5 Automated Marketing Emails Your Online Store Should Be Sending
Collected a lot of email addresses? Wondering what to do with them?
Here’s an idea for you: automated marketing emails.
Marketing emails are the ones you send to your subscribers (or customers) based on specific triggers with the goals of selling, nurturing and retaining.
Keep on reading to learn about the five automated marketing emails you should definitely be sending out.
1. Welcome email
Welcome emails are meant to onboard new subscribers. Let them know what your company does and what they can expect from you.
People like welcome emails: consumers are so used to receiving welcome emails, that more than 70% of them expect to receive one after they subscribe. These emails also drive 33% more engagement and generate 500% more click rates compared to other emails.
The clothing brand Everlane welcomes new subscribers with a visually pleasing message and a brief description of what makes the company special.
2. Nurturing emails
While crucially important, welcome emails won’t make your customers convert — that’s what nurturing emails are for.
According to Drip, email nurturing can help brands get 50% more sales-ready customers. What’s more, nurtured subscribers tend to make 47% larger purchases.
Nurturing emails have three main goals:
- Informing your customers about your products
- Communicating your brand values
- Addressing a concrete problem and providing a solution to it
Educate your customers about your products and what makes them special. A great way to do that is sending them regular newsletters or newly published blog posts.
People love brand stories, so tell yours. Explain what makes your company different and better than the competition.
A great way to show the real value of your brand is by case studies. Create a set of customer stories and how your product helped solve a problem they struggled with. This not only works as a way of social proof, but it also educates your subscribers on what your products can do for them.
You can also use your email newsletter to educate your customers, provide value and peak their interest like Framebridge does.
3. Review requests
Reviews are an often overlooked tactic to improve your conversion rates. It’s common to think that a review is simply a comment about a product. Wrong!
Reviews correlate with higher conversion rates and higher profitability. Let the numbers speak for themselves:
- 72% of buyers will take action only after reading a positive review.
- 88% of consumers trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts.
- Nearly 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews.
The power behind reviews lies in a psychological trigger called social proof — a phenomenon where people assume that the actions of others reflect the correct behavior for a given situation.
In other words, if other people have bought and liked the product, it must mean that the product is good.
The best way to get customer reviews is by sending an automated email a few days after a customer has received their package.
Do it easily by connecting your Shopify store with an app such as AfterShip and your email marketing provider such as Campaign Monitor. You can trigger an automated review email a few days after the courier ships the product to your customer.
Agoda, the Asian hotel booking site, sends out the following email a few days after you spend time in the accommodation booked through their site. They ask whether you liked it or not; and after clicking on one of the two options, you get redirected to the accommodation’s review section.
4. Special offer emails
Customer retention is the key to having a successful e-commerce store.
Did you know that it’s 10 times more expensive 67% more than new customers.
Since your existing customers already know your products and trust you, you shouldn’t send them the same kinds of emails you send to your prospects.
The best way to encourage repeat purchases is by sending your existing customers special offers and product suggestions (cross-sells or up-sells).
A common mistake many online store owners make is sending discounts to everyone. This way you might end up decreasing your profit margin while attracting the wrong kind of customers.
Send discounts to current customers who are more likely to appreciate it. On top of that, you don’t need to spend much upfront to retain those customers.
Start by sending discount emails a couple of weeks after a customer has made a purchase. A unique discount code tailored specifically to the customer, valid for a limited time only is efficient because it triggers a fear of missing out and motivates to take action.
The furniture retailer Crate and Barrel sends this email to incentivize their customers to make a repeat purchase. Notice the wording: they don’t just send a discount; they send a “gift to you.”
5. Invoices
Invoices are a powerful and yet an often overlooked way to improve your branding, communications, and customer relationships. They can be sent both as standalone emails or as attachments to order confirmation emails.
Invoices can help boost your store’s brand by matching the overall layout, typography, and colors of your invoice template with your online store.
Being consistent with your branding in every document you send to your customers increases the power of your brand its impact.
Customers always read their invoices, so why not use them to boost your sales?
Add up-sells, discount coupons, or loyalty points to your invoice emails. Adding in product recommendations or a discount code can motivate them to make a future purchase.
Mr. Wood, an online shop selling original wooden accessories, sends the following invoices to their customers. It’s in perfect harmony with the brand’s feel.
Conclusion
Using marketing automation is a powerful way for any online store to improve their relationship with their email subscribers and customers.
Sufio, an invoicing app for Shopify allows you to automatically send beautiful-looking invoices, reminders or thank-you notes. You can also include invoice links to order confirmation emails sent by Shopify.
