Email Love is Supported by

What attracted you to email marketing, and how did you get to where you are today?

My journey into retention & email marketing began during university really, whilst I was studying Biomedical Science. Building my own ecommerce business alongside studying introduced me to everything Shopify, Klaviyo… and just the DTC world in general.

I quickly fell into freelancing after graduating, for a wide range of influencers, retailers and online businesses. I built Shopify stores. I strategised for socials. But, I quickly saw an opportunity for personalised, impactful communication. I saw first-hand how brands were massively neglecting email marketing.

In December 2021 ElliotDigital was born. A retention agency focused on building retention strategies that are creative, data-driven and customer centric.

Now, with a team of 8 first-class marketers, we’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s leading brands and won multiple awards!

What’s your top email marketing tip?

My top tip? Be more aggressive.

It may sound very straightforward, but so many brands miss out on clear, untapped revenue… purely by not sending enough campaigns or ending flows too early.

At ElliotDigital, we’re all about finding the limits of email and SMS as retention channels. Without being aggressive, brands will never even come close to finding their potential.

How do you see AI changing the email marketing landscape in the next five years?

We already partner with a number of tools that are utilising AI to improve our strategies and make our lives easier.

AI will only continue to play a bigger and bigger role in our processes and our service. Email specifically – enhancing personalisation and building more coherent and sophisticated predictive analytics tools.

But, whilst I don’t see AI taking over any of our jobs anytime soon, it’s going to be the responsibility of brands and agencies to learn, adapt and understand how to use these tools effectively.

In the next 5 years, humans using AI will be the future.

What’s in your toolbox?

Hardware: 

• Macbook Pro (Controversial – but no 2nd screens, as I’m constantly moving and jumping into meetings)

Software:

• Klaviyo
• Notion
• Figma/Adobe XD
• RELO
• Skio
• Paperrun
• Dataships

Honestly, this list could be so much bigger….

The ElliotDigital Team

What is your favorite email design trend?

Great question. Simply, we’re always looking to build emails that are meticulously crafted, to embody the authority and quality of the brand we’re designing for.

Good email designs should have a clear visual funnel, high conversion potential, and stand out in any inbox.

But if you were to push me for a specific trend – I’d have to say shape play & bold colours. I’m talking overlapping elements, bold colours (especially boxes & backgrounds), and collages.

Thoughts on image-only emails?

Love ‘em! Simple.

While many reading this may think image-only emails can be problematic due to loading issues and deliverability concerns, we don’t agree.

After dozens and dozens of tests, we actually see stronger brand affinity, better engagement and more sales. Of course, this is only the case when your strategy is solid & thoughtful.

What are some simple ways that ecommerce brands can improve their email marketing?

Brands – here are 5 things brands you need to consider when it comes to your email marketing strategy and execution:

1. Know your audience. Think about your audience first, before writing your copy and designing your emails.
2. Focus on deliverability in 2024. It’s so important you are keeping bounces and spam as low as possible, whilst following best practices.
3. Think about email as a brand channel as well as a retention channel. Focus on how your brand is represented across all channels – email is no exception. Branded emails will win this year!
4. Segment for personalisation. Tailor your emails based on customer behaviour, purchase history, and preferences. Segmented emails ensure that you’re sending relevant content to each subscriber, increasing the chances they’ll engage with your emails and stick around for the long haul.
5. Know how to monitor success. You should be looking beyond simple, in-app email metrics. Here are some core retention metrics that every brand should also be watching closely:

• CLTV
• Retention rate
• Repeat purchase rate
• Customer churn
• AOV

How do you manage work-life balance?

I start every day at the gym. 6am without fail.

This physical stress just sets me up for the day whilst giving me the outlet I need to perform at my laptop.

Much love,
Andy

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @emaillove