Ecommerce email marketing is turning more competitive with each passing year and keeping up with the customers requires consistent communication. Email Marketing delivers an ROI of 44:1 and therefore it still fares ahead in every marketer’s priority list. In this article, I will discuss the top 16 trusted ways to increase email marketing conversions for the eCommerce industry.
Use Attractive Subject Lines But Never Mislead
Every marketer loves to send email subject lines that are click-worthy but don’t go too far. All of us have experienced the frustration of falling prey to click baits and we know that it creates a repulsive attitude towards the brand. Dig deeper into creativity and you can use some of the open secrets of writing tempting subject lines like using uncommon numbers and words like “Latest”, “Secret Formula”, “Top 13/27/42 Products” to get them to click through.
Always Optimize For Preheader Text
“Preheader text” or “text preview” is the 40-50 character text that accompanies the sender name and subject line in the inbox. Usually, people decide whether to open the mail or skip it within a matter of moments. Using this section along with the subject line to display sales, coupons, discounts, and prizes is a great way to increase open rates.
Surf FOMO Waves To Go Beyond Inbox
Landing inside the inbox of your contacts and converting them into paying clients are two different things. Using a sense of urgency in the form of time-sensitive offers helps you surf the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) waves. Telling your customers who either abandoned their carts or who checked a particular section frequently about an offer that ends in a short period of time upscales your chances of making a sale.
Focus On Creating Powerful CTAs For Lead Generation
The Call To Action buttons need to reflect the persuasive tone of eCommerce marketing copies. You should always use some action words to catalyze the decision-making process. For example, instead of using “Register For Trial”, you can go for “Start Free Trial Now”. Using such CTAs aids in increasing the lead generation rate when placed with appropriate copies. You can use attraction grabbing CTAs like this one from Amazon in your HTML email templates:
IMAGE: REALLY GOOD EMAILS
Mobile Optimization: Harness The Big Audience From The Small Screen
53% of the emails are opened on mobile devices. So make sure that you are utilizing responsive email templates to keep up with the small screen- big advantage factor. Using mobile-friendly layouts is a business necessity since 67.2% of sales come from mobile devices.
Check out these desktop and iPhone email versions of the Best Buy Email.
IMAGES: REALLY GOOD EMAILS
Abandoned Cart Series
Abandoned cart series is an email marketing gospel you shall never forget about! It is used for both new and old users who selected the items but didn’t complete the purchase somehow. You can send additional information about the product and also give them some discounts based on their billing history to incentivize engagement. Below is a great example of abandoned order email from uncommon goods:
IMAGE: REALLY GOOD EMAILS
Up-Sell and Cross-Sell Emails
You can start a dedicated up-sell and cross-sell email series. You can diversify the messages based on the billing ticket size/ AOV, product-wise, category-wise recommendations, and even receipt mails for upselling and cross-selling. Approaching repeat customers is always easier than finding new ones. Here’s a fine example of selling new deals to existing client base from Airbnb:
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Promotional Emails
Promotional emails are the backbone of the eCommerce campaign strategy. Under this segment, the companies target the high AOV, discount hunters, and brand loyalists with separate approaches. Thus, it helps separate them in the sales funnel and pours in well-calculated efforts. The promo emails are generally based on the festivities, major events, new arrivals, and sale seasons.
Try this format from Lyst when sending recommendations for re-engagement:
IMAGE: REALLY GOOD EMAILS
Re-Engagement Emails
You should make it a point to send out re-engagement emails to those who stopped engaging with your emails. It is important to personalize these emails around live events, family events, frequently visited pages, and events in their region. Personalizing and segmenting are acclaimed as the best campaign strategy.
Notify Your Customers Of Replenished Wishlist/ Out Of Stock Items
Telling your customer about the non-availability of an item should always be followed by sending them a “Now Available” message. Usually, when the company is not able to fulfill the sale due to stockouts or any other reason, they either use back-ordering or notify the customers about the availability of the concerned item. You can use this method to send out a message that you care for your clients and are committed to the mutual relationship. Have a look at this example from Lyst:
IMAGE: REALLY GOOD EMAILS
Kick Start Referral Programs
As every industry leader asserts, there is no replacement for word of mouth. Running a referral program is turning your customers into brand advocates, much like affiliate marketers. You can share referral links in the emails and motivate them to promote your brand in exchange for discounts or freebies. If you currently don’t use this model, I advise you kick start a referral program right away.
Use Customer Reviews To Drive Organic Engagement
You should always use social proof to establish credibility. 82% of people see online reviews before making a purchase. Sending emails with customer reviews to your contact list is a great way to enhance your trustworthiness. It also minimizes any negative prediction regarding your business so trying it out is a must. 91% of the customers from younger generations trust online reviews.
Keep Value At The Center Of Your Copies
The problem with eCommerce marketing copies is that they sound too pushy to be read. You should avoid this by all means and focus on delivering value instead. Try keeping it creative and stick to a minimalist design. This will help differentiate your message among a hundred others received by your contacts on a daily basis. In this emailer from eBay, they have packed value instead of overdoing sales-heavy language.
IMAGE: REALLY GOOD EMAILS
Don’t Stereotype Your Campaigns
Stereotyped promotional emails do more harm than benefit. Look out for something new, enticing, and read-worthy because every other player in the market is already sending more and bigger discounts. While promotional emails have a significant spot in every email campaign strategy, don’t overdo them.
Leverage Google Analytics To Run Targeted And Segmented Email Campaigns
Using Google Analytics to understand your customer demographics is extremely crucial to devising the right strategy. With the help of this information, you can get insights into the wants and wishes of your prospects and send them the most appropriate messages. This is the fundamental step to running targeted and segmented email campaigns.
Test And Track The Trajectory Of Your Efforts
I always make it a point to discuss testing and tracking the email marketing efforts with my audiences. You can use A/B Split testing and Bandit testing for your email templates to refine the quality of your copy with respect to the customer expectations. Most ESPs have in-built A/B testing provision.
So, you can easily check for the best version of your Mailchimp email template or Salesforce email template among others. It is highly significant for the eCommerce stores to track the performance of your campaigns so that you can know what is working for you and avoid the same mistakes in your future campaigns.
Wrapping Up
An estimated 2.05 billion from the global population shops online. The number of email users in 2019 was 3.9 billion and both these numbers will continue to grow.
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I have tried to include the most relevant ways of increasing engagement and encashing leads here for our broad audience. I hope that you find this article and its 16 time-tested tips to increase eCommerce email marketing conversions beneficial in your journey ahead.
Author Bio: Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest-growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion, and free HTML email templates. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz, and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.
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