The 5 Commandments of eCommerce Email Marketing That Are Written in Stone

Thursday, February 18, 2016Kelly Nelson

Email Marketing Facts That Are Set in Stone 

Here are a few fun facts to get this started…

• 53% of emails are opened on a mobile device (Litmus)
• 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications (Salesforce)
• Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened (Salesforce)
• 70% of people said they would or have made use of a coupon or discount they received from a marketing email (Salesforce)
• 33% of email recipients open emails based on their subject lines alone (Salesforce)

So, if this doesn’t make you want to invest more time in your email strategy for your ecommerce store, what will?
It’s clear, in today’s business environment, that communication and relationship building has become a top priority of the modern consumer. Email marketing, being a big part of a standard communication strategy, remains to be one of the most powerful as well. Let’s review the 5 commandments of developing a winning email ecommerce strategy!
 

1. Thou shall be Relevant.

Get it right! Not one of your customers will ever be exactly like the other, so it is crucial that you develop an effective segmentation strategy. Even if it’s a simple as a male list and a female list; this is still going to drastically impact your communications. With that being said, segmenting your list has been a proven method for improving your analytics. Take some of these stats from Magento as an example:

• Improves a click-through-rate by 15%
• Increased open rates by 14%
• Dramatically reduced bounce rates, spam reporting and unsubscribes.

 

2. Thou shall be Responsive

Let’s be honest with ourselves, if your email marketing communications are not mobile by now, you have bigger problems. Everything should be mobile by now, its 2016! As mentioned above, a litmus study showed that 53% of emails are viewed on mobile devices. Making your email campaign responsive can and will dramatically increase your click through rate.
 

3. Thou shall use a Personal Touch

Personalizing your emails is no longer an option if you want to be effective. It is one of the easiest ways to get the attention of the reading and improve your open rate. It’s important to keep in mind that your customer (hopefully) has given you permission to use this personal information (ie. Their name), they expect that you use it to target them more appropriately. Give them value with information that they can use.
 

4. Thou shall be Visually Appealing

Use pictures! This may sound like common sense, but it is crucial that you break up the text and copy with some appealing, eye catching imagery. Nothing is more off putting than a marketing email full of text. If you’re trying to sell something, your customers and potential customers want to see it. Let’s be clear, the copy is important, but it should support the photos and images that you’ve included.
 

5. Thou shall use a Call-to-Action

This is your purpose, the reason you’ve put so much time and energy into your marketing email! Make it count with a strong call-to-action.

Is it a sign up?
To make a purchase?
To visit your site?

What is it that you want your reader to do? This is what it all comes down to. Your subject line, your images and text should all come together to help communicate the call-to-action. Make it clear, make it strong, and make it compelling. Your email must have a purpose, why else would you send one?

There you have it folks, our 5 commandments of a strong eCommerce email campaign.
Did we forget any? Share some of your tips in the comments below. 

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