Email Marketing for Shopify (Guide).

The average person sees over 120 emails each and every day. People hop in and out of their email inboxes up to 15 times a day checking their new messages. 

As this volume grows year after year, it has become practically impossible for people to meaningfully engage with each message they receive. Most emails receive a passing glance at best unless they have that special something that catches the eye.

If you want to excel in ecommerce email marketing, you have to make sure your messages stand out. Your message has to feature all of the right elements to drive interest and engagement. You have a split second to just achieve this. Otherwise, your emails could be headed straight for the trash, like so many others are each day. 

When your email campaigns stand out from the crowd and serve the needs of your target audience, you can drive more traffic to your online storefronts, optimize your conversion rates and achieve your annual revenue goals. You can get started by using this guide to learn everything you need to do to achieve success with email marketing for your Shopify store.

Gather the Information You Will Need for Your First Campaign

With so many messages received each day, reading and managing emails can take up more than a quarter of the workweek. As people sift through the enormous number of messages sent each day, what captures their eye? What drives someone to open an email from you? What would make them want to click through the links and engage with the content? Answering this question is the key to creating SMART goals for your campaign.

A SMART goal is a measured goal that efficiently leads you in the direction of what you want to accomplish. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

To get the best insights, you’ll have to dive deep into understanding your target audience with a detailed buyer persona and buyer’s journey map. This means looking at trends within your customer data to narrow down your audience according to location, age, online behavior, preferences, etc. – and building a persona from the information. This will help you create a clear picture of your target audience. It will allow you to craft your ecommerce email marketing campaign around their needs.

Your buyer’s journey will help you figure out what type of emails to send at each step of your sales funnel. Email subscribers are typically receptive to particular types of content, and not others, at various stages of the buying journey. They may like exploring their challenges at the awareness stage, for example, while exploring solutions at the consideration stage. Your emails have to go beyond simply advertising your products to supporting your customers and addressing their pain points. 

Select the Best Platform for Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Long gone are the days of sending out marketing emails one by one. Now we have efficient platforms that streamline this process, such as Hubspot and Klaviyo. They make for Shopify that much easier. When integrated with your Shopify store, an impressive email app can help you perfect and automate your email marketing campaigns. It allows you to tailor your messages to your audience. And, target the right people using powerful segmentation tools.

You can also automatically send out messages on a schedule or according to specific parameters you set. Through real-time website tracking capabilities, you can craft your campaigns around visitor behaviors. For example, cart abandonment or even browse abandonment. Platforms like Hubspot and Klaviyo act as a partner in driving engagement and optimizing your messaging to help ensure you achieve your email marketing goals for your Shopify store. They empower email marketing for Shopify merchants.

Perfect Your Subject Lines and Email Preview Text

Now that you have your target audience data in hand, and platform set up for your campaigns, you can begin perfecting your subject lines and email preview text. This is your first chance to engage with your customers. So, you have to get it right. These two elements have to make a strong impression and motivate your customer to click through. Otherwise, your emails will begin to collect dust in their inbox. 

Although it can do the job for you, it’s important to customize the preview text. If you want to make the biggest impact, this text needs to differ from the email content, which is what is used for preview text when you do not add your own. A short blurb that highlights your current sales, newest products or otherwise makes people curious about your email content tends to work best. You may need to run tests to see what drives interest for your target audience.

When it comes to your subject lines, testing is definitely the best way to go. Almost half of all marketers run regular email subject line tests to see what their target audience responds to. Great subject lines for ecommerce email marketing campaigns may share current offers, refer to relevant trending topics or express urgency to the reader.

Establish Effective Sender and Recipient Names for Your Marketing Efforts

Good or bad, your email sender and recipient names can make a huge impact on your target audience. Good or bad, depending on which way you choose to go. Many business owners tend to leave the sender name as their email address or real name. This leads them to miss the opportunity to connect with their clients on a one to one basis.

You will need to customize your sender name to the target audiences’ preferences and place in the purchase journey to stand out from the crowd. You can use variations of your company name and enticing keywords, such as deals, events, and exclusives. For example, to create sender names that resonate with your target audience. This approach will help you increase interest in your messages and improve open rates across the board.

Customizing the recipient name can also help drive engagement as it helps personalize the message to each person in your target audience. You can automate the personalization of email recipient names within your selected email campaign management software program. Go beyond putting their first name after the opening greeting by incorporating it into the body of the email or even the subject line on occasion.

Focus on Writing Well to Share Your Email Marketing Message

Once your subscribers open your email, your content has to speak to their needs. You want to connect on a personal level with your audience to keep them reading.

To do this, you need to infuse your email campaign messages with a personality that aligns with your brand. Don’t get stuffy, use your natural speaking voice as you write. People respond best to writing styles that sound like them. Don’t be afraid to have fun! People are also receptive to the strategic use of emojis, bolding and other style elements that help get your point across. Take it easy with the corny jokes and clever wordplay,  unless your company is known for that style of writing. Don’t forget to add a compelling call to action to each email you send, research shows this can  increase your sales by a whopping 1600%  

Dial-in Your Ideal Ecommerce Email Marketing Frequency

With ecommerce email marketing, frequency truly matters. This is why it is a great idea to use email creation and automation platforms for all your campaigns. You can ensure that your company touches base with your target audience at all the right times by tracking their online behaviors and sending out emails in response.

Optimal email marketing frequency rates differ from business to business across all industries. If you don’t send enough emails, you could miss opportunities to make sales.  On the other hand, if you send too many it can look a lot like spam. Your customers are going to need to set the tone and let you know how often to get in touch.

This process is easier than you might believe. You can use your website tracking data to set up automatic email flows that optimize your email marketing frequency. These email flows engage with your target audience at the precise moment. So, they need actionable content that supports their place in the buyer’s journey.

Follow the Rules to Keep Non-Compliance from Derailing Your Efforts

To continually achieve great results with your ecommerce email marketing efforts, you must ensure you comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws and the CAN-SPAM Act. Compliance with these regulations can also help protect you from large fines and other repercussions.

The GDPR laws help control how marketers can collect emails and ensure recipients remain in control every step of the way. In short, to remain in compliance, you must collect and record consent to receive the emails and give your audience opportunities to opt-out.

The CAN-SPAM Act is similarly worded to control the delivery of email marketing messages. These laws go one step further by providing ethical guidelines you must follow in creating and sending out your emails. These rules help ensure that email marketers never send out deceptive or unwanted email messages that recipients cannot refuse or deflect. When you comply with these regulations, you can rest assured that non-compliance repercussions will not derail your ecommerce email marketing efforts.

Now you can create effective and engaging ecommerce email marketing campaigns that promote the success of your store. With effective techniques, your efforts will go a long way in improving email open rates. Also, it will boost sales to help you reach your annual revenue goals for your Shopify Plus store.