Pillow Talk and Blanket Statements: Unbox Tuft and Needle's Emails
Turn Zzz's into $$$. Access a database of 88 organized and categorized sale emails
Welcome to another edition of Jacob’s Inbox. I hope it doesn’t put you to sleep…
Let’s sink into Tuft and Needle’s emails. A major part of their marketing strategy for turning Zzz’s into $$$ are sale campaigns.
💡Don’t know Tuft and Needle? They were one of the early online “bed-in-a-box” mattress brands. In 2018, they sold to Serta for an estimated $500MM. I also happen to own one.Over 3 years, 60% of their emails were sale-focused and centered around a holiday. And by centered around a holiday, I mean they do a sale for every possible holiday!
New Year’s
President’s Day
Valentines Day
Spring Sale
Mother’s Day
Memorial Day
Father’s Day
4th of July
Company Anniversary
Labor Day
“Sweet Dreams” Sale
Black Friday / Cyber Monday
Christmas / Holiday Sale
Do they ever not have a sale running??
They're forced to since every other mattress brand runs sales during most holidays. (Prisoner’s dilemma kind of deal.) If you’re deciding between two mattresses, you’re going to pick the one that’s discounted.
I don’t know about you, but I plan out purchases months in advance for high-priced products. If I spend $1000, I'll wait until my dream sale.
Aside from never buying a mattress that’s not on sale, what else can we learn?
How many emails should you send over your sale periods?
Is your business discount-driven? You’re going to send a lot of emails since customers are hesitant to buy without a sale.
What type of product do you have? Is it a digital product? You'll want to be careful if emails are part of the product experience. Too many sale emails can devalue the rest of your comms. E-commerce businesses usually have much more leeway.
Be careful about overloading your users. Is email a part of your user retention strategy? If you're hurting long-term retention, the short-term monetization gains aren't worth it.
What types of emails should I use?
These 3 emails will drive the majority of the purchases:
Sale Announcement Email
Sale Ending Soon
Sale Last Chance/24 hours left
An Announcement email is exciting. People will buy because they’ve been waiting for the right moment.
The Sale Ending Soon and the Last Chance emails add a sense of urgency and hook people afraid of missing out. There are usually many people in the “consideration” stage who need a nudge to push them over the edge to buy.
Do you want to send more than 3 sale emails?
Figure out a theme for your sale. How can you add value to the other emails and/or change the message? You can’t send the same email with the same message over and over without people unsubscribing.
When Tuft and Needle ran their spring sale (below), they weaved in “Sleep Awareness Week”, “How to hack your sleep”, and “World Sleep Day.”
They want to create unique positive touchpoints. Saying “Buy, Buy, Buy!” will turn off your customers. If you can create positive emotions and add some value to their lives, they’ll be willing to engage with you.
Don’t have a good holiday to use, but still want to run a sale? Make one up!
T&N uses the anniversary of their company every year to run a sale. They’ve also tried a “Sweet Dreams” sale and a Spring sale.
It does take customer education on why you’re running the sale if you’re inventing a holiday. It'll be more effective if you can pick a tried and true sale holiday (e.g. Black Friday) because people are already in a “buying” mindset. They have fun looking for sales around those times. It's easier to capture existing demand than create it.
What are your favorite tips and tricks for running effective sales?
Stay tuned for even more emails from my inbox! I’m going to try to keep on adding to this database so bookmark it and check back.