Running an online business has one major benefit: you can build your own email list.
This is exclusive data that only you have access to. An eCommerce email marketing list serves as your platform for establishing valuable and long-lasting relationships with the audience. It’s essential for growing your customer base and, eventually - your business.
In short, email marketing strategy is a key part of your eCommerce company’s success.
However, for it to be effective, it must be done correctly.
That's why we are sharing with you this powerful guide for developing a strong eCommerce email marketing strategy in 2023.
Let's get started!
What is eCommerce email marketing?
Ecommerce email marketing entails sending emails to inform your audience about new offers and promotions as well as to educate them about your niche and products. It is a smart way to connect with customers and keep them engaged with your business.
The true value of emails lies in their ability to influence how customers perceive your brand. E-commerce email marketing allows you to engage with buyers and present them with the right offer at the right time.
You may accomplish this in various ways: from sending newsletters to launching "welcome" or "abandoned cart" campaigns. The choice is up to you, but it usually depends on your company's goals, audience preferences, current market requirements, etc.
Best eCommerce email marketing is all about fostering meaningful relationships with customers. The goal is to grow brand awareness, boost customer loyalty, and drive sales.
Why do you need eCommerce email marketing?
As an eCommerce business owner, you've probably heard about all of email marketing's advantages.
Here, we will concentrate on the most crucial one: owning your subscriber list.
This means you can access and leverage data that no one else on the web can. Ecommerce email marketing gives you insight into the "pulse" of your audience. It provides excellent metrics (open rate, click-through rate, conversions, etc.) that help you learn about prospects' likes and dislikes and adjust actions accordingly.
Owning your list also means that you can take it with you when you change platforms. This is certainly not the case with other channels, such as social media, where if you lose your account (for whatever reason), you also lose all of your followers.
The following are data points to demonstrate further why email marketing is crucial to your eCommerce business success.
- Over half of the world's population uses email. Undoubtedly, a considerable percentage of these four billion people are your ideal customers.
- Abandoned cart campaigns have a 40% open rate. Retargeting via email marketing is one of the best ways to convert hesitant prospects into loyal customers.
- Email marketing ROI is 36:1. For every $1 spent on eCommerce email marketing - you earn a whopping $36!
- People love emails. 61% of consumers state that they enjoy getting promotional emails on a weekly basis. 38% would prefer to receive emails even more often.
- Email marketing drives sales. 60% of people claim to have made a purchase after receiving a promotional message in an email. In contrast, just 12.5% consider ever using a "buy" button on social media.
Types of Ecommerce Email Campaigns
Below, we look at the ten common eCommerce email marketing campaigns you can use in your strategy.
Welcome Emails
Welcome emails are the first emails your subscribers receive after joining your list. It's a sequence of messages in which you thank people for signing up, introduce them to your company, and explain what they can expect from your campaigns.
Their role is to establish a great first impression. Use them to tell a brand story, promote the best products, or even offer discounts to demonstrate your appreciation for a subscriber's trust.
Remember that subscribers truly value welcome emails. So much so that the welcome series has an 86% higher open rate than other campaigns!
Tips to make your welcome emails even more effective:
- Send a welcome email as soon as possible. After subscribing, people expect you in their inboxes. Make the most of this opportunity by sending your first message within minutes. Moreover, if you notice a promo code, prospects are ready to use it and buy from you. So, don't make them wait!
- Set clear expectations. Allow subscribers to easily adjust their preferences and inform them about what and how frequently they will receive your messages.
- Be original. To stand out in crowded inboxes, you must be unique. Offer a discount or provide valuable links. Allow them to reply to your emails and prove that they made the right decision when they subscribed.
Cart Abondenment Emails
We've all been there. We browse products online, add them to our cart, and then stop and don't make a purchase. Perhaps someone called us, or something about shipment or the product bothered us.
In fact, this happens so often that the average cart abandonment rate is 69.99%! This means that a significant amount of revenue is almost in your pocket.
Cart abandonment emails can prompt customers to finish their purchases by reminding them of the items left in their carts. These messages are triggered when someone adds products to the cart but leaves the website without buying.
Tips for improving cart abandonment emails:
- State your main point in the subject line. This way, users know what it's all about right away. Also, make sure to include an image of the product. Add a link to their shopping cart as well so they can quickly finish their purchase.
- Use personalization. People are more likely to come back and complete shopping if they feel as if you are speaking directly to them. Customize your message with the customer's name and details about the products they left behind.
- Create a compelling CTA and have only one per email. Make it simple for customers to finalize their purchase by adding a clickable button that takes them directly to the shopping cart.
Promotional Emails
Promotional emails are - you guessed it - for promotions.
These are persuasive messages you send to subscribers to inform them of special discounts for holidays (e.g. Christmas sale) and seasons (e.g. Back-to-School sale) or whenever your company decides to hold a sale.
Typically, promotional emails aim to turn as many email subscribers into loyal customers as possible. Think of them as announcements you send when you have an exciting offer for your subscribers. Therefore, craft your emails carefully to align with your end goal and your audience's preferences.
Bear the following guidelines in mind:
- Motivate action. Use verbs like Get, Discover, Celebrate, etc., in your subject line and body copy to encourage the recipient to take action.
- Target your messaging to a specific subscriber group. Divide your list into segments to send more relevant emails and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.
- Provide subscribers with a sense of importance. Create subscriber-only promotions to instill exclusivity and express appreciation for your audience.
Re-engagement Emails
Inactive subscribers are those who haven't purchased from you or opened your emails in a long time.
We know: it isn't enjoyable to see that your efforts don't pay off for everyone on your list. And, the hard truth is: it never will.
However, there is a certain thing you can do to check in with inactive subs and, perhaps, win them back: re-engagement or "win-back" emails.
These messages are sent to customers who haven't purchased from you in a while. Their primary purpose is to entice customers to interact with your brand again and, ideally - buy from you.
Ways to make re-engagement emails better:
- Define a "no-purchase" time that triggers a campaign. Take a look at the average interval between purchases. Then, schedule the win-back campaign to start after that time frame.
- Make an offer too good to resist. Surprise inactive subscribers with a special discount or an invitation-only competition where they can win great prizes. Make them feel valued and unique.
- Remind them of the opt-out option. Sometimes, the best thing for your ecommerce email marketing success is to let go of some subscribers. This way, you're making space for active customers who will support your business.
Up-sell and Cross-sell Emails
Up-sell and Cross-sell emails look at customers' previous purchases and recommend similar products but more expensive (up-sell) or that complement them (cross-sell).
Let us explain in more detail:
Upselling is when you encourage potential customers to purchase more expensive items (e.g. upgraded version of earphones).
Cross-selling recommends products often bought together (similar to when your favorite fast food restaurant asks whether you want soda with your burger).
Effective up-sell and cross-sell emails encourage customers to buy more items or upgrade their purchases.
Best practices for up-sell and cross-sell emails:
- Include the "Add" or "Shop" button in the body of your email. Make it clickable so that when customers click on it, they are quickly transferred to the shopping cart.
- Offer personalized suggestions. Recommend products based on customers' previous purchases or browsing behavior.
- Outline all crucial details. Include product descriptions and pricing in the email to give prospects the information they need to purchase.
Post-purchase Emails
You can use email for much more than just converting subscribers into customers. It's also crucial to nurture customers after they've made a purchase and turn them into loyal fans.
The customer's first purchase is your chance to provide order confirmation, highlight all vital information, and showcase your brand.
As their name suggests, post-purchase emails are sent after a customer completes a checkout process. These emails are commonly used to send receipts, and their key advantage is that they simplify customer communication.
However, there are several methods to use post-purchase emails:
- Combine with up-sell and cross-sell techniques. With the receipt, offer similar products or accessories to their purchase.
- Say thank you. Demonstrate how much you value customers' interactions with your business. This inspires customer loyalty and provides you with another opportunity to promote your goods.
- Offer free shipping or a discount for a future purchase. It's best to make this offer time-limited to entice customers to make another purchase as soon as possible.
Referral Emails
92% of consumers worldwide indicate that they trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other type of promotion.
With such figures, you should seriously consider referral emails.
In these messages, you invite customers to recommend your brand to their friends and family. It's a fantastic source of free and valuable leads.
Tips for writing a referral email:
- Have an attention-grabbing subject line. Make it concise and engaging so that readers will find it interesting and can easily understand your main point.
- Offer a strong incentive. Reward your subscribers and new audience with discounts, coupons or free shipping.
- Outline your expectations. Communicate clearly to ensure your subscribers understand your company's referral expectations.
Best practices for email marketing in ecommerce
Here are some eCommerce email marketing best practices.
Set Clear Goals
A good plan is half the work done. But, before creating a good plan, you must define your e-commerce email marketing goals.
You should set goals for an overall strategy, each campaign and each email.
Setting clear and measurable goals allows you to track the performance of your efforts better and identify what works and what doesn't. Goals increase productivity, help you stay focused, and keep in mind your top priorities at all times.
Here are a few helpful questions to ask yourself when determining eCommerce email marketing goals:
- What do I want to accomplish with eCommerce email marketing?
- Who is my target audience? What are their challenges and desires?
- What do I want subscribers to take away from my emails?
- How will I determine whether campaigns are successful?
- What are short-term goals that can assist me in achieving my long-term goals?
Segment And Personalize
Email segmentation is the classification of your email subscribers into groups based on their shared traits. These traits may include their place of residence, gender, interests, browsing history, and more.
The ultimate purpose of segmentation is to personalize your emails so you can send more relevant and effective messages.
You can segment your audience by:
- Over 25 years old.
- Residence in X state.
- First-time buyers.
- Repeat customers.
- Inactive subscribers.
For the best results, identify each customer group's challenges and factors that impact their purchasing decisions. Then, determine the solution you can offer and create an eCommerce email marketing strategy that directs prospects toward a purchase.
Use Email Automation
Email automation is the foundation for successful eCommerce email marketing.
Imagine manually typing every campaign, from welcome series and promotions, to post-purchase emails. Seems impossible?
That's why email automation exists. It enables you to manage successful campaigns that use your store's real-time data.
After all, e commerce email marketing is all about relevancy, which involves sending emails based on a customer's activity and preferences.
Be Mobile Friendly
80% of users delete emails that aren't mobile-friendly. So, ensuring that your emails perform flawlessly on mobile devices is more than worthwhile.
Employ the following tactics to make sure that your eCommerce email marketing campaigns are responsive:
- Use a mobile-optimized template. A responsive template is one of the simplest methods to guarantee that your campaigns are mobile-friendly.
- Keep your layout to one column. Multiple columns are difficult to read on small displays. Therefore, always try to choose a single-column design.
- Use buttons. Instead of hyperlinks - add buttons to your email. They're larger and easier to select when on the phone.
- Be concise. Shorter emails are simpler to read on mobiles. Find the simplest, most effective way to demonstrate your product's values.
Track And Improve
As with any aspect of marketing, tracking results is essential in eCommerce email marketing. It helps you to generate and sustain income from this powerful channel.
The important KPIs to monitor for eCommerce email marketing campaigns:
- Deliverability. The ability to deliver emails to subscribers' primary inboxes.
- Open rate. Measures the percentage of subscribers who opened an email from a specific campaign.
- Click-through rate. Indicates how many people clicked on a link (hyperlink, CTA button, or image) within an email.
- Conversion rate. Percentage of subscribers who performed the desired action after reading an email.
- Bounces. The number of emails that got rejected by email servers.
- Unsubscribe rate. Shows the percentage of people who unsubscribed from an email list.
- ROI. Return on investment (ROI) assesses the profitability of your eCommerce email marketing efforts.
Ecommerce Email Marketing: Start Now
We're sure you've heard this sentence a thousand times. But seriously: there's no better time to start than now.
In 2023 email marketing is still a powerful tool that can increase your business's leads, sales, and revenue.
Focus on your customers - send them irresistible offers and showcase your brand as worthy of attention.
Wired Messenger team is here to support you every step of the way. Book a consultation to get started on your eCommerce email marketing strategy today.