An e-commerce business owner’s foolproof guide for beefing up their email marketing game
Anyone who knows anything about customer conversion rates will tell you email is the toughest sell, and why wouldn’t it be? Without the human connection available at bricks and mortar stores, your potential customer doesn’t get much of a chance to build a rapport with you.
When we talk on the phone or to a person face to face, we get the impression that someone is going out of their way to help us and that means we feel an obligation to buy something and more often than not, buy from that person specifically. Online that feeling vanishes. It’s more relaxing for your customers, certainly, but perhaps a little more stressful for you (and your revenue stream!).
So what do you do when you don’t have the advantage of person-to-person contact like a brick-and-mortar store would? You don’t throw in the towel, that’s for sure. There are plenty of ways for you to beef up your email marketing game and get a lot more value out of your next email campaign. So with that in mind, here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to converting your email opens to click and buys!
You’re casting a wide net – be careful not to kill all the fish
There are benefits to playing the big numbers game when it comes to your email marketing. After all, the more people you reach out to the more potential customers you’ll find, but you need to be especially conscious of the message you’re sending. It doesn’t do you or your business any good to be irritating new customers before they even know who you are, not to mention potential to get added to past customer’s spam list if they grow tired of your barrage of emails. When it comes to email marketing, it’s about quality over quantity; less is definitely more. You want to be impactful, not omnipresent. One of the advantages you have with email over phone calls is that you’re unlikely to be interrupting your customer’s life with an email – if they’re reading what you sent, they are at least somewhat interested in what you might be offering. So how do you capture that interest right from the start?
The use of clickbaits as an email marketing strategy
There’s nothing wrong with relying on analytics when it comes to creating your subject line. It is a demonstrated fact that people are more likely to click something that makes a big, sensational claim than a quiet or coy allusion. Let your customers know immediately that this piece of communication has value in it – “Exclusive: 25% off everything” or similar is perfectly acceptable so long as you can deliver on the promise of whatever you’re offering – you don’t want to ‘cry wolf’ on savings you don’t deliver. If you’ve ever been in a store with huge flashy signs advertising percentage discounts, only to find out they only apply to the teeniest, tiniest corner of the room, it’s probably left a bad taste in your mouth – the kind that can permanently turn a customer off a brand.
Catch your customer’s eye – then their wallets
The right colour choice can go a long way to helping you ensnare your customers from the get-go. In fact, there is research to suggest that the vast majority of our ‘snap decisions’ are heavily influenced by colour. Make sure you have and utilise your branded colour scheme (and that it works for your ideal customers). Past customers may remember your colours before they remember your name, instilling a sense of trust without reading a single word. After all, they had a great experience with their last purchase, why not see what’s on offer this time?
Bring back that human connection through imagery
As nice as that gorgeous picture of your product artfully strewn across a table is, the research is in; people respond to pictures of people’s faces. It helps to humanise your product and allows your customers to see themselves living the lifestyle of your brand. This isn’t just some beautiful, unattainable product meant for some unknown but very stylish person, it’s for them and they can have it with just the click of button.
Once you’ve made the sale, it’s time to make sure your customer’s delivery process is as stellar as the rest of their online experience! If you’d like to chat about creating a phenomenal start to finish customer experience, we’d be delighted to help. You can always give us a call on +61 2 9828 0111 (Sydney), +61 3 9240 6300 (Melbourne) or +64 9 263 8855 (Auckland) or drop us a note via the form below.