Email marketing is repeatedly emphasized as the top marketing strategy, surpassing other strategies such as content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, PPC, and traditional marketing campaigns in terms of ROI, audience reach, sales conversion, and cost-effectiveness.
In the year 2023, it is definitely necessary to develop an email marketing strategy for your eCommerce brand. Let me explain the reasons behind this.
Statista predicts that the number of email users will exceed 4.6 billion by 2023, representing more than 50% of the global population. Additionally, email marketing is projected to generate $11 billion in revenue by 2023 and $17.9 billion by 2027.
eCommerce email marketing
Email marketing is a highly beneficial tool, particularly for eCommerce businesses. It allows for personalized connections with customers, all at a reduced cost.
Ecommerce marketing, as its name implies, relies on emails to effectively and affordably promote products and services to potential and existing customers of an online store. Emails, being a widely used form of online communication, facilitate efficiency and profitability.
eCommerce email marketing encompasses both effortless steps, such as sending an email to a customer who abandoned items in their cart, and more intricate techniques involving the integration of several campaigns to enhance sales.
The way you utilize your email marketing campaigns is entirely on you. It depends on your business goals, marketing objectives, audience, business growth, etc. The bottom line is that email marketing is basically about fostering and building trust a solid, lasting relationship with customers and it works wonders.
Your brand’s emails have an impact on how customers perceive your brand when they make purchases from your store, both online and offline. Due to the abundance of emails sent by various businesses every day, it is crucial for you to captivate and maintain customer interest through an effective email marketing strategy. Failure to do so may result in losing customers to your competitors.
You can utilize various digital marketing strategies such as PPC advertisements, promotional emails, and newsletters to generate sales for your online store.
Email communication is a cost-effective and targeted method for brands to reach customers. Additionally, it allows for a comprehensive view of email marketing performance, enabling adjustments and improving effectiveness.
The essential measurements to monitor for eCommerce email marketing campaigns include but are not restricted to:
- Delivery rate
- Open rate
- Click-through rate
- Bounce rate
- Conversion rate
- Subscribe rate
- Unsubscribe rate
In order to achieve growth in eCommerce businesses, it is crucial to organize extensive email marketing campaigns that align with the goals, KPIs, and performance metrics. While social media assets are important for expanding your business, it is a well-known fact that email marketing is the most effective digital marketing tool for acquiring customers.
eCommerce email marketing types
- Transactional emails: Direct messages sent in response to specific actions a user makes on your eCommerce store website. Examples include password reset emails, confirmation orders, and pay invoices.
- Promotional emails: Special offer emails designed to get the word out about product launches, special deals, and offerings to existing or potential customers. For example, Christmas discount sales, Black Friday deals, and one-time-only free shipping following a product launch.
- Lifecycle emails: These are guiding emails sent at different stages of the buyer’s journey from subscription to purchase. It usually accounts for great user experience by meeting the needs of customers at a crucial time along their journey. Cart abandonment emails and subscription activation emails fall under the lifecycle email campaign category.
Top tips for successful eCommerce email marketing campaigns
Executing a victorious email marketing campaign does not require complex techniques. Nonetheless, it entails a small amount of dedication from your marketing team. Typically, it should encompass strategies to allure and integrate new customers, as well as strategies to involve and maintain current customers. By doing so, sales are enhanced and revenue is boosted.
1. Decide on the perfect-fit email service provider
You can use an email service provider (ESP) to send email campaigns to a list of subscribers. EngageBay has a complete CRM solution with robust email marketing automation, making it a great choice. Additionally, there are various affordable email marketing automation tools available for selection.
Instead of wasting time deliberating over which service provider to use, make a decision knowing that you can always switch later. However, there are a few factors to consider before finalizing your choice.
- Compare available features: First of all, determine what your email service provider’s needs are and find a provider that meets them. Not all features available on an ESP are necessary for your current eCommerce business stage. Keep in mind, at the core an ESP serves two basic needs: store emails, and send emails. More advanced settings may include email marketing automation, list segmentation, or A/B testing. It’s important to not get blinded by all the many fancy features that do not necessarily meet your needs. Don’t be afraid to make a decision, you can always change gears and move to another provider if the current one no longer meets your marketing needs.
- Pricing: You do not want to break the bank over pricing. It’s important you consider your marketing budget and fix a fair price in accordance. Choose a provider with high cost-efficiency. That’s the cost-to-usefulness ratio.
- User-friendly interference: The whole aim of email marketing is to generate leads and drive sales. You must then consider a user-friendly interface. This allows your subscribers to have the best customer experience and can significantly decrease the bounce rate and unsubscribe rates.
- Data security: Security is a big deal for your e-commerce brand. You want to ensure maximum security. This also wins customer trust for your brand. Also, choose a provider that is big on trust and compliance, it directly affects your business. It’s best to pay a premium price for security. A lack of security would cost your eCommerce business more money.
- Terms of service and privacy: Resist the urge to skip this aspect. It’s good to know the terms you are agreeing to and what your email providers expect from you. Knowing the terms of service helps you keep them to avoid breaking laws. Don’t accept policies you cannot keep up with.
2. Build your email list
After making a decision on an email service provider, the following step is to create a list of email addresses.
- Landing page: it is an entry point into your eCommerce business and typically generates traffic and converts visitors into leads. Include an opt-in message that allows visitors to drop their email. Show value and a sneak-peak into what they are about to receive or get in exchange for their emails. Don’t beg for email contacts, give value and the email address will follow.
- Build segments from a general list: Emails are effective when they are personalized, it’s best to build email segments based on audience similarities, demographics, or buyer personas.
3. Craft and send great emails
By automating your emails, you can increase productivity and minimize mistakes. Once you have segmented your list, you can begin automating emails based on customer behavior and segments on your website. An appropriately timed message, targeted at the right audience, has the potential to significantly boost your revenue.
It is crucial to dedicate additional effort to curate your various email campaigns and email series as they will be sent automatically once activated. We previously talked about certain types of eCommerce emails that you should incorporate into your eCommerce email marketing campaigns.
Use a catchy subject line, branded logos, header and preheader, and concise body-no beating around the bush. Show courtesy. Use A/B testing to see what works better.
4. Run surveys
One way to gain knowledge about your company’s performance, identify mistakes, and discover areas for improvement is by directly receiving feedback from customers. Email surveys serve as a trustworthy method to collect significant insights from customers regarding your products and services.
The text below can be rephrased as follows, while maintaining the same meaning: The text above may refer to an email for customer satisfaction survey, feedback forms, or a survey for membership subscription.
5. Do a deep analysis
Most email marketing software offer professional dashboards that allow you to analyze your email series. Here are a few key performance indicators (KPIs) you should consider examining:
- Open rates: Standard open rate is benchmarked at 21% – 25%. Anything below 21% is an indicator your emails are not as successful as could be.
- Bounce rate: Helps know email deliverability and list health. An email could bounce as a result of an invalid recipient email address. The average bounce rate is 0.7%.
- Click-through rate: Shows email engagement from subscribers. Ideally, should be three times the conversion rate of your eCommerce store. The average CTR across all industries is 2.91%.
Elements crucial to an eCommerce email
1. On-site conversion
The effectiveness of email marketing heavily relies on optimizing your website for email capture. While it may be beneficial to obtain high volumes of website traffic and establish automated backend email sequences, the effort becomes futile if visitors do not return to your website.
That is the reason why on-site conversion optimization holds great importance in eCommerce email marketing. Here is what you can do to enhance your website for efficient email capture:
- Include an email capture form on your homepage.
- Make your form prominent and above the fold.
- Leverage social proof to get more signups.
- Emphasize your value proposition.
2. Personalization
When done correctly, personalization goes beyond simply adding a “First Name” tag in your email broadcasts. It has the potential to make your eCommerce business rise above the rest in your customers’ inbox, leading to higher open rates, click-throughs, and eventual purchases.
Personalization is viewed as the most crucial capability to develop in the future, as it strengthens the relationship with your customers and demonstrates your concern for their interests and preferences, according to 33% of marketers.
By thinking step by step, you can enhance the effectiveness of your emails by incorporating personalization.
- Product recommendations – suggest a similar product your customer is likely to purchase.
- Page-specific automation – automate trigger-based emails based on user behavior.
- Smart list segmentation and contact scoring – send relevant contact to particular users.
3. Message
If the messaging in an email is not relevant or does not align with the marketing goals, the email becomes void. The messaging should encourage recipients to open the emails, click on calls-to-action, interact with the content, and make purchases. Otherwise, there is no point to the email.
To enhance your messaging, you should take into account various factors. Some of these factors pertain to the technical aspects of email marketing, while others pertain to customer engagement. Consider the following steps to improve your messaging.
- avoid common spam words, and adhere to unsubscribe laws.
- Optimize your email by adding catchy emojis, subject lines to increase open rates and excite the user.
- Split test your copy, limit the number of calls-to-action, use descriptive links, segment your list for more refined targeting, and personalize the offer based on their behavior.
4. Develop a design in a systematic and sequential manner.
The use of custom HTML emails is so common that it is necessary to have a captivating design for successful eCommerce email marketing campaigns. Your customers anticipate visually appealing elements, captivating graphics, and a remarkable experience in their email inbox. Here is how you can focus on the design of your emails:
- Eye-catching colors and branding
- Device optimization and responsiveness
- Relevant and consistent calls-to-action
- Smart content and copy organization
- Engaging visual elements
