Founder & CIO
@sendlane
. Former merchant. Email Marketer. Building the unified future of retention marketing for ecommerce (email, sms, reviews, forms)
Obvi unified their email and sms from Klaviyo and Postscript & saw a 137% increase in sales.
- Increased AOV from $184 to $289
- Increased Campaign sales from $37.8K to $89.8K
- Increased Automation sales from $57K to $198K
Here's exactly what they did 👇
Email marketing revenue is estimated to reach almost 11 BILLION dollars by the end of 2023.
Yet, many are still viewing email & SMS as batch and blast, retention-only channels.
Over the last 15+ years, I have worked on my own brands and 100’s of other brands to help them…
Big CHANGES are coming to deliverability in 2024!
In this post, I’ll break down what the new engaged sending update means to you.
Google recently released their updates around major email deliverability changes coming Feb 2024.
There was 3 key items:
1. Authentication: DKIM,…
Wouldn't it be nice if...
- I had unlimited contacts and I only paid for usage of email and sms...
- I could connect MORE than 1 Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or custom stores...
- I had customer service access 24/7/365... with an affordable option to have a dedicated…
It's official.
Sendlane is now Unified Email, SMS & Reviews
With Sendlane Reviews you can:
Collect: How you want to w/full workflow & tagging
Post: On your site or as a widget in multiple views with full settings (mobile and desktop)
Respond: Automatic approvals and automation…
Clicks, not opens.
Conversions come from your PDP, not your email.
Your focus for email.. is to get the CLICK.
Here are 5 ways to focus on your CLICKS (with examples)
1. Sell the sizzle, not the steak.
This starts with the subject line.
If the subject line fails, the…
70% of potential customers will leave your website after adding something to their cart...
Here's the 5 emails (with examples) that are most effective for your abandoned checkout flows: 👇
Email 1: Create FOMO
(Send Within 30 min - 24 hrs of abandonment)
Scarcity emails can…
92% of your DTC customers RELY on online reviews before buying.
That means it's IMPORTANT to not only to get more reviews but create emails that encourage leaving them.
Here are 6 ways (with examples) on how to create a KILLER review collection email👇
1. Show other people’s…
The FIRST email post purchase email is the most important email a customer receives.
Here are the top 7 WAYS 👇 (with examples) on how to make that first email the BEST email post purchase.
1. Say thank you!
Yes.
It still works.
Thank them → Value them → Create a relation…
Your email shouldn’t look like your website…
I spent last week analyzing the 8 well known DTC brands that are doing a great job with great copy with eye catching design:
Here’s what I liked 👇
Brand 1 of 8: BarkBox
I just like their emails because the pics of puppies are…
Over the last 15+ years, I have helped many 7 to 9-figure DTC brands.
I've had one BIG realization.
Many DTC brands are overcomplicating Email/SMS funnels.
Use my simple funnel playbook to scale past $1M+.
(🧵)
In 2024, I can FINALLY focus on the shit I love.
Let me explain.
This past year, I spent the daytime chatting with the community, helping customers with their retention needs, going to events while doing operations, finance and board decks on nights and weekends.
I’ve always…
Happy Sunday to everyone, except my competitors who believe marketers operate and only need support only 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.
We have real people (not bots or AI), available 24/7/365
- For all users - free or paid
- 30 second live chat response time
- Especially on…
In the last 15 years, I’ve consulted 100+ DTC brands.
The no. 1 thing where most DTC brands lose money is on “bad email copywriting”.
Don’t leave millions of sales on the table.
Fix your copywriting with these 7 steps (🧵)
Today officially marks 1 year of going "all in" on social media. 🎉
1 year ago I made a commitment to get engaged on social media, go to every event (live, masterminds, dinners) and contribute to the community with my knowledge.
Over this past year, I have learned so much.…
And fin. 🎤
Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for the support for our first official live event. I hope I delivered you the event of the year.
Big big thank you to
@iamshackelford
and
@caitlinkhutch
and the entire marketing team for delivering the vision. 🙏
See…
It's humbling to know I'm disrupting Goliath...
Currently: I'm spending my Thursday night in Vegas (and last night) watching loom video from our competitor Account Executive who's had "hundreds if not thousands of conversations like this.." on price.
Oh in the video, he shares…
70% of customers want personalized communication.
And for the brand, that starts with strong audience management.
Start with the basics: Prospect, Customers, and VIP's will get you a started..
Here a are 6 ways to evolve your thoughts around segmentation beyond the basics…
"But I have 500,000 people on my entire list"
Here's the most important thing I'm seeing happening right now in market that is affecting email deliverability as we approach the BF/CM rush.
And I'm going to teach you in 5 steps how to prepare and execute on tapping into that…
Over 3 years ago.. I slid into
@ecomchasedimond
’s DM’s. He had just done a
@foundr
course and he saw I had done one recently on advanced email and we nerded out on email. (Fun fact, all 3 of us have done courses for Foundr!)
Over the years we became friends, chatting about…
You can buy a $1.16m plan on our website without talking to us.
Our transparency starts with the ability to see all the prices inclusive of all fees, migrations, overages and services (including carrier fees and short codes)
Because that's what I would have wanted..
We've been using the same OLD playbook for 20+ years 👎
It started as drip campaigns and newsletters and we evolved to targeted campaigns and flows.
The Current, Old Playbook:
- Set up your basic flows on email platform
- Setup your basic flows on sms platform
- Setup your…
Last week Google released their new press release around a major email deliverability update for Feb 2024.
There was 3 learnings:
1. Authentication: DKIM, SPF and DMARC.
2. One Click Unsubscribe
3. Engaged Sending
In this post, I'll break down the Authentication process, how…
I saw the writing on the wall with this one awhile ago.
Klaviyo just rolled out their own agency services.
If it weren’t for agencies, Klaviyo wouldn’t be where they are today.
Now, they’re rolling out their own managed services that’ll essentially compete with all of us…
SMS is too short for cute copy.
Being clever just costs extra credits and often has little to no effect on conversions.
Here's 7 ways (with examples) you can get the most out of your next SMS campaigns 👇
1. Use Power Words
90% of text messages are opened within 3 minutes...…
PSA: iOS17 is around the corner and there's a lot of speculation going on..
With email and sms: you most likely see no affects to your tracking.
Why? Because all links are generally masked by the ESP, which uses it to track and identify, before redirecting to the final link.…
Yo,
@obviceo
! Got your feature request from yesterday - we're on it. 🫡
Also, couldn't help but notice that you're missing out on a killer feature already at your disposal... 👇
Plain text email is a disruptive style gaining popularity in email marketing again. Here's what I've seen since 2013 on plain text marketing:
1. Higher deliverability, spam filter's love it, and high CTR because there is much more readable text!
2. Pattern disruption works as…
When I’m not building Unified email, sms, & reviews..
I pretend I’m a pro poker player by playing the WSOP Main Event. ♠️♥️♣️♦️
(Yes, I’ve cashed a few times..)
This thread nails my excitement of seeing this s1 and feeling like Christmas in Aug, cause seeing the data was like opening a present.
It’s no wonder support and deliverability has suffered- 130,000 smb customers are incredibly hard to support, then layer a top tier customer who…
The most interesting takeaways from the Klaviyo IPO filling, from the perspective of me:
The worlds greatest ecom operator AND TOP TIER KLAVIYO CUSTOMER
Migration Sucks. And we heard that loud and clear.
From migration flows and segments to email warming - making the decision to migrate can cause disruption to your business. And more importantly a financial burden to the bottom line.
Our pricing was designed to be merchant…
ANNOUNCING OUR BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY HOURS.
We're open.
24/7
Just like the other 364 days.
Our Metrics:
Live chat: 30 seconds first response
Email: 15 minute first response
We're ready. 💪
Our forms used to suck. It was the weakest part of our platform.
Over the past 12+ months, we revamped our entire product from the ground up after listening to the market and learning what people need and want.
And today, I'm proud to introduce our brand new Forms!
You can now…
The glow-up is real ✨ Our new & (very much) improved Forms are here!
✅ New customizable layouts—no complex coding required
✅ Collect like a pro w/ multi-step forms, advanced targeting, & geo-location
✅ Leverage in-depth data for higher personalization w/ new questionnaires
Feb 1 - DKIM/DMARC updates
April 1 - We started to see issues (slow roll out)
June 1 - Shit gets serious.
The phased roll out of the deliverability updates for Google, Yahoo, and AOL continue to roll out.
And June 1st is going to be a rough day for many email marketers.
A lot…
Were making the switch to
@Sendlane
at Obvi and day 1 of migration we have a team of 5 people helping us take care of everything from flow migration and integrations to list clean up and segment buildout.
We’re going to be super public about our migration in regards to the good…
Announcing PostPilot’s latest integration,
@Sendlane
. 💥
Soon ecom brands can seamlessly use all the lists and customer segments they’ve built in Sendlane for their direct mail campaigns. SMS, email and direct mail…it’s a threesome made in heaven. 🤩
PSA: this is happening.
And 80% of customers I migrate do not have this done today.
Just remember, you cannot just flip to authentication and “go back to what you were doing.”
It requires a warmup process - you can fail and hurt your warmup and your deliverability…
I’m Lazy.
Ok, not lazy, but i hate doing things that I see can be automated.
@Sendlane
I have a request
Can you allow me to save some emails in here that I always want to test?
Hey
@Sendlane
I've come up with my first feature request lol
Currently, the formatting bar is stationary at the top of the text box but as you write more and scroll down, you have to keep scrolling back up to use any of the font or hyperlink options. Can it follow as we type?
Want to know why
@SeanEcom
's Ridge winning?
Want to know why
@mikebeckhamsm
Simple Modern is winning?
Want to know why
@JasonPanzer
is winning at Hexclad? The Panzerism of the week is 🔥
Honored to host a
@9operators
's live Pod at Commerce Roundtable - San Diego.
Watch it…
Flashback to 2019, we had a wild concept: The Commerce Roundtable.
The idea? Gather the brightest minds in a room, discuss trends, and share what we've learned as Founders, operators, and marketers.
Enter COVID-19, and our roundtable went digital.
Despite the fun, we couldn't…
It's official. Mark your calendar for September 23 & 24.
Commerce Roundtable San Diego is back!
Leading the charge will be our MC
@iamshackelford
- Speaker Submissions: NOW OPEN ON SITE
- Sponsor and Partner Requests: DM's OPEN
- Tickets: NOW AVAILABLE (Current Sendlane…
It's a Labor Day holiday weekend coming up and if your email and sms strategy is simply to select all and blast all weekend with your latest sale.. Or if you simply have no strategy lined up...
Here's what I would do (modify and adjust as you wish)
Thursday 8/31: Afternoon…
PSA: If you are sending images as email (or your agency is) It’s potentially hurting your deliverability.
Let me explain.
You know that fancy thing called AI..everyone's talking about? ISPs like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. use machine learning and algorithms to READ your…
An incredible 4 days with 50+ team members from all over the world in Vail for our 2024 winter team trip.
Alignment ✅
Connection ✅
Fun ✅
Motivated and ready to crush 2024 🚀
As Black Friday Cyber Monday approaches, we're gearing up to offer you extended support coverage!
Our team will be here to assist you every step of the way. Get ready for a smooth BFCM weekend!
Has it only been 4 days since Commerce Roundtable?!
This week I walk in silence, grateful for the incredible week we had and thankful for the community.
I appreciate the supporters, the haters and the lurkers. You all make me better. ❤️
Your email should NOT look like a website
Email is your pre-sell
Sell the sizzle, not the steak
The goal is excite, educate, and ask for the click
And once you get that click…Let your landing page do the rest!
Walked the long way this morn in silence, reflecting on this past year and how grateful I am for everything that has happened.
I appreciate the supporters, the haters and the lurkers.
You all make me better ❤️
4:45am texts. Guess Attentive doesn’t understand quiet hours set by TCPA. Practices like this will get a merchant hit with a huge fine over this. $500-$1500 per text out. (20k list? Do the math.)
Never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd sell out so early...
With just 33 days left to go to Commerce Roundtable Live in San Diego - we are officially sold out of all sponsorship AND we're 70% sold out of brand tickets!
MC:
@iamshackelford
Speakers:
@ecomchasedimond
…
I’m currently getting spam attacked by some faceless account for not having enough diversity in our event and taking my words out of context.
Though it seems others think we did well, we clearly didn’t do well enough.
We’ll keep working on being better 🙂
@thedanielokon
@yojimmykim
ran a masterclass this week. Leadership & team was a mix of all colors / genders / religions / ways of life. Speakers were male & female fairly equally. H/t to them!
Diverse leaders are able to build diverse teams more easily, I've noticed. I've never struggled to…
SO MANY EMAILS....AND SO MANY IN SPAM.
The one common thing I see: Overuse of EMOJIS causing spam flag to go up.
Just cause it's your biggest sale of the day doesn't mean the principles of deliverability don't matter.
Quick basic reminders:
1. Less emoji's
2. Careful…
The biggest mistake I saw for BF/CM in email and sms: Select All - Send.
Stop it.
And if you’re just batching and blasting (email OR sms), or doing the old "90 day active/engaged" segment, then pay attention to this
Great audience management is the FOUNDATION to a good email…
Had to tell a customer, we're not interested in working with them and sent them every dollar back.
We have a no a-hole policy to work at Sendlane. That means customers too.
Life is too short. Be kind. There's literally no reason to be a jerk.
4 days of living together.
From morning till night we ate, planned, connected and celebrated as a team.
As the official 2023 Summer Team retreat comes to an end, I couldn’t be prouder of our team and our bright future ahead.
Thank you to all our amazing team members who’s…
Apparently as a "small company" and there's no way we could do the support that their 1500+ person company can provide.
But we are.
And we're better, by a mile.
Just ask our customers.
The FIRST email post purchase email is the most important email a customer receives.
Think about it.
They've been shopping on your site for days, weeks or even months, browsing, debating, and finally, made a purchase.
And that email often is a COUPON for their next purchase.…
@chrismeadej
Entrepreneurship makes us do crazy things.
I left a $350k a year job in 2008 to start doing this “online thing.”
15 short years later… it’s not bad! 😬
Best of luck to your friend!!
Instead of sending an email campaign and a sms blast to the same audience this weekend:
Try this instead - Send an email and automate a sms 3 hours later to those who clicked (but did not purchase) with an sms to complete the purchase.
Or the other way around!
@dottkhan
I've done this...a couple times. And so have all my founder friends - it's just a mistake we all have to learn.
Because .. "this one will be different."
Nope.
Your email should not look like a website.
Email is your pre-sell. The goal is excite, educate, and ask for the click.
Let your landing page do the rest.
A week of “work in person” for the entire
@Sendlane
team in Oceanside, CA for our Sizzlin’ Summer Extravaganza!
We rented 4 beach houses overlooking the water - where everyone lives together for the 4 days.
Mornings: Collaboration and Work
Afternoons: Connection and Fun
And we…
PSA: We’re seeing a lot of noise from Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Feb 2024 has a lot of changes coming up, but 1 change that went into effect you may not know about is that email providers are sun setting inactive email accounts.
Gmail & Microsoft is closing dormant email…
So stop sending a coupon right after purchase.
Just because their first order has shipped, doesn’t mean you should ask for the next sale.
Instead, slow down to use this time build value, education on the product, instructions, story/brand or mission.
Then ask for the sale!
People don’t buy from your email and sms
Your job as a marketer is to excite and educate the subscriber and get them to click!
Then let your landing page do the selling.
NRF is such an interesting show. (First time for me)
Electronic hangers, shipping and logistics, hologram display cabinets, software, and more
Getting my steps in!
Shopify announced they are deprecating Shopify Reviews.
As a friendly reminder: Reviews are 100% Free at Sendlane, no matter the scale.
You just pay for the email and sms you use to collect it.
And being unified unlocks new marketing potential and features.
It all started 10 years ago...
We were sitting around a table and the 3 of us, were bitchin' and complain' about our ESP's.
They didn't get email.
They didn't understand the power.
They didn't understand what WE needed.
So we put in $10k each a month for months on months to…