How E-Commerce Brands Can Leverage Email Marketing to Drive Sales

Nothing connects an e-commerce business to its target audience and increases sales better than proper email marketing. From the welcome email that gets a newly converted customer acquainted with your company to the email sent weeks later for a cross-sell to the email sent days after add-to-cart to remind the customer what else you offer for re-engagement—an email marketing campaign should succeed as long as you do it the proper way. With automation, segmentation, and personalization, an e-commerce business can thrive with successful email marketing campaigns that promote customer retention.

Building a Strong Email List for Long-Term Growth

The key to a successful e-commerce email marketing campaign is the quality of the email list. This does not mean that brands should be attempting to acquire as many subscribers as possible, brands should be attempting to acquire only the quality, truly interested, and engaged buyer. A quality email list means higher open rates and engagement, which means conversion down the line. Strategies to create a quality, high-valued list include sign-up incentives that matter to the potential buyer 10% off for signing up, members-only sneak peeks/sign-ups, or free shipping on the first order. These incentives not only require people to give their email addresses for their own gain but also foster a sense of exclusivity, which can lead to brand loyalty.

An email list would require a double opt-in acknowledgment to confirm that people genuinely want to receive such correspondence and that spam complaints which would negatively impact email deliverability would be less likely. In addition, the power of an email list is only successful with segmentation. Segmenting clients based upon their purchasing habits, geographic location, previous purchases, and engagement renders appropriately tailored emails sent to those who need them most the proper pieces of the pie.

In addition to creating a strong email list, email list management can be helpful as well. An easier deliverability rate exists when an email list is regularly cleaned, people who do not respond or engage should be removed from the list. Companies can see that people subscribe, through no fault of the company, stop opening emails; they can survey them, send a coupon or gated content to re-engage; and if, after the second or third attempt, they still do not respond, they can remove them from the list. This allows for better email segmentation so companies are not mailing to those who are definitely not engaged because too many do not respond and could hinder sender reputation over time.

Furthermore, the longevity of subscription access only increases with personalization and dynamic content. If an individual receives customized suggestions, special pricing offers, and relevant articles for them, they are much more likely to remain subscribed and engage with future endeavors. Therefore, as forms of dynamic content, brands possess purchase history and browsing data to curate something special and applicable.

As long as e-commerce brands are on the rise and as long as they improve their targeted email lists, they will always possess a basic need to generate a devoted fan base willing to respond to their endeavors. Thus, email marketing will always be a surefire method for in-season shopping and for added and retained loyal customers for many years to come.

Creating Personalized Email Campaigns That Convert

Nothing increases engagement and conversion like personalization. If an email is sent with a person’s name and based on their interest and previous engagement with a brand, the likelihood of that email being opened and converted skyrockets. This is why e-commerce brands have all the information at hand, what people have purchased from them, what they purchased, and what they like email campaign product recommendations come easily.

So, for example, if a customer buys a pair of running shoes and then, not long after, gets an email suggesting running socks or exercise clothing, that customer is more inclined to purchase those items. Dynamic content blocks allow a company to blast an email with suggested purchases and a discount code or create an email automatic response from prior purchases. When a company reaches its customers at the exact moment they need to with the exact amount of email familiarity and comfort they guarantee not only customer fulfillment but another source of income.

Using Abandoned Cart Emails to Recover Lost Sales

One of the most successful email marketing campaigns for an e-commerce brand is the abandoned cart notification. Many online shoppers add items to their virtual shopping carts instead of buying them in the moment, given customer ease; thus, when a brand does reach out at the opportune time after an abandoned cart, the conversion rate skyrockets. Using an email deliverability tool ensures that these crucial abandoned cart emails reach the inbox instead of being filtered into spam, maximizing their effectiveness.

An abandoned cart email campaign features a straightforward call to action, an acknowledgment of what’s in one’s cart, and an incentive of a percentage off/free shipping to hook the customer. In addition, a follow-up limited stock alert/time-sensitive discount email promotes urgency as well and encourages faster conversion. An abandoned cart drip campaign facilitates the recovery of otherwise unintended purchases for increased revenue.

Leveraging Automated Email Sequences for Customer Retention

But this is not only a way to acquire new customers. Email marketing helps to retain existing customers as well. Email automated campaigns help to sustain customer relationships over time while simultaneously keeping people perpetually engaged. As an example, when someone purchases something, they automatically receive a fourth email as a receipt, a fifth email to inform them of tracking details, and a sixth email on how to properly care for their new item.

Email marketing loyalty programs instill repeat purchases, too. When shoppers get special discounts via email, early access to sales, or personalized suggestions based on previous purchases, they’re intrigued, and brand loyalty centers on them. Even attempts to reactivate shoppers who haven’t purchased in some time discounts for coming back or friendly reminders that something new has been released bring them back into the family.

Optimizing Email Subject Lines for Higher Open Rates

Increase in open rates is undoubtedly attributable to a compelling subject line. Customers of an e-commerce brand are inundated with marketing from all angles, and daily, e-commerce promotional emails are dispatched to the typical customer’s inbox. Therefore, to avoid deletion, these e-commerce brands need to entice the customer from the get-go, within the subject line hopefully, so that the email is not deleted but paused and opened instead. Curiosity, urgency, and personalization are a few tactics employed to increase open rates.

“A Special Savings Just for You, Coupon Expires in 24 Hours” or “We’ve Restocked Your Recently Viewed Item, John!” may thrill consumers and seem personalized to the person. But such factors are relatively simple; A/B testing of subject line styles allows businesses to see which one works best for the target audience. The further businesses can personalize from the subject line down, the more email marketing campaigns are bolstered in terms of engagement and effectiveness.

Analyzing Email Performance to Refine Future Campaigns

Otherwise, they’ll be in the dark about whether or not mailers worked. E-commerce brands need to rely on open rates and click-throughs, conversions and bounce rates, and email-generated revenue to stay afloat. They’ll have the inside information on required feedback for what worked, what didn’t, and the proper changes to ensure their emails work in the future; they won’t have to guess. Because without this information, they won’t do what they need to do, and essentially, it’s going to lose money for them.

For instance, if a new product email campaign has a high open rate but a low conversion rate, that means the subject line was compelling enough for people to at least want to open the email, but not enough to hold their attention or not enough to hold their interest in the opportunity to take the next step. This means better pricing, clearer messaging that defines usefulness, and better positioning of call-to-action buttons. Likewise, if conversion rates trend downward over time, this means reduced interest or good emails buried in the inbox.

This can be adjusted by determining better times to send emails, better subject line phrases to lure people in further, and better audience segmentation where people get exactly what they want. In addition to these fundamental measurement considerations, companies need to evaluate the CLV and retention resulting from their email efforts. For instance, the email-generated repeat purchase percentage also determines customer behaviors. If thank you emails, for example, generate a higher percentage of repeat purchasers than VIP emails, thank you emails can be focused upon for greater brand loyalty in general.

In addition, things like A/B image testing and personalization or templates and mobile rendering optimize email marketing as well. The fact that businesses can test and adjust on the fly, all the time, gives brands the opportunity to pivot based on customer feedback, cultivating engagement and revenue-generating opportunities. Therefore, this testing and analyzing all the time keeps e-commerce brands ahead of the game against competitors while fostering successful business expansion in an increasingly saturated online marketplace.

Conclusion

Email marketing has been around in e-commerce for ages. Brands have direct access to the consumer via email, and at the same time, customer engagement and conversion rates increase.

By focusing on such opportunities as list generation and email acquisition, email personalization and segmentation, and email automation and reporting, brands can thrive through their email marketing campaigns. From abandoned cart emails that save a sale about to go down the drain to promotional emails that inspire valuable repeat buys and everything in between, the ease of access to email marketing for those who focus on these opportunities will render increased profits and long-term success.