With 100 to 200 emails hitting the inboxes of the average person daily, it has become increasingly challenging for eCommerce businesses to stand out and achieve a high return on investment (ROI) from their email marketing efforts.
However, implementing effective strategies can significantly improve your chances of success. In this article, we will explore seven powerful strategies that can help you enhance your ROI from an eCommerce email marketing strategy.
Appealing visuals, clear calls to action, segmentation, personalization, and automation are crucial elements of a successful eCommerce email marketing strategy. Backed by a robust omnichannel marketing strategy, you can achieve even greater success in improving your ROI.
Our focus today is on getting higher returns on email marketing campaigns for your online business. You can implement several eCommerce email marketing strategies to turn the tide in your favor. In this article, we will explore ready-to-deploy solutions that range from getting new customers to adequate customer retention.
The first step to maximizing your email campaigns is to get powerful customer relationship management or email marketing software. Mailchimp and Klaviyo are popular for eCommerce sellers and have varying advantages.
Once you set up your account, the next step in your eCommerce email marketing strategy is acquiring leads and growing your list. This process continues even after you have attracted loyal customers to your eCommerce store.
You don’t need promotional emails to build relationships. Free newsletters on relevant topics or solutions to typical problems attract loyal customers.
The misconception that you need constant marketing messages is dangerous. You must build your eCommerce email marketing strategy around the customer journey.
Ensure you have defined your target audience before implementing the eCommerce email marketing strategies on this list. In the meantime, here are seven powerful ways to improve ROI for your eCommerce email marketing strategies:
Let’s explore the above strategies in more detail.
Gone are the days of having only text in email messages. The brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text, which is one of the many reasons to include images in your emails.
Include images of your products optimized for mobile devices. Most of your messages will be opened on smartphones and tablet devices. Also, use small pictures to ensure faster loading.
Modern eCommerce email marketing software can incorporate animations to create more motion and engagement. Instead of embedding full product videos, you can add hyperlinks to product videos hosted on your website or platforms like YouTube.
Ensure your images or animations capture the subject line appropriately. Hire professional graphic designers to deliver stunning visuals.
Most emails contain calls to action. The essence is to get the readers to perform an action. That could be any of the following:
These buttons must be placed in your email, whether it is for existing or potential customers. This aspect is what email marketers always pay attention to. Hence, you should do the same for your eCommerce store.
Most email marketing tools have provisions for buttons. You can still place the links within the text, but it’s best to have calls to action embedded in the buttons.
That lets the reader easily spot the buttons with clear descriptions of the intended action. Your click-through rate will increase, resulting in an improved ROI.
These are a few tips to help you place better calls to action in your e-commerce email marketing campaigns:
You may get a massive ROI on your first email marketing campaign. However, that is rarely the case, with many online businesses competing for buyers' attention.
One common strategy among email marketers is adding new subscribers to their list. The more people you reach on the email marketing channel, the higher the click-through rate.
Getting new subscribers is simply a play on numbers. There is an average email click-to-open rate. More customers will come to your eCommerce store if you message more people.
Encourage potential customers to sign up. Getting new email subscribers should be part of your overall marketing strategy. That means providing opportunities for new registrations as often as possible.
You don’t need to wait until digital marketing campaigns begin before providing sign-up forms. A simple blog post on your e-commerce site could end with a subscribe button.
Clean up your list while adding continuing to add new subscribers. Remove inactive subscribers to boost email deliverability. That will ensure future emails reach active customers' inboxes.
Your customers will have different preferences and buyer personas. Email segmentation helps you target their individual needs. For example, you can offer a discount to one customer while showing a product to another.
Also, potential customers will be at different stages in the sales funnel. They require specific messages compared to those that subscribe to your email list.
The following are ways you can segment your list:
Email segmentation increases the number of engaged customers. That is because your targeting has improved. It will also help retain customers because they will only see relevant content.
Your next e-commerce email marketing campaign should have this strategy. Fortunately, most email marketing software has features for easy segmentation.
This strategy involves sending different ad copies to a target audience and reviewing which has the highest engagement. You can track this by checking the open or click-through rates. Google Analytics is a powerful tool for monitoring these metrics.
You can use different subject lines for your email campaigns. Visuals like images or animations are other things you can alter.
No marketer will tell you a sure-fire way that works all the time. Instead, we advise you to craft different emails. Play around with everything, from the subject lines to other areas like the body.
A/B testing is one of the primary e-commerce email marketing strategies for first-time sellers. Experienced eCommerce companies already have a proven formula that generates sales while maintaining constant contact with buyers.
Your website behavior could turn buyers away if it is not well-designed and developed. Web design and development are the core of any online store.
You could load your website with social proof and still get high bounce rates. Do the landing pages from emails load quickly? Are they optimized for mobile viewing?
The average user wants a quick-loading online store while shopping. You can use the lazy loading design if the page has heavy visual elements. That way, the user will see some parts while others load during scrolling.
Automation is a vital aspect of any digital marketing sales strategy to ensure faster responses and timely communication with your customers. Thankfully, most eCommerce email marketing tools have features for automated emails.
Examples of automated messages include the following:
You can set them up and assign different triggers. Then, the software will email your customers when they perform the pre-set functions.
Reaching buyers on time can boost customer loyalty. It shows that you pay attention to their needs.
Artificial intelligence can transform your email campaign and give you higher ROIs. It can produce personalized messages, learn the tone of your voice, and automate responses.
Newer eCommerce email marketing tools come with artificial intelligence. Some even embed natural language processing to communicate more fluently.
You can use AI writing tools to write faster emails. Some can help extract email addresses from public profiles to help grow your list.
The use of artificial intelligence grows by the day, which is why you should consider incorporating it into your eCommerce email marketing strategy.
We’ve touched on different eCommerce email marketing strategies that can boost your ROI. Subject lines should be the primary focus of any email campaign. They are often responsible for capturing attention and encouraging the reader to open your content.
Use catchy lines for your subjects. Also, include elements that promote customer loyalty in your eCommerce email marketing strategies—for example, by giving free trials or discounts.