Email Marketing Strategy: Creating a Winning E-Commerce Plan

Automation will lead you towards your business goals faster. In this TED talk by Rory Vaden, he claims that automation is one of his secrets for effective self-management and success. 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 your user retention and ultimately increase your ROI. It makes your job easier because it’s now possible to make a sale on ‘autopilot’. Automation allows your e-commerce email marketing strategies to go on even if you don’t have the actual time to invest in it. 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 eCommerce 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 will need to communicate with your clients at any given time.

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

Today, consumers have many options to choose from and their it’s reflected in their behavior. Clients base their decisions not only on the quality of your offer but also on trust and added value your brand provides. Researches state that it takes 7-13 touch-points before a lead can be converted. That is why a sales funnel is important; it allows you to stay in touch with your prospects until they’re ready for a 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, inactivity, etc. To put it simply, it goes with an “if this, then that sequence”.

Here are 3 great examples:

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

A welcome email 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, 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 emails that are personalized. By just using the receiver’s first name, you can increase your open and click-through rates by 35%. Adding more to personalization efforts will ultimately boost your client retention, engagement, and sales.

This anniversary offer by ‘Rent the Runway’ is an example of a unique and personalized email which can be easily automated:

Boost your retargeting efforts

Retargeting allows you to reach your subscribers across different channels. This technique lengthens the lifespan of your marketing 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 that about a product similar to the one you bought on their site before.

Deal with Shopping cart abandonment

There are many reasons for shopping cart abandonment and some of them are beyond your control. But you shouldn’t drop your clients right away because they might not have intended to abandon the cart in the first place.

Sending abandoned cart emails right away gives the client a chance to complete the purchase in case a technical glitch caused the abandonment. It’s also ideal to send a series of emails because someone who is 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’:

Test and repeat

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

Key Takeaways

A winning ecommerce email marketing strategy boils down to empathizing with your clients and providing real value. Use automation tools to gather data about your clients, send emails that are most relevant, nurture your leads, and finally allow them to make a purchase when they are 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.