Shopify Sellers Beware! The 3 Email Strategies You REALLY Need — Sergey Sapelnyk | Importance of Mobile-friendly Emails for DTC Brands, Structuring Emails for Mobile Readability, Crafting Clear and Effective CTA's, Optimal Email Frequency (#336)

In this episode, we discuss how to boost your store’s revenue with effective email marketing strategies. 

Joining us is Sergey Sapelnyk, Co-owner of bedfordmarketing.co and founder of two successful eCommerce brands, Society Socks and Pearly Drinks. Sergey shares actionable tips on optimizing your email campaigns, improving mobile responsiveness, and increasing customer engagement. 

Whether you’re new to email marketing or looking to refine your strategy, this episode offers valuable insights to help grow your online business. 

Topics discussed in this episode:  

• Why mobile responsiveness is crucial for email marketing success in DTC brands 
• How to structure emails for optimal readability on mobile devices 
• What common mistakes DTC brands make with their email marketing strategies 
• How to create clear and effective call-to-actions (CTAs) in marketing emails 
• Why the frequency of email sends should increase as your business grows 
• What optimal email sending frequencies are for different business revenue levels 
• How to effectively use pop-ups to build your email list without annoying customers 

Links & Resources 

Website: https://www.bedfordmarketing.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergeysapelnyk/
X/Twitter: https://x.com/BallinFil


Get access to more free resources by visiting the show notes at
https://t.ly/T4rjK 

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Transcript

Welcome to the eCommerce Coffee Break podcast. Today's episode we talk about how to boost your store's revenue with simple email marketing strategies. Joining me on the show is Sergey Sapelnyk, co owner at Bedford Marketing. co. So let's dive right into it. 

This is the eCommerce Coffee Break. A top rated Shopify growth podcast dedicated to Shopify merchants.

And business owners looking to grow their online stores. Learn how to survive in the fast changing ecommerce world with your host Claus Lauter, and get marketing advice you can't find on Google. Welcome. Welcome to the show. 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the ecommerce Coffee Break podcast.

Today we want to talk about email marketing strategies and simple strategies to help you boost your revenue. Joining me on the show today is Sergey Sapelnyk. He is the current co owner of bedfordmarketing.co. And he also founded two successful e commerce brands, Society Socks and Pearly Drinks. Sagi specializes in helping brand spools grow through email marketing, especially in today's challenging landscape with platforms like meta ads and TikTok shops.

He's here today to share actionable tips that you can use right away to improve your email marketing and grow your business. So let's dive in and welcome him to the show. Hi, how are you today? 

Great. Great. The loud of applause is crazy. It's really loud. Hopefully people, uh, in the car, listening to this podcast are clapping along as well.

I hope so too. So let's dive right into email marketing. I'm a big fan of email marketing for 20 plus years and, um, specifically with DTC brands, it's always. It's a big opportunity there, but it's not always easy. What's your take on what are the biggest challenges and the biggest mistakes that you see when it comes to email marketing for TTC brands?

Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. So for some context, I send Some call it 80 million plus emails a year. So I've seen all types of emails, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm heavily entrenched in, in the space and I still see so much opportunity. I mean, email has been around for decades now and there's still a long way to go.

I think, and there's a lot of money being left on the table by DTC brands. So I'm going to go through a list in no particular order of where I would focus on if I was a DTC brand. So first and foremost, I would say. Just making your emails more visual, easy to read, and so on just goes such a long way.

Just thinking about the basics, you know, as they say, kiss, keep it simple, stupid, frankly, is something that a lot of brands, you know, should be following. Now, in terms of tactical changes in that area that I would focus on. First and foremost, mobile responsiveness. I mean, most people just like you and I class open their emails on phones, you know, as high as 70, 80 percent of emails that I send, depending on the brand or opened on phone.

So just make sure that you're building emails for that. I mean, A lot of brands send an email. You can't really read what's going on, uh, on the phone and the person just closes the email. So just being very clear from that standpoint and beyond that, just making sure that the hierarchy that you're following in your email is, you know, basically following basic U.

I. U. X. Principles. You're going from a headline. Transitioning to a sub headline, having clear call to actions and so on and so forth. So that the eye follows, you know, what story you're trying to tell me. And then finally, I would say avoiding extremely long paragraphs, because if you're a DTC brand, you know, no one really cares about the massive paragraph.

You're going to, you're going to send me people are visual creatures. They just want the pants, the underwear, the makeup that you're selling. Uh, and typically, unless you have something amazing to say, I would stay away from longer paragraphs. So that's the first bucket is. being more visual, simpler, and, and, and just easier to read.

I just want to dive a little bit deeper into the email, the mobile view of email. I think that's particularly important. You said that 70, 80 percent are opening on mobile devices. Um, and you said there's sometimes problems that people just cannot read it. It's either too long, or they put text and graphic or whatever.

What would be a structure from your side? For mobile first to, to get it right from scratch. 

Yeah. Yeah, certainly. So to get it right from scratch, I guess two, two directions you could take it. So first I see a lot of DTC brands, the way they send emails is they just insert like JPEGs or PNGs into an email.

Uh, and a lot of the more sophisticated email clients or email software, it's like Klaviyo, for example, allow you to upload mobile and desktop specific images. So if you're the brand that says. That sends blocks like that. I would just make sure you have mobile images with bigger text. Now, if you're a brand that said sends the actual almost like plain text or HTML emails, I would just bump up the size and don't worry about email about fonts looking too big on desktop.

A lot of these builders also are dynamic when it comes to desktop versus mobile. So just make sure that You're bumping up that size. And ultimately what I suggest everyone always does is send yourself a preview. You will instantly be able to see, is this too small or too big or not? And you'll be able to suss that out.

Yeah. I think that's a great tip. Um, I know you should never send anything out before you haven't tested it and maybe also give it to your colleagues to proofread for typos and different devices, not only your phone, um, other devices as well. And then only then hit the send button. Um, I have probably made any.

Every mistake that's in the book over the, over the years, and I have been very, very particular on testing before I hit the send button. Cool. Um, dive into the structure and let me know a little bit more about it. 

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So beyond that, what I typically like to focus on and fix and with a lot of brands that I start working with is just having cleaner and clear call to actions.

So first and foremost, making your CTAs look like actual buttons goes a long way. Consumers are better. Such, you know, quick distracted animals at this point, you know, we have messages firing at us from, from all angles, just having a button that looks like a button goes a long way, making sure it's big and easy to find in the email.

Now, beyond that, um, kind of a, a pro level tip that I would give is making sure that the story that you're telling in your email Leads into the button. So the example that I always love to share is just naturally guide the person. So if you're selling, let's say a hair loss product, and you're talking about the problem, Oh, you're losing hair.

We know you want your hair to grow back. I would make a call to action, test something like grow back your hair. Now here's how to grow back your hair, whatever, tie it to the story. And I can guarantee you're your clicker through rate is going to go through the roof. 

Great tip there. So you said sending emails and people get far too many emails and as a brand, obviously you want to communicate as much as possible with your client.

What's the, the frequency of emails that you're sending out? Is there any kind of guideline there or what's your experience? 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, um, Class, you probably have a variety of, you know, business builders from, you know, different run rates, uh, listening to the podcast. So I'll talk about the different tiers and how I think about it.

So if your business is doing, let's say under a hundred thousand dollars a month in run rate, I would say at minimum. Aim to have at least one email every single week. So, you know, even if your business is doing 000 a month, and you're just starting out, make sure you're nurturing that list. Because the last thing that you want to do is for people to forget about you and for you to come back in a year when you're doing 200, 000 a month.

And for your email lists. They're just not cared. Uh, and I see that happen very, very often. Now, uh, don't take the list for granted, but also, you know, make sure you're nurturing these people right away. And it doesn't have to be complicated. You know, I said previously, don't send massive paragraphs in an email.

It's okay to send a simple email with a couple of sentences and just a simple image that you designed in Canva. That's totally fine. Just, just follow the basic principles and tell a nice story. Now, if you're, let's say, a story. Above 100, 000 in run rate up to maybe 200, 000, 400, 000 a month, I would say at minimum, you should be sending two emails a week.

And if you're not sending that many emails, you are probably leaving a lot of run rate on the table. And then if you're above the threshold of, You know, let's say roughly 500, 000 a month in revenue. I would say send at least five emails a week, if not more, because when your business is that big already, when you're getting into the five, 10 million a year revenue scale, your list is probably super big.

You could start segmenting and getting more. You know, complex and, and figuring out where the opportunity lies that way. So that's kind of the sliding scale for me at minimum. Try to send one email every week or every two weeks up to five to seven emails a week. 

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com. And now back to the show. I want to dive a little bit into. How to collect email addresses. Obviously, email address is the best database you can have. It's owned marketing. It's not based on someone else. And obviously, yes, you get an order in and then you have an email to fulfill the order. And then you start your marketing.

What are other ways to build your email list? 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Massive, massive opportunity. You're, you're spot on. Honestly, in the email world, this is the most valuable asset that we have. And honestly, As meta and Google and all of these paid advertising platforms get harder and harder and harder every single year, your own email list, your own media becomes increasingly important.

So it's such a valuable asset that you got to plant that seed now and you'll start seeing results, you know, years down the line. So pop ups are the biggest way for you to leverage getting new opt ins and new emails into your e commerce brand. Um, a massive stat that I love to share is just. Um, an example of, you know, let's say you're, you're, you have 100, 000 monthly visitors to your website.

Um, and the difference between a 1 percent opt in rate and a 10 percent opt in rate on your pop up is the equivalent of half a million dollars in a year. Um, half a million dollars and call it 120, 000 people on your email list. So huge, huge, huge difference. And you can see how that compounds over time.

Now, the, the beautiful part about, about collecting emails and opt ins is It's really, really easy to test. Uh, frankly, you know, the pop up, uh, typically you get so much data and so quickly, especially if you're getting a lot of traffic that you can test things very, very fast. Now, what I would suggest brands do is they follow a really simple hierarchy of what they're testing in their pop ups.

Uh, typically I like to test first and foremost, what the offer and messaging is. So, No percent off, 10 percent off, 20 percent off a gift, whatever. I would test that. Then I would test the copy. And then finally the creative and you know, how, how you're communicating, um, how you're communicating your brand in the pop up.

Um, and, and frankly, I would just start running these tests right away because if you're not running tests right now, you're leaving money on the table. Um, now one quick tip here for brands is. Unlike meta ads where, you know, a lot of the time you see brands that you think perform, but you don't really know what performs with pop ups, you know, what performs because you can look at the best in class brands, the true classics Ridge wallets, somersaults, and you could see what pop ups they're running on the website.

And more likely than not, that's a great starting point for you, especially if you're a small, smaller brand. 

Good point there. Just looking what others do doesn't give you any kind of insight because they're trying to figure it out as well. So it's not that they have all the wisdom out there. Now, when it comes to pop ups, one thing that comes to mind is how can I avoid that I annoy my customers with too many pop ups?

So how often do I show pop ups and where in the customer journey do I show them? 

Yeah, that's a great question. So it really depends on the brand and the audience, but a couple of rules of thumb that I would say. First, Make sure that if you have random upsell apps that you're leveraging on your website, that those upsell apps are not, uh, layering on random pop ups throughout the consumer journey that, that you're not accounting for.

Because what I see with a lot of brands is they have the initial pop up when you get to the website, then there's a pop up when you get to the product page with some sort of offer. Then there's a pop up at the car. And then when you click checkout, there's another pop up. So just don't overload them. You can audit that very quickly yourself.

Beyond that, what I would say is Typically I avoid showing a pop up right away to the consumer, you know, like with no delay, it's just too annoying. You're, you're spot on class. Like no one likes that. No one wants to give you their information. You have to show me why I should give you my email address.

But a sweet spot I would say is between a 10 and 40 second delay is fine. Uh, 40 seconds is probably the upper end of where you want to be. But I would, I would play around and test, you know, what works best. And then the final tip that I would share is depending on the types of paid media funnels that you're running.

Sometimes I play around with actually not showing pop ups on the landing page when someone clicks from meta, because sometimes it's just a little bit too intrusive. You can get a little more like complicated and test revenue per user with and without a pop up, but that's probably like expert level. Um, so, you know, probably as a starting point, you could just.

Exclude people that go to a landing page because ultimately we are optimizing for revenue right away. Uh, and then the email, you know, maybe that person doesn't convert, but we have an opportunity to sell them in the future, but that's a second order. I would say benefit. 

Now, maybe our listeners might be interested in a opt in rate.

So obviously do a B testing, but what's kind of an opt in rate goal to work towards to? 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So what I would say is. Um, to two tiers. I think about it in two different ways. If you're not running a promo on your pop up, so you don't have 10 2030 percent off. Um, and it's just, you know, join our email list type of messaging.

Obviously, you need to get crafty and creative there and communicate why there's value in joining your email list. But holding that aside, I would say a https: otter. ai Opt in rate is between three and almost 10%. It really depends on the brand. You know, sometimes online you see 10 percent that's best in class and that's where you need to be.

And a lot, a lot of the time, that's just not the reality. If you're in the range of three to 10%, that's probably a great place to be. You could probably push it up a little bit more with testing. Now, if you're, if you do have a promotional offer. 10 percent is very healthy on the email pop up. I have a brand that's as high as 15%, although that's really an exception, not the rule.

Um, but you know, I would stay in the aim to, to be in those ranges and beyond that also just don't listen to me at all and just keep testing until you keep improving. And when you don't see any more improvement, pause on testing for a few months and come back to it in the future. Cause marketing constantly changes.

That's true. Now, obviously you're working with a lot of DTC brands as Bedrock Marketing. And can you give me an example, what kind of results? You don't need to name a brand, but what kind of results your, your clients saw after the right structure? 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Honestly, it, it varies and it really varies on the brand that I work with, but I have this one example of a brand that, um, I took over sending emails for, uh, Call it just half a year ago now.

And, and really the big difference maker for them was just sending more consistent emails, you know, to my previous point of what the biggest opportunities are. I mean, this was a brand doing 200, 000 a month in revenue. Um, and. Just by increasing their frequency of emails and SMS, by the way, to two to three, and sometimes four a week versus one to two, um, we took them from call it 200, 000 a month to 300, 000 a month.

There was additional opportunity also for them to start scaling their paid media because we were activating the retention side, you know, more effectively, there was more profit to be had and more profit to be sent to the meta side. But that's a, that's a, you know. A massive result, I would say, and it really just came from again, the basics, keep it simple, stupid, send a few emails a month or sorry, send a few emails every single week, make sure your messaging is clear, concise to the point and that the consumer, you know, actually has a reason to open and read your email.

Absolutely right. Now, you're one of the agency owners, one of the very few who actually build DTC brands by yourself. So you have built two successful DTC brands, and then you've now you're focused on email marketing, helping others in the market. Who's your perfect customer? 

What I've learned is, um, you mentioned Claus, I was running a, uh, a sock business.

It was called society socks, still running it. But I would say learning number one for me was. Generally, it is so much harder to sell things to men on the internet than women. Um, you know, I also have past experience in, in the, uh, CPG consumer packaged goods space, uh, working at Procter and Gamble, a best in class brand, and the mantra there would always be, we're selling to mom.

She is, she is the lead consumer of the household. And really that's true, you know, for the majority of categories on the internet, not on the internet. That is just the simple truth. Um, So I would say the sweet spot for me has been, um, working with brands that are selling to, selling products to probably women that are in the age range of like 30 to 60.

It's hard to, to, you know, narrow it down specifically, but, um, you know, selling to consumers where they have a little bit more disposable income, they have wants and needs that they want to fulfill is just so much easier. Um, you know, sometimes it is a little bit trickier selling to younger audiences. The, the gen Zs of the world, especially given they're on such new and trendy platforms like tick tock and so on and so forth.

I mean, to them, you got to market like completely differently. So I would say that's a bit of a different animal, but, um, you know, no, uh, no, no kind of like specific consumer. I, I, you know, sell to people across the board. 

Okay. No, absolutely. Perfect. So for our listeners who will run a DTC brand and that want to work with you and optimize the email marketing, um, what are the typical onboarding process steps to get them up and running?

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So, I mean, first and foremost, I would just message me at bedfordmarketing. co and typically what we do is. Um, you know, get on a call and just try to audit your account completely for free. Um, you know, I can't, I can't tell you what, what medicine you need before I, I, you know, review your brand and figure out what's going on.

So I love to dig into the brand, uh, you know, see your sending schedule, see what kind of results you've driven in the past and then go from there. I really custom tailor. Every single partnership and every single plan. I don't believe in, you know, one size fits all because that's frankly not the world we live in in DTC.

Okay, tell me a little bit about the pricing structure if you can. 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, we just price our partnerships based on a monthly retainer. It honestly ranges depending on how many emails you need every month, how many, you know, flows and automations we're working on, how much, how many pop ups we're doing and whether we're also helping in other capacities.

So honestly, it really depends. I can't give you a range because, you know, I'll audit an account, you know, two days in a row and it'll be two completely different. Kind of kind of ballparks and it really just depends on the size of the business and how much help you need. 

Okay, before we come to the end of our coffee break today Is there anything that you want to share with our listeners that we haven't covered yet?

Send better emails. That's my only call to action is just spend more time. And a lot of the time we're in our worlds and, you know, very quantitative and looking at numbers and that's really important, but also we're selling qualitative things. We're appealing to people's feelings. And I would make sure that everything that you put out into the world from a marketing standpoint, you also activate that part of the brain.

You think of. How the consumer will feel. You think of, you know, what the strategy is and, and, you know, what you want to communicate to them and not just be, you know, numbers based, think of the qualitative and the emotional side as well. And I promise you, you'll go a long way. 

Yeah, I agree. If you have a solid structure and qualitative, good marketing strategy with email, you're a long way ahead because all the other platforms, as you mentioned before, changing all the time.

So you're basically always chasing what's happening and trying to adjust. Email marketing is around for a long time and I don't think it will go away anytime soon. And I think it's one of the fundamental things that you need to get right as a DTC brand. So thanks so much for your time today. Um, where can people find out more about you guys?

I would just go to Bedford marketing. co and message me on there and I'll be happy to chat and take a look at your email account. 

Perfect. I will put the link in the show notes. Then you're just one click away. Thanks so much for your time today. And, um, I hope to talk to you soon. Thanks so much. Amazing.

Thanks Claus. Hey Claus here. Thank you for joining me on another episode of the e commerce coffee break podcast. Before you go, I'd like to ask two things from you first, please help me with the algorithm so I can bring more impactful guests on the show. It will make it also easier for others to discover the podcast.

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