By Elvijs Plugis, Chief Marketing Officer, Grozeo UK
In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, new software and strategies continually vie for our attention, promising to be the “secret” to business growth, marketing success, and increased profits. While innovation is exciting, it sometimes equates to effectiveness. Sometimes, the best path forward is tried-and-true, and in online retail, email marketing remains one of the most potent tools at your disposal.
Email marketing has consistently proven itself as a high-return channel, with examples of astonishing returns on investment, such as $45 for every dollar spent. Multiple ecommerce benchmark reports on abandoned carts reported $5.41 in revenue generated per recipient of abandoned cart emails. This kind of data should lead you to ponder two crucial questions:
- How extensive is my email list?
- What am I doing to grow, nurture, and profit from it?
The potential of email marketing is immense, and crafting and implementing a solid email marketing strategy should be a top priority for your online retail store. This article will explore the key components necessary to create, build, and maintain an effective email marketing strategy.
- Define Your Email Marketing Goals
Setting clear, specific, and attainable goals is the cornerstone of any email marketing strategy. Your goals should drive how you grow your list, segment subscribers, craft your messages, and encourage actions from your recipients. To make your goals effective, consider:
Specificity: How many first-time customers do you want to convert? What metrics will define success?
Segmentation: Who is your target audience for each email campaign?
Measurement: How will you measure the results of your email marketing campaigns?
Short and Long-Term Goals: Set both to ensure consistent progress.
Email marketing is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Even successful online retail store brands are constantly working to improve. Therefore, your goals should evolve with your strategy.
- Create a Plan for Subscriber Acquisition and List Growth
A vital aspect of email marketing success is consistently adding new subscribers to your list. This is where the concept of a “lead magnet” comes into play. A lead magnet is something that entices prospects to join your email list. It could be a one-time discount, a gift, or an invitation to an event, among other incentives.
Consider these factors when creating your lead magnet:
Value: Ensure it’s genuinely valuable to your customers.
Compelling: Make it exciting to grab your visitor’s attention.
Realistic Promises: Avoid over-promising and under-delivering.
The key here is to offer value that aligns with your customer’s needs, encouraging them to provide their email addresses willingly. You can also include these incentives as part of an initial purchase, implementing a “permission-based marketing” approach, which is increasingly vital due to email regulations like GDPR.
- Decide How You Will Create Your Emails
Efficiency is vital when starting an email marketing program. Rather than starting from scratch every time you send an email, create reusable formats and templates based on the type of email you’re sending. Choose between text-based and HTML-based emails, considering their pros and cons. While text-based emails may seem less promotional, HTML emails offer more flexibility and branding opportunities.
Fortunately, most email service providers (ESPs) offer builders that simplify creating visually appealing emails, even without professional design skills.
- Segment Your Audience for Personalization
In an increasingly crowded inbox, personalization is essential for email marketing success. Segmenting your email list helps you deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. Consider segmenting based on the following:
Purchase history: How recently did they make their last purchase?
Lifetime customer value: Total amount spent at your store.
Spending capacity: Average order value.
Interests: Categories or specific products purchased.
Acquisition source: How they joined your list.
Segmentation enhances personalization and allows you to send targeted messages that resonate with different groups of subscribers. Tools like MailPoet and AutomateWoo can help automate this process, delivering unique content tailored to each subscriber.
In conclusion, generating organic traffic for your online retail store requires a well-thought-out email marketing strategy. By defining clear goals, creating effective acquisition plans, leveraging templates, and harnessing the power of segmentation, you can develop an email marketing strategy that drives traffic and nurtures and converts customers, ensuring long-term success in the competitive world of online retail. Email marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, so be prepared to refine and improve your strategy continuously.
About Grozeo
Grozeo is a pioneering force in the retail technology sector based in the United Kingdom,
dedicated to empowering retailers with innovative solutions like an online retail store website which drives growth, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. With a relentless commitment to
staying at the forefront of technology, Grozeo delivers cutting-edge products and services
that help retailers thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.