E-Commerce Email Marketing: The Complete Guide

Emails are among the most widely used forms of digital engagement, which is primarily why employing them for marketing purposes can be so successful.

In fact, 77% of digital marketers reported that email marketing engagement has increased significantly in the past year and will continue to do so, which seems to be a trend for many upcoming years in the eCommerce industry.

As a marketer, emails could aid you in boosting user engagement, fostering consumer loyalty, disseminating valuable and relevant knowledge, announcing the hottest discounts, and increasing sales.

So here's a comprehensive guide on leveraging email marketing for eCommerce and scaling your business to new heights.

‍

What is eCommerce Email Marketing? How is it Beneficial for eCommerce Brands?

eCommerce email marketing is a powerful marketing tactic that utilizes emails to engage existing and prospective customers about the products offered by your online store or brand.

It's an extremely targeted promotional and marketing channel that enables you to reach out to customers directly, who are more likely to purchase your products based on their past purchases and preferences.

You have to be cognizant that a robust email marketing strategy differs from a conventional email communication plan. You get transactional emails in addition to regular promotional communications, such as purchase confirmations, shipping updates, and payment receipts.

In contrast, promotional emails are employed to keep up with subscribers, promote new product lines, and inform them of upcoming or live deals.

A sound conversion optimization strategy that fosters sales and satisfies consumer expectations is the need of the hour if you want to succeed with your latest email marketing campaign. Not to mention, email marketing ROI can be a game changer for both your topline and bottom line.

Statistics depict that brands make approximately $36 on every $1 spent on email marketing campaigns. Email marketing is thus one of the most successful channels for brands of all sizes and sectors to connect with the relevant audience and develop relationships and trust.

‍

Devising Promotional Email Strategies for Your eCommerce Brand

If you wish to leverage email marketing and achieve an ROI number close to the average, you need to figure out and incorporate a promotional strategy with the ideal ratio of offer-based and transactional emails.

This way, you can provide optimum eCommerce customer experience without overwhelming them with your brand's products or content.

Let's look at how to design a fantastic promotional email marketing strategy and integrate it with transactional emails to serve your audience better:

‍

1. Configuring Email Signup/Subscription

Set up inviting email signup or subscription form first. This feature comes built-in with most email marketing tools for eCommerce, and you can personalize it to fit your branding and include particular text fields.

Even the actionable button text can be modified to convey something more enticing. Once you've finished designing your signup form, consider positioning it prominently across your online store.

Some of the best locations include a dedicated signup page, homepage, in the website's footer, sidebar, towards the conclusion of articles or blog postings, etc.

You can even include the option for customers to store their email preferences while signing up or subscribing so that they get something relevant every time they open your email. Loft, a women's clothing brand, employs the same strategy to deliver a personalized experience.

‍

2. Designing Out-of-the-Box Email Templates

One of the critical components of successful eCommerce email marketing is creating a captivating, innovative, and user-friendly email template.

Don't hesitate to spend some marketing funds if required to develop an immersive and interactive experience that boosts sales. You are free to design it yourself or seek professional assistance.

Be mindful that your click-through rate will primarily be influenced by your email template's interest. So give this one task the time it deserves.

An excellent demonstration here is presented by Litmus, an email marketing platform that uses animation to produce an intriguing email marketing design. In contrast to static text, the swipe motion is integrated into the design to provide readers with a glimpse of the email marketing tool they offer, which appeals to and entices you to read the remaining content in more detail.

The subtle animations are applied to enhance the email's body copy. Moreover, it blends in perfectly with the email's layout, providing the recipient with a complementary but different point of focus before they read the remaining copy.

‍

3. Designing a Welcome Email Sequence

When new subscribers sign up, a welcome email sequence is immediately sent to them. These emails express gratitude, introduce your brand, and explain what customers may anticipate from your future communications.

It could include an introduction newsletter for the product as well as tailored product suggestions based on things they've already looked at or bought.

Some of the best email tools make it much simpler than ever to automate your welcome email series or even a whole campaign. Moreover, you may design customized, automated email flows based on individual customer journeys.

For instance, with the help of its get started email, the ride-sharing platform Lyft does a great job of educating its users on how to utilize its services.

After you signup, you receive a welcome email stating 'How Lyft Works' and a frictionless CTA at the bottom to take your first ride directly.

‍

4. Automating Email Communication/Campaigns

Leveraging eCommerce email automation for devising, scheduling, and monitoring automated communications is a fantastic method to retain customers and pull them back to your online store.

You can configure email communication triggers for particular actions that take place in your store, such as an abandoned cart recovery push email. eCommerce websites frequently use this type of interface to track abandoned shopping carts, but it can also be used to track in-store purchases or product reviews.

Email automation lets you target your customer segment through efficient deals and discount messages, product promotion, customer re-engagement, loyalty, and survey campaigns.

Let's take a brief look at how Rip Curl, a sportswear brand, deployed its automated product promotion campaign for its SearchGPS watch. The retailer created an email headline that pops off the page by marrying urgency with our cognitive drive to connect to something.

This approach aims to persuade consumers that a "revolution" is underway and that now is their chance to join in.

‍

5. Identifying the Ideal Email Frequency

Timing and frequency are crucial attributes of email automation. You should have a target demographic in mind when creating your email campaign, but you also need to ensure that your customers aren't overburdened with too many emails within a short time.

Among the most crucial email marketing tactics is figuring out the appropriate emailing frequency for your brand, which is trickier than it might seem. There is no standard suggestion for email frequency; it depends on the goals and aims of the eCommerce brand.

But one thing you should consider to arrive at an optimum frequency is clearly noting the objectives behind targeting customers with a particular type of email.

Your marketing must be clear about what they are striving to achieve, be it deal closing, customer acquisition, conversion, boosting online purchases, or something else. When your email campaign goals are in front of you, along with the right metrics to track, it makes it a bit simpler to figure out the optimum email frequency.

Recognizing the clear boundary between adding value and being intrusive is all that's required. Oversharing can aggravate your subscriber attrition rate, open and click-through rates, and other metrics.

‍

6. Segmenting Customers for Hyper-Personalization

Another efficient strategy to expand and forge closer ties with your customer base is to categorize your email list for prospective consumers. By segmenting your audience, you can ensure that they only hear from your brand about products or services pertinent to their preferences and requirements.

Create lists of your subscribers relying on their past-purchasing activity or those who prefer a particular product line to personalize customer communications. After that, you can create emails that are tailored to their unique interests and requirements to achieve a high conversion rate.

Another effective tactic is demographic segmentation. Demographic segmentation is ideal for creating customer personas that will aid in the delivery of highly personalized email marketing.

Barkbox, a dog services company, is an amazing illustration of an eCommerce business that uses customer personas. Barkbox recognizes its audience is composed of dog enthusiasts, but they go a step beyond by inquiring about your dog's size.

As a result, segmentation becomes as simple as a single click while gathering insightful data and information about their subscribers.

‍

Conclusion

Email marketing is undoubtedly the most powerful and persuasive marketing promotional strategy in the eCommerce marketing arena, with an average order value (AOV) as high as three times that of social media and other channels. It's strong, data-rich, and works well with the other digital marketing channels in the arena.

Your whole focus should be on increasing customer lifetime value, educating your customers about your brand, and sending relevant communications at the best ideal moment to skyrocket your online business.

Visit Glood.ai now to learn more about the best email marketing service for Shopify and explore other facets of personalization!