Email inboxes are becoming outrageously crowded, and even more difficult to stay in. Generating revenue for your eCommerce business via email marketing requires a solid strategy. It’s not just about batching and blasting or promoting as many products as you can cram into one email. At its crux, email marketing is about building trust and maintaining a continuous and meaningful relationship with your audience.
In this article, we’re going to explore a couple of email marketing tips that can help drive awareness and potentially increase revenue for your eCommerce site.
Right People at the Right Time
Email marketing is only going to work if you’ve got actual people to send an email to. So, before anything else, the most important question for you to ask is – ’How do I get people onto my list?’
Growing your subscriber base should be methodical and premeditated, with each newsletter opt-in form being placed for the conversion of the right consumer. Maximize your blog pages, use exit intent pop-ups, and notify your customers to subscribe especially during the checkout process.
Be sure to filter and segment your lists based on the interests that people have, the products that they have purchased or the actions that they have taken on your site. It will help you discover insights, clarify context and communicate more effectively.
At the very least, using segmentation will increase your open rate. You’ll be able to increase the odds of only sending relevant emails.
Converse and Convert
Even the most targeted and well timed emails won’t do a lot of good if the content isn’t well crafted. An organized, formatted, and tested email is the only way you’ll see success from your campaigns.
Be sure to keep your content short and sweet. No one wants to open an email and find a novel. The briefer it is, the better—and the more your CTA will stand out. Act like you’re talking to one person instead of an entire list of nameless faces. Add a personal touch. The best ads after all, appeal to the sweet spot of your customers. Offer value. Don’t just email them when you want a sale; email them when you have something you can offer them, too.
Remember, being flagged as spam is one of the worst things that can happen, as your email deliverability rates can drop.
Respond, Recommend, Reward
Follow your customers throughout their online purchase journey. Sending out a ‘Welcome email’ is just the beginning of your relationship with a customer. Integrate a shipping confirmation email whenever a customer makes a purchase, you can even use it as an opportunity to provide information and value to customers. And once the purchase is complete, don’t forget to end with a ‘Thank You email.’ Responding to your client’s online transactions can help you have a constant and continuous relationship with them.
Establishing a reputation as a helpful brand can go a long way for your business. The marketing brief for this is pretty straightforward: help customers make a decision. Send out buying guides coupled with discounts and deals. Craft an email campaign that relates to seasonal events. Always keep in mind to analyze your sales data to get a picture of what your customer needs and when they need it, it will demonstrate that you care.
Another pro tip is to reward your loyal customers. This can translate to an increase to their purchase frequency. We’ve already talked about the importance of segmentation. So, identify your VIPs, customers can be categorized as loyal depending on the amount they spent. Rewards can be a free gift, or simply points for future purchases.
You Can Always Win Them Back
When a customer has been inactive for a while, or if they fail to complete a checkout, you have a major opportunity. Instead of hoping that visitors come back and complete their purchase later, as an eCommerce marketer you need take action and win, woo and charm them back.
Send them an email that the items are still in their carts, inquire for any questions or even suggest similar items. When implemented correctly, abandonment emails are powerful. 68.81% of online shopping carts are abandoned and 29.9% of cart abandonment email clicks tend to lead to a recovered purchase. Running continuous cart abandonment email campaigns is something to definitely consider
Analytics is Key
Lastly, it’s crucial to know how well you’re doing. Evaluating how each individual campaign is performing can help you figure out what’s working for your business and what’s not. In measuring email marketing campaigns for ecommerce sales, here are a few just a basics you want to watch out for:
Bounce Rate. This metric is the percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered to the recipient. Potential sources of this issue are invalid address, a full inbox, email addresses that are now closed or were fake to begin with.
Click-Through Rate (CTR). This is the percentage of your audience who clicked on one or more links from your email. It will let you know how responsive your audience to your email, and if it’s doing its job.
Conversion Rate. This will tell you what percentage of readers who clicked a link also converted. Conversion always mean sale; if the CTA in your email was to learn more, for example, it counts as a conversion when that action is completed.
The Takeaway
Email marketing is a way for your brand to deliver an effective voice. Make each send out count. Keep in mind our pro tips and tricks and you’ll be on the right track.
Sources:
Patel, N. (2017, April) How to Maximize Ecommerce Sales Using Email Marketing. Retrieved from https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-maximize-ecommerce-store-sales-using-email-marketing/
Pay, Spark (2016, September 2) 6 eCommerce Email Marketing Campaigns We Use To Boost Sales.
Retrieved from http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/spark-pay/6-ecommerce-email-marketing-campaigns-use-boost-sales-01646983#eloAO7FtKdi4JGrG.99
Dickerson, J. (2016, January 25) 5 Killer Email Marketing Strategies to Increase Ecommerce Sales Retrieved from http://crushcampaigns.com/email-marketing-strategies-for-ecommerce/
