Email Marketing as a not B2C focused company — Esee Knives
A how-to written by a fan of their products
It was the guarantee that got me.
No questions asked. For lifetime. No matter what you do with your knife.
Even if you should get the idea that your knife’s edge is the ideal tool for hammering bricks (you can and probably break your knife if you do that)…
You get a free replacement.
A company that can offer a guarantee like that stands behind their products, no doubt about it. And just like that, I became the happy owner of an Esee 4 knife — and I love it.
But even if I love their products, their Email Marketing could still use some work… so why don’t we have a look at it and come up with a few ideas on how it could be taken to the next level?
We usually only work with DTC (Direct To Customer / B2C) companies, ideally focused on the Outdoor space. Imagine my disappointment when I saw that Esee mainly sells their products through their Retailer network! With the exception of closeouts, special runs, certain components, replacement hardware, and logo gear listed in the ESEE Store, all products are sold via Retailer.
But… Email Marketing can benefit any company. And we love Esee. So here we go.
Goals
When coming up with the strategy for any marketing channel, always start with the goal in mind — what do we want to happen here?
In the case of Esee, their Newsletter will most likely not attract Wholesale partners… but that’s just a guess. Working with that assumption, how can we make their Email Channel customer-focused while at the same time not selling a lot of products directly?
And ideally, how can we also convert potential Wholesale partners if they sign up to the Newsletter out of interest?
Let’s talk about the wholesale aspect in a second. What we want to do on the B2C side:
1. Build customer loyalty and lifetime value. While customers can’t buy everything from Esee directly, they are more likely to return for more Esee products if they like the brand, trust the brand, and have a positive relationship with Esee.
2. Create an automated customer advisor. Email Marketing is a great way to provide targeted educational material to the right people and helping them find what most suits their needs. Done well, Email Marketing can be a 1 to 1 conversation, at scale. No other marketing channel can do that.
3. Possible upsells/cross-sells. If we know an email subscriber is interested in a specific product, or maybe even already owns it… then we can suggest related products.
Example: I own an Esee 4. It comes with a plastic sheath, and that’s it (if I recall correctly). But maybe I’m looking for another knife sheath, maybe made from Kydex instead of the normal plastic. Maybe I want to wear it differently and purchase a Molle system. Maybe I am worried about maintenance. Or I’d like to change the knife handles.
Esee has products that can help in any of these situations. And maybe I’d even like to book a survival training through Randall’s Adventure & Training (the sister company).
But I might not know these exist. Who’s going to tell me?
Growing The Newsletter
The greatest Email Strategy and Content won’t do anything for you if… nobody reads your emails. Makes sense, right?
In the case of Esee, this is the current situation:
- No Popup
- Relatively hidden Signup Form
- Double Opt-In
- Not the ideal Email Service Provider
(No) Popup
This is what you see when you open eseeknives.com. What you don’t see? Any kind of Popup or Flyout asking you to enter your email and subscribe to the Newsletter.
I don’t know how much traffic the website gets, but an optimized Signup can get 1 out of 10 to join the Newsletter. But that won’t happen without a Popup or Flyout.
We typically build a Popup for Desktop users that opens after 30–60 seconds (you don’t want to hurt the user experience of the site) and on exit-intent (when someone wants to leave the site).
The same thing as a Flyout for Mobile users — a popup is often too intrusive there.
Spice it up with text that goes beyond the usual “Sign Up for Updates and Discounts”. While discounts can help incentivize signups, they’re not required.
The Signup Form
So here’s a thing most companies with a Newsletter do — hide their Signup form at the very bottom of the website, with the standard “Subscribe to our mailing list” text.
Unless I am already a big fan or really interested in your emails, I likely won’t sign up. Most companies with a setup like this then also never send a single email (Esee does), so expectations are low.
This is lost potential. Highlight the Signup a bit on the page, customize the text so it fits your brand.
The Problem With Double-Opt-In
Double-Opt-In means the first email I get after signing up to a Newsletter is going to ask me to confirm my subscription. You’ve seen it before.
In fact, IF your email deliverability is bad and your emails land in the Spam folder a lot, I actually advise you to set it up in our Email Deliverability Guide.
BUT… it’s not necessary for Ecommerce Brands. In most cases at least. Double-Opt-In can actually lose you up to 1 out of 2 potential subscribers.
As long as you have a grip on your Email Channel, you do not need Double-Opt-In.
Not the ideal Email Service Provider
Mailchimp has been the go-to for a long time in Email Marketing. But they just don’t stand up to better Email Service Providers.
My recommendation for any brand using online channels to sell products or talk to their audience is clear: Klaviyo.
Simple to set up, easy to use, powerful, data-driven, and just all-around superior to Mailchimp.
Yes, as a Klaviyo Partner we are biased. But that comes from massive amounts of research on the different Email Service Providers. As it stands, Klaviyo rules supreme.
Say “Hello” and Introduce Yourself
This is the email I got after signing up for the Newsletter 👇
I’m not sure why, but the text repeats itself, both big text blocks seem to be identical. Happens.
But it doesn’t feel personal, as this is more or less just the “About Us” section of the website, condensed a bit. Again, Email Marketing should be approached as a 1 on 1 conversation, just happening at scale.
When you welcome someone to your Newsletter, introduce yourself properly — who are you? Why should I care? What can I expect from you?
A personal message from the founder might work well as an example. Some background information on Esee that might not be well known.
During a welcome sequence, we want to help someone get from unaware to aware. What do I mean by that? Before the welcome sequence, I might not know Esee. I might not know what knife, if any, I actually need.
So what can we do about that?
Here’s how we might set it up:
- Create a short quiz to figure out what the potential customer actually needs to know, and what he might be looking for.
- When asking them to sign up for the newsletter, tell them there’s a short questionnaire to help them figure out exactly what they need/want.
- Use the results from the questionnaire to segment the email list by interests/requirements. A law enforcement officer will have different needs than an outdoor enthusiast. By dynamically grouping them in their own segments (easy to do with Klaviyo), we can send them a welcome sequence and email campaigns that are actually tailored to them.
Depending on their location or interests, it might also make sense to suggest a retailer to them.
Depending on their interests, we can also suggest survival training with Randall’s Adventure & Training.
Do they already have an Esee product? If yes, wonderful — ask them which.
Automatically Personal
Our goal is relationship building, remember? Well, it can make a lot of sense to set up a few simple automated email sequences in addition to the Welcome Sequence, stuff like “Happy Birthday from Esee!”, “You’ve read our emails for a year — thank you”, …
A great Post Purchase Sequence also helps create great experiences and doesn’t take long to set up. Here’s an example.
Since Esee isn’t really B2C focused, the automated sequences don’t have to be complicated — make it simple, make it personal.
Email Strategy
An Email List that isn’t emailed relatively regularly grows cold. People stop being interested in your emails. It makes sense to send at least one email per month, just to not be forgotten.
A few quick ideas:
1. “They ask, you answer” approach — what topics do customers wonder about? Answer their questions honestly & openly.
2. Repurpose YouTube content, turn it from video into text, or send them a link to the video.
3. Product news & industry updates
4. Create a recurring content format, that makes it quite easy to produce content on an ongoing basis.
It likely doesn’t make sense to go super heavy on email campaigns though — there is very little immediate return on that effort. It’s a more long-term part of marketing with likely more of a lasting impact that doesn’t show much short-term.
Stay top of mind, but an email once a month should be fine here.
I hope this article was helpful, no matter if you’re part of the ESEE team or not.
If you are part of the ESEE team… keep it up. You guys are awesome.
If you’d like to see how you could increase your own Email Marketing results, give us a visit at bullseye-persuasion.com
Don’t forget to clap (you can do up to 50 claps) & comment.
See you soon & stay focused!
