Here's How to Get Real Results From ECommerce Email Marketing Tried and true methods for defeating the deleting.
By Manno Notermans Edited by Bill Schulz
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When you couple the uncertainty of a pandemic-riddled economy with ever-increasing social media privacy issues, it's no wonder "electronic mail" has once again become the most effective of online marketing tools.
Let's explore a slew of send-and-reply trends that are currently lighting up eCommerce...
Related: Actually, Cold Emailing Can Work for Small Businesses
Specialized solicitation
Hyper-personalization is generally not a new concept in email marketing trends, but the global isolation of a global pandemic has put a new purpose on an old practice.
Now more than ever, if your audience has made an effort to open your email, you must provide enough value in return.
According to findings by Janrain and Blue Research, 96% of consumers have received mistargeted information or promotions. Clearly companies have failed to grasp the importance of in-box personalization.
As for the additional downsides to deluging in-boxes with unsolicited nonsense...?
68% will automatically delete the emails
54% will unsubscribe from them
45% will label them as "junk" or "spam"
29% will lose interest in buying the products
13% will visit the website less frequently
10% will never visit the website again
Creating personal connections with possible consumers will pay long-term dividends...
Birthday emails can generate 342% more revenue than regular promotional emails
Personalized content has an ROI of 122%
Personalized subject lines have 50% higher open rates than standard subject lines
That doesn't mean starting your initial missive with "Hi Sarah!", but think about dynamic content, artificial intelligence and behavior-based segmentation. Analyze your customer's journey from the beginning and engage them and at the same time reflect your values.
Engage by empathizing
Valentina Lopez, Co-Founder of Happiness Without, claims they abandoned sales pitches during the pandemic. Instead, they sent mental-health-focused emails that empathize with their audience, resulting in a 93% increase in website traffic. In 2021 she's already doubled her human-centric content.
As for how to deploy this trend...
Think about how you can help your audience, save them time, get them involved, be entertained, etc.
Use triggered emails (drip campaigns) based on user behaviors and per individual
Include a call-to-action or survey
Here's everything you need to learn about the right automation strategies to keep your brand in the brains of potential customers.
Related: Top 6 Trends for Boosting Your Ecommerce
Responsive copy
Users today want things that can be accessed instantly and interactive emails allow customers to visit your shop directly. The fewer the clicks, the higher the conversion rate.
Some elements currently defining interactive emails...
Scratch-off discounts
Animated buttons and CTAs
Rollover effects to showcase products
Carousels controlled by users
Accordion features to compress long-form emails
Surveys, polls, and user-generated interactive content.
Video vérité
Meisha Bochicchio, Wistia's content marketing manager, says that switching from image to video thumbnails increased their clicks by 21.52%. Similarly, Matt Bertram, CEO & SEO Strategist at EWR Digital, had a 61% increase in their CTR when they embedded videos. Just by adding the word "video" to subject lines, resulted in open rates increased by nearly twenty percent.
Related: These Are the Retail Trends in Ecommerce for This Year
