This is a guest post from Roberto Garvin at Mofluid.
Did you know that emails are 40% more effective than Facebook and Twitter when it comes to acquiring customers?
This is all thanks to email marketing’s high ROI potential.
However, not all your subscribers will have the same interests or respond to the same things. That’s why it’s important to spice up your emails with a little variety—send different kinds of emails, so that you reach different subscribers.
Read on to discover 18 types of emails ecommerce customers want to see.
18 emails ecommerce customers want to read
1. The welcome email
Pinterest, Really Good Emails
Welcome emails that are sent to subscribers when they first sign up are a great way to introduce yourself and give your subscribers an idea of what kind of content they can expect from you.
This way, they won’t be surprised by how many emails they’re getting.
The welcome email can allow you to build a relationship with your readers. Here are some stats about its effectiveness:
- Its open rate is over 91%
- Marketers that send welcome emails can get up to an 86% increase in their campaign’s overall open rate
- Welcome emails have 5 times the average click-through rate
Don’t think welcome emails are effective? Our infographic tells a different story.
2. The double opt-in email
SendGrid, Really Good Emails
The double opt-in email actually comes before the welcome email. It’s highly recommended to send these out, as they can improve your engagement rates.
3. The newsletter email
The newsletter, or value email, is one where you focus on providing your subscribers with quality content. It’s best to send these on a regular basis.
The more value you can provide your subscribers without expecting to get anything back, the better a relationship you can build with them.
Some of your emails shouldn’t be focused on promoting anything, but rather on providing people with helpful tips and useful information.
While customers like new products, ecommerce customers want messages with tips, educational content, and relevant information.
4. The promotional email
Even though it’s important to provide your customers with valuable content, it’s just as important not to forget what your email marketing goals are. That’s why you shouldn’t be afraid to send purely promotional emails now and then.
Just make sure they’re relevant to your customers’ interests.
5. The cross-promotional email
This email doesn’t promote any specific product but can help you build your overall online following.
In the cross-promotional email, you encourage your subscribers to like your Facebook page, add you on Instagram, or follow you on Twitter. If you have another email list for a separate but related topic, you can promote that as well.
Reminder emails that encourage customers to leave reviews for products they recently purchased also fit into this category.
Learn how to ask your customers for reviews.
6. The special offer email
The special offer email is just as important as the promotional email. You don’t just want to sell things to your subscribers without offering them any special offers from time to time.
Whether the special offer is a time-limited BOGO sale, a coupon code for 10% off, or a free shipping offer, surprising your subscribers can kill two birds with one stone: You can increase your sales and build a relationship with them.
7. The free offer email
Rifle Paper Co, Really Good Emails
Besides special discounts and promotions, it’s a good idea to occasionally give your subscribers something for free.
This can be a free ebook, webinar, video course, or whitepaper.
Just don’t do this too often—if you set expectations that you’re only giving away freebies, subscribers might get annoyed when you finally decide that you need to send a promotional email to boost profits.
8. The feedback email
Lyft, Really Good Emails
Asking customers for feedback is part of building a relationship with them. It shows that you value their opinions and are interested in doing what you can to satisfy them.
Asking for feedback is important because, if you don’t ask, you might never figure out if your products can be improved, if your customers are truly satisfied with your service, and whether there are additional services your customers want you to provide.
Embed short surveys in your emails, so that customers can provide feedback easily. You can also include an optional field that they can fill out themselves for custom feedback.
9. The story email
Consider sending story emails. Testimonial emails would fit into this category.
You can tell the story of how your business was created or why you decided to create your product. You can also tell stories of how previous clients were helped by your service.
Stories are engaging, touch upon emotions, and can increase conversions.
10. The curated email
Not every value or newsletter email has to be your own content. You can provide the same value with curated content.
This can be a collection of how-to guides or tips from other blogs. Another idea would be to send a list of recommended resources, such as ebook guides, video courses, apps, or software tools that your subscribers can get for free.
11. The launch or announcement email
Whenever you launch a new product or service, make sure that your subscribers know about it first. You can even offer the first people who purchase it a special discount.
Announcing your new products or services to your existing customers is a great way to leverage the email list that you worked so hard to build and can help you recoup the money you invested quickly.
12. The pre-launch email
Framer, Really Good Emails
Similar to the launch email, the pre-launch email announces an upcoming product or service that’ll be released soon. You can send several pre-launch emails leading up to your actual launch.
The goal of your pre-launch email is three-fold.
First of all, you want to build suspense. The more suspense, interest, and anticipation you can build, the higher your conversion rate will be.
Secondly, you want to presell your product. After you’ve promoted your product for weeks or even months, all you have to do is send your launch email and the sales will come in automatically.
Finally, not everyone will see or open your launch email. Sending a few emails beforehand allows you to reach more people.
13. The transactional email
The transactional or confirmation email is sent to customers after a purchase is made. Of all the emails ecommerce customers want, this is perhaps the most important.
The purpose of this email is so that they know that their purchase went through, but transaction emails can also be a great opportunity to personalize your customers’ journeys.
What’s more, you might consider using transaction emails to send reviews or advertise other services or products.
Get more out of your transactional emails.
14. The shipping email
InstaCart, Really Good Emails
Send this email to customers after their product has shipped. Ideally, you should include a tracking number, so that they can keep track of when their package will arrive.
This category also includes emails with shipping updates.
15. The upsell email
Medium, Really Good Emails
The upsell email is also sent after a purchase and can be combined with the confirmation email.
Amazon, in their purchase confirmation emails, recommends related products that consumers might be interested in.
Whether you sell physical or digital products, cross-selling and upselling can lead to increased conversions.
16. The abandoned cart email
Moment, Really Good Emails
Did you know that more than three-quarters of shoppers leave items in their cart unpurchased?
There are many reasons people end up abandoning their carts. They include:
- A long checkout process
- Unsatisfactory shipping options
- Hidden fees
- Needing to create an account
- And more
Fortunately, there’s a way to get back these customers: by sending an abandoned cart reminder email.
This email gently reminds customers that they left items in their cart.
Sometimes, people abandon their carts for genuine reasons: Perhaps their baby started crying, they realized they were late for an appointment, or some other reason. A reminder email can help.
A whopping 48% of abandoned cart emails are opened, which is much higher than the average email open rate. (It’s worth paying attention to your subject line for an increased open rate.)
You can increase the conversion rates of your abandoned cart emails by including incentives for people to buy:
- You can offer a discount
- You can offer free shipping
- You can offer a free trial
- You can throw in a freebie, for good measure
Learn how you can recover more abandoned carts.
17. The reminder email
Clear, Really Good Emails
The reminder email isn’t about abandoned carts. Rather, it’s for other reminders.
For example, if a customer has a subscription that’s expiring soon, you can send a reminder email for them to renew it.
18. The purge email
This sounds ominous, but it’s actually rather simple.
It’s important to keep your list clean. If there are people who never open your emails, it can skew your open rate data.
There are many reasons why people will subscribe but never open your emails.
Many people use a burner account to subscribe for free ebooks but never actually check it. Other email accounts may have become inactive, or the subscriber may simply have become uninterested in what you have to offer.
Before you clear these people from your list, however, send them a purge email. Tell them that you noticed that they haven’t opened any emails recently and offer them the option of staying on your list, if they choose to do so.
If you get no response, feel free to delete those subscribers.
Wrap up
Eighteen types of emails can sound like a lot, but not all of them will apply to your business. Plus, these are the emails ecommerce customers want to engage with.
Sending quality emails to your customers allows you improve their experience, further personalizing their journey and improving brand loyalty.
Choose the emails above that you think will be the most effective and start using them in your campaign. Then, watch the sales pour in.
Need help connecting email with your ecommerce business? CM Commerce can help.
Roberto Garvin is the co-founder of Mofluid. From email to browsers, search engines, mobile, AI, and now blockchain, Robert loves watching tech evolve and can’t wait to write about what’s next.
Twitter @mofluid / Facebook @mofluid