How do you get customers to return and purchase your products over and over? Email marketing! This week, I interviewed Kati and Vern Evans, and they told us how they have been successful in this!
Kati turned her business into a successful venture in a pretty short amount of time. One of the many ways she was able to do that was through her brilliant use of email marketing.
If you want to learn more about Kati and Vern's story and how she's using email marketing to create repeat customers, you’re going to LOVE this episode!
Who Are These Email Marketing Pros?
Today's guests, Kati and Vern Evans, are an absolute ray of sunshine! I feel so blessed to have been part of their journey. I’ve watched them grow, and it's incredible to see how far they've come!
It all started with Kati and two of her homeschool mom friends discussing how they could protect their kids, especially on the internet. (You can read more of Kati's story here.)
One way could be by opening a model-free lingerie business. However, she soon found out that she really wasn’t passionate about lingerie.
Kati had a ticket to one of my conferences where I was discussing ecommerce. That’s when it all clicked. It lit a spark in her, and she hasn't stopped since!
She went home, sat down with the new information she gathered, and discussed it with Vern. Kati loved journaling and decided to design a journal and sell it. Working on it with a laser focus opened many doors for her and allowed her to experience the reality of being a small business owner. She had to work with designers and manufacturers, and keep an eye on everything. Taking it step by step and sticking to the path she was passionate about gave her the confidence to go on, and that’s what brought her to where she is today!
How Kati Grew Her Brand
Kati continued selling journals but started seeing that the home décor industry was booming, and she wanted in. She began going to little boutiques, buying merchandise, and reselling it on Facebook Marketplace and other online marketplaces. She noticed that she really enjoyed the work. Little by little, she started selling more and more, and her love for home décor continued to blossom.
COVID hit, and a lot of her merchandise wasn’t selling anymore. She adapted and started making candles. She was terrible at it! So she decided to invest her time into finding an expert candle maker who helped her better her craft.
Today, her candles are some of her best-selling products because of her use of email marketing. There has been so much demand, Kati had to buy a warehouse, then another one, and now a bigger one.
It was scary, but she didn’t let fear stop her!
Growing a Business During a Pandemic with Email Marketing
Last year, Kati sold her first candle. You can check them out here. Today, her business has 118 employees. How did this happen, especially since we’re all going through a pandemic and small businesses are suffering the most, right?
When the virus hit, Kati had to change her strategy. People were stuck at home, wanting to make their space cozier (and what better way to do that than with candles?) and going online to buy everything from groceries to loungewear (you’re probably wearing leggings or sweats while reading this).
Kati and her team started working non-stop selling close to 20,000 candles a month! They were working 20-hour days, seven days a week! Yes, they could have stopped selling or limited their hours, but they didn’t want to.
How did Kati get so many customers?
Email marketing! Kati sends out four emails a week to their subscribers, and it completely changed everything for her company.
On Mondays, they send an email with one product that’s 60% off. Every Thursday, they introduce something new and exclusive: a new fragrance, new candle style, etc. and they make it a limited edition. People are driven by scarcity, so this is a great way to increase sales.
Many might think four emails a week sounds like harassment. Don’t think of it that way! Kati makes sure every email serves her customers by offering them deals, keeping them in the loop, and letting them know about new products.
As long as your emails are serving your customers, they will be serving you as well, upping your sales and your customers’ loyalty, so don’t sleep on them!
Top 10 Takeaways
- Surround yourself with people who are dreaming of doing similar things.
- Put the knowledge that you learn into application.
- Find people with experience that can guide you.
- C’s get degrees.
- Start small to build a strong foundation.
- Ask for more and demand more.
- If you know what’s right, deep down inside, go for it.
- Building habits in your customers is essential in growing your business.
- Emails can be your highest income stream. See more ideas here.
- Your emails serve your customers, they don’t annoy them.
