Today’s Day 2 of the little impromptu email mini-series I’m hosting.
(Missed yesterday’s email that explains why I’m doing this, and is a crucial part to understanding this email? Search your inbox for the subject line: “The two radically different, but strangely similar ecom problems.)
Today, we’re talking about how to handle a brand where you have so many products that it confuses your customer. Then tomorrow, we’re talking about how to handle a brand where you have so few products that it bores your audience.
Both problems can cause the death of a sale. So I advise you to grab a cup of black coffee, and give me your undivided attention while I tackle this problem for you.
As I mentioned yesterday, one of my clients has over 600 products in his online store. And the real number is probably closer to 800 than 600.
Some products are wildly different. Some products are almost identical. And other products don’t fit into either of these categories as other products.
The only thing every product has in common is this:
The reason my client added it to his store is because it can help someone (even if a certain product can only help one single person out of our 30,000+ engaged list).
So, how do you handle this problem without causing so much confusion for your customers that they pack their virtual bags and go spend their doll-hairs at a competitor's brand?
Well, as you can suspect, there are many and many-a ways to do this.
Let’s cover some of my favorites:
1. Create an email mini-series, as I’ve done here, based around a particular problem where you introduce several complementary products over the 3, 5, or 7 days the mini-series lasts.
2. Have an “advice column” email where you answer a complicated question in an email (that offers several products to help reverse this problem).
3. Create a “flagship” product in which you encourage all your customers to buy first, before they move on to your other products.
4. Send more consistent emails, so you have more “real estate” to mention all the products, angles, and stories.
5. Have a multi-day, and multi-email (sometimes multi-email per day) product launch for new products.
6. Use news stories to “enter the conversation your customers are already having in their mind” to promote timely and sensitive products.
7. Create a welcome series where you give the entire “full story” of some of the biggest problems your customers are facing, and tell the story about why there’s a reason for each and every product in your store.
8. Create post-purchase sequences, where one of the emails in said sequence lists the top 10 most popular products that other customers who bought this product also bought.
9. Interview other brand owners and turn it into a podcast email, so you can give your customers deeper insights into why this product is available.
10. At the end of each email, tell your customers to reply (or even call) if they have any questions. Often, this simple “ask” can magnify your sales.
And there are a bunch of other ways to tackle this problem.
The important point you need to remember is this:
You can’t confuse customers too much or you’ll nuke your sales.
That’s why I avoid mentioning similar products in a single email (unless they have a different modality: For example, having a supplement in capsule form, liquid form, or powder form).
If products are identical except how a customer uses them, then it’s fair game to add to a single email. But when products are almost identical, but have a few nuances (bigger than the consumption method as I just explained), I avoid adding them into the same email.
Does your brand have so many products that you don’t know what to do? Hit reply—help’s only one reply away.
Tomorrow, I’ll meet you back here where we cover how to tackle the opposite of this problem:
Having so few products that you risk boring your audience by talking about it so often.
John
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