eCommerce Email Marketing Tips

Just in time for the holiday email marketing rush, Mashable released some important email marketing data in the article Social Media Influences Less than 1% of Online Purchases. Here's the most important takeaway for email marketers:

Following direct visits, organic search and paid search are the two biggest drivers of purchases from new customers, accounting for 39% of new customer transactions. That's because the web continues to be a useful tool for what Forrester calls "spear fishers" -- consumers who know what they are looking for and find it through search.

For repeat shoppers, email is the most effective sales influencer: Nearly a third of purchases from repeat customers initiated with an email. As such, businesses should up their efforts to collect e-mail addresses, and tailor their e-mail marketing messages to each recipients' device and prior purchase behavior.

Let's elaborate on some of the tactics mentioned above that sound so simple in written form, but can actually be roadblocks to implement:

Collect email addresses: an email sign-up call-to-action should be put on every single piece of online and offline real estate that interacts with the consumer. For one of our eCommerce managed services clients at Delivra, we implemented a splash screen on their website to collect new visitor's email addresses. This has more than doubled their email opt-in's in a matter of months.
Tailor messages to each recipients' device: Do you know the devices your subscribers are using to view your emails? Apple, Droid, Tablet, Web browser? If not, running a Litmus or some other diagnostic test on your mailing lists will help you create device specific messages.
Purchase behavior: This tactic, perhaps more than the others, can be the most challenging for marketers to implement. Chances are you have purchase behavior data in a number of locations and it's not really tied to your Email Service Provider's database. Getting these databases to connect is the first step in helping you seamlessly segment and target relevant emails based on purchase data. We helped gourmet chocolate gifts shop John&Kira's do this exact same thing. We connected Delivra and their database, Netsuite... check out the results.

This is an exciting article for eCommerce email marketers. And I'm proud to say that at Delivra we employ these strategies with our managed service clients every. single. day. If you'd like more information about the level of service we provide, please email us at info@delivra.com.