Email marketing is a powerful tool for eCommerce companies. Your business can use it to increase sales, bring customers back to your site, and remind customers of what’s available in stock. In this article, we will discuss email marketing tips for eCommerce companies from the purchase to the referral stage. We will provide ideas that will help you create effective email marketing sequences that generate revenue for your business.
Why is Email Marketing Important for an eCommerce Company?
Email marketing is the process of sending commercial messages to a group of people through email. It’s one of the most effective ways to reach out to your customers and promote your products.
There are many reasons why email marketing is important for an eCommerce company. First, email marketing allows you to reach a large number of people quickly and easily. Additionally, email marketing is affordable, making it a cost-effective way to reach your target audience.
Third, email marketing helps you build relationships with your customers. When done correctly, email marketing can help you create loyalty among your customer base.
Segment Your Customers for Added Personalization
One of the keys to effective email marketing is personalizing your messages for each customer. You can do this by segmenting your customers into different groups. Doing this will allow you to create targeted email campaigns more likely to create success for you.
There are many ways to segment your customers:
- Location: You can target customers based on their location, such as country, state/province, or city.
- Demographics: You can target customers based on their age, gender, income level, or other factors.
- Interests: You can target customers based on the products they’ve shown an interest in or the pages they’ve visited on your website.
- Behavior: You can target customers based on their email reading habits, such as email opens and clicks.
Types of Emails to Use
Use a variety of email formats for your marketing campaigns.
Welcome Emails
A welcome email is a great way to introduce yourself and start building a relationship with new subscribers. It’s also an opportunity to let them know what they can expect from you, as well as how often they’ll receive emails from you going forward.
Order Confirmation Emails
Order confirmation emails are an email sent to a customer after they place an order. It’s considered one of the most important email messages for customers. It lets them know the status of their purchase.
Shipping Notification Emails
A shipping notification email is a message sent to your customers when their order ships or partially ships. The email will include information on how to track the package. It should also provide any other relevant details, such as the estimated delivery date and time frame for arrival at the destination address.
Follow-up or Abandoned Cart Emails
An abandoned cart email is a reminder that gets sent out when someone adds items into their shopping basket but doesn’t complete the purchase. Use this type of email to encourage them to complete the order. Link your customer directly back into their shopping cart or checkout page.
New Item Notification Emails
A new item notification email is a message sent to your customers when you add a new product to your inventory. Include images of the product, as well as information about where they can buy it. Likewise, if a popular item goes out of stock, let customers know when it’s available again.
Referral Program Invitations
A referral program invitation email is an email that encourages people to refer their friends and family to your company. It typically includes a special offer for those who participate in the referral program.
Best Tips for eCommerce Email Marketing
There are several best practices you should keep in mind when creating your email marketing campaigns:
Send the Right Email at the Right Time
It’s important to send the correct email at the proper time. If you send an email that isn’t relevant to your customer, they’re likely to delete it or worse, unsubscribe from your email list. Getting emails that show an obvious lack of knowledge about a customer’s position inside your sales funnel process breaks trust and you, the sender, can be marked as a spammer.
Subject Lines
Your email’s subject line is the first thing your customers will see. Make it interesting and enticing enough to make them want to open the email. Here are examples of quality eCommerce subject lines:
- “Congrats! Your order shipped!”
- “We’ve saved your spot in line for this must-have item!”
- “The items you’ve been waiting for arrived, and they’re on sale!”
Frequency
How often you email your customers can make or break the success of your email marketing campaigns. Too many emails, and they’ll unsubscribe from your email list. Not enough, and they’ll forget about you.
How frequently should you email? It depends on what type of email you’re sending out and who you’re sending it to.
The general rule is that if an email contains newsworthy information a customer will want immediately (an order shipping notification), then send it as soon as possible. If it’s not urgent, wait at least one week between any two similar types of emails. Doing so will lessen the chances of customers perceiving them as spammy or annoying.
Content
Tailor the content to the stage of the customer’s buying process. Emails you send to people who already made a purchase should provide information on new products or sales. Email messages for customers who haven’t purchased anything yet can include product descriptions and images.
When creating your email content, use a mix of text, images, infographics, and videos to keep things interesting. And make sure you add a CTA (call-to-action) button so customers know what you want them to do.
Remember to keep the layout easy to navigate. From a design standpoint, choose complementary colors and fonts, stay on top of the latest email marketing trends and use a top ecommerce marketing tool.
Final Thoughts
Email marketing is a great tool for eCommerce companies to use and with our tips, you’re more than likely to have positive results. Done correctly, with personalization, it helps you stay top of mind. Ultimately, a quality email campaign builds strong customer relationships that encourage new referrals. Start incorporating the above ideas into your business, and watch how much your customer retention rate improves.
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Author bio
Romy Catauta works in the marketing field and is passionate about writing on web design, business, interior design, and psychology.