It’s kind of funny… At SmartMail, we’re kind of obsessed with email marketing. And it just so happens that we are all avid music fans. So when we were listening to the Beatles the other day, and started changing the words around to tell of eCommerce business woes and email marketing strategies, we decided to take it a step further… Here it is. 16 email marketing best practices and tips we can learn from the Beatles.
1. “Yesterday” – Send the Same Email Content With a Different Subject Line to Shoppers Who Didn’t Open Yesterday
There’s a good chance that some of your shoppers did not open that email you sent yesterday. Did you know that you can send the same email again to those shoppers but use a different subject line that incentivizes them to open even more than yesterday? You can easily create a simple segment like this in most email platforms like MailChimp, Active Campaign, and others. This email marketing tip will help you reach the shoppers who didn’t yet open your emails without annoying the ones who did.
2. “Don’t Let Me Down” – Make Every Email Count with Meaningful, Relevant Content
Before you send your next newsletter, look at your price points, offers, and the products you’re promoting, and give it the “so what” test. If you can say “so what” to any of your email content, then nix it. This email marketing best practice is key because if you’ve been lucky enough to actually have your shoppers open up your email, in the first place, then make it count! Otherwise, your list will become stale and your open and CTRs will decrease. Remember that great email marketing is about quality, not quantity and volume.
3.“I Want To Hold Your Hand” – Make Shoppers Feel Safe With The Use of Confidence Building Imagery
Always remember, sending emails is an important part of the sales (or re-sale) process, so reinforcing your brand’s value proposition and showcasing why shoppers should feel comfortable with purchasing from you with the use of confidence building imagery will help them feel safe and confident to complete their order, as if you’re holding their hands. Using trust signals, like reviews, in email can increase click-through rates by 25% and, as a result, conversions.
4. “Here Comes The Sun” – Create Irresistible Subject Lines to Increase Open Rates
Use irresistible subject lines so that when your shoppers see an email from you in the inbox they’ll get that warm, fuzzy feeling like seeing the beautiful sun on the horizon. This email marketing tip is all about evoking the emotions in your shoppers that will cause them to open up your emails. Looking for ideas of great subject lines? Check out this list of 101 Subject Lines.
5. “Hello Goodbye” – Use Email Retargeting to Say Hello When Shoppers Say Goodbye
Did you know that about 30% of your site traffic hits a category page, 20% will view actual products, and only a mere 5% will add those products to a cart? Use email retargeting campaigns to say hello to your shoppers when they say goodbye. Email retargeting includes the following campaigns:
- Homepage abandonment emails
- Category or brand abandonment emails
- Product page abandonment emails
- Site search abandonment emails
- Cart abandonment emails
Sending campaigns like these can help you convert up to 30x more traffic, or more! They also help with customer engagement and increasing your eCommerce business’ overall revenue. At SmartMail, we help online retailers grow their sales by sending campaigns like these. Click here for more info.
6. “Twist and Shout” – Know When and How to Offer Promotions in Your Emails
The last thing you want to do in your online business is train shoppers to feel like they’ll get coupons whenever they want. When it comes to “twisting,” or in other words, giving away coupons and discounts, twist carefully so you don’t end up “shouting” too much! Idea: When it comes to offering incentives in an automated email series, like cart abandonment, hold off on any incentives until the second or even the third email. Shoppers may likely come back without a discount if you just address other barriers to closing a sale, like customer service issues and product questions. When you do offer incentives, use minimum order requirements and/or running promotions already on your site to help, not hurt, your bottom line.
7. “Revolution” – Don’t Reinvent the Wheel; Emulate the Big Guys
Leave the revolution up to John. For everyone else in the eCommerce space, try to emulate market leading strategies by online retailers like Amazon. Now, to be clear, we are not saying that you should be copying whatever your competitors are doing. This email marketing tip is about identifying intelligent email marketing strategies that are used by successful, larger retailers and then applying those or similar strategies to your own online business. Idea: Sign up for other retailers’ newsletters, abandon products and carts on their sites, take a look at what they’re doing and see how you can do the same thing.
8. “All You Need Is Love” – Adding Social Media Imagery to Your Emails
Social sharing buttons can increase CTRs by 158%, and all it takes is a simple little image placed at the bottom or top of your email (just make sure it doesn’t distract from any other more important, revenue-related calls to action), and then you can just watch the love flow in. Here are some best practices for integrating social media with your email marketing campaigns.
9. “Blackbird”
Ok, so there’s no eCommerce email marketing lesson here, but we just love this song so we had to put it in here. What’s your favorite Beatles song? Share it with us in the comments below. (We need a new office playlist, anyway.)
10. “We Can Work It Out” – Always Use Customer Support Callouts
Like we’ve said before, email is an important part of your sales process. In this email marketing best practice, it’s essential for you to highlight your customer support details within email campaigns so that shoppers feel that you will always be there to help “work it out”. If you make it easy for shoppers to work things out by being in touch, including a phone number, a link to FAQs and contact us forms, you’ll settle the nerves of those undecided shoppers and get them one step closer to completing a purchase.
