Ecommerce Email Marketing Essentials and Pro Tips

Every now and then, you get emails from ecommerce businesses that ask you to buy an item you have been eyeing for a while. It just feels magical sometimes—the idea of waking up to see the product you need without having to stress yourself. That is what ecommerce email marketing does!

It’s a win-win scenario that offers ease to customers while offering increased profit to the ecommerce merchant. This new method of advertising online products is so good that 50% of marketers say it is their top tool. 

This claim kind of makes sense when you consider that almost 70% of American consumers prefer to communicate with brands via email. Unlike what you might have heard, email marketing is very effective. You just need to understand how to find your way around it. 

The big question is, are you ready to shake things up and start making some real profits? If you are, then continue reading as we share some of our biggest email marketing secrets. These secrets will likely convince your customers to click the right buttons, giving you all the profit you need. 

What Is Ecommerce Email Marketing vs. Other Types of Email Marketing

Ecommerce email marketing kind of gives itself off. The term refers to a special type of marketing that ecommerce businesses use to sell their online products. Of course, it’s like the regular email marketing campaigns you see almost everyday. However, this type of email is more tailored around making sales than any other thing. 

That said, the following are some very distinct features of this type of email that make it stand out:

• Sales focus: Unlike regular email marketing, which focuses on brand awareness, eCommerce emails typically focus on sales.  
• Product showcase: Since the emails are more about sales, they typically feature more product images, descriptions, and prices. The idea behind this is to encourage purchases. 
• Personalization and segmentation: Ecommerce emails leverage customer data to deliver highly targeted content. For instance, the sender can use your purchasing history and preferences. This way, the emails feel like they were sent specifically to you.
• Automation: Implements automated actions usually triggered by actions like cart abandonment, email subscription, and post-purchase follow-ups.
• Examples: While typical email marketing emails are usually newsletters and notifications about blogs, ecommerce emails often include examples like abandoned cart reminders, new arrival emails, and many more.  

What Is an Ecommerce Email vs. Other Types of Marketing Emails

Even though they use similar principles, the look and feel of an ecommerce email is technically different from other regular marketing emails. For a proper understanding, consider the following example of an ecommerce email: 

The first example above is called a cart abandonment email, and its purpose is to remind customers to clear their cart. On the other hand, the second email is a general marketing email.

While both emails are essentially doing “marketing” the first one is more focused on sales than the second. You will notice that, unlike the second one, it was not randomly sent to everyone. Instead, it was sent to the customer who had not cleared their cart in the online store. Looking closely again, you will notice it has clearer images of the products, unlike the other one.  

All of these speak of personalization, segmentation, and automation, which are specific areas where ecommerce emails directly differ from other types of marketing emails.  

Ecommerce Email Marketing Benefits

The remarkable return on investment (ROI), coupled with the effectiveness of e-commerce email marketing, is its most persuasive advantage. Statista reports that ecommerce companies like yours can anticipate an average return of $45 for every $1 invested in ecommerce email marketing efforts—a staggering 4,400% ROI.

Aside from the huge ROI (which is a big deal), the following are some additional reasons why ecommerce email marketing is a big win for you and your online store:

• Build lasting relationships: Unlike social media, email marketing lets you connect directly with customers, essentially helping you foster brand loyalty.
• Drive repeat sales: Targeted email campaigns give your customers the nudge towards additional purchases.
• Boost order value: Lifecycle emails can showcase high-value products to the right customers, increasing their average value.
• Break free from algorithms: Unlike social media and search engines, email isn’t controlled by external platforms, giving you more control over reaching your audience.

Ecommerce Email Marketing Challenges

At this point, you can tell that email marketing works! But then, even the most effective tool will have certain limitations—ecommerce email marketing is no different. Even though it promises huge potential, you need a good strategy to help you beat the following challenges that may limit your ecommerce marketing efforts: 

Low deliverability

Have you ever wondered why some emails drop into the spam folder instead of your inbox? Well, email providers are trying their best to help their users avoid spam. So, they put in automated filters—like robots that check for certain things in your email to decide whether it is a “good email” or spam.

The thing about robots is that they cannot think for themselves. There are cases when the rules of their work slip. So, even if you have an appealing email, sometimes the bots can simply pick your message as spam. Painful, right? 

When this happens, only a few people get to see your emails because, let’s face it, not everyone has the time to check their spam folder. This is called low deliverability.

Getting email subscribers

Once you decide to start sending emails, your first problem will be to get email addresses. Technically, it is not hard to get email addresses. Thanks to the Internet, you can almost buy anything today, email lists included. 

While that might give you the numbers you need, at least at the initial stages, it is the easiest way to make your emails land in the spam folder. Of course, there is nothing more annoying than getting emails that you did not subscribe to. So, when people see your emails, they simply get suspicious and click “Spam.” 

However, if you choose to do things the right way, it might take long, but in the end, it is usually more rewarding.  

Low open rates 

Emails are notorious for having low open rates—it’s the reason some people erroneously think they are not good for marketing. Open rate refers to the number of people who actually open your email. According to a recent survey, over 57% of marketers claim their emails have an open rate between 20 and 50%. Sadly, no matter how good your email is, if it does not get opened, it’s just as good as if you didn’t send it. 

Measuring success 

One of the big benefits of email marketing is the massive amount of data it can generate. However, if you do not understand the data and how to interpret it, it’s just numbers. For instance, yes, you got a 40% increase in CTR. Great number! Hurray! The big question is, are you moving forward, or what exactly does it mean? Can the 40% increase translate to sales? These are some hard questions that you may need to answer when you start writing your emails for ecommerce marketing, and your answers will go a long way. 

Ecommerce Email Marketing Strategies

Now that we have considered the benefits and challenges of email marketing for ecommerce businesses, it’s time for real business—how do you make the best use of email marketing for your ecommerce business?

The following are some tested strategies and email marketing ideas for ecommerce that you can implement to increase your chances of success. 

Building a subscription list 

The real magic of ecommerce email marketing (or even any marketing at that) lies in its voluntary nature. Nobody likes being coerced into doing anything. So, when customers choose to join your list, they’re signaling their genuine interest in your brand. 

It’s like phone numbers—you are likely not to listen to someone who got your number from the Internet. However, when you give someone your number, it’s likely you want them to call you. Similarly, when your customers voluntarily give out their emails, it leads to higher engagement rates with your campaigns. 

Here are some effective ways to build your list organically:

• Exit-intent popups: Offer discounts to incentivize signups as visitors consider leaving.
• Easy signup forms: Make subscribing effortless throughout your website.
• Newsletter signups: Integrate signups into your content marketing and social media efforts.
• Gamification: Make subscribing fun with interactive elements like “Wheel of Fortune.
• Landing pages: Capture leads with targeted signup forms for specific promotions.

Use segmentation 

Generally speaking, if you want your emails to be more engaging, they must be related to the interest and the point your readers are in their buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the process your customers go through until they make a purchase. 

One way to ensure that your emails are sent based on interest and the buyer’s journey is to implement segmentation. Segmentation involves grouping your customers or subscribers using certain predefined parameters. 

This grouping allows you to send targeted messages to specific groups in your audience. Interestingly, 78% of marketers believe that segmentation is one of the most effective strategies you need in your email marketing campaigns. 

The following are some parameters you can use for segmentation:

• Demographic segmentation: Here, you are grouping people based on age, location, gender, etc. 
• Behavioral segmentation: Grouping people based on purchase patterns, time spent on the website, similar campaigns they engaged with, customer lifecycle, etc.
• Advanced segmentation: You group people based on their interactions and personal data like promotions they used, frequency of purchases, etc.

As an example, you can market your most expensive products to customers who shop more for luxury goods. Similarly, you can send extra bonuses to VIP customers using segmentation. 

Automation 

Automation is one of those strategies that will make things easier for you. It involves using technology to create your messages and send them out automatically as you may need them. Automation is so important that 71% of digital marketers claim it is one of the most important strategies for any email marketing campaign. 

A/B testing 

Unfortunately, there is no straight formula that can give you 100% results all the time. Ideally, you need to try as many ecommerce email examples as possible to see what works for you. This is where you will understand the true benefit of A/B testing. 

With A/B testing, you can send two versions of the same email and test their performance at the same time. The beauty of this is that there is no limit to what you can test. 

Usually, marketers test the subject line, images, CTAs, colors, and other components of the email to see which combination gives the best results. 

To Sum Up

With email marketing, you can connect your ecommerce business with those who genuinely want to hear from your brand. As you have read, it yields better results than many other forms of advertising. The truth is, though, you can’t just send out a bunch of emails and hope for the best. 

To get it correctly, you need to put in some effort. Getting email marketing right as an online retailer will make all the difference for you. 

Segmentation, automation, and constant A/B testing are some of the key strategies you need to make things work. With these and more, you can create messages that recipients genuinely want to read while, of course, maintaining a clean list.