Ecommerce is evolving at a truly spectacular pace, and the growth figures only confirm that online sales are already part of our lives and will be even more so.
In a digital world where more and more businesses offer their products and services, a good online marketing strategy has become essential. SEO, social media, Search Ads… there are many options for boosting your online communications and selling your products or services. However, email plays a fundamental role in this new context. Present in both our personal and professional lives, it is one of the most effective channels for communicating and building relationships with customers, as well as the direct marketing channel with the highest return on investment.
So if you haven’t already, now is the time to implement an email marketing strategy in your ecommerce business.
What is email marketing?
Strictly speaking, email marketing is sending commercial communications, which the subscriber has previously agreed to receive, to an email address in a database. However, in digital marketing the term covers much more.
Thanks to its great accessibility and scalability, email marketing is a channel used to guide potential customers through the conversion funnel and increase repeat purchases and brand loyalty.
A good email strategy can significantly boost an ecommerce business and is key to reaching your target audience simply and effectively.
Reasons to include email marketing in your ecommerce digital strategy
Email campaigns are a perfect calling card and a key link that can bring you many benefits.
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- It’s affordable and profitable:
Email marketing is considered one of the highest-performing online marketing strategies. Sending communications by email is one of the least expensive direct marketing channels and, at the same time, one of the strategies with the highest return on investment (ROI). That’s a great opportunity for online stores which, whatever their size, can reach and attract their target audience while getting the most out of their investment.
Tip: being affordable and profitable doesn’t mean you should spam to sell more. Always put quality before quantity. As with any other digital marketing technique, you’ll need a strategy with clear goals and you’ll have to stick to it to get results. - It offers great segmentation and personalization options:
Another really important benefit of email marketing is the high degree of segmentation and personalization possible when sending to your database.
Thanks to the different segmentation criteria and models this tool offers, ecommerce businesses can build specific campaigns for each target. Messages can be unique and personalized according to demographics, preferences or even the funnel stage each user is in. And the more personalized the content, the higher the chances of conversion.
Tip: try to segment your database to deliver the most relevant content to each subscriber. Segment by customer type, depending on whether they’ve bought once, are repeat buyers or have never bought. Segment by behavior, sending more campaigns to those most likely to engage and trying to reactivate inactive ones. Or segment by demographics so products better match your subscribers. - It’s highly versatile:
The ability to create different types of content in an email gives email marketing great versatility to capture users’ attention. It’s a channel that suits all kinds of campaigns, and its content is endlessly customizable.
Tip: make sure your campaign designs are responsive and adapt to devices of different sizes, so the experience is just as satisfying whether they’re read on a computer or a phone. - It reaches a large share of users:
Virtually everyone has an email account and uses it for both personal and professional purposes. It’s one of the most universally used tools, part of our daily lives, and we access it from every device.
With this in mind, email marketing creates a great opportunity for ecommerce businesses to improve their reach and visibility and connect with a wide range of audiences.
Tip: remember that your emails are addressed to people, and the process shouldn’t feel cold and automated. Introduce yourself, write in a friendly tone, personalize your message and empathize with your audience. - It can be automated and saves time:
Email marketing automation helps improve campaign relevance and timing, and can turn a missed opportunity into a chance to build a relationship with that user and make a sale.
Automation also makes it much easier and faster to reach your goals, saving time for any ecommerce business.
Tip: use automation to send messages to users automatically after they take a specific action. For example, when a user abandons the shopping cart in your ecommerce store, make sure they receive an email reminding them what they wanted to buy and offer help or an incentive to complete the purchase. - It increases loyalty and repeat purchases:
Email is present at every stage of the customer relationship: lead nurturing, prospecting, conversion and loyalty building. Email marketing is ideal for establishing and strengthening a lasting relationship beyond a one-off purchase, extending customers’ life time value.
Thanks to this tool’s capabilities, ecommerce businesses can create personalized content and offer exclusive products or services to customers in their database, maintaining an ongoing relationship to meet their needs.
Tip: look after each of your customers: offer them exclusive discounts, let them know about campaigns and offers, give them a birthday gift or simply remind them of their favorite products. That way, besides driving repeat purchases, your customers will feel valued, and they’ll value you in return. - It’s easy to measure:
The only way to know whether a digital marketing strategy is working is to measure the results. And that’s another big benefit of email marketing for an ecommerce business. Knowing who opened the email or not, at what time and which product caught their interest are just some of the data you can get from email marketing platforms.
These metrics are essential to gauge campaign success and know where to improve so your strategy performs better.
Tip: this channel is ideal for A/B testing. Select a small percentage of your database and split it in two to send two different versions of the email. Comparing results lets you keep the most effective option.
- It’s affordable and profitable:
Email marketing has established itself as one of the most powerful tools for reaching users and a perfect partner for ecommerce businesses. So put all these Trilogi tips to work and give your online store’s sales a boost.
