratch it though
- Webkeys are like memory sticks/keys – Danny’s pal has had an 80% activation rate that opens up a website and can have a Facebook Pixel, Unboxing video, Adwords remarketing pixel, etc.
- Downside to webkeys is that people are scared of sticking it into their own computer from a company they don’t know
- Also, Enterprises have this practice completely against their staff rules to insert USB keys they don’t trust
- Being compatible for both Mac and PC is important
- Also, many people work only off iPad and Tablets or phones – so you can print a QR code on they key as well so people can get to your website that way too
- Compatibility you need to make sure it works on all devices
- Cost of newer chips can cost more to produce
- Inspections test are Factory may not highlight problems with travel where the keys are impacted from being on a boat for 6 weeks at sea
- Plus it’s one more thing to test – it can be a pain
Focus is on Reviews
- Main reason behind email sequences is to get reviews – that’s the focus of these
- They were a lot more effective than they are now
- We now need all these keys like webkeys and inserts to get the emails to work
- Paul’s approach has garnered him 2,000 reviews for this product.
- He uses an insert that asks if they want a free product with a web link
- This page then asks if they enjoyed the product and asks for their address to send them a free product
- He then send another email to them saying their free product is on its way and asks them to leave a review if they love the product – might be grey in terms but works well and has done for 3-4 years
- Anker do really well on their inserts with Happy and Sad on each side of the insert to be able to contact them
- This is in ToS and gives you ways to contact them if you’re happy or unhappy – works for on-line and offline stores as an insert
- Anker have done a really good job and work on reverse engineering how these inserts and ways of doing this work
- Relying solely on your email sequences is not a great ideas – you need to build to the future to ensure your open rates
- Inserts: An insert set on top of the box when you open it is 100%, the activation rate will differ
