Laura Munkholm:
Thank you so so much for being here for our WALLA webinar series today. Appreciate all of you who took the time to join us live today. I am Laura Munkholm, founder and president here at WALLA, and I am so excited to be joined by Doc Mills today, who is the founder of OnBrand. Um, for those of you that are new to our webinar series, we do these usually the last Thursday of every month, and we typically bring on either a guest like Zach, who is a total expert in their field and can really dive in to help you take action in your business today. Um, the goal of all of these webinars is for you to wrap up this hour and be able to do something maybe on the webinar, maybe after the webinar that moves the needle on your business. That doesn't take, you know, ten hours of your time. We want you to be able to do something today. Um, and part of the reason I wanted to bring Zach on with this timing is, you know, I think a lot of us get into the mode as the fall flies by at, like, a thousand miles per hour, and all of a sudden we're at the October, and we're like, oh my gosh. I need to do something for the holidays, Black Friday, whatever your, um, kind of magic time is before the New Year. And, um, I thought it'd be nice to feel a little bit more prepared this year and have an incredible playbook. Um, just quick housekeeping stuff on our platform here. You guys are all live on our WALLA website right now. Um, so this is a little different than Zoom in that you're not kind of bouncing outside of WALLA. But it's the same in that we have a chat here on the right side of the screen. You can pop in there if you wouldn't mind. Everybody just say hello, um, who you are, where you're coming to us from, and your business. And then, um, we do have a q and a section. So at the end of the webinar today, uh, we'll go through any remaining q and a, but there's a little q and a button, and that actually is the best place to ask any targeted questions because, um, that way I can mark them as answered or keep track of them, and they don't get lost in a chat if people are kind of commenting back and forth. Um, other than that, try to close your other tabs. Get really focused. This is a really, really powerful presentation today. And with that, Zach, I will turn it over to you. I'd love for you to introduce yourself to the crowd.

Doc Mills:
Absolutely. What's going on? Uh, appreciate you guys having me. Obviously, Laura, it's been awesome getting to work work very closely alongside you and the entire WALLA team over the last seven, eight months or so. But, um, as, uh, as Laura said, I'm Zach Mills, founder of OnBrand. Um, we are a full digital marketing agency specializing specifically in the boutique niche. Right? Um, we don't necessarily do traditional big box or anything like that. It's boutique's kind of the name of the game. Quick background on me. Um, come from the marketing or excuse me, from the, uh, the fitness industry for the last seven, eight years, I would say. Was on the vendor side for a little bit, um, and then got recruited by Xponential Fitness and spent a couple of years there, um, as a marketing director for two of their brands, AKT and y six. Um, right. And then kinda saw the writing on the wall to a degree. Um, you know, saw an industry and and expo is able to accomplish and really where there were kinda holes in the marketplace from a digital marketing perspective. So branched out about two and a half years ago or so to start on brands and, you know, really with that kind of mission in mind of just helping boutique studio owners really kinda reimagine their digital marketing funnel and and, uh, and implementing kind of full funnel strategies to to really move the needle for for each of these individual business owners. So stoked to be here. Excited to dive in. Uh, I know we're a couple months ahead of of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, but again, it's it's it creeps up on us sooner than we all think. Right? So, uh, seriously appreciate all you guys being here.

Laura Munkholm:
Awesome. Well, yeah, guys, we're we're really picky about the people we bring into this this webinar series. And particularly with marketing, we know this is something that you invest in in your business. And I I think we've had webinars before where we talk about the lens that we see marketing through is not an expense. It's an investment where there should be it should be a no brainer. And Zach's one of those people that I, we, absolutely trust because, you know, obviously, he knows the digital marketing game, but his background in this industry is so directly relatable. And having a conversation with him is not gonna be like, you know, you need a translator in between to explain what boutique fitness is actually about. So, um, with that, I'll let you dive in. Pop into the the, uh, deck.

Doc Mills:
Okay. I appreciate you guys. Alright. So everyone's seeing the screen. Yeah. I believe we're good to go. Alright. So we will dive on in, guys. So Black Friday for boutique, ecommerce edition. Right? So before I stay in the fitness industry, I came from ecommerce background. So a lot of opportunity, um, to really leverage the the online space, particularly during the holiday season. Alright? So what to expect from this webinar in particular. Right? Uh, really the highest performing brands treat Black Friday and the Cyber Monday time frame like it's the Super Bowl of sales because in actuality, it is. Right? We all wake up morning after morning, pretty much starting, like, November 1. It seems like Black Friday starts earlier and earlier every year, and you just have dozens of emails in your inbox from brands you probably never even heard of. Right? So it's just an opportunity to really, you know, kinda leverage the existing contact and database that you guys have, uh, have built up. Right? Um, and really leverage it from a revenue perspective. So objectives for today, uh, learn how the top ecommerce brands structure their holiday campaigns and specifically how to apply that to your studio or studios. Uh, explore proven email and SMS best practices for urgency, copywriting, and design. And then we're actually gonna walk through kind of a fully mapped fourteen day promotional calendar with subject lines, timing, and even creative angles and recommendations in terms of how to build your actual emails. Uh, and then, of course, discover what offers actually convert during this time frame. Right? Um, I think that's probably one of the most important factors is you could have the most beautifully designed email and SMS, uh, you know, campaign. But if no one likes what it is that you're offering, um, then obviously, you're you're you're not gonna have much success. So we'll dig into what our experience has taught us over the last four or five years in the in the boutique space, what has really moved the needle from a conversion or revenue standpoint. Alright. And then yeah. So quick quick background on us, guys. We're 360 degree digital marketing for boutique fitness studios working with 50 plus locations right now, again, primarily in the Pilates and the yoga, um, space right now. Had a handful of, um, of sort of sort of boot camp full body hit type of of workout facilities and studios, um, but really just continuing to to dive in and offer those three sixty, uh, digital marketing platforms from landing page optimization to paid media lead generation, and then exactly what we're talking about here, email and SMS. Right? So digging into to those and really leveraging the existing contact that you guys have. Alright? So to kick things off, it's not just gonna be me talking at you for the next thirty minutes. I promise there's gonna be a lot of back and forth here. Um, you know, so a quick question for you guys. If you wanna just use the poll directly in the, um, in the webinar series on SQL, uh, who already has plans for Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Yes or no?

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. You can just click on the little poll on the right side. There you go. You're seeing it now. K. Some nopes, some yeses. Let's see. Uh, Yeah. Most people are in the no category, so we're definitely leaning towards need some guidance here.

Doc Mills:
Cool. Hey. It's it's perfect timing. Right? You guys will have some tidbits to take away from here, um, and ideally, you know, really kind of some, uh, applicable strategies that you guys can just go and and implement, right, and get ahead of the game. Alright. So I would imagine for the majority of folks who said no, probably don't have the answer to this question, but how many emails or SMS messages are you guys planning on sending during a Black Friday? Or what have you guys done in the past? Is it usually a, one to two, b, three to four, or c, five plus?

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Looks like we're getting three to four seems like the highest. Oh, we've got five plus taking over. Let's jump back and down, but we're the good news is, guys, most of you are doing somewhere more than three, so that's what we wanna see.

Doc Mills:
K. For sure. One and done from Ashley. Okay. That's good. Alright. We're gonna try we're gonna try and convince you otherwise of that. Right? Uh, we understand the whole spamming your contact list, etcetera. Right? We wanna keep it horrible. Too funny. Alright. Cool. We'll have some, uh, some real world applications for you guys. Um, I definitely gotta convince you guys otherwise of of frequency is definitely the name of the game during this this crazy time of season. Alright? So with that being said, guys, just to kinda set the stage. Right? Ecom and or an ecom mindset really wins the weekend or rather, you know, uh, let's just call it the two to four weeks or so that is now what has evolved into Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Right? So email and SMS always going to be your highest return on investment channels this holiday season, so be sure not to sleep on them. Right? Uh, every email and phone number is, uh, essentially monetizable. Right? And that is revenue just kinda sitting in your existing database just waiting to, uh, to be deployed. Um, build holiday campaigns that convert like an online store. Okay. So you wanna think urgency, scarcity, um, and then even repeat, uh, purchases, right, depending on what it is that you're actually offering and the actual sample size up. Um, and then, of course, set the stage for high converting, quick hitting promotional offers. Right? Streamline the overall experience, um, from the second they open your email or your text message to the second they can give you their credit card information and put money in your back pocket. Alright. We wanna make that as frictionless as possible. So just a quick look at the numbers. Right? If you guys don't believe me, um, this is this is data pulled directly from Attentive Mobile and Klaviyo. Right? So Attentive Mobile is one of the biggest, uh, SMS provider or SMS marketing platforms. Um, essentially, that's, you know, being used currently today. And then the email side is coming from Klaviyo. Again, one of the bigger, um, bigger email marketing platforms. So email average ROI is a 42 times return on your investment. K? So for those of you that are typically obviously on Walla right now, maybe there's a handful of you that aren't necessarily on Walla, but obviously just tuning into the webinar series. Um, if you are not leveraging email, it's essentially free at this point or it's included in your subscription with your Walla platform. Right? So think about that. Right? If you have you're you're spending $3,400 or so, um, you know, a month on your on your email platform or whatever maybe whether you guys use wall or something else, you're typically bringing in 42 times beyond that. Right? If you're leveraging it properly. Okay? SMS, 98% open rate. Alright? So if you send a text message, odds are everyone's gonna pretty much see it at that point. Alright? Um, so what you do with that open rate is obviously what is the, uh, is the most important thing. Getting them to take that next step, land on your landing page. Owned audience equals sustainable growth. Right? You guys have fought tooth and nail to get these people into your system. Right? You've spent money on meta ads, I'm sure. Google Ads, you've attended pop up events, you've had partnership, uh, deals. Right? You guys kinda name it. Right? Um, these folks are in your system for a reason. They're engaged with your brand at least at an elementary level. They want to be communicated with. They need to be communicated with on a consistent basis. Right? Um, and then, of course, if we wanna dive into the automation side of things and the the incredible capabilities of Wallace Journeys, um, the automation is minimal effort and, honestly, maximize revenue. Right? So that's not something that we can talk about at a at a separate time, Lauren. Maybe we can jump on another webinar in the next few months and and talk through, you know, kind of our standard journeys and and automation flows just to nurture leads and, uh, and maximize that revenue piece. Right? But, again, just a quick look at the numbers and really the overall impact that email SMS has on your business. Alright. So as we dive into the actual strategy, like I talked about a little bit earlier at the top of the, uh, top of the presentation, um, it all starts with the offer. Right? Uh, if people don't like what you're putting out there, you're not really gonna get, uh, you know, a a solid return on your investment. So at this point, what we have found over running, gosh, countless Black Friday, Cyber Monday campaigns for not only ecommerce companies, but specific to the boutique world of the last three years, um, is that it really kinda comes down to these four different pillars. Right? A standard blanket percentage off of a package or an individual pricing option is 100% the best way to go, right, from a conversion standpoint. I know we've all kind of been previewed. We see offers of, hey. Buy an eight pack, get two free. Buy five, get one free. Right? Um, buy a five pack, bring a guest pass, things like that. Um, the problem with that is that consumers can't necessarily identify what the savings are or how much it is that they're saving. Right? With a blanket ten, fifteen, 25% off is really quick back of the napkin type of math that people can calculate and they understand, oh, damn. I'm getting a good deal. Right? So something like that, less is oftentimes more when it comes to, um, the offer itself. Um, shifting gears to number two, credit pack focused. It really, really, really reigned supreme during this time. Um, again, we wanna make this process from engagement to checkout as seamless as possible. I know that we all, you know, strive to, uh, to push recurring revenue and get new memberships on a monthly basis 100% the right play and what you should be running on a daily basis. But when it comes to these strategic promotional campaigns, we wanna move remove as much friction as possible. K? So that includes contracts, agreements, terms and conditions, etcetera. Right? Any type of greater commitment that people will necessarily have to stop and think about means you're likely gonna lose them as a potential candidate for this conversion. Okay? So those simple, uh, credit packs, five packs, 10 packs, 20 packs, whether it's group, private, semi private, whatever it is that you guys offer at your existing studios, again, we have found convert 10 times, uh, 10 times better than pretty much any other recurring revenue based package that we, uh, we typically run. On that side of things, if you are 100 focused on the recurring revenue, um, doing a quick one month unlimited membership that is very hyper focused to sort of your top engagers or your top visitors. Uh, this is something that you can certainly segment within Wallace audience capabilities. Right? It's just targeting folks who have been in eight plus times over the last thirty days or even forty five days. Right? Um, just seeing people who are really engaging with your brand, really engaging with your studio, um, but haven't necessarily committed to a membership, now is a great time to get them on one. Right? A one month unlimited membership, no contracts, no guarantees, anything like that. Cool. You discount it anywhere that you guys are comfortable with 20% or so. Um, right. And that's a good opportunity to just capture those, let's call it, 15 to 20 people or so. We've played around with the idea of the membership. They come frequently enough, but just an opportunity to potentially convert them. No strings attached, quote, unquote. Right? Um, and then last but not least, we've all likely done this at some point in our lives. Uh, right. You you you either hate them or you love them. Right? You you love it when you, uh, you see an annual unlimited hit your your bottom line right then and there. It's a $2,000 checkout. Great. Awesome. Right? Um, I think now is is is probably the only time that you really want to push this. Right? And, again, very, very hypersegmented or hyper targeted to some existing folks who are actively engaging with your studio on a consistent basis. Alright? So for this, we typically wanna include a sense of scarcity as well. So limiting them to two, three, four, or five, right, max for people to sign up just to gauge some urgency, um, and to get people to really kinda think like, okay. Hey. This is a this is a pretty banging deal. I've been here. I'm not going anywhere for the next twelve months. Right? And it's just an opportunity for you guys to take advantage of some revenue as we go into December, which as we all know, a little bit of a lull for our season. Right? Um, so it kinda helps bridge the gap from November through, you know, the craze of January. So those are really kind of four hitters that we look to stick to.

Laura Munkholm:
Zach, I I imagined we were gonna get this question right away, and we did. So businesses like Boyd is mentioning here, we really try to focus on recurring memberships. Um, how about a month that is like a discounted first month that rolls into an autopay? Um, do you say stay away from recurring at this point just to get the the ease of purchase, or what what do you suggest?

Doc Mills:
I would say depending on the target or the audience that you're you're offering that to, I definitely wouldn't hit it to the masses, um, because it wouldn't hit as much. But if you have a little bit more of a segmented approach with those folks like I talked about who have visited four, five, six, seven times over the last three to forty five days, then I think that's a pretty good offer to to throw to them, and you can include that verbiage in there, um, around it for sure. Um, but I think, again, if you're looking more broad at a larger revenue play, which Black Friday, Cyber Monday tends to be, the credit pack is probably the safer bet to go there.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Yeah. And, guys, don't forget, this is not like you have to send a blanket email to everybody on your email list. One of the super powerful things about Walla is that you can get really narrow on who you're sending these to. Um, and maybe it is very different offers depending on the segment. And, uh, I think the the goal here with what Zach's saying is, like, when you're hitting the maybe 10,000 names in your email list or 20,000 names in your email list that maybe aren't active members, getting as many people to bite as possible is gonna be low commitment.

Doc Mills:
100%.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah.

Doc Mills:
Alright. So moving on. Okay. So now that we've got the offer, you know, essentially strategize at this point, we have a few maybe that we're gonna potentially run with to certain audiences. Now we gotta go to the next step. Right? How do we get people to actually engage with this? Alright. So that typically starts with the subject line. Alright. So as you're scrolling your inbox on mobile, um, I don't have my phone near me, but, you know, 80% of folks usually open their email on, um, on their mobile device. Right? So So as a result of that, um, there's just a few quick tips that you wanna keep in mind as you're drafting these subject lines. Um, and typically, you wanna keep it under 45 characters. Okay? So usually 45 to depending on the size of your device, um, 45 to 50 characters or so is kinda that cutoff point to where you start to see the dot dot dot, and you can't complete the actual subject line as you're reading on your mobile device. Alright? So keep that under 45. That includes emojis. That includes punctuation. That includes spacing as well. So keep that in mind. Um, use urgency, curiosity, or even benefit. Right? So, hey, only twenty four hours left. There's, hey, your last chance. Don't forget. Or have you heard about? Right? Some types of, uh, of question based subject lines can be engaging, especially if you're constantly engaging with your audience and messaging with them and you have a strong interaction with your community. Alright? Um, emojis can help from time to time. Uh, right, but don't overdo it. Right? One to two kinda max depending on what it is that you're pushing there. Um, right? So don't necessarily yeah. Just throw the entire keyboard at them, uh, right. In the in the expectation to stand out in your inbox, you will, but it's likely gonna be flagged as spam if you overdo it. Alright? Um, and then something that we do on with pretty much every one of our studio clients is we split test these subject lines typically on a once, uh, once a month basis. Right? So if we're sending out an offer to the same people over the course of, let's call it, two, uh, over the course of two weeks, We'll do same exact audience, same exact message, uh, one time, and then we'll just slightly shift the second time to see where it is that we're kinda constantly converting, and we're just consistently updating based on what it is that we find there.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. And don't forget, in Wale, you can have create an audience that is, you know, people who didn't open or people who right? So you can always, you know, test back to that same group if they didn't open or yeah. I'm just in contact.

Doc Mills:
Alright. So now that we've talked about the subject line, k, we've got people interested. They're obviously open to email. Alright. Now what's next? We don't want them to just open it, say, oh, okay. I'm out of here. Oh, there's too much text or I don't really understand what this is about, etcetera. Um, we want folks to obviously read and engage with what it is that we have to offer, and you have about two and a half to three seconds in order to do so. Right? So the way that the actual email template should be designed is very specific to what it is that you're offering. Okay? So we always lead with an engaging hero graphic. Right? What you guys see on the right here of the screen is just a handful of different, uh, designs that we look to implement depending on, obviously, who it is that the studio is, what it is that we're offering, etcetera. Right? We always wanna lead with the offer or just the overall point of the email. Okay? So for Black Friday Cyber Monday, if it's 20% off credit packs, you want to include that first and foremost. That should be the primary headline. People open it up. They know exactly what it is that the email's about. Alright? Um, also on that hero graphic, and I see this a ton, um, as we bring on new studios and we just continuously audit, you know, what it is that they're doing on the email and the SMS side, um, is they don't include call to action buttons on that first graphic. Right? They could have a great, uh, great image, a great photo, um, you know, very, very engaging awesome hero shot, but it doesn't say anything and it doesn't prompt people to take action. Okay? So the first foremost thing that we want them to do is, k, we got them to open. Now we want them to get to where it is that we're leading them to. Right? Ideally, a buy page of some sort. Um, so be sure to include that book now or grab your pack or shop now, you know, base CTA buttons where people are, you know, a little bit more incentivized or a little bit more encouraged to click that button. Okay? Um, when it comes to the actual copy of your email, short paragraphs, punchy tones. Right? You want anything between one to two sentences per paragraph, two to three paragraphs max. Right? So again, you have to think majority of people are going to be opening this email on their mobile device. And the last thing you wanna do is open your phone and just see text. Right? It's a little overwhelming. People are like, that's not that important. Right? Uh, and kinda scroll to the next. So if you have that hero graphic, a little bit of text spaced out evenly, so it's much more legible. And the next thing is you always wanna end with another CTA button. So you lead with it upfront. You get them to engage in your content. You share a little bit more information about it. And then after that, again, another call to action button just to kinda close it is what it is that you're offering to get them to go to to where it is that you're leading them. Ideally, a landing page or a buy page, right, directly within Walla. Um, link straight to the buy page. Exactly. It's my point. Not just on those call to action buttons. I would say the majority of the studios that we work with, they typically do include the buttons or link, um, but they're linking to the home page. They're linking to a random page on the website, etcetera. Walla is absolutely second to none in terms of that post click experience and just the overall checkout process. So whether you're a single studio or a multi studio location, um, the ability to pull that link directly in there where they just click it, they land, they can select their location, they select their specific package. Um, it's just it's again, it's really second to none in terms of, uh, you know, being able to just shorten that experience and make it as frictionless as possible. Alright? And last but not least, always, always, always think mobile first layout. Again, 80% of the folks who open your emails gonna be doing it on their phone, so we wanna make sure that it looks very attractive on mobile. And, again, cool thing is you're building out the emails, which will obviously go through here a bit. Um, you can preview what it looks like on desktop, on tablet, and on mobile as well directly within the wall platform.

Laura Munkholm:
Alright. Just quickly, Zach, uh, we've got a couple questions around when you're doing these emails. Do you suggest only having one offer in these emails, or do you suggest putting multiple in?

Doc Mills:
Good question. So depending on the audience again, it it comes out of the audience that you're you're targeting. Right? Um, one is ideally best, um, but if you guys are running with a couple different ones, we've we've run campaigns where it's, uh, it's two different offers as well. Alright? Um, but typically, they're they're kind of along the same lines, um, in terms of what it is you're offering or at least the same group of people would be able to benefit from those offers. Right? Um, and so one, I is ideal. Two, you can get away with for sure just depending on the segmentation, but I wouldn't recommend anything more than that. Just a little bit of information overload for, uh, for the client. Yeah. Good question, though.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. And, Nicole, just so you know, the direct you're asking about do you click to link to a specific website? You don't even have to worry about that. The direct links for the plan in Walla take you right to a checkout page, like, the the widget checkout page that's literally, like, autofills on their phone, Apple Pay double click on the side. It is so fast. If they're brand new, like actually, they they won't be because they won't be logged in. But, anyway, they'll they'll be a password option if they're brand new. If they haven't ever bought anything from you, it'll ask them to create a password. But other than that, it's literally like buying something on Instagram.

Doc Mills:
Yep.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. And and same question. We'll get into this in a little bit, Nicole, but you're really trying to drive them to one offer. So it's it's really like, to get the highest conversion here, we're not sending them to a page of a million different, like, options. The goal is, here's a great way to get into the studio. Like, you can see here, like, ready to lead, 30% off founding membership, last chance, whatever it is. You're not like, hey. Check out all of our pricing options and sending them to a web page.

Doc Mills:
100%. Alright. Good questions, guys. Let's go. We're engaged. I love it. Man, there's a lot of back and forth here. Alright. So that's essentially just a quick little quick little synopsis on the overall email side of things. Again, we're gonna dive into the wall platform here in about five minutes and kind of just build a sample campaign for you guys, um, so you can kinda see it all come to light. Uh, but the next piece of the of the puzzle is definitely SMS. Alright. So granted, um, it's a much higher engagement rate, but typically your opt in rates and your overall SMS marketable list is typically a bit smaller than what we have on the email side. Alright. So we just gotta be a little bit more strategic here. Alright. So again, just some quick best practices when it comes to, you know, the actual SMS side of things. First up is always include your studio name. Alright. Um, believe it or not, not everybody saves your phone number or your contact, um, as often as you would like them to, as often as you you market to them. Um, it's always a great best practice to just start with whom it is that you guys are. Right? Um, we're revival Pilates. We're natural Pilates. We're black swan yoga, etcetera. Right? Included at some point in the first one to two, uh, one to two sentences as you guys are reaching out. Uh, personalization is, again, critical. Right? So use the name tags and and the overall merge tags that, um, that the WALLA system has to offer to pull in first names, um, you know, to pull in certain client data, and then, obviously, to identify who it is that's actually marketing to them. Obviously, this is an automated message to a degree, but you can still include personalization, whether it's your general manager, uh, your front desk rep, whether it's yourself, you know, whomever it may be. Right? It just helps humanize the overall process. Uh, you know, be sure to again, it's not necessarily a one and done. We wanna send reminders, um, and and really nudges as it relates to the overall, um, process. Always include a direct booking link. Again, very similar to what we're doing on email. If we're prompting them to take action, don't expect them to know how to get to what it is that we're offering. Always include that direct package link in the, um, in the body of the text message typically ending with it. Um, and then, Laura, correct me if I'm wrong here. Um, so the actual widget links, uh, and package links are fairly long, right, in terms of the URL.

Laura Munkholm:
When you

Doc Mills:
paste them in the actual SMS message, uh, it will be auto shortened by the platform itself. Correct?

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. It'll, like, pop up on their phone as a, you know, like, a link with a image to whatever is there. Yeah.

Doc Mills:
Perfect. Cool. Alright. So again, stay conversational and concise. You don't need four, five, six sentences or so. Right? As much as we all have a lot to say, keep it short, keep it sweet, keep it simple. Right? Um, and keep it personal. Alright. And then, uh, again, this is I legally have to say this, um, as a marketing agency, um, include the stop to opt out for compliance. Uh, right. That is up to you guys 100%. I didn't say that out loud, but we do include it in the actual writing. We try to. We have clients who kinda differ on on both sides. Right? Some that are a little bit more risk adverse, but we don't necessarily include it. We have others that are, like, absolutely included pretty much in everything that we send out. But, again, Laura, correct me if I'm wrong. The wallet platform itself, if they do say stop or unsubscribe or anything like that, they are automatically removed from that list.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Exactly. And in the first marketing text, we are required to include that in first communication to anybody who opts in. So they know that that is an option.

Doc Mills:
Yep. Alright. So that's what we're looking at on the SMS side. And moving on. Okay. So now that we've got what we're doing on email, what we're doing on SMS, how to actually build these campaigns. Right? Um, what are we looking at from a cadence perspective, our frequency. Right? Uh, so, again, this comes into we don't want to spam our clients whatsoever. But trust me, during this time of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, they will see probably every other, if not every third message that you actually send to them. Okay? Again, just because of all the noise that is around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and everything that we engage with. Right? Um, so as a result of this, we typically don't do like, typically, when we run campaigns, it's usually between three to seven days or so, right, just to kinda get the most bang for our buck. Um, however, when it comes to Black Friday, we double that. Right? It's a two week promo window that we usually start the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as kind of like our pre or early Black Friday kind of access. We do Black Friday, and then we do Cyber Monday. Right? And it typically ends the Wednesday after Cyber Monday, um, because if you just end on that Monday, you're fine with every other everybody else that's on that Monday. Monday. So you wanna be a little bit more strategic in terms of your actual cadence and when you're actually messaging with them. K? So two week promo window, again, three parts. Early Black Friday that you position a little bit as kind of like, hey, VIP early access to our Black Friday sale, get ahead of the game, etcetera. Black Friday itself, and then Cyber Monday. Right? So three essential sprints over the course of a fourteen day time frame. Um, and usually within each of those sprints, we will send between two to three emails depending on engagement and overall, uh, size list or contact, uh, contact list size, and then one to two text messages again. So that'll lead us anywhere between six to nine emails and, you know, three to six text messages over the course of the two week time span. Sounds like a lot. I promise you. It is not. Uh, right. So as long as you're actively engaging and you're looking at your open rates and engagement rates, um, and more importantly, your unsubscribe rates as well, I promise you, you'll be surprised at the efficacy, uh, and how many people will still come to you saying, I even know you guys were running and say, I didn't see anything, right, because of all the noise that are in there. So we like to on the side of caution, um, right, and make sure that our message is seen.

Laura Munkholm:
Hey. Erica's wondering she said, I feel like people start Black Friday now extremely early, like, October. Thoughts on that?

Doc Mills:
Uh, that's entirely up to you. Right? Um, it's we I don't like to open the can of worms too early. Again, you wanna include some sense of scarcity within it. Um, right? The ecom brands, they're just, yeah, they're again, because there's so much noise in that space in particular. We still like the two, uh, two week promo window. Um, right, and that's kind of our go to strategy. Um, but, you know, if if if you feel the need to to crank things on a little earlier, then it's entirely up to you. But, again, we we like sticking that Wednesday before just again to include a little bit of scarcity and keep that holiday season type of a lot. I think at least the boutique customers who are a little bit more community oriented really appreciate that.

Laura Munkholm:
Okay. Awesome. Cool. Couple more questions. Um, do you recommend promoting a sale in studio as well via, like, flyers and announcements?

Doc Mills:
100%. 100%. Uh, not only email and SMS, but make sure what you're pushing on email is, uh, being displayed across social media as well. Right? Instagram stories is a fantastic way to do this. They're up twenty four hours, not necessarily spamming your audience. You can create a direct link. Put the link in bio on your Instagram, um, right, in particular. So definitely on the social side. And then, yeah, a quick flyer with the QR code depending on what it is that you're you're offering is is a major piece as well. Good question.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Really good question. Um, Becca, something I've seen studios do that are doing a lot of offers like this during the holidays or Black Friday is they pair it with some sort of, like, member engagement month or something like that so that their members feel special too because it can especially if you're putting things in the studio all over the place about deals, Sometimes members can feel like, hey. Wait a second. Should I, like, go buy that 10 pack instead of what I'm doing right now? So it's a really great time to just double down on all of the love for your members, whether it's, like, a member's only holiday party or, you know, something where where you can make them feel like, hey. You matter to us a lot.

Doc Mills:
Great call out. Great call out. Yeah. So, like, obviously, when you're when you're promoting in studio, you're promoting on social, you can't necessarily segment who who sees that. Right? On the email and the SMS side, we typically tend to exclude active members, right, from the specific offers that we're running if it's a credit pack focus because, again, we don't want people pausing, taking advantage of that, and then going back on. Um, but, yeah, I think to to Laura's point, right, having some type of incentive for your members in particular, um, is definitely a, uh, a big time driver as well. Yeah. Good call out.

Laura Munkholm:
Holly, I'm not quite sure what your question means here. So maybe, um, could you explain a lot of more? It says, how would you say these same tips for email SMS with how they are formatted formatted and best times to send? Do you mean are the best times both SMS and email? Like, are you saying, Zach, all of these tips are for SMS and email, or is this, like,

Doc Mills:
the best time to send, or is that really just email? In terms of the cadence, this these are typically the best times to send, both email and SMS. Right? Uh, SMS tends to gear a little bit more towards the afternoon. However, when it comes to so again, Monday to Thursday, either before 9AM or between the hours of four to six, again, this is what we typically this is kinda generic, um, generic data, right, again, from Attentive and from and from Klaviyo, and usually falls in line with what we see at our clients. But, again, before you send anything out, you should be able to take just a quick look at your stats within the wall of marketing center to see, hey. When was the last few emails you sent out of the last thirty to sixty days? Is it afternoon? Is it morning? Is it Friday? Is it Monday? Is it Wednesday? Just get a quick pulse on what it is that, uh, has worked for you the best, but this is kind of just a generic, hey. FYI, this is usually how it works.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Alright. Let's let's I know we've got some more questions. We'll get to them at the end because I wanna make sure we have time to wrap up the

Doc Mills:
Perfect. Alright. Let me begin. Alright. So just a quick look at what the overall campaign structure could potentially look like. Again, kind of for that first sprint. Right? So day one, um, you have your Black Friday early access. You get the email out there whether it's in the morning. So we we typically send tend to send the emails in the morning, SMS in the afternoon. That's usually when people are kinda most engaged for us. So email in the morning, um, on day one, and then an SMS later in that afternoon. Again, uh, typically to the same audience, kinda pushing the same offer, but hitting up from two two different mediums, right, um, and kinda doubling down announcing the launch of your actual promotion. Um, usually a day or two later, so day three, um, we will send another follow-up email to a little bit more of a segmented list either to, um, previous visitors over the last ninety days or, um, to folks who have opened, um, or engaged with that email but haven't necessarily purchased. Right? Um, and so there's ways within Walla that we can get pretty segmented on that side as well. So, again, we're not just spamming the entire list the entire time. Alright? And then lastly, again, it's kinda part of the first, um, the first sprint of early Black Friday, let's call it, that four or five day time span. We'll say, hey. Last chance, um, you know, don't forget about our early Black Friday special. Click the link below. Offer ends tonight. Right? Uh, that email will again go out in the morning, um, and then the SMS will go in go out that afternoon saying, hey. Final hours, you've got three hours left, um, right, again, including a sense of urgency to get people to take advantage. Right? Uh, but, again, over the course of five days, we're sending three emails and two text messages. K? So quite quite a bit. Right? Uh, but, again, very segmented, very strategic, and you just need to make your way through the inbox of everybody else. I promise you your your open rates and your engagement rates will not falter, um, you know, as a result during this time specifically. Alright. And then last but not least, guys, before we dive into actually building a quick campaign, um, who is it that you're talking to? Alright. So the right message, right audience at the right time. K. Again, Walla is really kinda second to none when it comes to being able to segment specific audiences and who it is that you're engaging with. Okay? Um, so depending on the available list size, right, and what you run-in your contacts, um, this could potentially alter and, uh, and and be tailored accordingly. But typically for us, for email cadence, email one, we really wanna kind of, uh, blast it out to the masses. Okay? So anybody who's potentially taking advantage of this, say it's a credit pack offer, we wanna send it to really all contacts that have potentially engaged and make sure that, hey. We cast a pretty wide net at this point. Alright? Again, usually, we'll exclude active members from this, so they don't necessarily see it. Um, and that's something that we can walk through in terms of how to, uh, how to do that as we, uh, we dig into the wallet platform. Email two, we get a little bit more granular. Right? Again, depending on the overall cadence, but, again, because this is Black Friday Cyber Monday, uh, we're not gonna get as segmented as we usually would. We'll just, um, target the folks who have visited over the last hundred and eighty days. Okay? But we'll exclude potential purchasers that have purchased essentially in the last, let's call it, uh, three days since sending the first email. Okay? Email three, again, even a little bit more hyper targeted visitors over the last one hundred and, uh, or excuse me, over the last ninety days, excluding folks who have purchased over the last seven days. Okay? So, again, folks who have seen emails one and two and the active members would be removed from the the last email because we don't wanna spam people who we've already helped convert. Right? That's when you start to piss people off, for sure. Alright. And then same thing on the SMS side. Again, cast a little bit of a wide net to begin with SMS two. Visits in the last one hundred and eighty days excluding any purchases over the last five days, okay, specific to the packages or the offer it is that you're running. Alright? So quick segment, quick sample in terms of what we're looking at here.

Laura Munkholm:
Yep.

Doc Mills:
Alright. So now we can build a quick campaign together. Do we have yeah. We got we got time. Right, Lauren?

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. We've got some time.

Doc Mills:
Alright. Perfect.

Laura Munkholm:
I think this will be super valuable for everyone. So

Doc Mills:
Sure. Alright. Where we at? Flyer for

Laura Munkholm:
There you go.

Doc Mills:
I see it defaults to the natural Pilates one. Alright, guys. So we're on a quick demo site right here. So everyone's seeing? K. Cool. Dashboard's fun. Alright. So we land here. Everybody's familiar, hopefully. Um, go to the sales and marketing center. Alright? Um, if you guys haven't created a template, um, you know, before you dive into a specific newsletter or a specific campaign, we always like to create a template to begin with. So that way you can kinda just copy and paste, and you don't have to recreate everything from scratch. So just a little bit easier. So you go in here. This is kind of our standard template. Um, you get in. You create it. If you wanna duplicate it multiple times, you just click the three buttons and click duplicate, and you can apply it pretty much, uh, throughout the, uh, throughout the process. Alright. So for us, we're gonna go into newsletters, uh, create an email, and we'll just go early Black Friday one. Target location. Um, so, again, depending if you're multiple locations, individual locations, right, this really kinda comes up to you. Um, so for sake of argument, we're just gonna go all locations here. Early Black Friday, 20% off. Credit back. Special. Email, one. Click save newsletter. We're gonna configure the audience right here. Alright. So, again, this is the first email that we're sending out. So like we talked about, we usually like to set it to, um, all contacts, again, excluding members. Um, right, sometimes you can have a, uh, or I would say the vast vast majority of Wallace, you guys have, like, a blanket all contacts list. Um, but because this is a demo site, we'll just create a quick custom one and usually what we look to do and how we create this. Laura, you can correct me if I'm wrong here, um, but I usually just go record creation date.

Laura Munkholm:
Yep. Exactly.

Doc Mills:
Perfect. Okay. Cool. Within the last let's call it one thousand days. Right? And that'll pull in damn near everybody. Right? Okay. So you got that. And then, again, we wanna exclude members because this is a package specific offer. So we're gonna go down to has member status, contacts who do not have member status. Right? So these folks will essentially be excluded as a result. We will click save, and that is our audience. Something we always like to double check, right, is just to, uh, click this view contacts button, um, just to make sure that your audience has actually ran at that point. Obviously, this is a demo site, so there's not obviously a ton of data in here, but just make sure that it kinda hits the parameters that you're looking to, uh, to look at. Just a quick kind of QA, uh, to make sure that, uh, you know, you're targeting the right people after all. Alright. Go down to email content. Configure this action. Alright. Subject is early Black Friday for our VIPs. Alright. Cool. So this should be right under 45 characters. Just a quick count. Five, ten plus six, sixteen, nineteen, twenty two, plus four, twenty five, plus a few spaces. Cool. Right around that thirty, thirty one or so. Uh, just had to do math in front of a bunch of people that actually kinda scared me, but we're good now. We crushed it. Alright. Sweet. So, typically, for us guys, we scroll down. We like to use the branded templates like we talked about. Again, just really kinda summarize, um, what it is that we're offering and that we're pushing. So, typically, when it comes down to layout style, we will use advanced, and then we're gonna go start building. So we use this pre created template that we've already built, makes it super simple. Click select. And this is usually our standard right here. Okay? So we lead with that hero graphic. We're gonna click upload image. I believe this is the one that we wanted to use. Cool. Alright. So it has pretty much everything that we're looking at. Right? Branded template. You got your logo up front so everybody knows who you are. Mhmm. Black Friday savings really kinda calls out specifically what the offer is all about, includes the actual promo code, and then, you know, a quick disclaimer or a sense of urgency. Hey. This offer is ending on Friday. So, you know, urges people to take a little bit of action. Alright. As for the heading, we'll just say sweat, save, Repeat. Right. Something like that. I promise I promise you we have much better copywriters than on brand than what we have going on here. Alright. But something catchy and something punchy like that. Um, heads up. Again, we wanna personalize this, so we'll use the merge tag right here. Client first name, we have kicked off our exclusive oh, exclusive.

Laura Munkholm:
Public typing is scary. I got it. I need public typing.

Doc Mills:
Fully panicking. Like, how many people Oh, yeah. A 100%. Right? For a limited time, save 20% on all credit tax with code. What do we got? BSCM 20. Click the link below, and we'll see you on the reformers. And then end with a quick emoji. I'm a big proponent of the flex arm. Um, as I would imagine, most of us are in our beautiful industry. Right? And with the button text, we'll go shop now. Wanna bold that for consistency. And, again, the big thing is we wanna pull the adequate link directly from, um, right, what it is that we're offering. K? So this is a little bit more of a generic package. K? Typically, for us, when we're doing something like this, we'll lead them to our highest converting one, whether that's the tenth or the 20 pack, again, depending on the brand itself, and then people can essentially navigate to, um, if they want something different from there. Alright? So just to show you guys real quick how to pull that, um, I actually don't know if we have any pricing options in the demo site.

Laura Munkholm:
In the demo site, I can't remember. But you would go to direct Well, click on plans. Are there any yeah. There's one in there.

Doc Mills:
Okay. Cool. So, again, from here, guys, you just wanna go directly to whatever the plan is that you're offering here. So let's just say for sake of argument, this is the 10 pack. Right? The 10 class pack. We'll click here. We'll click get direct link, um, because this again is going to all locations. Um, right. We can allow users to essentially select whatever location it is that they're they're coming to, alright, or what they're what they prefer in their home location is. So we just copy this link directly. We'll go back to sales and marketing center, schedule email letters. I think this is the one we're done. Sweet. Yep. Member status. Go back into edit. Edit. And then we are just gonna paste that link directly into this image link. So that way, anybody who taps on this, once they actually get the email itself, they will be sent directly to the by page link, which looks like this. Alright. So, again again, let's just imagine that's the 10 pack, um, because, again, this is the demo site. But, again, you can see how quickly it is, whether they create their account or they wanna log in real quick as they're an existing customer, just the ability to do so right then and there. Alright. And then what I was telling you guys about earlier. Okay. So, again, we kept the we kept the copy short and punchy. You guys can see what this looks like on desktop, but more importantly, looking at what it looks like on mobile. Okay. So, again, you don't see a ton of text as you're on there. You see the graphic. You end with the call to action button. Couple of quick testimonials that we like to include in most of our templates. Again, just kind of just reassurance if you're targeting more people or new people. Um, from there, you're pretty much good to go. Always click save and continue. The first few times we, uh, we started using while, we did not click the save and continue button, and it was, uh, it just it, yeah, it kicked our ass for sure. Um, so just I'm gonna throw that out for everybody. Save yourself a little bit of time. We'll click save and exit once more. Go down here, and then you schedule it. Right? Depending on when it is that you're kinda kicking things out. Alright. So for us, we'll go to twenty six. We usually wanna go before 9AM, so we'll call it 08:45AM. Select schedule, and we are good to go. Simple as that, guys. Right? Um, but, again, it really comes down to the audience segmentation. You can get so granular with these pieces. We continue to build for the sake of time. Um, we will go back to the presentation. Well, let me actually just really quickly if

Laura Munkholm:
you go back in there, because somebody had asked about where the condition is for if people haven't opened an email. Oh, yeah. So can you just go back and add a condition? And if you scroll down, um, resend emails, see there's the resend email one. So that's where you can say, um, from newsletters. Oh, since this is a demo site, you don't have anything in here. But this basically says, send this email exactly x days or whatever after if they have not opened, if they have not,

Doc Mills:
um,

Laura Munkholm:
clicked however you want it opened, not clicked. Yeah. Um, but it'll give you a list of all of the options that you've sent before if you've got made already.

Doc Mills:
Yep. Exactly. Good call out.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Yep. Let's pop back in. I know we're we're just sitting in time here

Doc Mills:
in a

Laura Munkholm:
moment, so I wanna make sure everybody knows how to how to touch base with you on this.

Doc Mills:
Perfect. Alright, guys. So we got that. Uh, again, Rose, just captive audience, consistent messaging equals maximum revenue. Alright? The timing, the offer, multichannel, so including email and SMS really just kinda increases visibility. Um, include those branded templates, keep that going, and then obviously just simplify the lead journey with that specific, um, direct link, right, whatever it is that you're offering. Alright. Um, quick case study for us, guys. We can kinda just blow blow through this real quick. Natural Pilates is a client of ours on Walla, uh, one of our first ones actually that, uh, you know, we started working with and got over to the platform. As a result, again, just leveraging the marketing suite, we've been able to do some awesome awesome freaking things with them. Um, they had a 20 anniversary promotion last month, um, 20% off group packs, private and semi private packs. We ran it for seven days, three emails, three SMS, and we have $5,586 total redemptions as a result of that. We're close to 300 k in revenue. Now keep this in mind. This is certainly the North Star. They've been around for twenty years. So their marketing list is close to 45, 50,000 people, which is substantially larger than most, uh, most studios. Right? But, again, just being able to leverage the platform hyper segmented, hyper targeted, 586 redemptions in seven days is is pretty incredible. Right? So WALLA gives you all the tools to make this possible. Alright? And so as we wrap up here, guys, again, um, wanna say thank you again for just listening to listening to me talk at you guys for the last, you know, forty five minutes or so. Um, if you guys are looking for any type of help on the Black Friday Cyber Monday stuff, we geek out of this stuff. We absolutely smash it. So So I wanna offer just a free Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategy for you guys inclusive of high converting offer strategy. We'll dig into what you guys have done in the past and make our recommendations as a result. We'll help you craft the actual subject lines themself. We'll create conversion focus email and SMS copy again for the entire two week promo period, um, and then obviously give you guys the recommendation for the actual sending cadence and audience segmentation specific to WALLA at that point. Alright? So, um, go ahead and just scan the QR code right there. It'll lead you straight to you. Just a quick form fill that'll just notify myself and my team, and then we'll, uh, we'll find some time to to connect here over the next couple of weeks to to really kinda dig in and and get some things planned for you guys. So that way, once Black Friday comes around or November comes around, you guys can focus on the holiday season, um, as opposed to, you know, kinda running the running promos throughout the course of the, uh, the season.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah.

Doc Mills:
And,

Laura Munkholm:
guys, I know some of you had more questions. We're we're at times, so I wanna be respectful of your time, Zach's time. And, uh, obviously, you can just pop in and, uh, click that link with him or, I'm sorry, scan that QR code with him, and you guys can schedule some time to chat specifically about your businesses. But I hope this was tremendously helpful as you're thinking about the end of the year. And, um, yeah, if this is overwhelming for you, which it is for me, it is really nice to have people exact in the world who live and breathe this, and, you know, it's it's kind of their superpower. So please take advantage. And if anybody has questions, like technical questions about how to do some of this in Wawa 2, please pop into the support chat. And, um, our team is ready and knew we were doing this today. So I'm sure they're gonna be all prepped with the the details. Um, thank you, Zach. Really appreciate your time. It was so great to have you.

Doc Mills:
Hey, Chad. Thanks so much for the time, Laura. Um, looking forward to kinda follow-up, guys. Again, contact us anytime. Uh, we'd love to dig in and and and drive some some serious revenue for you guys during Black Friday

Laura Munkholm:
Cyber Monday this year, but thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. Alright.

Doc Mills:
See you guys next night.

Laura Munkholm:
Cheers. Bye.

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