A lot of businesses often overlook email marketing because well, who uses email when you can go on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter? However, it may be not true and by putting effort into email eCommerce marketing, you will gain such a big boost in revenue that your competitors who focus on SMM only will ache to know what you do. In fact, marketers that use segmented email campaigns have noticed a 760% increase in revenue.

What is eCommerce Email Marketing?

In very simple terms, eCommerce email marketing is the art of generating sales for your eCommerce store using emails. Ranging from sending simple special offer emails to managing multiple complex campaigns, eCommerce email marketing is a perfect tool for conversion and retention.

While social media drives traffic, email turns traffic into full customers that buy once and keep coming. Email marketing is more personal since it does not address everyone, unlike any other eCommerce marketing channel. It is extremely action-oriented - we are used to having to do something with email and we project the behavior within our personal or working emails on advertising newsletters. So we have this urge to reply, forward, or start buying! eCommerce email marketing is a big love of analytics - it is so easy to get data on who opened an email and which buttons they clicked.

So email marketing has so many benefits to offer that you might want to know immediately how to start. The art of the eCommerce email marketing requires some in-advance search and knowledge.

In this article, we are going to give sellers this knowledge by dividing it into three blocks:

  • How to get newsletter subscribers
  • How to email customer on every step of their customer journey
  • How the right eCommerce marketing can make them forget about the unsubscribe button

After reading, you will be able to jump straight into email marketing, gain your first newsletter subscribers, and create the first campaign.

How to Get Newsletter Subscribers?

Before tailoring beautiful and engaging emails, you have to find someone who will read and enjoy them. Moreover, the process of growing an email list is the first step in creating long-term relationships with your customers. It is the point where they discover your shop and either you keep reminding yourself in the newsletter that they have subscribed to or a customer will simply forget about your eCommerce business store after a couple of minutes.

Email marketing app
Source: Unsplash.com 

Growing your email list has a couple of subtasks that we will list here and break down for better understanding, so you can use such a great tool in your eCommerce marketing.

Make Customers See That You Have a Newsletter

It is a common miscommunication when sellers forget to show off their newsletter. When you work with a business for a long time, news stops becoming news for you but they are for everyone else, new customers especially. Do not hide the sign-up form away, try these places instead:

  • In the footer (the most commonplace for eCommerce stores)
  • Pop-up form when a customer leaves
  • As an option when a customer finishes their shopping with you
  • Next to your social media links

Pro tip: Make the form as simple and short as possible. Otherwise, people will choose to leave instead of spending their time answering 5+ questions. Go for a name and an email.

Make Customers Want To Subscribe

We all look for benefits. We do not do things until we know that there is a reward waiting for us. Sometimes people have to force a benefit to start doing something useful: if I will work for 2 hours straight now with no distractions, I will go buy myself that coffee I dreamt about. Have you ever been in such a situation?

So you have to attract them, to give them some kind of reward for their time. You can suggest:

  • Coupon for subscription
  • Special offers and sales for email newsletter subscribers only
  • Expert insights and interviews in a newsletter that can help customers to solve their problems
  • To become a part of a big community

It does not take a lot of effort on your side but it will definitely grow your address book. With the help of an extensive email list, you can get all the benefits of email marketing and more.

What to Send to Email Customers On Every Step of Their Customer Journey


You will not force a beginner student to take up an advanced course. You will probably wait to say “I love you” and not say it on the first date. You will not put on sweatpants for the job interview.

“As everything in the world, eCommerce marketing is about proper timing and proper content”, - marketing department head at Ivory Research claims and we cannot agree more. On every step of the customer journey, a client should receive a suitable email. We are going to get a better look at every step and suggest the content.

Stage 1: Awareness

It is a stage when people acknowledge that they have a certain problem and they start looking for its solution actively. However, they choose passively - they only started their research and they probably want to see their options and compare. Your main task here is to make them discover your brand, not forget you and leave them with positive thoughts on your product.

It is where you send them a welcome email. Welcome emails have one of the biggest open rates (82%). It has to be one of your best-tailored emails as well because it is the point where a customer decides whether they should cancel the subscription immediately or stick around for more. It has to be pretty, have a very personal feeling to it and it is great if you can offer a promo code or coupon here.

At this stage, it is important to create a connection with your brand. You will want to let them know your values, history, some interesting or fun facts. This information will look good in the welcome email.

At the end of the email, you can ask for their opinion or ask a question that will spark their interest and get them to answer. Thus, you can get to know what they like or who they are as people and send them emails according to their interests.

Stage 2: Consideration

Here customers probably have a list of solutions that they are choosing from. They will take a more severe look at your business and will try to find out what is best for them.

Try to spice up your offers by customer reviews because we do not really believe advertisements but we do value the opinion of other people. Use cloud eCommerce solutions to keep all this information for current and later use as well.

Videos, case studies, pictures of happy faces next to your product, and bits of showing off work the best here. They are very convincing and new customers are more likely to want to know more about you.

Basically, at this stage, you want to show that you are the best fit ever existing.

Stage 3: Decision

Here customers decided in your favor but it is good to get an additional bonus, additional pros, or reason to buy from you.

You can offer a still-in-doubt customer several options that will totally make up their mind:

  • a trial period or samples
  • a discount
  • free shipping
  • free returns if they did not enjoy their purchase

At this stage, it can also happen that a customer added something to the cart and almost made a payment but they chickened out at the last minute. This is where cart abandonment email kicks in. You know that they want to buy from you but it is just a little extra thing that will make them more confident about the brand or the product. Offer a discount specifically for the item that they wanted to buy or free return.

Afterword

Purchase is not where the journey stops. In fact, a customer that bought from you once is more likely to buy from you again and buy even more. They already know that the brand of yours offers top-products and what is more important, they trust you. We are all a bit afraid to buy from a new store online because we do not know whether we will actually get the product or it was a fraud site.

Many businesses do focus on retention more and it is rightfully so. You can spend less money on attracting them - they already know and like your business. This is why many businesses today pay attention to eCommerce Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). Effective CRO strategies can significantly improve the likelihood of repeat purchases, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

A customer is also more likely to recommend a brand to their friends and family, and we know that a word of mouth is the most effective advertisement out there that costs you nothing. You are also more likely to get feedback - loyal customers want their beloved brand to be the best and they will give deep insights into how to become better. They are ready to spend time filling out the feedback form as an investment in their better future interactions with you.

So what can eCommerce email marketing do to keep customers around? At this stage, you can ask for their feedback right after they have got their purchase. Sellers may suggest a better or a complimentary product.

Happy Birthday emails are a total hit. Customers will feel like you truly do care about them. Don`t we all love the feeling of being cared for? Good thing that automated email will do the job for you and you do not have to write down and remember all the dates. Is it time to create automated emails for your numerous friends too in order not to forget? Do not hesitate to remind newsletter subscribers about new products, restocks, or big sales.

Sending gifts using email marketing
Source: sleeknote.com

How to Make Them Forget About the Unsubscribe Button?

In this section, we are going to discuss some tips on how to create an email newsletter that is not irritating or hideous.

1. Create a Catchy Email Subject

An email subject line can revolve around some latest events, have a humorous hint, or contain a question. However, do not forget that it should somehow highlight whether it is going to be about sales, new collections, or blog articles of the week.

2. Make It Pretty

You cannot send a plain email with a couple of images. Create a beautiful theme, add some sparkles and colors, some videos and you are good to go! Fonts make a big change too!

3. Let It Be Useful

Do not show your products only - people will stop opening your emails after a while or unsubscribe completely. Talk about your blog, share some tips related to your product or niche, share the thoughts of your customers or photos of theirs.

4. Do Not Send Emails Too Often

First of all, we like our email clean, and if there is always one unread message from some brand, it just gets irritating. Moreover, it is unlikely that you will have something interesting to tell every day. It is better to create a highlight of really engaging articles than highlight everything.

Conclusion

It may seem like eCommerce email marketing is an easy job - you create several email templates in advance and you write a letter a week with current updates. However, it is a bit harder than you think and you need to know how, when, and what to send.

First of all, you need to make your newsletter visible and attractive: add sign-up boxes and offer a benefit that comes with the subscription.

Then think about your timing and create suitable emails for customers who are on different customer journey stages: tailor a welcome email for newcomers, show off to those who compare you to others, add a specific reason for ones who are about to buy but are still in doubt and keep your customers contained so that they come back.

And when it comes to execution, you need the right software to do it. It gets all the more critical if your email list size is larger than say, 100K. We would recommend SendX. You can go for a free 14-day trial, and access all of its features, without having to give your credit card details.

Remember that newsletters should be beautiful, catchy, useful, and have a call-to-action. If you know these guidelines, you will definitely start your newsletter on the right note. Good luck with your eCommerce email marketing journey, seller!