For eCommerce sites, there are several effective methods for boosting your brand exposure and lead generation, but email marketing continues to offer the strongest return on investment over all digital channels. In the past, general campaigns used to be the standard practice for email campaigns, but current data shows that consumers respond better to personalized messaging. With new programs and information, it’s now possible to track user behavior and search patterns, creating the opportunity to understand your consumers on a deeper level.
Technology has become so ingrained in our daily lives that consumers expect websites to be collecting data on their behavior. This is especially true following the new user data transparency methods that the EU implemented with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires tighter restrictions on accessing user data.
As long as you’re following these regulations, you can use this information to generate buyer personas or user profiles to target specific types of consumers — an email marketing method often referred to as segmentation. By grouping together consumers with similar behaviors and interests, you can send very specific targeted ads that are more likely to grab their attention and lead to a purchase.
Analyze Customer Data
Before you can develop your email marketing strategy, delve into your user data to reach a deeper understanding of your demographics. How do your customers behave on the site? Which products generate the most interest? How often do consumers add items to their cart but leave without purchasing?
All of this information is vital to increasing sales and converting users into returning customers. You can begin by studying which emails performed well last year and brainstorm ways to recycle the strategy. During your planning, you should also consider how to market to different consumer age groups; for example, if you send an older demographic a campaign that is targeted at younger generations, they will feel less connected to the campaign, which will decrease the likelihood that they will convert into a sale.
Online Abandonment Plugins
If you notice that a user added an item to their cart without purchasing, you have the ability to set up a campaign that will prompt consumers to make a purchase using online abandonment plugins. The bane of eCommerce stores, cart abandonment rates continue to hover at 69.89 percent.
Customers abandon eCommerce carts all the time for a variety of reasons. Sometimes all they need to complete the purchase is an enticing email reminder. Using other plugins, you can also examine customer shopping patterns and behaviors to create email marketing campaigns that will display recommended items to specific consumers.
Create Personalized Gift Guides for User Personas
An excellent use of email marketing segmentation, personalized gift guides are one of the most successful marketing campaigns you can run this holiday season. People often spend weeks researching gifts for friends and family.
You can help them through this process by providing guides that direct them towards items from your eCommerce store. Common gift guides include sections like Gifts for Dad, Gifts for Sister and Gifts for Boyfriends to help people locate items based on who they are buying for, but there are a number of ways you can set up your own guides.
Using segmentation, you can create gift guides based on personas. For example, if your eCommerce store sells electronic devices and you know you have a large customer base interested in technology, you can design an email marketing campaign that features a gift guide for techies. This method of marketing will drive consumers to specific areas of your eCommerce site, boosting your conversion rates. You could apply this strategy across any number of products you have on your eCommerce sites — Gifts for Musicians, Gifts for Artists, Gifts for Travelers, etc.
Research Product Trends
Prior to creating your customer personas and segmented email marketing strategy, spend time investigating product trends and holiday shopping predictions for the current year. Leveraging user data to gauge consumer interest is a solid strategy, but you should consider current shopping trends as well to attract new customers.
If virtual reality (VR) headsets and devices are predicted to skyrocket in sales this year, you may want to consider adding VR devices and accessories, expanding your selection or stocking up on inventory. Once you have an idea of which products generate the most interest, you can design targeted email campaigns that advertise these popular items to people who are interested in similar products.
Using Audience Expander Through Springbot Exchange
One of the first features to be released on Springbot Exchange, Audience Expander is an essential tool for eCommerce businesses to increase their brand exposure. For small and medium businesses (SMBs), accessing extensive amounts of internet user data is very difficult — unlike their larger competitors which tend to have widespread access to this type of information. Enter Springbot’s Marketing Robotics™ Platform.(opens in
With Springbot Exchange, SMBs can leverage user data for a range of marketing efforts, including how to target the right people for segmented campaigns. Audience Expander uses look-alike audiences to expand your reach into new subscribers. The user data is kept completely anonymous to the retailer unless the consumer decides to engage with their marketing efforts, creating a powerful new way to grow your subscriber base.
These days, savvy marketers know the importance of leveraging user data to create incredibly effective email campaigns. Armed with the right strategy and vital marketing resources like Springbot, eCommerce stores can increase their conversions and grow their brand presence with winning email campaigns.
