Latest / eCommerce Podcast / Black Friday Part 3 - The VIP List Strategy for Better Black Friday Results | Matt Edmundson

Transcript

Black Friday Part 3 - The VIP List Strategy for Better Black Friday Results | Matt Edmundson · eCommerce Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to the eCommerce Podcast.
• 0:06
  My name is Matt Edmundson and we are at number three, episode number three
• 0:11
  already of our August Black Friday series.
• 0:14
  Yes, we're looking at this in August because it's just really
• 0:18
  important to look at Black Friday if you haven't done so already.
• 0:23
  Uh, it's just get on it.
• 0:24
  Just get on it.
• 0:25
  So that's the reason we're putting this content out there.
• 0:27
  'cause it's an important time.
• 0:28
  Right.
• 0:29
  Now, if you are a regular to the show, uh, you will notice this
• 0:33
  content is a little bit different.
• 0:34
  Of course, if you're new to the show, very warm.
• 0:36
  Welcome to you.
• 0:37
  It's great to have you join us.
• 0:39
  Uh, hope you get some value outta this new listeners every week.
• 0:42
  Make sure you like and subscribe, you know, all of that good stuff.
• 0:45
  Um, but if you are a regular to the show.
• 0:47
  You've been following along, you will know we are in a minute bit of a series where
• 0:51
  we're doing, uh, this new type of content.
• 0:54
  Normally, uh, if you're new to the show, I'm gonna say explain.
• 0:56
  Normally I have experts where we interview them on the show about, and,
• 1:01
  you know, all kinds of e-commerce topics.
• 1:03
  Uh, but in this mini series I'm giving you some of the seminars that we did, um, in.
• 1:11
  What's something we called eCommerce Cohort?
• 1:14
  Now it could get a little bit confusing because eCommerce Cohort of old is
• 1:18
  different to eCommerce co Cohort of new, we've recycled the name.
• 1:22
  What we've done is we've just ditched the membership fee.
• 1:25
  We've made it free, and we're bringing this content out much more,
• 1:28
  uh, as part of our drive to just add some really great value and
• 1:32
  connect with more people as a result.
• 1:35
  Um, so that's kind of what's going on really.
• 1:37
  So this is a little bit different.
• 1:39
  This is.
• 1:39
  Um, that seminar, which actually was delivered by me, this is a
• 1:42
  third of four seminars, and then the final one, the fifth one, is a q
• 1:46
  and a session, um, all about black.
• 1:50
  Friday.
• 1:51
  And so that's what we're bringing.
• 1:53
  And in e-commerce Cohort, we, we had, it wasn't just me that did the sessions,
• 1:57
  by the way, we had some other experts.
• 1:59
  We are gonna start to put that content out.
• 2:01
  Some of it will go onto the podcast, uh, over the next month or two.
• 2:05
  You'll see it rolling out on the, on the new free e-commerce Cohort platform.
• 2:10
  Uh, if you wanna find out more about that, then check it out
• 2:13
  at eCommerce Podcast dot net.
• 2:16
  And I think if memory serves me right, I also own the domain name eCommerce
• 2:20
  Cohort dot com, which we will always also forward to it, uh, somehow.
• 2:25
  If.
• 2:25
  Um, but yes, check it out eCommerce Podcast dot net.
• 2:29
  And incidentally, why you there?
• 2:30
  If you haven't done so already, make sure you sign up to the newsletter because
• 2:34
  they are getting a massive revamp, uh, starting next month in September.
• 2:39
  And a lot of this content, uh, this high value content will be in the
• 2:42
  newsletter first, so you're definitely gonna want to check it out and make
• 2:45
  sure you sign up for that because there's some really great stuff.
• 2:50
  And I don't want you to miss any of it.
• 2:52
  Of course.
• 2:52
  I don't.
• 2:52
  Why would I?
• 2:53
  It's, it's all out there.
• 2:54
  I hope you use it.
• 2:55
  I hope you find it helpful.
• 2:56
  Um, it's, it's the reason why we're doing it all really.
• 3:00
  I just want you to find it helpful, so hopefully you do.
• 3:03
  Absolutely.
• 3:04
  Uh, now.
• 3:06
  What are we talking about today, Matthew?
• 3:08
  Well, the first week in this miniseries we looked at how to create a compelling
• 3:12
  offer for Black Friday that doesn't, you know, rob you of all your profits.
• 3:15
  Uh, last week we looked at the new customer strategy.
• 3:18
  How do we deal with all the new customers We're gonna get over Black Friday.
• 3:22
  This week we're focusing on your existing customers and why this might actually be
• 3:27
  the most important episode in the series.
• 3:30
  Just saying now, if you think about it, right, what actually
• 3:33
  happens, uh, most e-commerce.
• 3:36
  Companies will just walk out crazy offers, right?
• 3:38
  It's gonna whack 'em out, uh, lose all their profits and all their best customers
• 3:42
  get the same offer and they, it just, it just feels wrong on in so many ways.
• 3:48
  And I, we're gonna look at that.
• 3:50
  We are gonna examine it.
• 3:51
  Does that even make sense?
• 3:52
  Should we give our best customers our best offers?
• 3:57
  I don't know.
• 3:58
  These are good questions to ask.
• 3:59
  I do know, actually we're gonna get into it.
• 4:01
  Uh, we're gonna look at customer journeys, VIP experiences, segmentation, including
• 4:07
  the all powerful RFM segmentation.
• 4:10
  We're gonna look at SMS marketing, uh, and even referral campaigns.
• 4:14
  And if those acronyms and names sort of scare you, don't worry.
• 4:17
  We explain it all.
• 4:18
  It's all good stuff to get into, uh, a whole bunch of good stuff.
• 4:22
  So make sure you've got your notebooks ready and before we get into it.
• 4:26
  Do, let me just take this moment to ask you to let me know what
• 4:31
  you think about this, this format.
• 4:34
  Um, it's not replacing what we're doing with the expert interviews.
• 4:37
  They start again in September, but we are experimenting with
• 4:40
  other types of format to bring.
• 4:42
  Different types of episodes.
• 4:44
  Deep diving in some things, short form content like this, maybe 20 minutes
• 4:48
  where we focus in on a specific thing.
• 4:50
  Is it helpful?
• 4:51
  Is it not?
• 4:51
  Do it again, Matt, don't do it.
• 4:53
  Am I confusing you?
• 4:54
  Because it's all mixed up and nothing really makes sense.
• 4:57
  I genuinely would love to know.
• 4:58
  So do hit me up.
• 4:59
  On LinkedIn, uh, just go to LinkedIn slash in slash Matt Edmundson or follow
• 5:04
  the link from the eCommerce Podcast dot net website to my LinkedIn profile
• 5:09
  and let me know what's going on or just comment through the website.
• 5:11
  Look, I genuine, genuinely, I'm, I'm really.
• 5:14
  I really do want to know what you guys think.
• 5:16
  It'll really help us, um, going forward.
• 5:19
  'cause if it's not resonating, then we, we, but we won't do it
• 5:21
  'cause it's gonna waste your time.
• 5:23
  Um, and we wanna deliver stuff like I say that's have high value.
• 5:26
  Uh, but anyway, that's enough from me.
• 5:29
  So here's me on how to treat your best customers like
• 5:33
  the VIPs, they actually are.
• 5:36
  Okay, so let's talk about an existing customer strategy and what you can do
• 5:43
  in relation to that fall Black Friday.
• 5:45
  Okay.
• 5:47
  So we've talked about, uh, what you can do for new customers.
• 5:51
  What about existing customers?
• 5:52
  Let's have a think about those.
• 5:55
  Now.
• 5:55
  The key aim here is to maximize value, we said with, um, with new customers.
• 6:02
  You know, we want to build relationship.
• 6:04
  We've talked about our offers, how we wanna maintain that sort of, um,
• 6:09
  lifetime value versus margin ratio.
• 6:12
  So when it comes to our existing customers, the thing that we wanna
• 6:14
  look at here is maximizing value.
• 6:16
  And I'm not just talking about maximizing the amount of cash you
• 6:20
  take out of their pockets, I'm talking more about, um, maximizing their
• 6:26
  lifetime value of that customer.
• 6:28
  Just getting 'em to reengage and engage and just, uh, dig deeper to, into
• 6:34
  their relationship with you, right?
• 6:35
  So we wanna maximize that value.
• 6:38
  And to do that, we need to look at two things, okay?
• 6:42
  So, uh, we've got here number one segment and number two.
• 6:48
  Journey.
• 6:49
  So, uh, fairly self-explanatory.
• 6:51
  I think segment, segment, uh, your customer database.
• 6:54
  If you haven't done this already, um, you really should segment your email list
• 6:59
  and your customers into various segments, like your best customers, your okay
• 7:03
  customers, the people that aren't gonna really buy from you that much longer.
• 7:07
  Those that don't buy from you any longer at all.
• 7:10
  And if you haven't, um.
• 7:13
  If you haven't heard it, there's a great podcast we did with a guy called Valentin
• 7:16
  Roddy, uh, from Omni Convert, which is in the vault in the e-commerce vault.
• 7:22
  Uh, if you search for that, um, you should give it a listen 'cause in that
• 7:27
  he talks about, um, RFM segmentation and how he uses that to segment his list.
• 7:34
  He uses great phrases like soulmates, lovers, just about to dump you,
• 7:38
  the breakups and all that sort of stuff to sort of define the
• 7:41
  relationship you have with clients.
• 7:43
  Um, and actually at Vegetology we now use his language, his, uh, we use the
• 7:48
  RFM methodology actually, and we also use his, we started using his language
• 7:51
  like lovers and soulmates and things like that just to sort to define our clients
• 7:55
  a little bit better, which is brilliant.
• 7:58
  So we want to segment them.
• 7:59
  Okay.
• 8:00
  Um, and then the second thing we need to do is understand the journey.
• 8:03
  Each segment should take.
• 8:06
  Okay?
• 8:06
  So sort of over here.
• 8:08
  In other words, if someone is about to dump you, IE they bought from you.
• 8:14
  They were a good customer, but they don't seem to be buying from you anymore.
• 8:18
  Um.
• 8:19
  The journey you want to take them on is very different to the journey
• 8:22
  you want to take on, uh, for someone who buys from you almost every day,
• 8:26
  who's like your best client ever.
• 8:28
  Okay?
• 8:28
  The emails, the stories, the marketing should have very different
• 8:31
  language, very different feel.
• 8:34
  Um, and so you need to understand the segments and then the
• 8:37
  journey each segment should take.
• 8:41
  Okay?
• 8:41
  So if you haven't done that already, that is something you
• 8:43
  should definitely think about.
• 8:45
  It's a drum we will beat often here at Cohort, uh, understands
• 8:49
  the journey that they take.
• 8:50
  Okay?
• 8:51
  So one of the key segments to look out for is a VIP list,
• 8:57
  especially around Black Friday.
• 8:59
  Okay?
• 9:00
  So what do I mean by this now?
• 9:03
  You can, uh, if you segment your list or you wanna start segment your list,
• 9:07
  pick out your best customers, right?
• 9:09
  The top 20% that create 80% of your business.
• 9:11
  Let's get all their names and email addresses and let's, uh,
• 9:14
  put them on a separate email.
• 9:15
  So you could use some kind of automation to do this, right?
• 9:18
  You could say, um, that that is what you are gonna do.
• 9:21
  Okay.
• 9:22
  Another possibility though is to let the customers do it themselves.
• 9:29
  So one strategy, which I really like actually, um, I heard
• 9:32
  Daniel Badai talk about this.
• 9:33
  He's also been on the podcast.
• 9:35
  Um, this strategy of.
• 9:37
  You email out all of your customers.
• 9:40
  Okay?
• 9:40
  So, um, you send them an email and you say, listen, what we're gonna
• 9:45
  do this Black Friday is we are gonna create a VIP Black Friday offers list.
• 9:50
  So if you are on that list, you'll get access to all of
• 9:55
  the Black Friday offers early.
• 9:57
  But you know, we don't want to send emails and necessarily, people say
• 10:01
  if you want them, just sign up.
• 10:03
  Right.
• 10:04
  Uh, just go to this webpage and just click yes, that's me.
• 10:06
  Double check.
• 10:06
  You've given us the right email sign up to the, the, the
• 10:11
  sort of that, that email list.
• 10:13
  And then what you're gonna do is you're gonna allow the customers
• 10:16
  to sort of self-identify, ah, what it be on this VIP list.
• 10:19
  Please.
• 10:19
  Thank you very much.
• 10:20
  And so, a few weeks before Black Friday, you are gonna start emailing them.
• 10:24
  The Black Friday offers, right?
• 10:27
  And the reason you want to do this, uh, is, well, there's a number of reasons.
• 10:31
  One.
• 10:32
  You want to get that list engaged.
• 10:36
  You want 'em to get excited about the emails coming up.
• 10:39
  Um, you want to start sales early, so you take the load off
• 10:42
  customer service in the warehouse.
• 10:44
  Um, and you also want to test offers, right?
• 10:46
  So you're gonna split test an email, which you send out to that VIP list.
• 10:50
  You're gonna see which offer pulls the best, and guess what you're
• 10:52
  gonna do on Black Friday weekend.
• 10:54
  You're gonna do that offer, which you've tested on your list already.
• 10:57
  Okay, so it helps you to do that.
• 10:59
  So, um, create a VIP list and create a strategy, a comm strategy for
• 11:06
  how you're gonna engage them in the weeks leading up to Black Friday.
• 11:10
  And I like Daniel's idea of, uh, email out your existing customers.
• 11:14
  Get them to voluntarily sign up to a VIP list, send them out emails ahead of time.
• 11:20
  Um, split test those emails.
• 11:22
  And voila, your Black Friday will be a lot better.
• 11:26
  Okay, so that's what we're talking about there.
• 11:29
  So when it comes to the customer journey, uh oh look, here we go.
• 11:32
  Test offers early.
• 11:34
  Again, you can do that with your VIP list, right?
• 11:37
  So you can, um.
• 11:39
  You can send split test the offers and see which one pulls the best.
• 11:42
  If you are, I'm gonna do the VIP strategy.
• 11:45
  If you're not gonna do that with your list, that's fine,
• 11:47
  but do test your offers early.
• 11:49
  Don't wait till Black Friday to test them.
• 11:52
  Test them somehow.
• 11:53
  Okay?
• 11:54
  So if you're not emailing people, maybe create one or two landing pages,
• 11:57
  which you can split test and use paid media to drive people to those.
• 12:01
  Pages for the audiences that you are thinking of running
• 12:04
  Black Friday campaigns too.
• 12:05
  See which one pulls the best.
• 12:07
  So again, when it comes to Black Friday, all that work has been done.
• 12:11
  You're not switching campaigns out through the weekend, you've planned
• 12:13
  early, you've tested, you know which one's gonna pull the best.
• 12:16
  Okay?
• 12:17
  So, uh, test your offers early would be my advice.
• 12:21
  I've mentioned this already, but give your best customers, uh, the best discounts.
• 12:26
  Remember the 80 20 rule.
• 12:28
  And again, you can engage them with email.
• 12:30
  You can email them out and just say, listen, guys.
• 12:32
  Um.
• 12:34
  We just love the bones off you.
• 12:35
  You're one of our best clients.
• 12:36
  And so as a result, I want you to know here's an offer this weekend that is not
• 12:42
  gonna be made available to the public.
• 12:43
  It's not gonna be made available to everyone on our email list.
• 12:46
  You are getting it because you are amazing.
• 12:48
  You're one of our best clients and is only available to you.
• 12:52
  Click here to find out more, right?
• 12:54
  That's what you do.
• 12:55
  So, uh, that works, uh, really well.
• 12:58
  But give your best office to your best clients.
• 13:02
  SMS marketing is something else that you can also employ here,
• 13:05
  which I think is really clever.
• 13:07
  So one of the things that you could do, for example, rather than emailing your
• 13:10
  customers and saying, I'm creating a VIP email list, you could email them and say,
• 13:15
  I'm creating a VIP uh, text message list.
• 13:19
  So I'm gonna be doing SMS.
• 13:21
  Offers, which will go straight to your phone.
• 13:24
  You're either in or you're out, right?
• 13:25
  I mean, obviously we're the email out better than that, but get 'em
• 13:28
  to opt into your SMS marketing.
• 13:30
  This is a great time to do that if you don't have an SMS marketing list.
• 13:35
  Uh, so get them to opt into your SMS marketing.
• 13:37
  Again, if you wanna know more about SMS marketing, there's a few podcasts, which
• 13:41
  I think would be really helpful for you.
• 13:42
  Uh, just search on the Commerce vault.
• 13:45
  Um.
• 13:47
  But you could have them opt into like a an SMS marketing list.
• 13:50
  So rather than emailing them, you are sending them text messages.
• 13:52
  Why is this so beautiful?
• 13:53
  Why is this so great?
• 13:55
  Because let me tell you, their inbox is gonna be flooded over Black Friday.
• 14:00
  Just like your inbox is just like mine is gonna have more emails
• 14:03
  and you know what to do with.
• 14:05
  So getting on someone's text message gives a much, much greater
• 14:09
  chance of response, especially if they've opted into that list.
• 14:13
  Okay, so, uh, have a think about SMS marketing, how you could use that to
• 14:17
  increase journeys, uh, offers, not on the general website to various segments.
• 14:22
  Again, um, think about this, like if you've got a segment
• 14:26
  that is about to dump you.
• 14:28
  Um, I still love that language from Valentine.
• 14:31
  Uh, but if you've got a bunch of customers that would buy from you on a regular basis
• 14:34
  but haven't bought for a while, um, that offer doesn't need to be on your website.
• 14:40
  Right.
• 14:41
  But you can email those people and say, listen, this Black Friday, um.
• 14:46
  You guys, you know, you've not bought from, I dunno if I'd say actually
• 14:48
  you've not bought from as well, but I'll do an email to them saying, listen
• 14:51
  guys, special offered is for you.
• 14:53
  We know that you love the, the, the products that we sell.
• 14:56
  We know you're a big fan of what we do.
• 14:58
  Um, appreciate that.
• 14:59
  With the cost of living crisis going through the roof, it's
• 15:01
  not as easy for everybody now.
• 15:03
  So we've got a real special offer just for you, this Black Friday weekend.
• 15:06
  It's not available on our website.
• 15:07
  It is available to you.
• 15:08
  So, um.
• 15:10
  You can do that to the various segments, um, specifically to
• 15:14
  them to get them to reengage.
• 15:18
  Buzz building campaigns.
• 15:19
  Love buzz Building campaigns.
• 15:20
  What do I mean here?
• 15:21
  Don't wait till Black Friday before you start building Buzz
• 15:25
  around Black Friday, right?
• 15:27
  It's too late.
• 15:27
  It's too late by then.
• 15:29
  Um, you should be sending out emails end of October, early November, about Black
• 15:32
  Friday, just building up Buzz to Steven.
• 15:34
  Simple emails like, Hey, the countdown has, we got, we're really excited about
• 15:37
  what's coming up, uh, in November.
• 15:40
  We've got some great stuff coming up for you.
• 15:41
  Just want you to know.
• 15:43
  Get ready.
• 15:43
  Make sure we're not in your spam folder.
• 15:45
  Check out our SMS marketing list, which gets all the early notifications,
• 15:49
  so be sure you won't miss out when stock goes, it's gone, you
• 15:52
  know, all those kind of things.
• 15:53
  Um, so start building buzz around that in early November.
• 15:57
  Don't wait until Black Friday before you go, oh, now I'm gonna
• 16:00
  send my Black Friday email.
• 16:02
  It's too late.
• 16:04
  And segments finally turn up your referral campaign.
• 16:08
  This is a really, really interesting opportunity for you because, um, if
• 16:12
  you have got a bunch of customers who are great customers, then they
• 16:16
  are also more than likely gonna be your best referring customers, right?
• 16:19
  They're gonna tell their friends about you, they're gonna tell
• 16:21
  their colleagues about you.
• 16:22
  They're gonna say, listen, come buy these products.
• 16:24
  So if you have a referral campaign, whether that's through organizations
• 16:28
  like mentioned me, whether it's something you've just got on
• 16:30
  your website or whatever it is.
• 16:32
  What you can do is do a specific black flight, black Friday, black
• 16:37
  Friday referral campaign and email out your best customers during
• 16:42
  November, the start of November and say, listen guys, uh, we are gonna do.
• 16:48
  As you know, we do referral marketing, IE when you refer a friend and they
• 16:51
  get whatever, and you get whatever, whatever the gifts are, whatever
• 16:54
  the discounts are, simple as right.
• 16:56
  But during Black Friday weekend, for every person you refer, they will get dot,
• 17:00
  dot, dot, and you will get dot, dot, dot.
• 17:02
  We are gonna ramp up the gifts or the discounts or whatever it is, right?
• 17:06
  That really excites them.
• 17:08
  Uh, again, understand the different segments, but you can send that email
• 17:11
  to your best customers to that sort of top 20, 30, 40% of customers.
• 17:16
  That are much more likely to refer from you or refer you, especially
• 17:19
  your repeat customers, right?
• 17:20
  Um, and so crank up that referral campaign, get their marketing for
• 17:24
  you, uh, as well be, especially if you've got a good referral campaign.
• 17:28
  Just crank it up, turn it up, turn up the volume, turn up the heat, right?
• 17:31
  So don't miss that opportunity.
• 17:33
  Okay?
• 17:34
  So that is the existing customer.
• 17:37
  Campaign, uh, strategy.
• 17:39
  So go ahead, think about your existing customers.
• 17:41
  Think about them in terms of the segments and the journeys
• 17:43
  that you want them to take.
• 17:45
  What can you do for your existing customers?
• 17:47
  Write that down.
• 17:47
  Plan that strategy.
• 17:49
  Uh, and when you've done that, I will be back in the next video just talking
• 17:52
  about General Black Friday top tips, which I've learned over the years.
• 17:56
  I'll see you there.
• 17:58
  Segments and journeys.
• 18:00
  That's how you maximize value from existing customers during Black Friday.
• 18:04
  Who knew?
• 18:05
  Right?
• 18:06
  Anyway, next week is our fourth episode in this miniseries, black Friday
• 18:13
  Top Tips and General Strategies.
• 18:15
  Uh, all the bits that don't sort of fit neatly into categories, but you need.
• 18:19
  To understand 'cause they can make or break your Black Friday success.
• 18:23
  So we're gonna be talking about that, all the things that
• 18:24
  we've learned over the years.
• 18:26
  Uh, after that we've got the q and a session.
• 18:29
  So in Cohort, when we delivered this workshop, we did each.
• 18:33
  Uh, workshop over, uh, one workshop per week over four weeks, just like how
• 18:37
  we're releasing it on the, um, podcast.
• 18:40
  And then the final workshop was a q and a, so that's coming up as well
• 18:45
  where we answered all the questions that came in around Black Friday
• 18:48
  after the first four workshops.
• 18:50
  Um, so yeah, you can check that out.
• 18:53
  And after that, in September, we will be back to our regular programming of
• 18:59
  expert interviews and founder stories.
• 19:03
  Um, and like I said, you know, at the, excuse me, the start of
• 19:06
  August, we're also gonna throw in the odd solo episode here and there.
• 19:10
  Um, but I am thinking about, like I said, mixing more teaching content
• 19:14
  in like this more the workshops that we've done over the years.
• 19:17
  Um.
• 19:18
  Just wanna know if it's working.
• 19:19
  So how you finding them?
• 19:20
  Let me know, you know, all that sort of stuff.
• 19:23
  Uh, just reach out to me and let me know.
• 19:25
  Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter at eCommerce Podcast dot net.
• 19:29
  Loads more content coming from the eCommerce Cohort vault.
• 19:33
  Uh, but that's it from me.
• 19:35
  Hope you are having a great summer.
• 19:36
  Have a great week where I will see you next time for the
• 19:40
  fourth episode in this series.
• 19:43
  But that's it from me.
• 19:44
  Bye for now.