Ecommerce and email: the perfect pairing - By Rohan Lock, Regional Director - APAC, dotmailer - Balance Internet

• Updated on: 2017-06-19
• Read original article here

When you look at the entire customer lifecycle, there’s only one marketing channel that connects all the touchpoints and that’s email.

Email marketing automation is the enablement tool for developing one-to-one conversations with every customer, from the initial sign-up to loyalty schemes that turn them into lifetime advocates. The cherry on the top is that it lets you deliver these relationship-building communications in a cost-effective way. You only need to look the latest Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Marketer Tracking report, sponsored by dotmailer, to realise its value: marketers are reporting an ROI of over £30 (A$50) for every £1 (A$1.70) spent.

Check out these 10 key automation programs that are generating impressive incremental revenues and enhancing experiences for our clients, throughout the customer lifecycle.

The welcome email is one of, if not the most important, messages a brand can send to new subscribers. Not only is it polite to thank someone for signing up, but it’s also your prime opportunity to introduce them to your brand, shout about its USPs and gather more valuable data.

Transactional emails are the most highly read messages because they’ve often been initiated by a customer action. By using your ESP to deliver transactional emails, you have the ability to spice up functional transactional emails, like order confirmations, so they’re inspiring and better promote your brand.

Delivering a top-notch aftersales experience is perhaps as important as making the right pre-sales impression. By asking for feedback on the product and the shopping process, not only are you showing that your business cares but the insight gained from people’s responses can be truly valuable and fruitful.

The value of abandoned cart emails is huge, especially with the global shopping cart abandonment rate of around 69%. With an automated email program, you can rescue lost sales by reminding customers who’ve left items in their shopping cart to come back and complete the purchase.

A similar concept to a cart recovery program, abandoned browse automations reach out to website visitors who’ve browsed yet didn’t convert. Use web behavioural tracking with automation to send follow-up emails with relevant content to those who’ve indicated strong buying intent.

If you sell a consumable product, why not be the handy brand that reminds customers to re-stock when you have a good idea that their supplies are dwindling. With automation programs, you can set conditions and delays based on data from your ecommerce platform, ensuring that you always reach out at the right time.

It’s inevitable that customers become disengaged over time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hook them back in. From loyalty programs to brand-building editorial content, you can automate emails to unengaged customers that’ll keep your brand front-of-mind and favourable.

With a flow of rich customer data coming in from your ecommerce store, you can use customers’ past purchase and web browsing behaviour to automate product recommendation and upsell emails. After all, it’s always wise to strike while the iron’s hot.

You can set up an automated program that tries to recapture lost customers as a last-ditch attempt. Do something unexpected, like offering a truly outstanding offer, or take the opportunity to capture why they left and use the insight to optimise future campaigns.

Emails triggered by dates important to the customer, such as a birthday or anniversary, are simple, quick wins that provide a feel-good engagement with your customers. Automate special birthday discount emails and you could have a steady stream of additional sales flowing in.

Of course, these powerful programmatic campaigns are just the tip of the iceberg – but they’re a fantastic starting point. Want to learn why email is absolutely essential to grow your eCommerce business? Check out Dotmailer’s Best Practice Guide: Growing your ecommerce business with email.

Balance Internet and Dotmailer are proud partners, for more information on marketing automation contact usof call us on 1300 624 368