As an e-commerce business owner, you know the importance of marketing to attract and retain customers. But surprisingly, there is one key method of marketing that the majority of e-commerce stores today are failing to take full advantage of: email marketing.
Email marketing is a powerful tool that can help you nurture your audience and create a stronger long-term relationship with them. However, it can be overwhelming to try to remain consistent with your email marketing efforts, and this is likely why so many business owners struggle with running out of steam. That’s where we come in. As experts in email marketing, we want to walk you through an easy-to-follow process you can use to ensure you’re keeping pace with your subscribers and delivering them quality content that will keep them clicking.
Read on to get a comprehensive overview of email marketing, clear up any misconceptions you might have about this strategy, and learn how to implement it consistently for your e-commerce business.
Benefits of Email Marketing
Before we dive into the process, it’s important to understand the benefits of email marketing so you know why you’re putting time and money into it in the first place. When done correctly, email marketing can:
● Build customer loyalty
● Increase website traffic
● Boost sales & promote new products/services
● Provide a high return on investment (ROI)
● Help you reach your target audience
● Generate new leads
● Collect customer insights & feedback
● Keep your brand fresh in people’s minds
● & more!
Sounds pretty great, right? With just a little bit of work, you can enjoy all these amazing payoffs. Plus, email campaigns are one of the easiest ways to measure the actual success of your efforts, because they will give you clear numbers that paint a picture of how effective or ineffective your marketing was. So now that you know why investing in your email marketing is worthwhile, let’s dive into the steps it takes to actually get this strategy started.
Step 1: Show Up
It may seem simple, but just the act of showing up for your email marketing efforts is crucial for the success of your business. It’s the first step in the process and it’s important to commit to it in order to see sustainable benefits.
One of the main reasons why business owners hesitate to engage in email marketing is because they don’t see the immediate return on investment (ROI). However, it’s important to remember that email marketing is a long-term strategy. It’s not about making a sale with every
single email, but rather about building a relationship with your audience over time.
By choosing to show up and consistently send emails to your subscribers, you’re positioning your business as a reliable and trustworthy source of information. This can lead to increased loyalty from your audience and ultimately result in increased sales.
The incredible ROI of email marketing is hard to ignore. With a return of up to $40 for every $1 invested, it’s an opportunity that you don’t want to miss out on. Not only is it a cost-effective way to reach your audience and establish credibility in their minds, but it also has the potential to bring in a significant amount of revenue for your business. Emails can even be targeted to have the best impact on a specific section of your audience you’re hoping to reach with a particular campaign.
In summary, showing up for your email marketing efforts is a crucial step in the process. It requires commitment and dedication, but the benefits are well worth it. Make the choice to show up and take advantage of the fantastic opportunity that email marketing provides for your
business: otherwise, you’re simply ignoring a chance to reach a big audience for a very low cost.
Step 2: Deliver Value
Delivering value to your audience means providing them with content or resources that are useful, informative, or entertaining. This can take many forms, such as offering tips, sharing industry news, providing inspiration, or solving a problem that your audience is facing. When you provide value to your audience, it helps to keep them engaged and interested in what you have to say. They will be more likely to open and read your emails, and may even reply with feedback or questions.
By delivering value to your audience, you are also nurturing a relationship with them. When people feel like they are getting something of value from you, they are more likely to feel connected to you and your message. This can lead to a deeper level of engagement and a stronger sense of loyalty to your brand. You can even send out freebies or discount codes to provide your customer value and get them interested in making a conversion at the same time.
Sending emails that help your audience achieve quick wins, or that provide inspiration or solutions to problems, is a great way to build trust and strengthen your relationship with them. It’s important to be consistent with this approach, as it will help to ensure that your audience
feels like they can rely on you to provide valuable content and resources on a regular basis. Instead of expecting a thinly veiled advertisement or an obnoxious sales pitch every time they click on your messages, they will come to associate your emails with something useful.
This way, when you want to send promotional materials to your email recipients, you can do so confidently and rightfully: because you gave them something they needed before ‘asking’ for any value in return. Depending on your industry and audience, the meaning of ‘value’ will vary
greatly. So make sure to conduct some research into the problems your audience is seeking the answers to before you determine what kind of content to curate.
Step 3: Keep to a Schedule
Sending emails on a regular basis is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it helps to keep you front of mind with your email subscribers. If you are sending emails consistently, your subscribers will be more likely to remember you and think of you when they are in need of your products or services. You could have the best product or service in your industry, but if your clients think of your competitor down the road before your business pops into their mind, you are going to have trouble getting real conversions.
Sending emails on a specific day of the week can also be helpful in establishing a routine for your subscribers. This can help to create a sense of predictability and reliability, which can be especially important if you are sending newsletters or other types of content that your subscribers rely on for information. Research shows that Tuesday and Friday are the best days to send emails, and 11am is the optimal time to hit your contacts’ inboxes.
When it comes to frequency, a weekly email is a good starting point for most businesses. This allows you to send regular updates and stay in touch with your audience without overwhelming them with too many emails. Of course, the right frequency will depend on your specific business and audience, so it’s important to pay attention to how your subscribers are responding to your emails and adjust as needed.
Overall, the key is to be consistent and make sure that you are taking the time to send your emails regularly. This will help you to stay front of mind with your subscribers and nurture a strong relationship with them over time.
Step 4: Batch Create
Batch creating your emails means setting aside a specific time to write and schedule all of your emails for a certain period of time, rather than writing and sending them out one at a time. This can be an effective strategy if you struggle to find the time or motivation to create emails on a weekly basis, or if you prefer to focus on other tasks and want to take a more efficient approach to email marketing.
One way to approach batch creating your emails is to set aside one or two days each month to focus solely on email content creation. During this time, you can brainstorm ideas, write and edit your emails, and schedule them to be sent out in the future. Many email platforms have scheduling tools that allow you to specify the date and time that you want your emails to be sent, which can be very helpful in managing your time and making sure that your emails go out as planned.
Batch creating your emails can also provide a little extra cover for you in case you have a busy period. If you know that you won’t have time to create and send emails for a week or two, you can simply schedule them in advance and know that they will be taken care of. This can help to
alleviate some of the stress and pressure of maintaining a consistent email schedule.
Moreover, many business owners find it easier to get all their thoughts out on one topic at once before moving on to the next. If you’ve thought out and researched the content for one email, you might as well write all of the corresponding emails on the same subject at one time so that
you don’t forget the main details you were trying to communicate and waste time having to remind yourself again.
Overall, batch creating your emails can be a very effective strategy for maintaining a regular email schedule, especially if you struggle to find the time or motivation to write emails on a weekly basis. It allows you to focus on creating high-quality content and schedule it to be sent
out at a later date, providing a little extra flexibility and peace of mind.
Step 5: Track Results
Tracking the results of your emails is a crucial step in understanding the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. By analyzing data such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, you can get a better understanding of which types of emails are resonating with your audience and which ones are falling flat. This can help you to make informed decisions about the types of content you create and send to your subscribers in the future.
For example, if you notice that certain types of emails are getting significantly more opens, clicks, or conversions than others, you may want to consider focusing more on those types of emails in the future. If you aren’t quite sure which direction to head in, utilizing A/B testing to send out two different versions of an email to a small portion of your list is a great way to determine which performs better before committing to one fully.
Tracking the results of your emails can also help you to be more consistent in your email marketing efforts. By understanding what works and what doesn’t, you can create a plan for how often to send emails, what types of content to include, and how to craft your subject lines and calls to action. This can help to streamline your content creation process and bring better results to your business. Like any aspect of business, getting your process down to a predictable science will take a huge weight off your shoulders and optimize your payoff.
Tracking the results of your emails is an important step in understanding the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts and making informed decisions about how to improve them in the future.
The Takeaway
By following these steps, you can be confident that you’re consistently delivering value to your audience through email marketing. Don’t let the idea of email marketing overwhelm you – use this process to remain consistent and watch your business grow. If you haven’t yet taken advantage of consistent email marketing, you will be truly amazed at the benefits this method can afford your e-commerce business.
