5 reasons why your e-commerce email marketing strategy isn’t working

“So I sent out a few emails about our recently launch collection of t shirts and all I got was crickets”

Sound familiar?

Email marketing can be complex, especially as an e-commerce brand.

When most people think of email marketing as it pertains to retail, they assume it entails sending a bunch of promotional offers and discounts. The truth is, it’s a little more complex than that and requires an effective strategy to produce sales and generate revenue.

Here are 5 reasons why your email marketing strategy isn’t working for your e-commerce brand:

Target audience

Are you sending your emails to the right people at the right time? Effective email marketing is about understanding the customer lifecycle. What exactly does that mean? You need to understand what stage your customer is at, to curate target specific content. Customers should be segmented into categories ranging from new customers, to existing customers, even website visitors. For example, Browse Abandonment. It wouldn’t make sense to send a customer who “abandons” your website an email that “thanks” the visitor for purchases. Pop ups that incentivize first time visitors with discounted offers, such as 20 % off their first purchase, or free shipping, will likely get them to purchase your products.

You have no idea who’s buying from you

40% of an ecommerce store’s revenue is created by only 8% of its customers.

How well do you know your customers especially repeat customers?

A common mistake that e-commerce brands make is not understanding who their customers are, nor are they tracking and re-targeting repeat customers. Loyal customers are highly profitable, and give you the most ROI, however, if you aren’t properly monitoring, tracking and marketing to these customers, you’re leave a considerable amount of money on the table. E-commerce brands can win repeat customers by understanding who their customers are.

Simply encouraging consumers to follow social channels, will help you to connect with consumers through engagement. Having a social media presence is more than just having a social page on a platform. Brands use these channels for various reasons. Social channels is another system used to help companies track and monitor behaviors such as spending patterns, types of purchases, and purchase amounts, through engagement and purchase activity.

Another example, most purchases have an assigned SKU for products. By going back and tracking the customer’s purchases including, SKU number, brands can cross sell similar items, thus increasing more purchases and gaining a repeat customer.

Your visitors don’t feel ‘welcomed’

Once a prospect visits your website, what email are you sending? A welcome email series, will introduce your brand to customers as well as your products and services. An example, create an email series with a welcome message. Next, send an email introducing customers to your products and services. Follow up with an email of people using your products or customer testimonials. These images and messaging will give customers a glimpse of what users think of your products.

Cart Abandonment is not the end of the world

While “experts” may tell you otherwise, cart abandonment is an opportunity to learn more about your customer. Perhaps your shipping costs were too high. Or maybe there were too many steps in the buying process that discouraged the buyer from proceeding forward with the purchase. “No” today doesn’t mean that visitors won’t decide to come back and purchase later. Use this opportunity to learn more about your product offering, process and customer behavior. Send a follow up email of a product the customer may be interested in purchasing. Offer a discount on shipping, hopefully this gesture will incentivize the consumer to purchase products.

Do you know who your “VIP’s” are?

Do you know who your top purchasing customers are? How frequently are your repeat customers purchasing from you and how much are they spending? Target segmented campaigns for VIP’s makes sense for building relationships with consumers, while incentivizing your “VIP’s”. VIP customers are looking for more than just “discounts”, they’re seeking special treatment. Campaigns should be personalized from using the customer’s first name, to hand selecting items that fit their taste.

How to make your VIP’s feel special?

Create “invite only” events

Exclusive access to collections

Offer VIP memberships with personal identifier codes that help you track their purchases

Invite only invitations to the store

Curate store shopping experiences

There may be a number of reasons why your email e-commerce marketing strategy isn’t working, however, there are solutions to rectify the issues. A huge part of creating effective email marketing strategies is to clearly define your goals, look for opportunities of improvement in the company’s systems, processes, while using the feedback to better understand your customer’s behavior, purchasing habits, and lifestyle.