E-commerce Email Marketing — 8 Campaigns You Should Be Doing

Although social media and search are both effective ways to get your e-commerce business noticed, email marketing is still the channel to beat in terms of engaging and building relationships with prospects and customers. So, if you’re looking to give a big boost to your website traffic and sales, harness the power of these eight types of email campaigns that are key to e-commerce success.

1. Welcome Campaigns – Use these emails to convert new subscribers (your hottest prospects) into loyal customers.

   By signing up to receive promotions from your company, new subscribers have indicated that they’re keenly interested in your products. That’s why welcome emails tend to perform so well, generating 86% higher open rates, 196% higher click rates, and 320% more revenue per email compared to promotional emails.

   So, strike while the iron is hot by using your welcome campaigns to:

   • Highlight your outstanding brand benefits compared to competitors
   • Provide educational information about your products
   • Include testimonials and customer reviews to build brand credibility
   • Incentivize new subscribers to convert, such as by offering a percentage off their first online order.
2. Abandoned-Cart Recovery Campaigns – Use these emails to give prospects a nudge (or two or three) to complete their purchase.

   Did you know that the average shopping-cart abandonment rate exceeds 68%? That’s where abandoned-cart recovery campaigns come in. They can give prospective customers a good reason to return to their shopping carts and convert. And the good news is that nearly half of abandoned-cart recovery emails are opened and more than one-third of clicked recovery emails convert to a sale.

   • Testimonials from satisfied customers
   • A sense of urgency, such as a deadline for a special sale or a limited number of items left
   • An incentive to purchase (Note: It’s not a good idea to provide the incentive offer in the first email of the campaign series, because you may train customers to abandon their carts and wait for the bargain.)
3. Transactional Campaigns – Kick it up a notch in these emails to help boost customer engagement.

   Receipts, personal resets, delivery confirmations – these are all examples of transactional emails. Customers are typically anticipating these types of emails, which is why transactional emails are eight times more likely to be opened compared to promotional emails from the same company.

   Be sure to take advantage of this outstanding opportunity to increase engagement with your customers by:

   • Including items bought by other customers who also purchased the same item.
   • Nurturing customers with helpful links to usage tips, articles, and videos related to the purchased product.
4. Nurturing Campaigns – Use these emails to guide prospects and customers through your sales cycle.

   Nurturing email campaigns provide the right message, at the right time, to the right prospect or customer. And they can have a huge impact on your marketing success. In fact, leads that are nurtured can produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities compared to leads that aren’t nurtured. A few examples of nurturing campaigns include:

   • Email messages for a loyalty rewards program through which customers earn bonuses for their purchases
   • Campaigns set up around a product’s lifecycle, such as sending reminders when it’s time to reorder
   • Special discounts and deals sent weekly to your most loyal customers.
5. Reengagement Campaigns – Use these emails to rekindle interest in your brand.

   Did you know that marketers’ databases typically include 60% inactive subscribers, with about 25% of subscribers becoming inactive each year?Reengagement campaigns are a great way to recapture the interest (and likely revenue) from an inactive group of subscribers. Deliverability is another good reason to implement reengagement campaigns, because a highly inactive list can have a negative impact on your email deliverability.

   The strategy of an effective reengagement campaign includes:

   • Identifying your inactive subscribers – such as subscribers who haven’t opened or clicked on your emails in six months or more
   • Designing a campaign that reminds the inactive subscribers why your products are better than the competition’s
   • Giving inactive subscribers an incentive (e.g., discount or gift) to again interact with your company’s emails.
6. Seasonal Campaigns – Use these emails to spark new interest among subscribers.

   Whether it’s Back-to-School, Leap Day, Halloween, or Black Friday, a seasonal email campaign may be just what you need to cut through the inbox clutter and recapture the attention of your prospects and customers. At FulcrumTech, we suggested a first — time Cyber Monday promotion for one of our clients. The response was impressive–more than tripling the company’s previous biggest sales day!

   Here are a few tips to consider as you create your seasonal email campaigns:

   • Be careful not to get overly creative with seasonal themes and overshadow your brand marketing
   • Create segments of subscribers who typically respond to certain seasonal campaigns, sending them special offers
   • Optimize your seasonal campaign’s dedicated landing pages to help “seal the deal.”
7. Product Review Campaigns – Use these emails to precipitate customer reviews and boost your brand credibility.

   Product reviews and testimonials can have a huge positive impact on the response of online shoppers, as well as on your website’s search engine rankings. One study, for example, showed that products with reviews had a 12.5% higher conversion rate compared to those without. And products with more than 20 reviews had an 84% higher conversion rate!

   So, how do you get your customers to give you a review? Create effective product review email campaigns. Here are a few tips to help maximize your response:

   • Personalize the emails, including the product purchased
   • Give your customers an incentive to complete the review, such as a discount off the next online order
   • Be sure your call to action stands out; is located above the fold; and has strong, clear copy (e.g., Review Now).
8. Post-Purchase Campaigns – Use these emails to turn one-time buyers into loyal customers.

   Triggered email campaigns, such as post-purchase emails, are both timely and relevant to customers who have just made a purchase. In fact, these types of triggered emails tend to have 50% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through rates compared to non-triggered emails. So, take advantage of customers’ piqued interest in your products – especially first-time buyers – by following through with post-purchase email campaigns.

   Here are a few examples of ways you can engage with customers after they’ve made a purchase:

   • Simply say thank you (to make them feel appreciated)
   • Cross-sell related products
   • Provide an incentive for future purchases.

   For more of FulcrumTech’s tried-and-true tricks for using email to drive conversions, download FulcrumTech’s free white paper – 10 Email Campaigns that Will Boost E-Commerce Revenue.

Are you getting the best possible results from your current email-marketing program? FulcrumTech can help answer that question, as well as find effective ways to use email to increase your website traffic and sales. Contact us and get started today!