This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
Email marketing is an essential component of every business.
But it’s even more important for your ecommerce website.
Why?
It’s one of the best ways to communicate with your customers.
As an ecommerce business, you don’t have the luxury of seeing your customers face to face like you would if you were a brick-and-mortar company.
Sure, there are other ways you can communicate with your customers.
They can call your customer service department or reach out to you on social media.
But marketing experts agree that email is the most effective digital marketing tactic.
With that said, your strategy is only as effective as your message.
If your previous campaigns aren’t getting much of a response, you might need some help writing your emails.
Luckily for you, I can coach you through that.
No more bad emails.
I’ll show you how to write an ecommerce email that won’t leave your readers shaking their heads.
Before you do anything, you need to establish a clear objective for your message.
What do you want your reader to do once they receive the email?
If you can’t figure that out ahead of time, there’s no way the recipient will take the action you want them to take.
Here are some examples of goals you may want to consider:
The list goes on and on, but this is a good place to start.
Make sure each message focuses on one goal.
Don’t overwhelm the reader.
If you give them too many options, they may get confused and end up doing nothing.
The message should have a clear call to action.
Here’s an example from Fab:
This message has a clear and concise goal.
Fab is trying to get their subscribers to download their mobile application.
That’s it.
They aren’t offering a discount. There’s no special event.
The reader won’t be confused by this message.
Obviously, Fab wants to start promoting sales on their app.
That may be an undertone of the company’s overall marketing campaign.
However, the email doesn’t need to get into all that.
It’s short, sweet, and actionable.
A 2017 report on mobile usage found that 90% of mobile media time is spent on apps, which means Fab’s campaign is smart.
Ultimately, I’m sure they believe this will help increase conversions and revenue.
But for the time being, the message is strictly to drive downloads.
Start with a goal, and make sure your message represents that objective.
Don’t just send an email because it’s been a week since your last message and you think it’s time to send another.
While sending a message once a week may be a viable strategy, each email needs to offer value to the subscriber.
If you’re not offering any value, the reader may consider your message as spam.
Here’s an example from Huckberry:
This message encourages the subscribers to invite their friends to the Huckberry community.
Why would anyone do this?
Because their campaign adds value.
Huckberry is going to give away prizes to people who share this message with friends and family.
If the message just said “invite your friends” without offering an incentive, the subscriber wouldn’t see any value. The email would be useless.
Can you promote your product while providing value?
The answer is: it depends.
For example, DODOcase was able to hype their product before launching it by promoting it to potential customers. As a result, it sold $7 million worth of products within 90 days of their first product launch.
What else offers value to your customers?
Look again at our first example of Fab.
Even though they were promoting their mobile app, the message still provided value. It offered:
We know that 87% of Americans say price is the most influential factor in their purchasing decisions.
And 80% are influenced by the cost of shipping and delivery speed.
Discounts influence 71% of American shoppers.
What do these three statistics have in common?
Value.
That’s what your customers want, so that’s what you need to give them.
Make sure your ecommerce email focuses on the value you’re offering.
What’s the first thing your subscribers see when they get an email from you?
The subject line.
Your subject line is one of the top reasons why people would open your message:
You have to put just as much thought into your subject line as you put into the rest of the message.
If your subject line can’t hook the recipient, they will never see the content of your email.
Here are some guidelines for writing a subject line that will increase your open rates:
Those of you who struggle with catchy, creative, or actionable subject lines can refer to these points for inspiration.
Look at how Eddie Bauer creates a sense of urgency with this email:
It’s the last day to get 50% off your fleece purchase.
If the customer doesn’t act now, they will miss out on the deal.
Use this technique for your subject line.
You can use these phrases when creating a subject.
I also highly recommend using storytelling in your email subject line:
“Here’s how I did XYZ…”
Say something to that effect.
Stories engage the reader.
Creating engaging content is a top priority for marketers in 2017.
Content marketing experts recognize the importance of stimulating the customer’s curiousity.
Accomplishing this in your subject line puts you on the right track to converting the reader with the rest of your message.
Earlier, I talked about the importance of establishing a clear goal for your campaign.
The CTA needs to mirror that objective.
Use words like:
Don’t overwhelm your customers with the CTA.
Pick one and go for it.
Use a button instead of a hyperlink.
Buttons can increase conversion rates by 28% compared to a hyperlink.
Check out this CTA button from De Beers Jewelers:
It’s clear, unique, and creative.
It doesn’t just say something boring like, “Click here.”
You can use bright colors to draw attention to your CTA like Pizza Hut does:
Green has nothing to do with the Pizza Hut logo or brand, but it makes for a perfect CTA button.
This message also adds value, addressing the topic disccused above.
Pizza Hut sends a coupon code with an expiration date to create a sense of urgency.
The campaign encourages their subscribers to order food online.
Drip campaigns make sense for ecommerce companies.
They are also known as marketing automation, lifecycle emails, or autoresponders.
Focusing on automation can make your life a lot easier.
What’s a drip campaign?
A drip campaign is a series of emails that get delivered in a predetermined order to your subscribers.
This is a perfect opportunity for you to contact your customers.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say someone makes a purchase on your ecommerce platform.
The first message of your drip campaign can say something like, “Your order is confirmed.”
Try something similar to this template from Fitbit:
The message assures the customer that their order has been placed.
You should always send a confirmation email to your customers.
People are cautious when they enter credit card information on the Internet.
Over the past 5 years, 46% of people in the United States have experienced credit card fraud.
If they don’t get a reassurance that their order went through safely, they could feel uneasy about your website.
Not everyone who orders from your site is an email subscriber.
But you should still ask for their email address to send them this information.
For those people, you can include a CTA button that encourages them to subscribe to your emails.
“Join our email list to receive 20% off your next purchase.”
The second and third phase of your drip campaign will be:
Again, both of these emails make sense to the recipient.
What will make your readers want to scratch their eyes out?
If they don’t know why they received a message.
Nobody will question this drip sequence.
Finally, you can send a fourth email in the drip campaign to follow up with the buyer.
Include a customer survey in the message to see if they are happy with their purchase.
Surveys help create loyal customers, increase retention rates, and grow profits.
Using the drip campaign method allows you to email a customer four times for just one purchase.
All these messages will be informative and valuable to the recipient.
Similar to the last point, shopping cart abandonment messages make sense to the reader.
They won’t be asking, “Why did I get this message?”
The customer was shopping and was just a click or two away from finalizing the purchase until something stopped them.
A number of things could have caused this:
These are just a few common responses.
But you still need to send the email to remind your customers to check out.
Sending this message will improve your conversion rate.
You need to include this strategy into your email marketing arsenal.
It’s essential for ecommerce websites.
The message has a clear goal: to finalize the sale.
If you want to add value for the customer, send a promotional code to discount the order.
If you’re worried your readers might be scratching their eyes out because of your current email campaign strategy, I’ve got a solution: mix things up.
Turn your readers into viewers.
Don’t make them read anything. Instead, send a video message.
Your customers want to watch videos.
Don’t believe me?
Well, the numbers don’t lie.
In fact, 43% of people want to see more videos from marketers.
If you’re launching a new product for your ecommerce site, send your subscribers an informative video message.
SproutVideo improved their click-through rate by 60% when they added videos to their email marketing campaign.
Your ecommerce site can do the same thing.
It’s a great opportunity for you to do a product demonstration or a tutorial.
It’s great you’re utilizing email marketing campaigns for your ecommerce site.
This can’t change, but the content of your messages may need some improvement.
You don’t want your readers wondering why they received a message.
If you’re not adding value to the customer, they might unsubscribe, block you, or mark your message as spam.
How can you write a killer ecommerce email?
Start with your goal.
What’s the purpose of the message?
Once you define an objective, keep the message short and focused on that goal.
Emphasize your call to action.
Your CTA button should be big, bold, bright, and not boring.
Give the customer a reason to click.
Your subject line matters.
Customers won’t bother opening the message if the subject line is weak and doesn’t grab their attention.
If you’re unsure when to email your customers, set up a drip campaign that automatically sends updates after an order is placed.
Send out shopping cart abandonment emails to help improve your conversion rates.
Videos are a great way to turn readers into viewers.
Try to include videos and other interactive emails into your campaign.
Following these tips will help you keep your audience engaged instead of frustrated.
How will you alter the subject line of your next email to increase open rates?
Whenever I meet someone face to face and they ask what I do, I tell them I’m a writer and that I mostly write about money from the perspective of the average person, looking at how normal people make ends meet and can get ahead in the world, maybe even achieving a nice retirement or even early retirement.
Most peoples’ eyes glaze over at that point (not necessarily out of boredom, but because it’s not a conversation you typically have in polite company), but some people follow up with a number of additional questions.
Inevitably, when that happens, they start digging into the “why.” Why would you give up the pleasures of life to just have some money when you’re old? What’s the point of all of that?
Here are my rewards for being frugal and having a mindset of pushing myself toward financial independence, as I see them.
When the weather is nice, I want to be able to have the freedom to just walk out the door, get on my bike, and go for a long bike ride. I want to be able to ride all the way over to Ledges, wander around on the trails all day, and bike back home, without a constant worry about skipping work or missing deadlines falling on my head.
I want to go to a restaurant and have it feel like a genuinely special occasion, not just the ordinary way I get food. When I go to a restaurant all the time for meals, it begins to seem ordinary, and in order for it to feel like a special occasion, I have to keep chasing more and more and more expensive experiences.
When I decide to shop for something expensive, I don’t want to feel artificially hemmed in by the prices. While I’m price-conscious, I want to be able to make my purchasing decision based on the true value of the car and how long it will last and how much value it will provide for me, not whether or not I can afford that car payment right now.
I want to not be worried about money. I want to not be scared that my credit card will be declined if I go out with a friend. I want to feel like I have money I can spend if I want, within reason, and not worry about it in the least.
I want to never, ever again have a fight with my wife about money issues.
I want to be able to throw myself wholeheartedly into an interesting opportunity when it comes along, not in the margins of my life where I’m just robbing time from proper rest, but in the prime hours of my day.
I want to have adequate time to read deeply from books and long, well written essays each and every day, not when windows of opportunity allow it.
I want to be able to give my kids meaningful opportunities right now, at this stage in their life, but I understand that meaningful opportunities don’t just mean throwing money at expensive experiences. It means spending time with them.
I want to be able to take my children to a park and spend hours playing soccer with them and helping them get better, as long as the experience is enjoyable. I want to practice taekwondo forms together in the back yard. I want to have meaningful conversations with them about what it means to grow up and become a responsible, independent adult who puts more into the world than he or she takes out of it – and do that by example, not just by telling them that’s what they should do.
I want to do all those things without being worried about work, about money, about getting a phone call, about anything other than being focused on the moment with them.
I want to never be an absent father, not even for a moment. I don’t want to be an absent father while they progress through childhood. I don’t want to be an absent father while they progress through their difficult teen years. I don’t want to be an absent father when they’re an adult, either.
I want to never, ever be a financial burden to my kids when I’m old and they’re in the sandwich generation.
I want to never, ever feel like the demands for money in my life are so strong that I’m forced to give up basic self-care for them. If I make the poor choice to not exercise or to not eat perfectly healthy, it’s a choice I make for reasons other than a need to please a boss or a need for money in the moment.
I want to do things like that now, without having to “make up for it” later or putting my family at risk.
I already have some of these things. I want to shore those up, and I want the rest of them, too.
To achieve all of those things, and many more, I have to spend less than I earn – and often significantly less than I earn. That’s a tradeoff that I’ve learned that I’m more than willing to make.
It means that we only have one television in our house, one with a pretty noticeable flaw on the screen.
It means that I primarily drive a sixteen year old SUV with a bit of rust on it, one that will have to be replaced at some point, but not quite yet.
It means that I don’t stop at a coffee shop each and every day, even though it’d probably be tasty. I get my coffee fix by making cold brew.
It means that I buy mostly store brand items when I go to the grocery store, and I even make some items like homemade laundry soap.
It means that I think about little details sometimes, things like what sock purchase will keep my feet warm for the next five years for the lowest price because it might save me $50 gradually over that timeframe.
It means that we don’t have a Nintendo Switch, even though several of my friends do and my children are clamoring for one, and we’re not getting one for Christmas, either. It’s not as if we’re lacking for sources of entertainment at home.
It means that I visit the library all the time for new books to read, rather than visiting the bookstore.
Every single one of those sacrifices is a tiny one. It’s something that I barely notice in the big scheme of things.
None of them prevent me from kissing my wife or holding her close.
None of them prevent me from telling a joke at the dinner table and watching everyone pause for five seconds before they get the punch line.
None of them prevent me from enjoying a slice of homemade toast with a little butter on it and a cup of coffee for breakfast.
None of those sacrifices kill any of the real pleasures and joys in my life, big or small.
What those little sacrifices add up to, though, is something enormous. Something life changing. Something I never again want to do without.
It adds up to a ton of freedom. It adds up to internal peace and low stress and great relationships and a future that doesn’t involve working until my body or mind break down.
The greatest mistake I’ve ever made in my life was not making that tradeoff from the very first day I went to work after college at my first “real” job, because even though I started late, the choice to sacrifice a little to gain a lot is, quite simply, the smartest move I’ve ever made outside of marrying my wife and having these three great children.
That’s why I’m frugal. That’s why I push toward financial independence. And that’s why I hope that you do, too. Good luck, my friends.
The post The Real Rewards of Frugality and Financial Independence appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
“Today Show” financial editor Jean Chatzky tweeted on Wednesday what appeared to be a simple bit of retirement planning advice. “By the time you’re 30, aim to have 1x your annual income set aside for retirement,” she tweeted. “At 40, 3x; at 50, 6x; at 60, 8x; and by retirement, 10x.”
However, Twitter clawed back with snark, sarcasm, and outright disbelief.
“Are you aware how irrelevant this advice is for actual 30-year-olds up to their ears in student debt?” tweeted Jillian C. York.
“Please post the access codes for the portal to this reality of yours,” quipped Owen Southwood.
“To be fair, at 30 I’ve saved my annual salary from when I was 20 so that’s great,” joked Todd Gregory — who added that, at 20, he was a sophomore in college working part-time and racking up student loan debt.
Chatzky later acknowledged that those savings benchmarks – which were actually developed and recommended by retirement giant Fidelity – might seem high, or even unattainable, to most Americans, but that the whole point was to aim for them.
“Seeing your many reactions to the benchmarks,” she tweeted. “I get it. They’re outrageous in an era when many can’t save at all. The point is to aim. And to start saving something — whatever you can — as soon as you can.”
So, are those benchmarks unreasonable? Let’s take a look.
The average salary for Americans age 25 to 34 is roughly $39,000, so let’s use that as the “Age 30” savings benchmark. If someone saved 10% of a $35,000 salary for eight years starting at age 22, they’d have $38,824 saved up by age 30, assuming an average 7% growth (using Bankrate’s compound savings calculator).
That’s pretty darned close to the benchmark.
The trouble, of course, is that 10% can be really, really tough to come by in your 20s. Student loan payments might be siphoning hundreds of dollars a month from your bank account, and the cost of housing — particularly in big, booming cities, where you may need to locate yourself to take advantage of job opportunities in your fledgling career — commands an ever more unhealthy share of people’s incomes.
How about reaching three times your salary by age 40? The average salary for Americans age 35 to 44 is about $49,400; three times that is roughly $148,000. (Yikes. I’m 41 and, even after a raging stock market the past few years, I definitely don’t have $148,000 laying around. I guess I’m more of a 30-year-old at heart?)
If our example worker above started their 30s with $38,824 in their 401(k), and kept contributing 10% of their income to retirement — let’s say they averaged $45,000 a year throughout their 30s, socking away an average of $4,500 a year — would they hit the benchmark?
Just about — they’d be up to $145,417. Still, that’s someone who’s done literally everything right and dodged many misfortunes. They’ve worked 18 straight years without ever getting laid off or laid up with a disability, and they’re still a few thousand short of Chatzky’s Age 40 benchmark.
And what about someone who spent their 20s struggling to get their career off the ground, or paying down student loans — or simply having too much fun to think about the future?
Starting from $0 at age 30, that same worker would need to save $9,900 per year to reach $148,000 by age 40 — or roughly 20% of their salary.
The Catch 22 is this: Your 20s and 30s are perhaps the most important, powerful years for your retirement savings strategy. Every dollar you save then has decades longer to grow and create more long-term wealth for you. But it’s also the time in our lives when retirement seems the most abstract, a far-off impossibility, and often when we can least afford to put money aside.
Still, don’t freak out if your savings are nowhere near those numbers. Fidelity developed these benchmarks as a very basic rule of thumb — that won’t apply to everyone — making these assumptions: “You start saving a total of 15% of your income every year starting at age 25, invest more than 50% of your savings in stocks on average over your lifetime, retire at age 67, and plan to maintain your preretirement lifestyle.”
The benchmarks are to be considered “milestones along the way,” said Adheesh Sharma, director of financial solutions for Fidelity Strategic Advisers. “And don’t worry if you are not always on track. The later milestones are the most important, and there are things you can do along the way to catch up. Of course, the earlier you take action the better.”
The later milestones may be more important, but they’re also even harder to hit. People tend to earn more in their 40s and 50s, as they climb the career ladder, so having saved six times your salary at age 50 is more than many of us may ever imagine.
Responding to a Twitter user who was pushing 50 and saw no possibility of hitting the milestone, Chatzky offered equal parts solace and motivation: “I know. But at 50, you’ve still got 15ish good working years to save. If you’re way off consider big changes – not latte, but lifestyle.”
I know. But at 50, you’ve still got 15ish good working years to save. If you’re way off consider big changes – not latte, but lifestyle https://t.co/M3ukU4dpnw
— Jean Chatzky (@JeanChatzky) November 2, 2017
By age 50, she’s saying, simply cutting back on your morning coffee shop run may not cut it anymore, and more drastic lifestyle changes might be in order — like downsizing your home, getting rid of a car, and cutting cable, among other big behavioral shifts.
If you don’t feel like you’re on track with your retirement savings goals, here are some ways to play catch up:
Max your match: Make sure you’re getting every cent of any employer match available to you. This is free money your company is offering, and it can help you bump up your savings rate — from, say, 6% to 9% — almost painlessly. And yet, 30% of workers under 30 continue to leave at least some of this money on the table, missing out on billions of dollars each year.
Automate your retirement savings: Don’t just save “what’s leftover” at the end of the month, because most of us will find a way to spend money sitting in our bank accounts. Pay yourself first — your retired self, that is — by deciding what you should be contributing to retirement and having it automatically deducted from your paycheck or bank account before you even see the money.
Learn to live on less: Saving more of your salary is an obvious way to accelerate your retirement savings, and both IRAs and 401(k) plans allow you to contribute more after age 50. But it carries another benefit: Learning to live on less of your income can lower the savings benchmark you need to hit, as it prepares you to live a leaner life in retirement. If you can save 30% of your income in your 50s and 60s and still get by, then you’ll only need to replace 70% of your salary in retirement to maintain the same lifestyle you’re accustomed to.
The fact of the matter is, it’s simply impossible to distill useful retirement advice into 140 characters on Twitter. Everyone has different expectations for retirement, different savings capabilities, and different career paths, family obligations, and priorities along the way. And many retirees simply do what humans do best: adapt to new conditions and make it work, regardless of how much they’ve saved.
Yet it’s clear that too many Americans are under-prepared for retirement, and your nest egg isn’t going to build itself. So start with what you can, as soon as you can, and work up from there.
Related Reading:
So what do you think: Are Jean Chatzky’s benchmarks attainable? No matter what your retirement savings goal is, do you think it’s helpful to have milestones to aim for along the way?
The post Are Jean Chatzky’s Retirement Savings Benchmarks Realistic? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
