eCommerce is growing at a rapid pace.
If your business isn’t optimized for online shopping, you’re missing out a lot. Thus, it’s no wonder that more and more companies set up eCommerce stores even if they are successful offline.
First things first: knowing how to start an eCommerce business isn’t enough to achieve success. No matter what your business niche is, sales matter. The more you sell, the more revenue you get. Thus, both marketers and online shop owners want to convince customers to buy products.
While the market is oversaturated and cutting through the noise is difficult, traditional advertising doesn’t work anymore. Customers are fed up with the amount of branded information that bombards them from all angles. Modern consumers crave authenticity, so marketers should sell without selling. Sounds difficult, huh?
Once you choose the right communication channel that doesn’t bother your potential customers, you’re more likely to promote and sell your products. So what’s the solution? Email newsletters!
According to the Salesforce Connected Shopper Report, 79% of users want to receive product recommendations via email, so sending email newsletters is the best way to connect with your target audience without being too salesy.
What is more, email marketing can help to drive eCommerce sales when done right.
Why do email newsletters need to be part of your eCommerce sales strategy? Let the numbers speak for themselves:
In short, email marketing works.
Here are the top 10 eCommerce email newsletter ideas to boost sales:
1. Create an emotional bond
Before sending an email newsletter to sell your product, ensure you’ve established an emotional connection with your potential customers.
Why? Harvard Business Review reports that customers are 52% more valuable when they are “fully connected” with your company. In fact, emotions influence consumer behavior and therefore affect purchase decisions.
When it comes to email marketing, visuals help to create an emotional bond with your customers. While the majority of companies choose product photography for eCommerce to show off their products, a lifestyle photo can drive more sales as it inspires an emotional connection.
When a company uses lifestyle photos in email marketing, it allows consumers to envision how a product would fit in with their lifestyle.
Let’s take a look at an example by Tommy Hilfiger – to promote a new collection, the brand sent an email newsletter with a lifestyle image.
Tommy Hilfiger features a photo of people wearing their things, so lifestyle images are about telling stories. Not only do they show what kind of customer buys the product being sold, but they also let potential clients understand whether this product will fit them or not. Thus, lifestyle images grab customers’ attention and give an opportunity to deliver the brand message.
2. Take care of your customers
It’s in human nature to speak about ourselves, our opinions and beliefs. What is more, people want to feel important, so it’s no wonder that customers love companies that put them first and take care of them. When you use email personalization and show your potential customers that you know them and remember details about them, you build brand trust and loyalty that affect customer relationships in a positive way.
In honor of clients’ birthdays, Lacoste sends an email to greet a person on a special event with a special offer that helps to save money on buying brand products. What happens next? Once customers receive the email, they feel special and want to return the favor, so they click on a call-to-action button to find out more about the products. For a brand, it’s a great way to build brand loyalty and drive eCommerce sales.
Putting your customers first is essential to any business. With email newsletters, it doesn’t take much time or money to take care of your customers – just understand more about potential consumers, show you’re interested in them and never forget special events that matter.
3. Take customers back to your site
If your website attracts visitors, that’s great. If your visitors become customers, that’s even better. In fact, the global cart abandonment rate is 75.52% which means businesses could be losing out on revenue. Thus, eCommerce brands do their best to take customers back to their site.
As specified in the SaleCycle report, the 34% of people who leave a website when they are just looking is because they weren’t ready to buy at that moment. In other words, you can still boost eCommerce sales – send cart abandonment emails to remind your customers that they may have found something interesting on your website.
The email newsletter from Adidas teaches us that adding a reminder of the product along with the product description, image, and the price is a great way to increase email conversions.
To make the most of cart abandonment emails, make sure you get the timing right as waiting too long can be a reason why your potential customers have lost the shopping urge. A recent Omnisend report says that using a series of 3 cart abandonment emails within one day after abandonment get the best order rates as they receive 69% more orders than sending one cart abandonment email.
To remind your visitors about the potential purchase and increase eCommerce sales, send a series of three emails – 1 hour, 12 hours, and 24 hours after abandonment, respectively.
4. Share last-minute deals
Here comes the ugly truth – everyone has delayed holiday or gift shopping until later at least once in a lifetime.
The majority of eCommerce brands know that the last-minute holiday shopping rush always happens. Thus, when it comes to holidays, they are ready to offer last-minute deals for shoppers. When you give customers what they need and solve their pain points, they will be more likely to get it from your store.
Here is an example of this strategy in action by Nike. On Valentine’s Day, the company sent an email newsletter to potential customers with an idea to purchase a gift card, a perfect last-minute gift idea that can suit every recipient.
Sharing last-minute deals help to kill two birds with one stone – not only do you help your customers meet their holiday needs and deadlines, but you also promote your business. Moreover, it’s one of the top sales email templates that work for your audience and business.
5. Announce a mid-season sale
Online discounts offer benefits for business owners and customers. For any eCommerce marketer, incorporating discounts into their strategies isn’t a new concept. Since 55% of customers want a price deduction more than loyalty rewards or free shipping, announcing a mid-season sale can boost eCommerce sales without a doubt.
This newsletter from H&M has simple email design with a brief explanation of the sale. Since it delivers a clear brand message, it doesn’t confuse customers and they take action faster. In other words, they buy or at least discover items on sale.
However, having a good offer isn’t enough to turn your email readers into buyers. It’s also important to use the best email marketing services to find the type of email that will work best for your brand. For example, if you’re just starting up, showing off your product is a great way to hook more customers.
6. Schedule a clearance sale
Discounts work. The bigger the discount you offer, the more customers you attract. Not only do nearly all consumers say that they would like to buy at a lower price, but also that they are afraid of missing out on a discount as the principle of urgency works.
Thus, it’s no wonder some companies organize an end-of-season clearance sale. Once you’ve scheduled a clearance sale, it’s important to inform your potential buyers about it. For example, ASOS sent an email that informed customers about the final clearance and allowed them to get quick access to product sections and check out what the company had to offer.
Whether you want to reflect seasonal demand or attract more new customers, clearance sales help to increase sales when done right. Before lowering prices, get help from experts to set an “acceptable range of margin” in order to not kill your profits.
7. Offer special deals
We all know about the importance of personalization and segmentation as it drives attention. And when you offer your customers something unique and special, you put them first which helps to engage each shopper with something that could be of value to them.
Just take a look at this newsletter from Lulus. As this email claims to have something special for a recipient, it is personalized and intriguing which makes a reader want to click on its CTA to find out more about the offer.
Whether you want to share a promo code, offer free shipping or send a gift, rewarding your readers with a special deal will always hook their attention and make them want to find out more about it.
8. Run a BOGO deal
For most customers, “buy one, get one” (BOGO) deals seem to be appealing. Since customers want to get free stuff, this offer hooks and keeps their attention. Just imagine – 7 out of 10 people use an emailed discount. What is more, the AMG report reveals that 66% of buyers like BOGO the most out of all discount promotions.
Many companies get success with BOGO promotions, and J.Crew is just another eCommerce brand that gives this technique a try. Let’s take a look at the email newsletter:
When promoting a BOGO deal, you let your customers get more without spending extra money. Thus, it drives sales, making buyers happy.
9. Send special gifts
In a competitive environment, customer experience matters more than ever. Since people have many options these days, customer satisfaction is what makes them want to come back. Happy customers buy more often, so it’s important to delight them with special gifts, for example.
Who else loves freebies?
It’s in our nature to crave for gifts, rewards, and special offers. Thus, this method hooks the target audience’s attention and helps eCommerce marketers sell more.
For eCommerce businesses, sending branded gifts is a low-risk investment that can offer high returns as the more customer spend, the better gifts they get. Here’s this strategy by Lancome, for example. To reward their clients and increase sales, the company informed readers about the deal on how to get special gifts.
Sending branded gifts is also a great way to increase customer retention as it encourages customers to try new products. If they like products, they will be more likely to become repeat customers.
10. Reward your loyal customers
If you want to make more sales, you need to acquire new customers and take care of your existing ones. The more they buy, the better. Thus, companies try to increase customer retention with loyalty programs, and the payoff is huge. Why? 75% of people love brands that offer customer loyalty programs, so rewards help brands grow.
Take Starbucks, for example. The company knew that offering rewards wasn’t enough; it was also important to make a loyalty program stand out from others on the market, so Starbucks promoted it via email and organized ‘double reward’ days from time to time. As a result, its loyalty program helped to increase revenue to $2.65 billion.
In a world where you reward customers for their loyalty, you not only build brand authenticity but also give them a reason to buy more. Thus, it’s a great idea to send information about your loyalty rewards via email.
Wrapping up
When running an eCommerce business, there’s a lack of in-person customer interaction, so shop owners and marketers should find ways to reach their potential customers, interact with them, and promote items in a way that satisfies clients. What is more, email marketing can help to grow revenue. From sharing time-limited offers to promoting loyalty programs, there are many eCommerce email newsletter ideas to boost sales.
Guest author: Hugh Beaulac has over 6 years of experience in digital marketing who writes for top-notch blogs, helps SBOs grow online, and deals with content marketing at MC2 website. Follow Hugh on Twitter to stay tuned for more.