Running an e-commerce business is now more profitable than ever. But are you getting the highest ROI that you should?
If you are selling consumer goods, then the biggest challenge you have is the competition is huge. Almost all products you sell in your store are directly or alternatively available in other online shops in your area. So, you have to ensure you are doing everything possible to convert as many potential customers as possible.
One of the best ways to do so is by using B2C email marketing.
If you have the right email strategies in place, then you can easily become the best choice for your target audience and stop losing prospects to competitors.
Today, you will learn about 7 email marketing strategies that are proven to bring significant results when running an online B2C business.
After reading this article, you will
- Learn about the best B2C email marketing strategies that you must use.
- Understand the email marketing best practices to increase your success rate and
- Look at a few good examples of emails that have delivered great results.
We will also list down a few email marketing tools that you may choose from to carry out these strategies.
So, let’s get started.
What is B2C Email Marketing?
The term “B2C” simply means “Business to Consumer,” i.e., you are selling products to direct benefactors, rather than selling to another business, or selling through a distributor. And when you mix in email marketing? That’s when the magic happens.
Normally, calling people directly on their phones is annoying. Rather, the best way you can reach more people without getting shunned is via email.
People are very open to receiving emails from businesses as they have the choice of saying yes or no without feeling awkward or any form of obligation.
You can take advantage of this by implementing smart email marketing strategies that they will find attractive or irresistible.
For example, let’s say you run a grocery store and a customer ordered apples from your store a month ago. You can send out a special coupon and ask the prospect to order apples again at a small discount, let’s say 10% off. If well written, this email will create a 50% chance of that customer placing another order for apples.
The advantage you have here is, first, you know your customer loves apples, and second, everyone loves discounts. And their combination means you have an opportunity to convert a customer if you have his email.
This is one way to use email marketing. But don’t worry. There are several other B2C email marketing strategies that you can embrace to drive more sales. If this doesn’t fit well with what you sell, then go for another strategy that resonates with your customers.
No matter what consumer goods you sell, at least 2 of the strategies discussed in this article will definitely help you increase sales. So read on. You won’t regret it.
7 Must-Use B2C Email Marketing Strategies For Your Online Business
Emails aren’t just messages; they’re tools to boost your sales. With so many strategies out there, which ones should you prioritize?
Here are seven key email marketing tactics you should be using for your online business.
1. Onboarding Emails or Welcome Email Series
Onboarding emails or a welcome email series are emails you may send to new customers or subscribers to introduce them to your product, service, or brand. Here, you should provide information, build engagement, and guide them to get started or make the most of their experience.
If you are collecting leads, then the 1st automation you will need is to set up a welcome email series of 3 to 5 emails.
A 3-email welcome series would be:
- Thank you for subscribing
You thank the person for signing up. Then, suggest immediate content to check out or request them to follow on social media. - Share value
Give tips based on your expertise and suggest solutions to major problems of your target audience. - Introduce premium service
Share some premium content or services, and the user has to pay to get access. You may create a sales funnel and then use the link to it’s landing page for the button in the email.
In case you are selling products, then you should consider sending an onboarding email series of 4 to 7 emails.
A 4 email onboarding series would be:
- Welcome to the family
Thank the person for purchasing the plan. Give links to guides and knowledge base to get started. - Use Case & Tactic
Share a particular use case of one of the products’ USPs. - Use Case & Tactic 2
Share a particular use case of another of the products’ USPs. - Request for feedback
Ask prospects to give a positive review.
Welcome emails often have an impressive 50% open rate, which means they’re likely to be seen compared to other types of emails.
The main goal of such campaigns is to maintain a good relationship with the customer and get him up and running to use the product. This will help with gaining trust from you and help with customer retention.
2. Weekly Email Newsletters
The most common B2C email marketing tactic is to send weekly email newsletters.
Basically, people may subscribe to your email list or have purchased something for you, so you added them to your B2C email list. Then, you can send them a weekly email with your latest articles, keeping them warm while giving you some good traffic to your new article.
Sending at least 1 email every week helps to keep your prospects active and help them remember your brand.
3. Personalized Campaigns – Milestone or Birthday Emails
A common practice nowadays is to run birthday email campaigns.
For e-commerce, the way it works is that on your customer’s birthday, you may set up an automated email to be sent wishing him a happy birthday and offering a coupon to get a discount. This coupon will only be available for customers who have birthdays that day.
Similar to this, you may also send automated emails on special customer milestones such as marriage anniversaries or customer anniversaries with you. That way, you can congratulate the customer and then offer a coupon discount to come to your website to make a purchase.
For other businesses where you have subscription products, you may avoid the coupon but still send those emails to maintain a good relationship.
**Make sure to use the customer’s name in the subject line and the email copy to add a proper personal touch.
4. Abandoned Cart Recovery Emails
Abandoned carts are literally one of the biggest reasons why e-commerce sites lose potential sales. Most abandoned customers actually have interest but end up not purchasing either because they got busy or don’t have enough budget right at that moment.
You may track these abandoned carts using an automation tool and then send out a series of 2 to 4 email series to try and win them back.
The 4-email abandoned cart recovery series may be as follows:
- A reminder email (30 mins after abandonment)
Inform the customer that he forgot to complete his purchase. - Scarcity reminder email (6 hrs after abandonment)
Tell the customer that the product is still in the cart but may run out of stock soon. - A discount to complete the order (24 hrs after abandonment)
Let the customer know that you have still saved the cart and offer a small 10% to 20% discount. - Last call email (3 days after abandonment)
Give a final chance, stating the discount and cart will no longer be available if not purchased within 24 hours.
Normally, abandoned cart emails have a high open rate of about 39.07%, and if your email copies are good, you can win back over 20% of these lost sales.
5. Win-back or Re-engagement Emails
Often, certain customers stop placing orders from your site despite making orders in the past. This could be due to finding another brand, getting too busy, or simply because he forgot about your brand due to a lack of engagement.
In this case, you should plan a final win-back or re-engagement email campaign to try and bring back customers.
Here, you usually offer a good amount of discount for a span of 7 to 10 days. During this time, you may send about 3 to 5 emails to get those potential customers to return and place orders again. The emails should have personalized product recommendations based on the customers’ past purchase history.
If you have good products available with a healthy discount, you can bring back about 10% of unengaged customers.
This is a great B2C marketing strategy to avoid losing prospects that have earned you a good profit in the past.
6. Product Recommendation Emails
This is a simple tactic where you send certain product recommendations based on customers’ past purchase history.
You mainly suggest products in the category from which the customer ordered the most products in the past.
According to Automart, 75% of customers are more likely to buy when you send personalized product recommendations. So, this is definitely an email marketing approach you should follow every now and then.
In fact, product recommendations can be used in several other scenarios.
- Here are 8 product recommendation email ideas you may use to get high results.
7. Promotional Campaigns With Lucrative Offers
This one is a no-brainer. Basically, whenever you plan a good offer, send out a promotional email to inform your customers to claim the offer.
For example, you may plan a 20% off on all Halloween goods during Halloween. In that regard, you may send out an email with the spooky theme and let everyone know the discount they will get if they order from you.
So, basically, these are limited-time offers that you make, and you run all marketing activities to promote these offers. So, an email is just part of these activities.
B2C Email Marketing Best Practices
The strategies mentioned above are proven tactics you should follow. However, they will only work if your email is prepared the right way. Following are some B2C email marketing best practices that you should maintain for the best results.
1. Personalized Content
Your email copy should have a touch of personalization where possible.
Always address the user by his/her name and use a second-person point of view, i.e., “You” throughout the email.
Plus, depending on the campaign, you may recommend products based on what customers purchased in the past, which is another great way to convey personalization.
Apart from this, a story-based copy is a great approach to connecting with the customer on an emotional level.
2. Mobile Responsiveness of Emails
Today, most people are hooked on using mobile phones rather than PCs. So, the emails you send, the maximum of your customers will view it via mobiles.
So, it is super important to ensure your emails are mobile-responsive.
Most tools handle this independently, but certain customizations can often hamper this. For example, using a fixed-width approach rather than a viewpoint percentage can cause serious design issues on mobile devices.
It should be easy to scroll, read, and take action. The CTA button should be easy to notice, and the content shouldn’t be too cluttered on mobiles.
3. Optimize Quality Lead Generation
Well, the success of your campaigns will largely depend on the quality of your B2C email list. If you have poor leads, you will naturally get lower open rates and CTR, reducing the success rate.
Focus on running targeted lead generation campaigns and segmenting your leads so that you can run your email campaigns to a targeted audience. This will ensure higher conversion rates and increased ROI.
You may also consider using double opt-in confirmation emails to avoid collecting fake emails.
4. Use Proper Lead Segmentation
As mentioned, you should focus on segmenting your leads based on their interests, purchase history, location, and spending habits.
This will help you plan specialized B2C email marketing campaigns for different segments to achieve a high success rate.
For example, if you are segmenting based on the country, you can run a whole campaign just for people in Germany, with the email copies written in the German language. You can also add local references based on the location.
5. Do Not Overpromise
Sometimes, people tend to exaggerate what they can help people achieve.
For example, someone will say, “10x your revenue in 2 months,” without any valid data to prove it.
Do not make a promise that is too difficult to achieve just because you want to attract leads. It might backfire even if you fail by a small margin.
6. Avoid Fake or Clickbait Subject Lines
While catchy subject lines can increase open rates, misleading ones can upset subscribers and lead them to unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam.
For example, suppose you used the subject line, “Breaking news: You’ve won a FREE vacation!”
This sounds very exciting. People will open the email, but then they will find out they need to qualify by carrying out some activities. And then one lucky person will get a free vacation.
Now, that’s a disappointment. You might get a high open rate, but people will not think twice to ignore you the next time even if you have a legit offer.
7. Use Email Automation Where Possible
Automate any redundant processes that are common for most users after certain actions. For example, you could automate the welcome emails for new subscribers or abandoned cart recovery emails.
This will not only save your time but also ensure you do not have to worry about the execution time or human errors. They will be executed automatically at the right time with the right content.
8. Measure Email Metrics & Optimize Future Campaigns:
Monitor your email metrics – open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates – after every campaign.
This will help you identify any issues or shortcomings when a metric is low or any positive approach that you may replicate in the future.
For example, if you notice the open rate is low, then a low-quality subject line could be the issue. Or, if the CTR is low, then either the design or the email copy is probably the issue. A high bounce rate would mean the email list is not of high quality. A low conversion rate of your offer may mean your offer wasn’t lucrative enough.
Overall, your email metrics will help you do better in your future campaigns.
9. Optimize Emails for Higher Open Rate & CTR:
Test different subject lines, email formats, and content types. The more you test, the better you’ll understand what resonates with your audience.
For instance, if an email highlighting a customer testimonial has a higher CTR, consider adding more testimonials in future communications.
**A good option would be to use an email marketing tool that has A/B testing options.
10. Identify Best Email Sending Times:
Timing can be everything. By analyzing when your subscribers are most active, you can send your emails during those peak times, increasing the chances of them being seen and opened.
Suppose your analytics indicate that emails sent at 2 PM have the highest open rate. In that case, it might be worth scheduling your next promotional email at that time.
Some B2C Email Marketing Examples
Let’s look at some real-life examples of B2C marketing email’s examples:
1. Abandoned Cart Recovery Email by Food52
Food52 is envisioned as the singular destination to discover thousands of test kitchen-approved recipes, purchase essential kitchenware, and engage in discussions with enthusiasts who appreciate the same culinary standards.
They send a very compelling abandon cart email.
2. Weekly Newsletter by Avocode
Avocode serves as a comprehensive solution for teams aiming to expedite UI design file collaboration and coding by 200%.
Here’s their weekly newsletter:
3. Product Recommendation Email by Kasemakers
Kasemakers evolved from a craft show vendor to a full-time e-commerce business specializing in handcrafted wood phone cases.
Here’s how they send product recommendation emails to their customers.
Some Reliable Tools For B2C Email Marketing In WordPress
One of the important factors when executing your B2C email marketing strategies is the tool you use.
You need to choose a tool that has the right features to help you run any email campaign you are willing to run. For example, if you want to send abandoned cart recovery emails, you will need email marketing software that has the feature to track abandoned carts.
Following is a list of email marketing automation tools you may choose to use.
1. Mail Mint
Mail Mint lets you easily create emails by dragging and dropping blocks into place. If you’re short on time, you can also choose from their ready-to-go templates that require just a few tweaks.
Best feature:
Mail Mint excels in visually setting up automation flows, offering both pre-built recipes and the option to craft email workflows from scratch.
2. MailPoet
MailPoet simplifies managing subscribers and creating nice emails. Its straightforward drag-and-drop system lets you send out polished newsletters quickly.
Best feature:
The standout feature of MailPoet is its streamlined dashboard, making it especially easy to promote blog content or e-commerce products, as all the links you need are in one place.
3. FluentCRM
FluentCRM is a self-hosted WordPress plugin designed to help you manage your users and foster stronger connections with them.
Best feature:
The best feature of FluentCRM is its flexibility, giving you advanced control for targeting and customizing your data the way you want
4. Active Campaign
Active Campaign is an easy-to-use email marketing automation tool with CRM features, designed to enhance customer relationships and create a more active user experience.
Best feature:
The highlight of ActiveCampaign is its automated workflows, which enable you to send tailored messages based on customer actions.
5. Mail Munch
MailMunch helps businesses expand their clientele and enhance lead capture by offering customizable opt-in subscription form tools.
Best feature:
MailMunch’s best feature is its simple yet versatile design, offering multiple options to craft a user-friendly and efficient email interface.
6. Brevo
Brevo (formerly called Sendinblue), is a top CRM platform aimed at helping businesses maintain lasting relationships with customers and adapt to a quickly changing digital world.
Best feature:
Brevo’s key strength is its tailored email marketing solution for e-commerce, offering transactional emails, SMS capabilities, and in-depth campaign analytics.
7. Drip
Drip is a marketing automation tool designed for rising e-commerce brands, aiming to boost repeat sales and foster brand loyalty.
Best feature:
Drip’s key feature is its versatility in allowing users to craft targeted campaigns, from detailed drip sequences to single email blasts or individual messages.
Author’s Note
B2C email marketing is not as difficult as it seems. As you saw above, there are several strategies that you may actively use to get significant results from your marketing efforts.
If you can maintain the required best practices and use the right email marketing tool, then your campaigns are bound to be successful.
So go ahead and start implementing these strategies and grow your business.
