eCommerce email marketing has evolved tremendously in the past few years. Before, emails used to be only transactional. Today, more and more personalized content is being shared across the emails.
According to Hubspot, emails are one of the main channels for driving online sales. Emarsys mentioned in their report that 81% of SMBs still rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel and 80% of SMBs rely on emails for customer retention.
Therefore, it is essential to optimize your email strategy and engage with customers directly if you want to witness a relevant impact on your eCommerce sales.
Email marketing with the help of newsletters is said to be useful as there are about 3.9 billion email users in the world, according to a report by Statista.
Also, it is one of the fastest ways to reach directly to the customer’s inbox. Almost 18% of the population checks their inbox 4 to 9 times a day. That means emails can help your target customers and convert them without an elaborate investment. They are cost-effective and impactful for your business.
Here is How you Can Create & Send Compelling Newsletters for your eCommerce Store
Personalize Your Newsletter
Your email newsletter is incomplete without personalization. According to a report by Evergage, 99% of marketers say personalization helps advance customer relationships, with 78% leaving it has a strong or extremely strong impact on the customer.
The strategy of one size fits all does not work anymore. You need to alter the content according to the customer so that they like reading your newsletter. Personalization can help you attract attention and give you the desired opens & clicks from the customer.
Instead of writing a regular dear buyer or dear sir, you can start by adding the name of your customer in the newsletter.
Furthermore, you can add product recommendations based on the buyer’s browsing and purchase history on the website.
You will need active data aggregation systems for this but once in place, you can easily enhance the experience of the customers and engage with them in a qualitative manner.
Add Discounts & Offers
Customers are usually looking for great discounts and offers for their purchases. Hence, they also explore multiple websites to find the best deal.
But, if you provide them with the best deals right in their inbox, they will definitely run to your store to complete their purchases.
In your monthly, bi-monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly newsletter, keep a section for offers & discounts too!
These offers don’t necessarily need to be discounted. They can also be cashback offers where you offer them a cashback of a certain amount upon shopping for the base limit. Also, you can offer additional benefits like free shipping or coupons from other websites to lure them to your website.
Offers & cashback are your hacks to convert maximum customers and your newsletter must contain at least one of those!
Redesign Regularly
The image assets and branding is essential for your eCommerce newsletter. If you do not design it properly, people will not take interest in opening the email.
With the decreasing attention span, people prefer to view images and videos instead of written content.
Starting with the header, it must contain elements of your brand like your logo, brand name, etc.this will help the customer connect with your brand when they begin reading the newsletter. Do not make it too flashy or too colorful. It must be minimalistic to not drive the customer away!
Next in the body, strike a balance between text & images. Find innovative ways to display text. Do not go overboard with design elements. Ensure to properly space out all information.
Try AB testing to see which design works best for you. This analysis can help you gain more perspective about current trends and the customer’s mindset.
Constantly re-design to make sure you have different ways to engage with the customer.
Try Different Formats
It is also very important to beat the algorithm of search engines and emails. Therefore if you follow a common format every time, sooner or later the algorithm will begin to understand that your email is promotional and will begin sending it to the promotions, other, spam, or junk.
Hence, try a different email format every time. By format, we do not only mean the design format. Along with the layout of the newsletter, also alter how you present information.
For instance, if you send your newsletter bi-monthly, in the first newsletter you can talk about new updates and additions along with a few promotions. In the next newsletter, you talk about offers, testimonials, etc.
This will help you maintain freshness in your content & your customers will not get bored of reading the same content over & over.
Draft Short & Crisp Content
Try to keep the content as short as possible. Today nobody has the time to read long-form content unless they’re looking for something extremely niche. If the emails are short, you will be able to grab attention quickly and convey your message across a wider audience.
Usually, people read emails while they are in the elevator, waiting for their cab, or even in stuck traffic when waiting at red lights. You need to optimize your content so that the readers can conveniently consume the information you provide in a short span of time.
Try to incorporate text within images and don’t make it longer than 100 words for every segment. You must follow the formula – keep it simple, silly!
Use more actionable words in your text. These will compel them to take action. Also, add sensory elements into your text to make it more engaging and relatable for the buyer.
Add Engaging CTAs
CTAs are the driving force behind your newsletter. They must be compelling so that the user can instantly click on them and take action. They must be obvious and directly tell the customer what to do.
For example, if you are sending an eCommerce newsletter about an ongoing sale, write the CTA as shop now rather than writing ‘what are you waiting for?’
This CTA should never be misleading as they contain the links to the product pages. You can make them witty to capture attention but always write what you are expecting the customer to do.
Identify Peak Seasons & Sales
Always conduct a thorough research a year in advance. Identify the top sales and peak seasons for the year and plan your strategy accordingly. If you are aware in advance, you will be to segment your audience prior and prepare quality content to generate more sales.
Newsletters need to be curated carefully with ample time and resources. If you plan your strategy in advance, you can also AB test actively to see which format works best for your business and shoot it when the time is right.
Segment Your Audience
Without audience segmentation, all your efforts at planning a terrific eCommerce newsletter will fail. Audience segmentation gives you insight into what the seller wants and helps you drive your personalization ideas for the same.
For instance, if you have a segment that has purchased about hundred heels in the past one month, can you send them a newsletter containing information about an upcoming sale on electronics, you might lose existing customers too!
Hence, study the behavior and journey of your audience, identify their position The sales funnel, look closely at their interests and then segregate them into buckets to which you will send newsletters. This must be the first step in your strategy to draft compelling eCommerce newsletters.
Do Not Spam
Customers get very annoyed if they keep receiving multiple emails in a day. Even if they have purchased from your brand before, they might stop doing so in the future.
Emails are extremely personal to people. If you keep sending them emails repeatedly, it would look like you’re invading their personal space. Therefore, ensure regular time intervals between your emails and stop engaging with customers who do not respond or take any action.
Start with a short time interval between two newsletters, and gradually increase this time if the customer does not respond.
If you don’t send newsletters regularly, It is imperative that you filter your email lists to remove customers who have not engaged or have chosen to unsubscribe.
If they ask to unsubscribe from your list, do not dishonor their request. It will impact the customer experience negatively.
Optimize for HTML & Plain Text
This has been an ongoing debate for a very long time now. While HTML has more scope for greater creativity, plain text is obviously the less risky option.
So, it is important that you optimize your newsletter for both. You can see which audience segment reacts better to which type of newsletter and plan your newsletters accordingly.
If HTML newsletters are not coded properly, they can end up spoiling the shopping experience of the buyer. Also, they might be moved to spam and will be of no use to you.
Thoroughly test the email before you send it out and collate it properly so that it does not look like a collection of random information. The information must be placed intelligently so that the customer reading it knows the context and can relate to it.
Conclusion
A well-crafted eCommerce newsletter can help you convert customers in seconds. You need to stay true to your brand and optimize your newsletter to show your buyers the best about your store. Do not forget to engage with them using images, gifs, diverse designs, and interesting content. If you follow these tips, you can definitely reach out to many people and promote your store effectively.
