Email strategy teardown: Royal Design Studio Stencils
Email marketing is like dating, and can lead to a long-lasting relationship
Building Customer Loyalty
Building loyalty with a customer requires thoughtful planning and branding consistency at each touch-point. First, introduce the customer to your brand to show them how you provide a valuable product or service. Second, convince them that they need your product or service, so they consider purchasing. Third, after they’ve purchased, continue to provide value to them by offering inspirational content about your business or industry.
Our Subject: Royal Design Studio Stencils
We wanted to see if a brand known for inspiring customer creativity has developed an email marketing strategy just as inspirational, and if there’s anything that could be improved. So, we decided to break down the email strategy of Royal Design Studio Stencils — an online store known for designer-quality decorative wall stencils, painting tools, and related products. I signed up for emails with Royal Design Studio Stencils, took a few actions, and then watched to see how the experience unfolded.
The backstory of Royal Design Studio Stencils
Based in San Diego, Royal Design Studio Stencils is a company that is built to inspire home decor. They design and manufacture decorative stencils for walls and floors. Founded in 1991 by Melanie Royals, the company’s president and creative director, it’s become a popular online destination for interior decorators, interior designers, and DIY’ers.
Here's what happened with Royal Design Studio Stencils
We signed up for their email newsletter and got a welcome series email
We abandoned a cart and received an abandoned cart email
We purchased after the abandoned cart and received order confirmation and shipping emails
We received a couple of promotional product emails
Email deep dive
Let’s look at their one week email strategy.
1. Sign up for their welcome series emails
2. Abandon a cart and see if there’s an abandoned cart email
3. Make a purchase and see if there are post-purchase emails
Royal Design Studio Stencils
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Daily email strategy
Royal Design Studio Stencils
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Promotion |
Order Confirmation |
Shipping Confirmation #3 |
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Welcome Series |
Product Email |
Promotion |
Promotion |
Promotion |
Shipping Confirmation #1 |
Shipping Confirmation #2 |
Promotion |
Promotion |
Promotion |
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The good, the bad, the ugly: Royal Design Studio Stencils
Welcome Series Email
A model example of what to strive for. Branding is spot on, content is engaging, design is simple, calls to action are clear and strong, and there’s an incentive to shop. According to Klaviyo data, welcome series emails receive 63% higher open rates, 86% higher click-through rates, and 83% higher revenue per recipient (RPR) than your average email campaign. Out of all our customers’ most commonly used flows, welcome series are second only to abandoned cart messages in terms of profitability.
Product Email
Inspirational and educational. Tactfully showcases their product portfolio and combines it with a promotional offer. Both branding and images are eye-catching.
Abandoned Cart Email
Timely and shows an image of the product I left behind. I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be personalized or if the “,” was a typo. If you’re trying to add personalization, an easy way to collect names to do so is through a signup form.
Order Confirmation Email
What just happened? This email is different from every email I’ve seen so far — it feels bare and sterile. The email had me wondering if this is the same brand? As we mentioned from the outset, branding consistency at each customer touch-point is an essential component for long-term customer loyalty. Here are 6 other tips for order confirmation emails.
Shipping Confirmation Email
There were three when one would have sufficed. Similar to the order confirmation email, they felt robotic and lacked branding. An addition of color and images that tied to the inspiration that the brand delivers would go a long way towards helping us remember what brand we bought from. Check out our suggestions for better shipping confirmation emails.
In Conclusion…
Royal Design Studio Stencils is a design darling. They have helped thousands of customers transform their homes with stencils and inspirational how-to’s. The messages they send to welcome customers, promote products, and remind shoppers about abandoned carts are good-looking and persuasive. However, their purchase confirmation and shipping alerts are drab and uninspiring. To increase their customer loyalty, they should add consistent branding to their order confirmation and shipping confirmation emails.
