Tips to Improve Your Ecommerce Email Marketing

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It's a new year, a new decade, and eCommerce marketing is here to embrace one more decade.
Despite all the numerous predictions like "email marketing is dead in 2021," It doesn't work anymore. Still, more than 70% of marketers believe email will be relevant for the next 10-15 years.
But the point is: nothing works if you don't know the correct way to make it work. And stats clearly show 'why email marketing still rules' the eCommerce world.
You subscribe to your favorite podcast, your favorite author's newsletters when you're interested in what they offer.
The value of real attention is set in motion when your newsletter readers spend 80% more time on your site (only because of email marketing).

What is Email Marketing?

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It's a simple phenomenon of sending commercial emails (aka profit-oriented or value-oriented) to your near and dear email subscribers—people who are interested in your product or service.
In simple words, you're allowed to do a little chit-chat with them once in a while.
Let us take you back in time. A marketing guy, Gary Thuerk, sent the first email. He sent an email to 400 users on Arpanet, advertising DEC machines.
Want to know the result?
He did more than $12 million in sales.
But let's get real here, modern marketing is different from shooting 1000 general-purpose emails. Now, it's more about personalization and value!
We cannot ignore the fact that the first email campaign did foretell a bright future for the world of marketing, sales, and eCommerce.
This shouldn't come to you as a surprise that nearly 105 billion emails are sent every day. Hold on to your breath because, as per Statista, spam messages accounted for 53.95 percent of email traffic in March 2020. This means, if your email comes under this percentage, then it is a red flag for your business.
Guess what! It's not that hard to see impressive ROIs with the help of this inexpensive marketing tool. When your email lands in the primary inbox, it helps develop a dialogue between your leads and your customers.

Importance of Email Marketing for Ecommerce

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Here's the thing: it's not that easy to land in the primary inbox and get a 10-20% click-through rate.
But the best way to deal with this is to stand out from the N number of emails sent to your customers.
Now how to stand out? We will discuss this later on. But before that, let's discuss why we are dealing in a place that is jam-packed already.
Here's the answer: as an eCommerce marketer, you can swear by these recent stats:

• 72% of customers prefer email as their main channel for business communication.
• Automated abandoned cart follow-up emails will boost the conversion rate. It increases the sales by 2.4 X on average.
• As per a study by Omnisend, if you send three cart abandonment emails in a row, it will result in 69% more orders than sending a single email.
• The average open rate of triggered email campaigns is 46%, and the click-to-open rate – 24% in 2021.

These stats barely scratch the surface of the email marketing world and its importance.
Let's zoom in and see why you should stick to email marketing today and even in the next decade.

1. Email Marketing Have a High ROI

Who doesn't love the holy grails of ROIs? Every eCommerce business is working for conversions and high ROI.
Email marketing backs you with good ROIs. As per econsultancy, 72% of marketers believe email is the top digital channel for ROI investment. Email marketing is your golden ticket to start in-depth connections with your targeted audience (if you don't spam them).
The super office reveals that every $1 you spent on your email marketing campaign brings a return on a $51 per dollar invested. Nonetheless, this easy-to-tweak, test, track, and personalized way of the medium is not going anywhere.
You can easily make out what's working and what's not in any campaign. It's the answer to all the people who say, "show me the money," that's what email marketing can do for your business.

2. Rewards Your Loyal Peeps

Your customers will love your emails and wait for them— only when you give value and reward them for their time.
It's the best way to increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). The best approach is to 'reward' your customers with good offers. You can give away stuff and send Thank-you Notes (this one works best).
We are humans. We love care and importance; email marketing helps you do the same. It helps you to build a human-to-human connection with your loyal customers and amplify your brand awareness.
You can reward every single person who leaves a good review or is the first one to join your new product launch. Reward them with:

• Unexpected incentives : Your customers love saving money. Provide incentives like sending gifts or messages on birthdays that can surprise them. Organize seasonal events that are more customer-focused. You can do this on Christmas or New Year Eves ( not a bad idea ).
• Offer improved prices : Exclusivity always works. So offer your loyal clients direct access to your new products and show them a little appreciation.
• Celebrate customers wins : You can share your customers' wins, their stories on your website. This recognition can work in the long run.
• Keep improving customer experience : The key to enhance customer service is to reward them with what they need. Give them an experience that they can't ignore.
• Relieve their purchasing anxiety : Do you know how Apple reduces the purchasing anxiety within its customers?

Every customer thinks a lot before making any purchase.
Apple neutralizes this anxiety by providing exceptional customer service. They ensure that they will receive full support even at times of crisis.
Offering warranties, making a personal reservation if something is wrong with the product is part of their strategy.

3. Reach Your Consumers on Email - 24*7

It's hard to sell an experience nowadays and get those eyeballs on your brand.
Most of the people work on emails day and night, both professionally and personally. Now, it's even harder to make space for your brand because they are bombarded with emails now and then.
As per the 2020 research report on consumers by Twilio, 83% of consumers prefer to receive messages from businesses by email.
Send them fresh content, and they will be happy. Share your brands behind the scenes, and they will get curious to know more about your brand.
The truth is, people want to read emails that are worth reading.

4. Wakes Up Your Old Customers

One more cool benefit of email marketing is the way it works. Instead of spamming, you can send one heart-warming email to your old customers (who forgot you for some reason) just to remind them that you're still there.
And now, when you send a reactivation email with such ease and flow, it rings a bell in your customer's mind and brings his attention back to your brand. You never know how you can make a difference in your customers' life.
Make a list of all inactive customers and focus on people who are genuinely interested in your brand. And always remember, less is more.

5. Attains Good End-Result at Low Initial Expense

We spend thousands of dollars on ecommerce advertising, branding, ecommerce SEO services, logistics, online, and the list goes on and on. But if you can learn the email marketing game and become an expert, it's the least investment with a high R.O.I, if done in the right way.
More traffic, high sales, and good relationships with your customers— this is all you need to run a successful eCommerce business.
Email marketing helps you in all three aspects at a lower cost. It shoots up your brand presence, enables your brand's voice, and helps to receive productive feedback.
You offer free plans, value, and content that serves your audience. And in return, your customers buy products, leave good reviews, and spread word-of-mouth to lead your brand's image.
That's how email supports your brands with the least initial expense.

6. Easy to Segment & Convert More

This tip is the core of email marketing. It enables you to segment your campaign in the best way so that your email talks to customers' desired set.
You can focus on segmentation and convert your leads into customers.
Segmented campaigns are crucial to boosting your ROI. According to a Campaign Monitor study, it has resulted in an increase of 760% in revenue.
Website content must match the user's interest. According to marketing charts, more than 70% of people get frustrated because of this case. No one wants to do this to their customers.
To create a list of your targeted customers, follows the steps:
Firstly, segment them based on TOfu (top of the subscribers funnel ) to drive more clicks.
For example, describe them based on:

• Demographics
• Signup sources
• Engagement

Then comes the middle of the funnel where your customers saw your product but returned without purchasing for some reason. Now, you can segment them on the following:

• Interests and preferences
• Recommended products
• Cart abandonment

And the last segmentation is for loyal customers who love your products. People who are in your bottom-funnel (BoFu) are your existing customers. Here's how you can segment them:

• Purchase history
• Purchase amount and basket size
• Inactive customers

Take a deep insight into your customers' needs (and the stage they're in), and then shoot the best emails with that context.
And that's how you strike a chord between your brand's values and your customer's choices.

Ecommerce Email Marketing Tips

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No one can deny the fact that the eCommerce market is getting more and more saturated.
But amid this noise, some eCommerce sites are crushing it, and others are just hanging in the name of Google. You can easily distinguish that one brand can market itself in the best way, but others cannot.
Now that you're competing with big giants like Flipkart, Amazon, and eBay, email marketing is a savior for you. It is a free marketing tool for eCommerce businesses with less cash flow.

Here Are 16 Tips to Skyrocket Your eCommerce Business Through Email Marketing:

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1. Declutter Your Email List

Maybe your first instinct was to receive these suggestions: 'build an email list' or 'start with a plan'. But we trust you! You have already done this.
Get this: Your email list is the foundation of your eCommerce business. Decluttering your email list makes it easy for you to swipe left to all the subscribers who are on the list just for the sake of it.
The harsh truth is, it's good to have a few subscribers who are loyal and engaging rather than 10,000 who are unresponsive.
Here's what you can do to clean up your email list: create a segment of people who are not motivated to open your emails. Send them the last call, a 'reactivation mail' with a strong subject line and an enticing email body.
If they re-engage with your email, then it's all good and if not then, remove them from your list (peacefully). This will help your email campaigns to pass over the spam danger.

2. Sneak into Your Competitors

Now you know who wants to be a part of your journey. It's important to look over your competitors and see what's working the best (in your niche).
Monitor their activities :

• Sign up for their newsletters just to get the crux of their content.
• Examine their subscription form and what they offer in return for a subscription: a free guide, a checklist, or a free program.

You can spy on them and evaluate the ground rules (not steal the idea), but you get the drift.
If customers love them then, they will love your emails too.

3. Gather Subscribers Outside Your Website

As marketers and business owners, we often trip over the idea to rack up our subscriber's list. This mainly includes collecting emails through website pop-ups, subscription boxes, or check-out pages.
But there are more ways to attract your audiences (aka subscribers).
It's true that to grow a platform, it takes another platform. You can grow your email list outside of your website. Facebook pages (add a sign-up button or link to your website) or host a viral giveaway.
You can also use the biggest social media platforms like Instagram and share your opt-ins on Twitter.
Let's take the Giveaway example. Here's how you can pull this off:

• Give away something related to only the website (no iPads or digital gift cards, please).
• Collaborate with brands who align with your audience and have a larger base than yours (because brands also love free exposure ).
• You can promote the giveaway by asking the company to share it on their social media handles.
• Email it to your existing email list.
• Allow your participants to tweet and reshare on their social handles.
• Rinse and repeat every couple of months.

And watch your email subs booming.

4. Go Back to Your Previous Engagement Data

This tip is not-so-famous and is mostly forgotten by many.
As an eCommerce brand, it's important to take a deep dive into your previous campaigns (all the sweat and tears) and review them.
It's even more important to sit down with yourself and look at your worst performing email. It will take guts, but it's worth it.
If your last email campaign under-performed, then ask yourself:

• Was the offer attractive to our customers or not?
• Are we sending the emails at the right time?
• Did we communicate our USP in the best way?

If not then, you can fix it for future campaigns.
Also, you can start using tracking codes to track your email analytics.
For starters, go with Google Analytics (if you haven't yet). This will help you see clearly which email campaigns are bringing in the most customers for your business.

5. Segment Emails Based on Consumer Behaviour

This tip is directly related to our previous points (email marketing importance). Your sales, competitors, and engagement numbers are a crucial part of your campaigns. But the most important thing is to know which email should land in which customer's inbox.
Mailchimp's user data showed that segmented campaigns get 14.37% more opens and 64.78% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.
The data is just one piece of the puzzle but segmenting your audience makes things easy and less time-consuming for your team.
The future of email marketing is personalization. You can give your emails a human touch if you know your audience.
This means, if two people visit your websites, ideally, they should have different purchase history. Then, they should receive different follow-ups based on:

• Purchase history
• Demographics (age, gender, place)
• Interests (browsing history on the website)
• Any other data related to your business

6. Use Clear & Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines in Your Emails

We all receive emails that have crazy subject lines that grab our attention within a few seconds.
The emoji one and the most common one, 'Hi name,' are the subject lines that have helped many businesses to flourish.
Your email subject line is like a book cover. If it's catchy and personal to your customers, they will take notice of it, and if not, then sorry, you're going to spam.
A clear, concise, and enticing subject line like "save your 12$ (not a joke)" or "we've got a surprise for you" works wonders.
People love saving money. If 'discount' is your next email campaign target, grab their attention with budget-saving subject lines.

Relevant : Discounts and Its Benefits for an Ecommerce Website

7. Cover Different Topics for the Best Ecommerce Emails

Your subscribers are more than buyers or purchasers. Building a long term relationship should be your goal, not just to make a sale on every new product.
Strive to find interesting topics in your niche which no one else is talking about.

• Surprise them with free ebooks (on trending topics) within your industry.
• Gift them a checklist on what they can do in this season.
• Any new product that can benefit them in the long run. Send them a demo for the same.
• Share 'How to tutorial videos' on topics ( solving one particular issue).
• Send them newsletters with relevant blog posts (free and valuable content).

When you modify your content at each level with a proper context, it serves your audience in the best way.
First, you give valuable content for free, and then you remain in touch with them forever.

8. Use Personalised Emails to Get User Attention

Personalized emails are what you should be spending most of your time on. It makes your audience feel important and valued.
It enables your brand to be more human and treat consumer-brands relationships with more authenticity.
In short, you can ask anything from a person who trusts you, and a person will trust you when you feel connected with them. So, be a part of their journey.
While writing emails, use your audience language and then add a speck of authenticity to win your audience.
For example: Look at how Sam Parr, CEO of The Hustle, welcomes every new subscriber. His hyper-personalized email (it's worth it) took his email count to 100k subs in just one year.
You can also ensure that they remember your brand identity, showing your brand's design, tone, and voice. Also, add the links to your social media handles at the very end.

9. Make the Most of Preview Text

The preview text is like a snippet of copy pulled in from the body of your email. You can display it underneath the person's name and subject line.
It can make things easier for your campaigns. How? You can persuade more readers to see what's there for them.
Add a hook, make it a little funny or exciting, and encourage them to open the email. You can do everything that can entice a feeling or emotion in your customer's head in your preview text.
The goal is to get attention first.
Preview text also influences people's behavior. They will scroll through the entire email list and select the article that interests them.

10. Make Sure it is Mobile-Friendly

Most of your customers (aka audiences) are on their phones. The stats suggest that the percentage of emails opened on mobile is at least 50%. This hype around mobile-friendly email marketing is there for a reason.
You have to meet your customers where they are already present. Make sure you meet them in the right way. Optimize your emails for smartphone and tablet users. Include easy to read fonts, crisp subject lines, short emails, and valuable content.
You can package more value in less time for your customers. Think about mobile-friendly features in every step of your campaign.

11. Find the Right Time to Send Your Emails

Time is valuable for all of us, right? The same applies to your customers. Sending your email at the right time can save you from taking a shot in the dark.
To get some real results (sales, subscribers, and audiences), you have to go one step deeper into the customer's mind. Yes, it can be tricky at first to find the right time to shoot your emails.
Here's how you can start:

• Rely on your previous data, analyze the clicks, conversions, and open rate. Ensure these results are only dependent on one metric; not many, like your subject line, shouldn't be in this metric.
• You can trust a few of the mass research that suggests a perfect time for email marketing. Still, it's good to take a look at your target audience (put yourself in their shoes).

Example : Your audience is 9 to 5 working millennials. Think about their ideal downtime, lunchtime, break, or evening.

12. Focus On CTAs

The purpose behind your email should be crystal clear when you hit that send button.
Having an exemplar call-to-action guide for your subscribers is a must. So, they don't get lost in between the lines or words; rather, they see the intention behind the email.
Emails with a single, clear call-to-action increased clicks 371% and sales 1617%— the power of clear CTAs. It makes your readers want to read your next blog, attend the next webinar or check out that new product.
Also, get a little creative and add some personalization twist; it works great.
Remember, a clear call to action = instant engagement. A little button or box can change the course of your business.

13. Escape The Spam Alert

More and more spammers are penetrating the field of eCommerce. But how can you make sure your email campaign doesn't fall for a spam scam?
There are a few important criteria that you should check beforehand to make sure email mailbox services don't filter you out:

• Avoid caps lock.
• Avoid spammy words like "fraud."
• Ambiguous URLs are not welcome.
• Ensure that the "Unsubscribe" link is there.
• Subject lines longer than 100 characters won't get entertained.
• No attachments.
• Too many images or too short text.

Then comes a few technical issues that can block your email reach to your audience's primary inbox. So, to gain mailbox trust:

• Set up a business email address.
• Use SPF and DKIM records for email authentication.

14. Omnichannel Presence is a Catalyst for Your Email Campaigns

Your consumers are everywhere; that's why besides emails, you should communicate with them on different channels. Here's how you can try all the channels for email marketing success :

• Cross-post your email content to other social media channels, add the context for the same.
• Ask your subscribers about their best channel for communication. 52% of consumers consider the choice of communication important when receiving emails from brands.
• You can also involve SMS in your multichannel strategy. Ping them to make them aware of what's forthcoming in their inbox today.

15. Skyrocket Your Conversion Using Email Automation

Make the most of email automation. You can create a piece of content in advance and send it to the segmented list of people who take an action that triggers the automated content.
Create a definitive timeline for all these follow-up emails. Determine when your people will be receiving those emails, after 12 minutes of subscribing or one day after the subscription.
You can use automated tools like Omisend, Sendpulse, or Segment.io to automate this process. It makes your email marketing process smooth and effortless.

16. Prepare an 'Abandoned cart' Sequence Emails

Why is this even important?
Here's the thing: up to 70% of users who stumble upon an eCommerce site abandon their cart before even making the complete purchase.
eCommerce brands lose $18 Billion in Sales Revenue each year because of cart abandonment. Now that's some serious issue and a good reason to develop an email sequence for abandoned carts.
People will abandon their carts (trust issues), but what you do after it matters the most. In these cases, capturing email addresses before a customer is gone is crucial.
After this, you can send targeted emails using other data gathered from their visit (the products are chosen, their interests, etc.)
These emails should include images of the products they were interested in and convince them to click through.
As they say, strike while the fire's hot – you can do this within 24 hours of abandonment and then follow-up multiple times over the next 1-7 days.

17. Test, Evaluate, and Improve!

This last tip is necessary to create a seamless experience for your customers and even bring more sales in the long run.
Testing is the core of your email marketing strategy. Evaluation is like a power button, whereas improving is the ultimate goal for your eCommerce business.
You can start with testing. Email service providers can help you with various metrics like:

• Delivery rates
• Open rates
• Click-through rate
• Unsubscribed rates

This will help you to evaluate content frequency, context, and the relevancy factor.
Make sure you use tools like 'Postmaster Tools' to get a clear idea about your spam rates, delivery errors, and more.
For the improvement part, start with what you can control:

• Good subject line.
• Do the A/B testing series.
• Check the bounce rate and find out the reason behind the same.

Work on your weaknesses and things that you can control. Once you get your hands on these metrics, it's easy to find what needs your attention and what doesn't.
In the past, email marketing for eCommerce was all about communication (in any way). But now, it's all about how you communicate with your audience.
Do they feel like a part of your brand? This makes a difference.
Money, sales, and conversions will follow your business once you become a part of their daily life.
And like any other marketing technique, good email marketing is a process; it takes time, tweaks, failures.
So, get back to square one and start again.
Do you want more tips to improve your email marketing campaign? Drop your details here to get a free consultation on the same.