With vast improvements in technology, it’s no surprise how much eCommerce has grown. It’s been estimated that there are anywhere between 12 million to 24 eCommerce sites around the world.
And if you aren’t already optimizing your eCommerce sales strategies, note that the worldwide industry share is projected to scale up to 72.9% by 2021. That’s a lot of business that could be going your way.
And one of the best ways to make sure your eCommerce site is converting as many sales as possible, you’ll need to level up your email marketing strategies.
We’ve compiled ten of the top tactics you should be trying on your email marketing campaigns to make more sales and conversions each time.
eCommerce email marketing tactics
Carefully craft your email subject line
To get more conversions out of your email campaigns, you first need to increase open rates. About 47% of people will decide to open an email based only on the subject line, while 69% report email as spam if they think the subject line appears spammy.
It is thus crucial to adapt your subject such that it generates enough curiosity from recipients to want to learn more, while also signaling that you aren’t sending them spam.
There are a few subject line best practices you can keep in mind, based on what reports have found about email subject line statistics and trends:
- Keep your subject line about 6-10 words (21% average open rate)
- Include your recipient’s name (22% more likely to be opened)
- Words like “free” can increase open rates by 10%, while words like “Fw” or “newsletter” can decrease them by 18%.
Make it interactive
Your emails don’t have to be a regular newsletter. To spruce up your email marketing and get customers engaging, make those emails more interactive.
According to a recent survey, for example, 82% of recipients were more likely to respond or engage with an interactive message.
Here are some ideas to start creating more interactive emails:
- Use one-click polls and surveys
- Include a video
- Add a digital magazine with a flip-page effect
Combine email marketing with other marketing channels
Your email marketing can only be as good as your other digital marketing channels. After reading your emails, for example, people may want to check out your social media or website.
Because of this, support any and all email campaigns on your other channels. If your email promotes a limited-time sale on your eCommerce store, consider adding a timer ribbon on top of your website. Or update your social media headers and profile photos to reflect the said sale.
Embrace automation
Automation can save your marketing and sales teams more time. You can automatically send welcome emails for new subscribers, or have a drip email campaign that takes customers through a journey promoting a new collection or promotion you have.
You should also be using automation with actual sales and delivery emails. Use invoicing software that sends invoices to customers who’ve just made a purchase. And send automated update emails when their order has been shipped.
For cart abandonments, you’ll also want to have an automated remarketing strategy in place.
Segment your customers
One of the best things you should constantly be doing for your email marketing is segmenting customers into different groups. Up to 89% of businesses aren’t segmenting customers yet – and that could be costing them.
There are a myriad of different ways to segment customers by, so use the ones best suited for your business. Common ways include segmentation by geographic location, gender, and email engagement level (such as putting high-engagers in VIP lists).
Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly
Around 62% of all emails are now opened and read on a mobile device. This number is only expected to grow.
What does this mean? You must adapt your email marketing campaigns to be mobile-friendly. From subject line length all the way to the design of the email, have a mobile-first mindset to make sure you capitalize on your emails appropriately.
Here are some ways you can start switching to mobile-first:
- Use shorter paragraphs across text and images
- Make your fonts adjust to the device. Some text may end up too small on mobile, so double-check your templates and codes.
- Make buttons and links more pronounced.
Practice the habit of testing
You know what they say about digital marketing: test everything.
Your first port of action is testing email subject lines (we’ve outlined best practices above). But if your email marketing provider can handle it, be sure to test in-email CTAs and images as well.
Also, use A/B tests on opt-in forms for your website. Over time, you’ll notice which forms, subject lines, and CTAs convert best. And you can use this information to create new campaigns and improve future tests.
Share customer reviews
When sending emails with a promotion, one way to increase conversions is by including customer reviews and testimonials about products in your eCommerce store. Millennials, for example, trust user-generated content like reviews more than any other medium.
To make sure you have reviews to display and promote, encourage users to leave reviews on their purchases. Have a scheme that incentivizes customers to review products, such as perhaps getting a discount or store credit whenever they complete a review.
Streamline your checkout process
Your checkout process has to be easy to do – and from every device. Building upon the tactic to go mobile-first, a recent survey found that 79% of smartphone users have made an eCommerce purchase on their phones in the last 6 months.
Make it easy for customers to checkout your products. Your interface should be beautiful and optimized in order to decrease cart abandonment.
2Checkout lets you create a beautiful, efficient digital cart for customers.
Take the time to clean your inbox
Last but not least, it’s good practice to consistently clean out your marketing and sales inbox in order to make room for new emails, queries, and support requests.
Have a system in place that allows your personnel to identify concluded email threads or to delete emails that require no response. Use email labels and tags to organize emails, and archive any threads that are no longer active.
This way, you can stay on top of all emails that come from customers. A cluttered inbox, after all, makes it hard to navigate and see which emails need attention from just a glance.
Key Takeaways
With the rise of eCommerce, digital platforms like email marketing must be optimized to increase conversions.
Follow these tactics and build small but powerful ways to create better emails and make more sales. Don’t be afraid to tweak these tactics and adopt the best-performing ones – but keep in mind to continuously optimize, test, and implement in order to achieve desired results.
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About the Author
Kevin Payne is a content marketing consultant that helps software companies build marketing funnels and implement content marketing campaigns to increase their inbound leads.
