E-commerce email marketing can come across as just pushy. It’s easy to do, right? You want to get people back on your website to buy. So you focus on what’s on sale, or even items that people have put in their abandoned cart. But what if you could do other email marketing that had the same affect, but always focus on BUY BUY BUY.
It would allow you to connect with your customers and potential customers on a whole different level. Now you’re not just the business taking their money, you’re an advocate, and educator, and someone who gives to them. So here are 4 e-commerce email marketing ideas to not only boost sales, but help you connect with your customers.
Tutorials
We often call things like tutorials “delight” content. We’ll send content like this to customers who’ve purchased a product or service to help them understand how to use it better, or give new ideas. Producing tutorial videos can be a time consuming ordeal, but if you have best sellers, or services that are your most popular, creating tutorials can be well worth your while.
Contests
“Anything free is worth saving up for.” These are the immortal words of the character Albert Soady from the play/ movie Escanaba in da Moonlight. It’s true, and if you offer something free, people will want to participate. Offering giveaways are a great way to get more marketing data on your customers.
If you’re offering products on your website for free, the cost is minimal compared to buying that data or buying ads to get people on the website. You can also use it to get folks to share your social content as well, giving it a secondary benefit.
Customer / Vendor Profiles
Do you work closely with your vendors? If they’re a great story why not tell it? Giving your customers a closer look into the behind the scenes of the products they buy from you can give them a closer connection. When we’re connected to a product we never want to switch away. (You think I’m ever switching to Android or not using Detroit Grooming products? Hell no!)
Conversely, your customers have a story too. Offer them the ability to share their story with you. Find out how your products have helped them live their best life. Others will want to follow suit, and we always want to see ourselves in the things we buy.
Educational Blogs
Sometimes you don’t even need to talk about products at all. That may sound like sales blasphemy, but it’s really not. Writing blogs that have nothing to do with what you sell, but are intended to give the reader information on how to do something better is a great way to show them that you’re happy to give them something too.
When it comes time to buy, it’ll be the company that’s been helping them along the way that will be the one that gets their business.
Conclusion
While of course it’s important to inform folks of your new products, your sales, and the items they left in their cart, you can stay in contact more regularly if you mix it up. Email marketing doesn’t just have to be about closing the sale, but fostering a relationship between you and your customer. This will invariably lead to more return customers, and will help prospects move down the sales funnel faster.