Gone are the days of sending generic blanket emails out to your full subscriber list. Not only is this not effective, but it’s also not what customers want. Business Insider found that customers want and expect email marketing from retailers to be personalised, with just 22% happy with the current level of tailored content they receive.
Personalisation is essential for ecommerce businesses, as it represents an opportunity to win repeat business as well as new customers. But how to get it right? Here are just a handful of avenues to explore if you’re just getting started with email marketing personalisation:
- Segment your list
If you have just the one master list of subscribers and it isn’t segmented in any way, this is the most important place to start when it comes to personalisation. Segmentation can help you to create groups of customers, who you can then send targeted, tailored emails to. For example, you may have a segment for people who once bought a product for you but haven’t been heard of again. For this segment, you can send a tempting offer to try to win them back.
- Start by rewarding VIPs
One of the best ways to use personalisation is to build customer loyalty. Using your new-found segmentation skills, you can create a VIP group of customers. These are regular customers who make purchases fairly frequently. You might think you don’t need to do any work on these customers as they’re already purchasing, but you’d be wrong. Rewarding these VIPs with first look at new products and exclusive offers ensures you keep their business but crucially – turns them into brand ambassadors at the same time. Say hello to lots of new customers, who your VIPs may bring in through word of mouth.
- Target by interest to bring in repeat purchases
Previous and regular customers can provide you with a wealth of information simply from their purchase history. You can build a profile of your main customer types based on the kinds of projects they’ve bought, perhaps even at different stages of their lives. You can use this information to select products that are most likely to be of interest to them. This adds value to the customer (as they aren’t receiving a generic email that isn’t of interest to them) and makes a repeat purchase more likely.
- Automate abandoned cart emails
A customer is interested enough in your products to have added one or more to their basket or cart on your website. But they haven’t checked out, so would one more nudge do the trick? In many cases, yes – but most retailers don’t send out that crucial follow-up email to cart abandoners. They can be remarkably effective, especially if you’re in a position to throw in an extra discount or special offer. You’re nearly there, so give it just one last push to secure the sale.
Need help with ecommerce? Get in touch with the experts at Ambos Digital, who can provide support and ecommerce website solutions to make selling online easier. We also have a dedicated digital marketing team, who can help with more effective email marketing.
