Although social media, paid ads and search engine optimization are all effective ways to get your e-commerce business noticed, email marketing is 40 times more effective -beating all these in terms of engagement and building relationships with customers. Hence, if you’re an eCommerce owner, looking to boost your website traffic and sales, you must harness the power of eCommerce email marketing campaigns.
Download our guide and learn how product recommendations on emails can ensure repeat sales.
What is eCommerce Email Marketing?
In simple words, eCommerce email marketing is the art of using emails to generate sales and increase revenue for your store.
It can be both simple, such as, sending an email to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts; or complex, like running several email campaigns that work together to multiply your sales rapidly.
Whatever you do through these emails, ultimately leads to building relationships.
And that’s pretty much what you need to run a successful business.
Hence, a successful eCommerce email marketing campaign:
- Creates better promotions that sell more products
- Nurtures your customers better, which leads to long term and repeat sales
- Segments your database effectively, which in turn will boost sales.
How to effectively use Emails in eCommerce Business?
Once you have a healthy list of email subscribers, thinking of creative and conversion-focused email campaigns should be your next move. Remember, that at the heart of it all, you are trying to touch a chord with your customers. And that is not a very easy task.
Here are three primary ways you can use your emails:
- Use them to create a sense of Exclusivity
We all want to feel special. And your customers are no different. Make your emails tailor-made to the needs and actions of your customers. Let them feel that you are taking an extra step for them.
Banana Republic clearly demonstrates this feature through their email below.
In this email, Banana Republic offers an exclusive deal and tops it up with free shipping and returns too. This kind of ‘subscribers only’ deals helps you build customer loyalty and increases sales.
Banana Republic also could take it one step further by personalizing this email with the help of Artificial intelligence. But, for that you would need to further segment your email list by certain actions taken by customers on your site. For instance, this email could have been sent to a customer who has made a similar purchase earlier on your website.
But to hand-pick customers for a campaign is neither humanly possible nor scalable. AI, on the other hand is designed to operate on huge sets of data – which includes a customer’s activity on the website, past behavior, and purchase history etc., to recommend products to them. AI makes it possible to create targeted campaigns resulting in a boost in CTR and sales. One to One Marketing, which is the next big thing in marketing is only possible with Artificial Intelligence. And retailers are already venturing into it.
- Use them for Segmentation
There’s no personalization without segmentation. And unless you segment your target audience, you will not be able to cater to their specific needs. In Marketing, there’s no one-size-fits-all policy. Emails that are aligned to segmented markets have been proven to drive more CTRs, conversions and customer engagement. AI powered personalization tools like Perzonalization makes it easier to segment markets with the help of algorithms, which can automatically identify the most promising segments in your audience.
- Use them for One-to-One Marketing
In your emails, act like you are talking to one person instead of the entire list of subscribers. Make the emails as personal as possible. People tend to see ‘one to one’ emails as an opportunity for them. And they pay more attention. Customize the content of the email based on the specific customer and his needs. Sending special offers on Birthdays and Anniversaries is a great way to connect with your audience.
Anthropologie pleasantly surprises their subscribers by sending congratulatory wishes on their birthdays.
Another way to establish a connect is to let your customers know that your responsibility doesn’t end with sale. In the example below, Warby Parker ensures that its customers are well informed about their order status. As a result, they send order status emails to help the customers stay informed about the status of their order.
The crux of the matter is, that in all of the examples given above, it is now clear that when it comes to ensuring that the right people see the right content at the right time, you win half of the war. And automation is a great way to achieve that.
AI-optimization may be a relatively new concept in the proverbial long history of eCommerce email marketing, but companies are already adopting and realizing significant returns from it. So, why stay behind?
Curious to learn more? Take a look at related posts!
- Personalized email marketing for repeat sales and happier customers
- Email Marketing Examples to Shine Brighter Than a Diamond
- 10 Email Marketing Best Practices That Will Save Your eCommerce Business in 2020
- Best Fashion Email Marketing Campaigns To Inspire You In 2020
- 5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Extremely Important For Your Dropshipping Business
- Most Effective Tactics To Nail It With Email Marketing Campaigns
- How To Use Email Personalization That Improves Conversion
- How to use transactional emails to expand engagement
