Did
you know that 66%
of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of a marketing
email?
As
a store owner, email
marketing
will be one of your biggest sources of ROI, but with 247
billion emails sent every single day, it's also highly competitive.
So how do you stand apart from the crowd?
Check
out our 5 top email marketing tips to find out...
#1.
Segment every campaign
When
it comes to email marketing, not everyone will be at the same stage
of the sales funnel, so you need to make sure that you are hitting
the right people, with the right message, at the right time.
You'll
either be targeting prospects who have signed up from your other
marketing efforts, or customers who have already bought from you.
Targeting
prospects:
Your
prospects are interested in what you are selling, otherwise they
wouldn’t have signed up to hear more from you, so you gotta make
sure you don't waste this golden opportunity to impress them.
At
this point, the perfect type of emails to send to them will be
heavily promotional, with offers that will entice them to click
through and purchase your products.
If
you check out this email below from Boohoo,
you can see that they've used an enticing offer and created a sense
of urgency by putting a limited time on the offer. This will further
help push people to go ahead and buy as people don't like to miss out
on a great sale.
Targeting
customers:
When
attracting customers, you need to keep in mind that these people have
already bought from you. You'll have a bit more freedom to be
creative and send useful content that the customer can takeaway and
learn something from.
This
email below from Topshop offers the perfect example. Rather than
focusing around an offer, it features style advice – and a video –
to give the customer plenty of Summer inspiration.
We'd also recommend
sending your customers exclusive offers and loyalty promotions to
make it clear that you value them as a lifelong customer.
#2.
Make it responsive across every device
Let's
be honest, you probably only have to look to your side to see your
trusty mobile phone. Heck, you might even be reading this blog post
using your mobile.
We're
in a multi-device world and if you aren’t prepared to be
responsive, then you need to prepare yourself to lose out on a bunch
of sales!
In
fact, a recent IBM
study
found that 9.1 percent of all online sales during the holidays were
made using a smartphone. If you want to make more sales then you need
to adapt to our multi-device world, as you'll only put people off if
your email doesn’t format correctly on their mobile devices.
How
can I make my emails responsive?
Any
great email platform will offer responsive templates for you to
ensure you're sending out the right
kind of message. And within our Ecommerce solution
you'll find pro-grade tools for you to send out emails that are
responsive too – sweet!
#3.
Create winning subject lines
We
all know that first impressions count for a lot right? Well, your
subject line is your first impression. It can be the difference
between a high open rate, and a really low one. Plus, it can impact
on whether you end up in the trash, so you gotta really consider what
message you want to put on there.
How
can I create an awesome subject line?
First
we'd suggest to keep it short. In the marketing world, things move
pretty quickly and people don't have the time to spend trying to
decipher whether they should open your message or not. They want to
understand what you're offering right away. A shorter subject line is
also crucial when viewing on a smartphone, as many devices will cut
off the message due to size limitations.
Next,
try and stand out. If you go and check out your inbox you'll probably
find a ton of promotional emails that you haven’t bothered to open
because the subject line was the same as the next one. Grab the
person’s
attention, be clear on what you're offering and show off your brand
personality!
Our
final piece of advice is to implement a/b testing. This will really
help your open rates as you can test two different options for a
subject line on half of your database. The one that gets the higher
open rate wins, and will then get sent to the rest of your database.
Smart and simple!
#4.
Keep it personal
You
want more sales? Well you gotta blow their socks off with awesome
customer service. And nothing impresses a customer more than knowing
exactly who they are, and sending them exactly what they want to buy.
Personalization
isn’t just about including a name at the top of the email. No, an
effective personalized email campaign is all about Customer
Relationship Management (CRM). A great
CRM system
can help you stay on top of who your customers are, in order to help
run effective marketing campaigns.
If
you want to look at awesome personalized marketing techniques then go
and sign up for Amazon emails. They follow the customer around their
site, take notes on what they have been looking at - and if the
person doesn’t buy - they'll hit them with an email for similar
recommendations. As you can see below, it's a great technique that
can really improve your bottom line.
#5.
Tackle cart abandonment
With
an estimated $4
trillion
worth of merchandise abandoned in online shopping carts this year,
you'll probably agree that cart abandonment is somewhat frustrating.
The great thing about email marketing is that when a person leaves
something in their cart, you can lure them back in with an enticing
message and offer.
Check
out this example below from a company that sells eyewear. After
leaving glasses in a cart, they sent out an email reminding the
customer that they forgot to pay, and enticed them with money off to
help push the customer to make the sale.
By
creating trigger campaigns such as the one above, you'll be able to
entice your prospects to come back, buy your stuff, and improve your
bottom line.
Closing
thoughts
So
there you have it, our top 5 email marketing tips to help Ecommerce
merchants like you run effective campaigns! Start implementing these
awesome tips today and let us know how you get on!
Don't
forget, if you want to enjoy pro-grade tools
such as email templates, drip series campaigns, behaviour triggers
and email automation then give us a call today!