Many e-commerce marketers are very keen on investing in email marketing. They are growing their lists, sending engrossing email campaigns to engage visitors or, better still, bring them to their website. Email marketing is effective but it’s not just about the right strategy. It’s about the right timings. If you email the wrong people at the wrong timing, chances are they will unsubscribe to your list. Or even worse, they might go follow one of your competitors. On the contrary, if you email the right people at the right timings, it can make all the difference in your marketing and lead generation. These will be life-long brand advocates for your business.
Now, who doesn’t want that? You do! Therefore, now is the time to take notes because this is where you will find the exact strategy to attract your dream customers through email.
Three Most Important Emails You Should be Sending
- Welcome emails
- Trigger emails
- Retention emails
Welcome emails
First, you have the traditional welcome emails where you thank the visitors for joining your company’s newsletter and place expectations for what’s to come. This is your chance to make a good impression. If your introduction is not memorable, any other email you send won’t make much of a difference. You need to have originality.
Derek Sivers’ order confirmation email got viral because there wasn’t an email like it before. He told a silly little story about how the product was packed and shipped.
The point to note is that you write in a fun way which sounds like a friend or colleague to your prospects. This essentially means you use no corporate language.
The Design
Your email design should be simple. If you have more than one products make sure it’s easy to browse by preference. The fewer the clicks, the better.
The Curation Email
The second type of welcome email is the curation email. People love curated content whether it’s music or physical products. People love to buy the best. The same reason why a curation email is popular in e-commerce marketers. A curation email will share a brand’s best assets. This could be sharing popular content from previous weeks. It gives your prospects a chance to learn more about what they love. Another reason why it works is that it allows email marketers to segment recipients based on interest.
Imagine you have a furniture store and you curate an email showing the best furniture products in the following categories:
- Seating
- Lighting
- Tables
If you are using tagging with an email marketing service like Infusionsoft, and one recipient always clicks a link to seating. You can begin scoring that prospect based on their clicking activity. Over time that prospect is more likely to become a customer and be a part of your list due to the relevance of the offers.
The Engagement Email
Back in the golden age of direct response marketing, copywriter Gary Halbert was famous for attracting dollar bills, Japanese Yens, and Mexican Pesos to his sales letters. Because he needed to get his prospect’s attention.
On average people get 122 emails per day and to make a difference you need engaging emails.
Brooklinen encourages engagement by offering free shipping in one of their newsletters. They know shipping is a common reason for cart abandonment.
These tactics build two-way engagement between the company and the prospect. Just remember to make it memorable.
The Referral Email
Inviting customers to refer friends and family to a brand is a great source for free leads.
74% of customers use word-of-mouth as a key influence in their purchasing decision.
This is the main reason why brands invest in building strong referral programs. You might ask for referrals on your thank you page. Do that in your emails as well.
Bombos ask that in a fun way. They give clear instructions with a free pair of socks.
Trigger Emails
Trigger emails are triggered by a particular action by a recipient such as visiting a product pricing page. What do you offer in trigger emails?
Discount Email
One of the most effective and popular ways is to offer a discount especially if you are sending a cart abandonment email.
54% of the shoppers are likely to purchase abandoned products if they’re offered again at a discounted price.
You need to seek balance in offering discounts. Too little can make your customers go to a competitor and too much can make you lose money. You should offer discounts to customers who are already engaging with your marketing campaigns.
Order Confirmation Email
Now once they purchase, next comes the order confirmation email. You can use this email to offer additional discounts. These emails are also a great way of pacing your customer’s expectations. It is a prime email real estate. It’s nothing but a digital receipt but it’s also a way of reminding shoppers that buying from you was the right decision.
Upsell/Cross-Sell Email
Upselling is when you invite a prospect to purchase a more expensive item. Cross-selling is when you recommend a related or complementary product.
It’s the same psychology McDonald’s uses to offer fries with every order they take.
It’s a great way to earn more money for your business while giving more value to your customers.
Retention Email
It costs 5-25 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. So how do you reduce churn and improve customer loyalty in the long run? By sending emails you remind your audience that they are still important to you. Tell them you miss them. Send them offers. Ask them why they left.
If you don’t ask them what they’re looking for how do you offer them what they want?
Asking them will give you an opportunity to improve your email marketing process. It works for so many companies and it can work for you too.
Thank You Email
Lastly, you should always send a Thank You Email. We don’t say thank you enough. Thanking them goes beyond thanking for subscribing to your newsletter or making a purchase. It’s about recognizing they’re the reason why you are in business.
Write from your heart and thank your customers for helping them make what they do possible. Many times it really pays off to thank your customers for making your business a possibility. These are the types of emails you should send to your audience to increase engagement with your email lists. Always keep the reader’s intent first and you won’t have to work that hard to make your strategy a success.
Final Words
You can create an automation that sends emails automatically to every single lead that you collect from different sources. Pabbly Connect is one such application that helps you in creating efficient workflows. For example, if you sell products through your WooCommerce website and want to send your customer a thank you email on a successful purchase, you can do it by creating a workflow that sends the customers data from your website to your emailing application. This automation will save you from manually sending the same email repeatedly and also maintain their continuity.
