3 Email Marketing Tweaks That Made a $30K Difference In This Online Store
Have you ever experienced a spike in online sales after sending out an email to your list?
Email marketing is still one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use in your business. Done right, it can account for over 20-30% of your eCommerce revenue!
Bottom line is – once you master email marketing, you’ll always be able to make money in your online store.
SO. If you’re looking to increase sales in your online store, OR if you’ve never done email marketing before or maybe just dabbled with it a bit in the past, today is your lucky day!
Here’s what happens when you master email marketing
A few years ago, when I still had my online store, I made it my priority to get really, really, really good at email marketing.
And I found that just three little eCommerce email marketing tweaks resulted in a massive difference in my bottom line.
Even better – email marketing is the gift (strategy) that keeps on giving, because my clients are reaping similar rewards right now in 2022!
Before this windfall, I knew I could do better with my emails.
I wanted:
- More people to open my emails and click through to my website,
- Increased sales generated from my email marketing, and
- A constant stream of new potential customers subscribing to my email list.
Whenever you want to reach a new goal, you know some parts of your marketing strategy are going to have to change.
So I set to work making adjustments, starting with:
1. Email subject line tweaks
Before we can hope to enjoy improved results with our emails, the first step is for people to open them!
Try these four email subject line tweaks to improve your email open rates.
#1: Be interesting
One of the first things that you see in your inbox is the subject line.
If you find the subject line interesting you may click to see what’s inside, if not you’ll probably delete the email without even opening.
So it’s not surprising that statistics show almost a third of email recipients open an email just because they liked the subject line.
#2: Be personal
Send your emails from your own name (not the name of your blog or business), and address it to the recipient’s first name.
Also, within the email content try to make it less formal by adding personalisation throughout the content (like you’re having an ongoing conversation), and sign off with a friendly message.
#3: Don’t be spammy
More than 20% of emails send never make it to the subscriber’s inbox. Why is that? They get caught by spam filters. Why does this happen?
- Because of the subject line – avoid using symbols, exclamation marks, words like ‘Free’, ‘Buy’, ‘Rich’. When mail servers find these in the subject line they may proactively move the emails to the spam folder;
- When a lot of people mark your email as spam this passes a negative signal to the spam filters and the end result is all your emails to end up in the spam folder even before people see them; and
- Too many links in the email content – This is another reason that can lower the integrity of your emails. Avoid having too many links in the content especially if they link to different domains.
#4: Be quality
Many online stores only email their list when they have a sale or promotion on. Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, you’ll only train your list to wait for the next sale with this approach! And that’s a quick way to the bottom…
What do your customers and email subscribers want to hear from you about?
Do you have some commonly asked questions you receive? Does your product require different usage depending on the season or time of year?
Always aim to give away quality information, so even if they don’t buy they feel as though you’ve added value to their day.
2. Be memorable
Before we had the written word, humans used storytelling to communicate.
Why? Because stories are engaging and memorable. Which is exactly how we want to interact with our customers!
And because neuroscience tells us that we make decisions in the emotional part of the brain, and then rationalise that decision with the logic side.
Stories engage our feelings and emotions, so they are much more persuasive than logical features or boring language.
Tell stories using words and visuals.
To start with – if you don’t grab their attention with the right lead into the copy, they won’t read the rest of it.
And including eye-catching visuals (images or gifs) will capture attention and communicate the story and the value on offer faster than text alone.
3. Clear call to action
If you could only have two things in an email, they would the subject line and the call to action. Here are the best ways to nail the call to action in your email campaigns:
#1: Make it short
This is the most common mistake with email calls to action, or any call to action for that matter. Being too wordy in your call to action makes it harder for the reader to understand what they have to do!
I spent some time clicking through recent emails from ecommerce sites. There was an intriguing trend for the call to action “Shop now.” None of the retailers ever used more than four words for its call to action.
#2: Tell people what to do – specifically
For some of you, this will be Call To Action 101. For others, it might be a revelation.
Either way, everyone should remember this tip for calls to action:
Tell people exactly what you want them to do – ONE thing only, not a series of instructions.
Start with a short verb (look, send, buy, give, shop, go, share) and then keep it brief.
#3: Include urgency
When do you want your readers to take action? Now! “Now” is an almost perfect call-to-action word. It’s super short, so you can add it to almost any call to action.
It’s also about as simple and clear as you can be, so it’s easily and universally understood. Even toddlers and dogs understand!
#4: Make it stand out
When you quickly glance at your email or page, which element do you notice first?
The call to action needs to be really clear and immediately visible. At least as visible, if not more than the images or the headline.
That’s why you often see the call to action as a red button. The call to action needs to be visible enough that it’s the first or second thing you notice.
BONUS: Email list building
So if the money is in the email list, then the bigger the list the bigger the bank account, right?
The best way to get a high opt-in rate for your email list building is giving away something of high value to the customer.
For an eCommerce website, the temptation is to bribe people to subscribe to your newsletter with a big discount, like “20% off your first order”.
But think about it, is your best, most ideal customer going to be attracted to you like this? Or are you attracting the discount scavengers who will only buy at the cheapest price?
Have a think about how else you can attract and grow a quality email list – a list of people you know are perfect for your products.
Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean:
A clothing boutique could offer a free style guide personalised to the preferences of the customer.
By answering a simple questionnaire and giving your name and email address, the subscriber would receive a PDF guide that illustrates exactly what colours and clothes suit their figure, personality, need and budget.
This offers great value and also encourages purchase without using deep discounts.
You may have more than one email sign-up offer, which may target customers who are at different stages of their purchase decision journey.
For example, the personalised style guide would appeal to someone who is trying to figure out what sort of clothes would suit her, before even considering making a purchase.
Then you could also have a special offer, such as free express post, which is aimed at the customer who is ready to buy right now.
Want to see proof this works?
I’m fully aware that mastering email marketing feels like a challenge to many. From staring at a blank page with writers block, to mastering the tech…
It can be easy to put this in the ‘too hard basket’ and tell yourself you’ll come back to it later…
Only to busy yourself with the tasks you’re familiar with (even if you don’t always like them!)
But the fact remains – in the digital world we operate in, in 2022, it’s actually impossible to grow a successful, profitable eCommerce business without building a database of contacts and using this data in your marketing.
In the short-term, yes, you can manage without it. But it’s incredibly risky to rely on external platforms where you don’t own your audience (a.k.a social media!)
Let me show you what can happen when you have a successful email marketing strategy in your business
A $30,000 increase in revenue – almost 80% up on the previous year!
Want help to achieve the same in your business?
My team and I are here to help get you to results like this faster than you ever thought possible.
So. If you’re serious about growing your brand online, but you want to shortcut that growth curve and learn how to do it without the hustle or overwhelm?
Then I invite you to book a no-obligation call with us and let’s talk about how we can bring your dream business to life.
Updated: 29th September 2022
