Want to turn email into a revenue-generating powerhouse?
When you do it right, email is still the #1 most effective way to drive sales. But with so much competition out there, small differences in your emails can make a big difference in your results.
So In this post, we’re giving you 3 easy wins we delivered for our clients at the Smart Marketer Agency.
These are simple strategies that you should be able to implement right away to start seeing more revenue, increased engagement and a boost in AOV.
Let’s get started!
Easy Win #1: A 75% Boost in Sales from Cart Abandon Emails
Cart abandon emails are an important piece to optimize. With so many people abandoning their shopping carts these days, a small improvement here can make a big difference on your bottom line.
So we ran an A/B test to compare the effect of giving a discount in cart abandonment emails vs not.
We ran the test twice, in two separate cart abandonment emails. In both cases, the control and the variation were the exact same — except for the addition of a 10% off code added to the email.
Here’s the test #1:
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And here’s test #2:
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Now, let’s look at the impact this code had on sales.
Results & Key Takeaways
Here are the raw results of all four emails, with my analysis underneath:
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Let’s go through these metrics one by one:
Open rate: No big change here. That’s not surprising, since there was no change in the subject line.
Click rate: Here’s where we start to see an uptick in engagement. The clickthrough rate for these two emails was +63% overall, which is a good sign that the discount was piquing people’s interest.
Conversion rate: Now to the really important stuff: how many extra sales did the discount generate?
Let’s look at both the number of sales and the average order value (AOV):
- Sales volume increased 64% with the addition of a coupon code — i.e., we generated a lot more sales
- AOV increased 7.1% from $147.95 to $158.48, which means we actually generated bigger purchases even with the 10% discount
- Total revenue lift increased by 75% when you combine the increased sales with the increased AOV ($4,200 compared to $2,394)
So what can we learn from these results?
Focus on testing. The lesson here is NOT to use discounts everywhere — it’s to test different strategies and find what works for your business and your subscribers.
Prioritize split tests over one-off emails. Rather than creating multiple individual emails, focus on running split tests early in the flow when engagement is highest. This approach will provide you with valuable insights you can use to optimize the rest of your email strategy.
Test small. Focus on controlled, simple tests to gather the most meaningful data. By testing just a few key variables, you’ll gain clear insights that can guide more impactful decisions without overcomplicating the process.
Coupons don’t have to cost you. Some business owners are reluctant to offer discounts because they don’t want sales to come at the cost of revenue. But in this case, offering a 10% discount actually increased AOV. Once again, you have to test to find these things out!
Easy Win #2: (Nearly) 2x Average Campaign Revenue Sending on One Specific Day
What if I told you there was one specific day of the month that could 2x the results of your email promos?
It might sound crazy, but it’s true. So what day am I talking about?
Payday!
It makes sense, right? After all, why wouldn’t you want to get your promo in front of people on the one day when they’re sure to have money to burn?
This was our hypothesis when we tested a new monthly payday email campaign. We sent these emails on the last day of the month.
Here are our last 3 examples:
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Results & Key Takeaways
I think the results on this chart speak for themselves:
The first thing to point out is the obvious increase in revenue coming on July and August paydays, compared to the average email. Each of these two payday emails generated over £19,000, compared to £9,600 on average — a 98% improvement.
But what happened in September?
What this chart doesn’t show is that the September payday email followed closely on the heels of one of our largest sales of the year, which most likely impacted customer behavior. In other words: there were a lot of customers who had just placed an order not long ago.
(Although it still performed 23% better than the average email.)
So what can we learn from these results?
Timing matters. This email strategy shows that sending emails when customers are most likely to spend (on payday, after holidays and birthdays, etc.) can significantly boost revenue.
Catch customers when they’re in spending mode. Some people only shop at certain times, like during paydays or big shopping seasons. For example, around 35% of yearly ecommerce sales happen in Q4 alone. When you tap into these natural spending habits, your emails will hit harder and lead to more conversions.
Remember the inverse. Reaching out at the right time can boost results… but reaching out at the wrong time can have negative consequences. Sending promo emails right after major sales can lead to buyer fatigue (especially when they’ve already spent their budget). Instead, time your emails for when users are ready to engage to improve results.
Easy Win #3: How We Scored Better Results by Sending Fewer Emails
Last year, NutriPaw sent 1.8 million emails for an annual bundle sale. The campaign was a success — it generated over $200k in sales — but this year, we decided to take a different approach.
Instead of sending the email out to everyone, we restricted the campaign to target ONLY interested users. This cut down on the total number of recipients by a whopping 1 million recipients, but increased revenue per recipient (RPR) by a staggering 418%.
Here’s an overview of the campaigns. Notice that even though we sent these emails to fewer people, we actually broke them out into more campaigns:
| 2023 11 Campaigns ~1,800,000 Sends  | 2024 18 Campaigns ~760,000 Sends  |
Now, let’s get to the email creative.
Since we sent more targeted campaigns, it’s no surprise that we adjusted the copy in these emails to target different user segments. What might surprise you is how little it takes to effectively adjust an email for different buyers.
Here’s an example of an email we sent. The paragraph highlighted in red was the only part that we adjusted for different segments:
We adjusted that copy based on which of the following products the user had purchased before:
| All-Itch Treat Copy: You’ve used our All-Itch Treats to help with excessive itching of paws and skin. Your pet now has soothed skin and the support to keep them happy and healthy. | Calming Treat Copy: If you gave your boisterous or nervous puppy our Calming Treats, you have seen them become calm, anxiety-free, and relaxed. | Hip & Joint Treat Copy: You’ve seen how the Hip & Joint Treats help keep your dog joints strong. Whether you have an older dog or a young pup, this support can keep them feeling frisky and playful. | Probiotic Treats Copy: Maybe you found our Pre, Pro, & PostBiotic Treats finally helped soothe and settle their stomach and gave them healthy digestion. |
I’ve already hinted that this approach generated better results than the previous year’s approach, but let’s take a closer look at what those results looked like.
Results & Key Takeaways
Compared to the previous year, this year’s campaign saw significant improvements in results:
- +234% in clickthrough rate (CTR)
- +29% in average order value (AOV)
- +418% in revenue per recipient (RPR)
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So what can we learn from these results?
Focus on quality over quantity.
By reducing the total number of recipients and incorporating targeted sends with more specified messaging, we demonstrated that quality outreach is far more effective than relying on sheer volume.
This strategic approach not only maintained revenue, it also enhanced engagement and overall performance.
Public Service Announcement for Better Email Deliverability
Before we go, I’ve got one more helpful tip — and this one is a no-brainer for everyone to implement.
If you aren’t using an exclusion list (or suppression list) yet, consider this your call-to-action to get started.
An exclusion list is a list of email addresses and/or domains that will be excluded from receiving your emails. Why would you do that? Well, because preventing your emails from being sent to harmful or unwanted recipients can help improve your sender reputation and deliverability.
Add these domains to your exclusions, and watch your sender reputation and deliverability start to rise:
| trashmail.com 10minutemail.com mailinator.com guerrillamail.com gnail.com hotmail.con yopmail.com temp-mail.org mytrashmail.com getnada.com spamgourmet.com maildrop.cc fakeinbox.com disposeamail.com | fakemailgenerator.com gmaill.com gmai.com gmial.com gmeil.com yaahoo.com yahho.com yahou.com yaho.com hotmail.con hotmail.co hotmial.com outllok.com otlook.com | outlok.com outlook.con aol.co aol.com maol.con live.con liv.com live.co live.cm mail.co mail.cm mai.com maiil.com |
That’s it for this post. Thanks for reading!
