4 Powerful Email Strategies by Made-to-Measure Brands

I subscribed to 100 made-to-measure brands and analyzed 3,000+ emails received over a year.

The results were surprising.

Most of the emails were either uninspiring or were not personalized. And way too many were simply sales emails (91 percent). You can read the full results here.

Brands such as Duncan Quinn, Boglioli, Timothy Everest, Articles of Style, and Brioni stood out from the crowd.

 

For example …

Duncan Quinn and Timothy Everest use their emails to tell stories, build deep connection, provide a ton of value and establish a strong brand, all while having gentle nudges to purchase.

• • Duncan Quinn shares book lists, drink recipes, interesting articles, as well as tie their clothing to social impact such as their Zimbabwe project.
  • Timothy Everest shares custom Spotify playlists created by them, provide a look behind the scenes with their “Tailor’s Project” campaign as well as show social proof with “A Postcard From…” campaign.

Boglioli creates unique interactive experiences in their emails with advanced technology like AMP.

 

In this article I will highlight four strategies used by fifteen MTM brands that fully leverage this profitable marketing channel.

 

… and in case you did not know email marketing generates $40 for every $1 spent. This is 2X other marketing channels such as social media. 

 

1. Multi-media, Interactive

 

Made-to-measure brands use GIFs, videos, and other interactive technology like AMP to engage readers.

GIFs are the most popular.

 

Brioni

Brioni uses GIF to show the impeccable details of this jacket.

 

BALANI Custom Clothiers

They included the two GIFs below in their email campaign to quickly show the benefits of a product and makes the reader want to buy. 

Why?

• Simple GIFs that tell the viewer all they need to know. Nothing more nothing less.
• J.Hilburn promoted a similar product (“Windstopper”) but with images only. It was also effective but the multimedia GIF communicated the benefits better.

 

 

Boglioli

Boglioli uses GIFs to highlight product features in their menswear and womenswear lines.

 

Boglioli also takes it up a notch with AMP where readers can interact right inside the email similar to their website.

There is a carousel allowing user to browse the jacket collections in the email, plus a menu allowing the user to go directly where they need on the website right from the email.

*AMP also allows users to shop and checkout, and book appointment right inside the email. 

 

 

2. Story Telling

 

Timothy Everest

“Tailor’s Project”

Timothy Everest pulls the curtain back and tell the story of the people that make the garments. It is a great way for customers to feel connected. And every brand can do this since each has a story to tell.

“A Postcard from…”

Timothy Everest showcase their own customers from a different global city in each campaign. The customer is wearing Timothy Everest clothing, and talk about their city, and why they chose Timothy Everest.

This brilliant campaign creates content for all phases of the sales funnel and includes:

• • Customer stories
  • Testimonials
  • Real customer’s wearing the product
  • Shows Timothy Everest global reach
  • Overall it builds brand credibility, shows social proof and deepens customer relationship

“Spotify Playlist”

This is another great campaign by Timothy Everest to build deeper connection with their customers and followers. They created a Spotify playlist to promote their new collection.

Articles of Style

They use video to share stories with style tips, industry outlook and other topics.

Duncan Quinn

Duncan Quinn’s emails are a masterclass in branding and value-based selling. Each email offers value (interesting articles, book lists, drink recipes), build deep connection with them (their social impact e.g. Zimbabwe project and how you can be a part of it – buy their clothing :)), events, etc.

Its jam packed with info, and some selling all around.

This will be sure to develop a loyal following who connect with them on a deep level.

 

3. Registration Follow up

 

When someone subscribes to your email list they are saying “hey I am interested in your brand.”

Don’t ghost them.

Send them a follow up and start nurturing the relationship right away.

In our recent study, only 27% of made-to-measure brands send a registration follow up email.

 

Here are four brands from our study that do a great job with registration follow up.

 

1. Brioni

They send a text-only email which makes it feel more personal. They set expectations about the type of emails they will send and ask you to create a personal account.

 

2. Boglioli

They provide a very welcoming email that describes more about their brand. Their main call to action is for you to create a personal account.

 

3. Tom Ford

This welcome email does not have a very personal feel, but the strong imagery evokes the feeling of the brand.

They invite you start shopping.

4. Blank Label

This has a welcoming feeling and a relatable type model wearing their clothing. Their benefits are laid out in a letter, with call to actions focused on shopping.

4. Nurture Campaigns

Nurture campaigns are automated, time-based emails sent to leads.

It’s a great way to educate new subscribers about your brand, and move them down your sales funnel in a consistent way.

Less than 5 percent of all MTM brands in our study send nurture campaigns.

Black Lapel and Alton Lane are among the few that send nurture campaigns.

 

Black Lapel

Black Lapel uses 3 automated emails to nurture new subscribers.

It educates them about the brand, shows social proof with customer testimonials and customers wearing their clothing.

This automates the process of ensuring that every single subscriber knows what Black Lapel represents, establishes trust and hopefully convinces them to make a first purchase.

 

Black Lapel Nurture Email #1:

 

Black Lapel Nurture Email #2:

 

 

Black Lapel Nurture Email #3:

 

 

 

Alton Lane

Below is the first or 2-email nurture campaign by Alton Lane.

 

Honorable mentions

 

Kevin Seah

Kevin Seah’s “The Roger” product announcement:

 

The Bespoke Club

The Bespoke Club uses supplier images from manufacturer Red Collar (Kutesmart) in their “This is what you should be wearing this summer” campaign.

Most suppliers such as fabric vendors Gladson, Holland & Sherry, Scabal, Artextile, and Saviero to name a few, as well as many manufacturers gladly provide images to help marketing made-to-measure brands.

Just be sure to get proper authorization to use their images.

Bonus

Is email marketing really profitable?

 

Research shows that email marketing provides the best return on investment.

 

1. Email marketing generates $40 for every dollar spent.

   • That is almost 2X ROI of any other marketing channel.

   • 

2. Email marketing is more likely to drive sales than social media marketing

   • 60 percent of consumers say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email they received. Contrast that with the 12.5 percent of consumers who say they’d consider using the ‘buy’ button on social media, and it’s not much of a contest.
   • 

3. Consumers want to hear from you

   • 61 percent of consumers enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly. 38 percent would like emails to come even more frequently.

 

Conclusion

Even though email marketing provides the best ROI at 40:1 of any channel, most made-to-measure brands in our recent study do not leverage it well.

 

Brands like Duncan Quinn, Boglioli, Timothy Everest, Articles of Style, and Brioni use email marketing to nurture leads, build brand loyalty and drive sales.

 

Here are some tips to standout from the crowd:

1. Tell stories like Timothy Everest, Duncan Quinn and Articles of Style.
2. Send nurture emails like Black Lapel and Alton Lane – this is like having a dedicated sales team in the field 24/7 that always follow the same sales script.
3. Get interactive – use GIFs like BALANI Custom Clothiers and Brioni, and add in powerful AMP features like Boglioli where user can book a fitting right inside the email.
4. Be creative – checkout the campaigns by Timothy Everest to get some ideas.
5. Send more emails to customers and prospects that are personalized and segmented.

 

There are many tools like Mailchimp, Aweber and Activecampaign that simplify this process.

 

Good luck!

 

 

How do you currently use email marketing? … Let me know in the comments

Thanks for reading The Custom Times – blog articles about the business and economics of custom apparel.

I believe that better market insight will help you grow your business faster and more profitably.

Our articles include in-depth, well-researched information from the global custom apparel industry, along with useful tools that you can apply to your own business.

• Learn how fellow MTM and bespoke brands are executing strategies such as email, e-commerce, and content across sales funnels to drive business growth.
• Get original market data and statistics based on our research of hundreds of MTM brands globally.

 

If you want to truly grow your business rather than feeling stuck juggling orders between multiple systems, then these articles are for you.

Finally,…

It takes a team of 5 and countless hours to research and produce these articles.

If you found value, I ask two things:

1. Leave a comment below about what you will apply to your business
2. Let me know other topics you would like us to research and write about.

Thank you,

Tyrone Whittle, founder, The Custom Times