Email Marketing 201

This is a follow up to Email Marketing 101 - which you can read here.

Email marketing is still one of the best revenue generators of e-commerce, even today. Although conceptually the same, new companies and new apps have given us countless ways to increase sales through email marketing on Shopify.

The most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns are subscriber segmentation (78%), message personalization (72%), and email automation campaigns (71%). (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)

Segment your Audience:

It is always important to segment your audiences to make sure you are targeting the right people, but more importantly, that you NOT include certain people. For example, if you sell both men’s and women’s parkas, and you run a special offer on women’s only, you would want to send two emails with segmented audiences for this campaign rather than one.

Example 1 - Female Customers

Subject: Something Special for Yourself?

Body: Have you been feeling that itch? The itch for something new? Well we have the deal for you! All Parkas are now 20% OFF.

Example 2 - Male Customers

Subject: Something Special for Someone Special

Body: Happen to be looking to buy something special for someone special? All women’s parkas are currently 20% OFF for a limited time.

Both of these campaigns are offering the same thing, but with segmenting, you can tailor the messaging to the audience.

Better CTAs:

Links with Discounts Applied

A great way to increase conversion rates is to include the discounts in every link on your email. With Shopify, you have the ability to automatically apply a coupon code to every link, eliminating the need for a customer to remember a coupon code or copy and paste it. If you don’t know how to do this, you can learn how here.

 

The benefits of providing links with discount applied will mean customers will see the discounted price already in their carts. No hassle of copying and pasting the coupon code or trying to remember. When the customer goes into their cart, the code is already applied.

Links Directly to the Cart:

Another great CTA is linking directly to the cart. Say you are doing a buy one, get one deal. You can change the links in your email to send users directly to the cart with 2 items and the coupon code already applied. Here is how to compile this link:

For reference, check out the difference in number of clicks on your BOGO deal by sending to the product page vs sending directly to the cart (both include the discount code in the link):

Directly to the Cart - 2 Clicks:

1 Click in Email

1 Click to Checkout

Product Page - 5 Clicks:

1 Click in Email

1 Click to add to cart

1 additional click to add second item

1 click to cart

1 click to checkout

With every click you decrease your conversion rate significantly. But with direct-to-cart links, you decrease confusion and increase conversion rates. 

Automations:

Automating some of your emails is a great way to ensure that you connect with specific customers at specific points in their customer journey. Here are some great examples of email automation campaigns you can utilize on your Shopify store. 

Welcome Email Automation

With this automation you would want to provide users with information about your brand. What your unique selling proposition is and potentially some discounts and offers along their journey. 

Lapsed Purchaser

Create a segment of users who haven’t purchased from you in some time. This period of time will have to be based on your average churn rate. These automations will ensure that you try and pull in customers who may be considering leaving or switching to another brand.

Back in Stock

Segmenting your audience based on products purchased presents a great opportunity to automate email notifications indicating when products are back in stock. Nobody likes to miss out on sales due to OOS, but with back in stock automations you can be certain that your diehard fans will be notified as soon as that SKU is back in stock, automatically! 

These are just a few of the options for automations, but the power of these is the set and forget mentality. BUT - be sure to always try and keep track of the metrics associated with these automations. You may benefit from the convenience of them being “automatic,” but you should always try and review important metrics such as open, click through, and conversion rates. 

Although it has been around for decades, email marketing is still one of the most profitable forms of marketing. Utilize these tips to grow your Shopify store. 

Now go and grow. 

J