I mean, you can think it’s a humble brag post, hell, you can think whatever you want, I’m not gonna police your thoughts. But if you honestly think that a lot of business owners don’t make basic business errors, then you clearly haven’t talked to many actual business owners.
Well, that’s all I’ve been thinking about these past few months so the way I type is very “promotional email-y”.
100%. It’s strange because I always “knew” this. It’s what every successful entrepreneur says: Ad costs rise regardless of the economic climate because you’re just hitting more and more people outside your primary target audience, but it never clicked with me until it actually happened to me.
I wish I didn’t have to rely on my own experiences to make good decisions, but it’s really hard to have foresight when you’re so caught up in the daily operations and stuff. Which just goes to show that I should’ve done a better job of outsourcing early on.
You’re very welcome!
Yep, flows are the next thing I’m working on. I have a very standard flow and it’s been generating money for me, but it only accounts for about 10% of my email revenue currently.
I looked at my abandoned cart flow as well and that one was comically low. Especially after the first email. So a lot I need to work on, but it gives me hope that I can make more much than I’m making now.
Honestly, best advice I can give is to either look at the industries and niches that you’re already a part of, or just look at some of the ads that appear on your social media feed.
What hobbies do you have? Is there anything that you wished you had for your hobbies that aren’t currently available? Or maybe they do exist, but don’t quite fill the need/want you have. Could you capitalize on that?
That one is a bit more limited since you’re looking at your own experiences. But… what I’ve found works best is to just scroll through Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and actually look at the ads that are being shown to you.
That’s how I came across my current business idea. I saw an ad in my feed and I thought to myself, “I can do better than them”. And whaddayaknow, I ended up doing better than them.
If you do find an ad that interests you, start searching around for reviews about that company or similar products, there’ll be a theme across the complaints/negative reviews you see which are an opportunity for you to capitalize on.
Yeah man, it’s actually crazy. So last year, our ads were profitable from after Father’s Day until basically the end of the year (at 2 ROAS and above). This year? We’d be lucky to have a 1.5 ROAS during any of these times.
I thought things would flip once November started, but nope, I’ve had down days a few times this month. But emails have carried me and kept me profitable even with my ads doing horrible.
58% currently. And that’s up from the 30% open rate I used to get. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re all click-baity… but some of them are.
One of them was a variation of the famous “Do you make these mistakes in English” headline. I of course reworded it so it was related to a mistake that my customers make during this holiday season, but I actually had some useful info in it so it wasn’t 100% clickbait. It also wasn’t 0% clickbait either tho lol.
What has worked extremely well for me is doing a 3-step email campaign during any major holiday.
I’ll have a “PRE” discount that’s emailed to my customers and I’ll say something like “Get access to our holiday sale before everyone else”, then the next one is on the day of the holiday where it just says “In celebration of ____, get 30% off”, and the final one is “Last Chance: Get 30% off your order” on the day after the holiday.
All 3 emails have the same content, it’s just the subject line that’s different each time.
You’re so right. Hold on, let me stop the thing that’s generating 35% of my revenue because you said it’s overrated. Thanks!
Yeah, that’s what it seems like. I’m glad I’m not a regular poster here. Feels like my brain is gonna rot just interacting with some of these guys. They don’t even have basic reading comprehension down and they think they can be entrepreneurs? It’s actually quite comical.
In general, most people don’t buy. It’s the same for paid ads. Only a tiny % of people who click the ad will even end up converting.
But to assume others won’t buy because you won’t buy is a fallacy (and the same fallacy that made me think it wasn’t worth sending out emails in the first place).
Trust me man, I was blown away when I sent out that first promo email this year. It completely changed how I look at things now.
DO IT.
But even though my emails have decent metrics, it’s still a tiny fraction of people actually buying from these emails at any given time.
Hence why it still makes money every time I send it out. A small segment will buy today, tomorrow, and the day after, then when I send another email, a different small segment will buy. So on and so forth.
Understandable.
We do have a spam complaint rate of 0.1% and a unsubscribe rate of 0.5%, so you’re obviously not alone, but you’re also not the majority from what I’ve seen. Granted, our placed order rate is also a fraction of a percent so I can’t say that MOST people order, but it does seem like most are okay with at least receiving emails.