If you run an e-commerce business, there’s probably a good chance that you’re using multiple marketing strategies to drive leads and increase sales. One essential marketing strategy that you should be taking advantage of is email marketing.
Email marketing can help you better nurture your leads and make more sales from those leads. In fact, according to a study on email marketing by the Direct Marketing Association, the ROI of email marketing is a whopping 3,800%!
If you are looking to grow your business this year, here are several ways that e-commerce email marketing can help.
1. Email Marketing Drives Customer Loyalty
One of the best perks of email marketing is that it allows you to build customer loyalty. Email is a direct form of communication with a customer, and because of this direct nature, it helps you build a relationship with them that encourages them to repeatedly do business with your company.
A Nielsen study on customer behavior showed that 66% of consumers prefer to do business with a company they’ve previously done business with, and email marketing can help you maintain those valuable ties.
Also, email marketing is a great opportunity to show customers that you know something about them and that you care. Sending personalized birthday emails (often with discounts, coupon codes, etc.) is a great way to boost loyalty.
You not only show customers that you’ve been keeping track of important information about them but also that you’re grateful for their business. Studies have shown that 75% of retailers feel that birthday emails are the most effective marketing emails they send.
2. Email Marketing Allows You to Communicate Based on Where a Customer Is in Their Journey
Not every consumer is at the same place in the customer journey when they make contact. Some are simply beginning their search for a product, while others know your company by name and are ready to buy
If you use triggered emailed campaigns, where each marketing email is automatically sent based on an action taken by the customer, you can ensure you’re communicating with them in a way that is relevant to how they are feeling without being overly pushy (or …not pushy enough).
Studies from the Direct Marketing Association show that triggered marketing works: Over 75%of email marketing revenue is generated by triggered email campaigns.
3. It Can Help You Activate Inactive Customers
Email marketing is a great way to re-engage with inactive customers. If you segment your list in a way that you target inactive customers specifically, you can get your brand back in front of the eyes of people who haven’t been interacting with you lately.
Also, you give them incentives to continue to be your customers (like promotions, discounts, etc.)
An example of a re-activation email is this one from dog toy company Kyjen. The email includes the headline “We Miss You,” and it offers customers a promo code so that they are enticed to return and shop.
One effective strategy to reach out to inactive customers is by sending an abandoned shopping cart email. An abandoned cart email is sent to a customer who has filled a shopping cart but not made the purchase.
Abandoned cart emails can remind customers that they were planning to buy from you and help them remember what great products they were close to buy. One great example of an abandoned cart email is this message by shorts company, Chubbies.
The email reminds customers that they have items left in their cart, and it uses enticing imagery and funny language to convince the consumer that they should still want to connect with the brand.
4. You Can Optimize Communications
Email marketing allows you to do A/B testing to see which emails are most effective at getting opens, clicks and purchases.
By using A/B testing in conjunction with email marketing, you can make sure your marketing efforts are as powerful as possible. In addition, you can utilize the strategies that have proven effective for increasing profits.
Some aspects of your emails that you can test in order to make your messages effective include: subject lines, CTAs, greetings, send time, from name, length, personalization, images and more.
5. Transactional Emails Can Help You Upsell
Transactional emails are emails that are automatically triggered when a customer interacts with your company. For example, they may be triggered by password-reset requests, purchases (confirmation emails), when a purchase is shipped, etc.
One of the most powerful and effective transactional email types you can send is the welcome email. A welcome email is sent when a customer first signs up for your service (or becomes a member of your community).
Welcome emails are an excellent opportunity to make a good first impression on your potential customers right away by ultimately encouraging them to spend more time using your service or browsing your site.
Here’s a great example of a welcome email from flower delivery company Bloom That. It opens with a warm greeting (“Hey New Friend!”) and explains more about what the customer can expect from the business.
You can also take advantage of all sorts of transactional emails as an opportunity to market to your customers. You can use them as an opportunity to upsell, meaning you can offer them additional upgrades, add-ons or related products, which would encourage the recipient to spend more money.
This post-purchase email from Home Depot is a good example of a transactional email that tries to encourage consumers to spend more money. It includes several items related to a consumer’s purchase that they may be interested in buying.
If you run an e-commerce business today, it’s essential that you don’t overlook the power of email marketing. Email allows you to make a powerful, personalized connection with your potential customers and it can ultimately help increase the amount of revenue your business generate.
By testing your emails so that they’re optimized and by including personalized information, you can build customer loyalty and increase awareness of your business and brand.
