What if we told you there were five emails you could send that would dramatically increase revenue? Five emails that you could essentially ‘set and forget’ and use as the building blocks to your entire email marketing strategy.
Of course, you don’t want to send just any old email to capture your audience’s attention. You want your emails to be strategic. And most importantly, you want to customers to hit 'add to cart.'
So what’s the blueprint for ecommerce email marketing? We’ve done the research for you. Here are five must-have emails where our customers see the most bang for their buck.
Welcome email
Welcome emails set the tone for a brand’s relationship with their customers. It’s like a first impression. Every interaction you have with your shoppers should create a positive feeling and establish a connection.
A warm and friendly message along with a discount (if that’s your thing), can go a long way in providing a memorable experience for shoppers. We love this example from Detour. Their mantra, “no more bad cups” speaks to their belief in a quality cup of coffee. They’re so confident in their product, they’re willing to offer a discount to first-timers.
Winback email
Did you know that it costs five times more to gain a new customer than to get a repeat purchase from an existing customer?
Win back those “long time, no see” customers with a targeted campaign. This should be time-based. For instance, last year’s holiday shoppers who might be looking for more gifts for their loved ones at the same time of year, or customers who haven’t shopped with you in a number of weeks or months (like this example from Blue Apron).
Give them a sneak peek of what they’re missing out on. Whether that’s new collections or product releases, or special offers they can’t pass up.
Another way to know when to send winback emails? Think about your product’s life cycle. If you’re a makeup brand and you know customers tend to reorder every 90 days, schedule winbacks for that timeframe.
Abandoned cart email
You spend a ton of time and money trying to get customers to your site. They browse around, add a few items to their cart, and then... poof. They leave without a purchase. What happened to those awesome rainboots they were planning on buying? It’s possible they simply forgot.
Give them a little nudge with a friendly abandoned cart email. Ideally, this email would include the specific items (along with product images, like in this example) that they were considering—and as a bonus, a discount or special offer to ensure they complete the purchase.
VIP customer email
Let’s talk about your big spenders. These are customers that have a relatively high average order value or customer lifetime value. Also known as the lowest hanging fruit in the marketing orchard.
Because these are your most loyal customers, try a tiered offer to really boost the order amount. For example, for $50 and up, offer $5 off, then $10 off $100, $20 off $200, and so on. If you have rewards or loyalty tiers, you can offer a similarly tiered discount for those customers.
Post purchase email
One of the most often overlooked revenue opportunities in ecommerce is the post purchase email. At a bare minimum, merchants should send out a confirmation email thanking customers for shopping with them.
But the savviest marketers (like Bellroy) use this opportunity to gain product feedback, recommend similar or complementary items, or encourage shoppers to share their purchases on social media. Or all of the above.
Bonus tip—if your customer loved their purchase, chances are their friends will, too. Give shoppers a special code to offer their friends, and incentivize them with a kickback for each code redeemed. For example, “Share with 5 friends and get 20% off your next purchase.”
We hope this gives you some serious email inspo and can’t wait to see your emails in action.
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