Email marketing is a powerful tool that can help boost conversions and sales for your ecommerce business. However, it can be tricky to know where to start.
In this guide, we'll introduce you to email marketing for ecommerce and show you how to use it to drive conversions for your business. We'll cover topics like building an email list, creating ecommerce email campaigns, and measuring results.
So, let's get started!
What Is Ecommerce Email Marketing?
Ecommerce email marketing is the process of using email to promote and sell products or services online. This can include sending promotional emails, transactional emails, or a combination of both.
It is a powerful way to reach customers and potential clients and can be an effective part of any online marketing strategy. When done right, it can help increase sales, build customer loyalty, and even create brand awareness.
Why Is Email Marketing for Ecommerce Important?
Email marketing is highly relevant to ecommerce businesses, and here are a few statistics that prove why it is essential to boost conversions and drive sales.
49% of consumers like to receive weekly promotional emails from their favorite brands.
60% of consumers sign up for email promotions.
60% of consumers say that a marketing email influences their purchase decisions.
81% of retail professionals believe that email marketing is excellent for customer acquisition.
54% of retailers use cart abandonment emails to increase conversions.
The above statistics show how much essential it becomes for you to benefit from email marketing as a tool to run your ecommerce business. Now, let’s dive into the types of ecommerce emails to inspire your very own marketing campaigns.
Types of Ecommerce Emails You Should Know
We know you might have been wondering about what sort of emails one should send to their customers. Have a look at the below list that entails everything you need to know about ecommerce emails.
Welcome emails
Believe it or not, but welcome email is the first step towards building a long-lasting relationship with your customers. It provides you with an opportunity to introduce your brand’s mission, values, products, services, and overall brand image.
Look at the below email example from the Girlfriend Collective that fully captures the essence of a welcome email.
Promotional emails
Promotional emails are part and parcel of email marketing for ecommerce because it is a way for retailers to stay in touch with their customers. These emails serve the purpose of sharing discounts, launching new product lines, and sharing your brand story to deepen customer relationships.
Here’s a promotional email example from MOO that perfectly lures in its customer with 10% off of their awesome quality print products.
Loyalty emails
Loyalty emails are an effective solution to keep your audience engaged and make them return to your e-commerce brand time after time. For examples, you can create subscriptions for your products using Shopify recurring payments, for a regular connection with your clients and a stable income.
There are many ways you can run those campaigns, and one of them is giving your subscribers an opportunity to participate in reward programs. And that’s what the below email example from Old Navy effortlessly pulls off.
Re-engagement emails
Your subscribers receive a whopping number of emails every day. With so much competition for attention, they may lose interest and stop engaging with your email marketing campaigns.
Therefore, re-engagement emails are vital for targeting those inactive subscribers. And Grammarly has wooed its subscribers most effectively by including a prominent CTA button, “Go," which entices users to use their service again.
Anniversary emails
Anniversary is a broad term because it can include several types of anniversaries like birthdays, first purchase anniversaries, newsletter signup anniversaries, etc. Hence, sending an anniversary email becomes an absolute necessity to make your customers feel special.
They’ll also become loyal customers because you remembered and wished them on their special day.
Look at the splendid birthday email example from Naadam, which proves that your birthday emails don’t have to be heavy on visuals, as a single image that’s true to the brand’s identity can do wonders.
Transactional emails
Transactional emails are messages that are sent following an action that a user takes on your ecommerce website. These include order confirmation emails, shipping confirmations, order refunds, subscription confirmation emails, etc.
Additionally, these emails are crucial for maintaining positive customer relationships because people expect to receive vital order information when they make a purchase online.
So, to establish seamless communication, Postmark thanks its subscriber and provides all the essential information about the online purchase in their email.
Cart abandonment emails
A cart abandonment email is sent to customers who add items to their shopping cart but don't really make the purchase. It reminds them that they have items in their cart and encourages them to finish their order.
Cart abandonment emails play an effective role in recovering lost sales and boosting your bottom line. If you're not already using cart abandonment emails, now is the time to start. Here's an email example from Pipsnacks to give you an idea of what an effective cart abandonment email looks like.
Back in stock emails
We know you get a little giddy when your favorite products come back in stock. The feeling of finally being able to snag that item you've been eyeing for weeks is unbeatable.
So, back in stock emails help you boost conversions and increase sales quickly because they let your customers know the moment their desired product is available again. All they have to do is click “buy now,” and voila, their product will be on its way.
Tula depicts that back in stock emails can be simple with eye-catching imagery and a prominent single CTA.
6 Ecommerce Email Marketing Tips to Woo Your Subscribers
Email marketing is a great way to boost conversions for your ecommerce business. But there are a few things you shouldn't miss to make sure your emails are effective.
Here are some tips for ecommerce email marketing:
1. Build a healthy email list
If you're like most people, you probably don't think too much about email lists. After all, why would you need one? You've got enough friends and family to keep in touch with, right?
Wrong. Email lists are actually incredibly useful when trying to keep in touch with a large group of people because they make it easy for your ecommerce business to stay in touch with a lot of people at once.
So, building a healthy email list full of interested and engaged subscribers is extremely important for sharing promotional discounts, launching new products, sharing newsletters, and much more.
Additionally, regularly cleaning your email list by removing inactive or unengaged subscribers can help you maintain a healthy email list and improve overall email deliverability.
2. Segment your list
After building a healthy email list, the next step is segmentation. By dividing your subscribers into groups, you can send more targeted and relevant messages that resonate with them.
Not sure how to segment your list? Here are a few ideas to get you started:
By location:
If you have subscribers in different parts of the world, you can send them emails that are relevant to their location. For example, if you're a retailer with stores in multiple countries, you could send an email promoting a sale at the store nearest to each subscriber.
By interests:
If you know your subscribers' interests, you can send them emails tailored to those interests. For instance, if you have an email list of subscribers interested in travel, you could send them emails with tips on planning their next trip.
By purchase history:
If you keep track of what your subscribers have purchased from you in the past, you can send them emails with recommendations for similar products or services. For example, if someone has bought a women's clothing item from your store, you could send them an email with links to other items in that category that might interest them.
3. Personalize your emails
Use the recipient's first name in the subject line and throughout the email to immediately grab their attention and show that you're speaking directly to them.
No one likes feeling like they're just another number on a list, so taking the time to personalize each email will go a long way in improving customer experience and boosting conversions for your ecommerce business.
Doing this manually takes a lot of time and effort. But no worries, as Unlayer lets you add your recipient’s name to the email with the help of merge tags to grab their attention and make them feel unique.
4. Keep your email copy relevant
Email copy is one of the most crucial parts of email marketing for ecommerce. If it doesn’t appeal to your target audience and isn’t in line with your marketing goals, the whole email marketing campaign stands null and void.
So, your messages should be on point to entice subscribers to engage with your emails, click on the CTAs, and buy your products.
There are several ways to improve your messaging for better conversion rates for your ecommerce business, like:
Nailing the subject line.
Personalizing emails based on customer behaviors.
Keeping it short and to the point.
Avoiding spam words in emails and complying with unsubscribe laws.
Limiting the number of CTA buttons.
5. Focus on email design
Email marketing for ecommerce is definitely an efficient way to reach your target audience and boost conversions. But, in order for your email marketing campaigns to be successful, your email design must be on point.
It should be eye-catching and engaging, while also being easy to read and navigate. Plus, it should include a clear call to action that encourages recipients to take the desired action.
However, creating an effective email design isn't always easy. But, with a bit of time and effort, you can create emails to achieve your marketing goals and increase revenue.
Keep it short and sweet: When it comes to email design, less is definitely more. Keep your message short and sweet to avoid losing your readers' attention.
Use images wisely: Images can be a great way to break up text and add visual interest to your emails. However, too many images can make your email look cluttered and can be a turn-off for subscribers. Use images sparingly and only if they add value to your message.
Make use of whitespace: Whitespace is your friend when it comes to email design. Use it to break up text and create a more visually appealing email.
Use typography to your advantage: Typography can help you create hierarchy and emphasis in your email design. Use different font sizes, weights, and colors to draw attention to the most important parts of your message.
6. Choose the right email cadence
The right email cadence can make all the difference in your email marketing campaigns. But how do you know what's right for you?
Well, there’s no magic figure when it comes to the right email frequency because it varies from business to business.
All you can do is test what works best for your ecommerce business. For instance, you can try sending out newsletters every week and see if it works in terms of better conversion rates or not.
Similarly, you may also decide to send emails to your target customers when running promotional campaigns or launching new products. However, these aren’t the only types of ecommerce emails you can send. You can also experiment with other emails to spice up your email marketing campaigns, like sending reviews, customer stories, and exclusive sneak peeks, etc.
Key Metrics to Track the Success of Email Marketing for Ecommerce
The key metrics to keep in mind to track the success of email marketing for ecommerce are:
Click-through rate:
Your CTR is a measure of how successful your ecommerce email campaign is in getting recipients to click on your call to action buttons. A higher CTR means more people are taking action after receiving your email, which is what you want!
Conversion rate:
It measures how well your email marketing campaigns are performing in terms of turning subscribers into paying customers.
Bounce rate:
A low bounce rate indicates that people are successfully receiving your emails and are more likely to make purchases. Therefore, it's essential to keep an eye on your bounce rate and strive to make improvements if necessary.
Subscribe rate:
Your subscribe rate is a measure of how many people are signing up for your ecommerce emails, and it's a good indicator of the health of your email list. A high subscribe rate means that people are interested in hearing from you, and a low subscribe rate could mean that your emails are being ignored, which is something you’d need to work on.
Unsubscribe rate:
This metric will show how many people are no longer interested in receiving your emails, which can be a sign that you need to improve the quality of your content or find a new way to engage your audience.
How to Design Ecommerce Emails With Unlayer?
Assuming you have already signed up for Unlayer and have an account ready to go, follow these simple steps to get started with designing your first ecommerce email template:
1. Choose a template: To get started, simply select one of our pre-designed ecommerce templates. We have a wide range of options to choose from, so you're sure to find a style that fits your brand.
2. Add your content: Once you've selected a template, it's time to add your content. Use our drag-and-drop editor to easily add text, images, and CTAs.
3. Customize your email: Now that your email is looking good, it's time to customize it to fit your brand. Use our easy-to-use editor to play around with colors, use different fonts, and change the overall look of your ecommerce email.
4. Export your email template: Once you're happy with how your email looks, export it to different email service providers like Gmail, ActiveCampaign, etc., and see your sales start rolling in!
With unlayer, designing beautiful ecommerce emails is easy. So why wait? Get started today and see the results for yourself!
Wrap Up
A well-thought-out email marketing strategy is essential for the success of your ecommerce business. Therefore, getting it right is the ultimate flex.
Hopefully, this guide cleared all your confusion regarding email marketing for ecommerce and provided you with all the information you need to create stunning emails to boost conversions and get more sales.
