City Hive 101: Liquor Store Email Marketing

We're going to use today to go through email marketing and the CityHive platform. I've got my founder here, Alden, from Intentionally Creative. My name is Margo, I'm the director. So we're going to get started. Alden, I'm going to ask you the first question. Is email marketing important for retail liquor stores?

No. It is actually incredibly important. The reason being is that not that many liquor stores are actually doing it. And what's great about it is it's free, especially if you're on City Hive or another platform. So you can do it at scale. Most people, if you're gathering any sort of information, it's going to be email versus for instance, let's say people downloading an app or getting phone numbers, which is significantly harder, but it is more impactful than email. So yeah, I think it's actually literally one of the most important things that a liquor store can do in terms of marketing. Like, and that it far surpasses social media or anything like that because you're just getting into a channel where people are tuning in and it really comes down to as long as you have effective messaging and just an effective subject line, that I think it can be an incredible tool in order to increase the basket ring of all of your existing customers and then get them to just, just come back as well. Because I mean, imagine you have a customer who's coming in three times a year and you're able to convince them to come in a fourth time. That's a significant jump without even needing to get new customers. So that's kind of how we view it at the agency and why we like literally week two, are diving in full force into it.

So Adam, what are the capabilities of email within the CityHive platform?

Yeah, so I love the CityHive platform because it is so versatile and again, like we don't get a kickback, we don't get anything from it. Just think what 96% of our content clients over at the merchants at IC are using City Hive. So we just literally have three full time people that are in it all day long. The beauty of it is the targeting, I would say. So it's a nice drag and drop format. You go right into the dashboard. It's integrated with already all of your customers with the inventory, with all these other data points. So when you go in and build with it, not only is it easy to just set it up, like let's say that you just want to do a plain text one versus getting like fancy. Like we do all Graphic emails that you can just do a really easy plain text and then you can choose who you want to send it to via parameters and then conditional, conditional aspects like and, or, or so you can send just to whiskey people who have purchased in the past or people wine people who, who have or haven't purchased in the last 30, 90 days. So it's incredibly versatile and that's why I really like it because it's really easy, easy to use.

So how often then should a liquor store really email their customers without it being too much? Of course.

I love this question. And the reason being is depending on how deep you want to go with it, that what I would say is if you're emailing everybody and you're not subdividing it to, let's say wine emails to wine individuals, whiskey to whiskey, something like that, then I would say keep it to two a week, two to three. And we find that as long as it's on brand, like if you have a whole list and you start doing email, just know that you're going to get a bunch of unsubscribes right out the gate because it's not been an active list. But then after about like a month, month and a half, it stabilizes out. But again, if you're emailing to everybody, I would stick in that 2 to 3 range. And then that's exactly what we do on the agency side. And then if you are subdividing it to, to the different groups, I mean you can send one every single day, right? You're just activating different people and elements. And, and what's funny is like when you are subdividing and you're segmenting your user base that it's incredibly more impactful. So like we've run a bunch of studies to where like, like okay, instead of 3,000 people that you're emailing to everybody, you might only email, let's say a thousand people who drink wine. But the rate, the, the open rate's going to be higher and the engagement rate is going to be higher because it is hyper targeted versus broad messaging. So yeah, again, two to three, if you're emailing to everybody and then you can honestly even go, we have some people who are doing one every single day, but they're more methodical with how that messaging is going out and who they're targeting.

I think you've kind of answered it. But then are you segmenting your customers or are you sending the same email to everyone? Could you shed a bit more light on that?

Yeah, 100. It definitely depends on the merchants there. There are merchants and like let's say that you have an allocation group, like you have an active community who's really into bourbon. Also tequila groups or fine wine or like wine clubs. So the more groups that you have and the more information you have, the more you can start going deeper into it. There are some merchants who, who will just blast the entire thing out. So let's say for instance it's a newsletter or tastings. We'll send that out to everybody. And I think even if here's the reason why I'm such a large proponent to sending to everybody, let's say you're a wine drinker and like Father's Day or like whatever a gift for your partner whatnot is coming up. Even though you're just a wine drinker, you might be looking for something special. So like let's say to a wine drinker you send an email like any sort of honestly on any channel about like this private barrel pick of whiskey or whatnot. That would be a trickle because like then just make the subject line like oh, just in store exclusive. This barrel pick, that could actually be a really good trigger to get an additional purchase. Like I said, like I'm all about trying to get a person who shops three times a year, getting the shop four times a year or even more. So it's a little bit of both. World usually do about 50, 50 where we like to make sure that we're sending to everybody because some people are not going to get segmented and then the other 50% is where pretty methodical with the type of messaging and to whom we're doing it. So again like we. And what I recommend is there some of them are plain text, some of them have graphics, some of them have products, some of them don't. Some of them are educational. So for instance like oh, what is additive free tequila, right? What is a private barrel pick? What even is the definition of bourbon? And then some might be just sort of straight product list. We might do new arrivals. So again it's kind of like custom fit and you got to like think about like your operations as to like how your products are coming in and whatnot. But you can, I would start really simple and go from there. The number one thing that I tell everybody and this is just like even in like with our staff and, and whatnot is just do it. I love, I love ripping off that, that slogan. But just get started, don't overthink it and just send the first one out and you'll see the impact and that energizes you and then you'll do it more. That's my just on everything, just what I think.

So from your opinion then, what's driving the email open rate? Is it the subject line? Is it the timing, the audience targeting?

So with email, people can find me on this. I don't think time matters. I am such a proponent. I don't think time matters. I'll tell you the most successful email, it wasn't in this. It was selling ceramic steins. We sent it at 11:20pm this is Eastern time and we sold $120,000 in 53 minutes. That was my most successful. And like who sent something at 11? Because again people are going to check their email. When they check their email and it's just going to be in the line. That's why like email, it's not like social media where like the algorithm is choosing like your inbox has what it is and people are going to buzz through their list when they do. So I don't think timing matters at all. The number one thing is going to be your subject line which that actually goes into with the audience targeting a little bit because again you can get like somebody who's into wine, they're going to appreciate getting into the minutiae of certain kind of like topics are like they might know grape varieties and somebody who doesn't know wine, all they know is white, red, sweet, dry. And their perception of sweet and dry might even be off, quite frankly. But it's all about the subject line because again like it doesn't matter what's in the email if they don't even click to open it. Right. And actually the other thing of what's driving open rates, it's funny, I see so many merchants that their emails get thrown, thrown into spam. That's just because like based off the, the, the servers and whatnot, if you're using a custom domain, so honestly make sure you're not going to spam. That's going to be the number one thing that's going to help with.

Definitely. So look, when it comes to liquor stores, then what are you finding? Other types of emails that I guess generate that sale and which ones would get ignored.

Yeah, I think the. So like if again like any sort of marketing or messaging, right person, right message and right time. So if it's not relevant to them and again that's where segmentation comes in. If, if it's not relevant to them, then they're going to tune out. They're not going to care. And they might put you to spam. Honestly, I would rather have somebody unsubscribe or delete it than put it to spam because then that's, that's hurting you on the, the server level. But I always think of it as like what would get you to actually open it? So people love free things. It's legal in the last days. But the other way to do it is discounts. Or you can do like free delivery for instance. So there are ways to like these keywords. So like action words do great. People love discounts. People love tastings. I think people don't market their tastings enough, quite honestly. Especially right now. We're in the middle of ond, we're getting into the holiday season where pretty much like what we notice is usually a store might have tastings on just Friday or just Saturday or Friday, Saturday. But this is the season where I mean high volume and goods stores, you're doing tastings from Thursday through Sunday. I mean it gets pretty crazy. Like when I used to work on the Costco team that we had six tables all four to five days every week in November and December. So tastings are a huge one that I want people to, to do email marketing on. And then let's say you had staff picks. That's great. New arrivals are great. And again, my, my what I always say about new arrivals, something comes off the truck, literally put it on a table, snap a picture and post it. And that's, that's, I mean that's social media right there. That's why I tell everybody on social media you, you can do the same, that same messaging, literally just flick it into an email and send it out. You don't even have to put text. That's the beauty of imagery that people can, I mean like labels drive vast majority of sales anyways. So I would say those like again like things that people are interested in where they can save money and things that are new. New drives like a 35% lift right out the gate there. And you're really just a clickbait little bit almost as well.

Yeah, no, that's great. So when designing the emails then are you reflecting your store's brand? Why is that important if you are opposed to maybe a standard template?

So I think the first thing to remember is that not a lot of stores are doing emails. So the fact that you're even sending one like that's, that's like 80% of the battle right there when it comes to the brand. I mean if you have your. So like I'm looking at it as two aspects, one in the inbox, then when people actually click in one, what they're seeing there. So in the inbox your brand is most likely going to be right, right there. This your, your store name right next to the subject line. So you got that covered in the subject line. I don't think that it's really necessary, but it does help as well. When you open the email though, I'm all about. And this is what we do and this is why we have a minimum six month contract. It's all about brand building and, and long term vision and long term success. So like the, the number one thing within the first week of what we do again is we make sure that the visuals, the aesthetics, the voice of the brand, everything is solid. And then we carry that all the way through. So by having similar colors, obviously having the logo at the top, even at the top saying wine, spirits, beer, whichever ones you sell, people start to recognize that and they start to. People love patterns. Humans, they just love recurring aspects. So I know I'm going to diverge just for a second, but I think it's important if you have a newsletter, if you have new arrivals, if like XYZ sort of thing, new arrivals, send it on Friday newsletter, send it on. If you have like if it's, if it's good for a week, like every Sunday and you can put these on so that they send at a particular time. But people love cadences and you get people used to cadences and then they will actually check their inbox. We've had this before where there, there was a glitch. So the email didn't go out, the messaging didn't go out and there were customers who said to the, the cashiers in store like oh, like do you have this week's discounts? Like I didn't get it. So branding, that was your question? Yeah, I think it's a, it's a, it's a long term vision where it's like keep it in mind. And if it's. I think it's important for everybody to build their brand and especially like your, your personal brand but in this case like the, the store brand as well. But also owners being front and center of a store does like just, it's tremendous. So like I know every single liquor store we talk to, I have great customer service. I mean that's funny in itself. But the store owners that, I mean there's some people who like what I love. I know I'm diverting A little bit is store owners putting out kind of like a newsletter from them. So it's like oh like Jimmy's Weekly whatever. And it's like again like those are like actually like people love authenticity. So that's actually really important. Like now I'm gonna go down a rant. People love authenticity so we actually try. And what I recommend is bring in if, like, if, if, if you're quirky, if you're doing special things and like don't use AI honestly to generate the stuff. Just like, and like, you know, like we, we ban it in A lot of what we do is because people resonate with authenticity. The closer you are to that and people can sniff out bullshit and the closer you are to authenticity that you're going to get more open and just like people know when you've put the time in to actually have a meaningful message. So even like in terms of the store brand and I like this, I love talking because then I think through things it's not the visuals, I think it's the tone of voice alongside like what are you known for in the store that you lean into that.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Now I know we're talking about emails that are going, you know, out to many or in different segmentations, but can City Hive do any one on one email marketing?

Yeah. So unfortunately they can't. Like the, the big thing is like you can target specific groups who have done certain things and whatnot, but it is still going to be your basic email. You can do variables and, and what I really like is that they've gotten a lot better and now they're actually seeing what the variables are. They used to be hidden on the back end. Just the, honestly like just the developers, not even the CSMs, but just the developers would know what they are. They're doing a really good job at making those present but it's still going to be blanket messages. So I'm going to do a little shout out to us, you know, like we just launched Liquor Chat AI which is AI ecosystem for retail liquor stores. A big aspect of that. Again we have two aspects in store customer service and that's just making that available to the customers as well via kiosk xyz. But the second thing is the one on one marketing because we noticed this is a huge thing. Everybody wants to get a personalized message. And again to what I just said, people can sniff out bs. Imagine that you can bring your. And this is what you're saying, the one on one, your inventory, past purchases, what's in stock Dead stock, new arrivals, all these things. You can bring all these data points together. And that's what we built, which right now is in beta with a couple stores that we're just kind of flushing out. But it takes everything, all the past chats, everything. And then it customizes via an LLM, customizes every single message. So no two messages are literally the same. And it's picking up the nuances between what's happening past chats preferences and it learns from every interaction and it's making them one on one. And then you can send, you can send one, you can send a thousand, you can send a million. And so like that's, that's really cool. And we're the only ones in the space that are doing that right now, which is pretty cool. So yeah, we're doing that on Liquor Chat. City Hive unfortunately doesn't bottle caps, doesn't wine fetch does like, I mean like none of the platforms are so like I love that we're coming in on it first. The POS system, so like square and whatnot, like they offer some ability of this but Nobody is doing 100% AI generated messaging. And the beauty of ours to what I said like sniffing out bs, is that we fine tune the models and just the system effectively so that it doesn't sound like bs. Like literally we're making it the same quality. The output and the voice, the messaging, like everything. On Liquor Chat we're making the same quality as we are on the agency side, which that is 100% something that nobody has is the fact that we've been in business for three years, we work and just like countless liquor stores across the country and it's literally like the goal is that it replaces the agency because we have a much bigger vision with that again. So yeah, Liquor Chat, everyone should go try it out.

Yeah, definitely. Exciting times ahead. Look, I think that makes everybody unique when they're shopping to get something that's specific to them. So are your one on one emails then or your one on one outreach, are they helping also to retain customers or just thanking them for purchases? You know, break down that kind of message a bit?

Yeah, yeah. So in terms of like thanking them for a purchase, this is something that City Hive like with their autopilots and they're doing a big push behind the autopilots right now. So like you can do post purchase sort of behavior so get a review or you can do a thank you. So like those can be more blanket statement and I think that's, that's fine. That doesn't necessarily have to go into the one on one sort of route. But in terms of customer retention, re engagement, like let's say that you're doing it after 90 days whatnot and the re engagement and then the, the win backs that. Yeah, I think one on one is so important because again if, if, if it seems like somebody doesn't care about you, why should you care about them? So that's the beauty of one on one messaging to where it is that custom message the right time to the right place. And it's like whoever can take advantage in this day and age, whoever can take advantage of technology and make themselves more efficient, bring down their costs, that's who's going to win.

Great. So then going more into the City Hive platform, can you do automations inside City Hive in regards to email marketing? Of course. And is it something that can be done while you're sleeping so you really don't have to sit there waiting for it to occur?

Yeah. So autopilot switch City Hive and also we do it on Liquor Chat. But autopilot, that's why I love them. It's one of the first things that we do. We go in and we make sure that they're set up. We customize it with the branding that those just have it on. So again like you have a first purchase promotion with City Hive. So you get a new subscriber and they're gonna get that drip of just the basic one is gonna have three on there. You pair that with your first purchase promotion which again I love the, as we've said before, I love the 10 off 50. The free delivery is the just absolute number one that works. But the 10 off 50 is a, is a great just second option. And so it's a great way which City hive pays for 50% of it. Which is great, really super smart. And so the ones that I would recommend are new customer sign up. So they get hit with three over. I think it's like five days. And then I like the getting reviews like post purchase and what's the third one Margo, do you remember?

So we've got, there's, there's the opportunity of birthdays, birthday celebrations, abandoned car especially somebody's forgotten to check out.

That's, that's what I was thinking. Blank dummies. Yeah. So the abandoned cart is, is huge because even if the win back on that isn't big again like if you can save every one in 20 like sales. Right. That, I mean that is huge. Like you do all these things that's why I'm a big supporter of you do a bunch of things and even if they individually don't have a big impact, everything together does have a big impact and can make a difference. And again, that's why like just not even email. You should be doing push notifications, should be doing social media. You should be doing everything.

Yeah. Awesome. I think abandoned cart is amazing because I know I have been a stickler for putting things in cart and forgetting to check out. So it's always a great reminder. Thank you for everyone saying to the end. This is the last question. So Adam, what's one simple change that could make, I guess today an opportunity for liquor stores to really double down on their next campaign's performance.

You love asking me these types of questions. So overall, what I'm always going to say is just do it. Like just get started. Literally just start sending them. Because you wouldn't believe, I mean, we have stores that are doing 6, 10, 15 million and they're not sending anything. I'm like, I can't imagine how big your list is and what your customer data is at that sort of scale. So one actually do it. The second is what I would say is you can, I'm gonna do a couple here is you can segment. So try like just super specific wine on wine individuals. But again, if you don't have a big list, it's not relevant. But the third is don't use AI to create the email. Like actually just create it yourself and put some like of the energy of your authenticity in there and you will see higher open rates like we see whenever we like do that, we see like 5, 10% higher. And that's out of like, out of like the full hundred. That's not like off of like 5% from like 20%, like going up by like 1. It's like literally from 20 to 25. And I think like our average is open rates. Our merchants are between 36 and 47, which is wild for. For just overall. So yeah, those are the. Not the one, but the three things that I would recommend depending on what type of merchant you are. Again, everything is just different use cases.

Yeah, perfect. Well, that's all for today. So thank you so much, Alan, for your time and I hope everybody's enjoyed listening to email campaigns and within the city platform. Take care of yourself.