1. Email Marketing: Top Benefits for Your E-Commerce Business
Successful e-commerce businesses build long-lasting relationships with their clients and prospects. Companies understand the value of a strong brand presence and timely, relevant communications. Hence, many of them invest in email marketing to achieve their goals. Let’s have a look at why it has become so popular.
Cost-Effective Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics. In other words, you don’t have to spend much money to create beautiful emails. Printing, TV, or newspaper ads cost much more. You can send thousands of emails for a very low price. Thus, all companies – big and small – can add email marketing to their digital marketing mix.
Extraordinary Reach
Email marketing can help boost the sales of your products and services. With smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and many other devices providing email functions, the reach of email marketing has dramatically increased. Businesses can be in touch with their email subscribers wherever they are: at home, at work, or even if they are traveling.
A survey carried out by Adobe has revealed that 44% of email users check their work emails (outside of regular work time) every few hours, while 51% check personal emails at work. 11% of respondents are continually checking their emails (both personal and work-related). It shows that email marketing provides a comprehensive marketing and sales platform for any business, B2C and B2B.
Timely Campaigns
Your marketing emails can help you establish and strengthen your brand. Email marketing is very timely – you can set the date and even the time of day you want to deploy your emails, and, in a few seconds, your branded email templates will reach your subscribers’ inboxes.
You can build personalized and relevant emails to talk to your clients individually. Remember, email is so easy to track. Check your results, analyze them, and optimize your future campaigns for even better results.
2. Email Marketing Regulations: A Brief Overview
If you want to do email marketing, you need to understand that there are quite a few anti-spam laws and regulations out there. With great power comes responsibility! Let’s take a quick look at some of the most popular regulations.
The European Union: GDPR
The EU General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is one of the most recent regulations you should know about. It was approved by the EU Parliament in 2016 and came into force 25th of May 2018. It applies to all companies processing and holding the personal information of anyone residing in the EU, despite the company’s location. The most significant aspect of GDPR is proof of consent. Marketers need to be able to demonstrate that they have permission to email their subscribers. It’s a big step towards data security and privacy, so make sure you read more about GDPR before planning your marketing strategy.
The United States: the CAN-SPAM Act
The Can-SPAM Act regulates commercial emails, making sure you give your subscribers the right to unsubscribe. Amongst many regulations, it highlights such aspects as deceptive subject lines and header information, identification of ads, and the inclusion of an address of your company. Same as the GDPR, the CAN-SPAM Act introduces fines for breaches of this law. You can find more information about the CAN-SPAM Act in the Federal Trade Commission page.
Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation
Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation or CASL helps to fight spam, indicating that marketers need to have email opt-out capabilities and use an easily identifiable sender name. It also outlines the regulations regarding email consent (implied or express). Interestingly, in the summer of 2017, CASL implemented new updates: indicating that implied consent expires and that individuals can sue those not complying with the regulations. Read more about CASL here.
Please note that this article does not provide legal advice. Therefore, it should not be used as such. We recommend that appropriate legal advice should be taken from a qualified solicitor.
3. Building an E-Commerce Mailing List From Scratch
We here at Smaily, firmly believe that a healthy and active mailing list is one of the most important aspects of email marketing. Therefore, you need to start working on gathering subscribers as soon as possible. Even though organically growing your mailing list takes time, it is worth it! Thus, this time let’s have a quick look at some of the different ways of getting new subscribers for your e-commerce business.
Visible Opt-in Forms
If you want to get people on your mailing list, you need to have noticeable opt-in opportunities throughout your website or online shop. Utilise spaces in the homepage, footers, or sidebars, and if you have a blog, add the opt-in links or forms there too.
It’s a well-known fact that long and over-complicated subscription forms are one of the most frequent opt-in form abandonment reasons. Try to use the opportunity to ask for permission to email your clients when they create an account with you or buy a product or service. Just make sure you do not assume they want to get promotional emails – make sure you allow them to decide themselves.
Utilise Pop-ups for Your Sign-ups
Pop-ups are also well known for generating subscribers. There are many types of pop-ups out there, for example, full-screen welcome mats, triggered scroll boxes, and smart bars.
Remember, one type of pop-up can be very effective on your home page, and a different one can work well, for instance, when used in your blog posts or when browsing through product categories. Thus, try them out and analyze your results to find the best solutions.
Show Your Value and Give Something in Return
If you want people to sign up, make sure you make it clear what they get in return and why they should subscribe. It’s beneficial to showcase good feedback from others to convince readers to sign up to your emails.
You will also often find online businesses using lead magnets, various exclusive giveaways, special offers or discount coupons for the new subscribers. Have a look at our blog if you would like to read more about how to grow a mailing list.
What to keep in mind:
- Marketing emails help to establish and strengthen your brand.
- Build personalized and relevant emails to talk to your clients individually.
Next: 12 Must-Know Tips and Tricks to Conquer Email Marketing for Your E-Commerce Business, Part 2
Like everything else, your mailing list needs care and attention. An active mailing list is a sure way to bring better engagement, boost your online sales, and deliver fewer bounces and unsubscribes. So, what can you do to help your email database stay healthy? Read the second blog post and find out.
Make sure you check our blog regularly, and don’t forget to subscribe to our emails. Or you may want to follow up on the last blog post on How to Get Your Messages Through with Better Subject Lines if you’ve missed it.