2 Proven Email Marketing Strategies for a $232,028 Product Launch
Nothing gets brand owners more pumped than a good old fashioned product launch. Aside from sitewide sales, launches are usually a great way to make a lot of dollar bucks appear in your bank account.
However, I’ve noticed that while most ecommerce brands put a lot of effort into creating a new product, their launch strategy for email marketing is predictability underwhelming.
It usually looks like this:
Decide on the date for the new product launch.
Spend tens of hours designing and nit picking edits on a “poster” style email campaign that usually gets finished at the last minute.
Send email on the date of the product launch and maybe one reminder email.
Does a basic launch formula like this work? Yup. I’ve done the exact same thing with dozens of agency clients and achieved some great results.
But I've noticed two things with this approach:
They are unnecessarily stressful because we are putting all of our hopes and dreams into one email campaign to generate all the sales. This ALWAYS leads to last minute edits and second guessing design elements that aren’t going to make a huge impact in sales.
They leave a ton of money on the table by ignoring pre-launch and post-launch emails.
I recently helped an outdoor gear brand generate $232,028.00 in email sales from a product launch and I wanted to share some insights that can help you dominate your next product launch.
1. Pre-Launch Emails - Warm Up Your List With Some Pre-Gaming
Back in college before heading out to a house party me and my friends would “pre-game”. Which is basically having a few drinks or shots before you head, this way you’re already a little revved up and ready to party.
Now it’s a little childish and stupid (Bueller? Bueller?) , but we want to apply this same idea to your product launch.
Instead of just abruptly smashing into email inboxes like the Kool Aid Man shouting “we’ve got a new product!” You want to warm up your list with a few pre-launch emails.
Most email campaigns for product launches hit the inbox like this…
For this client we sent out two pre-launch teaser emails that let everyone on their list know we had some big news.
We sent the first pre-launch email about a week in advance, and kept the email copy short, teased the drop, and gave them a date to look forward to. The second pre-launch email was sent 24 hours before the new chair went live on the site and followed the same copy structure.
The average person receives 50-100 emails a day, so rather than put all our eggs in one basket on a single launch email we want to maximize our reach and make sure everyone on our list knows a launch is coming. This builds hype and puts the launch on everyone's radar so they are actively looking for your launch email.
If you don’t email your list regularly, these pre-launch emails are absolutely critical to make your launch email a success.
2. Launch and Post Launch Emails: Keep Your Foot On The Gas
So did this pre-launch strategy work? Our launch day email says, yes.
Pre-launch emails will help you see results like this.
Another thing to keep in mind was that it wasn't a true launch. It was actually a pre-order for their new chair which wouldn’t ship for another 30 days
Now this is the point where most ecommerce brands pop champagne, slap high fives and consider their mission accomplished. Maybe they do a re-send, of the campaign, but by and large the launch is done. Time to move on to the next sale or promotion.
But I wasn’t satisfied with this result. I knew we could scoop up more sales after our initial surge of orders if we sent multiple post-launch email campaigns.
The day after our launch email I did a resend of the campaign to anyone who had not opened the initial launch campaign.
Then a week later followed it up with a style of email that most brands just don’t have the balls to send.
A plain text email from the CEO, that looked something you would get from a friend. This email CRUSHED IT, bringing in another $48K which was 21% of the total launch revenue.
The ugly, humble plain text email is a game changer.
Plain text emails, they are my secret weapon of choice, but outside of the information marketing world they are rarely used in ecommerce email marketing. Which is shame because they work, really, really well.
A week later, we followed up with another post-launch email that featured reviews from a handful of early testers of the chair. This social proof is fantastic for knocking people off the fence who can’t decide about your new product.
When the dust settled from our email campaigns we generated $232,028.00 and 788 orders for the new product.
Moral of the story. If you’re only sending one campaign launch email, you’re leaving behind whole lotta green.
The launch email was 50% of the total revenue, but look at that. Those three post-launch emails accounted for the other 50% of launch revenue. That’s $86K that would have been left on the table had we stopped after the launch emails.
Who dares wins.
When it comes to email marketing for product launches most brands will not implement a launch strategy like this. They are too scared about annoying their list, unsubscribes, and sending perfectly designed emails.
That’s fine. Let your competitors play not to lose, while we go out and conquer.
If you’re planning to launch a new product soon, let’s talk.