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I'm an anxious person, but for Q4 efforts on the retention side, I don't get that anxious. It is actually pretty easy to crush Q4 if you’re strategic, calculated, and follow some key steps. I hope this guide remedies anxiety for anyone listening.

Audience check up. Don't ruin your list before the big game. Make your list big, healthy, and strong. Maximum engagement. Maximum inboxing.

If you plan on doing an aggressive sending schedule during Q4, start ramping up your weekly sends slowly now to test the waters. But do it with engaging content.

All the content you know drives the most engagement, fire away. Get people interested. Get people clicking. Be gentle with your segmentation. Don’t try to do anything too crazy right now. If you end up in spam before Q4 you’re screwed.

Know your spam rate in advanced. Run deliverability testing. This report will dictate how aggressive you can safely be.

Send testing. Figure out what times of the day your audience is the most engaged. Know these things well in advance of Q4. Be prepared to adapt though. If you send at peak times, you may get lost in the sea.

Understand your audience. Understand your segments. Now is the time to really hone in on what works. Creative, an effective plan for subject line testing.

Pain point vs USP

% vs $

Product feature vs collection feature

Personal or brandy

Up front or teaser

PLAN CONTENT AS FAR AHEAD AS POSSIBLE. Think ahead. Create contingency. Every send counts right now. Create surplus content alongside the sends you know are guaranteed to go out.

Set targets and plan content around targets. Have extra levers you can pull. Backup emails for specific segments.

Structure your offer so it doesn’t get stale. Ramp it up, spice it up, diversify it.

Product drops

Increasing discount

Gift with purchase

Buy X get Y

Surprises

Get personal with your audience. Experiment with different content formats.

UGC

Founders message

Simple text

Once you hone in on an offer, plan a way to get it into your flows during the Q4 period. Make sure you can adjust it for whatever the ongoing offer is. Maximize revenue.

BONUS TIPS IF YOU WANT TO GO DEEP:

On the topic of flows, this is a really good time to think about your win-back / reactivation flow. All those people that have lost interest in your brand could come back. Ensure your reactivation flow is updated with the STRONGEST possible offer you’ll run during Q4, or even combine offers.

This is a really good time to hone in your post-purchase strategy as well. You know you’ll be selling a lot during this time, we want to reconvert. Ensure you have a merchandise focused post-purchase flow, and also think ahead to future offers. How can you retarget purchases after Q4 or during later sales?

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction

02:30 - Crafting compelling offers for Black Friday and beyond

07:30 - Diversifying content for effective marketing

10:00 - Incorporating offers into your email flows

15:00 - Maximizing reactivation and targeting unengaged audiences

Hashtags:

#EcommerceStrategy #Q4Strategies #BlackFridayOffers #EmailMarketing #RetentionStrategies #DTCPodcast

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Ep 350: Q4 Email Marketing Survival guide with Will from Pilothouse | AKNF

The DTC Podcast

Ep 350: Q4 Email Marketing Survival guide with Will from Pilothouse | AKNF