Want to market your eCommerce business? Email campaigns will net you more sales, offering a staggering 4,300 percent return on every dollar invested.
Sound unrealistic? Maybe it is for some. For others, email marketing has supplied a fast path to eCommerce growth.
"Since we have had the newsletter we have matched our sales for the entire year of 2015 in just the first six months of 2016," says Ashlee, a former marketing agency employee who now spends time building her small business, Texas Sweet Tees.
"I send out newsletters promoting new products, upcoming events and our warehouse grand opening! I've waited three years for this day. When we did send out our invite for the grand opening using an online RSVP form our numbers grew significantly," she adds.
Gabby, owner of Queensland, Australia-based SHOES PLUS, says that email marketing accounted for 35 percent of sales in the first month of implementation. More recently, she used email to launch her wholesale business--On Trend Imports—to a global client base.
What can you be doing to generate similar or better results? Consider these five tips as you get started with email marketing.
Always be capturing
Your email marketing will only be as good as your email list. Leave space on your homepage and every other page on your site so visitors can input an address to hear more from you. Have a similar button in every email you send.
Also, never ask for an address without first providing some form of value. Offering an e-book or a coupon code, for example.
Develop an automation strategy
Have a plan for how often you'll communicate with your readers. Will it be once a day? Once a week? Whatever it is, make sure readers know when they'll hear from you. Consistency increases the odds of potential customers taking action when your missives arrive.
"For us, the first email we sent more than paid for what we invested to get started with email marketing," SHOES PLUS' Gabby says. "The results were immediate."
Pay attention to moments
Abandoned shopping carts can be a problem for any eCommerce retailer and email marketing can boost the odds of your reclaiming a lost sale.
Set up an auto-responder that kicks off a message to would-be buyers as soon as they leave. Offer a small discount—no more than 10 percent—if they return and complete a purchase within 24 hours.
Create a newsletter
"Since we have had the newsletter we have matched our sales for the entire year of 2015 in just the first six months of 2016," says Ashlee, a former marketing agency employee who now spends time building her small business, Texas Sweet Tees.
"I send out newsletters promoting new products, upcoming events and our warehouse grand opening! I've waited three years for this day. When we did send out our invite for the grand opening using an online RSVP form our numbers grew significantly," she adds.
Gabby, owner of Queensland, Australia-based SHOES PLUS, says that email marketing accounted for 35 percent of sales in the first month of implementation. More recently, she used email to launch her wholesale business--On Trend Imports—to a global client base.
What can you be doing to generate similar or better results? Consider these five tips as you get started with email marketing.
Always be capturing
Your email marketing will only be as good as your email list. Leave space on your homepage and every other page on your site so visitors can input an address to hear more from you. Have a similar button in every email you send.
Also, never ask for an address without first providing some form of value. Offering an e-book or a coupon code, for example.
Develop an automation strategy
Have a plan for how often you'll communicate with your readers. Will it be once a day? Once a week? Whatever it is, make sure readers know when they'll hear from you. Consistency increases the odds of potential customers taking action when your missives arrive.
"For us, the first email we sent more than paid for what we invested to get started with email marketing," SHOES PLUS' Gabby says. "The results were immediate."
Pay attention to moments
Abandoned shopping carts can be a problem for any eCommerce retailer and email marketing can boost the odds of your reclaiming a lost sale.
Set up an auto-responder that kicks off a message to would-be buyers as soon as they leave. Offer a small discount—no more than 10 percent—if they return and complete a purchase within 24 hours.
Create a newsletter
Your audience will expect to get value when receiving your newsletter. What form that value takes is up to you, but including expert tips, coupons, or downloadable giveaways can keep readers engaged. Hitting the mark with your email content can yield impressive results.
Ashlee at Texas Sweet Tees sends out an email newsletter to over 1,200 subscribers. More than 46 percent open the message shortly after arrival. "That's more than 500 [potential] customers," she says.
Make your receipts part of your email marketing
Finally, make sure you're paying attention to design when building a template for all of your emails, including your emailed receipts. Consider a clean look that highlights your brand and your offering. Always include relevant links alongside purchase details—it can make the difference between a return click to your store or a quick trip to the trash. Ashlee's Texas Sweet Tees gets the mix right using Weebly's email builder, as you can see from the link below.
Ashlee at Texas Sweet Tees sends out an email newsletter to over 1,200 subscribers. More than 46 percent open the message shortly after arrival. "That's more than 500 [potential] customers," she says.
Make your receipts part of your email marketing
Finally, make sure you're paying attention to design when building a template for all of your emails, including your emailed receipts. Consider a clean look that highlights your brand and your offering. Always include relevant links alongside purchase details—it can make the difference between a return click to your store or a quick trip to the trash. Ashlee's Texas Sweet Tees gets the mix right using Weebly's email builder, as you can see from the link below.
Ready to try email marketing for your business? Get two free emails with Weebly Promote and enjoy a ton of advanced features to help you reach customers when they're ready to buy.
Tim Beyers Tim is a freelance business writer. He writes about the business of innovation, comics and genre entertainment on The Full Bleed.
