5 Tips for Successful Ecommerce Email Marketing from A Pro

Ecommerce email marketing can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, eCommerce email marketing can be straightforward and simple if you follow the right strategies. There are many reasons why your eCommerce business might not have the ROI you want. Your eCommerce emails might not be engaging enough to drive purchases, they might not contain interesting visuals or copy that prompts people to take action, or they may not target the correct audience or send at the correct times. We know that getting your strategy right is key to creating an effective eCommerce email marketing campaign that yields a positive return on investment (ROI). Here are five expert tips for making your next eCommerce email marketing campaign a success.

Research your audience

Before you send out any eCommerce emails, you need to understand who your customers are. You can do this by using information from your website analytics to gain a deeper understanding of your customers, or you can conduct research through surveys and interviews. Once you know who your customers are, you can create content that resonates with them. For example, if you sell t-shirts and your research shows that most of your customers are women between the ages of 22 and 35, you can create content that appeals to this demographic. For example, your email might feature an attractive young woman wearing one of your t-shirts and a caption that explains how the shirt is perfect for a night out with friends. This content appeals to the demographic you discovered through your research.

Use rich media

While your content should be informational, it should also be engaging. Many consumers are skimming through their emails on mobile devices, so your email needs to be easy to consume. For example, if you are selling t-shirts, you can create an email campaign that is designed around a theme related to t-shirts. Let’s say you are selling Valentine’s Day t-shirts. You could create a rich media email with a header image of two t-shirts, one with “Love” printed on it and the other with “Hate”. You could then include a few paragraphs of copy that explain why you chose the two words and how your t-shirts can help show how much someone is loved or hated.

Send at the right time

When you send your eCommerce emails, make sure you are sending them at the right time. You want to send emails at a time when the majority of your customers are likely to open them. This is not the same for all eCommerce businesses, so you’ll need to do a bit of research. For example, if you sell t-shirts, you might want to send your eCommerce emails right before Valentine’s Day. This way, you can send an email to customers that are in relationships and might want to wear one of your t-shirts to show their significant other how much they are loved. Similarly, if you have an online store that sells Halloween costumes, you might want to send your Halloween eCommerce emails in early October.

Don’t forget the benefit to consumers

One critical piece of eCommerce email marketing is making sure you include the benefit to your customers. While you want to be engaging, you also want to make sure you are promoting your customers to take action by purchasing your products. For example, if you are selling t-shirts, you might want to offer a special discount on select t-shirts in your eCommerce emails. You can then include a sentence or two that explains why you are offering the discount and how your customers can take advantage of it.

Integrate email and social media marketing

To create truly effective eCommerce email marketing that drives sales, you need to integrate your email and social media marketing strategies. The best way to do this is to create a plan that includes sending your eCommerce emails at certain times of the year that correspond with your social media campaigns. For example, if you sell Halloween costumes and you want to promote your costumes on social media, you could send an eCommerce email to your customers that include images of the costumes and a link to where they can view them in your online store.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a number of ways you can improve your eCommerce email marketing strategy. You just need to start with your research and see where it takes you. Once you have a better understanding of your customers, you can create content that resonates with them and prompts them to take action.