Ecommerce Email Marketing: An All-Inclusive Guide to Email

Ecommerce email marketing is an excellent strategy to help your business connect with prospects interested in what you offer and nurture them towards buying.

In this guide, we’ll answer some of your questions about email marketing, including:

• What is ecommerce email marketing?
• Why should I use email marketing for ecommerce?
• How do I do retail email marketing effectively?

If the thought of launching your email marketing strategy overwhelms you, the experts at WebFX can help. With over 25 years of experience and over 12.9 million transactions handled for our clients, we’re an unmatched partner for email marketing success.

Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our ecommerce email marketing services!

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What is ecommerce email marketing?

Ecommerce email marketing involves sending emails to interested prospects to convert them into sales for your business. Email marketing allows you to send a variety of emails to subscribers — from promotional messages to abandoned cart reminders — to help you earn more revenue.

Why should I use email marketing for ecommerce?

If you’re skeptical about the benefits of email, check out these four reasons why you’ll want to get started with ecommerce email marketing:

1. You have a direct connection with leads

One of the most significant benefits of email marketing is that you have a direct connection with leads. Email marketing enables you to send promotional and informational emails directly to people who expressed an interest in your business.

By providing their email address, subscribers show that they want to hear from you and receive promotional emails. In fact, 61% of people like receiving weekly promo emails.

As a result, you’re sending promotions directly to people who want to see them, which not only increases the chance that you can turn these leads into sales, but also helps you save money by only marketing to those who have shared an interest in your business.

2. You can recover lost sales

One of the biggest challenges ecommerce businesses face is abandoned carts. Many people will shop on your site, add products to their cart, and leave. This scenario often occurs because people need more time to consider the purchase, or they get distracted.

These carts become lost sales, as many people forget to return to make their purchase. With ecommerce email marketing, you can recover these abandoned carts.

You can send abandoned cart emails directly to these shoppers’ inboxes, reminding them of the cart they left behind. It encourages these shoppers to think about the purchase again, leading to more sales for your business.

3. You continually build relationships with leads

Another great benefit of email marketing for retailers is that you continually build relationships with leads. Since subscribers receive communication directly in their inbox, your subscribers get to know your brand better and get an in-depth look at your products and services.

Even after they make their first purchase, you can continually send them information to nurture loyal customers that keep coming back.

4. You deliver a more personalized marketing experience

There are dozens of companies vying for your audience’s attention. As a result, consumers don’t waste time on content or promotions that aren’t relevant to them or their needs. With email marketing, you can deliver personalized content that fits your audience’s interests.

Email marketing makes it easy for you to personalize the experience for subscribers, so they’re more likely to engage with your content. From adding their name to emails to tailoring the email content to products likely to interest them, personalization is a huge perk of ecommerce email marketing.

This personalized approach to marketing leads to higher engagement and more sales for your business.

How do I do retail email marketing effectively?

You’re ready to launch your ecommerce email marketing strategy, but where do you start? Here are eight best practices to help you get started with email marketing for retailers!

1. Build your email list

First and foremost, if you want to do ecommerce email marketing effectively, start by building your email list.

There are multiple tactics you can use to build your email list. One option is to add an email sign-up bar to your website. You can place this bar in the header or footer of your website –– you can also opt to create a pop-up email sign-up.

When you build your email list, always build it organically. You never want to buy email lists.

Buying email lists seems like an easy option, as it takes out the work of having to build your list and provides you with an immediate pool of subscribers. There are numerous issues with taking this approach, though, including:

• Most subscribers on your list aren’t interested in what you offer
• Your emails will likely end up in a spam or junk folder
• Users may unsubscribe anyway because they aren’t interested
• You risk violating the CAN-SPAM act and getting fined

Instead, building a list through organic means, like an email sign-up bar or promoting email sign-ups on your social pages, will deliver a better group of subscribers.

2. Segment your subscribers

Once you build your list of subscribers, the next part of retail email marketing is to segment those subscribers. Not everyone subscribes to your emails for the same thing, especially if you offer a diverse set of products.

By segmenting your subscribers, you deliver the information that specific groups of customers prefer from your business. For example, if you sell organic home products, you might send two different promotional emails to those interested in cleaning products versus those interested in beauty products.

You can segment your subscribers based on demographic information, buying habits, and what they like. Once you segment your subscribers, you can start sending promotional emails that fit their interests.

3. Create an enticing subject line

When you do retail email marketing, one of the most critical components of your email is your subject line. Your subject line is the first thing your audience sees when your email appears in their inbox.

Considering that 47% of email subscribers open your emails based on the subject line, you need to make an impact with this part of your email.

So, how do you create a subject line that entices subscribers to open? Try these best practices:

• Personalize your subject line with the subscriber’s name
• Try using emojis
• Ask a question and provide the answer in the email
• Avoid writing in all caps
• Use proper grammar and spelling

You can test different email subject lines to see what resonates with your audience. With A/B testing, which we’ll discuss more below, you can figure out the right subject line for your emails.

4. Create email templates

When you create a retail email marketing strategy, you’re going to send many emails to different subscribers. To help make the email marketing process easier, create email marketing templates.

Creating templates makes it easy for you to ensure a consistent look and feel for your emails, no matter what information you send. It also speeds up the process because you’ll already have an outline for your email, so all you must do is add the new text.

You can make a template for every type of email you send, from promotional to abandoned cart emails.

5. Use an email automation tool

When you do email marketing for ecommerce, you’re going to send a lot of emails. In general, you’ll send a lot of emails to your audience –– when you add segmentation on top of that, the number gets even higher.

Trying to manage this level of emailing can be difficult, so you’ll want to invest in an email automation tool. An email automation tool, like EmailMarketingFX, allows you to create, send, and manage your emails in one place.

Using a tool like this one enables you to automate processes like welcome emails and abandon cart emails. It makes it easier for you to manage your email campaigns to spend more time doing other critical marketing tasks.

6. Use prominent call to action (CTA) buttons

When you do email marketing for retailers, an essential component of your emails is the call to action (CTA) button. Your CTA button guides users on how to proceed next.

When you design your ecommerce emails, make sure your CTA is prominent and stands out in your email. In this example from Starbucks, you can see the green CTA button stands out from the tan background and aligns with the brand’s color scheme.

You also want to make sure your CTA text tells your audience what will happen if they click the button. With this email from Starbucks, the subscriber knows if they click the CTA, they’re taken to the app to order the Irish Cream Cold Brew.

Creating prominent and clear CTA buttons will help boost your clickthrough rate (CTR) and earn more sales for your ecommerce business.

7. Create a sense of urgency

A great tactic to use with email marketing for ecommerce is to create a sense of urgency. Not every email calls for a sense of urgency, but for limited-time promotions or special sales you can use this tactic to increase sales.

Creating a sense of urgency drives people to make purchases. If you send an email with a subject line that says, “Hurry! Only X hours left on the summer sale,” people feel more compelled to check out what’s on sale from your business.

When you create a sense of urgency, you compel people to engage with your emails. Urgency creates the fear of missing out, or FOMO, which entices people to open your emails and see the sale, so they don’t miss out on deals.

You can create a sense of urgency by using phrases like “limited time,” “hurry,” and “don’t miss out” in your email subject line. If you want to take it a step further, you can add a timestamp to create even more urgency.

8. Test your emails

If you want to have success with retail email marketing, you must test your emails. You can continually improve your emails to drive more clicks and conversions.

One of the best tests to use is A/B testing. With this testing option, you want to test individual elements to see how the changes impact your emails. If you test more than one element, you’ll muddle the results and make it difficult to know how the changes affect your emails.

You can test multiple elements on your site, including your:

• Subject line
• Email header
• Body text
• Visuals
• CTA button

Testing your emails will help you increase engagement that can lead to increased sales for your business.

Need help with ecommerce email marketing?

Building an ecommerce email marketing strategy is vital if you want to nurture leads towards conversion and increase revenue for your business. If you need help launching an email marketing strategy, WebFX can help.

We have a team of over 500 marketing experts that can help you launch an email marketing campaign that drives results. In the past five years alone, we’ve driven over $3 billion in revenue and managed over 12.9 million transactions for our clients. We’re an unmatched partner for building email marketing campaigns that drive sales.

Ready to increase sales for your business? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our email marketing services!