Email marketing is crucial for any business today. And if you are running a WooCommerce shop, you should know that email marketing can help you increase sales by almost 14%!
But what type of email marketing is effective for WooCommerce? How can you ensure your email campaigns are more successful?
Today, you will learn a few effective WooCommerce email marketing strategies to help you boost your sales.
After reading this article, you will be able to
- Starting building up leads for email marketing
- Segment your leads for targeted promotions
- Run strategic email campaigns to get instant results
and eventually have an automated email marketing process set up to help you boost your overall sales.
So let’s begin.
Actionable Guide To Effective WooCommerce Email Marketing Strategies
Before you start setting up the whole email marketing process, you have to consider a few things.
- E-commerce is not like other traditional businesses. So lead generation here is quite different. People will not respond to usual lead generation campaigns with lead magnets or webinars.
- Lead segmentation will be crucial if you want a high conversion rate. Most businesses become lazy in this case and end up shooting site-wide offers with fewer conversions.
- Every email campaign should have a purpose. Do not randomly send emails all the time. You want to keep the leads warm but not annoyed.
As a result, you have to incorporate better approaches to growing your email list with proper segmentation and then plan your email campaigns that are likely to get more results.
In the next few sections, we will cover all of these in a nutshell.
1. Building an Email List for Your E-commerce Store
As mentioned above, you don’t have the opportunity to collect qualified leads like other industries. Here, you have to give people reasons to register to your site or subscribe to your mailing list (in case you allow guest checkout).
Following are a few ways you work on building up an email list actively.
i. Offer A Coupon On Pop-Ups For Registration
Whenever someone is a new visitor to your site, you have to find ways to get him to register or get him to subscribe to your list.
And the best way to do that is to use a pop-up form. However, simply requesting to sign up doesn’t really create any excitement. Rather, you may offer a discount coupon upon registration/subscription.
This will get people excited to register and claim the coupon.
You may easily do this using a pop-up plugin such as OptinMonster, Easy Login & Register Popup for WooCommerce, OptiMonk, etc.
ii. Use A Subscription Form For Special Offers On The Footer
Many of your buyers will explore your website for special offers.
You include a subscription form at the footer of the home page for the buyer to sign-up to get notified of offers, discounts, and promotions.
This will help you collect a list of prospects interested in promotions, i.e., they will be automatically qualified. You can then run email campaigns to them in the future with any promotions you have and expect some conversion down the line.
It’s quite easy to create this form. You may use Mail Mint or any form builder to collect these leads.
iii. Use A Consent Notice At The Checkout For Guest Checkout
If you want to allow guest checkout, the best option is to get consent to send an email during the payment process.
Basically, just below the “Pay now” button, you may add a small checkbox to take permission from the buyer to send him promotional emails.
You could make it tempting by insisting he will get a special coupon if he signs up.
This checkbox will ensure you will have leads even if you allow guest checkout. However, make sure to enable double opt-in for this, i.e., they should be sent a confirmation email before they get any promotional email from you. This will avoid sending emails to the wrong email addresses.
You may find most email clients offering this option which you may place using shortcodes. Or, in WooCommerce, you may use Mail Mint to place this consent box on WooCommerce checkout and send double opt-in emails after orders are placed with this consent, before running any automation flows.
iv. Run A Special Giveaway Campaign
You could hold a special promotion where you will give away a grand prize to a certain winner. It could be a target-based competition where people have to spend more to win. Or it could be a lottery for people who spend over a certain threshold.
Whichever it is, make sure to have the buyer sign-up for a specific form to be considered as part of this giveaway campaign. Tie this form to registration so that an account is created when they sign-up for this campaign.
You may then spread the news via social media, live sessions on Facebook or Youtube, Paid Ads, or even via commissioned influencers.
The more leads you get, the better for you because you will then have enough leads to run future promotions and get instant results.
v. Special Coupon For Influencers’ Followers
This is rather an unpopular tactic that works. Basically, you could collaborate with an influencer to promote some of your products and give him a special coupon, which she may present to her followers. This will help to get many of her followers to purchase from you using a coupon.
However, for this to work, you cannot allow guest checkout. You have to make registration mandatory so that everyone who wants to use the coupon has to register using a valid email. This means you are sacrificing a little bit of your profit to attract potential leads.
To succeed with this, you have to contact influencers whose followers may trust her suggestions in your niche. For example, if you sell home decor products, you may want to reach an influencer who specializes in homemaking and interior design. You may either pay her upfront or offer a commission per sale offer.
This will not only help you with more buyers joining your email list but also help you get exposure to more potential buyers.
2. Proper Lead Segmentation For Special Targeted Campaigns
If you want maximum results from your email marketing campaigns, you have to try and segment your leads as much as possible.
You may choose to use a CRM tool to manage your customers where you may segment them based on various criteria such as,
- Category of products purchased
This will allow you to send personalized promotional offers to people with specific product choices.
- Average spending value
Put buyers into separate lists based on how much they spend on average. You may then plan customized emails where you may promote products within their budget.
- Location-based segmentation
If you ship to multiple countries or cities, then you may segment the leads according to their location. You may then run specific location-based campaigns, send emails in the local language, and even plan special discounts on products based on local trends.
- Gender segmentation
If you sell clothes and other accessories for both men and women, you may segment them according to their genders to send them personalized product offers.
- Purchase frequency
Keep track of how often people buy from you and separate the ones that are frequent buyers. Then you may offer them a special discount to make them purchase even more.
These are just some ways you may segment your customers & leads. Since it’s e-commerce, there really is no limit to how you want to segment your email list. Get creative with it and run meaningful email campaigns from time to time.
3. Effective E-commerce Email Campaigns For More Sales
As per a report from DMA, for every $1 spent on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. But it’s not as simple as that. That number is a cumulative average from several campaigns run, with some having great results while others have poor results.
It means if you can strategically plan your email campaigns with tactics that are reliable, then you can generate even more revenue.
Here are some effective email marketing strategies for your e-commerce store.
i. Conversion Trigger On Welcome Emails
Welcome emails are traditionally thought to be just a special note to show appreciation for your first-time buyers. Though it is true that the email appreciates the buyer, that is not the main purpose of the email.
The main purpose of welcome emails is to set up a way to make the buyer return and purchase again.
Let me explain.
The first email you send to first-time buyers usually has a high open rate, seemingly over 90%. And this gives you the opportunity to apply a marketing trigger within this email.
So, the welcome email copy will include the following:
- A welcome note with an introduction to your brand,
- A thank you note for making the purchase,
- And a special coupon for the next order.
This coupon will act as a trigger to encourage the buyer to make another purchase soon.
**But remember to add a deadline to the coupon, let’s say for about a week to 10 days. This will help to ensure the buyer comes back sooner.
Besides marketing purposes, this email will also,
- Create a positive first impression.
- Build strong customer relationships.
- Keep the buyer excited about your brand.
- Increase trust for future orders.
- Influence word of mouth.
While the coupon will help trigger some buyers to purchase again, you could add another extra step to this tactic.
2 to 3 days after sending the Welcome email, send a second email to remind the buyer about his coupon while showcasing some of the popular products in your store.
Then, 24 hours before the expiration date of the coupon, you may send a final reminder email to point out that the coupon is about to expire, and he/she should make an order as soon as possible.
These additional emails could help to trigger more conversions as people respond well to scarcity & urgency when it comes to email marketing for e-commerce.
ii. Abandoned Cart Recovery Campaigns
Abandoned carts are a major concern for any e-commerce store as it is responsible for losing almost 70% of potential buyers.
So it is crucial you prepare your WooCommerce store for reduced abandoned carts and then plan a recovery campaign via emails to win back as many of them as possible.
The idea is to create a series of emails that will be sent at set intervals after a buyer abandons the cart. Following are the most effective email series you may create for abandoned cart recovery:
- Email 1: A Reminder email
This will include a showcase of the abandoned product, a quick reminder message for the buyer to go back and complete the order, such as “You forgot something in our store,” and a Call To Action.
You may set this to be sent between 1 to 6 hours after cart abandonment for best results.
- Email 2: Email with discount coupon
You may send a personal coupon to the buyer to complete the order. This added discount may encourage the buyer to return.
This can be set up between 6 to 48 hrs after cart abandonment.
- Email 3: Last call email
In this email, you will give a final reminder to the buyer to complete the order and use scarcity as the trigger, i.e., inform the buyer that the product may get out of stock and won’t be held for the buyer for long. Plus, mention that the coupon will expire, so he will miss the discount if he is too late.
You may set it up for 3 to 7 days after cart abandonment.
If you want, you may add or reduce steps for this series, but the idea is generally the same – you want to remind the buyer to come back and complete the order and try to use a few conversion triggers to convince him to return if a simple reminder doesn’t work.
Abandoned cart recovery emails will require you to use a special automation tool that can track abandoned carts, capture customer contact information and cart data, and automatically send the emails at set intervals for each customer.
Check out this feature in Mail Mint and start running Abandoned Cart email campaigns for your WooCommerce store.
iii. Upsell and Cross-Sell Email Campaigns
These campaigns are designed to encourage customers to purchase additional products or upgrade to a higher-priced version of a product they’ve already bought.
The idea is to send special offers on selected products to buyers depending on their choices in the past. As mentioned in a previous section, you may segment your customers into lists based on the category of the products they bought.
So from time to time, you could run these promotional email campaigns for a particular customer segment where you offer a surprise special discount on a few handpicked products.
For example, let’s say you segmented buyers who bought chocolates in the past. You could then prepare an email to offer a 20% off coupon to buy some of your most popular chocolates in the next 7 days.
In the email copy, you may express how much you care for the buyers and give some reasons to get the product. For example, in the case of chocolates, the message could be,
“You deserve a break from all the daily chores. Why not treat yourself to some delicious chocolates?
Here’s a special 20% off – a gift from us to you so that you can have a lovely time while relaxing.”
You can see this copy is not just about the discount. It’s about hitting the right emotions to make the buyer feel like they have to get this product. The discount will just add icing to the cake.
Besides the copy, the crucial part is to suggest the right products. You may suggest the most trending products out there or the most popular ones in your store out of that category.
Or, if you have a single product type, such as a women’s clothing brand, and you have segmented your buyers based on each product, then you may offer products that are of higher standards and cost more.
Remember,
- Do not suggest more than 3 products in a single email.
- Keep the design clean – do out use too many alternate colors that annoy the eyes.
- If possible, display the discounted price of the product in the previews.
If done right, these emails have the potential to deliver the highest conversion compared to other e-commerce email marketing campaigns.
iv. New Release or Product Launch Email Campaigns
It is natural for you to re-stock your e-commerce store with new products from time to time to reflect upon the latest trends, seasons, and market demand.
And so before you bring in new products, you may plan email campaigns to build up excitement and get instant responses when they arrive.
However, this is not as simple as it sounds. You have to be quite strategic about it.
Let us look at an example.
Suppose you sell furniture and next month, you are about to bring in some new collection that is of the latest trend and will probably be in high demand.
In this case, initially, you could bring in a few samples of the new products and prepare images & promo videos for them.
Next, you may set up an email series to get them excited.
- Emal 1: Coming Soon Email
Here, you will simply let them know some new collections a coming soon. Include a couple of attractive images in the email. And then link to a promo video that you created for this. Let them know it’s coming soon but do not promise a date.
This could be sent 2 weeks prior to the actual arrival of the products.
- Email 2: Build Anticipation via Email
In this email, you will inform them of the exciting news of when the products will be available. At the same time, in your WooCommerce store, add these products with a coming soon tag in the image & status (using the plugin WooCommerce Discounted Products). Also, you may add a special banner on your home page with this same message.
This could be sent 1 week after the “coming soon” email.
- Email 3: The Final Anticipation Email
Finally, 24 hours prior to the arrival of the product, send an email to let them know the products are here and offer a special discount to get them in the first 3 days. The discount will give an added push to encourage buyers to make a decision.
- Email 4: “The Product Is Here” Email
Send this email on the day you want to start selling your new products in your store. In the email, inform the buyers that the products are now available for orders and remind them about the discount in the first 3 days.
Remove all coming soon tags and update the product data on your store before sending this email.
You could also create extra excitement by running a pre-order campaign, i.e., offer a large discount on pre-orders. For example, you could give a 40% for people who place orders before the arrival date.
For pre-order campaigns, you rather need to take at least 3 weeks for the pre-arrival campaign with a 5 email series. In this case, you will need the following email series:
- Emal 1: Coming Soon Email
This will be the same – an email just to inform buyers what’s coming and give a quick teaser.
Send this email 3 weeks prior to the product’s arrival.
- Email 2: The Pre-order Introduction via Email
In this email, you will inform the buyers of when the products will be available. Plus, you will mention that they will be able to pre-order the products at a huge discount. Mention the discount amount and explain how they can pre-order.
Make sure to also describe the best features of your products in the email copy, along with a link to the promo video. This will help buyers to make a decision more actively.
Also, add the products to the store and set the status to backorder so that people can place orders. On the product image, mention the term “Pre-order to get 40% off” or a similar message to highlight this campaign.
You may send this email 2 weeks prior to release.
- Email 3 – Pre-order Reminder
1 week prior to the actual arrival date, send an email to remind them of the discount on these exclusive products on pre-order.
- Email 4: The Pre-order Last Call Email
Finally, 24 hours prior to the arrival of the product, send an email to let them know that only 24 hours are left to place pre-orders on these new products to claim the huge discount.
- Email 5: The “Product Is Here” Email
Send this email on the day you want to start selling your new products in your store. Here, inform them that they can now order the new products and will get a discount (which should be less than what you offered on pre-orders) if they place orders in the next 3 days.
Remove all pre-order tags and update the product data on your store before sending this email.
This will help you ensure you get instant results when you bring in your next best products.
And in most cases, you may then send a final reminder email 24 hours before the 3-day discount period is over.
The new arrival emails are e-commerce email campaigns that will only work if you have been running your WooCommerce store for a while and have a large email list of your customers with proper segmentation.
You could also get more results in this campaign by sharing your teasers & offers on social communities such as Facebook Groups, and by taking help from social influencers on Instagram or TikTok.
v. Re-Engagement Email Campaigns
Often there are buyers who purchase once or twice, and then never order again for a very long time. In this case, you may launch a re-engagement campaign for your e-commerce store.
Seemingly, you could first segment the buyers who haven’t placed an order for the past 3 to 6 months. Then plan a specific strategy to try and convince them to start placing orders again.
To do so, you may try the following tactics:
- Offer them a free coupon with a good discount.
- Remember to have a minimum spending threshold; you do not want to end up with $0 orders.
- Give them a week to two weeks to use the coupon.
- Send at least 3 reminder emails within this two weeks period.
- Suggest relevant products to what he purchased in the past in the email body.
- Promise them a special gift, such as a gift card or store credit
- Ask them to place an order above a certain amount to claim the gift.
- On the email copy, share ways he can use the gift.
- Give them a week to two weeks to use the coupon.
- Send at least 3 reminder emails within these two weeks.
- Suggest current trending products in your store in the email body.
- Run a contest to create excitement
- Personalize the email to inform the buyer that you noticed he/she didn’t place an order for a while.
- Inform them that you have specially arranged a contest and hope he/she participates.
- Promise a lucrative grand prize that goes well in the current trend.
Re-engagement email campaigns will help you get some of the less active buyers to start ordering again, helping you to increase sales.
vi. Event Focused Promotional Email Campaigns
Promotional emails will let you promote specific products or services to buyers during special events that buyers can relate to.
For example, you may want to sell Halloween-themed products prior to Halloween, or Summer outfits during the summer, etc.
So, what you can do is you may plan a special discount for the event you have in mind and list down a few products that people are likely to buy during that event.
For this, you may use a combination of New release email campaigns and reminder emails.
However, you have to work on
- Using email templates that promote the event,
- Suggesting handpicked products that will be in higher demand during the event,
- Prepare email automation to ensure everyone is part of your campaign without too much manual work,
- Offer prices & quality that are better compared to other competitors.
The idea would be to follow the journey below:
- Run a New Release Email Campaign
This will be the 4 or 5 emails you just learned in the previous section. - Run a Reminder Email Series
While the discount is going on, send reminder emails with relevant product suggestions every 2 or 3 days. - Create Special Welcome Email Automation
The welcome emails should be themed with the event in mind. - Give Other Targeted Offers During the Event
You may offer free shipping or a special discount upon spending a certain amount. This you may promote and use as triggers in your reminder emails.
These campaigns work best for seasonal products during summer & winter and can be used on other global holidays such as Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, etc.
Overall, these promotional email campaigns will help to increase sales, get buyers excited, and keep you ahead of the competition compared to most other e-commerce stores in the same niche.
How To Setup Email Marketing In WooCommerce?
Now, these WooCommerce email marketing strategies seem promising. But how can you implement them?
Well, you will need to choose an email marketing automation tool that can handle email automation, gives you control over lead management and email design, and allows you to launch email campaigns with ease.
One of the best solutions to this is Mail Mint.
The plugin comes with exclusive features such as:
- Lead management
- Custom lead segmentation
- Lead form to collect data
- Content message on the checkout page
- Easy email campaign builder
- Advanced email customizer
- Product showcase on emails
- Automation flows based on order status
- Abandoned cart recovery (coming soon)
And many more.
So, Mail Mint would be a great addition to your WooCommerce store and perfect for helping you launch successful email marketing campaigns.
- Get Mail Mint Now
Final Thoughts
As you saw, e-commerce email campaigns are more aimed toward buyer engagement and strategic emails with discount offers.
There could be more WooCommerce email marketing strategies that you could apply besides these five. The idea is to make the most out of email marketing to increase WooCommerce sales.
If you can collect potential leads and segment your email list carefully, then you will be able to plan more personalized email campaigns that will deliver sales with a high conversion rate.
And if your email strategies are well planned, then you can easily make buyers spend more and more frequently.
So go ahead and start using email marketing in your WooCommerce store and boost your sales.
