Running any business is hard work, but the key is to have strong marketing strategies in place. Email is still going strong. In fact, businesses are showing renewed interest in it as a strategy to boost their performance. Email marketing allows you to connect with customers by providing them with personalized messages and offers, as well as relevant, timely information.
Here are 8 key strategies to improve your email marketing strategy.
Create A Series Of Welcome Emails
Congratulations, you have a new subscriber! They’ve signed up, which means that they are expecting to hear from you. Start by sending them a welcome email as soon as they’ve signed up.
Use your autoresponder to help you create and set up your welcome emails. A series of 3 welcome emails usually works well. This gives you the opportunity to let new subscribers get to know you before becoming part of the regular mailing list. It provides you with the opportunity to set expectations about the type of relationship they will have with you, including how often they can expect to receive newsletters. It also allows you to segment them for future communications, so that they have a more tailored experience.
On average, welcome emails have a 45% open rate. Data shows that on average, 3 to 6 times more sales are produced as a result of first purchase automation, compared to regular promotional emails. Be aware that despite the welcome series of emails performing better overall than a single email send, engagement does tend to dip after the first email.
Create Exclusive Offers
Your repeat customers are worth a lot to your business. Keeping them engaged and rewarding their loyalty is essential. One way to achieve this is to create a loyalty program.
Use analytics software to help you segment the most loyal of your customers. Thy are the ones who return regularly to your site and make a purchase. Once you have identified them, send out an email marketing campaign to this selected group.
You can explain that they are receiving that email because you know that they are loyal customers. You can give them an exclusive offer to entice them back to your site. This will help to create a stronger relationship with your customers by letting them know that you acknowledge and value their business. Creating a feeling of exclusivity will boost your customers’ motivation to make a purchase.
Send Promotional Emails To All Subscribers
Some emails should be sent to all your subscribers. These are the promotional emails. In particular, any seasonal promotions or holiday-themed promotional emails should be sent to all your subscribers. This is often a fantastic opportunity for subscribers to take the step into becoming consumers.
“One of the most important times of the year to do this is between November and December,” says Timothy Gabriel, an email marketer at UKWritings and Academized “This time of year tends to generate about 25% of all annual retail sales. Of that, 20% is generated from email marketing. In particular, think about having promotional emails ready for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. Don’t forget to remind subscribers of upcoming holidays throughout the year, such as Mother or Father’s Day. This will prompt them to browse your site and hopefully, purchase a gift.”
Make use of scheduled sales by firstly being aware of the key dates for your marketing calendar. You can also set up coupon codes to automatically apply to your cart with Shopify and BigCommerce, which will make it even easier for any subscribers to make a purchase.
Test The Effectiveness Of Your Email Marketing Campaign
Email split testing – or the A/B test – is essentially when you create two versions of the same email.
“First you will need to create three recipient lists – A, B and C,” explains John Larsen, a blogger at Essayroo and Essay Help. “Email A will be your original and will be sent out to one particular group of subscribers. Email B is the email you are testing it against and it is an altered version of the original. Email B will have only a single element changed. It could be a design feature change, a specific part of the copy, the email subject line or even the call-to-action. Email B is sent to another group of subscribers. Comparing the two emails will provide you with invaluable data. Make sure that you use analytics to compare and decide which email performed better. You can see which one generated more engagement or sales. The winning version – version C – can then be sent out to the final pool of recipients.”
The data that you generate from the A/B tests can then be used to help you shape future emails campaigns.
Create Abandoned Cart Emails
As many as 60% to 80% of customers abandon their carts. Sending abandoned cart emails can recover between 5% to 11% of what would otherwise have been lost sales.
Create an automated email series for carts which have been abandoned. You will want to entice shoppers back to your site to complete their purchase, so using images of the items they had added to their carts can be a simple way to gently prompt them to go back and buy the items.
Alternatively, you can also offer them a specific incentive to return to their cart. For example, you might give shoppers a discount such as 10% off or free shipping. The only danger with this strategy is that savvy customers start to abandon carts purposefully in order to get the deals. Remember to use a compelling and clear call-to-action – to complete their purchase.
Ask For Customer Feedback
Don’t be afraid to ask engaged and loyal customers to review your products. Reach out to customers via emails and ask them to leave a review of their recent purchases. You can do this is a range of ways, either through a survey or just a single question about their shopping experience.
Make sure that any review requests are sent after the customer has received the products and had time to use it. Set up an automated email to be sent a week or two after the purchase has been presumed to have arrived. Your call-to-action review button can either send the customer to a third-party for feedback, or you can include a short survey in the email itself. These are usually rating systems with a short comment option. Alternatively, you can send direct customers to a survey available on your own store. After customers have submitted their feedback, they may then see related products or offers, which might encourage them to continue shopping.
If a customer is dissatisfied with their purchase, make sure that you follow this up. This helps to prompt a response from the customer and allows you to work out how you can improve customer experience in the future.
Consider placing reviews on your website. This will help to boost confidence in your products and brand.
Create A Referral Program
92% of people trust the recommendations of their peers more than that of advertisers. This means that by creating a referral program, you could be greatly increasing your business. Word-of-mouth is its own type of marketing and it helps to boost trust in your brand and will help to build your reputation. Adding a referral program to your email marketing tactics can be a very powerful tool.
A referral program basically offers rewards or incentives to existing customers to refer their friends to your site. It works by subscribers forwarding a link to their friend. Any purchases generated as a result of those links can then trigger automated reward emails for the original customer.
Send Product Notification Emails
If an item has become out of stock, it’s a great opportunity for you to encourage shoppers to sign up so that they can be notified when it is back in stock. You can also allow customers to set up a Wishlist. Via automated emails, you can then send them occasional reminders or updates about the products on their Wishlist to prompt them to make a purchase.
Sending product notification emails allows customers to have information about products they care about, whilst being engaged with your marketing campaigns. If you have acquired emails for notification purposes, remember to ask customers if they would like to opt-in to receiving your email newsletter. This way you can grow your subscriber list and attract new customers.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a great, low-risk way to explore what works best for your business. Start with a basic email list and gradually build this up over time and segment it into relevant groups. Make sure that you set up your welcome and abandoned cart email campaigns straight away. Be organized and plan ahead for any upcoming holidays or events and create email campaigns to help you boost sales over those periods. Above all, email marketing helps to boost your connection with your customers. So, why wait?
Beatrix Potter is a successful writer at Top VIC Assignment Writing Services and Top Canadian Writing Services websites. She specializes in articles related to email marketing. Beatrix also regularly blogs at Custom Writing Services portal.
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