**UPDATE**: I now also recommend Flodesk! Read more about it my blog post on Why I Switched From Convertkit To Flodesk for Email Marketing.
Email marketing is something definitely underutilized in the pet industry space, especially with pet service providers and small e-commerce pet businesses.
When I surveyed my audience, I found out that a large majority did indeed want an email list even though they didn’t have one yet. Which led me to believe that maybe there are a lot of unanswered questions out there when getting started with an email list, such as:
What even is email marketing and automation?
Why do I need it in my business?
Which platform do I choose?
So, I wanted to take some time to answer these questions for you and help you decide which platform is best for your business!
1. What even is email marketing and automation?
If you’re like some of my clients before joining one of our VIP Days, you might send your small email list occasional emails about sales going on or maybe that you’re almost booked for the holidays. If this is your only strategy (of if you’re not even emailing customers at all), there are three big red flags here:
1. Your list is limited to current customers or past customers
2. You don’t have a strategy in place that converts your audience
3. You aren’t being valuable nor efficient with your time
Strategic email marketing allows you to automate your sales funnel and convert potential customers AND current customers into making purchasing decisions. If done properly, you should be getting new customers in your SLEEP or while you’re out walking the dogs or out with friends!
2. Why do I need it in my business?
All you need to do is read the following statistics that I gathered for you:
- Consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those that don’t receive email offers.
- 80% of retail professionals indicate that email marketing is their greatest driver of customer retention (and just so you know, the next highest was social media at only 44%).
Next, let’s examine the power that email marketing has if you use it to its potential.
1. You can separate your email list by all sorts of things like what type of pet they own or what they’ve purchased from you before, if anything.
2. If you sell products, you can send abandoned cart emails, which, by sending three abandoned cart emails, results in 69% more orders than a single email.
3. You can integrate your sign-up form in your website and automatically build your list outside of your current or past customers.
4. You can automatically send emails to your new customers, allowing them to enter a sales funnel, which can result in purchases while you’re asleep!
5. If your subscribers click on a certain button in your email, you can tag that action.
These are only a few things you can do with email marketing. It’s pretty unreal how powerful these systems can be for your business.
So, the last and biggest question.
3. Which email marketing platform should I choose for my pet business?
The simple answer:
If you just want to send basic monthly newsletters to your audience, use Mailchimp.
If you want to utilize the REAL strategic power of email marketing, use Convertkit.
Convertkit is specifically designed to manage subscribers and segmentation for those that perform online business, whether that’s selling pet products, blogging, or converting customers for your services.
While I do have some clients that use Mailchimp and it does work okay for their monthly newsletters, I would ALWAYS choose and recommend Convertkit for actual email marketing.
In fact, I actually use Convertkit in my own business. If you’ve ever received an email from me, it was through Convertkit.
So, here are a few reasons why I choose and use Convertkit:
1. You have more control over your list.
Compared to platforms like Mailchimp (where you have to pay extra to separate out your lists), Convertkit allows you to strategically place your subscribers into multiple lists, tags, and segments. You can also see which emails they’ve opened and which links they’ve clicked. This is so valuable for you as a business owner to get to know your email list better and make better decisions as a result.
2. They have beautiful integrations.
Convertkit makes it easy to integrate their sign-up forms or landing pages on your website. It’s so customizable that you can even set up what you’d like to happen after someone subscribes, like if you wanted to send them to another URL.
3. It’s so easy to use.
You can do SO much with it. You can:
Send broadcasts, which are essentially just a one-time email you want to send to your whole list or certain customized segments. You can even choose to exclude certain segments or tags from a broadcast.
Set up automatic sequences, so for example, if someone was entered into a sequence, they’d receive X amount of emails sent X length of time apart. YES, this really means once you set it up, you can let it go automatically each time a person subscribes
Set up certain triggers or events that you want to have, like pictured below. For example, if someone clicks a link, you may want to add a tag that they are interested in a particular product or service. Or, you can remove a tag once someone does make a purchase decision, etc. The possibilities are endless here.
Link back to your website
Set up up email courses
Send videos and pictures
Strategize with their amazing reporting and analytics
Integrate it with platforms such as Shopify, Teachable, Wix, Squarespace, Leadpages, WooCommerce, Google Analytics, Wordpress, and so many more!
Email marketing is a huge machine that can bring in the $$$ to your pet business. There are definitely a lot of amazing platforms out there to choose from and no one platform is right for every pet business and petpreneur. So, do your research for investing to find the platform that’s best for you.
I very strongly recommend Convertkit to those that are ready to really take advantage of the power that email marketing can have on your business.
Disclaimer - Yes, some of the links above are affiliate links. However, I would not recommend software or tools that I don't find valuable for myself and/or my clients. Thank you for your support.
