In this edition of the Marketing Playbook, we showcase how CLVmaxers, a boutique email marketing agency, helped a wellness equipment brand drastically improve their email deliverability and engagement. By focusing on core email marketing principles like smart segmentation and automation flow refinement, CLVmaxers was able to boost the brand’s open rates, engagement, and ultimately, conversions.
We’ll break down CLVmaxers’ exact approach so you can replicate their playbook to improve your own email campaigns, especially if you’re facing deliverability challenges.
Results
- Improved deliverability: Open rates jumped from an average of 20% to 45-47% on key segments
- Increased engagement: Click-through rates improved significantly, leading to a steady flow of orders
- Email list refinement: CLVmaxers cleaned up the client’s email list, reducing it by 77%, but saw a major performance boost from the remaining 10-11k engaged subscribers
First 60 days results for automations
First 5 email campaigns
- Revenue boost: Higher open and click rates directly translated into more sales for the client
First 30 days results in revenue
Fixing email deliverability
CLVmaxers’ goal was clear — even the most beautifully designed emails are useless if they end up in the spam folder. By simplifying the client’s automation flows, cleaning up their email list, and focusing on subscribers who actually engage, CLVmaxers managed to repair the email reputation of this wellness equipment brand within two months.
The playbook
To replicate this strategy for your ecommerce brand, follow these steps for improving email deliverability:
1. Start with the basics
Ensure that your custom sender domain is properly configured and that all email addresses are verified. This is essential to prevent emails from being flagged as spam.
2. Clean up your email list
CLVmaxers began by removing inactive contacts — those who hadn’t purchased, opened an email, or viewed a page in the last 365 days. This process helped the client eliminate almost 10,000 unengaged contacts, focusing on those more likely to interact with their emails.
3. Simplify and refine automation flows
The client’s existing automation flows were cleaned up and optimized. Overlapping triggers were removed (e.g., two abandoned cart emails firing simultaneously), and each email in the flow was focused on driving a single action — whether it was redeeming a discount code or completing a purchase.
4. A/B test subject lines
CLVmaxers duplicated the automated emails and tested different subject lines for each flow. After 1-2 weeks of data collection, they adjusted the email traffic to favor the winning versions. Continuous testing over two months resulted in the best-performing subject lines and optimal open rates.
5. Segment your audience
Instead of sending emails to the full list, CLVmaxers created two segments based on engagement. Focusing on the 10-11k contacts most likely to engage, they achieved much better results compared to the client’s full list of 45k subscribers.
6. Stay consistent with the fundamentals
By sticking to these key practices, CLVmaxers was able to help the client rebuild their email reputation, resulting in steadily increasing open rates over time.
Expert tips
For a successful execution:
- Use double opt-in to ensure only legitimate contacts are added to your list. This prevents fake or junk email addresses from negatively affecting deliverability.
- Personalize whenever possible. For the wellness equipment client, CLVmaxers split the checkout abandonment flow based on the product in the customer’s cart (e.g., massage chairs or saunas). Tailoring product recommendations to their specific interest improved engagement and increased orders.
Who can use this strategy?
This strategy is ideal for ecommerce brands with a mature email list but low open rates. If your open rates are consistently below 20-25%, or if your emails are landing in spam, this approach could significantly improve performance.
It’s also adaptable for smaller, growing brands that want to proactively improve their email deliverability and engagement before they face major issues.
About CLVmaxers
CLVmaxers is a boutique email marketing agency specializing in boosting email and SMS performance for ecommerce businesses across the USA, Canada, UK, and Australia.
With extensive experience in sectors like wellness, fashion, jewelry, and home supplies, CLVmaxers delivers powerful results by optimizing email funnels, improving deliverability, and creating high-impact campaigns.
Want to work with CLVmaxers? Click here to get started.