When a user is interacting with your site’s content or browsing your products, you would consider that user a hot prospect. The last thing you would want to happen is for your hot prospect to cool down and not convert.
That’s where email automation comes in!
A majority of email marketing strategies for e-commerce focus on the end of your sales funnel by sending out newsletters, promotional emails and transactional emails. Unfortunately focusing on the end of the sales funnel means that they are missing many opportunities to convert site traffic along the way, as well as ways to connect on an individual basis with site visitors.
How Email Automation Works
With email automation, timing and relevance are key. When an event happens, an email is triggered automatically that contains the information that is relevant to the user’s actions on the website. With email automation, you can create robust campaigns and connect with users by sending them the most relevant information at the perfect time. As an example, think about events such as subscribing to a newsletter – when you can send the user a reward point coupon, when a user abandons a shopping cart you can send them a single use coupon with a time expiration.
Tapping into the power of email automation for e-commerce is one of the easiest ways to increase revenue, as 81% of US online shoppers make additional purchases online after receiving personalized emails based on their previous shopping behavior. In addition, automated email messages average 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through rates than the typical “newsletter” message. With high performing statistics like this, it’s no wonder that email marketing is one of the top performing marketing channels.
Top performing email automation campaigns:
The following examples of email automation work the best for ecommerce websites.
New Subscriber Welcome Email
Engagement is key to winning over today’s buyers and getting them to become invested in your brand. So why not start right away? When a user subscribes to your email list, create a welcome email series explaining your brand and what you’re about. In a follow up email in your welcome series, highlight your top products. Consider offering new subscribers an exclusive promotion, it’ll go a long way towards building a connection.
Abandon Cart Email Series
Do you know how often users on your site browse your product, carefully adding items in a cart and then, for one reason or another, ab
andon it? Well, according to the Baymard Institute, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 68.63%. Setting up an abandon cart email series is an effective, proactive way to reduce high cart abandonment rates. After all, reminding even a small portion of users about their abandoned items to complete the purchasing process can regain a significant amount of what would typically be lost revenue.
When creating an abandon cart email series, the key element for success is timing. The first email should be sent within an hour of the cart being abandon with a helpful (not pushy) tone. The second email should be triggered if the cart is still abandon after 24 hours and remind the visitor that the cart will soon expire. If you would like to include an incentive, send it in a third email 48 hours after the cart is still abandoned.
Product Follow Up Emails
When properly capitalized, repeat customers can become the lifeline of your e-commerce business. Therefore, they should be treated differently than new subscribers. Rather than building a connection with these customers, focus on information that is relevant to them and products that solve their problems by understanding their purchasing history and recommending products accordingly.
Automated product follow up emails are a great way to not only stay in the consumer’s mind but also promote new products relevant to their needs. Many automated email marketing tools allow you to create product connections, which make setting up these email series simple!
Customer Re-Engagement Emails
If an email subscriber has not opened an email from your company in a six months, it signifies they have become disengaged and you have lost their attention. Disengaged email subscribers can also affect your entire email campaign’s delivery rates. Rather than continuously sending emails that are going unnoticed, give them one last nudge to re-engage.
Clean out your email lists of users who haven’t opened any of your last 5 email blasts. Use this list to set up a campaign to contact them, consider offering them an exclusive incentive to reconnect with your brand.
Ecommerce Email Receipts
Many ecommerce sites don’t optimize their order receipts. Email receipts tend to have the highest average open rate at 70.9%, making them the perfect place to encourage your customers to take another action.
Simply take your default email receipts including any important transaction information they need and add product recommendations, ways to connect with your brand on social media and any other top content or upcoming events.
Implementing in email automation campaigns is a great way to increase e-commerce revenue, especially from users that may have not converted on their own. If you’re are interested in learning more about what email automation campaigns can do for your brand, contact us today!