Email Marketing Manager
Interview Exercise June 2021
Question #1
We want to see a sample of your work. Please send at least one of the following that you have created in your current or recent roles (feel free to send multiple samples):
New Customer Welcome Email Flow (ideally multi-stage)
>>> Click the image to view a video of this email. <<<
GT’s Living Foods Welcome Email #1
Subject Line: Welcome to the GT’s Family 🙌
Send Date: Launched 2018
About This Email: This is the first GT's Living Foods Welcome Email in a series of two. It was sent immediately upon opt-in. We wanted to introduce new subscribers in a personable and relatable way by letting them know what to expect from our emails and how to engage with us. This included:
Thank you for subscribing
Number of emails to expect per month
Welcome them to reply to the email
Type of content
Brand mission
Where to join GT's Living Foods on social media
Overview of the product line-up
Shout-out to GT's 25th anniversary
How to share content with us on social using #GTsKombucha
Welcome them to share their Kombucha story with us
A gift of one Kombucha on us
GT’s Living Foods Welcome Email #2
Subject Line: Meet GT, Our Founder
Send Date: Launched 2018
About This Email: This email was sent five days after the first Welcome Email. The goal was to share the history of the company by featuring the Founder, GT Dave. Also, we wanted to humanize GT and make him more relatable to the fans to help increase loyalty and sales. We shared fun facts about GT and a video of his journey with his company. In addition, we featured the GT's home goods + apparel shop, which, at this time, was newly launched.
>>> Click the image to view a video of this email. <<<
New Product Launch Email
>>> Click the image to view a video of this email. <<<
GT’s Living Foods New Product Email
Subject Line: NEW! 💦 GT’s AQUA KEFIR 💦
Send Date: August 1, 2019
About This Email: When GT’s Living Foods launched Aqua Kefir, we wanted to make sure people understood that it isn’t a Kombucha (since GT’s is known for Kombucha). To do this, we provided a lot of education around the new offering including:
Brand positioning messaging: “Refreshment with Benefits”
Hero image of the offering + links to each flavor on the GT's Living Foods website
History of water kefir
Ingredients + how to make Aqua Kefir
Comparison chart: Aqua Kefir vs Kombucha
Additionally, we featured Trader Joe’s because they sold two exclusive flavors.
General Content Email
GT’s Living Foods CocoYo Product Spotlight Email
Send Date: March 9, 2020
Subject Line: Say hello to COCOYO at Whole Foods Market! 🥥🌴
View the email here.
About This Email: Once GT’s coconut yogurt offering, CocoYo, was available nationally to Whole Foods Market, we shared this email with our entire subscriber database. We had heard requests from super fans that they wanted CocoYo in their state. We listened and made it happen 🙌 😉. This email featured:
Hero image of the flavors
Now offered at Whole Foods Market
Benefits
Recipes
Fan Testimonials
See the email here.
>>> Click the image to view a video of this email. <<<
>>> Click the image to view a video of this email. <<<
GT’s Living Foods Email Featuring Tropical Flavors
Subject Line: GIVEAWAY! 🍍🍉🥭 Tropical Mocktail Recipes Are In
Send Date: July 24, 2020
View the email here.
About This Email: In the Summer of 2020, GT’s launched a campaign featuring a series of Tropical Kombucha flavors. This email complimented the campaign.
We had identified that the email subscribers really enjoyed recipe content, so we partnered this with a giveaway of a Tropical Mocktail Recipe Booklet.
Additionally, GT’s had recently launched their online DTC product store, so we shouted out the store with a photo of GT Dave as the delivery guy. See here.
GT’s Living Foods Segmented DTC Discount Email
Send Date: July 2, 2020
Subject Line: 25% OFF + Free Delivery on Golden Pineapple! 🍍
View the email here.
About This Email: GT’s had recently launched its’ DTC Shopify product store. This email promoted it with a spotlight on a new Kombucha flavor, Golden Pineapple, and gave a 25% OFF discount for online purchases.
See the email here.
>>> Click the image to view a video of this email. <<<
>>> Click the image to view a video of this email. <<<
Heathmade Email Featuring Summer Road Trip Travel Sets
Send Date: August 12, 2020
Subject Line: The Joys of Summer
View the email here.
About Heathmade: Heathmade is a health and wellness skincare company founded by a four-year-old who turns eleven on June 28th!
About This Email: This email, like all emails from Heathmade begins with a letter from Founder Heath. (I help write these with his Mom.) Following the intro, we featured Heath’s life in photos, an article from Magnetic Magazine, and Heathmade travel sets for Summer travels. Each product clicks out to its’ page on the Heathmade website.
See the email here.
Question #2
What are the top 3-5 KPIs you feel are most critical to track the success of our email marketing efforts?
Open Rate
A good indication of an eye-catching subject line and general interest in the brand, open rate shows how many people, first of all, see the email (instead of it going into the SPAM folder) and are interested enough to open it to view the content.
How it’s calculated:
Number of Emails Read / Number of Delivered Emails x 100 (to get a percentage)
Forwarding Rate
Like a share on social platforms, this a great indication of engaging and likable content. A share is like the highest compliment a brand can receive. Additionally, forwarding the content draws attention to the brand and possible new subscribers/customers.
How it’s calculated:
Number of forwards / Number of Delivered Emails x 100 (to get a percentage)
Click-to-Open Rate
CTOR is preferred because it’s grabbing stats on people who have opened the email and clicked a link, unlike the Click-Thru-Rate, which measures clicks against total email deliveries.
How it’s calculated:
Number of Clicks / Number of Opens x 100 (to get a percentage)
Unsubscribe Rate
An unsubscribe is an indication that the content isn’t resonating and the person isn’t interested anymore. This is a prime metric to look at to help optimize email content.
How it’s calculated:
Number of unsubscribes / Number of Delivered Emails x 100 (to get a percentage)
Customer Lifetime Value
CLV measures how valuable a customer is to the brand over time. Knowing this helps to adjust customer acquisition costs, optimize content and segmentation.
How CLV is calculated:
Average Annual Customer Profit x Average Duration of Customer Retention - Customer Acquisition Cost
Customer Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Ratio
CLV:CAC measures the relationship between the lifetime value of a customer and the cost of acquiring that customer. This is essential because it helps the brand understand the worth of the future relationship with customers.
How CLV is calculated:
Annual Sales per Customer x Customer Relationship in Years - Customer Acquisition Cost
How CAC is calculated:
Cost of acquiring customers (cost of sales and marketing) / Number of customers acquired over a period of time
Question #3
How would you approach the segmentation of our email subscriber base? How would your objectives, messaging, and cadence vary by segment?
New Email Subscribers
Who: New Opt-ins
Objectives: Awareness, Sales
Messaging: Intro, Education, Product Line-Up, Testimonials, Discount/Incentive
Cadence: Pending online purchase, 2-4x/week for a couple of weeks
Low Engagement
Who: People who haven’t opened the emails in a while or open infrequently
Objectives: Loyalty, Awareness, Sales
Messaging: Testimonials, Special incentives/offers, Behind-the-scenes, Giveaways, Surveys. If they haven’t engaged in a while, play off “hibernating” messaging.
Cadence: Based on engagement
Super Fans / Loyalists
Who: People who open every email
Objectives: Loyalty, Retention, Sales
Messaging: VIP insider content, Heard-it-here-first content, Behind-the-scenes, Special incentives/offers, Surveys, Giveaways, Thank Yous
Cadence: 1-2x/week
Birthdays
Who: People who update their email profile with their birthday
Objectives: Loyalty
Messaging: Happy Bear-day message! + Gift or Discount. Play with “bear hug” messaging for their birthday.
Cadence: 1x/year
Purchase History / Subscriptions
Who: People who have made a purchase online
Objectives: Loyalty, Retention, Subscriptions
Messaging: Based on the product purchased, purchase cadence, and customer value, reward with incentives. Consider referral incentives to bring in new customers. Depending on the number of purchases, send reminder emails to restock and suggestion emails to try other products from Wandering Bear Coffee. If they haven’t purchased in a while, play off of “hibernating” messaging.
Cadence: Based on engagement with the brand, send up to 1 x/week.
Location
Who: People who share their location
Objectives: Awareness, Loyalty, Sales
Messaging: New retailer launches, Retailer-specific coupons/deals, Events
Cadence: When applicable
Question #4
In your opinion, what are some brands that do an amazing job with their email/SMS marketing? What makes them so good? If possible, please provide examples (e.g. samples of their email/SMS comms).
HOUSEPLANT
Houseplant is a cannabis company co-founded by Canadian-American actor and comedian Seth Rogen and Canadian screenwriter Evan Goldberg.
Their brand is personable, premium, and in high demand. Their look and feel are clean and minimal. In addition, they provide added value to their consumer products with education about the War on Drugs.
They build their emails with live text, a good practice preferred by email service providers. Not only do subscribers see the content as soon as they open the email, but these are also better for responsive designs and less likely to go to spam.
See email examples below.
Email Example //
Houseplant is great about teasing content in advance of launch.
This email builds awareness and anticipation for their new housewares which compliment their cannabis offerings.
See email here.
Email Example //
This product announcement sticks with the brand esthetic of fresh and minimal design with live text in the body of the email. It’s personable, provides education, and emotional appeal to entice purchase. Additional CTAs help the subscriber continue the journey to purchase or follow them on Instagram.
See email here.
Moon Juice
Moon Juice is plant-sourced alchemy including adaptogen blends, plant proteins, adaptogenic super herbs, and mushrooms to elevate body, beauty, and soul.
They do a great job of educating their fans about the benefits of their offerings through hero photos and videos of the products in action, pop culture references, testimonials, and more.
See email and SMS examples below.
Email Example //
Moon Juice uses a lot of gifs in their emails paired with simple educational text with a CTA to purchase the product on their website. See their Ashwagandha here.
SMS Example //
This SMS text message is a perfect example of Moon Juice’s personality in using pop culture references to promote their products. The link goes to their Sex Dust product. Plus, it also offers value in that they provide a recipe to give the fans an idea on how to use their product.
SMS Example //
This SMS text message shows a hero image of their Acid Potion of the product paired with personable messaging, letting me know that I’m getting $20 just for being subscribed to receive their SMS. It builds awareness of this product and loyalty.
Califia Farms
Califia Farms makes plant-based dairy-free oat milks, almond milks, creamers, cold brew coffees, juices, and other natural beverages and drinkable yogurts.
They use blocks of colors and hero images of their products combined with the added value of tutorial videos, recipes, retailer shout-outs, discounts, and more.
See email examples below.
Email Example //
Califia Farms recently launched additional Barista Blends offerings and supplemented the campaign with How-To videos. With this, they really touched on the emotional factor behind making your own lattes at home. In this email, they provide a series of tutorial videos to show people how to use their Barista Blends. This provides additional value to the consumers and builds loyalty. The email ends with a CTA to purchase their Barista Blends and links to Amazon here.
