As per Smart Insights, the average email open rate for all industries is about 16.97%. At the same time, the average click-through rate is around 10.29%.
As per Adobe Email Usage Study, an average American spends a total of five hours checking their emails; three for professionals and two for personal.
These statistics are enough to prove that when strategized well, Shopify email marketing can be effective at driving both subscriber engagement and conversions.
So in this guide, we’re going to talk all about improving your Shopify email marketing strategy.
But let’s first start with understanding what email engagement is.
What is Email Engagement?
Email engagement is a way of measuring how well people (in this case, your subscribers and customers) interact with your email marketing campaigns. Some of the most common email marketing metrics that define engagement are click-through rate or CTR, open rate, and conversion rate.
Now that you know what Shopify email engagement is, it’s time to know how to formulate a kickass email marketing strategy that boosts the metrics that define it.
Tips to Enhance Email Engagement for Shopify Store
Tip 1: Segment your Subscriber List
A one-size-fits-all strategy does not work every time. Only knowing your target audience and sending them all the same information is not enough. In fact, it can get people to unsubscribe from your email list for the lack of contextual messages.
Segment your subscribers. Email segmentation allows you to observe the behavior of visitors on your website, know their preferences, and send them customized emails when they subscribe. This adds a personal touch and engages the reader better.
For example, if a visitor subscribes from your sales page, you should be emailing them about your ongoing and upcoming discounts. Similarly, if they subscribe from a page where you’re promoting limited inventory products, you know they are seeking exclusivity.
Tip 2: Make your Subject Line Catchy
Do you know that around 47% of email recipients open the mail if they find the subject line catchy? On the other hand, nearly 69% can spam or trash the emails if they do not like the subject line.
Step into the shoes of the recipient. How likely are you to open an email that comes with a boring subject line unless it is from a renowned brand? You get the drift.
Your subject line should be the crux of your email. Yet it should not give everything away and should be interesting enough to click on. After all, you want your reader to open the email and reach the CTA to take some action.
Another good way of making the subject line interesting is by personalizing it. As per MarketingDrive, a personalized subject line has 50% better chances of getting opened.
You can even combine the subject line with the pre-header content and make the entire preview interesting and clickable enough to be opened.
Tip 3: Leverage the Pre-header Text
After the subject line, preview text or the pre-header text is the most important thing when it comes to enhancing your email. The pre-header text is just about a few words longer than the subject line and is a good way to further engage your reader.
An important thing about pre-header text is that it should complement your subject line rather than repeating the same thing as the subject line. If your subject line intrigues, your pre-header content should offer. Combine suspense and gift, wishes and offers, whatever you think works best for your brand, and get the recipient of the email to become your customer.
Tip 4: Leverage dynamic content for contextual messages
Personalization should not just be limited to the subject line or the pre-header text. It should also extend to the body copy. Agreed, it depends on the kind of email that you are sending out, but a little personalization never hurts, only converts.
Does that mean you have to sit and painstakingly comb through your email list to create personalized letters? No.
It simply means that you should make use of dynamic content and technology that changes certain aspects of the email on the basis of the recipient’s gender, preferences, location, etc. In this way, you can create multiple personalized emails that look different, from a single template.
This Brooks email to its women subscribers and customers is a perfect example of such personalization.
Tip 5: Include Images that Increase the Value of the Email
Images and other forms of media such as small GIFs and videos make the email more engaging and interesting. Studies prove that people are 80% more willing to read a piece of content if it contains images. It holds true for emails as well.
But the hack here is to use high-quality as well as realistic visuals in your email to give subscribers a better perspective of your products.
For instance, take a look at this Kate Spade email. They have used a model’s picture here. But what makes it realistic is the fact that she is carrying a Kate Spade bag. This gives customers value as they get to know how the bag would look in real life, in terms of size and color.
You can even insert GIFs and videos. However, whatever forms of media you use, you should make sure they are optimized enough to open quickly. If the load time is high, the recipient would lose interest and your email, despite being a good one, would be of no use.
Tip 6: Add Visible and Effective CTAs
CTAs or call-to-actions are extremely important. In fact, the whole point of creating an effective email re-engagement strategy is to get the recipient to click on the CTA and take some sort of action on your storefront.
Therefore, it is important that your CTA be placed right in the line of visibility and designed so that it is in contrast with the color scheme of the email.
An effective copy of the CTA button helps too. All in all, the better your CTA button looks, the more the chances of the recipient clicking on it and purchasing your product.
This IPSY email is a perfect example. The whole email is bright and shiny, but the CTA still stands out. Why? Because the colors are in stark contrast and capture your attention as soon as you open the email. Plus, the copy is a simple call to what everyone wants to hear, offering ‘free gifts.’
Tip 7: Optimize for Mobile and Other Devices
You have created a good email, with an effective subject line, preheader text, copy, design, and call-to-action. And yet, you missed one of the most important steps, optimizing the email for mobile and other devices.
Almost 61% of the recipients open their emails on their mobile phones. That is more than half of the entire lot.
Make sure the images, videos, and other media you include in your emails load easily on mobile devices, taking into account network variations. Also, make sure that your CTA buttons are easy to interact with.
Here are some further tips to ensure your email sails smoothly on the mobile.
- Create shorter subject lines
- Don’t forget to use the pre-header text
- Keep the body copy concise
- Use relevant and interesting images
- Keep the CTAs clear and position them correctly
- Make the email click-friendly by leaving enough room around it
Tip 8: Use Social Proof
92% of B2B buyers make a purchase after they read a trustworthy review.
Social proof refers to user-generated content, such as reviews and testimonials. Add this social proof to your emails to increase its authenticity.
This will also reduce the recipient’s efforts of going elsewhere to look for word around your products, establishing trust in your brand immediately.
This Brooklinen email establishes it quite well. These testimonials come from real customers. The other buyers are more likely to make a purchase after reading these rather than the mere description put out by the brand. The quirky pun ‘bull-sheet’ is eye-catching as well.
Want your social proofs to work even better? Include media mentions. Just like this email example.
Tip 9: Teach them Something Useful
Don’t just talk about selling your products in your email. Think from the perspective of the email recipients, whether or not they are your customers. Apart from offering discounts and deals, send them how-to guides, lookbooks, invite them to live video sessions, and more where they can learn more about your brand or how they can put your products to use to solve a problem!
Tip 10: Celebrate Achievements and Success
Another way to boost your email engagement is by celebrating occasions. You can do this in the form of subscription anniversaries with the subscribers, first purchase anniversaries with an inactive or active customer, or offering birthday discounts.
You can also do it by sharing your brand achievements and mentions with the subscribers and making them a part of your success. A direct and personal address like this helps establish long-term relationships with the subscribers and eventually helps in converting them into customers as well.
Tip 11: Send Personalized Product Recommendations
About 40% of Amazon’s revenue comes from making personalized product recommendations to its subscribers and customers. These recommendations are based on what the subscriber has previously interacted with on the store, bought, or shown interest in by wishlisting.
You can actually send personalized product recommendations to your subscribers by email to boost engagement. As these are contextual recommendations, you are more likely to hook their interest and drive them towards taking a desired action.
This Tarte emailer is a good example of how to insert recommendations in your email and nudge your customers to make a purchase.
Tip 12: Celebrate your Journey Together
It’s not just customer anniversaries and birthdays that need to be celebrated. It is also the brand and customer relationship that should be celebrated. It is also an occasion to remind your customers of how far you both have come and how this relationship has a long way to go here. A great way to establish long-term customer loyalty that will convert into further purchases.
Take a look at this EasyJet email
Tip 13: Ask for Feedback
Do you think the work is done after you have made the sale / the subscribers have converted? No.
That’s when the actual task begins. Your goal is not one purchase. Your goal is to repeat purchases by creating a lasting relationship with the customer.
A study suggests that around 70% of customers can leave a review or feedback if asked.
Ask for their feedback a week after delivering the product. Even if their experience is not up to the mark, in the worst-case scenario, a request for feedback will establish you as a brand that cares.
As a result, the customer will think of giving another chance and think of one bad experience as an exception.
Tip 14: Host a Contest or Giveaway
Interactions are important for engagement. Hold contests and giveaways – not only on your social media pages but also your email. Statistics suggest that emails with contests have an average open rate of 8.8%.
Images and contests, this Parenting email does it all right.
You could create an email-exclusive contest, promote it on social media and encourage more followers to join your email list too! The goal should be to get your subscriber list to act on the contest, completing one action or another to stand a chance to win something of value to them.
You can even create a follow-up email that lets your list know who won and what, so that they do their best the next time.
Tip 15: Conduct a Quiz or Survey
Again, the purpose of email communication should not only be to sell but to create a long-lasting relationship with the subscriber by getting to know them better.
Creating and conducting quizzes and surveys is a great way of doing that. For instance, if you are a health brand or even a beauty bar or bundleseates customized plans or bundles, you can send surveys to the subscribers and then they can convert and become purchasers as they buy products based on your recommendations and results.
Take a look at this quiz sent by Platinum Skincare. Depending on the results, they send a series of emails that give solutions to the customer’s pain point.
Tip 16: Promote a Loyalty Program
Another strategy to boost the engagement rate on your emails is to promote your loyalty program. Incentivize your interactions with the help of rewards and loyalty points. You can ask your subscribers to take certain actions like creating a wishlist, dropping reviews and ratings on products, etc to earn points they can redeem in purchases. This will not only enhance email engagement but also give you testimonials to showcase as social proof on the storefront to convert more visitors into subscribers and customers.
Tip 17: Keep your List Clean
If despite checking all the steps in the process, you think that your strategy is not working and you cannot boost your email engagement rate, maybe, the problem lies in your email list.
From time to time, update and clean it. Keeping unnecessary people in your email list may increase your numbers but lower your engagement metrics. It is better to have fewer high-engagement subscribers than the high number of low-engagement ones.
Choose quality over quantity.
Tip 18: Continually monitor and optimize
Other than the above-mentioned tips, continuous measurement of email performance and optimization is a given. Decide a period and keep reviewing how your emails are performing and how your subscribers are engaging with them.
Take note of the smallest of aspects like the call-to-actions they tend to engage with the most, the theme of emails you see the most interaction on. It’s also a good idea to keep a tab on email templates that visually entice subscribers to engage with you.
Optimize your campaigns on the go for the best of results.
Tip 19: Encourage Personalized Conversations
Automated and monotonous tones are a thing of the past. Your customers want to know about the humans behind the brand. Personalize your email tones. Use first names, be a little casual with the voice, as much as your brand allows, and create a relationship with the recipient of the email rather than just selling them your products. Sign off using a name instead of just the brand name.
Give your email a personality. This will nudge the recipients to engage more with the emails. Tell a story, infuse emotions, give your email some life that your recipient would be interested in.
Take a look at this amazing email-cum-note by
Email Engagement is Important for your Shopify store. Here’s Why!
It is not just important to create and execute an effective Shopify email marketing strategy. to send out a set number of messages per month. It is also important to enhance the engagement of your campaigns. Here are some of the reasons:
1.Better Customer Relationships:
A Neilson study suggests that nearly 66% of the customers come back to the brands they have a good relationship with. Focusing on email engagement enables the start of this very relationship.
2.Drives Sales:
For every dollar that you spend on email marketing, expect an average return of at least 32$. When you focus on email engagement, you’re focusing on hooking the subscriber’s interest and driving them towards conversion with subtle nudges.
3.Affects Growth Multipliers:
You grow your revenue with the help of three things; increasing the number of customers, increasing the orders per customer, or increasing the average order value. These three are known as growth multipliers.
Working on your email engagement rate affects all three. You can increase conversions by using abandoned cart emails and automated welcomes. You can increase orders per customer with the help of win-back emails and other strategies. Lastly, you can increase the AOV or average order value with the help of lifetime campaigns that you can push via emails.
4.Not Influenced by Third Party Gatekeepers:
Do you know that Facebook reach is primarily defined by how your friends and family react to and engage with a post? Yes.
In fact, its organic reach is on a decline, and paid reach requires you to shell out money. On the other hand, there is no such third-party intervention or dependence as far as engagement on email is concerned.
In short, working on your email engagement rate ensures a long and happy relationship with your subscribers, eventually converting them into customers and repeat buyers.
The engagement you drive also depends on how timely your emails are. The aim is to send the right message to the right person at the right time. You can do that by leveraging automation in every scenario.
Have your emails been effective at driving engagement?
