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Given these astonishing figures, it’s not surprising that email marketing has remained the nerve center of every successful digital marketing campaign. Namely, 80% of retail professionals consider it the most powerful customer retention booster.
So, what does this mean for your eCommerce?
Don’t fool yourself believing that you’re the only one using this form of marketing to connect with your customers. Your competition is fierce. Moreover, as your customers receive mountains of similar emails every day, they will go with those that stand out.
So, to rise above your competitors, you need to make yourself heard and inspire your recipients to choose to open your email.
Make Them an Offer They Cannot Refuse
Let’s imagine this. A stranger asks you to give them your address or phone number. So, what would you do in a situation like this? The chances are you’d run away, right?
The same goes for you and your customers. Never assume they know who you are. They won’t give their email address to you unless you give them a reason to do so. In the world of email marketing, this reason is called a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is actually a reward your customers get for providing their email address. It can be in a form of ebooks, checklists, templates, infographics, video series, and so on.
However, you should never forget that, with the rise of the internet, your competition also grows. Therefore, to hook your target audience’s attention, you need to make them an irresistible offer.
• Know what keeps your customers up at night and offer content that helps them solve these problems.
• Be concise and clearly point out what your visitors get by joining your email list.
• Focus on content that is easy-to-digest, such as videos or infographics.
• Offer continuous content upgrades.
• Highlight your content’s value and credibility.
Craft a Powerful Subject Line
Once you collect your target audience’s email addresses, you need to craft an email that converts. Like I’ve already mentioned, your recipients get a myriad of emails similar to yours every day. And, to grab their attention, you first need to get them to hear you out.
Remember, the first step to monetizing your audiences is your subject line.
Namely, your subject line is the very beginning of your relationship with your customers. Most importantly, this is when they decide whether to open your email or not. Research shows that 69% of recipients mark emails as spam, based on their subject line alone.
So, to write a subject line that resonates with your target audience, you need to:
• Clearly tell what they get in return for completing the desired action.
• Keep it short to help your recipients scan it from beginning to end. It should be less than 50 characters.
• Personalize your subject line, but avoid using your recipients’ names.
• Be professional. Remember, your tone indicates how credible your eCommerce is.
• Leverage words denoting urgency to trigger FOMO (the fear of missing out), as they can boost your open rate by 20%. Still, make sure you use them naturally and rationally.
Segment and Personalize
If you want your recipients to click, you need to provide them with relevant information. And, to do so, you need to know who they are. That’s where target audience segmentation shines. This means taking numerous factors into consideration, from their age and location to their education, preferences, and buying habits.
To build trust and connect with your recipients on a more personal level, you need to humanize your brand. Use pronouns like “I” or “we,” insert an email signature, and add your photo to show that there is a real person behind the email.
Get your Formatting Right
The visual appeal of your email determines whether your target audience will read your message from beginning to end or ditch it immediately. To keep them interested in what you have to offer, you need to format your email properly.
For starters, we’re living in a mobile-first era. According to statistics, 48% of all emails are opened via mobile devices, while 69% of users will immediately abandon an email that is not optimized for mobile. So, similarly to your website, your emails need to be responsive.
• Implement single-column formatting to make your text easier to read and your CTA button more prominent.
• The width of your email needs to be adequate. Namely, emails that are either too narrow or too wide make a bad impression and boost your bounce rates.
• Make sure your email is easy to scan. Break up your text into smaller, easy-to-read paragraphs, have subheadings, leave a lot of white space, and take advantage of bulleted lists. Also, make sure it’s readable by choosing the right font size.
• Your CTA needs to easy to spot and tap. Make sure it stands out and yet matches other colors and fonts you use.
Focus on Engaging Content
Getting your recipient to open your email is important, but it’s pointless if they don’t read it and perform the desired action. That’s where your content steps in. This is the element that adds value to your message and keeps your potential customers interested.
First, traditional blog posts are great, but they’re not enough. In today’s hyperconnected world of AI and VR, your customers’ preferences have changed. They want visual stimuli, content that excites them and interacts with them.
For example, your customers are more eager to watch a video about a product than to read about it. Precisely because of this, emails with the term “video” in a subject line receive 19% higher open rates and 65% higher click-through rates. The same goes for other forms of visual content, such as images, infographics, gifs, and memes.
Overview
Email marketing is an immensely important aspect of your online presence. It drives quality traffic to your site, turns your leads into loyal customers, makes your content more transparent and, most importantly, helps you build lasting relationships with your customers.
So, please, don’t take it for granted.
Once you’re all set, don’t forget to keep track of your most important email marketing KPIs, such as open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates. This way, you will know what works for your eCommerce and give your email marketing campaign a boost.
Hope this helps!
