Patrick Sande February 14, 2024
One quick glance through your inbox and it doesn't take long to stumble onto one of my favorite promotions, the flash sale. Driving urgency to entice consumers to buy on the spot is obviously quite effective. After receiving a marketing email on a recent flash sale from one of my favorite clothing brands, it got me thinking, "How are different brands executing on the marketing of a flash sale?"
Enter SendView Timelines. This is one of my favorite features in SendView. Timelines is an easy way to get a holistic view of the strategy around a specific email marketing campaign. With Timelines, we can understand how far in advance a brand starts to tease a promotion. We can see how often they remind customers of the current promotion, and we can even gain insights into if and when they are extending the promotion out to drive last minute sales.
Let's take a look at an example of a well executed email marketing campaign promoting a Flash Sale.
The Teaser
Here's the promotional teaser - the first email in the series and I love. This plays such an important role in the marketing strategy by building awareness and excitement for an upcoming event. By giving customers the heads up, they're going to be watching their inbox more closely so that they can get a jump on any deals being released. I also have to point out how critical the subject line is (and how great of a subject line this particular email has). This email is also going to be important in messaging any key details of the promotion, like how long the promotion will last and what products are, or may, be included.
The Launch
The next email in the series is the launch email letting customers know that the sale is now live. This is really the meat of the campaign. Obviously, as always, subject line is key here. There's no question what this email is about. The content of the email is also key to informing customers all the details of the promotion and continuing to drive urgency - marketers are hoping to influence impulse and get consumers to buy while they can.
The Last Chance
As the promotion draws to a close, this is when the email marketing team really pulls on the levers to drive and squeeze out any urgency they can. Consumers love to procrastinate and this is your last chance to remind them it's their last chance to buy. We don't have the stats on this email but I'd be more than willing to bet that they probably saw the majority of their revenue driven from this final email.
That's it! A pretty straight forward approach to well done flash sale that I think is missed more often than not. I love exploring the different types of email marketing campaigns from Timelines in SendView as there's always something to learn.