The 7 Key Emails To Send
To Your Customers
Written by Franco Varriano.
1. Overview
Email marketing is the driving force behind many ecommerce businesses. In fact, one of the key ingredients of a successful launch is a solid email list. We wrote the Email marketing Guide to Ecommerce Nirvana for beginners who are looking to start a store. Once your store is launched, setting up customer relationship emails (also known as reorder emails) like the ones we outlined in Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow will help your business with repeat purchases from customers.
Customer relationship emails are usually automated, meaning; they generate money for you without much effort. We highly recommend you to set them up as soon as your online store is up and running. There are 7 key emails that can help you take your Email marketing strategy to the next level. In this article, we will run you through those 7 emails and give you actionable tips on how to maximize engagement.
2. The Promotional Email
What it is?
Simply put, emails sent to promote your products and services. They’re the email version of an ad on TV.
Tips for better emails:
- Content: Make sure to leverage segmentation tools to send highly targeted emails. We’ve said it before but the key to email marketing success is relevance. Great content increases user engagement…which leads to more sales compared to a traditional email blast.
- The offer must be visible: If possible, include your offer in the subject line to really standout in the inbox. Your email template should also have an emphasis on your call-to-action. Keep it simple by solely focusing on the campaign, customers should get your offer within seconds of opening the email.
3. The Inventory Email
What it is?
Emails sent to customers about new products available. Done right, this is the equivalent of thousands of dollars worth of public relations.
Tips for better emails:
- Send the exclusive VIP before the product launch: Make your customers feel special by exclusively announcing your upcoming product via email. It gives you the opportunity to run a countdown campaign with your customers until the product launch.
- Send the “now available” email as soon as you’re ready: On launch date, simply run a “now available” campaign to let them know the product is finally here. By using the same design guidelines as the promotional email, your product will stand out and engage customers.
4. The Newsletter Email
What it is?
Emails sent to inform customers and prospects about company/product news.
Tips for better emails:
- Value: Your newsletter is an opportunity to distribute valuable content by adding value to your current customers and prospects. It’s also an opportunity to strengthen your brand awareness by building a closer relationship between you and your readers.
- Make it sharable: By making your content easy to share, you’re not only increasing the reach of your audience but you’re also improving your SEO ranking.
- Have fun: The beauty of a newsletter is that you can talk about anything and still increase your brand awareness. Readers love to read engaging content. Readers love to read engaging content. Create engaging content and have fun with it.
5. The Welcome Email
What it is?
Emails sent to a new subscriber.
Tips for better emails:
- Make it Unique: This is essentially a thank you email. Using the tips above, you’re welcome email should be awesome (read unique). In email marketing, the first impression counts. Be awesome from the start and make sure customers know what to expect from your emails.
- Offer a reward: The prospects gave you a real email. Thank them by rewarding them with an unique offer. In other words, give them a reason to open your email the next time you contact them.
6. The Educational Email
What it is?
Emails sent to educate customers on how to best use your products. They help position your brand as experts in your field.
Tips for better emails:
- Don’t be shy to start with the basics: Your first dozen educational emails are most likely to be quite basic. The idea is to be explain how to best use your product(s) for maximum results. Whether you’re selling pants or beef jerky, there are always proper ways of doing things. That knowledge is valuable, even to your most knowledgeable customers.
- Push more than 1 article: Knowing that your customers have different levels of product expertise, pushing more than 1 article gives the reader the opportunity to choose the most relevant content to them. It helps keep everybody engaged at the same time. We’re applying this principle at Rare.io. Starting this week, our weekly newsletter will have at least 2 different articles.
7. The Upsell Email
What it is?
“Since you bought X, you might also like Y” emails…think Amazon.
Tips for better emails:
- Relevance, relevance, relevance: Here the product recommendation has to be really sharp to make it work. You can do it manually by finding some correlation between your customers and products, or use a predictive engine to do the work for you. The product presented to the customer must be the most appropriate one. Nobody wants to see something like: “Since you bought eggs, you might also like those shiny underwear” — or do we?
- Design principles: Following the design tips above, your upsell email should be as targeted as your promotional email, as valuable as your newsletter and as beautiful as all of your emails.
7. The Feedback Email
What it is?
Your customer feedback email. Give them a chance to comment on your products.
Tips for better emails:
- Make it easy: Nobody wants to spend half an hour filling out customer survey emails. Make it easy for your customers to give you feedback. If it is possible to embed the form inside the email, do it. If not, make sure the survey tool you’re using is mobile friendly as most customers open their inbox from mobile devices.
- Ask the right question: To receive valuable feedback, you must ask the right questions. Make sure your questions are focused on specific topics: customer service, product quality, customer experience, etc.
- Welcome negative comments: We’re always excited to receive positive comments. But we learned much more from negative customers, although sometimes…Negative comments are there to help you improve your product and services. Embrace them and become even more awesome.
8. Conclusion
If you’re an ecommerce merchant and don’t have automated email marketing campaigns setup for your store, you’re losing money. Right now.
Rare.io makes it easy to start using automated email campaigns for common challenges like: Welcome Series, Abandoned Carts, Order Follow-up emails and more! You can learn more about our powerful email marketing automation features here or go ahead and get started right away by using Rare.io for FREE.
And if you’re one of the thousands of merchants who are already using Rare’s Smart Email Marketing software and want to see how our Customer Success Team can work with your brand to grow your revenue – feel free to book a call at your convenience here.
The Low-Hanging Fruit of Ecommerce
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