Examples of 4 Automated Email Campaigns Every Online Retailer Should Send in 2017

See from this case study how these automated campaigns can generate new streams of revenue for your business

Behavioural emails can generate millions in online sales yet most retailers struggle to get it right.

Time and time again, digital marketers grapple with the existential question: How important is email marketing, really?

Email tends to have an astronomically high ROI of 3800%; for every $1 spent on email marketing, retailers make an average of $38 and it's one of the best sales online retail sales channels.

Itís no surprise that there are hundreds of email marketing software solutions that offer numerous styling, scheduling, and automation options.

As the e-commerce space continues to grow more and more crowded each year, all the software options in the world canít and wonít guarantee new streams of revenue for your business, however, knowing which email campaigns convert the highest and then sending those campaigns to your shoppers will.

Why Is It So Difficult to Get Email Marketing Right?

The thing about email marketing for eCommerce is that in order to maximize performance, you need a data-driven strategy.

With eCommerce marketing managersí attention pulled in too many directions to implement on-site marketing tools and deploy ad campaigns and traffic drivers, advanced email marketing strategies often get overlooked or checked off the list too soon.

Getting the right tools in place to implement automated campaigns that are strategic in nature and leverage actual browser behaviour data can be complicated, difficult, or costly.

As a result, most companies resolve to sending automated campaigns like newsletters and promotional emails, despite the fact that behaviorally-triggered emails tend to generate over 3 times as much revenue than non-segmented campaigns.

There are many resources that talk about how you can setup behaviourally-triggered messages, but how can you know which automated campaigns will yield a significant increase in conversions and average order value on your site?

The Secret to Achieving Higher Conversions and AOV  Through Automated Behavioural Emails

Itís all about creating relevant content to the right user segments on your site. When you figure out which user segments have the highest conversion potential, you can create relevant email content that converts.

With time, merchants are finding that when they tap into segments of shoppers who may have dropped off early on in the sales funnel, they can generate an entirely new stream of revenue. Browse and Cart Abandonment Email Campaigns can bring those shoppers back and, as a result, increase conversions and average order value.

Identifying More Engagement Opportunities to Generate a New Stream of Revenue

By now, most online retailers know about cart abandonment and many have begun to talk about 'site abandonment' too. But there are other, more specific touch points along the shopping funnel that can be used to re-engage potentially lost customers and bring them back to purchase.

From the homepage all the way through to the thank you page, the shopping journey is filled with various stops along the way, and the point at which a shopper drops out is an important piece of data that can be leveraged to a merchantís advantage.

While shoppers who abandon carts exhibit a very high purchase intent, (after all, they made it all the way through your site and clicked 'add to cart', they make up a small percentage of all site traffic. Only about 5%.

What about the shoppers who may not have added products to their carts but still expressed some sort of intent to purchase by viewing various pages on your site?

About 94% of your site traffic exhibits different levels and types of purchase intent, and you can use browse abandonment email campaigns to bring that traffic back.

What is a Browse Abandonment Email Campaign?

Browse Abandonment Emails are behavioural emails that are automated to use personalised content related to the point at which each individual shopper drops out. More specifically, they address each of the following types of shoppers on a one-to-one basis:

• Shoppers that viewed your homepage and then bounced
• Shoppers that browsed a category, department, or specific brand on your site but never went on to view an individual product
• Shoppers that make it all the way to your product pages yet left before adding any products to their carts (this pool of shoppers makes up 20% of your site traffic and exhibits a high level of purchase intent)

Personalised messages automated to be sent to these types of shoppers not only help the retailer recoup potentially lost traffic and sell more products, they are the preferred marketing channel by shoppers themselves.

In fact, when shoppers were asked how they prefer to receive promotional content, 72% chose email over social media.

Why Am I Not Already Doing This? Can I Even Send Emails Like These?

If youíre reading this and asking yourself, ìWhy am I not already sending browse abandonment emails to my shoppers?î youíre not alone.

The majority of marketers place their email marketing focus on generic messaging like newsletters, welcome campaigns, and promotional content, so donít feel bad.

If you want to expand your email reach with personalised browse and cart abandonment email campaigns, you can start by asking the following questions:

• Are the emails I currently send to shoppers personalised for each individual shopper?

• Does my email marketing software provider include automation filters that allow for separate campaigns addressing different abandoning shoppers at each point in the funnel?

• Do my emails include personalised product recommendations that are data-driven and appealing for each individual shopper?

• Does my email marketing software offer varied personalisation algorithms to fuel my email messages?

If you answered no to any of the above questions but still arenít sure how much emphasis your email marketing strategy should place on these personalised campaigns, let's take a look at the Google Analytics reports from some eCommerce sites that already send browse and cart abandonment campaigns.

Did you know that personalised browse and cart abandonment campaigns tend to outperform generic messaging 6 to 1?

Take a look at this site's analytics:

This site's abandonment email campaigns outperformed their newsletter by over 700%:

And for the online retailer below, browse abandonment emails doubled their abandonment campaign email revenue altogether:

Now that you understand the potential these automated email campaigns have to generate new streams of revenue that most retailers are missing out on, Iím going to show you examples of 4 automated behavioural email campaigns that transformed one retailer's business and how you can send similar messages to your shoppers this year.

Your Guide to Browse and Cart Abandonment Email Campaigns

Did you know that 81% of online shoppers report that they are more likely to make a purchase as a result of receiving personalised email messages?

Just last year, e-commerce site, Choxi, generated an additional $3 million in sales when they implemented behaviourally-triggered browse and cart abandonment email campaigns.

Although personalisation automation through email may seem elusive for many businesses, implementation isnít impossible.

You can use the same strategies Choxi used to increase revenue for their business. In 2017, when itís crucial to maximize every bit of traffic youíve got, these may just be the 4 highest converting email campaigns youíll ever send.

Automated Campaign #1: Product Browse Abandonment Emails

• User Segment: These are shoppers who have viewed specific, individual products on your site but did not actually add any of those products to their carts.
• Content/Messaging: Use a slight sense of urgency referring to the product viewed by the shopper and use soft calls to action inviting shoppers back to the site.
• Product Recommendation Algorithm: Display the exact product that the shopper viewed and then insert a mix of product-related best sellers and category-related best sellers as an upsell/downsell tactic
• Average Open Rate: 56%
• Average CTR: 23%
• Average Revenue Per Email: $3.66

Automated Email Campaign #2: Cart Abandonment Emails

• User Segment: These are the shoppers who have gone so far as to actually add a product or products to their carts! This is only ever about 5% of site traffic, so if theyíve made it this far, itís worth trying to get them back!
• Content/Messaging: Encourage shoppers to come back to the carts they left behind using customer service oriented messaging coupled with a sense of urgency.
• Product Recommendation Algorithm: Display the actual cart that the shopper left behind, fully populated with the products he added to his cart plus insert product and category-related best sellers as an upsell/downsell tactic
• Open Rate: 46%
• CTR: 34%
• Average Revenue Per Email: $2.70

Automated Email Campaign #3: Homepage Browse Abandonment Emails

• User Segment: Shoppers that browse your homepage but never make it any further into your site. Like window shoppers.
• Content/Messaging: Speak to your window shoppers with friendly greetings that welcome them back to your site, and highlight running promotions and top selling items.
• Product Recommendation Algorithm: Display a mix of site-wide best sellers and recent top sellers
• Open Rate: 21%
• CTR: 14%
• Average Revenue Per Email: $0.43

Automated Email Campaign #4: Category Browse Abandonment Emails

• User Segment: These are the shoppers that click on and view a specific category, brand, or department but never actually view specific, individual products.
• Content/Messaging: Show browsers that you noticed their interest in the category that was viewed, and lead them to view related products within that category with soft calls to action.
• Product Recommendation Algorithm: Display product recommendations from the category the shopper was browsing, taking into account the best sellers within that category
• Open Rate: 47%
• CTR: 21%
• Average Revenue Per Email: $0.96

Using These Campaigns To Increase Revenue for Your Site

Choxi isnít the only online retailer to enjoy an increase in revenue due to intelligent email marketing strategies. Even eCommerce giant, Amazon, reportedly generates one-third of their revenue from similar personalisation strategies.

So while 74% of marketers report that personalised messaging can successfully increase customer engagement, itís surprising that so few merchants are actually sending browse and cart abandonment email campaigns.

This year, whether your online business is big or small, use these 4 automated campaigns to generate more revenue. With results like these, your business has nothing to lose and everything to gain by engaging more intelligently with shoppers through email.

 

Daniel Kohn is the CEO and co-founder of SmartMail.io, a company that helps e-commerce stores and online retailers increase sales, average order value, and lifetime customer value through email. You can download SmartMails 4 highest converting email templates to help jump start your e-commerce email marketing program.

Contributer : Smart Insights