In the marketing industry, there is nothing more effective than personalized, targeted communication. Speaking directly to your target audience, especially in e-commerce, is a powerful way to increase sales. And email marketing does precisely this!
If you run an online store, one of the most valuable aspects of your business is the ability to build an email list. An email list is your golden ticket to creating targeted campaigns as you have proprietary data that no one else on the Internet has. You will essentially have a leg up on your competitors and an opportunity to build relationships with your customers. With your email list in tow, you now have a chance to increase your customer lifetime value and sales.
The email marketing strategies you choose to use with your email list are highly essential to increasing sales. Think about how you interact with your customers on calls, social or forums; you should do the same with emails to build customer relationships. Remember that you are sharing information that is providing opportunities for those on your email list.
To help you increase your e-commerce sales, here are four email marketing strategies you can use.
1. Abandoned Cart Emails
Recover lost sales with abandoned cart emails. When new or repeat customers log in to your website, adds items to their basket, and then leave, this is referred to as an abandoned cart. By sending customers who have abandoned carts an email to remind them of their potential purchase. You can recover 15% of what would otherwise be lost revenue. There are two types of abandoned cart email options that you can choose from:
- Abandoned cart email: A single email sent to encourage customers to complete their purchase if they’ve left items in their basket. The abandoned cart email is usually sent within one day after the customer has left your website.
- Abandoned cart series: A series of reminder emails to encourage customers to complete their purchase. The series extends the abandon cart email with follow-up emails being sent over three to five days.
2. Promotional Emails
Promotional emails can be used in various ways to encourage a variety of customers to make purchases. Whether you’re promoting a sitewide sale or launching a new product, you can give your email list first access to awesome promotions. Whatever you are promoting, make sure your email speaks directly to your audience. Better yet, address a specific segment of your audience. You can segment your customer base into the following categories:
- High-value customers: For customers that are known to spend money with your brand, use promotional emails to encourage customers to purchase monthly subscription boxes and bundles. It is also an excellent opportunity to make product recommendations to help these customers find and buy items that you know they need.
- Low-value customers: For customers who only but with your brand when items are on sale, send the promotional emails informing them about deals and ways to save money (loyalty programs, referrals, etc.).
- Face value customers: Customers who buy at face value and aren’t driven by sales or discounts. These customers are driven by exclusive or new products, so send them promotional emails that give them first access to new products.
3. Up-Sell Emails
Once a customer has bought something from your website, you have the opportunity to sell them additional products through up-sell or cross-sell emails. There are various ways to use up-sell emails:
- Product follow-up: After a customer purchases something from your store, send them a follow-up message including similar products or products often bought with the item the customer purchased.
- Category follow-up: After someone has bought an item, promote related items from a specific category. These emails work well if a customer purchased an item from a campaign like a summer haul or gifts for mom.
- Receipt follow-up: Email receipts are a smart way to upsell your customers. Having a high open-rate, use your receipt emails to increase your sales by including offers and discounts.
4. Customer Loyalty Emails
Rebuild your relationship with your customers with customer loyalty and re-engagement emails. These types of emails focus on building a better bond with existing customers or winning back customers who haven’t purchased from your store in a while. Here are a few ways to use these types of emails:
- Life event emails: When collecting data for your email list, collect additional information from customers. Using this information, you can send emails to encourage re-engagement emails for specific events in a customer’s life, like discounts on birthdays.
- Win back emails: If a customer hasn’t made a purchase from your store in a while, send them an email to say you’ve missed them. Keep this email conversational with an opportunity to opt out of communication. Also, add a discount code for customers who want to reengage with your brand.
Email marketing is an excellent way to increase your e-commerce sales. By implementing any of the above strategies will present your customers with the opportunity to engage with your brand and potentially make a purchase.
