Email Marketing for Online Retailers
Clothes, books, music, shoes, chocolate, squeezie tomato ketchup bottles! Whatever the product is, email marketing is probably the best way to sell it when coupled with your online store. It is an easy and clever way of telling your customers what products are on offer, what has just come in or perhaps a recommendation based on something they purchased previously.
With Mailvivo we give you the tools to deliver, target and convert your emails while tracking it every step of the way. This allows you to be more intelligent than ever before; segmenting and targeting your customers based on behaviour, not just where they live or other demographic information that other direct marketing mediums typically rely on.
Things to consider
Advanced Conversion Tracking. See whether someone purchased, the amount of items bought as well as how much they spent. All of this comes together to tell you exactly how successful (in terms of revenue) each email was, giving you average basket values and an overview of exactly who bought as a direct result of your email.
Custom Templates. By asking Mailvivo to create a Custom Template within your brand guidelines means you'll maintain that visual exclusivity throughout your email communications, whilst still having the complete control over the branding, presentation and content of your emails.
Multi-Programs & Dual Branding. You can split your campaigns out into different programs, for example, if you run multiple online stores or brands. This then allows you to handle the reporting and branding of your emails dependent on which program they belong to. As well as this your subscription preferences area can be styled differently, or present different data depending on which program the email has come from.
Database Configuration. If you have got multiple online stores or perhaps you have your customers segmented depending on what they have bought, or what they have expressed an interest in then putting that into Mailvivo for the first time could be a little confusing. We can handle all that for you. All you need to do is give us the bulk data, and we will put them in Mailvivo, fully segmented with the correct interests assigned for you.
Opt-In Forms & Triggered Emails. The new subscriber experience is important; it sets expectations and enforces professionalism. We provide the code you need for the opt-in form which, when filled out, will automatically submit the relevant data to your Mailing Lists. You can then send your new subscribers a nice email welcoming them to your mailing list. Or, why not send your recently acquired customer a 'thank you' for their order with some related product offers directly post-purchase?
Engagement, involvement, profit
Without a shadow of a doubt, getting your customers engaged through email is one of the most challenging things you will face with Email Marketing. The modern day inbox features spam overload and competition to be seen; you need to compete with other emails in your subscriber's inbox to really stand out.
Using personalisation you can make sure the emails you send are being packaged individually for each and every subscriber; not just blanket sending to thousands of people you don't know. Add to the mix some interests to handle dynamic content and you have yourself an email that is not only written for the individual, but also happens to have content that is both relevant and appealing to what the customer wants to read. Genius!
Next on the list of challenges is getting your customers to engage. That doesn't just mean opening, and perhaps clicking, but actually converting. What you consider a conversion is completely your choice; it could be spending money, taking part in competitions and surveys (oh, we handle that too) or maybe just taking part in discussions on Facebook or Twitter – getting your subscribers engaged means you are doing your job better than the competition.
All of this, ultimately, leads to Profit.
Rewarding the winners and the losers
Rewarding your top subscribers is still a great and usually sure fire way of driving more conversions, thus more revenue. The people at the bottom of your mailing lists, the ones that are clicking but never converting for example, are just waiting for you to offer them with something that might just encourage them to engage with you. Consider offering them a unique discount on their first purchase, or perhaps asking them to fill out a survey or update their email preferences. All of this means you can build up a profile of the previously uninvolved customers, using this information to segment and target them with relevant emails.
Don't just do it with email
While email marketing still remains one of the best ways to market online, it is usually best when coupled with other marketing channels. For example, getting people to talk about your brand on Facebook, Twitter or any social media site is a challenge, but if your email campaigns are good, then it is likely someone will want to share it. Consider putting links to share the emails you send on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and anything else you can think of that your customers might use.
Doubling up your marketing channels can have its advantages.
In summary, Email Marketing for Online Retail is about driving sales, building a relationship with your customers, maintaining loyalty and revitalising interest through rewards.
www.mailvivo.co.uk
Mailvivo™ © 2006-10. All rights reserved.
Mailvivo is a trading name of Gooding Business Solutions Ltd.
Links House, Links Brow, Leatherhead, Surrey. KT22 9DU. United Kingdom.
Company No: 3593916 | VAT No: GB 709224152
Call: 0845 644 3730