Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your business… It’s no wonder businesses of all sizes invest time and resources into crafting the perfect email campaign. However, with the average number of emails sent per day reaching as much as 333 billion worldwide, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to stand out in a crowded inbox.
This is where subject lines come in. A great subject line can make or break your campaign – it’s the critical first impression your email makes on your audience.
Yet, many marketers struggle with creating compelling subject lines that capture their audience’s attention. In this article, we’ll explore why subject lines are critical for email marketing success, how to use a marketing email subject line generator to create compelling subject lines, tips for optimizing your subject lines, and provide examples of successful subject lines.
Say goodbye to boring subject lines and hello to better results with these tips and tricks.
Why You Should Start Using Marketing Email Subject Line Generators
Crafting a compelling subject line can be challenging, even for seasoned marketers. However, there are resources available to help generate creative ideas and inspiration. Two such tools are marketing email subject line generators or AI writing tools.
Using a subject line generator, you can access a wealth of attention-grabbing phrases, appealing language, and even emojis to add to your subject lines. These generators allow you to input specific information about your email, such as the target audience and goals, and then suggest subject lines tailored to those factors. They can also incorporate the specific tone or style you’d like to use.
AI tools take data from successful email subject lines – those with high open rates or sales conversions and quickly generate a hundred ideas. AI technology hasn’t changed what makes a great subject line. It just makes creating great subject lines faster and easier. Ultimately, it falls to the marketer to determine which angle is the most appropriate for their audience.
In the next section, we’ll explore 7 tips for optimizing your subject lines to maximize open rates and conversions.
7 Tips for Maximizing Conversions and ROI with AI-Generated Subject Lines
While a catchy subject line can make a good first impression, it takes a lot more than just an intriguing headline to maximize open rates and conversions. Here are some tips for optimizing your subject lines:
1. Keep It Short
Use only the most essential words in your subject line, and try to keep it under 50 characters. Aim for something snappy, punchy, and memorable.
Tailwind Ghostwriter can come in handy for creating interesting subject lines with fewer words by analyzing the sentiment and sentimentality of your content and creating phrases that are eye-catching and meaningful.
Here’s an example of when you generate the subject for a welcome email on Tailwind:
The subject is short so that it’ll show fully in your recipients’ inbox, yet is engaging enough to make them open the email.
2. Personalize It
Personalized subject lines can go a long way in increasing open rates. AI content generators like Ghostwriter can generate personalized subject lines by analyzing the target audience’s preferences, interests, and prior engagements provided.
An example when using Tailwind Ghostwriter to write a newsletter and teasing for Black Friday events:
3. Use Emotive Language
Using emotive language in your subject lines will increase your open rates. AI content generators can be used to create subject lines that have emotional appeal by analyzing the sentiment of the content.
4. Create Urgency
Create a sense of urgency in your subject lines. This will encourage people to open the email and take action.
The Ghostwriter content generator can generate subject lines that express urgency by recognizing the email’s purpose to create urgency and combining your input to create a compelling subject line. Check out the example below to see how Tailwind’s AI does it:
5. Include a Benefit
Include a benefit in your subject line. This will grab the attention of the reader. Here’s how Tailwind AI content generator can easily recognize and suggest a benefit for your topic and create subject lines that focus on it:
6. Use Power Words
Power words can have a big impact on your subject lines. Powerful words trigger positive emotions in the reader and make your subject lines more impactful.
AI content generators use millions of data points to find powerful words that are proven to grab the reader’s attention and put together suggestions for your email subject lines.
7. Ask a Question
Asking a question can be a great way to capture the reader’s attention. By posing a relevant question in the subject line, you can draw the reader in and encourage them to take the time to actually open and read your email. If you have something important to share, make sure your reader knows about it by using the power of the question!
By following these tips, you can create subject lines that capture attention, encourage engagement, and ultimately, drive conversions.
Best Practices for Using AI to Create Effective Subject Lines
When using AI technology for creating email subject lines, there are best practices that marketers should keep in mind. First and foremost, it’s important to ensure that the subject line is relevant and personalized to the recipient. This can include incorporating their name or referencing previous interactions or purchases. Additionally, keeping subject lines concise and to the point can help capture the reader’s attention and encourage them to open the email.
Another best practice when using AI-generated subject lines is to regularly test and analyze their effectiveness. Marketers should experiment with different approaches and variations to see what resonates best with their audience. This can involve A/B testing subject lines on a small scale before implementing them on a larger campaign.
Lastly, it’s important to avoid relying solely on AI technology and instead use it as a supplement to human creativity and intuition. AI can provide helpful suggestions and insights, but ultimately it’s up to the marketer to craft a subject line that accurately represents the content of the email and piques the reader’s interest.
In Conclusion
In the world of email marketing, subject lines are a make-or-break factor for success. A boring subject line means that your email will be lost in a sea of other emails.
In this article, we explored how to create subject lines that are compelling and effective. Using a marketing email subject line generator and optimizing your subject lines can take your email campaigns to the next level. With the right subject line, you can capture your audience’s attention, increase your open rates and conversions, and achieve greater success.
So, say goodbye to boring subject lines and hello to better results! Remember to get creative, test and optimize your subject lines, and watch your email marketing campaigns soar.
One of the most powerful outreach tools for businesses is marketing automation. This allows businesses more flexibility and efficiency in marketing and can result in a greater return on investment. In what follows, you’ll learn about the best marketing automation strategies that can make your business stand out against the competition!
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is a method of systematically managing your brand’s interactions with your audience. This allows them to be more efficient and focus on other aspects of their business.
Why Should You Create a Marketing Automation Plan?
It’s important to make a marketing automation plan because it can save a lot of time. It’s scalable, allowing your business to grow its marketing engine into the future. It’s also more efficient, allowing you to make greater gains with less investment. It’s ideal for smaller businesses with limited time and staff. With less time spent, a smaller workforce is needed!
In addition, marketing automation allows for greater reporting and data management. This makes it possible to review the progress of your business and make informed adjustments and improvements. This technology also allows for customer personalization in the form of targeted suggestions, as well as improved branding and customer service.
How to Create Marketing Automation Strategies with Examples
Planning out what tasks you need to be automated with your team is a great way to get started with creating your marketing automation strategy. It’s important to find software that can fit the needs of your business. You’ll need to review and update your plan consistently as you go by reviewing the data you’ve collected. This will ensure that your marketing is relevant and valuable to your customers.
Social Media Automation
One of the easiest ways to achieve marketing automation is through social media scheduling. For example, you can schedule Instagram and Pinterest content in bulk. This makes it easier to focus on the big picture.
Email Marketing
Just as you can with social media posts, email can be scheduled too! Make plans to send out newsletters and other emails to your subscribers. You can also plan to automate promotional emails and transactional ‘thank you’ emails to customers after they make a purchase. By sliding targeted deals into their inboxes, they’ll be more likely to come back.
Customer Service
Marketing automation can be an effective first step in customer service. If customers send in emails or engage with website chatbots, automation tools can send users messages to help them find quick answers or to let them know that your team is working on helping them.
Generating Data Reports
Automating your marketing isn’t just about engaging with customers. It’s also about improving your strategies over time. Automatically generating data-driven reports about your performance is a great way to evaluate your progress and make your business more productive. Another important example of why this data is useful is that it can help tell you when the best time is to push out content.
Content Optimization and Generation
Another important example of marketing automation has to do with optimizing and generating content. Automation tools can help you optimize content that you want to push out to make it more effective. Some tools can even create content for you or help you create high-quality content. In extreme cases, artificial intelligence is already doing much of the heavy lifting. However, it’s important to have a human touch to genuinely connect with your audience.
Social Media Marketing Automation
Social media is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience. Let’s zero in further on how marketing automation can benefit your business’s social media!
What are the Benefits of Marketing Automation for Social Media?
These tools can save you a ton of time. It also allows you to increase your company’s brand awareness. You’ll be able to engage with more followers while creating and maintaining brand consistency.
When creating posts in bulk, you have a chance to optimize them in relation to one another and think more carefully than if you make them at the moment. In some cases, chatbots can help you respond to users who engage with you on social media.
Automation tools can also alert you to important events like social metric milestones or a decrease in metrics. You can also get notifications about relevant social trends and conversations to help you plan your next move.
Email Marketing Automation
When it comes to email marketing, automation can help you nurture leads and customer relationships without a whole lot of intervention. You can also automatically personalize emails for users to suggest relevant deals and products to them. Email marketing can help you build brand awareness as well.
There are many more examples, but you’ll notice that most of these are transactional emails. These are emails that are generated automatically in response to user actions. However, newsletters are their own category which is made by your team and then scheduled for a future date. They can still be personalized by greeting the user by name!
As we’ve discussed already, marketing automation is helpful not only for keeping a personal touch with customers and followers but also for saving money and time. Let’s talk about some other general applications for strategic marketing automation.
Examples of General Marketing Automation Strategies
Personalized customer onboarding on your website can be an important first step to making a great connection and securing a lead. If you guide them where they need to go, you’ll be more likely to secure a lead. Text message communications can be a great way to communicate transactional messages with users automatically.
Gated content is another approach that businesses can take. This is content that is only accessible if a user fills out a form or provides other information. This not only can expand your contacts list but can build relationships with users automatically by providing them with the information they need to succeed.
Lead scoring is another avenue that can be automated using the data that you have been collecting along the way. By automatically identifying which customers are most likely to buy your products, you can better allocate resources to capture more leads and generate more revenue.
Surveys can help you understand your audience more deeply. Automatically distributing and evaluating these surveys can help save you time when learning about your customers.
Conclusion
Marketing automation is a great choice for small to medium-sized businesses. It not only helps save time and money, but it can also foster relationships with followers, and customers, and generate leads. Automation also helps create a consistent brand image and voice.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Simple marketing automation is a great place to start and may be just what you need to succeed and grow your business. It can be a great option for businesses looking to make the most out of their marketing budget.
Learn Newsletter Tips and Best Practices for Your Small Business
With so many working from home these days, professionals are relying more than ever on their inboxes to keep them updated on news, information, products, and entertainment.
In recent years, we saw a global pandemic force businesses to reinvent themselves and to get creative in looking for new ways to reach and engage customers. As a result, we’re seeing a huge surge in the popularity of email newsletters. And while “email newsletters” are in no way a “new” method to reach people, in past years many businesses have stopped using them. But for marketers and businesses looking to stay top-of-mind for their subscribers, sell more products, and engage with leads, there is no better way than an email newsletter.
Nowadays, the true value of email newsletters is more important than ever. But, creating a truly exceptional email newsletter entails more than just sending a few lines of text out once or twice a week. In this post, we’re going to show you how to write a rockstar newsletter that entices them to open.
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What is an Email Newsletter?
Simply put, an email newsletter is a way of reaching out to your customers, fans, and followers via email to keep them in the loop of all the happenings within your company. In addition, they are one of the most common ways to nurture the relationship between existing and future clients, primarily because of their low cost and tremendous value.
It’s essential to understand what an email newsletter is before we can get into the meat of creating a rockstar email newsletter that will hook your customers and have them anxiously waiting for what’s next.
Email newsletters can be used to market anything important to you. Whether that is news on your growth or new products, a sales event, your club’s monthly events, a new blog release, or a newsletter notifying your followers of the progress of your novel. These well-designed marketing email newsletters should be delivered regularly (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) to ensure consistent website traffic and return on your investment. Newsletters make up the majority of all marketing emails sent, and they have a lot of potential. But more than just sending our more content, you need to know how to make your newsletter stand out. We can help with our newsletter tips, tricks, and best practices!
Oh! That saying sure does make creating a business sound easy, right? But, in modern times, the truth is, “If you built it, go get them.” You see, simply having a great idea or product won’t do. To be successful, you have to put effort into finding customers, engaging with customers, and keeping them interested. The power of a successful email marketing campaign lies in what we call “top-of-mind marketing.” It’s what keeps your company and brand in front of potential customers’ minds so when they’re ready to buy, they think of you first, and it’s priceless.
If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should spend your time and efforts on an email marketing campaign, check out the benefits of email newsletters.
Strengthen The Retention Of Your Customers Or Following
If you create an engaging and visually pleasing email newsletter, you can strengthen the relationship between you and your target audience. You may constantly remind current and potential clients that you exist if you send out a regular email newsletter. Many people become preoccupied and forget about a company they are interested in without intending to do so. A typical email newsletter serves as a simple reminder that you exist and have something to offer. Then, when a buyer decides to convert, the high level of trust you have built will keep you top of mind and increase your chances of becoming the brand of choice, whether for hairstyling services or movie screenings. Here are some pros and cons of email campaigns.
Low Costs
An incredible benefit of an email campaign is that they are low cost. Emails are intangible, so you don’t have to worry about the labor costs of creating a physical product. Plus, email newsletters generate a strong return on your investment. Many experts even say that email campaigns are the most successful channel for marketing digitally.
Expansive Reach
In modern times, cell phones are always within the palm’s reach, and everyone has an email account on them which means your brand can always be in front of their eyes. It’s pretty easy to say that most people own emails and use emails in their daily communications. There are billions of people who use emails, despite the emergence of various communication apps, according to Statista.
Personalize Your Brand
Creating a personalized experience between you and your subscribers will help to keep them interested and connected to your business or brand. And that’s everything in today’s marketing efforts. Effective email newsletters provide your organization or yourself an arena to share news releases, new products, or upcoming events. You can tell them about your brand’s story or even a hardship you overcame. The storytelling possibilities are boundless with email newsletters!
Data Analysis
Knowing how your customers interact with you is essential to making the best decisions and keeping you moving forward in your growth and outreach. You can draw helpful data metrics through email newsletters, such as the number of people who opened the newsletter, who clicked through to your website, and more. You can refine your email marketing strategy and better understand your customer or following behavior with this data.
The Drawbacks of an Email Newsletter
As with anything else, email campaigns also have a few drawbacks. Given the large number of emails that people receive, it’s possible that yours will get lost in their inbox. Here are a few cons to email marketing.
Competitive Landscape
Although people may subscribe to your newsletter, your email competes with many other communications. It’s always easy for them to unsubscribe, making it even more important to create excellent quality content. Brainstorming methods to beat other emails and have subscribers open your own message is definitely complicated.
Easy to Ignore
We all live a hectic lifestyle, and with our phones always in hand, too many emails can be frustrating. A drawback of an email marketing campaign is that people can easily look over your newsletter, quickly delete and even unsubscribe from it. So, you must take measures to create an engaging and valuable newsletter.
Labor Intensive
It takes a significant amount of time to produce a quality newsletter. You have to take time to brainstorm the objective of your newsletter, and the overall aesthetic and vibe, gather subscribers and consider so many other components.
How to Create an Email Newsletter
The secret is out! Creating an email newsletter is one of the most successful methods to deliver value to your customers, persuade them to buy more products, and keep them engaged with your brand. In general, newsletters are an essential part of any successful email marketing campaign and shouldn’t be ignored. Here are some tips on how to make your newsletter more engaging.
1. Select an Email Newsletter Service
The first step in creating your email marketing campaign is to select an email newsletter service provider. It is essential that your email campaign looks visually appealing and professional, so simply doing it in your daily email just won’t suffice. Not to mention your regular email account will not provide detailed reporting. You can find the best email marketing tools and platforms in 2022 here.
2. Establish The Objective
Ok, once you have selected the best email marketing platform for your needs, the next step is to determine the objective. Spend some time deciding what message you want to deliver to your subscribers. Some awesome ideas on what you can include in your email campaigns are; sharing company updates and news, how-to guides, sharing new products, inspiring to connect with blogs, advertising services, upcoming events, and so much more. And since they are sent weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, you can mix up the message and objective. This will help to keep your subscribers engaged.
Remember though, the key to an exceptional email that will get read is to write great content. Here are some ideas of what you can include in your email newsletters.
Business
Behind the scenes
Promotions
Product launches
Blog posts related to business services or products. (Content marketing)
Business updates
Job openings
Personal
Project updates
Monthly film recommendations
Book reviews
Quotes
Advice
3. Design
This is one of the most critical parts of the process (other than the content itself). Having a visually aesthetic email campaign is key to increasing engagement. So, once you have your objective nailed down, it’s time to consider the design of your email newsletter. The design is uber important because it plays a significant role in establishing the tone of your newsletter. It can also decide whether or not someone will continue reading the newsletter. But, on the other hand, a lousy design may dissuade some people from connecting with your content. Thus you may lose out on a precious opportunity to establish a strong connection for yourself, your business, or your organization.
Color Palette
If you’re creating an email newsletter for an organization, you don’t have to sweat too much. You can stick with your organization’s colors! This will strengthen the branding of your communications. However, if you’re creating a newsletter for personal reasons, stick with colors you enjoy, and that go together. Feel free to use a color wheel or research to figure out an appropriate color palette. You can also consider the temperature of your colors to match your newsletter’s vibe. For example, consider warm colors if you are going for a lighthearted newsletter. On the other hand, if you create a serious newsletter, you may want to try cooler colors.
Templates
Depending on the email newsletter service provider you use, email campaign examples and email newsletter templates may be available for you to use. If you create a personal newsletter, feel free to use it to your heart’s content. However, people with business may want to consider a more original design for a more professional and unique zeal.
Layout
We recommend a simple layout for an easy and clean reading experience. For organizations, make sure to include your logo and social media in the newsletter. Also, keep in mind white space to avoid overwhelming readers.
Include Multimedia
Just text is boring. Spice up your newsletter with pictures, videos, illustrations, and even gifs! The options are endless – so don’t miss out on your chance of maximizing your newsletter’s engagement.
Unsubscribe Button
Don’t forget to include an option to unsubscribe from your email list. You do not want to build an audience of people uninterested in what you have to offer. Including an unsubscribe ensures that people genuinely dedicated to your email newsletters remain. United States business email newsletters must do this as per the CAN-SPAM Act.
Human Resources
If creating things isn’t your strong suit, you may want to consider asking someone in your business or organization to create the template for you. If that isn’t an option, consider outsourcing it to a professional. There are some legal requirements involved in sending email marketing campaigns so you’ll want to brush up on these prior to getting started.
4. Content
Content is king in the marketing game! So, the content or meat of your email newsletter must be good. Sure! It’s ok to write your content that fits your brand, including the tone and buzzwords you frequently use. Your subscribers will well receive this because that’s part of what they love about you. But remember to not be too spammy or overboard on the salesy messages. This will surely turn them off and prompt them to hit the unsubscribe button.
Valuable Content
You want to offer content of “value” to the subscribers. Additionally, you want to ensure your content adheres to what they sign up for. Otherwise, subscribers are likely to stop following your newsletters. Generally, you want to create content that informs subscribers with valuable information; you also want to make sure it is relevant to your interests or your organization. However, if the objective of your newsletter is to promote a service or product solely, keep it concise and minimize the sales tone as much as possible.
Concise
People do not have all 24 hours of the day to read your email newsletter. So avoid long-winded essays and keep your content as short and sweet as possible.
Grammar And Spelling
Forgetting to review and edit your email newsletter is a big mistake. Improper grammar and spelling will make your newsletter look unprofessional. This is especially important if you are creating an email newsletter for a business or organization. So, take a few minutes to read it and look for grammatical errors.
5. Subject Line
Oh, yes! The subject line on your email campaign is SUPER important because many times, that is what will get your email opened versus deleted or skipped. And an inappropriate subject line may even inspire subscribers to disavow their loyalty to your communications. So, put some thought into it and make your email subject line an attention-grabber and on-brand.
Concise
Keep your email newsletter subject line clear and concise. The ideal character length for subject lines is around 41-50 characters. However, too long of a subject line may cause readers to lose interest. Writing a concise email subject line is always a best especially since many subscribers will read your email on their mobile phones.
Professional
Remember, most people live an on-the-go lifestyle, and when it comes to email, most probably do a quick skim to see if they are interested in it before they click on it. So, it is imperative for your subject line to have a professional tone. Otherwise, people may get the wrong idea that your newsletter is spam.
Grammar And Spelling
Again, you should always use proper grammar and spelling to ensure your newsletter looks professional.
Be Honest
Your subject line should truthfully summarize the content of your newsletter.
6. Send It
Whew! So, you brainstormed your objective, carefully created some amazing content, included some attention-grabbing graphics, and double-checked your spelling and grammar – you’re now ready to send that puppy out. But, wait! Before you do, make sure you send yourself a test email first. This is an excellent option that most email providers offer. It lets you see exactly how your email marketing campaign will look when your subscribers receive it.
It’s a fantastic way to catch mistakes, see the visual appeal to make some changes before releasing it to the world. If everything looks good, then go ahead and hit send!
7. Legal Matters
Oh, yeah! The stuff no one likes to think about – legal matters, but it’s uber important. First, make sure that you know any email newsletter laws your country and state have. The last thing you want is to send out a mass of emails only to be penalized for not following the law.
For example, in the United States, there is a CAN-SPAM Act, a series of email marketing laws, such as providing an explicit means of opting out of emails. Prior to sending your first email campaign make sure to familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations.
How to Improve Your Email Newsletter
Now don’t think just because you sent your email marketing campaign out that you’re done. It’s just the opposite. To understand how successful your efforts and emails are, you need to take time to measure and analyze your newsletter’s performance metrics. This will allow you to understand your audience’s behaviors better, noting any adjustments you can make to enhance future email communications.
You should also consider AB testing or split testing. Compare two versions of the same newsletter, see which one performs better, and choose the best-performing email. Marketing is an ongoing effort that can and should continuously be tweaked for maximum return.
Key Takeaways
This complete email marketing guide is packed with the most essential information you need to create an engaging email message. Using these newsletter tips will help you create email marketing campaigns that are read and convert to traffic to your website and sales. Remember these key takeaways, and you’ll be an email campaign ninja in no time. The key takeaways that you should bookmark in your noggin are:
What Is it?
An email campaign is key to connecting with your subscribers, customers, clients, fans, and followers on a whole new level. It is a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly letter to them to share the latest updates, news, personal stories, new blog releases, behind the scene stuff, sales and promotions, and of course, your products. So keep top of their mind by sending regular email newsletters and watch your business grow.
The Pros And Cons Of Email Newsletters
Marketing is an always-evolving way of reaching your customers, and with any such effort, there will always be some pros and cons. The pros of email marketing include the fact that it is a low-cost marketing technique; you’ll be able to analyze data, reach more people, and personalize your brand. But the downsides are also there. These include tons of competition; they are easy to ignore and delete and take time.
Creating And Designing Your Email Newsletter
The essential factors to remember when designing your email newsletter are to select a color palette that fits in with your brand, choose a template and layout that is visually appealing, include eye-catching graphics and multimedia, and don’t forget to add an unsubscribe button.
This is your year to totally elevate your business, blog, and brand to the highest levels. Rockstar status is just a step away. This email newsletter guide and your newfound understanding of the power of an email newsletter are going to help you grow. Check out the links below for additional tips and tricks on maximizing your email campaign efforts.
FAQs
Can I make an email newsletter for free?
Yes! There are email marketing tools that are free, or partially free, including Tailwind. You can create the perfect newsletter, or other types of email marketing templates for your business.
What is the best font size for email newsletters?
Generally, no less than a 14px font size for the body of your content is best practice. For mobile, you may want to increase the size to 16px or 18 px. And it is important to keep the font size of the body uniform to avoid looking messy.
Can I use email newsletters for B2B marketing?
Yes, you can! Just let B2C marketing, email newsletters, and other email marketing practices are also common and effective ways for B2B businesses to stay connected to their clients, followers, and leads.
B2B, or Business-to-business email marketing, is a proven method to nurture new leads, reach out to customers, and increase brand engagement.
With impeccably curated, value-driven, engaging content, you can guide potential, and new customers through the sales funnel from acquisition to purchase. Then, you can boost customer retention rates by keeping them in the loop and maintaining profitable relationships on both sides!
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What is B2B Email Marketing?
B2B email marketing is just what it sounds like: sending email marketing campaigns to professionals and businesses instead of individual customers.
Brands that sell to or service other brands often rely on B2B marketing for raising awareness and lead generation.
But B2B email marketing requires a slightly different approach than regular business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.
Why is B2B Email Marketing Important?
Email is one of the most effective channels for B2B marketing. Studies have shown thatemail has an ROI of 3600%!
That’s because email allows you to target your messages specifically to the people who would be most interested in what you have to say.
You can segment your email lists by factors like job title, industry, or specific interests.
And since email is a two-way street, it’s also an excellent way to nurture relationships with your customers and build a rapport with potential leads.
Whether you’re a B2C or B2B brand, email marketing is arguably more powerful than any other marketing channel.
Not only can you reach your whole target audience at once, but you can do so quickly and cheaply. Plus, B2B email marketing offers tons of marketing strategies and perks like:
Generating Leads
Email marketing makes finding and nurturing potential sales easy. With a well-crafted sign-up form that exchanges value for email addresses, you can quickly build a subscriber list.
From there, you can segment your leads by their interests and position in the sales funnel to create targeted email campaigns that close deals.
Curating Relationships
Email marketing lets you reach out to sales leads and existing customers anytime, anywhere. Once a contact subscribes, you can send a welcome email to start the relationship on the right foot.
You can continue building rapport by sharing helpful resources, educational content, and updates on your product or service.
With B2B email marketing, you can keep your company top-of-mind with every subscriber. By sharing timely updates, exclusive offers, and stories about your brand, you can remind leads and customers why they subscribed!
Retaining Customers
Once you convert leads to buyers, you have to retain them. Once again, a solid B2B email marketing strategy makes it easy. You can craft a curated email campaign to:
Encourage sales
Thank buyers for purchases
Improve onboarding
Educate customers on using your product or service
Answer questions
Send renewal and product offerings
Done well, you can even use B2B email marketing to re-engage cold leads and win back lost customers.
Relating to Your Target Audience
B2B email marketing offers unique opportunities to format, design, and distribute your email content.
The format offers immense flexibility and opportunities for personalization that TV ads or flyers just can’t match.
Plus, audience expectations remain laxer for emails – some days, you can present research; others, you can ham it up.
Building Brand Authority
The value should reign in your brand, whether you’re raising product awareness, educating new buyers, or reporting your latest research.
Every email is an opportunity to deliver industry-leading, relevant content. Do this enough times, and your email subscribers will come to see you as an authority in your industry.
The brand authority will give you more credibility when making a sales pitch down the road.
It may also lead to organic link-building opportunities and social media shares.
Encouraging Customer Advocacy
B2B email marketing makes it easy to turn customers into brand ambassadors. Use emails to deliver information, offer helpful links, and promote referral programs.
The more sharable and accessible your information, the easier your customers become your marketers.
Also, don’t forget to engage with your audience. If someone replies to your email – reply to them as well!
Closing Sales
Last but not least email marketing removes some of the pressure off your sales team. With well-designed B2B email marketing campaigns, you can nurture sales through the funnel and allow your marketing teams to focus on meeting goals and closing the final purchase.
The trick is to combine an effective email marketing strategy with top-notch automation. With a little help from the sales experts on your team, you can take your B2B email marketing results to the next level.
B2B and B2C email marketing share some overlaps – but ultimately, you need to rethink your entire strategy.
Think of it like identical doors with different locks: while you want to accomplish the same goal, you need different keys to get in.
Let’s look at a few ways B2B email marketing differs from its B2C counterpart.
Targeting Tactics
B2C brands have it easy – they market to one consumer at a time. But B2B email marketers have to target whole companies and specific individuals within each company.
Effectively, that means your email campaigns need to provide value to the business while speaking to a particular person within a company.
So in comparison to B2C you need to make the sales twice once to a company and once to a decision maker. (Yes, we know that the decision maker is essentially deciding on behalf of the company, but you get what we mean!)
The Sales Cycle
Buying something for yourself generally takes just a few minutes if you know what you want. But companies require multiple layers of coordination, budget analysis, and approval.
In B2B email marketing, that means creating more emails to nurture customers down the pipeline.
And since email marketing campaigns are designed to lead customers through sales cycles step-by-step, you can expect B2B email marketing campaigns to take longer.
Email Content
When you write B2C email campaigns, you can generally be flashier and more promotional about your brand. But when you’re connecting with businesses, the math changes.
B2B email marketing tends to succeed when brands focus on providing information, resources, and logical arguments. Forget repurposing B2C content – you’ll have to develop a whole new strategy.
You need to write professional copy for professional consumers. “Best Ways TO Be Productive” probably won’t cut it. The content in the emails will need to be insightful, sharing valuable tips or leading to a valuable information source.
B2B Email Marketing by the Numbers
B2B email marketing is incredibly effective.
81% of B2B email marketers rely on emails as their primary content delivery system.
91% of business-to-business organizations believe their email marketing strategy is one of their most important content marketing methods.
While that hints at the success of the strategy, that level of competition also means you need to bring your A-game every time.
Any company can send out email newsletters – but to stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to design email campaigns that actually convert.
But when it does work, it really works. As we mentioned – the ROI on B2B email marketing can be as high as 3,600%. In other words, for every $1 you spend on marketing, you’ll generate up to $36 in returns. Phew!
Just like B2C email marketing strategies, B2B email campaigns that follow best practices tend to drive better results. Consider the following:
Focus on Email Design
Your email design should reflect the values and expectations of your industry. If you’re in cosmetics, fun, bright, and bubbly probably fits in better than if you’re in defense.
Doing some industry research and designing your own templates to spec can go a long way here. But do not overdo it. Minimalistic and simple emails can work great as well!
Use Templates
Using or building a library of on-brand email templates can help you work smarter and quicker.
Though it requires some time upfront, you’ll thank yourself later when you’re cranking out everything from welcome emails to post-purchase emails in minutes. Remember: if your desired audience can tell you’re using templates, you’re doing it wrong.
Did you know that Tailwind’s email marketing tool contains easy-to-use templates you can personalize to your brand in seconds? Try it out with our forever-free plan and watch your email campaigns soar!
Write Great (Personalized) Subject Lines
While email subject lines are always important, when you’re in B2B email marketing, annoying or suspicious subject lines get discarded that much faster.
The busier your audience, the less likely they’ll put up with bad writing or tons of spammy symbols.
Research shows that 2/3 of people open emails based on subject lines alone. While under 60 characters is standard, studies suggest about 40 characters (~7 words) should do the trick.
The key is to write short email subject lines that pack a big punch in a little package.
Personalize When Possible
Personalization in B2B email marketing can boost important email analytics like open rates, click-throughs, and drive conversions.
Addressing recipients by name and title, referencing employers, and sprinkling in other tidbits make your emails feel more conversational. And with email automation, you can personalize everything from subject lines to sign-offs.
Keep It Short and Sweet
Your ideal email copy length should range from 50-125 words to balance information value with short attention spans.
But brevity doesn’t mean lacking substance – you can pack in tons of value with smart formatting, strategic design, and images.
The first sentence of your email especially matters. It is one of the few things that the recipient sees immediately, before opening the message.
Be Conversational
When writing B2B email marketing campaigns, it’s easy to get stuck in “professional mode” and read as stiff or impersonal.
But even targeting brands, you’re still talking to people and fostering crucial relationships. While you may stray slightly more formal than B2C marketers, don’t be afraid to show enthusiasm, joke around, and stay light and engaging.
Just don’t overdo it!
Include a Relevant Call-to-Action (CTA)
Adding a relevant call-to-action allows you to take your connection with your audience to the next level.
Every call-to-action should:
Inform readers of the action you want them to take;
Answer the question: “What’s in it for me?”;
Be placed, so it’s visible and accessible;
Naturally fit into the body of the email;
You can use this chance to guide their next steps, such as visiting a landing page or blog post. Just make sure it’s relevant and fits into the context of your copy.
Use Images and Video
In B2B, as in B2C, visuals matter. Around 32% of marketers consider visuals important for their messaging.
Adding 1-3 images can promote higher click-through rates, while videos can increase clicks by 65% and reduce unsubscribe rates by 26%.
You can also use these alternate mediums to introduce new context, value, and personalization into your strategy.
Save Time with Automation
Email marketing automation lets you speed up mundane tasks, such as tagging and segmenting email lists, setting up drip campaigns, and sending relevant updates.
Not only does this save you time, but it also allows you to focus on other areas of your business.
Types Of B2B Email Marketing Campaigns
There are many different types of email marketing campaigns that you can send, each with its own goal. We could group them into three main categories:
Relationship – an email with a high informational value that helps to establish trust with the recipient.
Transaction – in this category, you would have emails that promote specific products or services with the goal of making a sale.
Loyalty – email campaigns sent to customers who have already made a purchase, aimed at maintaining customer loyalty and keeping them coming back for more.
Now that we have this out of the way let’s have a look at some of the types of B2B Email Marketing Campaigns that you will be sending. Think of it as an inspiration:
Drip Campaigns
This is usually the first step in the email marketing funnel. Prospect had left you their email through a lead magnet. Now you have to convert them. A drip campaign is a set of emails, sent in a 3-5 days sequence, trying to convert the warm lead.
Welcome Emails
After the lead is converted, you now have to nurture them. They don’t know much about you, so you have to introduce yourself and your company. In a welcome email, you will be introducing the company, its mission, and maybe some key people. This is the first step in building a relationship.
Product Updates
These campaigns are focused on the great new things that your product is now able to offer. It’s important to show not only that your product is constantly improving but also that you are keeping up with the trends in your industry.
Customer Reactivation
At some point, your customers will stop using your product. Reach out to those passive customers and show them how your product has changed and why it’s worth their time to return.
Educational Emails
With this campaign, your goal would be to educate your new customers on how to use your product. The important thing is to ensure that your customers know that you are there to help them and want them to succeed.
Case Studies
Nothing beats a great case study. This is a great opportunity to show what your product can do and how impactful it can be. People like to relate, and there is nothing more that we want to relate to than a good success story.
Promotional Emails
To make a sale, you have to ask for the sale! This campaign would be designed to promote a specific product or service. For existing customers, cross-sell campaigns are a great pick for expanding your collaboration. For prospects – a time-limited discount or a trial could do the trick!
Feedback Requests
You know that saying about “unknown unknowns,” right? Sometimes, you just don’t even know what problem the clients are having. Something like a hidden bottleneck. Getting truthfully and extensive feedback is the only way how to “uncork” it.
How to Create Converting B2B Email Marketing Strategies
Now that we’ve covered best practices and types of campaigns, let’s look at some strategies to create converting B2B email marketing campaigns.
Profile Your Buyer Persona(s)
As a B2B marketer, your goal isn’t to reach one person but a company’s decision-making unit (DMU). A DMU usually consists of multiple people who will scrutinize your emails, products, and value add.
To engage the decision-makers, you’ll need to profile company and individual buyer personas and segment campaigns accordingly.
In B2B email marketing, your buyer personas represent both companies (industry, size, budget) and individuals (age, location, and pain points by job title).
Using specific personas helps you engage individuals throughout the organization and market product(s) to your ideal audience at all levels.
Think Like a Buyer
Once you have buyer personas, you’ll want to tailor emails by role and pain points. For instance, you’d send different content to the person who uses your product versus the person who approves their department budget.
While you want to provide value at all levels, the type of value you promote should vary accordingly.
Grow Your List Organically – and Keep It Clean
Buying B2B email marketing lists sounds like a great way to get ahead. Realistically, though, you may alienate potential customers and end up in hot water legally.
Instead, focus on growing your email list organically. It may take longer, but you’ll see better results if everyone on your subscriber list wants to be there.
In a similar vein, take care to trim your list regularly. Unwanted or fake contacts can negatively affect your send reputation, increase bounce rates, and result in poor stats in your campaign analytics.
After all, if you’re not sending emails to valid addresses that want content, what’s the point?
Segment for Relevance
Email segmentation tools make it easy to group email subscribers according to characteristics like company, job role, industry, and budget.
Not all of your leads need or want the same things, so strategizing by a group can help you achieve better results.
Plan Your Campaign in Stages
Email marketing cycles should mirror the customer journey. By providing valuable content on customers’ timeliness, you can provide relevance and drive more conversions. Generally, you should tailor content to the five steps of the customer cycle:
Awareness of your brand – eBooks, how-to guides, and thought leadership can familiarize leads with your product.
Consideration of your products – Customer testimonials, product demos, and case studies can provide more information.
Deciding if your product fits their budget and can provide ROI – Free trials, discounts, and cost estimates can provide incentives to convert.
Retention involves renewing subscriptions, buying products, or continuing relationships – Tutorials and high-level educational content can keep clients engaged.
Advocating for your brand as a customer – Surveys and referral programs can turn loyal customers into brand advocates.
Drip Your Campaigns
Drip campaigns are useful marketing tools for guiding customers down the sales pipeline. Setting up automated email sequences that trigger when leads act saves you time and can speed up the sales cycle. Just be sure to create content before you activate a campaign. So no improvisations on the go!
Consider Frequency
B2B email marketing works best when you send just 1-5 emails per month. (Though effective frequency varies by audience.) The goal is to keep your brand relevant without spamming leads or clients.
Send Cold Emails Carefully
Generally, we advise against cold emails for B2C marketers, but the rules are murkier in the B2B world. A cold email can pay off if you’re reaching out to leads you genuinely believe could benefit from your product. Just remember to research contacts before you reach out and make sure they fit your buyer persona!
Timing is Everything
B2B email marketing campaigns work best when you time them properly. The best times to send emails differ between audiences and businesses, as well as what stage your leads are in. Your analytic data can provide specific insights for your email marketing team.
Make Sure Your Emails Offer Value
Every email you send should offer value to your customers. While B2C customers often respond to emotions and entertainment, B2B email marketing customers want logic, a positive ROI, and to grow with you. To ensure you provide this value, every email should answer three questions:
What’s the offer?
What’s the value for the reader?
What should they do next?
Providing this level of value extends to your call-to-action. When you align value with relevance and customer interests, you’re more likely to succeed.
Stay on Message
When customers subscribe to email lists, it’s because they want to know more about your product and brand – and they trust you to provide it.
Don’t abuse that trust by spamming contacts with useless or off-topic content. Staying on message and only emailing when you can provide real value will keep your emails out of the trash.
Track Results
Once you’ve finalized and sent out your campaign, it’s time to analyze the results.
That doesn’t mean you should gather data points willy-nilly. It’s important to set goals for each campaign, along with attainable metrics. (For instance, if you want to drive demos, you’d measure how many demo sign-ups you saw after the relevant campaign.)
As you gather this information, analyze which factors lead to content marketing success. Then, you can use this information to optimize future campaigns.
But as a B2B email marketer, your work never ends. What works now might fail in three months – so monitoring data in every email campaign is crucial.
Key Takeaways
B2B email marketing remains one of the top ways for B2B brands to nurture leads, convert sales, and maintain lasting client relationships.
While it takes time and effort to learn, your marketing efforts will have you snatching up new subscribers and driving conversions in no time!
Testing every part of the email marketing campaigns should never stop.
You should always keep monitoring the data (and track everything), so you can make changes to improve your marketing strategy.
B2B is about persuading the company and the person who reads your emails.
Is Email B2B Marketing the Best Strategy for My Small Business?
Email marketing is one of the most effective conversion strategies for most businesses both big and small! It’s easier to segment your audience with personal information that can make it easier to make contact in a more effortless, relevant way.
What are Some Common B2B Email Marketing Examples?
We already listed a few examples in this guide, such as Welcome emails. But other common examples include
Curated content
Announcements
Promotions
Gated content
Events
Surveys
There are many more examples, and depending on your business goals, you may use all or only some of these examples.
What Are B2B Email Marketing Strategies to Avoid?
There are so many great email strategies out there for you to use. Don’t fall victim to poor ones or errors!
Errors including incorrect personalizations and information
Not having segmentation in your listing
Content of the email not matching the subject line
Not including preheaders
Including too many CTAs
Not sending out newsletters
Being too frequent or infrequent with your email scheduling
If you have an Etsy shop, you’re probably a creative person, talented, and independent. When designing and curating jewelry, apparel, art, housewares, and collectibles, you’re in your element.
But, promoting your Etsy store may be something you struggle with. Online marketing may be a numbers game, and for some, it’s a war of “creative right brain” vs. “analytic left brain.” The good news is, If you’re wondering how to market your Etsy shop without being or becoming a marketing whiz, you’ve come to the right place. And it starts with creating an Etsy marketing plan!
Today is your lucky day because we’ve put together a guide that will turn you into a professional Etsy shop marketer in no time.
In this post, we have fantastic tips on how to use social media marketing for Etsy, understand Etsy marketing, and implement Etsy ads strategy planning.
Because guess what…that old saying “If you build it, they will come.” is totally bogus! You can design and create your stellar product, but then you have to attract your prospects. And we’re going to show you how.
“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.”
— B.C. Forbes
It’s easy to believe that your fantastic products will sell themselves on Etsy, especially with your impeccable branding and your top keywords prominently displayed in each listing headline.
However, the truth is that marketing your Etsy shop is just as vital as creating a fantastic product, photographing it beautifully, and putting it in your well-branded store. With millions of Etsy stores on the network, you’ll need to use various marketing strategies to get your name out there, get your products seen, and generate sales.
If you’ve ever looked on Etsy for a gift for someone special, you’re already familiar with the world of maker enterprises and the handmade crafts industry.
Consumers are clamoring to get their hands on handcrafted, artisanal goods made by real people, not fresh off a conveyor belt. What began as a way for arts and crafts enthusiasts to supplement their income has quickly become one of the hottest retail markets.
That being said, marketing isn’t cheap nor does it get done as fast as one may think! Before we get into how to get the best Etsy marketing strategy (and truly hold onto your seats–your minds will be blown!), we recommend trying out Tailwind’s digital marketing tool, CoPilot, which creates a marketing plan for you that is tailored to your specific business.
Not only that, but CoPilot will give you the play-by-play of each next step according to marketing best practices!
Try it today for free!
Now that that has been said, let us at last clue you in on what to know about the Etsy industry in order to make the best marketing strategy for Etsy in 2022!
Understand The Industry
One essential thing that must be done when developing your Etsy marketing plan is understanding your niche and competition on Etsy. To help you adapt and understand this evolving retail landscape, we’ve rounded up some insights into recent Etsy shopping behavior and emerging trends.
If you know what customers want, it will be easier to figure out how to market your Etsy shop.
Top Drivers in Etsy Sales
Face Coverings
There has been an increase in search volume for masks and face coverings. In February and March alone, 730,000 searches contained “face masks.”
Change-The-Date Cards
Increased demand for change-of-date cards in paper and digital formats has resulted from wedding postponements. In addition, many celebrations, like bridal showers, are now held online, and customers are looking for colorful backdrops to add to their virtual gatherings.
On Etsy, searches for “date change” had increased by 7,311 percent year over year.
Decluttering Solutions
Shoppers are looking for aesthetically beautiful organizational aids to help them tidy up each place. For example, consider jewelry holders, toy storage solutions, and tablet stands that double as utensil holders in the kitchen.
On Etsy, searches for “pantry labels” have increased by 61% year over year. Check out more ideas on the type of items increasing in popularity on Etsy and what might be a good fit for your store.
Think of Yourself as a Potential Buyer
Obsessing over your ideal, perfect customer will assist you in tailoring your store to their precise requirements. You’ll know EXACTLY who you’re targeting on Etsy and social media and how to position yourself for long-term success. This translates to satisfied customers and a high volume of sales.
It’s time to cease pedaling in vain in the hope of making a sale. Here’s how to figure out who your “ideal” Etsy buyer is and make sure they show up.
Think Of Yourself As A Buyer
One thing that can help you understand your ideal customer is thinking of yourself as a buyer. It’s essential to know who you’re selling to create an effective Etsy marketing plan.
If you were the buyer, what would you want to buy? And what words and phrases would you use to search for that product? Make a list, and then incorporate those things in your product titles and descriptions.
Make Up Your Perfect Customer
A fun exercise you can do is create your perfect customer on paper. Here are some things to consider – and for a more in-depth look, check out our article on creating actionable marketing personas:
Age
Location & Time Zone
Spending power (how much do they have to spend? What influences their decisions?)
Interests (what are their hobbies? What books do they read? What Podcasts do they listen to?)
Problems (What problems do they have?)
Inspiration (Who inspires them?)
Social Media Marketing For Etsy
Harnessing the power of social media for marketing your Etsy business is a great way to level up and outshine your competition.
Social media can be a simple and powerful marketing tool, but how can you use it to promote your Etsy shop?
Your buyer is simply a swipe and a tap away on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Here are some awesome ways to use social media marketing for Etsy.
Pinterest
Oh, boy! If you aren’t using Pinterest to reach customers, you’re missing out on sales. And since Pinterest is a visual search engine, it’s probably one of the best places to market your Etsy shop and products.
Of course, when you have an awesome product, you want to shout it from the rooftop, but in today’s modern times, the rooftop is in the digital realm.
The great thing about Etsy is that they make it easy to share your products on Pinterest. So, there is no reason you shouldn’t be using Pinterest as part of your social media marketing for Etsy.
They have a “Pin It” button that allows you to Pin products from your Etsy shop. And when you do, Pinterest automatically captures the description from your shop and includes it in your Pin. Making it easy to share your products.
Pinterest is fun, simple to use, and, as any frequent pinner can attest, a little addictive. Every day, millions of individuals use Pinterest to learn more about their passions, locate things to buy (like yours), and connect with others who share their passions.
The more people who pin, discover and repin your products, the more probable that new buyers will find you. So join the pinning party and promote your company on Pinterest with these strategies.
Create a variety of boards that reflect your shop’s personality and taste and make sure that each board has enough pins to feel significant so that pinners will want to follow it.
Pin Like A Pro
Try your best to Pin at least once a day to ensure that your followers’ home feeds are updated with new material. It’s also a good idea to pin over the day rather than all at once. Also, don’t feel obligated to pin only your work. By integrating pins from others, you can create a fuller story about who you are, what your shop represents, and what motivates you.
Helpful Tip: The interaction between the brand and the user on Pinterest differs from that on Instagram or Facebook. Your aim is not to have a conversation with them but rather to persuade them to purchase your items.
Facebook
When you want to market your Etsy store, you have to be present where your customers are. And that my friend is on Facebook. With billions of active users daily, Facebook provides you with opportunities to showcase your Etsy products and reach more customers. So here are a few things you need to do to market your Etsy business on Facebook.
Create A Facebook Business Page
The key to marketing your Etsy store on Facebook is creating a business page that can be solely used to promote your Etsy shop and posting regularly. Of course, you can use Facebook insights to see what days and times are best for you to post, but consistency is key.
Your ideal customer will likely need to see your products several times before purchasing. So, make sure to publish new content on Facebook at least a few times a week. And don’t forget to use hashtags.
Instagram
Most businesses know that being present on Instagram is essential to being successful. So, if you want to market your Etsy store, you’ll need an Instagram business page. And here are a few tips to get you started.
Professional Appearance
When you’re trying to increase your sales and reach, you must have a professional look for your social media accounts. Follow these steps.
Use your logo as the profile picture, not a personal photo of yourself
Once you have set up your Instagram business page, it’s time to publish your content. Showcasing product photos with well-written captions is essential to building a loyal brand that buys your items. Tailwind’s social media management platform is an incredible tool to help keep you organized and schedule regular posts and content on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
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Use Hashtags
Don’t forget to include hashtags in your posts. This is still a great way for people to find your content. And if you’re not sure which hashtags are right for your brand and content, use Tailwind’s hashtag to research hashtag ideas.
Comment & Like
Another awesome way to get eyes on your brand and Etsy products is to like and comment on other people’s Instagram posts and accounts. Doing this will get your account noticed.
Social media marketing for Etsy is only one part of elevating your Etsy store’s success. If you use a combination of all of the tips and suggestions in this post, you’ll quickly be on your way to reaching more customers and increasing sales.
Building an Etsy marketing strategy for multiple digital channels, interacting with your ideal customers on Instagram, Pinning your products, and promoting your brand on Facebook is essential for Etsy marketing your shop and growth.
Social Media Strategy for Efficient Etsy Marketing
To make things easier, we also recommend checking out Tailwind’s social media management platform. On Tailwind’s platform for social media management, you can easily visually plan your posts in advance and set scheduled times that they’d go live. Tailwind’s platform also provides suggested hashtags in its Hashtag Finder feature to further your Etsy social media marketing strategy. In addition, it has a SmartSchedule feature that will schedule posts automatically at times when your audience is most engaged!
Tailwind’s platform makes posting so efficient and seamless for anyone who is trying to run their business and marketing strategy at the same time.
Social Media Analytics
One way to lighten the load is to work smarter, not harder. Tracking social media performance is a major part of understanding which social media posts are working and which are not. If this idea is new to you, we recommend reading our blog post on laying out the ideal metrics to track social media performance.
If you’re wondering how you collect social media analytics to effectively strategize, Tailwind’s social media management platform has an analytics feature that can provide this information for you!
SEO Strategy For Etsy
This is a biggie. If your goal is to increase your Etsy sales, you must implement Etsy marketing and SEO. You can design and create a million products, which solve a problem or fill a need, but you’ll get zero sales if no one can find them.
Etsy SEO is the practice of increasing your shop’s and products’ visibility in search engines like Google and Etsy’s own search feature. SEO can be difficult, especially because search engines constantly change how they search. Still, Etsy sellers should have a basic awareness of SEO best practices and strategies to optimize their shops for search and get their things in front of more potential shoppers.
Not sure how to make your Etsy shop SEO-friendly? Learn how Etsy search works and eight simple ways any Etsy seller can make it easier for shoppers to find their items by reading on.
To master Etsy SEO, follow these three simple steps:
Understand How The SEO Search Works
The Etsy search tool uses two unique elements to connect customers with the products they’re looking for: ranking and query matching.
The effectiveness of a potential customer’s search phrase matching with Etsy’s inventory listings is referred to as query matching. The search function analyzes attributes, categories, tags, and titles to match each sought term.
Following query matching, the search engine calculates listing rank by combining some very distinct scoring factors:
Quality of Listing Score:
This indicator determines how effective a listing is at converting visitors. When a customer makes a purchase, this score rises, resulting in a higher listing quality score.
Customer and Market Experience Score:
Customer reviews, negative comments, and the completion of the “about” section of a shop’s description are used to produce a score for all of them.
Context-Specific Ranking (CSR) Technology Score:
Artificial intelligence (AI) tries to determine what people want and then deliver results that meet those needs. In essence, this ranking examines previous behavior to determine current desires.
Relevancy Score:
The Etsy search hierarchy rewards exact-match terms with high rankings. In addition, search spots are given to secondary keyword sources that align with the consumer’s query, such as characteristics, tags, titles, and categories, if an exact match isn’t identified.
Shipping Price Score:
Shipping is frequently exorbitant in Etsy shops. As a result, stores that offer free or discounted shipping receive higher shipping price ratings than their more expensive competitors.
While these parameters may appear impossible to influence, there are ways to improve your Etsy search ranking. You may enhance your overall store ranking by optimizing these 10 Etsy SEO areas, potentially increasing visibility and reach for your listings.
Here are some Etsy SEO Tips
Choose Etsy SEO Keywords Carefully
The basis of enhancing Etsy SEO is keywords. Etsy prefers to display shops that have direct keyword matches for shoppers.
Consider yourself a buyer while determining the optimal keywords for your store.
What would your ideal customer look for on the internet? What terms are they most likely to type into the search box?
After you’ve identified keywords by imagining yourself as your target customer, look into direct competitors’ keywords to make sure you’ve gathered all relevant terms.
For a solid Etsy SEO plan, use keywords in tags, titles, categories, and characteristics to more effectively match your listings with customer queries, potentially resulting in improved visibility.
However, don’t go overboard with keywords by stuffing them into titles or using other keyword-stuffing techniques. Etsy is working hard to limit the appearance of titles that are crammed with keywords.
Optimize Your Shop Sections
Shop sections organize products into groups that can be explored. Groupings by size, type, color, and other factors are all possibilities for sections. These sections display as links in the shop’s left sidebar.
Sections can help you boost your Etsy SEO in addition to assisting with general shop management.
Each segment is treated as a separate entity, with its own landing page and title generated from the section name. These unique landing pages provide you with more chances to employ your keywords.
Use All Available Tags
In item descriptions, you can include up to 13 tags. Make the most of your keywords by taking advantage of this opportunity.
Because each tag has a maximum of 20 characters, concentrate on long-tail keywords and think past your existing keywords.
Get Backlinks
Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links from other websites to your store or products. These are crucial to your Etsy SEO strategy because they boost a site’s search engine credibility.
These three tactics will help you get backlinks even if you’re not a well-known brand:
Build Your Blog:
Blogs can help you grow your audience, improve your SEO, establish yourself as an industry leader, and gain quality backlinks. In addition, others may connect to your shop or individual products if you provide unique, valuable content.
Get Social:
When you share links to your shop and blog on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media platforms, you enhance your chances of reaching new customers and gaining backlinks.
Reach Out:
Determine which media are most likely to showcase your shop or your products. These outlets can include Instagram accounts, blogs, and publications. Begin contacting people when you’ve made this list. Offer these people a discount or a sample item in exchange for linking to your site.
Etsy Ads Strategy
Etsy ads (also known as Etsy Promoted Listings) can help you grow your Etsy business by attracting new consumers and improving sales. Starting an advertising strategy to market your Etsy shop, on the other hand, may be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Here’s an easy breezy guide to a successful Etsy ads strategy.
Set A Budget
When creating your Etsy ads strategy, the first thing you have to do is set a budget. This is how much you are willing to spend on your ad each day. Etsy’s algorithm will consider this budget when determining where and how many times to display your ad.
Use Automated Bidding
The bid amount is the second criterion that Etsy considers while conducting ad auctions. Etsy features an automated bidding mechanism in which sellers can bid on the placement of their listings. A bid is an amount a seller is willing to pay for a single click on a listing. On the other hand, the seller has no say in the bid price. Instead, this is decided by an automatic method depending on several variables.
Once the first Etsy ad has been completed, you should review the ad performance to see how successful it was. Feel free to play with your budget and product objectives to see what works best for your Etsy store. You don’t have much control over advertising on Etsy, but the metrics should still be able to provide information to help you determine if it’s a good way to spend your money.
And that covers it! You clicked on this article wondering, “How does Etsy marketing work” and now you have the tools you need to get started and become an Etsy marketing rockstar! Make sure to check out our additional resources and sign up for free with Tailwind to take your marketing to the next level!
FAQs
Can I create an email list for my Etsy shop?
Yes, you can! Building an email list for your Etsy shop is a great way to keep your subscribers informed about your business and nurture leads.
What is the best way to get quality traffic on my Etsy?
The best way to get quality leads in your shop is by providing high-quality products and optimizations. Making the best product isn’t enough on a platform with thousands of sellers.
It’s important to also provide the best customer service and have a strong marketing plan to stand out from the crowd! It can be a daunting endeavor, but all the hard work pays off in the end with loyal customers and growing ROI!
Can I market my Etsy shop for free?
Yes and no. Like other marketing platforms, there are marketing strategies that you can use for your Etsy shop that are free, such as SEO optimizations or social media marketing. However, paid ads on Etsy do cost money and should be factored into your marketing budget if you decided to use this tactic.
Good email subject lines can make all the difference between a failed and successful campaign.
Writing good subject lines, which will make an actual person open the email, takes a lot of testing. But, arguably, it is one of the most important elements of an email marketing campaign!
Here are some statistics for you:
Businesses have onlyseven secondsto make a good first impression on customers;
A vast percentage of the 376 billion emails sent daily go unopened, let alone unread.
If you’re an email marketer, these facts are tied together by a single thread: email subject lines. In this post, we will focus on writing good subject lines to boost your open rates and, as a result, the overall bottom line of your email marketing campaigns!
What is an Email Subject Line?
The subject line of an email is the line of text that people see when they receive an email.
It is the first impression they have of the email’s contents.
This is another sometimes overlooked element of engaging email subject lines.
This is a text that follows the subject line and is a sneak peek at what is in the email body. This is a second chance to grab attention in your email campaign!
Why are Email Subject Lines So Important?
Email subject lines are the first contact email subscribers have with your email marketing campaigns. Learning how to come up with the subject line of an email can make or break your campaign.
The right email subject line entices readers to open, click, and buy. Some half of recipients open emails due to catchy email subject lines alone. Nearly 70% report emails as spam on the same basis.
On the other hand, the wrong email subject line can drive customers away and even see your brand relegated to the spam folder.
No matter how well-crafted your campaigns are, your efforts are worthless if your audience never sees your content. That’s why email marketers have to write catchy email subject lines every time – no exceptions.
While the process requires extra work, you can improve your open and click-through rates, spread brand awareness, and avoid the trash folder (or the spam folder!).
Most industries that use email marketing see a 21% open rate, with 30-40% being above-average. But with the right email subject line, you can drive these statistics up.
The best email subject line tips all start with a few ingredients. Think of them like your spice rack: while you don’t have to include all of them every time, mixing and matching can deliver fantastic results.
1. Personalization
Now more than ever, marketers can use data about their target audience to provide the ultimate customer experience. Email subject lines are no exception; a little personalization here offers the sense of importance and connection readers crave.
2. Benefit
When opening marketing emails, most people ask: “What’s in it for me?”
Your email subject line provides the perfect location to answer that question upfront. Including or hinting at freebies, discounts, or new information can inspire higher open rates among your audience.
3. Relevance
Generally, subscribers read emails to stay informed or learn more about a brand or topic (or receive a sweet discount).
Crafting email subject lines relevant to their lives, trending topics, and your brand is a great way to compel clicks.
4. Urgency
Most people live in chronic FOMO, or fear of missing out.
By communicating urgency in your subject line and offering a solution, you can help readers scratch that itch. (For instance, you may put a deadline on a sale or countdown to the start of an upcoming event.)
Still, you’ll want to use this tactic sparingly. Otherwise, your urgent emails become “just another Tuesday.”
5. Intrigue
Sometimes, email subject lines work because they establish benefits upfront. Other times, it’s because they confer a mystery or question that readers just have to solve.
Tantalizing email subject lines often increase open rates because readers have to click to satisfy their curiosity.
6. Celebrity Branding
Adding a relevant celebrity’s name to your subject line can boost clicks based purely on name recognition. (And a desire to learn what Kim K. is up to these days.) But only use this strategy if it aligns with your brand; don’t throw out famous names just for recognition.
7. Engaging Previews
Previews aren’t exactly part of your subject line, but they’re almost as important. Preview text provides a sneak peek at your email’s contents beside the subject line.
Take this opportunity to complement your subject line and further engage with your audience.
Email Subject Line Best Practices
Every email campaign has its own purpose, which means your email subject lines should match it.
While the style, tone, and direction of your subject lines will change, adhering to these best practices can help you make the most of your online marketing efforts.
Determine the CTA – if Any
Not every email subject line needs a call-to-action – but every email does.
If you incorporate your CTA into your subject line, use it to inform recipients why they should open it, be it to receive free stuff or receive important information.
Segment Your Lists
Many marketers blast emails to everyone on their lists. But sometimes, that causes more confusion than clicks. For instance, if you send a list of the best “local” bars to someone 3,000 miles away, you’re not just not providing relevance; you’re showing you don’t know your readers at all.
Keep this in mind when you are crafting that ultra-personalized subject line.
If you’re not sure exactly how to go about segmenting your email list, Tailwind’s email marketing tool has super simple features to help you create segments that are as specific as you need to engage your audience.
Simply open Tailwind Email from your dashboard, navigate to Contacts, and then click Manage Lists!
You’ve heard of tokens of appreciation – now, we’re talking tokens of personalization.
Research shows that including a recipient’s first name in email subject lines can inspire a higher click-through rate.
But it doesn’t have to be just names! Locations, companies, and hobbies can build a sense of familiarity, too.
That said, you don’t want to get too personal too often, lest you sound creepy. Small, sporadic touches once in a while should do the trick.
Personalization is pretty easy to set up. Here’s a look at how to do it in Tailwind email! First, add an attribute for first_name.
When a new subscriber joins your list, make sure to fill out the first_name field. then, when you add this field to your subject line, your attribute (your subscribers’ first name) will appear in the subject line.
Avoid Spam Traps
Several subject line factors can lead readers to send you straight to the spam folder. Or even worse, the email spam filter will do it automatically.
Some spam traps look like:
Loud punctuation (LIKE ALL CAPS and lots of exclamation marks!!!!!!!)
Including multiple types of punctuation in the same subject line !?*–/!}{
Aggressively salesy or clickbait-y language (“FREE!” “Buy Now!” “Make $$$ Today!”)
Weird spacing issues
Special or unreadable fonts
False or misleading statements that go unfulfilled in your email’s copy
Instead of focusing on this “unique” style of promotion, try offering expertise, information, or even a little wit to build real connections. And, make sure your email provider uses built-in best practices to avoid spam traps or federal violations. Tailwind email was built with these factors in mind.
Time Your Emails Wisely
Broadly speaking, you should research when your audience is most likely to act on your emails. The time when you send emails is important, but with “timed email subject lines” you can take it even one step further!
For instance, a food magazine may send an email with the subject line “The Best Drinks in [City] Tonight” just before happy hour. That would likely see more clicks than waiting until midnight.
Be Unique, But Brand-Aware
Crafting actionable subject lines requires understanding your audience and brand. Use your email subject lines to highlight what your brand does well.
Don’t be afraid to throw your company name out there to build familiarity and engagement. At the same time, have the courage to take a little risk.
For many readers, there’s a fine line between memorable and repulsive. Finding your happy place means you can carve a unique niche while having some fun.
11 Tips to Write Great Subject Lines
Writing converting subject lines is an art, and like any art, it requires practice and testing. These tips can help you find your voice.
1. Be Human
Even more serious brands can benefit from a conversational tone.
Remember, your readers are people, not robots – meaning readability, connection, and friendliness often trump a cold tone.
Even small, simple switches like using contractions can have a big impact!
2. Stay Short, Simple, and Sweet
Today, half of the emails are read on mobile, which cuts down the visible character count.
At the same time, readers scan inboxes quickly, giving you just milliseconds to grab their attention.
Research shows that short subject lines – around 40 characters or 7 words – perform best. Precise, concise subject lines offer clear benefits, intrigue, or relevance without getting wordy.
“Increase your conversions by 50%!” offers fewer words and more benefits than “Here’s how to increase your marketing power while driving better conversions.”
3. Begin with Action-Oriented Verbs
A great email subject line is designed to inspire clicks, and nothing drives clicks like action verbs. Vibrant verbs give readers a sense of urgency or excitement that dull descriptions simply don’t.
Who wants to attend a “Local dinner with a singer” when you can “Dine with Lady Gaga” instead?
4. Make People Feel Special
Birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries…people love to feel special and included. Provoke a sense of belonging that boosts loyalty and conversions by making people feel like “insiders” with powerful phrases like:
Exclusive offer
Private invite
VIPs only!
Just for you
A gift from us to our beloved customers
5. Include Deadlines
You can capitalize on the power of FOMO – and remove distractions – by including deadlines that encourage readers to prioritize your offers.
From leveraging multi-email promotions to creating urgency around expiring events, the “now or never” language often produces greater results.
6. Pose Compelling Questions
Asking questions expands the idea of intrigue mentioned earlier. With the right question and a good subject line, you can show off your knowledge, pique curiosity, and engage minds.
Because questions feel incomplete without an answer, you can also inspire readers to open emails to learn more within.
These can be anything from “Are you making these 10 critical business mistakes?” to “Do you know how long a giraffe’s tongue is?”
You can also get a little personal with a simple “Rough day?” or “Need a break?”
7. Use Numbers
Millions of businesses rely on vague subject lines that convey no real data to drive paltry conversions. But tossing numbers into your email subject lines can improve notice and open rates.
Whether you’re offering “50% off – today only!” or a list of “Top 10 things we love about our customers!” numbers provide unavoidable benefits to readers.
8. Get Witty with It
A good email subject line should be relatively short – but that doesn’t mean it should be boring. Introducing a little humor with your self-indulgent wittiness can make your audience crack a smile and click on for more.
For instance, puns give you the opportunity to make yourself sound fun and relatable. (Take Quirky’s (a cable management product) “Abra-cord-abra! Yeah, we said it.” which offers both wit and a self-reverential poke.)
You can look into other kinds of wordplay, too, like:
Alliterations
Rhymes
Word imitations
References and allusions
Any of these can help your email subject lines stick out in users’ minds and grab attention while offering great value.
9. Draft Multiple Subject Lines
One crucial part of writing email subject lines is not limiting yourself to just one option.
Take some time to write down your best 4-7 subject lines, each with a different style, tone, or angle.
Even if you discard 99% of them now, you can save the good ones for later.
Want to cut down time on brainstorming? Use Tailwind Ghostwriter for email subject lines!
Simply input the purpose of your email (think: newsletter, promotion, welcome email), your preferred tone, and topics, like a new product or an upcoming event, and click Generate! Our AI technology will continue giving you a mix of subject lines until you find the perfect one for you.
10. Get Feedback
Sometimes, you need to get out of your own head and see problems from someone else’s perspective.
Ask your colleagues, spouse, or even your kids to look over your ideas. And if they have suggestions of their own, don’t be afraid to listen up!
You do not have to look for exact subject line copy, but rather suggestions and alternative points of view.
11. A/B Test Your Email Subject Lines
These tips and best practices can get you started on your subject line journey. But you shouldn’t just take our word for it – ultimately, your brand and customers are unique and need a personalized touch.
By A/B testing your subject lines, you can experiment to see what works with the most biased (and relevant) crowd of all: your own readers.
12 Examples of Catchy Email Subject Lines
Now, you have all the tools to start writing email subject lines that convert. For added inspiration, consider these catchy subject lines that have appeared in inboxes 🙂
1. Best of Groupon: The Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve)
Some rules are made to be broken – for experts, anyway.
From mentioning the brand name to offering benefits to throwing in a jab at Steven, Groupon schools marketers in top-notch subject lines – all while breaking the most basic rule: keep it short and sweet.
But this subject line broadens their scope by offering knowledge on a related topic: essential oils – something many therapeutic pillow users may be interested in.
Now that’s knowing your audience.
3. real baseball fans eat burritos
The lower-caps. The pointed jab at burgers and beer. The knowledge that “real” fans eat burritos – as if everyone already knew that, right?
With this subject line, Boloco markets its product while convincing readers that Red Sox fans crave burritos, not burgers.
4. Trip or Treat! Up to $300 off ends tomorrow
EF’s spooky subject line couples a quirky emoji with a sense of time-bound urgency. Absolutely boo-tiful.
5. Uh-oh, your prescription is expiring.
Here, Warby Parker combines a conversational tone with a personalized, relevant touch. Helpful, friendly, and approachable? Time to get those new glasses!
6. Don’t Open This Email
What’s better than answering questions? Getting away with something forbidden.
This subject line from Manicube gives readers the feeling they’re doing just that by telling them not to do the thing – thereby ensuring their readers will do the opposite of what they tell them.
Pretty clever if you ask us. (Not that you did.)
7. 10 bizarre money habits making Millennials richer
What brings together numbers, money, and Millennials? This subject line from Refinery29 that just screams “Open me!” (And we’re sure readers did, too.)
8. Not Cool, Guys
If there’s one thing BuzzFeed knows, it’s how to deliver on its clickbait. Just look at the preview text that followed this enigma of a subject line: “Okay, WHO left the passive-aggressive sticky note on my fridge?”
9. We Need To Talk…
PPC Protect boosted its open rate to 63% with this simple subject line. Not only does it sound important, but it triggers your curiosity (and perhaps a little anxiety, too).
10. TGIF!
Acronym-only subject lines mark the epitome of short, sweet, and relatable.
11. Join us for a Bling-ing good time
This email subject line from The Basketry builds on the power of risqué (alluding curse words) while marketing their product and upcoming event. (The rest of the email offered their contact information and an invitation to an upcoming “Breakfast & Bling” event.)
12. “Yes, this is a fundraising email” and “Hey”
Simple, straightforward…and garnering open rates of nearly 80%. These two boring email subject lines, sent by Al Franken and Barack Obama, illustrate the power of celebrity names – and a bit of honest intrigue.
Key Takeaways
Good email subject lines can make all the difference between a failed and successful email marketing campaign.
A/B test subject lines often. Keep testing the winner against a new contender. Improvement never stops.
Personalization is a good foundation for a high open-rate subject line.
Questions work exceptionally well, don’t overuse them.
Shocking subject lines may have a negative effect, be careful!
FAQs
What is a good example of a subject line for an email?
“Quick question?” – one of the most converting email subject lines is a question. This lets the person know that you’re not going to take up too much of their time (think: brevity), but you do need their help with something.
What makes a catchy subject line?
Keep it brief and personal. Questions work great as well. Just make sure that it is not clickbait!
How do you create urgency with subject lines?
“Ends today” – time constraints are a great way to create urgency. It lets the person know they need to act now if they’re interested.
“Only 2 left!” – scarcity is another great way to create urgency. If there’s only a limited number of something available, people are more likely to act quickly to get them.
Email marketing is a great way to connect with your audience and promote your product or service. However, it can be difficult to know which approach will work best for your business. That’s where A/B testing your email marketing campaigns comes in!
Thorough A/B testing allows you to learn your subscribers’ preferences and deliver the best email campaigns optimized for results. Plus, you can use the results to guide your marketing team, eliminate opinion-based decisions, and grow your brand more effectively.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to improve your A/B testing strategy and catch the eyes (and dollars ) of your target audience.
Email A/B testing, sometimes called split testing, refers to experimenting with different email variations to determine what your subscribers respond to the best.
When you run A/B tests, you send two versions of one email to similarly-sized sample groups from your email subscribers list.
Then, you measure which version sees the most opens, click-throughs, and sales in your test batch. The winning version goes out to the rest of your subscriber list, where it hopefully collects eyeballs and drives conversions.
The goal of A/B split testing is to evaluate and compare changes to a single variable to drive more clicks and conversions.
Over time, you can test almost every element, from subject lines to “From” names to call-to-action (CTA) buttons. As you perform more tests and compile your subscriber’s preferences, you can build an effective email campaign and drive more growth. Best of all, most modern email marketing tools offer at least basic A/B capabilities, which makes the testing process much more efficient!
Why is AB Testing Email Marketing Campaigns Important?
Nowadays, many marketers skip email A/B testing in their email campaigns. This happens for several reasons, such as not knowing what to test or relying on information generated by other marketers.
Unfortunately for those people, email marketing, like all marketing, requires knowing your audience – not another industry’s audience.
Ultimately, your brand, products, and subscribers vary even from your competitors, which makes doing your own research vitally important.
A/B split testing allows you to find and capitalize on those differences. It’s one of the fastest, most efficient ways to connect with your audience and deliver them the content they want to engage with.
For most marketers, the results outweigh the cost and effort. For instance, Campaign Monitor found that improving their templates through A/B testing spiked click-throughs by 127% almost overnight. That’s just one metric – imagine how well you’d perform if you were optimized top to bottom!
7 Factors That You Should A/B Test
One benefit – and drawback – of A/B testing is that you can explore how dozens of variables impact your email marketing performance.
On one hand, that allows for unprecedented personalization, on the other, it requires a lot of testing to get right.
Here are seven factors to consider in email split testing.
1. “From” Name
Some marketers swear that what goes in the “From” field is the most important component of email marketing efforts. (Take your friends, for example. No matter what’s in the subject line, your open rates on their emails are probably 100%!)
As an email marketer, you can use your “From” name to build rapport. Tons of factors can impact your open rates based on your business and audience, such as:
Altering the level of formality (Mrs. Jones vs. Cecilia)
Whether you present as a person or company name (Fantastic Company A vs. Jenny)
And even including a greeting (Yo, it’s Jake!)
The key to success with your From field is selecting and sticking with the best version after you tested it.
Using one name, be it yours or your company name, consistently – allows your subscribers to recognize your emails in the future.
2. Subject Lines
Your subject line is one of your readers’ first points of contact – it shows up right in the inbox. A compelling subject line makes all the difference in your campaign’s open rates.
Subject lines remain one of the most popular focus areas for A/B testing. They are right there “on the surface.” making the most critical impact. If nobody opens your emails, what is in them won’t matter.
Below, we’ll explore a few ways to maximize your email subject line potential.
Personalization
According to this study, the subscriber’s name is the single most impactful word in a subject line. Dynamically inserting your audiences’ names can add a feeling of connection and boost the open rate by 14%, leading to higher conversions.
For example, instead of saying “15% off sale!” you could say, “Janet, we’re giving you 15% off today!” This personalizes the subject line and gives the gift of savings simultaneously.
Word Order
The word order in email subject lines serves to frontload or backload information. For example, you could tell your audience:
Use this discount code for 15% off today!
vs.
Get 15% off today with this discount code!
In the second example, you immediately emphasize the reader’s benefit, potentially increasing open rates.
Question vs. Statement
For many people, leaving a question unanswered drives them crazy – use that to your advantage!
Throwing your audience a question inspires them to open your emails and find the answers your email campaign offers. Formats that catch your audience’s attention to keep them reading (and clicking) may start with:
Did you know…?
Do you want…?
Have you heard…?
Where can you…?
You can use A/B testing to see which type of questions work best – if at all.
Symbols or Numbers
Using characters like symbols, numbers, and emojis can capture your readers’ attention as they scroll through their inboxes. The key is to use characters that are catchy and relevant to your email.
You also want to avoid using emojis in every email; otherwise, the bright colors and faces lose their novelty.
Length
A recent study found that subject lines perform best around 41 characters or 7 words.
A shorter subject line length offers just enough information to draw readers in. In comparison, long subject lines may remove the “mystery” that draws your email recipients to click.
3. Email Template Layout
The best-performing email layout varies based on your industry, brand, audience, and the email’s purpose. You’ll also want to consider how much content you cram into each email.
Try switching between one- and two-column layouts or adding text over or through images. Use the responses to gauge whether your audience prefers their information quick and condensed or sprawling and easier to read.
Note: When you test layout, keep your content, subject line, and images the same. The goal is to test how your readers respond to rearranging, not changing, information.
4. Copy
The human attention span fell from 12 seconds to 8 seconds between 2000 and 2015. (You can thank smartphones for that!) Reduced attention spans mean that emphasizing great copy in your email body is more important than ever.
If you can’t concisely and simply explain your point, product, or offer, you’ll struggle to build a successful conversion process and generate revenue.
Fortunately, you can use A/B testing to ascertain which facets of your copywriting work for your audience.
Length
One way to cater to shorter attention spans is by using fewer words. Minimizing language and maximizing value with short-form copy means sharing your story and offers while keeping subscribers’ attention.
However, this varies by demographic. For instance, older generations or industry professionals may prefer long-form copy that details your offer more thoroughly.
Personalization
Using your subscribers’ names, referencing their location, or even mentioning their company can improve the relevance and lead to more click-throughs.
Tone
Your copy’s tone makes a huge difference in how your audience perceives information.
Incorporating positivity into your email has been found to engage readers’ brains more powerfully, encouraging them to understand – and act on – key messages.
5. Visuals and Images
Research suggests that human brains process imagery 60,000x faster than text. You can capitalize on this information by using images, graphics, and charts to:
Drive home your key message;
Encourage information absorption;
Increase engagement rates.
During the testing phase, you can examine how the type, color, placement, and quality of images drive conversions. Adding text, moving GIFs, and even the activity level of subjects within the images can all impact engagement.
That said, images aren’t always successful.
Some marketers have reported that images actually decreased engagement rates because images detracted from their content. (Which is why A/B testing is so darn important!)
6. Your Call-to-Action (CTA)
CTAs are one of the most important parts of any email marketing campaign, especially when it comes to your click-through rate.
You can use your CTA to clarify your audience’s next step, such as:
Signing up for a webinar;
Purchasing a product;
Receiving a discount by acting now;
Learning more on your blog.
Of course, the tone and type of CTA matter to your audience. And optimizing your design for maximum clicks ensures that you drive as many conversions as possible.
Buttons vs. Hyperlinks
You can generally choose from two basic CTA designs: adding colorful buttons or using hyperlinked texts. For some marketers, “loud” buttons improve click-through rates by catching readers’ attention.
For others, inserting simple text links right into the conversation better caters to a particular audience or product.
Color
We mentioned loud, right?
Colors can affect human mood and reactions. You can use this to influence your audience’s perception, emotion, and action. Then, apply it to your CTA (both buttons and hyperlinks) or build it into your established color palette.
Copy
Regardless of your CTA format, you should choose your copy carefully. Specific, action-oriented copy that drives a sense of urgency can increase your click-through rates more than generic text.
For example, switching from “Shop Here” to “Buy Now” probably won’t make a huge difference.
But moving from “Buy Now” to “I’m in, let’s do this!” or “Discover the secret to eternal youth here!” is almost guaranteed to increase your CTR. Don’t be afraid to speak directly to your readers’ desires and experiences!
Placement
Placing your CTA helps direct your readers to take the actions you desire. If you hide a tiny CTA between images, randomly within the copy, or at the bottom of your email, your subscribers will struggle to find out.
However, if you make your CTA loud and place it strategically, you can guide your readers.
Try embedding your CTA at the beginning of your copy, at the top of your email, or in product text.
Number
Why choose between the top and bottom of your email when you can put in two CTAs?
For that matter, why limit yourself to buttons or hyperlinks when you can reap the increased click-through rates of both?
7. Delivery Times
While tons of data exists, it’s best to test this metric to see what works for your industry, brand, and subscribers. While you may never achieve 100% open rates, you’ll see more success some days and times than others.
For example, people may be more likely to buy after lunch when they’re full than before lunch when they’re “hangry”.
This topic could be a separate post, so we wrote one! Check it out if you would like to learn more about the best times to send marketing emails.
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Types of A/B Testing
You can run four basic types of A/B tests.
Single-Factor A/B Testing
Single-factor A/B testing involves testing just one factor across two variations of your email. (Such as only changing your CTA or subject line.)
This type of A/B test requires a 50/50 split of your testing group. Using single-factor testing allows you to explore new ideas and gather intel one change at a time.
As you test more factors, you can build on your database to make more informed decisions in future campaigns.
Multivariate Testing
Multivariable testing refers to testing multiple variables in a single A/B campaign.
Generally, you move to multivariable testing once you’ve performed single-factor A/B tests on everything from your subject lines to your CTA. At this point, the goal is to determine the best combination of different elements rather than how a single factor performs.
These more complicated tests allow you to build on winning elements from simpler prior tests.
The downside is that you can’t be sure if a single factor or multiple factors encouraged which reader behaviors.
Champion vs. Challenger Testing
Champion vs. challenger testing requires a long-term approach to improving the success of your email campaigns.
In this method, you use your winning variations as control groups against new ideas. (In other words, once you’ve found what works, you come back to test new ideas so you don’t fall into a marketing rut.)
Hold-Out Testing
Hold-out testing involves not sending some of your subscribers a particular email at all. Then, you can measure purchase rates to see if your marketing has any impact whatsoever.
Because this method involves a lack of promotion, it’s best performed rarely and in small groups.
8 Tips for Efficient A/B Testing Campaigns
Modern-day email marketing tools make A/B testing simple and quick. But before you dive in on your own, consider these strategic tips to increase your success.
1. Don’t Rely on Someone Else’s Results
Looking at where and how other marketers can provide valuable insights into your own potential. For instance, dozens of studies exist on the “right” way to write your email subject lines.
But ultimately, you’re running your own business and email campaigns with your own subscribers. Not to mention, marketing success varies widely between industries, brands, and demographics.
Running your own tests is crucial to avoid drawing incorrect conclusions from valid but irrelevant results.
However, especially at first, you’ll want to prioritize the ideas most likely to drive better results with less effort.
To do so, ask yourself how:
…big of an impact each change could make;
…confident you are the impact will be positive;
…easily you can implement each test.
You can use the answers to these questions to rank your ideas in order of priority and improvement potential.
3. Don’t Test Too Many Factors at Once
The main goal of A/B testing is to figure out how your subscribers respond to various changes in your marketing strategy. Testing too many variables at once removes your ability to determine what changes – if any – your audience prefers.
Plus, it’s often easier to measure the impacts of small or simple changes over large changes. (Think subject line or call-to-action versus template design.)
It’s best to wait on multivariable testing until you’ve compiled a solid database on individualvariables. Then, you can start testing combination changes to build the best long-term strategy for your brand.
4. Identify Your Goal
Once you’ve found a factor to test, you’ll need to decide how you’ll measure your success. Open, click-through, and sales rates are all common email metrics. Consider how you want one primary metric to perform during the test (such as increasing conversions by 50%).
5. Form a Constructive Hypothesis
After you have a metric in mind, you can set up a hypothesis. A simple “If I change X, then Y could happen” will help you think through your strategy. You’ll also avoid wasting time by making changes that aren’t likely to have a major impact.
At the same time, a well-formed hypothesis can encourage you to think outside the box.
6. Pick the Right Sample Size
When you run A/B tests, you pull out a section of your subscribers as your “guinea pigs.” Once you analyze the data from this smaller group, you can send the winning email to your remaining subscribers.
But determining the right sample size can be tricky.
When you have a smaller mailing list, you’ll need to have larger test groups percentage-wise to see substantial results. For instance, if you have only 500 subscribers, you may A/B test your entire list at once. Then, you can use the information to improve future email campaigns.
For brands with lists over 1,000 subscribers, the 80/20 rule can help. In marketing, this rule suggests that focusing on 20% of subscribers will produce 80% of your results.
So, if you have 1,000 subscribers, you’d use 200 of them for testing or two groups of 100 people. Once the data rolls in, you’d send the winner to the other 800 to drive results.
7. Set the Right Timing Window
Aside from choosing the right sending time, you should carefully manage your testing timing window. Many marketers prefer to conduct A/B testing the same day the winning email goes out.
However, waiting up to 24 hours gives people more time to engage with (or ignore) emails, producing more accurate results.
On the other hand, if you’re dealing with time-sensitive information in a particular email campaign, you may want to send emails sooner.
8. Don’t Forget to Act on Your Results
The goal of A/B testing is to find out what email marketing habits work best for your subscribers.
If one version performs better than the other, you have a winner.
If neither test version performs better, you’ve learned that that variable – or what you did to it – doesn’t matter to your audience. In A/B testing, even failed or inconclusive data can be valuable for future email campaigns.
Once you’ve gathered enough data on a single variable, it’s time to act on your newfound knowledge.
While you don’t only have to stick with “winning” combinations (sometimes it’s nice to switch things up), knowing what increases engagement comes in mighty handy.
Key Takeawaysfor A/B Email Testing
A/B testing your email marketing campaigns can make all the difference between failed and successful email marketing campaigns.
Start with single factor testing, and keep putting the winner against contenders!
Test everything, and make sure to take note of all the tests performed.
Once you’ve found what works, that’s not time to stop A/B testing. The process should be constant and ongoing to keep up with changing behaviors.
FAQs
How Long Should A/B Testing Take?
The testing process can be nerve-wracking, but you need to allow for enough to gather clear data on what the most effective strategy was. Most experts say waiting at least a couple of hours to determine which is the winner for most opens, and it can take 12+ hours to determine which is the winner in terms of revenue.
What is the Goal of Email A/B Test Email Marketing?
The entire goal of email a/b testing is to determine which variation of your email campaign garners the best results. This can be a different definition of “best” based on your current business and marketing goals. Are you looking to increase revenue or grow your email list? These will help to determine the success of your a/b testing.
Are there Tools to Help Automate A/B Email Campaigns?
There are many email marketing tools out there to help you create a successful a/b email campaign, including Tailwind’s Email Marketing!
If you’re like most eCommerce businesses, you’re investing in top-notch eCommerce email marketing strategies.
A well-designed email campaign offers immense value, engagement opportunities, and increased lifetime sales.
Not to mention, your email marketing campaign allows you to grow your reach and raise brand awareness.
If you’re not using email marketing in the modern age, then you might as well be burning your money. The same goes for marketers who don’t gear their email campaigns specifically for their eCommerce businesses.
eCommerce email marketing is its own kind of beast. It requires unique strategies, verbiage, timing, and of course, segmentation. Meeting customers where they’re at – in this case, their inbox – is a pretty intimate relationship. As such, you should handle every interaction with the care your subscribers deserve.
What is eCommerce Email Marketing & How Is It Different?
eCommerce email marketing is an email marketing strategy designed to help online businesses engage with subscribers and customers.
Broadly speaking, email marketing has long proven to be a crucial component of business success. When running an online store, that’s doubly true!
Think about it this way: brick-and-mortar retailers have physical locations where customers convene, browse, and spend. But when your entire customer-facing business is an eCommerce store, maintaining a personal relationship is even more important.
After all, they can’t drive by your office or retail storefront driving down the road. To bring in business, you have to reach out to them first.
How to Effectively Use Email Marketing for eCommerce
Like many other email campaigns, you can use this email marketing strategy to:
Send welcome emails to make new subscribers feel at home
Highlight new product lines
Offer promotions and discounts
Or just thank your customers for being awesome
Employing this email marketing strategy in online businesses comes with immense benefits. You can develop brand awareness, build credibility, and establish lasting relationships.
Plus, you can educate users on your brand’s value and “soft sell” yourself as an authority!
Promotional vs. Transactional Emails: A Key Distinction
An eCommerce email marketing strategy varies slightly from regular email campaigns. Not only do you have normal promotional emails, but you’ll also take advantage of transactional emails.
Promotional emails are what you think of when you consider email marketing. These emails inform subscribers about products and offers, and maintain regular contact with customers.
Transactional emails have a few more “rules,” so to speak. Order confirmations, receipts, and delivery updates fall under this umbrella.
While transactional emails are essential for maintaining customer relationships, they serve another purpose: protecting customers and online stores in the event that products are lost in transit.
Importantly, neither promotional nor email transactions are more important – you need both to run an eCommerce business.
Top Emails for Successful eCommerce Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing for eCommerce may play by slightly different rules. That said, just because you own an online store doesn’t mean you have to throw out the whole playbook. From welcome emails to post-purchase emails, here are the key components for a successful campaign.
Start With A Welcome Email
There’s no better way to welcome new subscribers and kick off your email campaigns than with an aptly-named welcome email.
You can use this first of many eCommerce marketing messages to make a good impression by making new customers feel noticed and appreciated.
Take a moment to set expectations, too, like how often you’ll reach out. Throwing in a little humor – without being obnoxious – also helps set the tone for your relationship with potential customers. Plus, it’s good for your brand.
33% of customers engage more with eCommerce businesses if they receive a welcome email first thing. And the return on investment with welcome emails can be up to three times higher than any other promotional campaign.
Cart Abandonment
Research shows that around 70% of all eCommerce visitors abandon their carts before purchase, resulting in lost sales!
Some 61% of visitors cite a lack of free shipping as the primary reason. Another 37% express frustration at online site sign-up requirements. 28% list a long or complicated checkout process as an additional barrier to purchase.
That makes abandoned cart emails some of the most important correspondence you’ll have (next to welcome emails). Studies show that they work: a well-timed abandoned cart email can recover nearly 22% of lost sales. In some cases, that number can be as high as 50%.
Post Purchase Emails (Order Confirmation Emails)
Post-purchase emails serve to thank customers for their orders, confirm transaction numbers, and send receipts. Moreover, post-purchase emails set expectations and simplify the shipping and return process later, should complications arise with your eCommerce store.
Here, too, research shows that these emails can benefit your online store. In one study, marketers found that post-purchase emails could add an additional 22 cents in revenue. That’s not a lot at first – but for every 1,000 receipts you send, that’s another $250 in your pocket.
You’re not limited to sending receipts, either. You can also upsell other products, build customer loyalty with a generous thank-you offer, or promote your referral program!
Are you enjoying learning about eCommerce email marketing and eCommerce email marketing strategies so far?
Tailwind helps build emails in accordance with best practices for your email marketing campaigns. Not to mention, Tailwind combines your email marketing and social media marketing campaigns into one place for easy, effective execution.
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Cross Selling Emails
Upselling and cross-selling emails have a simple goal: to encourage customers to add extra (often related) items to their cart.
These emails can drive conversions, boost your profit margin, and build customer loyalty. Sure, you’re asking customers to spend money – but you’re also carefully curating a list of potentially helpful products.
One of the most effective ways to cross-sell products is by tacking them right on your post-purchase emails. Since digital receipts have some of the highest open rates out there, why not use them to get more eyeballs on your products?
Promotional Emails
Promotional emails are the bread and butter of eCommerce email marketing campaigns. You can offer discounts, announce exciting new product lines, or even promote a blog post!
With the right message, you can turn new subscribers into repeat customers, and from there, into loyal customers.
Given the value of customer loyalty to your eCommerce site, promotional emails are an investment worth making.
Seasonal Emails
Holidays, changing seasons, and even local events give you an excuse to reach out to your email subscribers.
That means online stores generate sales totaling $115 billion to $230 billion in just two months. All it takes is the right email marketing campaign to persuade customers your way.
Personalized Emails
Paying customers like to know that companies appreciate their business. What better way to generate sales and build customer loyalty than by sending out a special deal on special dates?
From birthdays to wedding anniversaries to sign-up anniversaries, you should take every opportunity to remind customers that they’re always on your mind. Remember: eCommerce email marketing isn’t just about ensuring customers remember you. Sometimes, it’s about ensuring customers know you remember them!
Referral Program Emails
Inviting repeat customers to refer family and friends to your online store is a great way to capture leads. After all, 74% of consumers identify personal referrals as a key component of their spending decisions. And loyal customers are more likely to recommend brands they trust to their inner circle.
Setting up a good referral program – perhaps with a small discount or special offer – lets you capture those potential profits. (And rewards your loyal customers in the process.)
Customer Loyalty and Re-Engagement Emails
Customer loyalty and re-engagement emails do exactly what the name says. In either email marketing campaign, the goal is to strengthen your relationship with loyal customers. (Or, as the case may be, not-so-loyal customers.)
For instance, with customer loyalty emails, the goal is to encourage existing customers to remain that way. You might send out birthday emails, special offers for big spenders, or even a “Thank You for Your Loyalty” email to show appreciation.
With re-engagement email marketing campaigns, your task may be more difficult: rekindling waning relationships. Maybe customers have found a cheaper eCommerce site elsewhere. Perhaps they’ve just gotten busy. Sometimes, an email may have gotten stuck in a spam folder – it happens.
No matter the reason, a carefully-crafted email marketing campaign (let’s not forget the discounts!) can lure them back in.
Feedback Emails
One underutilized type of email marketing campaign is the feedback email.
Feedback emails provide opportunities to engage with customers on their level. More importantly (and frighteningly), they give your email subscribers a chance to say just what they think of you.
In turn, you can use this knowledge to better understand your customers’ desires and pain points, as well as any problems with your brand.
Then, you can implement an email marketing strategy to address these points, whether you offer a discount or knowledge on how you plan to improve your product lines.
Paying customers – and your bottom line – will thank you!
eCommerce Email Marketing Campaign Tips
Personalization
Personalization is always important in email marketing, not just in eCommerce. Used delicately, personalization can improve open rates, clicks, and conversions. At the same time, you may avoid the email spam folder or server bans.
If you’re not personalizing emails, you’re missing a fantastic opportunity to personally engage with paying customers.
But it’s not just about using first names in the subject line; it’s about sprinkling your knowledge of your customers throughout your entire email marketing campaign.
Whether that’s using customers’ names, referencing their birthdays, or simply recommending the right products, a little knowledge goes a long way.
Proper Segmentation
Personalization isn’t everything in a well-designed email marketing strategy. What’s the point of having all that customer information if you don’t put it to good use? By segmenting your list and sending emails based on customer behaviors and preferences, you can capture higher returns. Best of all, segmentation is easy to implement, especially with modern email automation.
Don’t Be Boring
Many eCommerce brands could benefit from a more lighthearted approach to email marketing. Throwing in humor, referencing current events, and adding funny GIFs can brighten up your recipients’ inboxes.
If you’d chuckle at a picture of a dog wearing a hat and monocle, your customers probably would too! Don’t be afraid to experiment a little.
Timing
In email marketing, timing is everything. (And no, we’re not just talking about not sending Christmas emails in July.) Customers want to know that your online business cares about them – without you bombarding their inbox until they block you!
Some companies balance these competing needs by sending a weekly newsletter and occasionally dropping in a special promotion. Alternatively, your email campaign may skip the newsletter entirely and stick with a monthly promotion, product release announcements, and post-purchase emails.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be pure guesswork. You can use A/B testing to gauge customer responses and determine the best schedule for your email marketing strategy.
Feedback emails and surveys also provide unique insights that can significantly improve your business.
Drip Campaigns and Triggered Emails
Automated drip campaigns and triggered emails let you keep in touch with email subscribers while gently ushering them down the sales funnel.
For instance, while welcome emails guide new customers in, abandoned cart emails help recover lost sales. And re-engagement emails can return a previously paying customer to a current paying customer.
And everyone – we do mean everyone – enjoys discounts, promotions, and “Just for You!” offers to brighten (or lighten) their wallets.
Have a Clear CTA
The average inbox receives upwards of 100 emails (or more) per day. Aside from the pressure of standing out, you have just a few seconds for customers to see and decide (or decline) your CTA.
Putting a big, bold call-to-action in every email makes your marketing messages clear and highlights your email marketing campaigns against the competition.
Use The Right Tool
Not only a solid email marketing tool is essential, but you must also make sure that you picked the right one.
Email marketing service comparisons go beyond this post, but there are just a couple of points that we would like to emphasize.
Make sure that the tools of your choice will have robust list management and funnel creation. You will need to tag subscribers based on their actions and send them different automated email campaigns based on their tags.
So look for email marketing software that will have these options and customizations.
Key Takeaways
Email marketing is an excellent way to keep in touch with email subscribers in general. But for eCommerce businesses and online stores, it’s absolutely crucial.
With the right email marketing strategy, you can sell your brand, build and maintain relationships, and drive sales. And by staying connected with your loyal customers, you can ensure that they return to you again and again.
Chose one of the email service providers that can connect to various eCommerce platforms. That way, you can set up a couple of optimizations to make your life a bit easier!
Light personalization, brevity, and consistency are key elements of email marketing performance in eCommerce.
Improvement never stops, AB testing should be a constant process, and subject lines can make the biggest impact.
FAQ
How does eCommerce use email marketing?
There are a number of ways that eCommerce businesses can use email marketing to drive sales and engage customers. For example, you can send out periodic newsletters with updates on new products, special offers, or other newsworthy items.
This helps to keep customers informed and up-to-date on what’s happening with the company and can encourage them to make further purchases.
Is email marketing part of eCommerce?
Email marketing is often used in conjunction with other types of marketing, such as social media or online advertising. However, it can also be a standalone tool to reach potential customers and encourage sales.
When used effectively, email marketing can be a powerful tool for driving traffic to your eCommerce website and increasing sales.
What is an eCommerce email?
An eCommerce email is a marketing message sent to customers or prospective customers with the intent of promoting a product or service. These messages can be sent as part of an email marketing campaign, or they can be sent on their own.
Ecommerce emails can take many different forms, but they all have one goal in common; to encourage the recipient to take action, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or taking some other desired action.
How do I write a good eCommerce email?
The best way to write an eCommerce email will vary depending on your goals and your audience. Pick one of the email campaign types from this post, and start experimenting!
If you sell anything online through your website, chances are you have some sort of virtual cart for visitors to place items into as they browse. It’s a great day when your visitors have the intent to buy and complete their transactions. However, oftentimes visitors will place items in their cart – and then leave your website before completing a purchase.
Maybe they got distracted while browsing, or just changed their minds. However, this doesn’t have to be a lost sales opportunity! Your visitors already demonstrated their interest in your product or service, and a friendly nudge to remind them about the items in their cart may be just the thing to spur them on to finish the checkout process.
An abandoned cart email is just what it sounds like: a message sent to the email your potential customer provided when beginning the checkout process to gently remind them that they have items still in their cart on your website.
Why is an email the most effective way to send this message?
Easy. Email is personal, and intended for a particular person. It’s unique, personalized, and tailored to the recipient. In fact, most email marketing platforms will personalize your messages to your email list, incorporating their first and last names with the click of a button.
So, it’s a safe bet that taking a little extra time to craft a good abandoned cart email for your customers that haven’t quite made it to the Pay Now button may have big returns for your sales.
Now you know why it’s important, let’s talk about how to write a good abandoned cart email!
How to Write Abandoned Cart Emailswith Examples
Below are some tips to keep in mind while you’re writing a successful abandoned cart email.
Remember, the message doesn’t have to be long or poetic – but there are still some best practices you want to keep in mind.
1. Capture Emails Early in the Checkout Process
It’s kind of hard to send a successful abandoned cart email if you don’t have an email address to send it to. So, you want to create lots of opportunities for curious visitors to give you their email addresses before they make it to the checkout page.
There are a few ways to do this. One is through lead generation on your website, such as offering a freebie, promotion, or download prominently displayed on your webpage. If they’re interested, visitors will exchange their emails for the promotion code or discount to be applied to their cart.
You can also display opt-ins for your email newsletter, free downloads, or content items that may indirectly translate into a sales lead.
Another way is by requiring shoppers to set up an account before beginning the checkout process. During account setup, they’ll enter their information, including their email address.
2. Capture Attention Early
With only a few lines to get your point across, you’ll want to focus your attention on making your email stand out in the inbox – and look really good once it’s clicked on.
You have a few tools at your disposal to make this happen, including the subject line, your email design, and the wording you choose.
Subject Line
The first key to a good email is the subject line. Abandoned cart email subject lines don’t have to be complicated, but the best ones create a feeling of exclusivity, or even better, FOMO.
Think about using phrases like “Don’t Miss Out!” or, “Did You Forget Something?” you can also create exclusivity with phrases like “Your Items Are Reserved”.
You can also sweeten the deal by throwing in a discount in your abandoned cart email, with a subject line like “Take 10% Off Your Cart Before It’s Gone!”
Abandoned Cart Email Design
Another critical factor to consider is the design of your email. Your email shouldn’t be very long – after all, you’re not writing an essay, you’re just reminding them of what they left behind!
Consider adding images of items they abandoned in the cart so that they get a second look and another chance to make a decision. You can also create a special branded graphic just for this email as Sugarbear Hair did.
You’ll also want to add a clear and easy CTA to return to the cart, such as an easily visible button.
In these emails, the graphics you add should speak for themselves, leaving a lot of text unnecessary.
Abandoned Cart Email Wording
As mentioned, you don’t need to spend a lot of time on the wording of your email. However, the text you do include gives you an opportunity to inject your brand personality into the equation.
If your branding is young, fun, and quirky, you can use this opportunity to make a joke like, “I miss you, please come back” or “was it something I said?”
This goes without saying, but be sure not to make your copy sound accusatory or negative. You want the experience to be a positive one, and encourage the shopper to finish the checkout process. If you leave the shopper with a bad taste in their mouth, they may never return to your site again.
3.Build a Relationship
Even though your abandoned cart email exists to help close a single transaction with a visitor to your site, it’s also an opportunity to deepen the relationship – and potentially bring them back for more shopping later on down the line. Here are some ways to build a strong relationship with an indecisive shopper.
Sweeten the Deal
There are many reasons that a customer might back out of a purchase before they finish checking out. You can try offering an abandoned cart email discount to close the sale. If they feel like they’re getting a reward for the transaction, it might be just the thing to tip that “maybe” into a “YES!”
Make sure to include the discount or promotion offered in your subject line and in the body of the email!
Give Some Expert Recommendations
It might be that your visitor didn’t check out because they weren’t one hundred percent sold on the item. This creates an opportunity to suggest some things they might like better!
Provide some recommendations in your email and allow the customers to choose new options from your update of product offerings, including the new ones.
In this email, Vans showcases the original item that the shopper was considering and the same shoes in different colors or styles.
This gives an opportunity to reconsider the original item, and see different variations that may work better for the shopper!
Don’t Push Too Hard
Coming across as too pitched or too sales-y can have the opposite effect when trying to close a sale on an item they’ve already expressed interest in.
Instead, seek to inform your customer about details they didn’t know, or make other recommendations. Above all, use your abandoned cart email as a friendly reminder of what products or services caught their eye – and give them a chance to look again.
Include a Link to Your Website
In your abandoned cart email, you want your visitors to return to the item they were looking at with one click. But, that’s not the only action you can encourage!
For best results, include a clearly visible button labeled with something like “View My Cart”. But, if your abandoned cart email has room, consider adding another button that directs them back to your entire store. This way, if your email catches their eye, they may be inspired to browse one more time, potentially finding even more items to add to their carts!
If you’re stumped on how to write your email, you can find tons of great examples of abandoned cart email templates on the web! We’re sharing some of our favorite examples below, with some pointers on why they work.
1. Target
Target hits all the notes in this simple abandoned cart email. The subject line teases a promo on items in the shopping cart, and offers a full product view of the item – not just one picture. The CTA is prominent at the top of the email, encouraging shoppers to hurry and check out before the promo expires.
2. SimpleModern
Simple Modern’s email design is… well, simple and modern. With the subject line of “Your cart is about to expire” the brand creates a sense of urgency right from the start in the inbox.
They also include an offer or promotion (Free shipping on orders over $25) at the top, which is a great tactic for making shoppers reassess their cart and potentially add in some more items in order to meet the minimum level.
A product image is included, and a CTA to finish checkout.
Fun fact: This email was sent to our Recruiting Manager at Tailwind. Here’s what happened:
“I did go back and buy the Simple Modern stuff! I’m actually using that water bottle now.
I mean, I wanted to buy it anyway. But the email reminder did remind me that I wanted to, and I did buy it less than 12 hours after receiving said reminder email.”
Kolbi Claiborn
Our friend Kolbi is a prime example of why you should take the time to include an abandoned cart email in your email marketing workflow – it could be just the gentle nudge your customers need when life distracts them before checkout!
3. iFixit
iFixit offers us an example of a long abandoned cart email. In the top half of the email is the reminder about the service left in the cart, and a CTA to go to Checkout or browse the store again.
Underneath the main CTA, this company includes some information about why shopping with iFixit is a great idea, what makes this brand different as well as how their process works. It’s included to inspire trust in the purchase decision, and we think it really works!
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Cart Abandonment Emails Tactics
While cart abandonment emails are extremely efficient, to get the most out of them you’ll want to employ some key strategies. Below are a few best practices to get the most out of your cart abandonment emails.
Use a personalized subject line
When it comes to getting your email opened, the subject line is key. And when it comes to cart abandonment emails, a personalized subject line can make a difference between successful and failed campaigns.
So, try to include the customer’s name or other personal details in the subject line of your email.
For example, you could use a subject line like “{name}, Forgetting Something?”
Include the items left in the cart
When a customer abandons their cart, they’re usually doing so because they got distracted or something came up. So, it’s important to remind them what they were looking at when they left.
Including images (and even links) to the items left in the cart can help jog your customer’s memory and encourage them to complete.
If you have any positive reviews or testimonials from other customers, try including those in your abandoned cart email.
Seeing that other people have had a positive experience with your company may encourage the customer to return and finish their purchase.
Include a call-to-action to complete the purchase
Good email copy is important, but we have to keep our eyes on the prize! So, make sure your abandoned cart email has a clear call-to-action for the customer to finish their purchase.
A common practice is to include a link back to the shopping cart page with the items still in it. You can also get creative with your call-to-action and use images or buttons to make it stand out.
Do not be scared to repeat it at the beginning and at the end of the email. You want to make sure the reader knows exactly what you want them to do.
Include an incentive
It does not have to be right in the first email, but it is important to consider including some type of incentive for the customer to finish their purchase. This could be a discount code, free shipping, or something else that would sweeten the deal.
An incentive can be a great way to increase conversions, so make sure to test different offers to see what works best for your business.
Make sure to make it something substantial. A 5% discount is not going to cut it. You need to make the offer good enough that it is worth the customer’s time to go through with the purchase.
Stick the timing
The best time to remind customers about an abandoned cart is 1 day after, 3 days after, and 7 days after the initial purchase was made.
You can set up your emails to be sent automatically at these intervals, or you can send them manually.
Either way, make sure you are consistent with your timing so that customers know when to expect your reminder emails.
Make sure to send your email at good times, for instance, morning or evening. This way, you will increase your chances of the email being seen and acted on.
Key Takeaway
Abandoned cart emails are a great way to recover lost sales.
Creating a coherent abandoned cart email strategy can greatly improve your online store revenue.
Lost customers will cost you more in lost revenue than offering free shipping.
A good abandoned cart email template can get you started, but make sure to tailor it to your brand.
Your abandoned cart email should include information about the items left in the cart, as well as a link to where they can be bought. It’s also a good idea to include a special offer or discount to tempt customers into completing their purchase.
How do I set up an abandoned cart email?
There are a few ways to set up an abandoned cart email. One is to use an email marketing service like Constant Contact. Another is to use a shopping cart platform like Shopify, which has built-in abandoned cart functionality.
What type of email is an abandoned checkout email?
An abandoned checkout email is a type of email that is sent to customers who have started the checkout process but did not complete their purchase. This type of email usually includes information about the items left in the cart, as well as a link to where they can be bought. It’s also common to include a special offer or discount on an abandoned cart email.
Do cart abandonment emails work?
Yes! Abandoned cart emails work by reminding customers of the items they’ve left behind and providing a quick and easy way for them to complete their purchases. These emails can be highly effective in converting abandoned shoppers into paying customers. In fact, according to a study by Baymard Institute, abandonment emails have an average open rate of
When should I send an abandoned cart email?
The timing of your abandoned cart email is important. You want to give customers enough time to forget about their items, but not so much time that they’ve already moved on.
A good rule of thumb is to send the first abandoned cart email 24-48 hours after someone has left their items behind.
Producing quality content takes time. And with businesses stretched thin, keeping up with the demands of running multiple campaigns across multiple channels can easily leave you feeling stressed and frustrated.
But the great thing about content is that it can be repurposed. The content you produce for social media can work beautifully in your email marketing campaigns too.
And we’re going to look at how content repurposing can make your email marketing even better.
Five ways to use your social media content in emails
1. Showcase user-generated content (UGC)
Social media is a great place to find images created by your very own customers (known as user-generated content or UGC for short).
If you sell a physical product, such as a clothing brand or homeware, there’s a good chance that loyal customers might photograph what they’ve bought from you and share the images on social media.
You can encourage more customers to do this by asking recent purchasers to tag photos of your product on Instagram. It can also work on Facebook and Twitter too.
Offering an incentive or running a giveaway is one effective way to generate more user-generated content. For example, you could award vouchers to the best image tagged on Instagram.
For a masterclass on how to use UGC, look at the marketing materials of the underwear brand MeUndies. They’ve grown an active community of over 406k followers on Instagram thanks to their fun and racy content.
But much of this content is user-generated – customers and influencers alike are posting thousands of selfies showing their MeUndies underwear. In fact, there are over 32,000 posts with #meundies on Instagram.
And MeUndies has put this user-generated content to extra use by including some of the most popular Instagram images in their email marketing campaigns.
The only images in this email are images created by customers and influencers on Instagram. This not only showcases the MeUndies products but also encourages subscribers to follow MeUndies on Instagram.
Plus, featuring UGC is an effective form of social proof – potential customers see other happy customers wearing MeUndies underwear and that helps bring them closer to buying their own.
2. Use your social media feed and images in your email templates
Images are an important part of good email design. But producing high-quality images can be time-consuming and expensive.
To save on time and cost, use images and link your feed from your social media accounts in your email templates.
When you add your social media feed into your email, it encourages your subscribers to engage with your brand in multiple ways, as well as allows them to view your brand from new perspectives. Especially if you have a heavily visual type of business, such as jewelry.
Images from Instagram and Pinterest can be used to create newsletter headers. Here’s an example from the wellness brand Well + Good:
Images and takeaways from any webinars you are a part of are also great to add into your email template. By showing yourself in the light of leadership and community, you are positioning yourself in a trusting way while also providing visuals and value to your subscribers.
Well+Good used images from their Instagram account to form the header in their welcome email. The color palettes and subject matter of these images are typical of the images Well + Good posts on Instagram.
And this synchronicity between their social media and email marketing helps foster a stronger brand image and awareness – subscribers will more easily recognize content produced by Well + Good.
Brand awareness – the degree to which consumers recognize your brand, product, or service – helps keep your business top-of-mind so that when consumers are ready to buy, they’ll think of you first.
Creating a strong brand image across your various marketing channels will help your audience become even more familiar with your offering.
But it’s not just the email header where you can use social media images – you can also use them in the email footer. The bottom of an email is the perfect place to mention your social media channels and encourage subscribers to become followers. And using content from your social media channels will show subscribers what they can look forward to when they follow you.
Here’s an example from the women’s health brand Hers:
At the bottom of their email, they’ve included a grid of images taken from Instagram alongside a call-to-action of ‘follow us’.
With headers and footers like these, you can create email templates so that you don’t have to start from scratch with each new campaign.
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3. Create an email from existing social media creative
As well as using social media images to create headers and footers for your email templates, you can also use more elaborate social media content to design one entire email.
Here’s an example from shaving brand Harry’s to illustrate the point:
This email promotes the three different scents available for Harry’s bar soap and body wash. And it’s done using eye-catching illustrations that are also featured on their Instagram account as animated GIFs.
A lot of work would have gone into designing the animated GIF for Instagram. So it makes sense to repurpose this content across other channels – not only does it save time, but it also saves money.
Rather than having to design fresh content for an email campaign, Harry’s has simply reformatted existing content to suit the format of the email.
Another bonus of this is that it ensures this particular campaign reaches Harry’s audience wherever they might be – on Instagram or email.
In case followers missed the post on Instagram, they’ll receive an email promoting the same products as well.
If you’ve ever found yourself looking at a blank template in your email marketing tool wondering what content to fill it with, take a look through your social media posts and steal your most attention-grabbing designs.
If content is trending with your social media followers, there’s a good chance your email subscribers will appreciate the content too. So consider sharing your most popular social media posts in an email.
Using the analytics in your social media accounts, such as Instagram and Pinterest, or in your scheduling tool, find the posts that are getting the most likes and comments. And then curate a collection in an email campaign.
If you can theme the images, even better, as you can then link to related product pages on your website to drive sales.
Here’s how clothing brand Urban Outfitters does it:
In this email Urban Outfitters has rounded up its most-liked Instagram posts. And each image shows off an Urban Outfitters product, from dresses to trainers.
This is another example of using user-generated content and each image includes the handle of the Instagrammer that created the content. It has the added bonus of encouraging email subscribers to create more UGC – when they see that others have had their Instagram posts featured in an email campaign, they’ll be inspired to seek their own ‘five minutes of fame’ by submitting similar content for Urban Outfitters to feature in their next campaign.
Though you don’t have to use UGC – you can round up your own social media content too. Urban Outfitters sent a similar email to their subscribers rounding up their most-pinned items on Pinterest.
4. Share social media polls and survey results
Adding polls and surveys to social media posts is one surefire way to boost engagement. For example, you can use Instagram Polls to ask your followers about their preferences – it’s easy for them to respond, and it provides you with valuable insights into your customers’ wants and needs.
But a social media poll’s usefulness doesn’t end there because you can use the results to create emails that evoke curiosity among your subscribers.
Here’s another example from Hers:
In this email, Hers presents the results of a survey that tells their audience what’s popular and what was most voted for. Granted, the survey was most likely sent via email. But it’s a good example of how to use survey results to create an email.
Social media polls can also give you insights into what’s popular with your audience.
Of course, you can also run social media polls as a survey via email and collect results across multiple channels. This will give you even more results to later share with your audience.
6. Include social media testimonials
Including customer testimonials pulled from your social media accounts can provide that all-important social proof to help convert subscribers into customers.
Here’s an example from deal finder site Scott’s Cheap Flights:
The goal of this email is to persuade the audience to sign up for a free trial of the premium membership. And by including a few customer testimonials from Twitter, Scott’s Cheap Flights assure potential trialists that they won’t regret the decision.
Using testimonials like this is a great way to show off the benefits of your product or service, in the actual words of your customers. It helps build confidence among prospective customers who will take these testimonials as proof that your product or service is trustworthy.
And thankfully social media testimonials are easy to collect – simply search posts you’ve been tagged in and pick the most positive ones. If you’re low on social media testimonials, use one of these 25 proven ways to get more customer reviews on social media.
Wrapping up
Constantly having to come up with new ideas for email marketing campaigns can be frustrating. But by repurposing existing social media content, you can save time, money, and your sanity.
So when you’re next looking at a blank email template, wondering what to send to your subscribers, remember to:
Keep an eye on your most popular social media posts to better understand your audience and use these insights to decide what content to include in your emails.
Collect user-generated content to give you a broader catalog of images and provide social proof to customers who might be sitting on the fence.
Make your best social media content work harder by creating email templates and entire email campaigns from it – deliver the same message with consistent design across multiple channels to make sure it’s seen and heard.
Repurposing content is just one way to integrate social media with your email marketing. And when done well, each channel feeds into the other, giving you greater reach, increased engagement, and more opportunities for conversions.
Content repurposing is a common marketing tool in which you take already existing content, such as your social media content, and recycle it into a new format suitable for another one of your business’s marketing channels, such as email!
Why repurpose your content for email?
Many marketers and business owners understand that “content is king”. However, having to constantly come up with and create new content for every marketing channel is extremely challenging and time-consuming. By repurposing your content you are saving yourself and your employees time and energy to use on other initiatives.
How do you write good email content from your social media content?
The important thing to remember is that your social media marketing and your email marketing are very different. You can’t simply copy and paste your social media content into an email template and call it good. The best way to write good email content from your social media content is to reformat it. This can be expanding on sections or shortening them, adding links, reworking or removing images, and trying to avoid copying all of the content verbatim, as your email list will likely notice.