Email Marketing and Marketing Automation for Online Stores (E-commerce)

A viral post via Instagram, an advertisement on Facebook or inspiring blogs for organic growth: in the world of e-commerce, there are many ways to reach customers. Yet there is one strategy that has stood out for years: email marketing. Especially in combination with marketing automation, this powerful duo offers super smart opportunities to grow your Online stores like coal and thus greatly increase your turnover.

How this works? In this blog, you will discover, using practical examples, innovative tools and proven strategies, how email marketing and marketing automation work together to turn your Online store into a conversion machine.

What is email marketing for Online Stores?

Sounds very nice, email marketing as the most effective channel, but what exactly is it and how can you apply it vigorously for Online Stores? Email marketing for e-commerce is the targeted sending of e-mails to (potential) customers, also called leads, with the aim of informing, activating or binding them to your brand. In the case of e-commerce, you first want to introduce potential customers to your product, for example through an advertisement, and then have these profiles ultimately make a purchase in your online store via imaginary steps, according to the customer journey.

Examples of email marketing for Online stores

Precisely because the communication is so direct and you can reach your target group at once, email marketing is crucial for Online stores. You also have a high ROI (Return On Investment with therefore low investment costs compared to a high return) and the results can be measured perfectly: this also gives you a clear picture of what is going well and where you have to make improvements.

That already sounds very useful, but email marketing only becomes really powerful when you tailor it to the behavior and interests of your (potential) customers: relevance is therefore the key. That’s when marketing automation comes into play.

What is marketing automation in e-commerce? 

Marketing automation for an Online store, also called the smart automations, is the automatic sending of personalized e-mails based on customer behavior. Think of:

Notifying every potential customer personally of every update or action is of course not doable. Especially when someone has left the shopping basket, you want to subtly remind them to complete the purchase. By setting up smart automations, responding to the customer’s actions, you save a lot of time and increase the value of your communication.

Automated e-commerce emails ensure that the right message is sent to your intended customer profile at the right time. They are also super efficient and time-saving; this means that you can focus entirely on your own tasks and the automation does the work for you.

With Brownmailer you can create smart automations

The main advantages of marketing automation for Online stores

Because you can communicate with your customer profiles through marketing automation, you are supposedly ‘in the front row for success’. This will give you important benefits. Which ones are?

Simple:

Because marketing automations are so ‘close to the fire’, according to the direct contact with your leads and customers, you get a clear picture of your company. Are there a lot of channels in between? Then it is sometimes difficult to find out what can be improved and especially in what way.

Indispensable email campaigns for Online store

Marketing automations are therefore indispensable for your online store because they create extra opportunities for you without having to go after them yourself. Which must-have campaigns should not be missed?

4 Effective Tips for Successful Campaigns

So you now know how convenient and effective marketing automations are within the customer journey. Not only are they very time-saving, they also respond smartly to the actions of the customer. Do you really want to achieve high results? Make sure you apply these 4 effective e-mail marketing tips to get the most out of your online store.

Segment your audience

Nowadays, nothing is as important as being relevant: this also applies to your mailings. Therefore, make sure you segment your contact profiles into specific audiences. Consider, for example, demographic data, such as place of residence, ‘all residents of municipality X’, age (‘everyone between the ages of 40-50’) or interest (‘dog lovers’) or . Or, look at their purchase history to offer related products that are within their area of interest. The more specific the target group and tailored mailings, the more relevant your message will be. Segmentation is – especially within e-commerce – essential for the optimization of your conversion.

Use Brownmailer segmentation to segment your contacts into specific audiences

Go for personalized mailings

Did you know that personalized mailings are opened up to 6x more than standard and therefore general campaigns? When you use someone’s first name, for example ‘Hi, Max!’, this person immediately feels more connected to your company. Seeing your own name increases engagement, which also fuels the interest and curiosity – somewhere it feels like a personal message to you. So always go for personalization within your email campaigns to increase your open-rate percentage even more.

Personalize your emails for a higher open-rate

Test regularly with A/B testing

Your campaign may already be top notch, but it may be even better: therefore, test all your marketing statements, such as campaigns, with A/B testing where you send two different versions to find out which variant performs best. Test on subject line, content and CTA, as well as the shape of the button, such as rectangular or rounded: this way you systematically find out which form, as well as shipping times, ultimately forms your ‘golden formula’. However, this remains an ongoing process because the online world is always evolving, so continue to subject your mailings to A/B testing every so often.

Optimize for mobile

Did you know that 60% of your recipients open the mailing via their smartphone? So it is crucial to have your mobile version optimal. So make sure you have a correct template for each type of screen so that your mailing can be displayed correctly on any type of device – so you prevent texts, images or buttons from disappearing.

Consider the mobile version of your emails

Common mistakes in marketing automations (and how to prevent them)

Automations are super effective and therefore essential for your email strategy and therefore online growth. But, yet there are also a few pitfalls that you would like to avoid... Discover here some common mistakes in email marketing and marketing automations and how to prevent them.

Sending too many mailings

Receive too many messages? In principle, no one is waiting for that, not even in a personal atmosphere. People can still be so interested in your offer, but ‘good is good’; this also applies to your amount of mailings. So limit it to the number per week -or month- that your target group likes or even let them indicate it in their preferences - so you keep everyone happy.

Poor mobile experience

As you read before, 60% of recipients open the mailing on the smartphone: if your mailing is not optimized for this format, such as elements that fall away or text that is far too small, many will immediately delete this email: this means that you miss out on a lot of opportunities. In addition, it also looks very unprofessional – you always want to prevent this mistake.

No clear goal

Because many entrepreneurs like to stay in the memory of (potential) customers, they sometimes tend to send blanks ‘to send something that week’. Still, this backfires earlier, which shows how important it is to predetermine what you want to achieve with your campaign. Especially if you have a goal in mind, you can also measure much better afterwards how the result has worked out.

Measure results = improve

In addition to testing different versions of your mailings with A/B testing, there are also other ‘behind the scenes’ elements that are worth testing if you want to get the highest result out of it. What statistics for email marketing are really important? For example, look at...

When you notice that things are always going wrong somewhere, it is important to investigate where you can improve. Therefore, use this data to improve your campaigns and gain new insights into customer behavior. Where you test for subject lines, content and CTA for mailings, you can check other elements for your website: how attractive are your product photos and do people quickly get to the right pages or does your website look more like a medieval maze?

For online stores, nothing is as important as being relevant, but above all also providing the clearest possible structure, such as a user-friendly site that quickly leads to the goal without unnecessary distractions and thresholds.

In Conclusion make your online store smarter

Whether you run a start-up online store or have a growing e-commerce business: email marketing and marketing automation are indispensable for online success. By automating your communication, personalizing it and making it as relevant as possible, such as recommending specific products within the area of interest, you not only increase your turnover, but you also build sustainable customer relationships.

Do you also want to get the most out of your online store with smart marketing automations and creative campaigns? Take the first step for maximum growth with a trial account at Brownmailer.com!