There are countless ecommerce retailers in the United States. The vast expansion of the e-commerce market is tremendous. For this reason, being able to market your products or services successfully is more important than ever.

If you are working for an ecommerce company, you immediately understand the immense emphasis businesses put on their marketing strategy. Being on several mailing lists for online retailers myself, I’ve picked up on some clever types of emails that I receive. Each of these five ecommerce campaign ideas will effectively help maximize your deliverability, increase the number of clients on your mailing list, direct more customers to your website, help maintain happy relationships with your recipients, and drive sales.

1. Welcome!

After a customer signs up to be apart of your mailing list, they should receive a short and well-designed email that warmly greets them to your company. This first email campaign often gets overlooked, but is a great opportunity to maximize your recipients’ first impression of your company.

Personalize the campaign

Address your recipient by name and establish your first connection with your new client. Customers appreciate it when they feel individually recognized, and not lost in the crowd with other people on your mailing list. Thank your client for joining and reiterate how excited your company is that they joined.

Email aesthetics

Focus on making the entire aesthetic of the email properly representative of the true values and style of your company. Nobody gets a second chance at a first impression and it sets the tone for the rest of your following messages. The design of your campaign should truly exemplify specific components of your company that makes you unique. The simple minimalistic design has received a lot of recognition lately, and has become a popular style choice for email marketing. It prevents businesses from overwhelming their readers while simultaneously allowing them to demonstrate their originality.

Memorable content

Your first campaign is your first interaction with your new recipient. Most importantly, the subject line and the initial content are your introductory form of communication. Choose the style of your writing and word choice wisely. Provide links to all of your social media networks and a link that sends them directly to a relevant landing page. Additionally, giving customers a discount on their first order is a popular incentive that has proven successful on countless occasions.

2. New Arrivals!

An email stating that a retail store is fully stocked with new arrivals is one of the most compelling emails to receive as a consumer. It’s exciting to have a new line of menswear or a new dish on the menu, and promoting your new arrivals will make your customers excited as well. There are several key things to keep in mind when creating your message.

Targeted campaign

It is vital that this email is targeted to the appropriate list of clients. If your retail company is introducing a new line of menswear, it wouldn’t be effective if you send it to your female customers. When creating a targeted campaign for new arrivals, utilize information on their past shopping history to encourage them to buy something again. It’s important to acknowledge the different range of interests and genders of your recipients. Personalize your message by demonstrating what you know about your client.

Concise content

Keep your content focused. The ultimate goal of this message is to send traffic to your website that will ultimately lead to a purchase. It’s more likely that your customers will visit your website if only the most important information that is most relevant to them is highlighted.

High quality images

Last, but certainly not least, use professional quality product shots.. Good quality images of your products will represent your company in a positive way. If your models look good in the clothes, people will believe they could too. A small sneak peak of the products is an easy way to excite your recipients and to convince them to look at your website. At the end, provide a link to the new arrivals page, taking the guesswork out of navigating your website.

3. Seasonal Sales!

Throughout the year there are many holidays and celebrations to target a campaign towards. Whether it be in the summer, fall, winter or spring, there are countless opportunities to draw your customers in. Timely email campaigns can be exceptionally rewarding.

Happy Holidays

The list of holidays in the United States are endless. The advantage of having a campaign focused on a big holiday is that it can reach a large range of people. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween or Christmas are all examples of large holidays that will appeal to a sizable crowd. On the contrary, the advantage of having a campaign focused on minor holidays or events is that it can attract a smaller segmented group of people more effectively than with larger festivities. For example, creating a “Back To School” campaign is only useful when it’s targeted to students or parents of students. Though students represent a smaller consumer base, this ecommerce campaign is consistently successful.

Subject Line

Mention right from the beginning that you are wishing them a happy holiday (depending on which occasion you are targeting) and that an offer is involved. Your campaign is more likely to be opened if you tell them the benefit of reading right off the bat.

Images

Use enticing photographs of the offer or of specific products that you believe your recipient will enjoy. Nothing will lure your customers in more than if you show them what they’re missing out on.

4. Write a Review!

The best way to know whether or not you are fulfilling your customer’s needs is by asking them to fill out a review. The smartest times to send these emails are a few days after they placed an order or after a few months of inactivity. This will remind readers about your ecommerce presence and the good experience they had, making it more likely for them to revisit your site.

Call-to-Action Buttons

Having buttons in your campaign will further motivate your recipients to perform the specific action you want them to complete. In this case, you want them to write a review. Studies show that clients are more likely to click on a call-to-action button rather than click on a link

Easy Accessibility

You should make the experience of writing a review simple and straightforward. People won’t write a review if it is unnecessarily difficult or time consuming to do so. Ask only a handful of open-ended (not closed-ended) questions. Closed-ended questions do not provide as much useful information to marketers as open-ended ones do. Though harder to read and compile, the helpful material you’ll receive from individuals who were able to freely write about their experience will be well worth it.

Use Incentives

Offer an incentive to your customers for writing the review. It can be a percentage off of their order or a small gift. And, of course, don’t forget to thank them. Show them that their opinion matters to you and you want to get their input in order to improve their next experience with your company.

5. Long Time No See!

If you have a customer that has been inactive for at least four to six months, this email will come in handy. The greatest way to prompt dormant clients is by sending them a message stating you haven’t heard from them in a while and by asking them how they are. Most importantly, incentivize them to come back.

Visibly appealing design

These messages need to employ every piece of knowledge you know about making a successful and beautifully crafted campaign. Remind your clients why they love your company and why they should visit your ecommerce site again. Think of this email as a last resort to spark interest in your recipient.

Provide an “unsubscribe button”

At the bottom of the email campaign, it is important to provide an opportunity for your client to unsubscribe. If they don’t want to be on your mailing list, it will be useless to have them on there anyway. The best thing you can do is clean up your mailing list so it only contains loyal and happy customers that will promote your brand through organic word-of-mouth marketing. This will prevent having unhappy clients on your mailing list that could potentially damage your reputation.

All of these marketing tips for email campaigns will be extremely helpful for any ecommerce company looking to increase their web traffic, and subsequently, their profit.