As the talk around integrating Chatbots, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality with Ecommerce gets more attention; it raises the question – are email marketing campaigns past its prime?
Fortunately, email marketing is still an effective marketing channel and even beat out its successors like social media and SEO. It’s convenient, faster, and is easily accessible anywhere. The advantages have led to the rise in the number of email users.
In addition, with 270 billion emails sent each day, there’s a lot of competition to grab the audience’s attention. While a decade-old technology, a.k.a email, has stood the test of time, many marketers are still grappling to make the maximum out of the marketing channel.
Phew! That’s indeed a lot of numbers and information.
Well, we have a lot more in store for you. Keep reading this as we brief you on carrying out email marketing in 10 ways to craft a cohesive email marketing strategy.
10 Interesting Ways To Craft an Ecommerce Email Marketing Strategy
Although there are no steadfast one-strategy-fit-all ecommerce email marketing campaigns, there are still few ways marketers can surprise their customers. Let’s dive in.
1. Let Your Product Talk
It looks simple, right? Unfortunately, not many email marketers can nail it. Clever positioning of products can yield you a ton of rewards in the form of engagement, conversions, and sales. One way to let your product speak is by setting up a premise only to be broken by your product, who later can steal the show.
Imagine, how many times have you wished to have an app that doesn’t let you and your friends fuss over the food bill? PayPal solves it for the customers and piques their interest by sporting this benefit on the email newsletter. PayPal has managed to shine through with its compelling copies and newsletters. Here’s one such example that not only sports a concise and also makes it relatable for the customers to resonate. When you look closely, the example used cleverly puts forward the benefits of using the PayPal service. PayPal has hit a common pain point and maximized its use.
2. Speak Your Shoppers Language
Hola. Hello. Hi.
All of them are essentially a notable first remark to wish your customers. But, they speak very differently for different brands. Besides, buyers identify more with people who sound, speak or feel familiar to them.
Brands are no different. Brands that can capture a similar ethos and speak their buyer’s language are more likely to evoke a sense of genuine ‘liking.’ A buyer who identifies a brand and likes it is more likely to say “yes” to brand buying requests.
The brand Wool and the Gan persuaded customers and capitalized on these right from the start. Their two-word subject line does the job and is a great friendly conversation starter to coerce them into opening the newsletter.
Here, the brand posed as your BFF. The newsletter looks more like your personal chat than a promotional email.
Honestly, this email is a creative oasis where GIF is used smartly to imitate conversation among BFFs. Other than that, they also don’t miss a note to remind audiences of the joy of missing out (JOMO) that simply can come by knitting their way. Positive associations like this can help brands to capitalize and create a demand for their products.
In the next part of the video how-to video the audiences and recreate the jumper that was shown in the above conversation. A great way to promote video content as well.
Lastly, they kept the excitement around and ended the email by recommending products according to the previous shopping data.
This email is sure to resonate with their audiences and trigger their subscribers’ to get into the buying mode.
This email newsletter from Harpoon Brewery makes the tone friendly but not overly friendly. The simple, designed, timely email is an effective way to showcase your genuinity with target audiences. After all, in the age of automation and hustle culture, all people yearn for is human connection.
Therefore, sending such wonderful, sweet, compelling messages can help you strengthen the relationship with your existing customers and probably eventually make them your loyalists.
3. Design Your Design
Good designs coupled with innovative email marketing campaigns can help you win subscribers. This strategy works exceptionally well for brands with a unique design frontier that builds on the attention economy.
The Function of Beauty plays on their strengths. The subject line itself is a killer move that captures shoppers’ attention as the brand lets you talk to your hair – weird indeed. The design of the newsletter looks nothing like a promotional email. But, it pays off, as it has piqued the interest of the audience and stands out in a crowded inbox.
The email is designed to look like an apology letter that one writes to their hair. The ‘letter’ here focuses on tapping into buyers’ pain points of bad hair.
The cleverly designed email campaign intends to engage their customers to promise that they would take care of their hair. But, how? Showcasing how to use the Function of Beauty’s products which turns out to be quite an impactful way to charm your way into audiences’ needs.
The next section of the email is dedicated to asserting the needs and wants of the shoppers that read “Meet Custom Hair Mask.”
Once a shopper decides to click on the call-to-action (CTA) button “Order Now,” it directs them to a small questionnaire that comes in handy to create a custom hair mask – a riveting experience indeed.
This promotional email is creative and leaves a mark on the audience’s mind, buying the brand more loyalty.
Another example is the email campaign newsletter from Litmus who used catchy designs to sweep audiences off their feet. They creatively used the animation to unveil the look “under the hood” of their email tool to entice the audience into reading the whole newsletter.
Besides, the header explicitly states what this email is about which gets the audiences hooked and turns it into a massive engagement.
4. Engage Your Readers
Have you ever thought, what holds people’s attention – a word, subject line, design, or just engaging content? While many would argue design is essential to grab attention, content plays an integral role in keeping the readers thoroughly engaged.
Besides, in a crowded inbox, the last thing you would want is your reader to skim through your content. Simply put, the long hours you have put together to write that email may go unnoticed in a busy inbox. Let’s look at some inspiration.
An interesting element added by Boxycharm is the use of an animated arrow. Such visual cues direct audiences’ attention to critical sections of the email. And, notice the copy, ‘ PSST! Scroll to the bottom for a surprise’ – this entices shoppers to read through and scroll down in search of a surprise.
Boxycharm does deliver on its promise.
Here the brand offers a limited-time freebie, another promotional charisma to get people to feel the need. Therefore, smartly using visual cues can yield attention from customers, and teasing them with surprise offers can convert them into loyal advocates.
Another such engaging email campaign example is from Bonobos. The brand uses a fairly simple idea – give your audience a reason to engage with you.
The easy-to-click and minimalistic campaign from Bonobos creates a unique experience for their shoppers by keeping it interactive.
Bonobos are aware that its target audience is part of the hustle culture and has mostly no time to waste doomscrolling. Besides, the email structure aims to make it easy for the audience to choose the size and direct them quickly to shopping by creating a seamless online shopping experience.
5. Make The Experience Memorable
One question that bothers most marketers: How to pop up the email rate in a busy inbox? Curiosity, it is.
This email marketing newsletter from Brooklinen cleverly triggers curiosity through the subject line.
Now, once the audience falls for the sticky subject-line and opens the email, they get this:
The brand uses GIFs to spice up the email marketing campaign. The email opens up with the copy “Something big is coming” and an unwrapping animation that further teases their upcoming sale.
While, they don’t reveal the discount amount, but ensure to get the buyer on board with them. They tease them to come back again to check the sale. They even ask you to set reminders in the next section.
With this animated email, Brooklinen creates excitement around their mystery sale.
6. Use Days to Your Advantage
Days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday are among some of the days that can’t be missed as a brand. But, then, how do you ensure to draw attention to your brand in an overcrowded inbox field?
Chubbies are well known for their humorous and exceptional emails that always sets them apart. Humor always wins the battle. So, Chubbies were on their toes, right from the get-go.
Here’s a look at the subject line they used:
Wondering what that even means? Well, it’s absurd. But, it surely does its work – it draws attention to the email and makes the audience open it right away.
Now, coming to email, the animation is on point to describe how it feels to save tons of money with the upcoming Black Friday offers. But, there’s a…
…twist.
Chubbies love to keep their audiences from second-guessing, by teasing them with a blurred image of what they can expect from the Black Friday sale.
Chubbies create mystery around the sale and get the audience hooked on to it such that they have to return for the massive sale.
The brand knows how to keep their audiences engaged, and they invite them to quickly sign up for a special list that gives them access to the following new collection. With a single email, they could get audiences excited, inform them, and get them shopping.
Another email marketing example from Casper clears the air more.
Casper picked up the start of Daylight Saving Time to offer discounts on mattresses.
While most blowout sales and flash campaigns look a little bland, this one from Casper hits all the right notes.
Casper decided to celebrate the Daylight Savings Time, which has got no competition. Besides, Casper cleverly placed their product in by stating how everyone prefers to sleep for one more hour.
They used an impressive subject line – “That extra hour, though.” to get the curiosity ticking in the shoppers. Besides the overall design, animated GIF, and a compelling CTA – makes the campaign a perfect one.
7. Send a Follow Up to Your Previous Follow Up
Not everyone is willing to buy from your brand. Some need a reason, while some need a little nudge in the form of follow-up emails. However, the challenge is not to sound too sales-y or pushy!
Fortunately, Rifle Paper Co. has struck a balance with its email campaign.
The subject line provides the information that the company has more products in store for you without using phrases like “hurry up,” etc.
Rifle Paper Co. also doesn’t shy away from recommending different product categories to browse on and quietly covers subscribers to customers.
Although it might take more than one approach to convert, these subtle follow-up emails can do wonders at times.
8. Send Brand Updates
How do you keep your customers in the loop with what’s happening with your brand?
Sending them a brand update email newsletter can save the day for you. It not only keeps them informed about all the updates but also highlights the brand’s genuinity.
RunKeeper does it well in their marketing campaigns. They use the email as an update tool that also highlights their app’s recent upgrades and their benefits.
However, the copy also works in tandem to entice subscribers to join the app again. Phrases like “Hi friend” or the “You rock” give the email a welcoming feel which is all a brand needs to get customers on board.
9. Connect and Reconnect with Subscribers
Most marketers go after growing the email subscribers list and forget about the inactive subscribers. The valuable hours and resources one spends on such occasions will only add to the loss.
Therefore, nudging your dormant subscribers to the activity will help you unlock a lot of lost sales.
Dropbox has found a creative way to re-engage with its inactive subscribers and win them back. Most times, once the brand builds up its reputation and attains a name ID, it becomes challenging to stay relevant among audiences.
Dropbox has undergone such a phase, that’s when it decided to revive its relationship with its audience. The brand devised a strategy to retarget and reach out to its customers.
Dropbox uses the convenient trope of showcasing the “before” and “after” pictures and dazzles its audience.
A closer look would reveal this email is clear, brief, and assures immense value to the user if they decide to come back. These ‘soft’ requests are sure to woo customers and get them active as subscribers to build a thriving business.
10. Appreciate Your Subscribers
While tapping into inactive subscribers is a critical step, it’s no time to forget about the active subscribers. They are equally, if not more, important for your brand. The right incentives and framing a proper message can turn your active subscribers into brand advocates.
Sometimes, all you need to win back customers is a heartfelt thank you note instead of handing out discounts.
Glossier did it the perfect way. They didn’t take their subscribers for granted.
The moment you open the email newsletter, it looks simple, but you can feel the heartfelt gratitude from the brand.
The brand doesn’t include any announcements, products, or CTAs in this promotional email. However, there’s a catch. Every single element in the email is clickable and is linked to product pages on the website.
The Bottom Line
Honestly, hundreds of emails land in a shopper’s email every single day. But, the open rates are really low. However, you can always revive your email marketing campaigns and breathe new life into the ones that you send out. The above ten ideas can be the source of inspiration and come in handy to create resourceful and engaging emails.
But, if you are short of resources or time, you shouldn’t be bothered much. TargetBay has got your back. BayEngage by TargetBay is the next-gen email marketing tool that has a bundle of beautifully designed email marketing templates that can come in handy. Businesses can choose from hundreds of email templates and make the way for more sales, engagement, and brand evangelists.
Ultimately, no matter what your email marketing goals are, there’s always room for improvement.
