As an eCommerce business, you are probably aware of how important email marketing is to the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Email marketing can have a big effect on your bottom line, especially when implemented strategically. The key to high-performing and stellar email marketing is all about the sequencing and timing of your email sends.
The Right Emails at the Right Time
Like everything else in the digital world, personalized emails will be much more effective than generic emails. Mailing even the best email to the wrong prospects at the wrong time may be ineffective or even lead to a high rate of unsubscribes. Yet, if you send the right email to the right prospects at the right time, you’ll increase engagement, retain subscribers, and grow sales! Here are some examples of an effective and personalized eCommerce email marketing strategy:
1. The Welcome Email
The Welcome Email is a great opportunity to make a positive first impression on new subscribers. This email should thank subscribers for joining your list and provide value upfront. Welcome emails usually generate 3-6 times more sales than a regular promotional email, so this is a prime time to generate revenue.
Additionally, if you have incentivized someone to join your newsletter by offering a discount upon signing up, make sure your welcome email goes out in minutes! You want to send your newly added subscribers their promo code while they are looking to purchase now. You don’t want to miss out on a sale if you don’t have to. Giving new subscribers value immediately is a great way to build trust and encourage engagement.
2. The Curation Email
It’s no secret that people love curated content – they want the best of the best! The goal of the curation email is to feature your brand’s best products. It can be titled with “Our CEO’s Favorites” or “The Fall Best Sellers.” In either case, you are promoting your brand’s most popular products.
This is also a great chance to segment your audience list based on interests and past purchasing behavior. For example, if you are a makeup company, you can segment recipients based on their purchasing behavior. You can create audience lists based on the following categories and test sending them either more of the same category or suggest other categories that go with products they have already purchased.
- Eyeshadows
- Lipsticks
- Foundation
- Blush
- Mascara
This will make emails highly relevant to each customer, which will in turn, improve engagement rates, and overall sales.
3. The Cart Abandonment Email
As an eCommerce business, you can count on at least some of your website shoppers having their attention diverted in the middle of checking out. It happens and it’s beyond your control sometimes. However, you can control your response to the cart abandonment. It is important to recognize the lifetime value of a customer and not to let an interested buyer slip through the cracks! So, including cart abandonment emails into your overall email marketing strategy could be a very powerful tool.
If you want to bolster the results of your cart abandonment campaign, you can try adding a discount code for free shipping to help lead to a recovered purchase. You want the customer to remember how close they were to purchasing your product in the first place.
4. The Win-Back Email
It is crucial to re-engage your “burnt-out” email subscribers in order to limit unsubscribes and bounces. Of course, you do not want to bombard these less engaged subscribers with repeated emails, however, the purpose of the win-back is to remind them that you’re still thinking of them, and ultimately, bring them back to positive purchasing behavior!
While the win-back email may not always work, it is still a necessary email campaign for your overall strategy to try and reengage subscribers before they disengage entirely.
5. The Referral Email
While you may already be accumulating reviews and referrals on your website, are you doing it in your email campaigns as well? It is no secret that incentivizing word-of-mouth marketing can be a great way to boost your sales by turning your top customers into salespeople! Consumers heavily rely on word-of-mouth as a key influence on their purchasing decision, so, setting up a referral program is one way to boost your revenues.
Incentivize your customers to refer their friends and family, whether it is by a discount code, a free sample, or a simple thank you! The referral email campaign is definitely a great strategy to build loyalty and advocacy among your current customers, while acquiring new customers simultaneously.
As an online retailer, it is clear that email marketing is a top priority and an effective way to drive sales for your business. Start by building up your lists now and include some of these email campaigns into your automation. Still need help with your overall email marketing strategy? Reach out and we would be happy to set up a consultation.
