When was the last time anyone questioned the financial outcomes of retention marketing activities?

Going by the logic:

Every action you take must have a future expectation of results...

Nothing should be left to best practices or "experience".

This is the baseline of all good marketing.

And no one should ever settle for less.

Yet this is pretty typical for many agencies...

Trust-me-I'm-an-expert "strategy".

Nurturing customers, meeting the customer where they're at in the journey, personalisation.

Makes sense in theory, but what’s the incremental lift?

Is it the most efficient use of your limited resources?

At the 7-figure mark, trying to break 8-figures, this is an ever more crucial time.

That's what CTC's Global Accelerator Program solves for.

1. Better alignment with traditionally siloed growth <> retention teams.
2. Better agility to support a very dynamic marketing calendar.
3. Better analysis of activities that impact your P&L.

Together with Growth Strategists, Retention Strategists make this work.

At CTC, we always sign our names on the bottom line.

Because we know that’s what it really means to win.

If this speaks to you, let's chat and see if we'll be a good fit for each other.

Josh Tay

Some good stuff from this month.

Because everyone still asks to see designs. So here we go :)

Director of Retention, Common Thread Collective | Building the world’s strongest retention program for 7 & 8 figure DTC brands

Just because you sell skincare, doesn't mean you need to only talk about skincare.

In this example, we tested running traffic to 2 quizzes.

Quiz 1: Which smoothie matches your personality
Quiz 2: Which beauty routine is right for you

We didn't expect the smoothie version to outperform by so much.

Most people would've stopped just after creating a quiz.

Or maybe compared quiz AOV/LTV vs non-quiz takers.

But we thought this would be a worth-while test.

Lesson: Think about your customers' lifestyle. 

And alternatives (not complementry) for your product. 

Weave them together.

Now this is a fascinating insight that our retention team passed to the growth team.

Client industry: Apparel

And we found that customers who bought designs with dogs had much higher LTV than those who didn't.

What brand will be doing:

- Add new filter for dogs for easier nav
- Test new designs with dogs

What we'll be doing:

- Dedicated dog ads
- Find more of such niches

How much time is your team investing into drawing insights?
Is your team reporting on metrics or taking action?
Are you asking the right questions?

Giving discounts in your flows to increase AOV?

What criteria do you have to determine who receives a discount?

Everyone?
Non-customers only?
Discount with threshold? But which amount?

To answer that, you'll need to look at your AOV histogram.

1. If you based it off AVERAGE order value, you might be pretty off

- Averages lie
- If we had set it at the mean, there'd be a very big chunk of people who wouldn't have moved
- Purely because their cart value might've been too far (see how far mode is from mean)
- Mean is getting pulled up by select customers who spend enornmous amounts
- Question is, where are most of your customers?

2. Look at MODAL order value for help

- Your objective is to move people one bucket up
- Moving the bulk of customers up will translate to higher AOV by default
- It's the same for how you'd create free shipping thresholds or free gift with thresholds in your gamified cart drawers.

There's math to most of these things.

Only do things when it makes sense for the business.

You might win on revenue, but at what cost?

(Long post ahead!)

Today I want to breakdown a real post-mortem of a recent play we did for women’s headwear brand.

And exactly how we still hit the forecast while mitigating downside risk. 

Context:
Client wants to repeat last year’s promo mechanics and marketing calendar.

Expectation:
Client looking for 1.5x rev growth with 20% higher CM.

So unfortunately, that means getting more out of email and sms channels

Problem:
Based on projections following last year’s cadence, we weren’t likely to hit target revenue desired by client.

Constraint:
At the end of the day, it’s the client’s business, and we’re here to deliver results. So it’s our job to best solve for it.

Is this sustainable? 

Nope. But it’s the best stop-gap measure before we have a conversation on expectations, while still delivering on performance to prove we can.

👀 Observation of historical:

Every major promo (BFCM, Mother's Day, Labor Day, Independence Day) did generate more revenue YoY. 

Revenue up 87%, but they had to send to 133% more people to get there. 

At some point, we’ve just been adding subscribers who don't convert into the campaign mix…

Dragging down the economics of the entire channel.


🧠 Insight 1:
RPR declined every single time—ranging from -7% to -42%. 

What was happening is that they were running the same plays to bigger lists and getting diminishing returns per subscriber.

It was reusing the same promo mechanics promo on promo, because “it worked”.

And expanding audiences toe extract more revenue.

What was “working” was going to crash real soon.


🧠 Insight 2:

The correlation between campaign frequency and RPR was actually positive (+0.25).

More campaigns in a month didn’t tank performance. 

What does correlate with declining performance though, was list size growth:

Early period: 56K avg recipients/campaign → $0.0326 RPR
Late period: 126K avg recipients/campaign → $0.0261 RPR

As the send sizes expanded 2-3x, engagement metrics collapsed.


🔬Analysis:

Most would think we have a list fatigue problem.

Initial thought is to reduce sends.

But we actually don’t have a demand elasticity problem.

We are just dealing with the law of shitty cohorts.


👎 The wrong things to do:

1. Expand audiences to get more impressions.
(This will trigger law of shitty cohorts)

2. Reduce send volume
(This wouldn’t allow us to hit rev targets)


👍 What to do:

1. Increase send volume to tighter engagement segments since list has been proven to be able to handle.

2. Product promos only to go out to product-interest segments.

This is why we never skip forecasts.

The forecast allows us to gap-find and it’s based on the exercise of rigorous forecasting that we uncover these insights that we’d otherwise have missed out on, which might have resulted in incorrect execution.

When creating any post-purchase upsells/cross-sells, always rely on your product journey map.

The common way:

Person adds sample > They buy regular next

Data might show otherwise.

In this case, person goes straight into bundle.

Even for singles, they seem to not replenish the same product.

Instead, they gravitate towards bundles, and stay on bundle orders.

This could drastically change the way you push for repurchases.

Interestingly, this mystery item was the fourth most purchased item.

This item's added to the cart drawer as a default upsell on every product.

Avg item price: $35
Mystery item: $15

Objective: How can we liquidate slow/dead inventory faster?

Go-forward questions:

1. Should we create a mystery bundle option too?
2. Can we create "mystery gift" as a front-end offer?

These will all be tests to be conducted.

Ask the right questions...

... Come up with the right hypotheses

... Test the right things

... Take the right actions


Client niche: Accessories

Klaviyo audits alone are insufficient to determine what to do for your retention program.

How should you prioritise activities?

Of the flows recommended, what will the content/angle be?

It's one of the reasons why we look through everything.

Based on this finding, we're:

- Doubling down on resources for refer-and-earn program
- Creating multi-bundles and quantity break discounts
- Include more creative for influencers in pre-purchase flows

(we found that most people who said instagram, youtube, tiktok, also meant influencers and creators)

To do a sanity check, we looked at codes redeemed and saw that most first time customer codes redeemed were from affiliates.

Sometimes things like these we're overthinking.

But we're actually seeing higher lead:conversion efficiency across the board in the last 90 days vs previous period.

So we know that's working.

---
Client niche: Fitness equipment

4 mistakes I made when first forecasting email revenue and how you can avoid it too.

I wish we could figure this out faster too.

But the retention scape in this aspect is still in its infancy.

We're doing our best to fail faster.

To come to a clearer truth.

Here's 4 things I got wrong and how we're solving for it now:

1. Not taking monthly volume into account (rev degradation)

❌  As we increase campaign volume, unsubs might increase and RPR might decrease.

What should've been done was to create a weighted average of RPR based on volume of sends per week over time, split by promo vs non-promo

---

2. Not taking post-promo revenue dips into account

❌ From the last promo sent, you need to determine the "cooldown period" before demand picks back up again.
---

3. Not taking last-year-same-period's email volume into account

❌ For the sake of simplicity, I naively assumed last year's RPR to be same as this year's. 

I just applied a seasonality factor on top with a YoY growth factor.

But the diminishing returns from higher volume played a bigger role than I anticipated.
---

4. Not discounting active subscriptions in email campaigns

❌ If you send a general educational campaign to your engaged list with active subscribers in there...

You'd have been inaccurately attributing revenue.
---

Now we're factoring all that and building it into our forecasting algorithm.

And fully automating this to eliminate human error.

Humans are terrible at extrapolating data.

Worse if we need to incorporate several other aspects.

Tech enablement is the future of marketing.

Built upon solid reasoning, 
asking the right questions, 
with an endless desire to improve, 
and relentlessness to follow-through on the outcomes we promise on

Your cart drawers, checkout upsell, post-purchase upsell funnel will bump your LTV up more than a bounce-back post-purchase email will.

On these pages, you have 100% open rates.

With the highest purchase intent.

Take advantage of it.

Different products in cart might need different upsells based on:

- LTV growth by product
- Total LTV by product (including AOV)
- Balance with product demand (volume)
- Product journey
- Frequently bought together

Then once you have your various funnels/upsells in place, there should be monthly measurement to identify what needs improvement.

How equipped are you and/or your retention team right now to execute this?

Reviews immensely help reduce friction to the purchase.

People look at the number of reviews to know if this brand/product is trustworthy.

It makes sense to build your review war chest.

In post-purchase surveys, we've asked specifically about reviews.

Question 1: "What made you choose to shop with us?"

Options: "Reviews", "Referrals from friends", "Video tutorials", "Others"

Of those who selected Reviews, we had a logic to ask the next question...

Question 2: "How did the reviews help you make a decision today?"

Options: "Other customers' stories", "Photos/Videos of products in use", "Number of reviews vs other brands"

And we saw high photo/video review responses.

This isn't a theory propogated by review apps.

We personally tested this.

That's how we know what to do.
(Always be skeptical and own your own data. Everyone on the internet lies. Maybe I'm lying too)

But if you're too lazy to test, here's what you can do to set up.

1. Go to your review app
2. Create coupon tiers
3. Customise review request emails to let customers know about the added incentive
4. Set an expiry on the discount
5. Send reminders to customers who left respective reviews, to claim their discount

Optional:
A/B test with Intelligems or a similar tool, with and without reviews on your PDP.

Or with the number of reviews stars right above your product name.

And see how that affects conversion rate.

Who said retention was only emails and sms?

Is your retention person supporting you with these?

Always nice to know we're pacing on target, within <10% delta.

We still have big moments we're expecting towards end of month.

Tracking performance this way takes away guesswork.

The worst thing an agency can do is to come up with excuses to justify underperformance.

Over and over again.

When all that was needed was accountability.

We're now more than 90 days past BFCM.

You know what that means?

Time to reactivate your black friday shoppers who are unengaged on digital.

Looking at your repurchase windows, you'll see that majority of LTV lift for new customers happen within first 90 days. 

(typically)

If you're a brand with replenishable products...

Or you sell things with high novelty/"new drop" factors...

This is definitely something you'll want to get in on.

Relook at past year's data and you'll also find this:

Your black friday buyers are a lot more sensitive than other promo period shoppers/evergreen.

(I've had a post with some of this data before if you wanna check that out.)

So if we're nearing the end of the highest probablity curve of repurchase and they're still not coming back...

Much less engaging...

You'll want to do something about that.

1. Offer
Again, we know holiday shoppers typically only buy with discounts

2. New channel
If they're not engaging on email, sms, try new mode of communication

And this is the perfect time to start.

+ you only have a very short window to execute.

You'll want to run your winbacks for this group of customers before the next major sale.

Which for most US brands, is going to be Memorial Day and 4th July Sales.

If you start right now, you'll need a couple of days to get post cards delivered to doorsteps.

Then, people don't take action immediately.

Postcards might sit on their desks or coffee tables for a while.

That's why we wait out with a 60-day maturity period.

🚨 IMPORTANT:
You don't want your winback offer clashing with your site offer.

Because now that just muddies data and the offers cannibalise each other.

Timeline:
Now > 14 Mar = Plan your campaign, offers, creative, segments
15 Mar > 20-ish Mar = Delivery
20 Mar > 20 May = 60-Day Maturity Period

Just in time for memorial day promo launch date.

And you can do your usual holdouts.

But this is a crucial time to strike.

If you want to run a proper winback campaign, do it once, do it right.

Have an Amazon store that gets more traction than your .com?

Consider an exit intent popup redirecting traffic there.

Targeting:
- triggered on PDPs only
- $0 cart value
- stayed more than 15sec
- or scrolled more than 50%

Create specific popups for each key product, with relevant redirects.

Instead of wasting that visit, send them to somewhere you know people are actively converting on.

We're doing this with a home improvement brand that sells DIY light kits right now.

If people want to shop on amazon, we can't force them not to.

Return rates on amazon for this brand aren't crazy high.

So this will be our interim solution before the growth team solves for the conversion issue.

There's no one way to use popups.

Everything is just a tool.

What matters is how you use it to benefit your business.

“Bundles increase AOV”

Logically, that should translate to higher LTV.

So many people default to bundles, which might not always work.

In this case, I’m specifically talking about pre-set bundles, which is the most common way of bundling. 

Sometimes customers just want to pick out exactly what they want.

Forcing a bundle may actually end up reducing conversions.

Ideas like:
Hero product with slow movers
Hero with high LTV product to push profit
Hero with accessories that go well together

These are valid pairings.

But again, we’re assuming people want the next product we’re recommending.

What you want to sell might not be what customers want to buy.

There are two ways to go about this.

Product journey + frequently bought together analyses

Which I’ve talked about before in previous posts.

Let people choose on their own

Aka Build Your Own Bundle.

This works especially well (and much easier to implement) for brands with similar AOV products in the catalogue.

And you can gamify this with the typical tiered discounts with threshold.

I’ve seen bundle take up rate go up to 20% with dedicated BYOB pages in the nav bar.

Example 1 
We have a client selling canned tea. They have 12 flavours. Instead of forcing 6 packs of single varieties then force customers to buy multiple carton to try different flavours, you select your own quantity of flavours for each 6-pack.

Structured like a quiz

Step 1: Select how many cartons you want
Step 2: Carton 1 - Which flavours do you want
Step 3: Repeat for however many cartons selected
Step 4: Would you like to add another carton for X% off? (Progress bar of discount at top of page to)

If AOV varies widely, adopt a similar strategy as how you’d buy a computer.

Base product
+ one add on from category 1 at $X
+ one add on from category 2 at $Y
+ one add on from category 3 at $Z

Each of these are optional.

Example 2
Another client selling sofas. That’s base product. Category 1 are removable spill proof covers. Category 2 are pillow sets. Category 3 is a 2-year warranty.

In our frequently bought together widget below, we still have opportunity to cross-sell sofa extenders and poufs.

Now you give customers lots more flexibility while maintaining some level of control of options.

No fluffy customer journey theory.

Just real stuff that you can implement right now.

And all the data points you need.

Feel free to take this and run with it.

Client niche: F&B, subscription

How to overcome weak subscription program take-up rate

"Multi-month" cohorts almost always will have higher LTV than monthly subscription cohorts.

More specifically, I’m talking about cumulative LTV.

Which is at the end the most important thing to the business. 

That $ value.

So this is definitely something every subscription brand should be testing.

In this example, brand sells soaps.

- One-time orders
- 15% monthly subscribe and save
- 19% for double pack bundle
- 23% for triple pack bundle

Your CAC might be higher on these multi-packs.

Largely also due to much higher AOV.

But not only is cumulative LTV higher, margin LTV per customer beats monthly subs hands down.

Essentially you’ve collected ltv upfront. 

Which is great. 

You don’t have to worry about churn as much. 
CAC payback’s shorter. 
So is your cash conversion cycle.

Definitely a test worth trying.

LTV comes in many forms.

Do what's right for your financial outcome.

Are you levergaging Web Push notifications?

- Welcome
- Browse abandons
- Cart abandons

If you find your lead:conversion rate on these email/sms flows are weak, it might make sense to have another channel to support.

At the end of the day, it's about impressions.

So where do your customers hang out, that you also be on?

Show up there and drive them back to site.

Then track lead:conversion efficiency

The way you structure a tiered loyalty program must take psychological triggers in mind + factor in unit economics.

Weak participation rate = Poor incremental revenue

= unnecessary complexity 

= useless extra cost to run the program

Three post-purchase micro surveys conducted across three different brands.

All had one same option:

"When there's a sale on"

In all instances, that came up as the highest volume response.

This is probably the reality for most ecommerce brands.

People are most likely to shop when there's a sale or a discount.

Knowing this, it's ever more important to bake the discounts already into the price of your product.

So that you can afford to "discount" when necessary.

Without having a really strong, notable brand, is it really possible to never go on sale, and still maximise your growth potential both on new and returning rev?

What do you think?

Email Aficionado | Sharing ways that marketers and creators can profitably reach their customers via email

Hey! You're actually reading my about section - Welcome 👋🏻

You'd probably struggle to find someone on LinkedIn who has more passion for the digital, email, communication and strategy space than here.

So, what do I actually do, you may ask? 

Well, by day, I head up all things Commercial at Prebo Digital. We're one of Africa's premier digital performance agencies, where our team of experts and I help companies in various industries, both B2B and B2C, create returns from their paid media, SEO, marketplaces, and conversion-rate enhancement.

We're also helping businesses get found using AI! So, if this sounds up your alley, or if you're looking to grow your sales or leads, I'd love to speak with you!

In terms of my role in the organisation: To sum things up, I lead and solve problems for our team and customers, while looking after client relationships, both locally and internationally. I also help lead where our client strategies go, how they enhance their awareness, and how they reach their audience across the funnel (in the most affordable way possible).

I also help lead our sales and partnership efforts, because we're big on creating referral relationships that work, while helping businesses that need practical help to grow. This all leads to Prebo Digital's growth and my getting paid to do what I'm (pretty) good at.

By night...though I'd love to call myself the Batman 😉 I help businesses, creators and marketers make the most out of their email learning and communication. With a marketing degree and over 15 years of digital-specific experience, email has a special place in my heart. I put my skills to use best in helping email senders of every creed strategise, create, send and grow in the email space.

If you want to learn effective email, we have a free newsletter community called Email Advice in Your Inbox that you HAVE to be part of, so hit that "newsletter" link in my profile. I also help businesses execute their email strategy, and would love to help you win at email!


Feel free to reach out (and coffee is on me if you're in SA), if you need email help, or are a business looking to create sound returns on your email, digital performance, and communication. 

I'd love to tell you how Prebo Digital and Email Expert Africa can help you.

Email: desmond@prebodigital.co.za | des@emailexpertafrica.com
Call: 072 266 1879
www.prebodigital.co.za | www.emailexpertafrica.com

Des Brown

Next time your mom asks you why you didn't become a doctor...

😅


(Not sure if a Doctorate in Email would count - maybe?)


Happy Thursday!

Email & Digital Aficionado | Sharing ways marketers can win in the digital space while building profitable relationships

😅 Every time I see a new email or AI tool.

(Or Spotify Premium Platinum...not even sure what lossless audio does)


Go forth and spend thy coin 😉


Happy Friday!

Email & Digital Aficionado | Sharing ways marketers can win in the digital space

Today I'm quietly launching something I've put my heart and soul into...

And it's built for EVERYONE in the email space 💌


Folks, meet 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗟𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿.com!

(And I hope it's going to be your next favourite free cross-promotion and sponsor-seeking tool)


If there's one thing you know about me, it's that cross-promotion is (BY FAR) my favourite way to grow an email audience.


And, don't get me wrong...there are so many great cross-promotion and sponsorship platforms out there for email senders.

But so often:

• They're limited to using complex platforms
• They're designed for only those senders with large audiences
• And there's no true connection and realtionship built between email senders


The idea to build something that works in a way that creates a 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲 connection hit me early last year.

And, yes, I could vibe-code an empty shell and tick some boxes (and that's what I initially did), but it felt 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘺, and because I'm by no means a coder/ dev, I sat literally pulling my hair out. 🙃


Cue the introduction of my friend (and one of the sharpest technical dev minds I know), Francois Schoeman who has put in an insane amount of midnight oil and dealt with my pedantic details to co-found this with me, and turn it into what it should be.


And here's where we're taking this!

• We want ANYONE sending any type of email to have an opportunity to have the opportunity to cross-promote.
• We're going to be inviting some top-tier sponsors to list available inventory and find newsletters to suit their goals.
• I'm transitioning an already vetted list of over 250+ newsletters I know and trust into CrossLetter to spread the word about them.
  

𝗔𝗻𝗱, 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗟𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀!


So, here's my humble invite to you, email senders, newsletter operators and sponsors:

☝️ Hit the link in the comments and list your newsletter or sponsor profile.
✌️ Open your profile to cross-promos and sponsorships.
👌 Make new friends and discover the newsletters we're adding over the coming weeks.


Honestly, there's so much work still to be done, but as long as this helps build meaningful connections that help newsletters grow in some way, then the sense of fulfilment in building this thing makes it all damn worth it.


Happy Friday the 13th, and I look forward to cross-promoting with you all 💌

Hot take (and this might bite me here) ...

But, you don't need to pay to grow your email audience 👀


Okay, this is definitely likely to bite me 😅, especially because ads DO work for subscriber acquisition, but it shouldn't be the first thing you do to grow an email audience.


𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼: I've attracted thousands of subscribers to my niche newsletter... and I've yet to spend a cent on paid acquisition.

Yeah, I know, I could have doubled that, grown faster, blah, blah, but I'm a bit of a "there's gotta be a cheaper way to do this" kinda guy (or a cheapskate, but we'll go with the hard work angle).


That said, though, this approach isn't for everyone, and it's certainly not easy, but it can be done.


If you're looking to grow the "free" route, here are the 2 biggest ways I've attracted readers (that have stuck) to 𝙀𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙄𝙣𝙗𝙤𝙭:


☝️ 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Some great tools make this easier, but it's as simple as signing up for newsletters that speak to an audience you're aligned with and building a connection with them.

There are so many great newsletter operators out there, and more of them than you realise are willing to find ways to tap into mutual audience fits.

And this doesn't cost a dime (if you make the relationship fair and valuable).


𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻? Do something without the expectation of return.

Feature them to your audience. Speak about what you admire about these newsletters. Tell your audience they're also good sources of info.

Not only does this add value to your audience, but you're showing a willingness to help others win, which builds relationships (and friends).


The principle of Reciprocity is stronger than you realise.


✌️ 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗗𝗠𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹

If someone engages with you, if you're connecting with people who fit your ideal reader profile, or even if you're enjoying someone's content...reach out!

It should never be a hard sell (and more caution below), but it's such a great way to introduce yourself, build connections and also tell folks about your newsletter.


𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Guys, DMs are a private space (yeah, it's a social place, but this small corner of the social world is sacred).

Don't be spammy. Don't just plug it to everyone. Respect inboxes! If someone says no or doesn't sign up, don't shun them either. You've given someone a chance to take a look, and that will always be a future opportunity.


There's no better way to choose who you want in your audience, so put time into this well.



There are heaps more ways to grow without ads, and I'll unpack more of those soon, but would love to hear what everyone's using (for free) to grow their audience?


(𝗣.𝗦. Feel free to plug your newsletter in the comments - here's a free opportunity you can take advantage of because, hey, I'm asking!)


Happy Wednesday 💌

List hygiene in email is so often an afterthought.

The email senders that win? They're making it part of their workflow.


Unfortunately, most teams and email senders only wind up thinking about email verification when something breaks.

And those breaks? They're subtle, aren't they?


Bounce rates creep up.
Email revenue starts slipping.
(IT starts throwing the word “blacklist” around in meetings.)


𝘝𝘰𝘪𝘭𝘢! Suddenly, everyone cares about list hygiene 😅


What many marketers don't realise is that you don't have to act only when damage control is needed if you're applying the right operational discipline.

Remember:

• People change jobs
• Email addresses decay over time
• Typos slip through forms all the time

(And, let's not forget those freebies, promos and giveaways that inevitably attract a heap of junk sign-ups.)


It's never intentional (unless you're sending to emails you shouldn't be sending to), but the inbox doesn’t care about your intentions if it's reacting to your subscriber behaviour!

 
Deliverability is the by-product of who you send to, how engaged they are, and how clean your data is.
 
So, if verification only happens 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 something goes wrong, you’re already playing defence.
 

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 ⚒️
 

Of the smartest out there, my friends at Bouncer certainly come to mind, and I had the immense privilege of breaking down how they do this in the latest edition of 𝙀𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝙏𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙨 𝙏𝙇𝘿𝙍.
 
I got to run through their insanely easy-to-use email verification platform and see exactly how their platform helps email teams make verification part of the workflow.

 
If you care about long-term email performance, 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲’𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.


And if you're keen to see why I've got their name up in lights, there's a link in the comments to take a read (because there's something in it for all readers too, btw).



If you're planning before imports, big campaigns, reactivations, scaling paid traffic into lead magnets, or just want to make sure you have the healthiest email environment possible...

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁! ☝️
 

See you in the inbox and happy Friday!

I speak to folks about choosing the right ESP all the time.

Most often, many of them go about it completely the wrong way...


Many start with pricing.
Others begin with which platform has the fanciest features.
And, best of all, I've had a plethora of people saying their "𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦" said it was good.

(and that's also a great example of why 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 friends and good business decisions don't often mix well) 🙃


But, steering us back on track, yeah, these things matter... 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁?


That's what I've invited my (insanely well-informed) friend, Robert Brandl, to share his insights on for our 𝙀𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝘼 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙬𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 community tomorrow.


Not only is he well-informed, but the man literally does this for a living, helping folks as the founder and CEO of the brilliant EmailTooltester team.


Robert put together an instant favourite on how businesses can go about making the right email platform choice for their business model, lifecycle and what matters to the people who 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 send emails in a business.


And, if that's not convincing enough, he'll also be sharing a link to a detailed spreadsheet that lets you compare the best email marketing services for various businesses for our readers 💎


If you're keen to grab a copy, drop a 👋 and I'll send over a link (or just hit the link in my bio and you're in!)



Happy Wednesday, and see you in the inbox 💌

If you're in the performance marketing game, you'll know one thing:

Clicks are easy.  But journeys? 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵...
 

And, unfortunately, most dashboards don’t show you the difference.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁: We’ve built an entire industry around optimising the click.
 
CTR.
CPC.
CPM.

(Yep, all the acronyms that celebrate lower costs and higher click-through rates like they’re the finish line 🏁).

 
I hate to break it to you, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁. They're just the doorway, and we so often forget this.

 
The real question is actually where your real performance focus lies:
 
𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩?

 
Because you can have great ads, strong targeting  and healthy traffic, and yet may still not grow.
 

And the real reason why is that the journey after the click is weak.
 

Pages take forever to load.
Messages don't match ads well
Offers are vague and lack clarity
Forms wind up asking for waaay to much
Tracking only stops once folks take that click
And (I don't just blame sales here), but CRM follow-up is often inconsistent.
 

And who gets the blame? The poor platforms, or 𝘣𝘢𝘥 leads, or even your agency 🙃
 
But most often, it's your architecture of that full customer journey letting you down, not the traffic.
 
 
Ad platforms are designed to optimise for the click. That’s literally their job.
 
𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸.

 
So, to give you something to work on and really put your focus into, here's my take:
 
Solid (revenue-generating) journeys require clear intent alignment, strong landing environments, clean event tracking (with tight feedback loops), and all need to be set up with good data flowing into the optimisation side of things.
 

If you really want those clicks to work for you, this is the stuff that matters.
 
And, if you need help getting this right, pop me a DM or head over and chat to our team at Prebo Digital - This is our bread and butter ☝🏼


Happy Saturday!

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The Battle

Josh Tay

Des Brown

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Josh Tay's LinkedIn Performance

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