Let’s start this conversation by diving into what eCommerce is in general. It is a newer term, so we can start from the basics and grow. When looking at it in the simplest form, it is the activity of buying and selling services over the internet. This field has grown mainly since Covid in 2019, as most activities are now online. This being said, what better way to reach an audience via the internet than using Email marketing? Now I am sure everybody is receiving emails from e-commerce but let’s flip the roles and see why e-commerce benefits from email marketing.
Why does eCommerce use Email Marketing?
Using email marketing in e-commerce allows for a conversation to be built between the seller and the buyer. This is a great way to communicate when a new product drops, discounts, deals, or other promotions—also offering the idea of a ‘soft sell’ which is educating the audience of why the e-commerce brand should stay at the top of their mind for all things related to purchases.
E-Commerce can incorporate many types of emails into their email marketing campaign. The big idea is maintaining healthy communication between the customers and the business and ensuring that transactional deals and order confirmations are easy to navigate. Creating an enjoyable customer experience builds trust with customers, but this is only done by running a successful email marketing campaign. If this is done correctly, you can ensure consistent improvement, and your business will grow over time.
What goes into eCommerce email marketing?
There is a bit of a different approach when creating emails from the e-commerce perspective, meaning that other factors will play a role. When observing a typical email marketing campaign, most emails are promotional. Promotional emails are used in the e-commerce industry to announce deals and new product lines being released and to keep in touch.
This being said, eCommerce also needs to send transactional emails due to having no physical storefront. Therefore Both of these emails are of high value, meaning that neither is more important than the other. Essentially they work together and, if done well and strategically, can benefit each other by nurturing sales growth.
10 Emails to have success in your eCommerce Email Marketing Campaigns
- Welcome Email: Often, a welcome email is where the first impression is made; the New subscriber gets an idea of what the company is about and entails. Suppose the company’s introduction to a new subscriber needs to be more specific, detailed, or creative, and it will not stand out and make the impact you wanted to make. It will also lead to a less attentive audience because that sets the expectations for the rest of the campaigns. Essentially the role of the welcome email is to thank subscribers for joining the list, and she sets the expectations for what is to come. If this process is done correctly, not only will it leave the subscribers with interest and excitement for what’s to come, but it will also simplify the process. You can often see welcome emails containing a discount code, a Friends with Benefits code, exclusive Outreach, and many other methods to catch the audience’s attention at that first chance.
- Remember that if you want your post to stand out, it needs to be original, and the design needs to be simplistic. Looking at the originality of a bar, when the world is based on media and content, seeing something different will catch the audience’s attention. Often in email marketing campaigns, as I mentioned, a way to enhance the first impression is to offer a discount deal and speak the language that will catch their attention. In terms of simplicity, there’s no need to go above and beyond appearance when simplicity is typically the name of the game. Not making a new subscriber make multiple choices instead of telling them of the journey they will take. This can be beneficial because if there are too many choices, attention gets lost, cards get abandoned, and subscribers get overwhelmed.
- Engagement Email: It is important to note that the average office worker receives approximately 125 emails a day, but this being said, the emails need to be engaging and enticing. A fun way to increase engagement is to have interactive calls to action. This could be a quiz or survey. You were on the right path if it required people to stop what they were doing and engage in your brand’s content. We are going to remember a quiz that they took that discovered their favorite sweater more than they’re going to place a picture of a shirt that they think they might look good in.
- Referral Email: A large part of Brand growth is verbal or via email referrals. They do make a significant difference and how the brain grows—on the brighter side, having a referral of friends and family is essentially a free lead. Approximately 74% of consumers have discovered new brands because of their friends and family instead of finding them independently. There may not be a lot of wiggle room within the company to offer discounts and free items when the company is growing, so sometimes you need to get creative by offering free shipping or a certain amount of reward points to an account.
- Discount Email: Discounting is a considerable success in e-commerce marketing strategies. Frequently Shoppers who have left a product in their cart are much more likely to go back and purchase it if a discount is presented to them. Deals also catch people’s attention because who wouldn’t want to save money? Including discount codes or sale price items can increase the conversion rate and spread the word about your brand. Now take your time with discounts; offering too many will often imbalance the money you bring in. A great way to engage with subscribers and continue interaction is to offer discounts only to those who initially interact with what is sent out.
- Cart Abandonment Email: The classic put it in your cart but never purchase. Often a cart abandonment issue is due to the attention of the Shopper being sidetracked. This is a great time to re-engage with a customer and reach out to let them know that the item they originally were interested in is still available.
- Order Confirmation Email: An order confirmation email is sent more to the customer who purchased the item than the seller. Knowing that the transaction has gone through and you got a personal number that identifies with your purchase is very comforting because there’s accountability to fall back on if something happens to the order. This is also an excellent time for the brand to build trust with the customer as it shows that they are engaged in the order process.
- Updated Delivery Status Email: To keep a customer updated through the delivery and shipping process is very thoughtful of the company. It is often not done but can speak volumes to the company and the communication being shown. It also builds trust and the user as they see the money they spent get delivered to their house and be taken care of, as opposed to purchasing something and never seeing it again for quite a while.
- Win Back Email: This is a significant component of email marketing campaigns. Often people can become unengaged with the brand and want to unsubscribe or disengage with the brand entirely. On average, an email marketing list will lose about 22% of its subscribers yearly, so engagement must be prioritized. Constantly checking in with subscribers and asking for recommendations on what the company can do better is a great way to give the subscribers a chance to voice their opinion and how the company can do better.
- Feedback Email: As mentioned before, a feedback email is ideal for retaining customers and allowing customers to speak their minds and provide feedback based upon their own experiences as a great way to either emphasize what you’re already doing or just what you currently are doing.
- Thank you Email: A simple thank you goes a long way; we are taught that from a young age, and it is good to carry it out through our business practices. Say thank you to the people who allowed you to get to where you are, and show the audience that you go above and beyond and recognize their importance within the brand.
Mailsoftly has some tips for you!
- Automated touch points: These can also commonly be known as trigger points, this is when a customer makes a specific action, and due to this action, something is sent out to entice them. Because it is based upon a customer’s activity, it is often very relevant and timely; therefore, it has a high conversion rate among other email marketing tactics.
- Email Frequency: When starting your email marketing Journey, it is essential to find a balance between emailing too frequently and needing more comments, always wanting to stay relevant in their mind. If it is a newsletter, you could do something weekly or monthly, or if there is an email for subscribers regarding a new product, that would have its special email. But often, a b testing is very beneficial in deciding the direction of your email marketing campaign.
- Planning: You know Marketing in the e-commerce world is a practical method of reaching out to subscribers due to the results shown. Cleaning the email marketing campaign is very important, as once the steps are in place, the rest of the process is easy. If there are specific things you want to send out regarding the season, upcoming holidays, any significant events for the brand, etc. Those are important to note in the campaign so that they are noticed.
- Customer Loyalty: This is a great way to create loyalty and re-engagement that helps focus on rebuilding a relationship between the customer and the brand. These emails have an open ended approach and focus on creating a bond with the customer and create the potential idea of a future purchase. A great way to do this is to send emails on birthdays, anniversaries, or anniversaries with the brand. Reward points for a certain amount of money spent or a sale specifically for loyalty members.
- Up-Sell and Cross-Sell: When you are selling products the idea of up- selling and cross-selling can essentially boost conversion. The goal of these emails is to have them express interest in other products which would aid in the increase of sales. Oftentimes this may not entirely spark a sale to happen but more times than not the customer will click on it and interact with the email or call to action. There are a couple ways to do this such as product follow -ups, category follow – ups and receipt follow ups.
- Segmentation: Segmentation will make an impactful difference in the long run due to how customers interact. Segmentation is essentially the segmenting of your subscriber’s list based on their interest, previous purchase history, demographic, interactions Etc. Sending personalized emails that cater to these specific needs and interests is a great way to show the customer that the brand pays attention. For example, a great way this shines through is when recommending products based on past purchases; it tends to increase the conversion as it has already been proven that they’ve expressed interest in something similar.
Conclusion
Ecommerce email marketing is held at such a high value due to the reasons stated above. Growing your email list is the easiest part but keeping the list engaged is a lot more work although the benefit is eye opening. If there is no monitor on your ecommerce email marketing activities it will be hard to see where improvement needs to be made. You are unable to improve if the monitoring is done poorly, this is where Mailsoftly can help. Mailsoflty offers an amazing platform where email marketing is made easy and practical for all to have success. Check out the website to learn more about how Mailsoftly can help you succeed.
