Ecommerce email marketing
Effective email strategies and types
Most ecommerce email marketing focuses on sending promotional messages to newsletter subscribers—potential customers, loyal buyers, or users with purchase intent for your products. In addition, beyond supporting your sales effort, this type of email marketing helps strengthen relationships and build customer loyalty.
It also allows you to build a relationship of trust with customers, laying the foundation for a long-term collaboration.
For example, emails such as product updates, event invitations or content of interest to users, requesting feedback or reviews keep your online store's brand in their attention.
Why is email marketing important in ecommerce?
Email marketing is a communication channel that cannot be missing from the communication mix of an online store, because it offers:
Direct and personalized communication
Personalized messages are sent in response to certain user actions.
Reduced costs
Compared to other promotion channels, emails have a low cost but increased efficiency.
Automation and scalability
Automated campaigns can be created for different audience segments.
High conversion rate
When campaigns follow best practices, they can have a significant impact on purchasing decisions.
The structure of email marketing types in ecommerce
An effective ecommerce email marketing plan involves creating a structure of emails, each having an essential role in the relationship with customers:
Transactional emails
These emails are sent following a customer action and are essential to the customer's experience with the online store. Transactional emails include:
• Order confirmation – This is an order confirmation and registration email that the user receives immediately after sending it.
• Delivery notifications – The user receives an email notification about the product being shipped.
• Password reset – The user resets the account password and receives an email with instructions on how to restore the account.
Marketing and promotional emails
These are used to attract and retain customers:
• Newsletters – They contain information about new products, discounts and industry trends.
• Promotional emails – Offer special offers, discounts and promotional codes for a limited time.
• Upsell and cross-sell campaigns – Based on previous purchases, the customer receives an email with recommendations for additional products or accessories.
Loyalty and engagement emails
To increase customer retention and interaction, the online store can use:
• Welcome evenings – Familiarize the customer with the brand, the benefits offered and information about the available products.
• Anniversary emails – They contain special offers or promotional codes for birthdays or other important events.
• Feedback and reviews – Motivate customers to leave written opinions, images or videos about the products they purchased.
Recovery emails
To win back customers who have not completed a purchase or have not interacted with the brand:
• Abandoned cart recovery emails – These remind customers about products left in their cart and possibly offer an incentive to complete the purchase.
• Reactivate inactive customers – Send customers an email presenting new products and offers, a reason to return to the site.
Best practices for ecommerce email marketing
To achieve maximum results, we recommend that you follow some effective strategies:
• Email list segmentation – Sending personalized emails to customer segments with similar interests and behaviors.
• Attractive topics – A well-chosen title determines the opening of the email.
• Attractive and optimized design – Emails should be easy to read on mobile devices. Over 80% of users shop on mobile.
• Clear call-to-action – Buttons or links that guide the user to the next action.
Testing and optimization – Analyze email marketing indicators, such as open rate and click rate, to adjust the strategy, but also Google Analytics to see user browsing behavior.
How to start an ecommerce email marketing campaign? Practical guide and proven strategies
Before you start sending emails to your subscribers, you need to establish your strategy. Who do I send to? When? What type of content do I use? What action do I expect to see from my subscribers?
This is a process that starts with defining audience types, setting measurable goals, and creating relevant content for each customer group. Then, testing emails, analyzing results, and optimizing the campaign.
Creating and expanding your email list
Building and growing your email list is the core activity of email marketing. Your list includes all the people who have opted in to receive emails from your brand.
Your campaigns email marketing They can include recent subscribers, new customers or loyal customers, as well as other people interested in your products. Subscriber list management is an ongoing process.
Healthy growth is organic. As users discover your site, up to 10% choose to subscribe to your newsletter. To get the highest percentage possible, you can offer various benefits, such as exclusive discounts or promotional codes.
Here are some methods to encourage newsletter subscriptions:
• Sign-up forms in social media posts
• Contests and giveaways in partnership with sites that target common audiences
• Landing page dedicated to newsletter subscription
• Registration forms in the comments section on the blog
• Host webinars and other online events
• Create "gated" content – Offer white papers, ebooks or online courses
• Provide discounts or promotional codes for new subscribers
For example, a fashion store offers 10% discount for new subscribers, which led to an increase in the subscriber list with 30% per year.
Other methods can also be used in which the value of the gift offered has a low cost, but has a high value for the user.
For example, an online store that sells coffee machines might offer a free guide to coffees from around the world in PDF format. To download this guide, users must enter their email, first and last name, in the subscription box and confirm the email.
Location of registration forms
Depending on where you place your sign-up forms, you can attract new subscribers through third-party sites, such as specialized online publications, social networks, or online communities (forums).
For example, if your online store sells auto parts and supplies, a form placed in the car enthusiast community can bring you subscribers with high potential to become customers of your store.
Setting measurable goals
Email marketing campaigns for ecommerce have clear and measurable objectives.
Some examples of objectives include:
• Reaching the 10% of total sales through the email marketing channel.
• Reduce shopping cart abandonment rate by 30% in the next six months.
• Achieving an average newsletter open rate of 35%.
• Increase click rate (CTR) with 10% in the next two months.
• Growth with 40% the number of customers who leave reviews.
The goals you set for your email marketing campaigns will guide your actions.
For example, if you want email marketing to be responsible for 10% from sales throughout the year, you can start with a promotional plan of special offers and limited-time discounts.
To this, you can add upsell and cross-sell campaigns based on customers' browsing history and previous purchases.
Choose an email marketing platform
Next, you need an email marketing platform that is suitable for your goals or a specialized agency that understands your business and becomes your partner in achieving these goals.
First of all, by choosing White Image, you will benefit from both a fully customizable platform and a team of specialists ready to take you through all the necessary steps to create effective communication. In this journey, the first thing we will discuss will be integration with your online store, the functions you want, establishing automations of workflows, then we will discuss personalizing communication messages, creating templates and messages that convert and comply with the new legal norms regarding communication accessibility. The size of the budget in principle depends on the size of the subscriber list and the level of customization desired.
Integration with the site is perhaps one of the most important criteria, because you want the segmentation and flows that respond to user behavior to be as precise as possible.
Segment your email list
Email list segmentation is a very important component in email marketing for ecommerce.
Divide the subscriber list into multiple segments based on relevant criteria, such as:
• Purchase history
• Buying behavior
• Category of products purchased
• Shopping frequency
• Engagement rate at different time intervals (30/60/90 days)
• Age and gender
• Geographic area (country/region/city)
This data can come from a variety of sources, such as your website, social media pages, and email analytics. You can also send surveys and questionnaires to your subscribers to learn more about them.
Email list segmentation allows you to customize messages for each customer group to better meet their needs.
Once your list starts to grow, we recommend segmenting your customer list based on their purchase history. This can be divided into categories such as:
• New customers, buying for the first time.
• Loyal customers, who have purchased several times.
• Potential customers, who have viewed certain pages or products on your site.
• Inactive customers, who have not interacted for a long time.
This approach can generate an increase of up to 14.3% in open rates, an increase of over 100% in CTRs, and a decrease of up to 5% in bounce rates, compared to non-segmented campaigns.
What do these indicators represent?
Bounce rate of emails is the percentage of emails that did not reach the recipients' inbox (bounce)The lower this number, the more people receive your message and indicates that you have a quality list.
Click-through rate (CTR) It represents the percentage of subscribers who clicked on the links in your email. A high click rate indicates greater interest.
Email marketing platforms come with advanced segmentation systemsThese include integrated tools for creating customer profiles and providing data about their journey, from first contact to conversion.
Planning email marketing campaigns
Your target audience is made up of several customer groups, each with distinct needs. Therefore, you need to determine the level of interaction with each category.
With this goal in mind, create an email marketing calendar for the coming weeks or months. Use it to schedule emails and follow-ups, keeping a clear record of your campaigns.
Start the calendar from scratch using Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or call one of WhiteImage's specialists, who can help you with a detailed plan in this regard.
An email marketing calendar structure could look like this:
• Campaign name
• Types of emails sent (e.g. newsletters, follow-ups, welcome emails)
• Email subject
• Product/offer features
• Target audience
• Calls to action (CTAs)
• Date and time of sending
• Campaign status (e.g. sent, ongoing, scheduled)
• Campaign manager (the person who manages the sending of the email)
• Objectives (e.g. generating leads, attracting new subscribers, reactivating inactive customers)
Strategic email planning will allow you to optimize the impact of your campaigns and increase your efficiency.
Write engaging email content
Your email text should provide value to the user and capture their attention from the first few seconds. It should also communicate to users what is expected of them and what concrete benefits they will have.
Here are some recommendation to create a persuasive email content:
• Write attractive titles – Use action-oriented language to make your headlines more engaging. Phrases like "Don't miss it", "Learn", "Discover" or "Start now" They arouse curiosity and give the reader a reason to continue reading.
• Optimize preheader text – The preheader is the first thing people see in the email preview, along with the subject line. Keep it between 30 and 80 characters for optimal display on mobile devices. This text should convey the essence of email and to get readers to open it.
• Personalize whenever possible – On average, 62% of users who don't receive personalized content don't interact with email. Use recipient's name and others relevant details in the subject line, email body, and CTA for best results.
• Keep the message short and clear – If the email is too long or confusing, users won’t open it. Be concise and eliminate any elements that aren’t directly related to the message.
• Promise less, deliver more – Focus less on self-promotion and more on providing value to usersFor example, your customers will appreciate it more concrete benefits, such as aat a special discount, free online courses, free delivery or other benefits, other than a long email that just praises the brand.
Quality content is the central element of the most effective strategies email marketing for e-commerce. The text of your email and TONE must reflect brand identity.
Be authentic, avoid overly commercial language and create content that inform, offers value or educate the audience.
Test marketing emails
This practice involves testing different versions of headlines, CTAs, preview text, and other elements.
Even small adjustments, such as changing the font or background, can have a significant impact.
For example, marketing emails with personalized headlines have a 22.2% higher open rate than those with generic headlines.
You can use A/B testing to determine the best time to send emails.
In this case, you will send the same email to different groups of subscribers on different days or at different times and compare the open rates.
Monitor campaign performance
Measuring and tracking your email campaigns will give you insights into their effectiveness. This data helps you understand whether you are achieving your email marketing goals.
In addition, you will be able to identify areas that need improvement and optimize your email marketing strategy.
First, determine what metrics are most relevant to your email marketing efforts. These may include, but are not limited to:
• Open rate
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Bounce rate
• Unsubscription rate
• Conversion rate
• Spam notification rate
For example, an average click-through rate in ecommerce is 1.95%, an average open rate of 31.64%, and an average bounce rate of 3.76%.
Monitoring these indicators will allow you, over time, to optimize your campaigns and improve your results.
If your click-through rate (CTR) is lower than average, you should consider using stronger messaging. Test these messages and see which ones deliver the best results.
A high spam rate can be caused by weak or misleading titles, capitalization of titles, excessive use of exclamation marks, etc.
Advanced email marketing platforms have built-in tools for monitoring these metrics. You just need to check the platform’s data analytics section to see how your metrics are evolving over time.
You can see how visitors interact with your pages, including how far they scroll down, what products they click on, which areas of the page attract the most attention, and much more.
In addition, you can use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to monitor your email campaigns, conversion rate, and revenue attributed to email marketing campaigns.
Best practices for email marketing in ecommerce
A successful email marketing campaign requires insight, technical skills, and creativity.
Although it is essential to write quality content, you also need to structure it so that there is a logical sequence of the message and convince readers.
The future of ecommerce is mobile
Conformable Campaign Monitor, 81% of consumers read their emails on smartphones, and 21% open them on tablets.
This means that the email needs to be optimized – the preview text, email content, graphics, and other components – for mobile devices.
Some essential practices in ecommerce email marketing:
• Use email templates to save time – Create a set of predefined templates for welcome emails, thank you emails, follow-ups, and for each type of campaign. Email platforms come with these preset templates that you can use or you can create your own templates from scratch.
• Leverage email marketing automation – These flows should not be missing from your ecommerce email marketing activity. Certain user activities trigger automated emails, such as cart abandonment or product viewing.
• Grow your email list organically – While it may be tempting to buy email lists, this can negatively impact your email deliverability score. In addition, performance will be low and you risk violating regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Use engaging visuals as well as text – Emails that contain images have significantly higher open rates and click-through rates than messages based solely on text. Integrate photos, infographics, GIFs, and other visuals in combination with text.
Applying these basic principles will help you build email marketing campaigns more efficient and consolidate your success in ecommerce.
Email marketing for ecommerce requires constant effort, where you continually review and improve your strategy. But if you do it right, the results will justify the investment.
When you start your first campaign, test it on a small group of subscribers.
Track your results, adjust your strategy based on the criteria mentioned in this article, and refine your approach as you master the process.
Now you have all the resources to get started!
