10 Things Your eCommerce Email Strategy Might Be Missing

A very vital aspect of being able to run your own, independent website is the fact that you have your own emailing list! This is data that belongs to you and only you - nobody else on the world wide web possesses it. Therefore, it is a key mechanism in extending the overall lifetime value of your customers. It also simultaneously predicts the direction in which your business is headed. As a consequence of this, the strategies that you decide to employ become important elements that shape the way you interact with all your customers on various platforms.

Ultimately, the idea behind emailing your customers is to forge a connection, share information and give opportunities beyond what somebody who isn’t on the mailing list would have no means or access to. This means that the members on your email list automatically become VIPs, with privileged information after having purchased the product/service you offer on your website.

As a matter of fact, there is an estimated 20% of all your email recipients who actually open the mail, from which around only 3% actually click to go through to your website. Additionally, over 30% of your recipients open emails on the basis of the subject line, and roughly 60% of emails are opened on a handheld device, like a smartphone. Without a shadow of doubt, your business does not need to settle for these standards - instead, keep these numbers in mind and work towards surpassing them. Read on to find out some of the best eCommerce emailing strategies and email marketing ideas for ecommerce which will probably yield some definitive results!

Start with a “Welcome Email Series”

The time that new customers willingly subscribe to your eCommerce newsletter, they do so keeping in mind that they are signing up to hear from you on a regular basis. Thus, the best time to reach out to them is immediately after they sign up - as that is when the expect to receive some form of communication from your end. 

Our recommendation is that you can start off by sending a welcome email series. This will comprise a minimum of three different emails, which will provide your subscribers with some time to fully understand the goals of your brand, before they become members of your regular mailing list. In such a manner, you are able to show off about your brand a bit, and also set some expectations regarding the information that your customers can hope to receive.

Additionally, you can even segment them in a manner such that your future communications with them are highly personalised. You might wonder, do they really care? The answer is yes, of course! 

Welcome emails have more than an 80% chance of being opened when compared to other emails, and they also generate about 300% more revenue per email when compared to other types of promotional emails. You can opt for automating this entire process to make it convenient, by setting up this welcome email series via your email marketing service, aka ESP.

Watch this video to get some tips on how to come up with a good Welcome Email Series!

Usage of Personalization in order to Target Specific Segments

It is quite well known that it is possible for a business to have several different segments of target audiences that it tries to reach out to. This is mainly because it isn’t uncommon for a particular service or product to appeal to different parts of the population all at once. But, it becomes difficult when you realise that it is nearly impossible for you to reach out to your entire audience with just one message. 

Here is when you can consider the personalization of your messages. Research proves that personalization significantly improves open rates, clickthrough rates and also overall engagement. It simultaneously reduces the number of email bounce-backs, spam reports and unsubscribers. If you have not thought about dividing your entire emailing list into segments based on appropriate demographics, you should definitely consider doing so now. 

The best part that comes with sending out customized content for each target audience is that you are able to keep your subscribers happy. Additionally, it also goes on to ensure that your subscribers become more willing to purchase the product or service that is being sold on your website. But, you may be wondering - how do I incorporate this into my eCommerce email marketing strategy?

To begin with, you can segregate your emailing list on the basis of some standard demographics such as age, income, geographic location and possibly, gender identity (the inclusion of which solely depends upon if what you are selling is only used by one specific gender). Apart from these demographics that tell you about details that are easily discoverable, you can even use some psychographics to better analyse the values, traits, likes, dislikes and personality of your audience. When combines, all these factors give you a holistic understanding of your subscribers and provide you with direction on how to communicate to them in the most efficient way possible. 

Offer Exclusive discounts to your loyal customers

One way to ensure that all your super loyal customers keep coming back to you and your store is offering an all exclusive loyalty program. Imagine it this way - all your repeat customers can basically be considered as nutrition for your business, who help it grow. Therefore, the easiest and quickest way to start building a loyal, committed customer base is through the creation of a special club for those you consider your most valuable customers. Obviously, it is entirely up to you to decide who they are. Approaching the “how” part, you can do it in several ways. Some eCommerce newsletters themselves act as the loyalty club - all you need to do is sign up, and you’re a member! But, we suggest that you tailor it in such a way that it is a tad bit more special for all the customers you consider are most invested in your business. 

Send Promotional Emails to All Subscribers

As you are making sure that your VIPs receive all of their perks, don’t forget to also send them those traditional yet extremely important promotional sales that attract your other subscribers as well. Some of the best times to do this include holidays, ends of seasons and other celebratory occasions, as this is a great way of attracting the attention of all those subscribers who have not yet converted into becoming actual customers. 

Take a look at this video to understand how to best write a promotional email.

Create well-designed emails that are responsive

It goes without saying - each and every email that you send out as a part of an eCommerce marketing campaign has to be well designed as well as responsive. This includes the ones that are promotional, and also those which are transactional. We don’t mean to mislead you into stocking each email with images and GIFs. All we are trying to convey is that they perform better when they are interesting and engaging. Here are a few checkboxes to tick off while coming up with your emails:

Be Visually Appealing

Undoubtedly, images can help make an email look appealing, but you can also make use of some formatting that does not necessarily require images. You can incorporate catchy headlines, bullet pointers, and distinct subheadings so that your email is an easy read. 

Look Good on Mobile

Your email service provider most probably makes use of responsive templates which automatically fit to the size of the screen of the device on which your email is being read. 

Be Easy to Understand

Keeping it simple and succinct, and making sure that all the attention goes to just one call to action in each email is an effective method.

Capture the Reader’s Interest

One shouldn’t underestimate the power of words, and this fact goes on to apply to emails as well. You can try and start with a hook, and then ensure that the rest of the copy continuously engages the reader as they read through the email. 

Send Notifications About Back in Stock or Wishlist Items

If one of your products are out of stock, it is a really good idea to let all your shoppers sign up to be notified when these items are back in stock again. Alternatively, you may even allow your shoppers to set up specific wishlists, and email automation can occasionally send them updates regarding the same. 

Dedicated and loyal customers like being kept in the loop regarding the products they like. Also, it is a great way to keep them engaged with your campaigns! As soon as you get a hold of your customers’ email addresses, make sure to ask whether or not they are interested to opt for your email newsletter. 

Set up a Referral Program

Among others, word of mouth marketing is a primitive yet highly effective form of social proof that you can use. You can take the help of a referral program and add it to your marketing toolbox. What a referral program does is that new leads that come into your eCommerce business, get there because of social proof provided to them by somebody in their own network, somebody they already trust. Considering the fact that over 90% of people trust recommendations from their friends and peers over nagging advertisers, you can understand just how efficient this type of method can be. 

Ask Engaged Customers for Reviews

There is another specific form of social proof, which is commonly known as reviews. When you have engaged, loyal customers who buy from your store and click on your emails, keep a track of them. You should be able to confidently reach out and ask for a review through your emails!

Send an Abandoned Cart Email Series

Did you know that on average, more than 75% of shoppers abandon their carts? However, this doesn’t mean that these individual sales are lost forever. A good method to combat cart abandonment is sending an abandoned cart email series when your shoppers leave the website without having completed their purchases. It almost goes without saying - you already have collected their email addresses and are tracking your site usage.

Test Your Email Marketing Campaigns

In former U.S. President Barack Obama’s email marketing campaigns, there was a difference of about $2.2 million solely due to the results brought to the table by the help of email split testing. It is not a joke - if you don’t split test, you leave money on the table.

In case you aren’t familiar with the term, it is the simple task of taking the original version of your email and then testing its performance compared to another version of the same email, in which there are subtle changes like the calls to action, subject line, some parts of the design or the copy itself.

Conclusion

Make sure to try and incorporate a few of these ecommerce email marketing tips, if not all of these practical and highly effective tips! You will notice that your eCommerce email strategy is strengthened a whole lot more and you as a business owner are in a much better position to come up with and execute a highly successful email marketing campaign. Keep in mind that marketing is never a game of chance, especially when it comes to email marketing. It is crucial that you strategize efficiently in order to put certain orders and structures in place so that you are able to see a substantial return on investment.