How Ecommerce brands can maximize sales with personalized email marketing

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How Ecommerce brands can maximize sales with personalized email marketing

Bryan Karas

September 4, 2018

With all these new sexy social media and messaging apps it sort of feels like email has lost its charm. Except a new report from Adobe would prove otherwise…

At a macro level, email usage is up 17 percent from last year but at a more interesting level…office workers spend 2.5 hours per day with their personal email – most of that time spent in the morning before they get to work.

Marketers need to use this information to create engagement opportunities within that context. Are your customers reading your emails right when they wake up, sitting on the potty or while stuck in traffic?

Context is King

Knowing when and where your audience is consuming your email content is key. Marketers should test different messaging and creative that resonates in that moment in time. If data tells you that your emails get opened at 6:30 AM you can use copy that supports that – if your brand allows, something like “wakey wakey sleepy head” could do the trick.

Even more important is knowing who the customer is behind the email address – Kristin Naragon, director of product marketing at Adobe, stated…

“Our email address is a critical personal identification; brands need to respect that and personalize with care. Don’t send me a discount for the dress I just purchased the day before.”

And that happens all the time. I bought a men’s shirt from Nordstrom once and checked the box to receive updates through email but for some reason I get emails promoting Summer dresses. I look good in floral but still that’s not good…

The End Game

So how do we make sure our email game is top notch? By segmenting email lists to make sure you personalize the content each customer receives…

Here’s a quick list of more advanced segmentation suggestions:

Net Promoter Score – Knowing a customer’s NPS Score lets you segment based off customer “happiness” which could lead to upsells, referrals and reviews.
Customers Who Haven’t Reviewed – Create a list of customers who haven’t published a review and who also have high NPS scores. You won’t even have to offer them a discount.
Email Type – Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc all have different levels of functionality. Create content within the means of each platform.
Buying Frequency – Knowing how often a customer buys from you lets you promote loyalty programs and increase lifetime value.

There are tons of ways you can segment a list to create more personalized experiences for your customers. So make sure you pay attention to purchasing behavior, ask for email preferences and focus on your relationship with your customer.

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