What marketing channel does your e-commerce business rely on most for sales?
Social media? Search engine optimization? The occasional promotional email?
Or do you mostly depend on in-store purchases for revenue? You have an online presence, but it’s only that — a presence.
We know automated email marketing can feel overwhelming at first, especially if you’re a small business. But the effort required to create automated emails for your e-commerce business is worth the investment.
Before we tell you the #1 reason you need some automated emails, let’s clear up a common confusion:
This blog is about why you need email automations — not just email campaigns. An important distinction exists between them.
Campaigns or promotions are emails you manually send to an email list or segment. Automations are automatic emails triggered by the customer’s behavior or response to a call to action (CTA).
One-time email campaigns like promotions are important, but your e-commerce business needs automated emails to thrive — and here’s the #1 reason:
#1 Automated emails work.
That’s it — they just work.
The data is in. According to Omnisend’s 2020 Ecommerce Statistics Report, automated emails “generated 29.4% of all email orders while accounting for only 1.8% of email sends.” They were almost 4 times more effective than promotional emails too!
Those numbers alone should persuade you of the return on investment for automated email marketing. But if you’re not convinced, we think there are two more significant reasons.
#2 Automated emails nurture trust between you and your customers.
Did you know about 74% of customers expect a welcome email when they provide their information on your website? This means they’re essentially asking you to send them an email.
Or think about how you feel when you don’t receive an order or shipping confirmation email from an e-commerce site after you’ve made a purchase. Are you nervous? Do you wonder if they received the order?
Most people expect automated emails like this from e-commerce businesses now. They even question the brand’s trustworthiness when they don’t.
Automating emails like a welcome series or order confirmation builds trust between you and your customers and gives them peace of mind about their purchases.
#3 Automated emails give you more time to grow your business.
Yes, automated emails grow your e-commerce business, but they also give you the margin to focus on other revenue-generating tasks. You never have to worry about scheduling or sending them once you’ve created the right triggers based on customers’ behaviors and responses to CTAs.
Then customers will always receive emails from you without you having to worry about manually sending anything!
Now that you’re up to speed on why your e-commerce business needs email automation, here are 4 types of automated emails you should start sending to your customers.
#1 Welcome Emails
A welcome email series is a great way to introduce your brand and nurture customer relationships. Offer a discount code or free shipping in exchange for their email address.
We wrote an extensive blog about welcome emails here if you want to learn more!
#2 Cart Abandonment Emails
Among the highest-converting email automations in 2020, cart abandonment emails (at 34%) were second only to welcome emails (at 52%)!
Customers often abandon carts if the total or shipping is more than they’re willing to pay or they found the product elsewhere online for a better price. Why not automate a cart abandonment email to remind them about their cart or offer an incentive to complete their purchase?
#3 Birthday Emails
Don’t you love getting a coupon on your birthday for your favorite brand? Birthday emails are a great way to show appreciation for your customers and increase e-commerce sales — just make sure you ask for their birthday when customers sign up for your email list!
#4 Confirmation or Thank-You Emails
Think about your own customer experience. Ask yourself which email confirmations you like to receive from an e-commerce business. Confirmation that a business has processed your order, shipped the item or purchase, or received your query for customer service — these emails build trust as a customer, right? Automate them for your e-commerce business!
Email automation requires hard work at the beginning, but your bottom line will thank you. If you’re busy running your business, let us handle your automated email marketing. Our team has created all kinds of email automations for our clients across diverse industries and email solutions. Schedule a call today, and we’ll create and execute an email marketing strategy that wins over your target audience.