Email marketing is a growing trend used by many businesses in the eCommerce world. In 2013, it accounted for more than 7 percent of all eCommerce transactions – leaving social media, banner ads and affiliate marketing strategies in the dust!
Check out these results from a Custora study called E-Commerce Customer Acquisition Snapshot.
Despite the fact that the world has been using email for more than two decades, only recently have we started to really take advantage of email automation for business purposes. This technique can be incredibly helpful to increase eCommerce sales because it reaches the majority of your traffic and personalizes the experience.
There are several important truths about the use of email generally in modern business:
- Email is one of the most effective marketing channels for conversion. It helps businesses reach more potential customers early, and persuade them to convert.
- Email is one of the best tools for engaging potential customers because it offers incentives, promotions, discounts, and other benefits directly.
But how do you specifically use email automation to bring people back to your website and increase eCommerce sales?
1. Set up browse abandonment emails
Here’s a hard truth of eCommerce: the majority of the visitors don’t care about converting into leads and customers. They just don’t.
Even the most high-converting SEO and social media techniques cannot ensure that your eCommerce website traffic will convert.
You may be experiencing the same problem right now on your own site. After all, you’re reading this article.
To optimize an eCommerce site for conversions, a lot of methods are used. The most prominent one is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). It’s the art of persuading prospects to take the desired action that they are not quite ready to take.
CRO can be incredibly effective when powered with the right information and data. These components are critical because they allow the business to develop incentives that directly meet the needs of prospects.
Here’s a screenshot of site analytics that may look familiar to you:
This site is not doing very well in terms of conversions. The ‘No Cart Addition’ indicator shows 2,602, which is 97.23 percent of the entire traffic. This means that only 2.77 percent of visitors added items into their cart.
A lot of eCommerce sites experience similar issues. CRO is the best answer but it’s not enough to fix them. It needs something else.
Emails! They are the best for leveraging site traffic and increasing conversions.
By automating emails, a business can engage with those 97.23 percent who left the site after browsing. These emails will help to persuade them to return and take another look, thus moving further down your funnel.
Marketers typically refer to them as Browse Abandonment Emails. They remind visitors to return to the cart page and complete their purchase. They can really decrease the number of visitors who drop off.
There are several important things to remember here. To improve the effectiveness of browse abandonment emails, businesses should segment visitors. Never send the same message to everyone!
For example, if there is a particular page on the site where they dropped off, such as a product description page, the browse abandonment email should feature the product description page in question as well as similar products.
Here’s an example of such an email:
It invites the receipient to take another look at the products they already viewed, plus some more. It is relevant to the customer since the products are based on the browsing history.
Browse Abandonment Emails are most effective:
- Sent shortly after the visitor dropped off
- When they convey the main point of the letter in their subject line (e.g., ‘Take another look!’)
- They contain more than one suggestion (the example above has three).
The effectiveness of browse abandonment emails is supported by recent studies. For example, a 2013 survey of US digital shoppers discovered that 81 percent of respondents were more likely to complete a purchase if they received personalized emails.
Of course, to send this type of email you need to capture the web visitors email address on your site first. The best way to do this is to offer them something of value, such as a lead magnet.
2. Choose the right email automation solution for your site
Many online businesses don’t use email automation to increase the effectiveness of their digital strategy.
But regardless of which eCommerce platform you’re using for your shop, there are email marketing tools available.
It’s just important to look at all the options and select the right one.
Here are some browse abandonment email options for the most popular eCommerce platforms:
Different providers of eCommerce platforms offer different options for their clients, so check all the settings that are available to you.
Don’t forget to:
- Identify the places on your website where visitors drop off. It can be the homepage, categories, or product page. Send your emails accordingly.
- Include product information in the emails to remind people about the advantages of buying the product.
- Send emails shortly after the visitor drops off.
- Send only one email. Don’t become a spammer.
- Optimize the templates for all emails for viewing on various mobile devices. People browse shops on mobile all the time!
In conclusion
Email automation can be really helpful for increasing your ecommerce sales due to it’s high-converting marketing possibilities. By using site analytics, you’ll find loads of ways to experiment with this method.
If this post has demystified email automation a little for you, be sure to let me know in the comments section.
Guest Author: Lucy Benton is a marketing specialist and business consultant whose passion in expressing her own thoughts as a blogger and working at BestEssayTips. She is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve her skills and expertise. If you’re interested in working with Lucy, you can find her on Facebook.