30 email marketing tips for ecommerce

updated September 9, 2022
Reading time13 minutes
Content Wizard
Content Wizard
JivoChat Content Team

One of the main tools used by ecommerce, email marketing is essential for any product or service you are selling on a virtual store. Therefore, we brought to you 30 tips for email marketing in ecommerce, covering methods to capture emails, types of tools you can use and in what ways you can use them in your favor. In addition, we also offer a few ways to evaluate your results and how to manage your email.

1. Have a plan

plano de negócios

What is the purpose of using email marketing for your ecommerce? At first glance, boosting your sales seem the obvious answer, but not the only one available. Before finishing your strategy, you need to consider what kind of public will receive your emails. This affects not only the ultimate goal, but also the type of content you share and the best way to do it. If your business involves sales to other companies, for example, a modern and funny email that can go viral on social networks might not be a good choice. Relevant content in your line of business and disseminating lectures and events hosted by your company can pay better results.

2. Search for tools to automate the sending of emails

If your ecommerce still has a small e-mail base, you may not feel the need to automate your emails. However, it is necessary from the very first steps to evaluate and start using tools that automate the sending of these messages, which will considerably reduce the use of your time on the task. Through them, you can also program the sending of these emails, which we will cover in our next tips.

3. Keep on testing different email automation programs

Even if you already use a favorite service, it is always worth keeping an eye on new programs for automatic sending of emails. New improvements of a particular tool can best serve your business than the current method, so it is always worth testing new alternatives.

4. Segment your audience

segmentação do publico

One of the golden tips of email marketing is to segment your database. Through targeting, you can choose the correct portion of your audience to send a particular type of material, content or promotion. A study by MailChimp, one of the most popular email marketing services, revealed that separating your database into different categories - instead of sending the same message to all contacts - generates 14% more email openings and 15% more clicks within the email.

Moreover, it was also registered a lower level of spam complaints, requests to be deleted from the list and reduced unviewed messages. Segmentation is one of the key actions in email marketing.

5. Customize the experience

With dozens of companies sending automated emails to your customers with offers, confirmations, promotions and sweepstakes, it is essential to make a difference and not become a message that will go to the spam box. In order to do this, try to make the experience as personalized as possible. For that, try sending emails calling the customer by their name, offering links and meaningful content and, more importantly, try to encourage them to answer your emails. A statistic from Hubspot reveals that the average clicks on emails with the first name of a contact or company increases 14 and 10% respectively.

6. Offer relevant content

There is no use in targeting your audience and making the experience more personal if you do not offer valuable content. So, stay tuned to the type of content that your audience is paying attention to and plan in accordance. Staying tuned for answers to the most different types of material shared by you is a great way to make improvements in this regard.

7. Use and abuse of compelling calls to action (CTA)

call to action

Not only in posts on a blog or in a publication on social networks, CTA is also important in email marketing. Think of a clear proposal in the call to action, instead of distributing calls over the email, according to your goal. If your tactic involves encouraging the recipient to read the email, a CTA (acronym for call to action) in the subject line might be a good strategy. In order to sell, you can use an image in the email to invite your customers to a promotion, for example.

8. Do not be sloppy with the subject line

The first contact of a prospect with your email will be through the subject line, so you should not be sloppy in this matter in any way. Make sure that this line is short and offers a clear description, taking into account which segment of your contact base you are using to send the message. Remember that this is the first customer contact with your message, but it can also be the last.

9. Make sure your email is easy to read on mobile devices

As your ecommerce, it is essential that you have confidence that your emails are easily read on a smartphone or tablet. Another study of the company Litmus reveals that over 70% of users of these devices immediately delete an email which they cannot read on their devices.

The survey also shows that a design in a single column facilitates email display on these devices, because it makes the scrolling more responsive. Give preference to e-mail automation services that offer message previews in different screen sizes and device types.

mobile friendly

10. Keep the preview panel of mobiles in mind

In addition to a large portion of users read e-mails on a mobile device, they receive emails in a preview panel, which images are possibly blocked and only a portion of the message is shown. So try to put the most important elements at the beginning of the email, like the first prospectus name or customer, the reason of email and, if possible, a call to action.

11. Be brief, but offer further reading on the subject as an option.

There is a high probability that your email, if it is too long, will be excluded or read by half. Even when a topic needs details, we recommend that you still address it briefly. However, this does not mean that the reading has to stop on the email: offer your customer or reader the opportunity to read a full version of an article via a link.

leia mais

12. Not all your emails need to be about selling

Selling is the keyword for the survival of a virtual store. Still, there is no need to send emails to your prospects and clients solely for the purpose of closing a sale. Sometimes, a type of content that elicit the reader to click on a link to view content can bring better results than just selling a product, as the same reader will have the opportunity to better explore your page.

13. Build a relationship with your contacts

Who said that only the social media wag is able to create a relationship with your followers? You can also establish this link with your contacts through email marketing. This is another reason why you should not see this tool only to promote sales.

It is recommended that, at least once a month, you try to send an email with a more personal footprint, regardless of the subject, such as the birthday celebration of your business or changes in the industry. Remember to invite them to interact with the content sent.

14. Prepare in advance for commercial dates and seasonality of products.

Christmas, Father's Day, Valentine's Day are holidays that promote peaks in the demand of gifts. So, prepare in advance for sending promotions through a calendar, instead of preparing the campaign when the date is next. Search what are the holidays during the year and leave reminders so you do not get caught off guard and have to prepare the promotions from the scratch with little time available.

JivoChat exemplo Black Friday

15. Create campaigns for birthdays

A segment that can be very useful in your ecommerce is "birthdays of the month." A good portion of people likes to be remembered, especially on birthdays, even better if this memory comes in the promotion format. So, a good idea for your email marketing is to create strategies to meet the public on that date.

16. Use newsletters

Regardless of the frequency, use newsletters. They serve to inform your contacts of new products, content or services you are offering, keeping them updated on the activities of your business or promotions that you are offering.

Therefore, it is essential to prepare such material and send them regularly. While a daily newsletter will possibly be seen as spam, the ideal is to keep it at a frequency of at least once a week. Some sites even allow the user to choose the interval of when to send each newsletter.

newsletter

17. Offer discounts in exchange for newsletter subscriptions

One strategy to get more emails to your contact base is offering small discounts on subscription in exchange for their newsletter. For example, you can program a popup to appear when a visitor shows the intention of leaving your page, offering the discount mentioned after filling out their email address, among other tactics.

18. Place fields on your site so that visitors can leave their e-mails

Another useful tactics to get more readers to your newsletter is positioning a field on your page so that your costumers can leave their email. Typically, these spaces are on a side edge of the top of the homepage, or on the center of a landing page. It is also possible to place a field on posts from your corporate blog to accompany your contents.

19. Use the pre-service form from JivoChat

JivoChat can also be a great ally when building your contact base for email marketing. Before a service, visitors to your ecommerce who interact with the chat have the option to fill out a short form with some basic information, including their name and email. Use and abuse of this functionality to expand your list!

20. Set up emails to be sent when a customer does not end up making a purchase

example Flaviarado

A feature available in many email marketing tools and automation of messages, you can create a rule for the software to send an email to someone who did not finish their purchase. Having the mail of the prospect in question, the software sends a message to this person asking why they could not finish the purchase, offering help to resolve any issues. Remember that someone who puts some item in the cart has almost everything set up to close the purchase, so the method is efficient to retrieve this customer that, sometimes, may have just encountered a technical problem.

21. Request the email when finalizing a purchase

One of the key strategies to increase your base is to request the email account when finalizing a purchase. The email address is not only to increase the base, but also to allow your client to monitor the delivery process.

22. Encourage your customers to leave a review of your product

Another rule that you can implement in your automation system for email marketing can be directed to anyone who has purchased a product of yours. One tip to increase the likelihood of purchase is, some time after the arrival of a product to the user, the software sends an email to this client encouraging him to leave a review on your page. A positive review has a great impact on future buyers’ decisions.

reviews do produto

23. Analyze the data of your past campaigns

Using email marketing also generates a lot of data that can be analyzed for further success in future campaigns. Pieces of information that can be analyzed are: success rate in delivery - how many emails reached the contacts' inboxes - email opening percentage, clickthrough rate, comparing people who opened the email to those who clicked on any link inside them, cancellation of registration fee and conversion rate.

This data may indicate what type of content is approved and if your sales by email are being successful. This is also one of the tips required to be followed in conducting email marketing campaigns.

24. Use the test results to conduct new tests

After the analysis of the data of your campaigns, it's time to test new types of content and promotions to be shared with your subscribed custumers. A useful tip is to create different versions of a newsletter, for example, and go testing results between segments. Thus, it becomes possible to determine what the favorite types of contents of that group are.

análise de dados das campanhas

25. Find the best time for sending emails

Just like publications on social networks, it is recommended that you take into account the best time to send emails to your subscribers. Different groups check emails at different times, so it is worth to find out more about the different segments of your target audience before you press the "Send" or "Program" button.

26. Reward your loyal buyers

Another segment whose creation can be very useful is the loyal customers of your ecommerce. While it is of course a profitable group, this can become a problem if they notice that you offer promotions only for new users. So, create the habit of sending promotions and benefits exclusively to this segment, so that they feel more special and make further purchases on your ecommerce.

27. Create segments according to wishlist

Another recommendation of segment for email marketing is targeting the wish list. For example, you can create a segment of customers who put a single product in your wish list and repeat the rule for the rest of the products from your store. Through it, when this item is the target of a promotion or is being offered at a discount, an email will be sent to people who have it in their wish list, greatly increasing your conversion chances.

whishlist

28. Try to bring old customers back

Some buyers may simply disappear. Regardless of the reason, it is possible to bring them back to your business. Special promotions, for example, can cause them to resume contact with your brand and consume its products or services.

29. Allow users to manage their subscription

It may seem counter-productive, but allow the customer, prospect or the subscriber to configure how their signature work in order to gain their respect. Giving them the option to choose what kind of content to receive, the frequency of the newsletter and even to unsubscribe whenever they want, you show transparency and that your business is not just another "spam tap".

30. Keep your list clean and updated

Although having the largest possible number of contacts on your mailing list may seem great, in fact it can become a problem if it is not updated frequently. This is because subscribers who do not open their mail or constantly return can negatively affect your data, and eventually become a greater cost in email marketing service use.

So, be always attentive and often update your base. One method that you can consider is to remove a registered customer after a year of inactivity. You can also program a message asking a user who does not open your emails if they still want to remain on the list. If this is also ignored, delete it so that your data is more positive.

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