Each year in marketing brings new trends and technologies, but one thing remains constant: email is still the most effective form of marketing across sectors. The average ROI in the US is $36 for every $1 invested, whilst 18% of top performing companies achieve ROI greater than $70 per $1. Compared with a return of $8 for every $1 spent on Google Ads, email offers a phenomenal opportunity to cultivate loyal customer relationships and drive repeat sales.
A significant reason email outperforms other marketing channels is that it targets customers who have voluntarily shared their email address with a brand, either at the point of purchase or while considering their options, indicating a pre-existing interest in its products. But it’s not as simple as that.
Marketers consistently list increasing open and click-through rates as challenges in their email marketing campaigns.
It’s not enough to send value-led, relevant content to people who have engaged with your brand. It’s also vital to get the sequencing right — to mail the right emails at the right time to the right person. Get this wrong, and people will opt out of your mailing list and maybe even move their business to a competitor. Get it right, and you’ll have lifelong customers and brand advocates.
The secret to engaging your audience effectively and, as a result, increasing conversions and revenue, lies not just in the content of your emails but in the order in which they’re sent and the triggers that prompt them.
1. Welcome emails
The welcome email exists to thank visitors for joining your mailing list, let them know what to expect from your mailings, and simplify your sales process.
These are powerful emails that drive engagement and revenue. According to Bluecore, when compared to other marketing emails, welcome emails have the highest:
- open rate at 46.72%
- click rates at 11.72%
- conversion rate at 2.2%
Not only are first impressions important, but they’re also the perfect opportunity to introduce new subscribers to your product range or exclusive deals and drive revenue.
On the flip side, they also have the highest unsubscribe rates at 0.8%. This could be a result of overwhelming new subscribers with too much information too quickly, failing to match expectations set before they signed up, or because customers unsubscribed once they received the discount or product they wanted.
To mitigate this, send a welcome email content that’s original and aligns with your brand’s voice and values. Design the email with simplicity in mind, making it easy for new subscribers to find products by preference and purchase in the fewest clicks possible.
2. Curation and choice
Curation allows the subscriber to choose what they see, and a curated email will contain snapshots of different content. By segmenting email recipients through data insights — such as their interaction history, preferences, and activity levels — marketers can tailor email content to increase clicks, registrations, or purchases and improve conversion rates. According to HubSpot, segmented emails drive 50% more clicks than unsegmented ones.
Train stations or cruise ports could showcase new routes, terminal improvements, or exclusive lounge access. Conference centres might highlight upcoming events or early bird registration offers for conferences that match the subscriber’s professional interests. Universities could highlight new course offerings, campus events, or updates from specific departments. Each section offers a call to action to ‘read on’ or ‘find out more’ to compel the reader to engage with the email.
3. Engagement
By 2026, we will send 392.5 billion emails every day. Your emails will be competing with those from other brands, friends and family, colleagues and employers, automated service notifications, and a variety of subscription-based content.
If you want any sort of visibility in these cluttered inboxes, your email subject line needs to stand out and grab attention. Nearly half of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone, while 69% will be quick to report it as spam if the subject line looks, well, spammy.
Once they’ve opened the email? One strategy to encourage engagement amongst ecommerce retailers is to offer free shipping. Shipping costs are a common reason for cart abandonment, and by offering email recipients the chance to activate a free service, retailers can encourage engagement and build strong two-way customer relationships.
Free shipping might not be relevant to your brand, but you can offer other products and services that will smooth the customer journey. What sort of thing makes your customer feel valued: a free seat reservation, a free cup of coffee from one of your food and beverage partners, or loyalty points? Find something that will encourage readers to engage with your campaigns.
Referrals
A Nielsen study found that 88% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, making word of mouth one of the most effective lead generation strategies in marketing.
As well as asking for referrals on your ‘thank you’ page, use email campaigns to encourage sharing. You can instruct your recipients what they need to do to refer a friend in a step-by-step guide and even offer incentives such as loyalty points or discount codes to anyone whose referral results in a new mailing list sign-up.
5. Cart abandonment
The average percentage of ecommerce shoppers who abandon their purchase at checkout is 70%, with 48% leaving a transaction due to an extra cost such as shipping fees. However, it’s reassuring to note that cart abandonment emails are one of the most effective types of ecommerce marketing emails. According to Bluecore, 1.56% of cart abandonment emails convert, and revenue is $34.82 per click.
Many companies address cart abandonment by offering a competitive shipping rate, discounted price, or other incentive to purchase, such as scarcity. But you can also use these emails to ask for feedback. Reach out and learn why the customer didn’t complete the booking and use the feedback to improve the flow at checkout.
6. Order confirmation
Order confirmation emails are a useful way to engage customers, offering security and trust in the booking. They’re also a way to accrue extra revenue: they have a 60% open rate and generate two to five times more average revenue per email compared to other marketing emails.
The order confirmation may just be a digital receipt, but it’s also a way of building visibility, reminding the customer that they made the right decision in booking with you, and encouraging engagement by offering discounts and loyalty rewards. Healthcare facilities can offer subscriptions to wellness programs or promote wellness check-ups. Retail parks can invite customers to join a loyalty program or share suggestions for products available in nearby stores based on the items purchased. Hotels can suggest dining experiences, tours, or activities available at or near the hotel.
Upsell and cross-sell
Upselling is the technique of inviting a prospect to purchase a more expensive product to add value to their experience. Cross-selling also adds value and occurs when you recommend a related or complementary item.
Use segmentation and customer profiling to identify customers who will be interested in products and services and include cross-selling of services in your email campaigns. Stadiums and arenas can offer upgrades to VIP experiences like meet-and-greets, behind-the-scenes tours, or premium seating options. Airports can suggest security fast track to passengers identified as frequent flyers or those travelling for business. Commercial real estate firms can cross-sell community features such as lounges or event spaces.
8. Re-engagement
Email marketing databases degrade over time for several reasons ranging from things you can’t control, such as people leaving companies, to things you can influence, such unsubscribes or disengagement.
If a customer has become inactive — by not opening emails or clicking on links for an extended period — you can re-engage them by sending special offers. Tailor these offers based on their past interactions and preferences or current deals that align with their historical activity, effectively sparking their interest with personalised incentives.
9. Discounts and special offers
Discounts and special offers help attract and retain your customers. The key to maintaining profitability is to use discounts strategically, targeting them to specific customer interactions to maximise their impact.
Abandoned cart emails, welcome emails, re-engagement emails, post-purchase follow-ups, birthday or anniversary celebrations, customer loyalty communications, and seasonal promotions are perfect opportunities to send discounts and special offers to encourage purchases. Using scarcity, such as limited time offers or exclusive access to new products, can also encourage prompt action.
10. Surveys and feedback
Audience surveys offer valuable insights into passenger goals, desires, and problems. They also offer a chance to improve your email marketing campaigns.
To capture meaningful data, consider varying your survey types, such as post-purchase satisfaction, customer service feedback, or product development. Design your surveys to be concise and straightforward, with clear, unbiased questions to ensure the quality of the data collected.
Segmenting your audience can improve response rates and make your messages more relevant. For example, you can send surveys about customer experience to people who contacted your support team in the past month. This targeted approach ensures that the feedback is both timely and closely related to their recent experiences, helping you make better improvements in your services.
You can offer incentives to return the survey, such as entry into a prize draw, but be aware that if your survey is in return for a gift, it may attract responses skewed towards the incentive rather than providing genuine feedback. An effective approach might be to offer a discount on future purchases, which not only encourages survey participation but also creates an opportunity for a future sale.
11. Thank you emails
Everybody likes to feel appreciated, and showing appreciation to your customers stretches to more than a quick ‘thanks for subscribing’ email. Instead, tailor your thank you emails to strengthen customer relationships. For example, you might send an email to survey participants and mention how customer feedback has helped enhance your parking services, improved the guest experience at your hotel, or influenced new amenities at your stadium. You could also invite these customers to participate in exclusive previews for new facilities to demonstrate your appreciation and engage them directly in changes they may have influenced. This genuine acknowledgment shows that their contributions have a real impact on your operations and future developments.
Enhance your ecommerce email marketing with Rezcomm
Rezcomm’s email marketing tools, part of our Marketing module, can help you send the right emails to customers at every stage of their journey.
With drag-and-drop tools to simplify the email creation process, segmentation for personalised emails, and engagement tracking with Marketing BI, it’s never been easier for your emails to have a real impact on your ecommerce business.
Get in touch today to know more about how our integrated ecommerce marketing solutions can help you elevate your ecommerce email marketing strategy.
Cultivating Rezcomm’s brand presence, Sarah Marks is our Director of Communications. A T-shaped marketer at heart, she has a broad skill set, with a particular passion for SEO and email marketing. While her core focus is on strengthening Rezcomm’s brand, she also provides strategic advice to clients.
