A great example of why itās crucial to actively interact and understand what your customers are wanting.
The Airbnb Co-founder:
Donāt fall so in love with your product/company that you forget to talk with the most important people⦠the customers.
In this newsletter youāll find: š
š Re-engaging your email list ā sunset flows.
ā SEO for Amazon listings.
šØ Offer first creative.
DTC Scale School is in session. Keep reading to learn more. :)
š If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe so you never miss out. And be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
ā
Your friendly neighborhood Amazon team is here to remind you not to sleep on SEO on your listings!
Amazon indexes every word in your title, bullet, backend search terms, and some say it even affects A + content.
How to ace SEO in critical parts of your listing: š
Number 1: Title
Crafting your title is arguably the most critical part of your listing, and itās what shoppers will see first and what reels them into your product from the search results page.
You have about ~130 characters to accomplish your masterfully enticing title. You can go up to around ~200 characters, but itās those first ~130 that will have the most significant impact on your shopper.
Incorporate your highest-value keywords and describe the principal selling features of your product.
Amazonās best practice is to have your brand as the first word of your title. However, we recommend moving it back and pushing your highest-value keyword forward. In theory, Amazon will prioritize words further up in your title in your indexing and ranking.
Organize your title so that itās easy to read using text separators. We prefer using a vertical bar (|) over (,) or (.).
Ex. Shampoo and Conditioner for Hair Growth | Thickening Anti Hair Loss Shampoo Treatment | Regrowth Shampoo & Conditioner for Dry Normal Oily & Color Treated Hair
Number 2: Bullet points Ā
š§ STANDALONE | portray all the productās features and donāt assume the shopper has seen any other product information.
š LONG BUT NOT COMPLEX | Fill the space given with relevant keywords without sacrificing readability, brand voice, or selling features/benefits.
š REPEAT SOME KEYWORDS | We like to repeat some high-value keywords in the bullets and title ā and then expand beyond them, using synonyms
š£ USE TITLES AND SEPARATORS | We like to use titles and separators to help categorize each bullet and push forward the main value propositions.
š®āāļø TO EMOJI OR NOT TO EMOJI? | Although against Amazonās best practices, emojis spice up a listing and draw attention to the bullets.
^ In case you didnāt figure it out already, the above is how we like to organize our bullets. š
Number 3: A+ Content
Some research suggests that text in the A+ content will index in Amazonās search engine (but it will look terrible, so donāt just use text, use images).
Once you have images in your A+ content, click edit on the photos, a field will appear that says āimage keywords."
In that field, all the words you enter will index. Image keywords are a great place to put common misspellings and different languages as they arenāt customer-facing.
Number 4: Backend Search Terms
These are hidden keywords that only the sellers can see. They allow you to add more detailed search terms not included on your product page.
Every word, and every combination of words, you put in your backend keywords indexes for SEO.
For example, a backend search term field, done well, looks like this:
"dog treat puppy large food healthy big treat healthyā¦"
No separators between the words, only spaces ā Amazon will index for all combinations of those.
So in this example ā it would index for "dog," "dog treat," and even "healthy dog treats for large dogs."
Backend search terms are another prime location to include misspellings and different languages.
Number 6: Variations
You can combine a whole bunch of different products into one listing.
Check out this Poppi listing as an example:
Using variations will usually result in products "sharing" reviews, ranking and relevance, boosting traffic for lesser-searched products.
Showing the wide range of your offerings is a great upsell opportunity!
However, be thoughtful when combining products into variations, as only one product within that variation can display in search results.
In some cases it's a better strategy to leave listings separate to own more previous search real estate.
Thanks to the Pilothouse Amazon team for the tips!
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This is the final part of our series on re-engaging email subscribers.
If youāve sent a re-engagement campaign and/or winback flow, and still have email subscribers that havenāt engaged with your brandā¦
It may be time to "let the sun go down" on these subs (cue the Elton John šµ).
This is when Sunset Flows come into play: a last-ditch effort to re-engage ā or phase out ā customers who are no longer engaging with your brand.
So grab your picnic basket and bottle of wine. Weāre going on a walk into the Sunset. š
ā²ļø When to send a Sunset Flow:
Unlike Winback Flows, the trigger for a Sunset Flow is purely based on engagement.
If a user hasnāt engaged1 with your emails for a period of time2, before you take them off your list, the best practice is to add them to a Sunset Flow.
ā
Klaviyo recommends basing the trigger on how regularly you email your list. For example, if you send daily emails, 90 days of inactivity is a good indicator that someone is unengaged.
If you email more infrequently, such as monthly, consider a 120ā180 day trigger.*
*Brownie Points: Send your Sunsets to the largest segment of unengaged subs š„° Ā
Our Email Team at Pilothouse Agency suggests having your Sunset Flow fire on whichever unengaged segment Ā ā 30, 60, 90, or 120 days ā tends to have the most volume. Ā
In other words, if you have the ability to get granular with your data, focus your Sunset on where the bulk of your less-engaged audience lives.
This will allow you to get the most data, revenue, and retention from your efforts.
š The structure of a Sunset Flow:
Sunset Flows basically serve as a "breakup" or "goodbye" message to checked-out subscribers (ugh, depressing, we know š).
More tactically speaking, they allow you to:
So you want your message to be crystal clear: If they donāt take action, theyāll no longer hear from you. š
Here are some best practices from our Email Team at Pilothouse:
Also, make sure to filter out anyone who engages with an email in the Sunset Flow. Once theyāve engaged, they should be automatically removed from the flow and put back into an engaged segment.
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š” Sunset Flows IRL:
This Sunset email from Animoto is perfectly simple. If the user wants to stay on their list, they can update their email preferences to make sure theyāre only getting relevant content. If not, they can unsubscribe.
The question is, what will happen if they do nothing? š¤
Maybe adding a note that theyāll be taken off the list if they donāt respond would prompt better engagement.
š» Besides the adorable kitten thatās sure to get your attention⦠Buzzfeedās email reminds their subscribers of what theyāll get if they click the button to stay on the newsletter (recipes 2x/week).
And if no action is taken, itās clear theyāll be removed from the list.
Weāre also digging this creative Sunset email from Framebridge. On the user end, itās clear and engaging, giving the subscriber details as to what will happen next.
Itās also smart from the brandās perspective.
Allowing the user to self-select their response option ("stay," "go," "I donāt know") will give them more data to further segment this subscriber ā as long as theyāre using the data strategically!
š„ And if they still donāt engage⦠Segment, donāt suppress (yet)!
Now, this is where our thoughts may differ from other advice youāve been given.
ā ļø The Email Team at Pilothouse Agency suggests further segmenting unengaged profiles into a "super unengaged" list, instead of immediately suppressing them.
"Just because these people havenāt engaged recently, doesnāt mean they wonāt be viable customers for banger sales, Black Friday, or any other special one-time email blast" notes the team.
In other words, segment the unengaged subs from your Sunset Flow into a list that you ONLY email once every three months or so. This will still protect your list, but also give you the opportunity to win them back during an epic campaign.
However, if they STILL donāt engage after 12 months, then itās probably time to say goodbye. š
Once a year ā ideally in January after BFCM ā consider going into full list clean mode. Officially suppress profiles that havenāt engaged in 12 months.
This will help maintain a healthy list, keep your sender reputation and email deliverability high, and ESP costs low.
Thatās a wrap on re-engaging your email list!
Did you enjoy this three-part series? Was it helpful and informative?
Reply and let us know! Pleaseeee!
What weāre digging:
Areas to explore:
M&A
š Supreme x Tiffany & Co. gives both brands some shine.
š¤ Level Home acquires fellow smart home startup Dwelo, raises $100M.
š Coke partners with Cameo to gift personalized videos from Santa.
š Microsoft and Meta partner to integrate Teams and Workplace enterprise collaboration tools.
š° Medium snatches up Projector and beefs up management team.
šØ New to subscriptions? Read Ordergrooveās Beginnerās Guide to eCommerce Subscriptions for a step-by-step guide on how to get started.*
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š¤µāāļø 3X to 10X ROAS and managing your customer lifecycle with Suit Shop's Kristen Jones.
š§² Wildstorming the Beauty Space ā Glamnetic's Head of Growth Margaret Fortner Returns!
ā»ļø Learn how Fussy Deodorant Lowers Blended CaC with Cofounder Matt Kennedy.
𦷠Spotlight Oral Care Goes Viral on TikTok with Cofounder Dr. Lisa Creaven and VP Marketing Siobhan Nolan.
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DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Kelsey Hess, Sadie Evans, and Rebecca Knight.
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