If you're sending the same email to everyone on your list and wondering why it's not driving the sales you expected, this episode is for you.

I'm Catherine Erdly, and this is Resilient Retail Game Plan — practical product business advice with a healthy dose of reality.

In this episode I'm sitting down with Alli Wood from Mailchimp to get practical about how independent retailers and e-commerce brands can get dramatically more from their email and SMS marketing — using data they already have.

We talk about why fragmented data is costing retailers real money, how segmentation can transform your customer relationships, and why the retailers who win over the next few years won't be the ones with the biggest budgets — they'll be the ones who are smartest with their data.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Why sending the same message to your whole list is leaving money on the table
• How to use customer lifetime value and buying propensity to automate smarter campaigns
• The power of combining email and SMS — including a 22x ROI stat from SMS alone, and 41x when Shopify data is in the mix
• Creative ways to collect richer customer data through quizzes, pop-ups and behavioural signals
• What clean data + AI + human creativity actually looks like for a lean retail team

Whether you're just starting to think about segmentation or already running email campaigns and want to level up, this conversation will leave you with a genuinely different way of thinking about your marketing.

CHAPTERS

00:00:40 The Gold Mine Independent Retailers Are Sitting On

00:02:10 Meet Alli Wood from Mailchimp

00:04:40 How Mailchimp Evolved from Email Tool to Full Automation Platform

00:08:22 The Segmentation Shift: Stop Sending the Same Email to Everyone

00:11:29 Creative Ways to Collect Better Customer Data

00:14:45 Using SMS to Drive Email Open Rates

00:15:11 How We're Working With Mailchimp

00:16:33 Measuring What's Actually Working Across All Your Channels

00:18:30 Think Strategy, Not Just Open Rates

00:21:17 SMS Best Practices: What's Working for E-Commerce Brands

00:23:24 The Trust Factor: Why Phone Numbers Are Different from Email Addresses

00:23:44 The Numbers: 22x ROI on SMS, 41x with Shopify

00:25:58 AI + Human Creativity: The Future of Small Business Marketing

00:27:45 Clean Data, Automation & Analytics: The Loop That Wins

00:29:07 Catherine's Key Takeaways & Call to Action

Mentioned in this episode: resilientretailclub.com/mailchimp

Note: This episode was produced in partnership with Mailchimp. All views expressed are Catherine's own.

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