INTRODUCTION
According to Litmus research, email marketing for the retail, e-commerce and consumer goods or services industry has an average ROI of $45 for every $1 spent. However, today’s consumers expect personalized communications, which can cost you a lot of time if you’re trying to do this manually.
That’s where email marketing automation comes it. Automated campaigns, also known as drip campaigns, allow you to automatically send emails based on certain triggers, like a designated timeframe or a consumer’s specific action(s). This allows you to streamline your marketing efforts so you can reach the right customers at the right time, and hopefully, generate sales.
Following are some tips for using email marketing automation for your retail store or e-commerce shop.
HOW TO BUILD YOUR EMAIL MARKETING LIST
Before you can launch any type of email marketing campaign, you need to build a list. One of the easiest ways to do this is to capture contact information from your past or current customers.
This is pretty straightforward for online shops. You simply need to require an email address when a customer makes a purchase. Just make sure to include an option to opt-in that states they will receive future promotions or offers.
You also can include pop-ups on your site that encourage people to subscribe to your e-newsletter. This usually works best when you offer some sort of incentive, like gaining access to exclusive deals or products, in exchange for signing up.
Brick-and-mortar retailers also can capture email addresses from their in-person shoppers. Like e-commerce stores, this usually works best when you offer an incentive. For instance, you could offer a same-day discount or gift for those who sign up for your e-newsletter. Your sales staff could manually record their info into your system or you could provide a QR code that allows customers to fill out an online form on their phone.
You also should consider including fields to capture information like birth date or content preference (e.g. deals, product news) so you can more easily segment your audience later.
HOW TO SET UP YOUR AUTOMATED EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
An automated email marketing campaign is essentially a sequence of emails you create and load in advance. The initial setup can take some time, but then it should pretty much run itself.
Every email marketing platform is different, but the overall process should be similar. In most cases, you start by identifying the initial trigger (e.g. newsletter signup, product purchase). Then build out the rest of the sequence based on certain conditions or actions. For instance, you can send messages out based on time (e.g. immediately, one week later) or as a result of an action, like opening a specific email or clicking on a link.
One of the most common examples of email marketing automation in retail takes place after a product purchase. In this situation, your main trigger should be the post-purchase page on your website–you will need to integrate your online shop with your email marketing platform to create a seamless experience for the consumer.
The first email in the automation should be a confirmation email that is sent out immediately after the purchase. Other emails in the sequence could include updates about estimated arrival, promotions for similar products or a customer feedback survey.
You can create automated email marketing campaigns for a variety of circumstances. For example, you can promote new products, special offers or birthday deals at the appropriate times or re-engage shoppers who abandoned their carts through an email remarketing campaign.
TAILOR AND TEST YOUR CONTENT
When it comes to establishing brand loyalty and driving sales, personalization is key. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. Make sure to practice personalization in all of your email marketing automation campaigns.
Create tailored messages for each of your audience segments to ensure they are receiving content that’s relevant to them. If a customer expressed interest in a particular product, for example, you should show them similar products in the future instead of blasting them items that aren’t likely to appeal to them. For added personalization, use merge tags to display the recipient’s name into the subject line or email.
A/B test your subject lines, images and messaging to see which versions get the most conversions. In addition, test out the email frequency to make sure you’re not under- or over-sending. The number of opens and unsubscribes will help you determine your optimal frequency and delivery timeline for your email marketing automations. As a general rule, avoid sending more than a couple of emails per week.
Before you launch your campaigns, make sure to preview them to check for formatting issues and broken links. You also should ensure that they are mobile-friendly, because more than 70% of retail e-commerce happens on mobile devices.