Before we get to the tactics to enhance the Email Marketing strategy for your e-commerce, let me give you a brief historical context of how emails were born, to understand the power of this technology which for many seem to be outdated, yet it is still proving the one with the highest ROI.

Emails: A Brief History

Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian Born American scientist, famous for his controversial claim of being the inventor of email. He contended that Ray Tomlinson (known internationally and credited as the inventor of email) only created a basic system for sending text messages for the ARPANET.

Where Ayyadurai went on to build a more functional and paper-based mail system that foreshadowed the current system of Electronic Mail exchange. All of these were around the ‘70s or ‘80s, depending on your source.

These dates are not very important/relevant for you as a marketer. However, there is another interesting story that runs along. Gary Turk, the “official father of spam” identified an exciting opportunity to reach out to customers (conveniently). This must-have been a brilliant idea before junk email even had its name.

The idea did work, and email was commercialized at least a decade before it was widely popularized. Thanks to Turk, now we have different labels in our email client to categorize the varieties of spams! Even as we complain about the overflowing spam folder, we cannot ignore its effectiveness.

Now you cannot claim that you have not clicked on a single advertisement mail in your life. Most people still see it as spammy, but the results generated by Email Marketing in CRM and lead generation and conversion are high.

Marketing using emails is gaining popularity, platforms like womenofemail.org which exists to propagate the idea of email marketing for a woman marketer, are indicators of important it is for marketers to develop and design clear strategies.

Marketing in the global context is all about making the world look smaller and electronic media is the quintessential vehicle for that. Over the years, marketing strategies all over the world have been shaped by growth in technology. Applying the most productive and fruitful measures at its very first sight is very essential in keeping yourself edgy.

When it comes to eCommerce, the internet is taking a toll and has changed the entire shape of how an eCommerce business runs. Right from getting customers aboard to giving them constant updates regarding discounts and sales, everything is done “online”. How? Email. 

But, the strategies used by eCommerce business to make their name in this world is what makes them stand apart from the others. This is what we talk about in this blog post. Read on to understand how to create an effective email marketing strategy and how can email marketing to get more sales. 

How Do You Create an Effective Email Marketing Strategy?

eCommerce sales are directly proportional to how good your marketing strategy is. Better the strategy, better is the chance of your business getting customers, and chances are higher that sales will increase.

Everything depends on a great marketing strategy. In this blog post, we focus mainly on how to create an effective email marketing strategy. Let’s dig in!

Having Clear Policies and Priorities

There should always be consistency in the character. You should have a clear framework for what and how you interact; what is your reciprocatory style.

Every marketing executive should understand that keeping up with the set policies and guidelines are necessary to maintain integrity in the middle of dog eat dog competition. The priorities of the organization should be kept in mind while designing the strategy.

Building a Mailing List

Having a clear focus on the targeted audience is important. Building a mailing list by introducing forms in web pages can give the marketer a steady focus on their prospect customers.

One can also get lists from external sources; data collected for a similar survey/purpose. However, there is a disadvantage to this approach. The recipients in the lists might not properly represent the target audience.

The purchased list can only do as good as an alphabetic email directory. There are no filters on demographics, geography or any other means of classification.

A customized form in the website to collect customer data can be of great avail. This way, the customer is not disturbed with unnecessary mails as he has personally subscribed to the list.

Words of Wisdom

The word ‘infomercial’ originated somewhere around the 1980s. The campaigns had started to focus on adding value to the customer instead of just driving out many variants in the consumer goods segment and getting the market to accept it.

The new approach was focused on educating and informing the customer and enhancing the utility of the product and services. The same ideology can be applied in email marketing.

A regular informative journal sent out to the customers can let them know how much the organization cares about the product quality and customer interaction and can win many hearts. This will help in concreting customer loyalty.

Reward for Loyalty

Let’s take a moment here. There are a number of highly competitive Ecommerce dealers. Why should the customer come to you? While you ask yourself that question, let’s go back to the dog eat dog scenario.

You will have to engage in constant price wars in order to survive. This necessarily means that the customer will choose you only if you recognize and reward their loyalty.

It is not enough that your service and product/service delivery is efficient, without proper incentive, the customer will not come to you. 

Improving the Email Opening Rate

Let’s face it; no one really likes to have advertisement emails in their mailbox. An email sent from an address that opens as “do-not-reply…” is not really warm/inviting. No one likes you if you talk like radio and never listen.

Moreover, such emails are mostly generic and you’ll just feel like a notice handed out to you which you would rather use as a napkin.

If the customer should feel that the message was truly intended for him, there has to be a certain level of exclusiveness and the marketer has to concentrate on segmenting their subscriber list.

So, essentially, the marketer has to

• Listen more intently
• Be Short, concise;(brevity is your friend),
• Be more personal, and most importantly be
• Focused on the segments

There has to be a reply to the mail, and it’s always better that there is an individual at the other end reading the mail; the mail shall be signed by the sender. This way the mails will look more personal. 

A neatly tailored strategy considering all such factors of significance can improve the quality of emails, and increases the chances of the customer opening and reading it and serving the purpose.

Bonus Tip: Adopt a Marketing Project Management Software

Along with the above email marketing tips and tricks, adopting a marketing project management software is another important technique to keep your marketing game strong.

From initiating a marketing campaign to its implementation to how successful the strategy really was – all this is really difficult if done manually. But with a simple marketing project management software, you can do it all on a single platform.

Key takeaway

Having the perfect email marketing strategy is really important in not only boosting customer engagement and retention but also eCommerce sales.

Remember the key email marketing tips and tricks mentioned in this blog post and, to implement all strategies perfectly, adopt a marketing project management software.

Business resources:

• What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
• The Complete Guide To Business Development
• Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
• What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
• Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
• What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
• What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
• What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
• Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
• Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
• How To Write A Mission Statement
• What is Growth Hacking?
• Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

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