Email marketing is still the undisputed king of digital marketing.
With more than 4 billion daily users, over 306 billion emails sent each day, and with roughly 64% of small businesses depending on the channel for revenue, it’s no wonder why email marketing has survived the rise of social media and other new marketing platforms.
Email marketing is effective not just because of the volume of emails sent or the number of email users. It’s also because email marketing is one of the very few marketing channels left that bring in results.
When done right, email marketing allows for personalization and segmentation to a captive audience that voluntarily signed up to hear from your brand. That means, you have their attention in one of the most important spaces they spend time at online: their inbox.
So how do you use this channel well as an ecommerce brand? In this article, I’ll take you through the most effective strategies for crafting email marketing campaigns that drive clicks and conversions. You can apply these tactics right away and watch your CTR rise.
Ready? Let’s go.
Strategies for better email marketing campaigns
Build your email list
The foundation for email marketing begins here: your email list.
Getting subscribers is just as important (if not more!) than the collective push on your ecommerce store to have people buy products and services.
Give away lead magnets of all kinds to start growing your list. Ecommerce coupon codes are low-hanging fruits you can implement ASAP.
You can add more lead magnets by writing ready-to-download informational materials such as PDF checklists and other documents that present a low-friction offer. This is perfect for your visitors who are not ready to buy yet and are just browsing.
Without the first step of building an engaged email list, everything else you read below falls apart.
Create an email marketing calendar and identify peak promotion periods
Staying organized and knowing what kind of emails you’ll send in the next few days, weeks, or even months, is crucial for email marketing success.
Why?
You can blast off emails on the most opportune days when you plan your emails ahead using an email content calendar. Sending emails during the hottest days for promotions means you strike a subscriber’s inbox while they are most vulnerable to buy.
These prime days for email marketing include:
- BFCM
- The holiday season
- Father’s Day
- Mother’s Day
- Back to School
- A subscriber’s birthday, anniversary, and other special days specific to them
Mark these and other relevant events and holidays on your content calendar and make sure to create the most alluring content that will get your audience to click.
Want more ideas and inspiration? Check out our email swipe file with over 100 newsletter ideas you can use for your next campaign.
Segment your subscriber list
Segmenting your email list helps you send relevant emails to groups of subscribers. Some of these subscribers may be customers already while some are just sitting on the fence about buying from you.
You can’t send these two categories the same emails because people who have already bought a product from you don’t want to see an email selling the same product.
Sending emails during the hottest days for promotions means you strike a subscriber’s inbox while they are most vulnerable to buy.
Email marketing segments can be as many as you can handle, depending on these factors:
- How subscribers engage with your email campaigns
- The actions they take on your e-commerce site
- Subscriptions they make
- Orders they place
- The shopping carts they abandon
…and so on.
Sharp, clear, and well-sorted segments give you specific target groups (within your email subscriber list) that you can send relevant emails to.
Say a customer purchased a GoPro–that should be a segment by itself. Sending cross-selling emails persuading them to purchase GoPro add-ons, a cloud subscription, accessories, and newer versions of the GoPro?
All of those make terrific sense.
See where we are going with this? Here’s our next ecommerce email marketing strategy…
Optimize subject lines and email design
You never know how email subject lines, design, copy, and campaign timing work if you don’t watch these and optimize them over time.
Your perception of how you think your email subject lines are or how well you think your email copy is are rough guidelines. While these are fine to begin with, over time however, you’ll do well to optimize email subject lines, design, copy, and overall content and timing.
Achieve optimal performance over time with regular testing and tweaking. Measure results against existing performers to find better performers. It’s all a process of experimentation that will help you in the long term.
Implement email marketing automations or triggered email journeys
Automations, while a bonus for regular businesses, are mandatory for ecommerce.
Given that you’d have more customers per store and more touch points than normal, automations help you outsource mundane tasks, get smart with email campaigns, and help you run a tight ship.
Some email marketing automation campaigns are not only smart but also profitable:
- win-back campaigns
- retargeting campaigns targeting shopping cart abandoners
- segment-based automated campaigns aimed at cross-selling or upselling
These campaigns are a must-have for your e-commerce business.
Send two emails per week
Most brands don’t email marketing campaigns at all while some overdo it.
A few others send a few emails on and off. Their frequency is so haphazard that most subscribers and even customers forget the brand.
An effective email marketing strategy finds support in a pre-established frequency of email messages. We highly recommend at least 2 emails per week. Aim for consistency then build up to three or more emails a week without veering into overload territory.
Need inspiration?
Sign up for Panoramata to see thousands of email marketing campaigns sent by leading brands and sorted according to industry, niche, and verticals.
You can even view their frequency of sending, email subject lines, email design, actual email content, and more. That way you’ll never run out of email ideas, whatever the occasion or purpose may be.
Track the results of your email marketing campaigns
Almost all email marketing platforms allow you complete access to analytics, from how many people see your opt-in forms and landing pages to how many people convert on each of these. You have data readily available on delivery rates, open rates, click rates, unsubscribes, bounce rates, and more.
Track these KPIs and aim to hit your industry’s email benchmarks. Calculate the percentage of store revenue you earn from your email campaigns, ensuring you get as close to 20 percent or higher as possible.
Also, look into your unsubscribe rates and conversion rates, as well as qualitative factors such as replies from engaged subscribers, which is another wellspring of opportunity for conversion.
Apart from all of these metrics, it also makes sense to measure your ROI from email campaigns to see if you efforts are working and if you need to allocate more or fewer resources to email marketing.
Upgrade your e-commerce email marketing strategy today
By implementing these email marketing strategies, ecommerce businesses can effectively connect with their audience, drive conversions, and build long-lasting customer relationships.
Consistent effort in building a list, segmenting subscribers, optimizing campaigns, and tracking results will lead to a successful and profitable email marketing strategy.
FAQs
How often should I send emails?
It is recommended to send at least two emails per week to maintain consistent engagement with subscribers.
Why is segmentation important for email marketing?
Segmentation allows you to send targeted emails to specific groups of subscribers based on their interests and behaviors, making the content more relevant and effective.
What are some key metrics to track for email marketing?
Key metrics include delivery rates, open rates, click rates, unsubscribe rates, bounce rates, and ROI.
