5 e-commerce email marketing tips to get started

When it comes to building a loyal customer base, having a good product is valuable. But reminding customers about your product goes a lot farther.

Email marketing allows you to keep up with your customers and communicate with them directly.

With the right email marketing strategy, you can increase sales and drive up traffic to your site.

But how can you get started?

1. Make a Plan for your eCom business

Before you start your campaign, you need to know who you’re talking to. Therefore, you first have to figure out who your audience is.

If you have multiple demographics you’re catering to, you can segment them into groups and send customized email messages. This way the audience doesn’t see your campaigns as generic. The more personalized the messages feel the stronger your chances of growing customer loyalty.

When it comes to your signup sources, you should be clear about how people are able to register for your mailing list. You don’t want to lose potential subscribers by giving them the runaround.

As you’re brainstorming your content marketing strategy, start by thinking about the purpose of your campaign. Define your goals and be deliberate about your messages. Don’t send emails just to clutter up people’s inboxes because they’ll know when it’s not worth their time.

Speaking of email clutter, you should be mindful about how frequently you send them. Sending too many emails can put people off and lose the effectiveness of the campaign. However, for some, it might make more sense to update subscribers frequently, like if you run a news site.

Regardless, it would be beneficial for you to keep track of your unsubscribe and click-through rates to see what frequency works best.

And no plan is complete without a schedule. If you’re running multiple campaigns (email, social media, blog), organization is your best friend. Make a schedule for how often you want to post on each platform, so you don’t get confused.

2. Have an Organized Design

With your design, you shouldn’t overthink it. Just have a layout that makes sense. The most important information goes at the top and less important information goes below it. As long as you have a clear hierarchy, subscribers will be able to understand your message quickly.

3. Give It a Test Run

You should test your emails under different conditions, such as sending them to various email clients and devices with different internet service providers (ISPs).

While you’re at it, check how it appears on different devices as well. You don’t want to design your email specifically for desktop only for it to look wrong on mobile.

Maybe try beta testing your first campaign on your friends, family, and coworkers, so they can give you advice on your design.

When it comes to the content, you can play around with individual changes with A/B testing. Running A/B tests can allow you to see how wording or other detail changes lead to different results. This will help you maximize your rates.

4. Consider Using Automations

If you don’t want to send the emails manually, automations can help. Automations allow you to connect with consumers without the hassle of constantly checking your subscriber list by sending the emails for you at a scheduled time.

5. Track Your Results

You can track your impact by looking at open rates and click-through rates. With these, you can measure how individual groups resonate with certain content strategies. It’s also worth looking at the rates of your competitors to compare. E-commerce data and website traffic rates also allow you to see the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Marketing Companies to Start Your Email Campaign

Instead of going it alone, maybe consider using one of the many companies that make email marketing easy.

Mailchimp

Since 2001, this Atlanta-based company has been helping small businesses market themselves to the world. From email marketing to digital ads to web design, Mailchimp does it all.

ConvertKit

Geared towards content creators, ConvertKit allows passionate individuals and small businesses to grow their audience through email marketing and landing pages. ConvertKit uplifts artists, bloggers, authors, and other creators, so their energy can focus on their craft.