Email Marketing Strategy: Creating a Winning E-Commerce Plan

Automation will lead you towards your business goals faster. Thanks to digital advancement, almost anything can now be automated.

Using an email marketing automation software will make it possible for you save time on repetitive tasks so you can focus on growing your eCommerce business. You can easily collect relevant data and automatically respond with the help of triggers.

Automating your email marketing strategies will improve user retention and increase ROI. It makes your job easier because selling on’ autopilot is now possible. Automation allows your e-commerce email marketing strategies to continue even if you don’t have the time to invest in them. Your business will continue to earn revenue even if you’re not working.

Here are a few quick tips which will help you create a winning e-commerce email marketing strategy.

Begin with the End in Mind

Set up your marketing goals and build from there. Use it as your guide when creating the next steps. Every step should lead you towards your goal, if not, eliminate it.

Based on your company’s major goal in mind, list down your KPIs so that you can measure your progress and know if your marketing strategies are effective. As Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured gets managed”.

Use the SMART template (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound) as your guide. It’s as old as time, but it works so you’ll save plenty of time if you just adapt it.

Create a Proper Customer Journey

With your goals clearly stated, you can now plot your sales funnel. Mapping out a customer journey will give you the guidance you need to communicate with your clients at any time.

An ideal customer journey will allow them to convert into clients and make a purchase the first time they encounter your brand; However, we know it rarely happens; working with a mapped-out customer journey will help convert those interested in your brand but need more information and time to ‘sleep on it.’

Today, consumers have many options to choose from, and it’s reflected in their behavior. Clients base their decisions not only on the quality of your offer but also on the trust and added value your brand provides. A sales funnel is essential; it lets you stay in touch with your prospects until they’re ready for purchase.

The three main stages of your buyer’s journey are awareness, consideration, and acquisition stage. Each group need different marketing messages. Generate a series of automated content for each group. Every piece of content should lead your prospects one step closer to making a purchase. Remember to keep your content helpful and warm instead of futile and pushy.

Set Up Trigger-Based Autoresponders

Trigger-based emails are powerful because they respond to the buyer’s behavior in real time. Autoresponders can be sent during a client’s birthday, abandoned cart, email sign-up, client purchase, and inactivity. It follows an “if this, then that sequence.”

Here are three great examples:

1. If a client signs up, send a thank you and welcome email.
2. A client makes a purchase, send a thank you email and an upsell offer.
3. A client abandons a cart, send an abandoned cart email.

A welcome email marketing strategy warms up your relationship and introduces your brand to your prospect. It pays off to give extra attention to your welcome email, as you probably know, “First impressions last”.

Example: A triggered welcome email from ‘Beatrixapp’:

Segment and personalize

No, you can’t send one copy to every member on your email list and expect your sales to grow magically. To properly segment and personalize your emails marketing strategy, utilize all the tools and resources you can. Choose segments that are significantly different from each other. Only create segments that target your customers.

Here are some ways to segment your list:

1. Customer’s journey
2. Gender
3. Age group
4. Geographic location

From your segments, create personalized emails. Using the receiver’s first name can increase your open and click-through rates by 35%. Adding more to personalization efforts will ultimately boost client retention, engagement, and sales.

This anniversary offer by ‘Rent the Runway is an example of a unique and personalized email that you can easily automate:

Boost your retargeting efforts

Retargeting allows you to reach your subscribers across different channels. This technique lengthens the lifespan of your email marketing strategy attempts.

It uses known information about your client to send more relevant and specific emails. For example, instead of getting a generic email from ‘Amazon,’ you’ll get one educational email about a similar product you bought on their site.

Reward Your Loyal Customers

It’s great to have new customers in your e-commerce store. However, any successful e-commerce store owner knows that growing your business is much more difficult if you don’t have repeat customers. That’s why you should ensure your loyal customers are happy to purchase from you!

You can create a loyalty program through an email marketing strategy sequence by offering discounts on your favorite products. You can also send exclusive previews of new products you have just launched. Ensure that you reward your loyal customers, making them feel valued by your brand.  

Deal with Shopping cart abandonment

There are many reasons for shopping cart abandonment, some of which are beyond your control. But it would help if you waited to drop your clients right away because they might not have intended to abandon the cart in the first place.

Sending abandoned cart emails allows the client to complete the purchase if a technical glitch causes the abandonment. It’s also ideal for sending email marketing strategy because someone just looking around may already be ready to purchase, so remind them of the item they left in their cart.

Here’s a straightforward and fabulous shopping cart abandonment email by ‘Fab’:

Send Back In Stock Emails

With recent problems in the supply chain, more e-commerce brands have had item stocking and inventory troubles. This results in lower sales since you cannot show your products in stock to your customers.

You can save this as an opportunity by showing your out-of-stock products on the products page. As the name suggests, back-in-stock email marketing strategy will alert customers when a product they expressed interest in is back in stock and available to purchase. Depending on your e-commerce website, you can create a button on your product page where your customers can fulfill their emails.  

Test and repeat

There is no perfect e-commerce email marketing strategy. Even if you have achieved your marketing goals, the behavior of your clients continues to change, so it’s essential to test, improve, and repeat. It’s a never-ending cycle if you want your brand to stay relevant and your company to grow.

Key Takeaways

A winning e-commerce email marketing strategy involves empathizing with your clients and providing value. Use automation tools to gather data about your clients, send the most relevant emails, nurture your leads, and finally allow them to purchase when ready.

Your marketing strategies should stand out and aligned with your goals. Email automation software allows you to reach the right person at the right time with the right message. It makes your job easier and gives you more time for creative efforts.