10 Emails Every eCommerce Site Should Have

If you’ve been following our blog you may have read our email marketing series and you've chosen a marketing tool and you’ve got your list set up so what now? How do you make email work for your eCommerce site?

You may be riddled with questions like:

• What should you send your customers?
• How often should you be emailing them?
• When should you be emailing them?

While issues to consider are:

• A. How to meet your marketing and business goals
• B. How not annoy customers to a point of unsubscribing

The key is to be as relevant as possible, sending emails that speak uniquely to a customer's different actions and interests are the best way to keep your email marketing improving month on month. So how do we do this? Here is a basic outline of emails that every eCommerce site should be sending out on a regular basis.

1. Welcome Email

A welcome email should be immediately sent when a person subscribes to you or signs up to an opt-in. You can include a greeting and thank you note for trusting you with their email. You can also include a short description of who you are and what you set out to do with your website or blog. Keep it light, friendly and fun. Let them know there are only great things to come in your business relationship.

2. Announcement and what's new

It’s always good to keep your subscriber up to date with the latest promos, new blog posts, life changing events or launching new products. Update them on what’s new in your blog and website. You don’t always have to sell things on this email. It can be also a way to keep people excited and interested in seeing that there is always something new.

3. Product

This can be an email about a new product or service you are launching. It can also be a showcase of your previous products that have had great reviews. Here you can give your reader a more in depth look at your product. Focus on either a single item or a collection so that you can place enough information about it without turning off the reader. Offering too many products at one go can be overwhelming.

4. Survey/Getting to know you

Get to know your readers by asking them to answer surveys or questions about themselves. It doesn’t have to be something personal. It could be product preferences, their reviews or what they would like to see next on your blog. This will help you in knowing what you can offer them next. This doesn’t just help you in your market research; it forms a personal connection between you and the subscriber. Offer an incentive for those that fill out the survey, like a coupon code with a discount on your product or a drawing for a free gift card!

5. Newsletter

A newsletter is what most think of when you are planning to write to your list. Make this fun, informative and interesting. Set a schedule for when you email your list. It can be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, see what your readers are most responsive too. However, I don’t recommend sending a newsletter more than once a week. This will make your unsubscribe rates much higher.

6. Giveaways and freebies

Everyone likes to get free things! Hold giveaways or offer freebies to keep your clients excited. Giveaways are great because they have the potential to go viral and can really maximise exposure to your blog or products. This is also a way to get them to try your product or service. If they are satisfied and impressed with you, then they would feel more comfortable with you and trust your capabilities enough to actually pay for it when the time comes. Sending additional freebies or bonus content will help you retain your subscribers!

7. Thank you

A thank you, email is a must to send out. You can send them a thank you email for purchasing, subscribing, and giving you feedback and other forms of interaction. This shows that they are either interested or invested in your business.

Let them know that your relationship is important and that you want it to grow. A thank you, email can be implemented three ways, Set up through email automation so it is immediately sent out once they complete a certain action (ex. make a purchase, fill out a survey etc.) You can send a personalised email after someone makes a purchase.

This is appreciated for purchases of higher priced or custom items. You can send out an email broadcast to your subscribers thanking them for participating or sticking through a time with more emails than normal.

8. Wishlist email

If you have an eCommerce site without a wish list functionality you are seriously missing out on a sales opportunity. Adding a wish list functionality on common eCommerce CMS's like WordPress, Magento and Shopify can be as simple as installing a plugin. Once you're set up you can gather a wealth of data, customers will be actively telling you what they have serious intent on buying. They will be curating lists of products for you all you need to do is remind them of it. Wish list emails on availability, price drops, limited stock and pre-order releases can make all the difference with an industry average of around 15% conversion it is truly one of the most powerful sales emails you can send.

9. Rating and review email

Selling your product is naturally your end goal and using previous customers to encourage new customers to purchase is a no brainer. Asking your customers to take the time to rate the product and provide insightful reviews not only improve your SEO but also your conversion rate. Gathering more reviews also gives your site the sense of authority when it comes to looking for product recommendations which improve site reach and time on site.

10. Abandon cart email

eCommerce isn't as straight forward as a visit, add to cart and purchase and there is a range of factors influencing a users eCommerce experience and their purchase behaviour. Research has shown that up to 65% of visitors adding products to their cart abandon their purchase right before payment and for many reasons. Reminding them that their basket is available and salvaging purchases can improve your conversion rate and gather revenue you're most certainly missing.

eCommerce and e-mail go hand in hand

Digital marketing is always changing and new channels are always opening up for marketers to take advantage of however none give you as much control and as much reduction in cost per acquisition like email can. Any eCommerce site that wants to be successful in their niche would do well to make sure they have an email acquisition and email marketing strategy.

Contact us

If you would like us to improve your email marketing for your site or want to know more about digital marketing for your business, then don’t be shy we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us

Are you looking to promote your business?

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If you require a more detailed guide on how to create your profile or your listing, then we highly recommend you check out the following articles. 

• How to create a nichemarketer profile 
• How to create a nichemarket business listing 

Recommended reading

If you enjoyed this post and have a little extra time to dive deeper down the rabbit hole, why not check out the following posts on email.

• Email Getting a Revamp With The Introduction of AMP
• How To Use Confirmation Cards In Your Emails
• SEO Spam Emails - Can We Put A Stop To This?
• 3 Ways to Grow Your Email List As an E-Commerce Brand
• 5 Free Email Suite Options
• Email Personalization Mistakes to Avoid (And How to Fix Them)
• 10 Email Opt-In Tactics To Grow Your Email Database

Tags: email marketing