6 Emails You Should Send to Your Customers in Ecommerce
If you work in the ecommerce business you are probably using email marketing already. It’s one of the primary tools chosen to stay in touch with your potential customers.
A Custora report says that email marketing drives more than 18% of all digital purchases (Custora). That means almost ⅕ of all your sales came after your client saw your mailing. That makes email a primary tactic when it comes to customer acquisition and sales.
A second benefit of using email marketing is that it brings you really good ROI. The DMA in National Client Email Report 2015 found that for every £1spend on email marketing brings you an ROI of £38. It means the ROI results in 3800%!
TIP: If you want to improve your email marketing ROI, read my other post here.
Another benefit of using email marketing is that it is an inexpensive medium and the cost of one email can be less than 1 cent. As you can see - sending email campaigns brings you great opportunities.
Custora report
As an ecommerce retailer, you probably leverage emails to send transactional messages, mailing offers about your newest collections and regular newsletters to inspire future purchases. But do you know when to send your messages to benefit your relationship with your subscribers the most?
#1 After Signing up
Establish a good impression right from the start and greet your new subscriber! A report conducted by Experian says that almost 58% of welcome messages are being opened (Experian). Compared to regular communication, which has an average Open Rate of around 16%, the result is really impressive.
Don’t limit your message to a simple “Hello”. Say thank you to your new subscriber and provide extra information about your estore - this way you can show the benefits of choosing your ecommerce store. Inform your reader how often they can expect messages from you so you can reduce spam complains right from the start. A good idea is to put social media buttons in your message footer. You can cross-promote different platforms in your email communication and encourage recipients to join you there.
Welcome email from Zalando
Look at this welcome email from Zalando. I signed up to their newsletter and I got an extra voucher to my next purchase. Discounts and rebates are the best encouragement to signing up in ecommerce and they are working well for every estore. Zalando also presents the benefits of shopping in their store in the welcome email footer. Showing off your customer service and other benefits related to online shopping will establish your store as a convenient online retail outlet worthy of a customer's trust.
#2 After visiting your website
Not every customer who visits your website is there to make a purchase. HubSpot says that 98% of first-time visitors are not ready to buy yet. Instead of this they may, for example, look for inspirations, check your offer or compare prices. Be smart and use the footprints your customers leave on your website to prepare customized email offers targeted to their specific needs.
Source: eCommerce Cosmos | Pinterest
Email Marketing Automation will help you prepare targeted messages. You will be able to collect information about products your customers visit mostly and then send them personalized content with the same category of items.
Email automation tools and dynamic content allows you to send different versions of the same campaign to different subscribers and match their needs.
TIP: Learn more about how to improve your small business by using Email Marketing Automation.
#3 After making a purchase
Obviously, after your client buys something you send them a transactional email with details. Use this moment to conduct an additional campaign. A few days after the purchase send your customer a message with complementary products. If your customer bought, for example, a TV - send him an email with a special offer for a home cinema system.
Source: marketlive-blog.com
Contacting customers after they have bought something is all about increasing revenue and it’s a great tactic used in the time of general sales seasons. Customers are in a shopping state of mind then and you can use this moment to sell in volume.
#4 Birthday time
Everyone loves to get birthday gifts! And for your business it is more than important to remember about your customer’s special day.
To make sure your customer can benefit on the special offer, send it out a couple days before their birthday. It can be a discount to your newest collection, a giftcard or even one of your products. Be creative! Your customers will appreciate the fact that they can treat themselves with a special something in your store.
Birthday gift from Reebok
The other birthday occasion is your own anniversary. Let your customers go on a shopping spree and celebrate your day by organizing a special sale on your estore birthday.
#5 To inactive customers
On every mailing list there are people who are not opening your messages and clicking on your links. Don’t keep them inactive. Get their attention by sending a re-engagement campaign.
To do this, you must segment your mailing list and choose those subscribers who didn’t open your emails for past 3 months. Then send them a special message like “we miss you, please come back to us!” and give them really great discount on their next purchase.
Win-back campaign: Crocks
Return Path report says that 45% of subscribers who engaged with your re-engagement campaign will open your next messages. So don’t waste the potential of your mailing list and change inactive subscribers into loyal clients.
TIP: Learn more about how to get the attention of inactive subscribers.
#6 To clients who are active
Do you know the Pareto Principle? In the context of ecommerce we can say that 20% of your most active customers generate 80% of your profit. So it’s more than important to honor your most loyal clients who bring you the most profit! Send them a dedicated message with a special offer valid only for the loyal customers.
Canva’s message
Look at the Canva example. I made a lot of visual content with their app recently and they sent me this email. They told me I am a special user and they gave me a 1 month free trial with more features to get more experience in making great designs. That’s a great way to activate the user even more.
So don’t be afraid to say “Thank you” and you’ll see the profit of your kindness soon. A customer who feels appreciated is a happy customer, and will buy more in your store. Don’t forget about this law.
Summary
As you can see, there are so many moments in email marketing that can improve your sales. Be smart and use them all! Remember that email marketing brings you almost ⅕ of the sales in your estore. If you use it correctly, you can improve your business fast and efficiently.
To make it easy, don’t be scared to use Email Marketing Automation and dynamic content. Integrate your email marketing software with Google Analytics and your CRM and collect as much information about your customers as you can. It will make you know your customers better and this way you will send them targeted and quality content.