Eliza Blank is not just an innovative entrepreneur with a passion for houseplants dating back to her childhood, but an expert marketer who knows how to build relationships and nurture leads. “We believe in creating multiple channels both online and in real life to meet the customer where they are,” she wrote in a blog post on TheSill.com.

Since its founding in 2012, The Sill has dominated its niche market thanks to Blank’s business philosophy and her understanding of lifecycle marketing. It started as the first online plant delivery service, but it has blossomed to include stores in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Today, The Sill also offers both online and in-person educational workshops about raising and nurturing plants. 

Just as Blank grows the lifecycle of growing plants, from seedlings to full-blown flowering greenery, she is an expert in nurturing customers via email marketing and, with a little help from Hawke Media, paid search and social media advertising. In her session at eCommerce Week LA 2021, she shared some of the top lessons she’s learned about creating valuable and long-term relationships with her customers.

What Is Lifecycle Marketing? 

Lifecycle marketing describes the buyer’s journey from brand awareness through to engagement, conversion, and finally customer loyalty. Understanding each stage of the consumer lifecycle helps you create the right content for consumers at every stage and deliver it through the correct media. 

For instance, social media marketing and paid search can be incredibly helpful to raise brand awareness. Once you’ve begun to engage consumers, you can use blog posts, videos, and email marketing to answer their questions. Ideally, your content will lead to conversion and, by continuing to nurture the relationship — just as you would give a plant water as it begins to grow — create loyal customers. 

The Sill Dominates with Effective Email Campaigns

Taking the same care she uses to grow, pot ,and ship her plants, Blank understands how to nurture her customers at each phase of the customer lifecycle. The Sill’s evergreen email campaigns helped the company dominate the industry. The MailCharts service reports that The Sill sends 3.46 emails per week on average, which is 73% more than the MailCharts Index. 

Visually appealing, with short, enticing copy, The Sill’s emails use tactics such as discount offers, fear of missing out, and peer influence to create a sense of urgency. The company uses multiple lifecycle campaigns to deliver the right content to subscribers, including a specific sequence to address cart abandonment. 

In her eCom Week discussion, Blank shares the secrets to The Sill’s success and shows you how to optimize your email campaigns for more conversions in any industry. She will show how to track the lifecycle and share the best strategies and tactics to use at each stage. 

Paid Search and Social Media Advertising Success

Once The Sill has attracted a plant lover’s attention, email marketing techniques can effectively capture their business. Blank called on Hawke Media to give a lift to the first stage of the consumer lifecycle, brand awareness. Hawke spearheaded Google Shopping campaigns for the online plant provider, increasing the company’s return on ad spend from −23% to an astounding 403% year over year. 

Likewise, revenue from Facebook advertising rose from 158% to 274%, representing 23.6% of the company’s overall income. By creating new audiences and delivering different copy and creative based on analytics, Hawke Media ramped up the effectiveness of the ads, including retargeting them to increase brand visibility. 

In her eCommerce Week LA 2021 session, Blank addresses how paid search and social ads complement an email marketing strategy to reach consumers wherever they might be in their journey. 

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer specializing in technology, e-commerce and finance, and is the owner of the boutique content-marketing agency Allcot Media and GeekTravelGuide.net, a travel and entertainment website.

Sources

BlankStudioNYC.com – Family Ties: Introducing Eliza Blank

TheSill.com – Thoughts on The Sill’s 7th Birthday

Mailcharts.com – The Sill Email Marketing Overview

TheSill.com – About Us