One of the greatest challenges that ecommerce businesses face is finding ways to connect with and engage their leads to encourage further sales. Ecommerce email campaigns can help your ecommerce business build meaningful relationships with your leads and customers while encouraging customer interaction.
Here are just a few tactics you can use to take your ecommerce email marketing to the next level to boost sales:
Ecommerce Email Marketing Tip 1 – Develop an email campaign to give loyal consumers exclusive rewards.
One of the best ways to drive more sales with your email marketing campaigns is by delivering exclusive rewards to your most loyal customers. Customer loyalty programs are popular among the modern consumer. In fact, Accenture found that 77% of consumers participate in a loyalty program with their favorite retailer.
Loyalty programs are a great way to build relationships with your customers. By rewarding them for their loyalty, you are showing consumers that you appreciate their business. Not only does this build trust, but it can also impact customer spend. In fact, studies show that loyal customers spend 67% more than new ones.
Your email marketing campaigns play an important role in delivering these exclusive rewards to your customers. You can use email marketing to automatically send enticing rewards to your best customers on a consistent basis.
Here’s an example of a customer loyalty reward email:
Not only does the email offer a reward of 15% off the next order, but it also explains how the customer can earn further exclusive offers. This type of messaging not only rewards the customer for their loyalty, but encourages them to keep shopping to access even more offers.
Ecommerce Email Marketing Tip 2 – Create ecommerce email campaigns for abandoned shopping carts.
Abandoned shopping carts are one of the greatest challenges for ecommerce companies. According to the Baymard Institute, the average abandoned shopping cart rate for most ecommerce businesses is 69%. Ecommerce email campaigns can be used to help regain some of these sales by helping you reengage these lost visitors.
Abandoned shopping cart email campaigns can be sent automatically through email automation software. You can either send a simple message telling the consumer they still have items in their shopping cart or even include images of the items that they’ve placed there. Be sure to include a quick and easy way for the customer to complete their purchase. The easier it is for them to convert, the more inclined they will be to take action.
Here’s an example of an abandoned shopping cart email:
The email is simple and to the point. It tells the consumer that they’ve left some items in their cart with the prompt – “Don’t miss out on these items.” The email also makes it as easy as possible to complete the conversion by including a “Complete your order” button that takes the consumer right to their shopping cart. Notice also that this abandoned shopping cart email also provides contact information in case the consumer needs help.
Another element that you may want to add to your abandoned shopping cart email is some further incentive for the consumer to complete their purchase. For instance, you might offer free shipping or a discount if the consumer checks out within 24 hours. This offers both incentive to complete the purchase but also a sense of urgency that may be just what the consumer needs to convert.
Ecommerce Email Marketing Tip 3. Personalize your ecommerce email marketing campaigns.
Want to really grab the attention of your audience? It’s time to start personalizing your ecommerce emails. It’s no secret that email personalization makes for more effective campaigns. In fact, Aberdeen reports that personalized email messaging improves click-through rates by 14% on average and conversions by 10%.
But email personalization goes beyond just using the customer’s first name in your email communications. If you really want to make an impact, you need to send email content that is tailored to the recipient, providing content and offers that entice them to click and buy. Use the information that you know about your customers to create more of the types of content that you know will appeal to them.
To get started, you will need to segment your email marketing list into groups of consumers with similar interests or purchase behavior. Here are some details that you might consider when segmenting:
- Past Purchase Behavior – Consumers who have purchased similar products will most likely be interested in the same types of products. You can use this information to create email content that recommends new or complementary products to increase sales.
- Past Email Engagement – What types of offers have your email subscribers engaged with in the past? This is a good indication about what promotions, deals, and products they may be interested in later on.
- Location – If your ecommerce store sells products that might apply to consumers in different geographic areas (like clothing or sports equipment) then you might want to use this information to deliver targeted campaigns based on location.
- Gender – Men most likely won’t be interested in your latest sale on women’s clothing. Consider how gender might play a role in the products that your customers are interested in and use this information to provide more personalized product recommendations or promotions.
These are just a few examples of how you can segment your email marketing list to provide more personalized content for your customers. Once you have decided on which promotion or products you plan to discuss in your email campaign, be sure to consider how these personal characteristics will also impact messaging and design. Your goal here is to provide a personalized message that resonates with each target segment.
This email from a beauty company is the perfect example of effective personalization:
Here, the company is recommending new products to the customer based on information they have provided previously. They recommend a product that is perfect for green eyes, light complexion, and oily skin. The consumer will be more likely to take interest in these products because they are all highly personalized product recommendations.
Ecommerce Email Marketing Tip 4 – Use ecommerce email marketing to cross-sell products.
Repeat customers are the bread and butter for most ecommerce businesses. In fact, according to BIA Kelsey, 61% of small businessesreport that over half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Furthermore, Marketing Tech reports that loyal customers are worth up to 10x as much as their first purchase.
Ecommerce email marketing is a great channel for re-engaging existing customers by cross-selling relevant products. After a customer has made a purchase from your ecommerce store, you can use their purchasing behavior to make personalized recommendations for similar or relevant products. You can even recommend products that complement their past purchases.
In this email example, you can see how easy it is to recommend complementary products during the order confirmation process:
Though the consumer may not have been shopping for socks initially, the confirmation email makes it easy for them to purchase these complementary products right from their inbox. This is a great example of an effective cross-selling opportunity.
You can use this same strategy to up-sell customers as well. For instance, let’s say that a customer purchases a new computer from your ecommerce store. When you send an order confirmation email to the consumer, you can ask if they would like to purchase a warranty or protection plan. Though they may not have taken the opportunity to purchase the plan while on your site, they might be interested after seeing the message again once they’ve bought the product.
Ecommerce Email Marketing Tip 5 – Take advantage of holidays and special occasions.
Seasonal promotions are a great way to bring more consumers to your online store. In fact, eMarketer reports that holiday ecommerce sales during November and December account for almost a quarter of total annual sales. And many of those sales are delivered directly to consumer inboxes through special email promotions.
Ecommerce email campaigns are a great way to deliver promotional content with exclusive deals alerts for holidays and other special occasions. Have a little fun with your messaging and email design to make it festive. And be sure to offer promotions that your customers will be interested in.
Here’s an example of a holiday email promotion from Gap:
They “gift” their email subscribers with an exclusive promotion that they can use during the holiday season. The gift card graphic and holiday messaging make the email both relevant and fun. They also make it easy for consumers to redeem the offer by putting the bar code in the email, which can be printed or shown in the store from the consumer’s mobile device.
It’s important to note that the holidays aren’t the only time that you can take advantage of special occasions for email promotions. If you collect other data on your consumers like birthdays or anniversary dates, you can use this information as another opportunity to reward your customers.
Here’s an example of a birthday promotional email:
These types of emails are two-fold. Wishing the customer a happy birthday is a nice personal touch that can help your brand develop a stronger relationship with them. While providing a birthday promotional offer like 10% off their order encourages them to make a purchase.
Are you ready to get started on your ecommerce email campaigns? Our experienced team is ready to help you get more out of your ecommerce email marketing so that you can nurture your leads and customers across the marketing funnel to boost conversions over time.
To get started, request a proposal.
