How to Develop an Email Marketing Strategy to Grow Online Sales
In the United States email has a 90.3% penetration rate. That's more than those who use social media, watch videos, play games, or even use online search engines. In fact, email is the most commonly used internet utility in the world.
If you aren't doing your level best to utilize this powerful platform, you're missing out on a major avenue of sales conversion. As online retail continues to build year after year, online merchants must develop a long-term email marketing strategy as part of their digital marketing toolkit in order to succeed.
E-commerce sales grew by a remarkable 44% in 2020 and the trend promises to continue with a boom in 2021 and beyond. The numbers were expected to increase regardless, but with more consumers than ever before at home and looking for safe alternatives to in-person shopping, digital commerce is going to break the mold in ways we've never witness before.
How to Create An Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing strategy for e-commerce means getting potential and existing customers to opt-in to your marketing by signing up for an email list. Once they've done that, you're free and clear to begin sending out marketing emails and getting those coveted conversions.
Email engagement numbers remain fantastic year after year. An email campaign can see 50 or even 100 times the number of clicks you'd get from a Facebook ad campaign! Open rates for emails are at about 20%, which is pretty incredible.
The reason email performs so well is simple. The vast majority of internet users have email, and most of those users check it daily. It's frequently the first thing people check in the morning and they check repeatedly throughout the day. You're also not battling an algorithm and competing with companies to be the first thing the customer sees. All of the emails end up in the same place and customers can check at their leisure.
Tips on Enticing and Increasing Email Signups
There are a variety of ways to build your email list, which will, in turn, improve your e-commerce online sales. Here are some of our best tips on incorporating more signups as part of your email marketing strategy.
Use pop-up invitations, but sparingly.
Customers tend to dislike pop-up invitations to sign up for email lists, so you have to be careful about how you implement them. They are certainly effective for grabbing customer attention since they show up in the middle of the screen, blocking out the content beneath. Your best bet is to make them simple and to the point. Add something to sweeten the pot, like 10% off the first purchase. Avoid snarkiness or guilt-tripping, customers don't respond well to it.
Place a sign-up area on every page as part of your email marketing strategy.
Make sure your signups are accessible on every page of your site, whether it's on a sidebar, at the bottom of the page, or via a link on the navigation bar. This gives customers easy access and provides a constant reminder.
Place a call to action wherever appropriate.
Believe it or not, customers are more likely to do something if they're explicitly asked to. Remind them to sign up for your email list near the signup box, on social media, and even at the end of blog posts.
Offer a great deal.
You're more likely to get a wide variety of signups if you offer something enticing like a freebie or discount for doing so.
Practice Good Email Segmentation
Want to improve your clickthrough and open rates? Learn to embrace email segmentation!
This is a method of fine-tuning your campaign to reach different audiences with unique messaging. Once you've figured out your audience, you can divide them into groups to market to them even better.
Some segments you should consider include:
- Demographics (age, gender, income, interests)
- Active or inactive users
- Last purchase (amount of purchase, time between purchases)
- Items left in the cart
- Location
- Online behavior (from your website)
- Sales funnel position
Set Up Email Automation
Drip systems aren't just for gardeners! An email drip campaign is a strategy that sends out multiple pre-written emails over a set amount of time. When someone signs up for your email list, they'll receive an introductory email, followed by additional emails over the time period you set.
There are tons of best practices for drip campaigns, but the rule of thumb to remember is to avoid annoying potential and existing customers. Repeated emails are shown to get results but overwhelming a customer's inbox will end in an unsubscribe or delete without open.
Write Great Subject Lines
Spending hours crafting the perfect email is all well and good, but if a customer never opens it up, it's all for nothing. Increase your open rates with compelling email subject lines!
There are all kinds of ways to craft a great subject line. Ask questions, promote your content, offer up a delicious deal, share great information, and a whole lot more. Delve into your personal specialized knowledge to figure out what you can offer the customer and distill it into a subject line you'd be eager to open yourself.
Some examples:
- "Free art lesson inside!"
- "There are products waiting in your cart!"
- "Are you a Carrie or a Samantha?"
- "5 Steps to Better Sleep"
- Literally any Buzzfeed headline
Get Emailing!
You've got this! All the tools you need to create world-class emailing marketing set up are at your disposal. Make the leap today and see the immediate uptick in your online sales.
As always, the team here at SKU would love to help you out with any of your e-commerce needs. We're certified Shopify experts and Klaviyo Gold Masters, ready to help you build and implement a site that makes your life so much easier. You can count on us for help with content marketing, email list setup, and a whole lot more. Reach out today!