As the founder of ReEngager, I’ve created email campaigns for Shopify, EasyDNS, and Home Staging. I got my stripes in the copywriting world and I’ve incorporated the lessons I’ve learned in this article. This is a whopping 15,000+ word guide to ecommerce email marketing. Before you continue, bookmark this page now because you’ll want to return to it later. Part 1 – The Tools of an Ecommerce Email Marketing Strategy (Published December 9th, 2015) Part 2 – Ecommerce Email Marketing Campaign Roadmap – Stage 1 (Published January 19th, 2016) Part 3 – Ecommerce Email Marketing Campaign Roadmap – Stage 2 (Published February 2nd, 2016) Part 4 – How Ecommerce Companies Like Amazon, Bonobos and Envelopes.com Drive Millions With Email Marketing (Published March 24th, 2016) Part 5 – The 3 Highest Converting Behavioral Emails In 2017 (Other Than Cart Abandonment) (Published October 10, 2017) Imagine having email campaigns that trigger automatically — based on how someone interacts with your company and your website. These “automated” campaigns then go out to do your bidding… …they build relationships and trust… …they indoctrinate subscribers into your brand (so they buy from you instead of your competitors)… …they keep people engaged (so they never stop opening, clicking, and buying)… and finally… …they drive a predictable stream of sales, every day of every week of every year. Ecommerce email marketing is the art and science of using email to generate sales for your store. ~John McIntrye And that’s just the automated side of things. Then you’ve got the manual side of things… and while it might be manual, it’s no less important than the automated side. Regular promotions Segmented blasts Reengagement campaigns … there’s a lot of money to be found. This five-part guide has everything you need to set up a full-scale ecommerce email marketing program without outside help. So, let’s get into it, but first… What is Ecommerce Email Marketing? Ecommerce email marketing is the art and science of using email to generate sales for your store. It can be simple, such as sending an email to people who abandon their shopping carts. Or complex, like having numerous campaigns that work together synergistically to multiply sales exponentially. At the end of the day, when you look at the promotions, offers, free shipping coupons, and lead nurturing emails — email marketing is about building relationships. (RELATED: Following Email Marketing Best Practices) Nothing more, nothing less. If you approach email marketing with this perspective in mind, you’ll do much better: You’ll create better promotions that sell more product. You’ll nurture your subscribers better, which will lead to more long-term sales. You’ll segment your database more effectively, which will (once again) generate more sales. “Email is about building relationships.” Email marketing isn’t about blasting the crap out of your database any more than sales is about cold-calling people and screaming through the phone at them. You’ll learn more about this when you read about lead nurture email campaigns in this guide. There’s a lot more to email marketing for ecommerce stores and online retailers than simply sending a weekly email and one cart abandonment email. But we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s take a look at your tools because, like any good craftsman, we need the right tools. Ecommerce Email Marketing Tool #1: The Perfect Ecommerce Email When we get into the campaigns section, you’ll see specific examples of each type of email. Before we do that though, let’s dive into the pieces of the perfect ecommerce email. The “From” Name The “From” Name is the name that appears next to the email address when the email appears. It looks like this in the inbox: The “From” Name is the name that appears next to the email address when the email appears …and this when the email is open: What the “From” Name looks like when the email is open Now, some companies like to get all fancy by using a personal name in the “From” field. They do this because they think it’s going to get them attention. However, in our experience, if your brand doesn’t revolve around like a specific person, like Oprah or Dr Phil, you’re better off using your brand or company name, just like the example above. From Email This is where I see a lot of otherwise smart companies make a silly mistake. They send emails from a “no reply” email address, such as [email protected]. But if you force people to go find your contact form on your website, or your support area, do you really think you’re going to hear from them whenever they have something important to tell you? Of course not. Make it easy for people to contact you by using an email address that they can send emails to, such as [email protected]. You’ll look more approachable, you’ll get more customer feedback, and you’ll be more successful as a result. Plus, by using an email address people can actually reply to, you can ask people to reply to your emails in your various campaigns (which we’ll get to in just a moment). Subject Line Check this out:
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