Developing an Email Marketing Strategy for Ecommerce
If you’re an ecommerce merchant, you’re sitting on an incredibly valuable resource: your email list. But if you’re not taking full advantage of it – or if you send out email irregularly or not at all – you’re missing out on an important part of your overall marketing strategy.
Why Is Email Still Important?
Compared to new and emerging platforms, email may seem like old hat. But when it comes to digital marketing, it’s still king. Why?
- Everyone uses it. Large parts of your customer base may use services like Snapchat or Instagram. But nearly everyone uses email and over 90 percent of us check our email every day.
- Marketing emails have a better clickthrough rate than other kinds of ads. Digital marketing strategies of all sorts have their strengths. But if you want people to click on what you’re selling, email is the way to go. For most industries, clickthrough rates for emails hover around 2-4 percent. That might not sound very high but the average CTR for banner ads is 0.1 percent.
- Customers trust and seek it out. No one likes spam, but customers will actively subscribe to email campaigns from brands they like and trust (and stick around as long as you’re producing valuable content). Customers make purchases based on sales emails, too, especially if the email includes a targeted deal or incentive.
Engage With Customers At All Points of the Purchase Pipeline
Is there anything more frustrating than analyzing your cart abandonment rate? Apart from ensuring that your site is actually user friendly (including a seamless checkout!), email marketing tools are some of the best ways to reach and convert customers who have left products behind.
BigCommerce comes with some out-of-the-box features to reach customers who have abandoned, but a smart email strategy can take it even further – giving customers the push they need to buy without bothering them with unnecessary updates. For example, you can offer certain customers who abandon an incentive, like 10 percent off, or simply send them a more tailored and creative message to get them through the pipeline.
Target Your Recipients and Personalize Your Message For The Most Conversions
Email allows you to target and engage specific customer groups in a highly personalized manner. Part of a good email strategy is developing email segments (subgroups of your larger mailing list), allowing you to reach the exact people you need to for each campaign.
Segmentation is the best way to collect customer feedback and information. For example, if you want customers to leave reviews, take a survey, give you their ideas, or recommend your business, email is the most targeted way to reach them. With an email strategy, you can easily target only active customers – or an even more segmented subgroup of that group.
Segmentation works wonders for sales, too. Using segmentation, you can send sales emails only to people who meet specific criteria, such as all your wholesale customers or anyone who’s bought a certain product. This allows you to craft sales emails that are more relevant, timely, and appealing, resulting in greater sales.
If your email strategy doesn’t include segmentation, you’re simply not maximizing the platform. Who you’re sending email to is just as important as what you’re sending them.
Automate Your Email Marketing Efforts
So how do you get pull off these creative, highly targeted email marketing efforts without doing a ton of research and analysis on your end? Automate. Email automation platforms like MailChimp and Klaviyo pull and analyze data for you, taking your email marketing efforts to the next level
Because of its pinpoint accuracy, email automation can significantly improve your customer experience, repeat customers rate, and revenue. While MailChimp is great for beginners Klaviyo has advanced features like website behavior tracking, BigCommerce integration, and content personalization. If you’re going to dedicate the time and resources to email marketing, you need an automation platform.
Start Crafting Killer Emails Today!
Need an email marketing revamp? IntuitSolutions’ marketing experts will work with you to create and implement a strategy your customers won’t be able to ignore. Call us today at 866-843-4650 and get started today!
