We think it’s time to talk about one of the kings of online marketing – email campaigns.
Improving your email campaign strategy is one of the single smartest things you can do as a marketing manager; it’s an incredibly powerful tool and when you do it right, your email marketing results will blow your mind.
Email marketing has some of the best ROI in the online marketing realm – a whopping 92% of online adults use email, and 61% use it daily. The people you want to reach are sitting there already – now we just have to get their attention.
Spending time researching, writing and designing emails, and then noticing terrible stats around open rates and ROI is not only disheartening, but a massive waste of your time. Let’s fix that by focusing on some vital email marketing best practice tips, and the best tools in the business to make it all happen.
Let’s dive straight into why email is one of the best marketing tools you can use, what makes a great email marketing campaign, and how best to achieve it using a number of different platforms for automation.
Jump here to read about how automation saved one of our clients 150K a year.
Need help capturing email addresses on your website?Check out our article Ways to Collect Emails & Build Your List.
First up, let’s prove just how powerful email marketing can be with some hard-hitting figures:
–Email marketing has an ROI of 3800%.
–Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.
–81% of online shoppers who receive emails based on previous shopping habits were at least somewhat likely to make a purchase as a result of targeted email.
–Marketers see an average increase of 20% in sales when using personalized web experiences.
–Marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns.
–Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates.
–74% of marketers say targeted personalization increases customer engagement.
From those statistics alone, it’s easy to see that personalisation of emails is a game-changer when it comes to ensuring your campaigns are opened, read, and driving your readers to purchase your products.
Check out below how using Shopify Flow to personalise your campaigns can a) save you time and, b) improve the customer experience.
We know that email campaigns can have a strong ROI, so let’s explore how to achieve it. If you apply a few clever techniques, you’ll start seeing higher transaction rates, an increase in sales and overall increased revenue – results that every marketing manager wants to see.
Start by segmenting your audience into groups and tags that you need to reach. You can look at factors like interests, demographics, different stages of the buyer journey, returning high-spend customers – the possibilities are nearly endless.
Using tools like Shopify Flow, Klaviyo and Hubspot make segmenting audiences a lot easier, saving you time in the long-run (read more about this below).
Klaviyo has a brilliant segmentation tool that goes incredibly deep into visitor behaviour (we go into detail about this below). You can create tailored messages based on behaviours or triggered website events, and the segments update automatically too (saving you time).
Read more about Klaviyo’s audience segmentation here.
It’s really important, so we’re mentioning it again. Personalising emails results in better click-through rates (improving them by up to 14%), and conversions rise by around 10%.
We recommend going beyond personalizing the subject line and greeting; let’s think smarter! Consider other personalisation techniques like the best times to send your emails (when will that ideal customer open it?), or factors like particular interests and demographics. Personalise your emails by looking at the type of content your contacts will like the most, as well as their name and buying history.
Your subject line is the first part of your email your customers will see – and the only part if it’s not interesting enough. Use their name (personalise!), keep it short (less than 50 characters), create a sense of urgency and a slight sense of intrigue if you can.
Preheaders are important too, with the potential to increase open rates by providing a snapshot of what the content is inside. It’s a short summary of the message, and they’re often seen on mobile devices. Use this to your advantage! Sum up the message, keep it short and snappy (50 characters again), and don’t repeat your subject line.
Talking of short and snappy, think of your own email usage and what ones you open and don’t open. You’re busy- and so is your customer.. Keep the email short, simple and interesting. Use keywords that you know trigger your audience into action and make sure you have numerous CTA’s (Call To Action) through the message.
Finally, consider using a story-telling technique. Humans love story-telling and email is no different. It’s an effective way to provoke feelings your clients, and convince them to buy, without using a straight pitch. Connect with them, solve a problem, offer a solution, evoke an emotion – you can even ask questions. All of these help you engage on a deeper level, and put a human element back into a digital world.
Images help to break up the copy, provide an aesthetic design element and add to the key points you’re trying to get across. In most email campaigns, they’re a must-have.
Make sure your images are the right size, that they’re compressed, and not too big or too small. Keep your email interactive by always adding a link to each image – this will help to improve click-through rates as well.
Keep in mind that some email software (or customers) block images, so make sure to add alt text. If the image doesn’t load, it will still be a viable, interesting link.
The all important CTA (Call To Action)! Your email should have a purpose; make this clear with a prominent CTA used throughout the email.
Use buttons, as well as text and image links, to tell your customers what they should be doing. Keep your CTA simple and powerful, and add alt text to any CTA button in case the button image doesn’t load (this way, they’ll still make sense).
Now for the crème-de-le-crème; the tools to make it all happen, save you time and automate the entire process.
Read all about automation here and why we consider it one of the most important digital marketing tools you can use.
Automating your email campaigns means using set triggers on your website to kick-start automatic email actions. These can be highly tailored to the customer (personalised), and when this is combined with segmentation you’ll start to see outstanding results.
If you have a Shopify Plus account, Shopify Flow is a great option for email automation. It’s a relatively straightforward process that streamlines your email campaigns with three simple steps; you start with a trigger, set optional conditions on when it should run, and decide on an ideal end action.
Read all about Shopify Flow here, and how it can help gathering info for your next email campaign.
If you’re looking for an email marketing platform for an e-commerce store (and you’re not with Shopify Plus), then Klaviyo is the clear winner for managing your email campaigns. With detailed automated flows, audience segmentation, Shopify integration and detailed reporting, Klaviyo really is a step above other popular platforms.
One of their best features is the visual flow builder:
It allows you to create parallel paths for email recipients (all automated) based on key information like website activity and past purchase behaviour. Sending these tailored messages (instead of one-size-fits all) leads to higher click-through rates, improved open rates and a better ROI for every campaign.
Check out why Klaviyo beats Mailchimp for e-commerce email campaigns.
Hubspot is one of the kings of online marketing tools, and one we highly recommend here at Zyber. You can read all about the in-depth source reporting Hubspot has here .
The advanced tools of Hubspot save time and man-power costs – their email workflows are one of those we recommend taking a look at. With Hubspot email campaigns you can easily move prospects further down your sales funnel and generate more qualified leads.
Using triggers, conditions, and actions to send personalised emails to the right leads, these workflows can be tied to clear goals – then using the Source Reporting, you’ll be able to clearly track results, so you’ll always know that your emails are working.
The stats are in, and there’s no arguing the cold, hard facts. Email marketing is one of the best digital marketing tools you can use as a marketing manager. If you create email campaigns that use tools like Shopify Flow, Klaviyo and Hubspot to generate clear segments, build automated flows and personalise emails to your audience, you’re onto a definite winner.
We work with clients on a month-by-month basis to provide custom analysis & data-driven strategies, to optimise and increase online conversion rates for eCommerce & business websites.
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