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Email Marketing for Ecommerce Websites

By GRAYBOX Alumni

Don't believe the haters: email marketing still works. The proof is here, there, everywhere. And nothing works quite as well as ecommerce email marketing! It is a revenue faucet; turn that spigot on for revenue on demand. The best part? It is cheaper and easier than paid search and converts much better than social media. If you're operating an ecommerce store, and you're not generating stacks upon stacks of sales via email then you have serious work to do.


"Email Marketing for ecommerce is a revenue faucet; turn that spigot on for revenue on demand." (CLICK TO TWEET)


Email Marketing is not Dead

Technology powering email marketing has advanced in recent years and marketers have simultaneously improved their skills. This has resulted in increased ecommerce sales. Ecommerce email marketing has become so complex many shoppers assume websites know more about them than they actually do.

Studies suggest Internet shoppers are frustrated by irrelevant ads and marketing campaigns. That is, those that do not match their tastes or shopping habits. Put another way, meat lovers don't want to receive emails about kale.

Email Marketing for Ecommerce

In this post, we'll explore a few ways you can boost revenue by providing your subscribers with personal and relevant emails filled with valuable and timely content.

Go Beyond Email Blasts

Segment & Personalize

Sending email blasts ‚ one universal email newsletter to all your subscribers ‚ should be avoided. Try to analyze your email list with your unique content in mind and try to decide what groups of subscribers you have and what they want to buy and not what you want to sell them. Don't dwell on the myriad of possibilities, even something basic (like male and female) is an excellent start to segmentation! The point here is to find aspects from which to differentiate and customize the emails you're sending based on a subscriber's personality and buying habits.

Say you have an online fabric store with fabric and quilting accessories. Your customers are quilters and fabric aficionados. Sure, you could blast your entire list one newsletter with the same content. But if you want to increase, even double your sales from the email, more personalized offers should be your goal. Some of your customers are commercial quilters and buy more often so you can create a special promotion for them. Others are hobby quilters and perhaps buy only one piece of fabric and may forget about your store (you can stop this!) so offer some kind of quilting accessory using the knowledge from the fabric they purchased. The stronger the association, the higher the chances of turning them from a one-and-done shopper into a returning customer.

Track Results

The scenario above is but one ideal situation with email for ecommerce, but how do you achieve it? To begin with you must have the ability to see how your subscribers interact with your newsletter‚ do they open it, which link(s) do they click, and so on. Is the offer you're promoting being utilized? All of this information is critical because it will help you build your future emails. Check to see where your recipients spend most of their time on your emails. Folks engaging but not buying? Improve the offer and resend to those who clicked, but didn't purchase. Provide that extra incentive to close the sale.

Use Past Behavior

Leveraging past behavior of subscribers is an excellent way to encourage visits and purchases. If you have customers who've made purchases before, send them relevant follow-up information. For example, if you sold someone a bicycle part, they might like to see other parts for that model of bike.

Optimize Like a Boss

Great creative with the ways your ecommerce store can use (and profit from) email marketing. Determine what works best for your audience and products, split test, learn and optimize. Here are a few ideas to begin with:

Shipping Confirmations

Shipping confirmations should provide all details required to track arrival of the shipment. Why stop there? Recommend a product that pairs well with the one just purchased. This soft sell often results in extra sales. Step it up a notch by offering free shipping if they order this extra product that same day.

Abandoned Cart Emails

Adding a product to the cart is a visitor raising their hand to show they want to buy. When they leave without doing so, you must send them an email reminding them to come back to complete the sale. Make it fun by personifying your cart and use language like "your cart is lonely" or similar in sync with your branding. Up your game by incentivizing with free shipping, a discount, or more.

Marketing Automation

If your emails aren't automated, you're riding a bicycle on the marketing super highway. Every email mentioned above can and should be automated to the extent possible in order to maximize efficiency. Leveraging marketing automation makes this possible. Idea - create a roadmap of a subscriber's journey from first visit through repeat purchase to brand ambassador.

In Conclusion

Email marketing is just one channel by which ecommerce retailers can connect with customers and maximize profit in the process. Now that some great examples have been shared here it is time take your email marketing to the next level.

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