A 2014 survey by E-consultancy found that email marketing was rated higher than SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing for having the greatest ROI. Another report by the Direct Marketing Association showed that email marketing has an ROI of 4,300%. That’s $43 for a $1 investment!

So what is it that makes email marketing so successful?

A focus on personalization and relevance

If a person is receiving marketing emails, it’s likely because they’ve already visited your business’s website due to an ongoing interest or a previous relationship with your brand.

This is a distinct difference from the experience a consumer has in a public space, such as the internet or Facebook, where they’re likely being bombarded with countless messages from an endless lineup of brands that they have no relationship with.

When a visitor opts in to your email marketing list, they’re inviting you into their personal space via their inbox. With the proper nurturing, it’s in this space that subscribers can become customers.

Dual utilization of content marketing

The goal of email marketing is to provide valuable content directly to your customer’s inbox –no spam allowed! It’s the place where email meets content marketing.

Some customers will simply appreciate feeling like they are part of an elite club that’s privy to special deals and promotions not shared with the general public, but many others will also be seeking content that is interesting and relevant to them personally. This is a space where you can not only create original attention-grabbing content, but you can also reuse content from your blog and social media channels that might be of interest to your email audience.

As with all content, the use of an attention-grabbing subject line is imperative, as is the vital call to action!

Effectively targeting unfinished sales

Up to 80% of consumers are guilty of abandoning their shopping cart before completing a purchase. But if they were that close to making a purchase, they’re also going to be your best bet for closing a future sale. Use a well-timed email to remind shoppers of what’s in their shopping cart and you could recapture between 10-30% of potential sales!

Retargeting advertisements can also be effective, especially when used in conjunction with shopping cart abandonment emails. Although it works slightly differently (suggesting a customer revisit a product page they’ve recently viewed) it functions on the same basic principle.

Productively using the technology available

So much technology exists today to help automate important steps in the email marketing process, including segmentation, scoring, and personalization, which can help to increase efficiency and streamline sales.

This can be anything from automatically recommending the most popular products in your store to reducing the time required to create and send out a newsletter.

Similarly, using analytics to determine consumer behaviors and track conversions can help you adjust your strategy moving forward and save valuable time for the future.

Looking for a partner to take your ecommerce business to the next level? Contact the Zobrist team today to get started!