Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Jilian Woods, Content Manager at EssayPro.
As any eCommerce seller will tell you, email marketing campaigns are key way of drawing in potential customers, and a great method for spreading word about what you do. However, they’ll also jump at the chance to let you know that such marketing efforts are also packed full of possible pitfalls to watch out for!
Most eCommerce sellers have to go through a process of trial and error before they figure out what works and what doesn’t, which techniques are essential for success, and which ones are steered well clear of. Luckily for you, we’ve put together a short list of the most common mistakes made by online sellers running email marketing campaigns. Read on to find out more!
This is an absolutely classic error in the world of marketing in general, and it’s a mistake which all too many eCommerce sellers are guilty of making. No matter what you’re selling, every step of your marketing campaign must be constructed with a target audience in mind. Your ideal demographic of buyer will inform almost every aspect of your campaign, and even the finest details of who you want to sell to should be kept in mind, from the very first step of your marketing plan to the last.
Think carefully about who you are targeting with your products and service. How old are they? What is their income? What are they passionate about? What aren’t they interested in? All of these questions (and plenty more besides) should be at the forefront of your mind all the way through your marketing campaign. By identifying your audience, you’ll be able to ensure a greater impact on those you’re looking to serve with your eCommerce business.
Failure to effectively identify your target audience can end up meaning your campaign lacks direction and structure, and it will struggle to strike that all-important chord with your ideal customers.
For many of us, the ideal of making grammatical or spelling mistakes in the days of advanced grammar-checking tools (such as Grammarly, for example) is almost unthinkable. While such programs are great for pointing out spelling errors or more obvious mistakes, they can’t take the place of professional writing services, and trust us – nothing screams of unprofessionalism like an awkwardly-worded or badly-written sentence in a marketing campaign.
Even if your eCommerce business is relatively humble and homely, your email marketing campaigns are supposed to be impressive, and show off the very best aspects of you and your services. Spelling and grammar mistakes really do stick out like the proverbial sore thumb, and are sure to make your copy or emails look clumsy, amateurish, and lazy.
In the world of marketing, tone is everything. Remember: your email marketing campaign needs to have a tone which matches the level of formality your customers both like and expect… and if in doubt, it’s always safer to stay on the slightly more formal side of the spectrum. Nobody likes to read marketing emails that come across like spam – personalized, polite, customized, and tailored content, which is written in a respectful and professional manner, tends to make a considerably greater impact.
This is especially true for eSellers trying to reach out to new and prospective customers. There are loads of great tools you can utilize in order to ensure your emails use your recipients’ names, and this really can make a significant different to how your mail is received. Minor tailoring techniques, such as setting up different mailing lists for prospective customers of different age brackets, regions, or backgrounds have also been proven to lead to higher conversion rates, as well.
Here’s a piece of advice which plenty of eSellers could definitely benefit from: sometimes, when it comes to launching a successful email marketing campaign, less really is more. Clean, concise pages, not overloaded with data, unnecessary images, or pointless video content, are going to have a considerably greater impact than emails which hurt your eyes to look at.
What’s more, the internet-using public has a considerably shorter attention span than they once had, meaning emails which load quickly and cleanly are massively more effective than those which stall on the fourteenth or fifteenth image file. Even a lag of a second or two can result in the ‘back’ button being pressed, and the email being ignored… meaning all that work in piecing together your campaign may have been for nothing.
On the flipside of the point previously made, unless your email marketing campaign is able to stand out from the crowd, you can’t expect it to make the impact your eCommerce business deserves. Never forget: there are thousands of eCommerce businesses out there, and many of them will be after a similar target audience as you are. If you want your potential customers to come on board with your products or services, you’re going to have to start thinking outside the box!
Now, we’re not suggesting you go totally left-field, and start incorporating attention-grabbing disruptive techniques into your email marketing campaigns. There are a couple of simple, subtle methods that might help your business stick in the recipients’ minds, such as coming up with a snappy tagline, a memorable slogan, or kicking off your email with an image which they’ll remember. Get your creative team on board, and start brainstorming imaginative ideas which immediately grab the attention of your target audience.
Your eCommerce business needs new customers, and it needs to have the word spread among a wider clientele. That’s the main reason you’re running an email marketing campaign in the first place, and it’s the main reason you’re looking for tips on how to make the process more effective.
When the responses start flooding in, and your sales pages are getting more hits as a result of your campaign, you need to make sure there are systems in place to not only deal with their requests, but to do so with the same tone and warmth your campaign already established. An excellent follow-up is vital for high conversion rates. You’ve got the customers through the door, so to speak… so don’t miss the opportunity to make all your marketing efforts pay off in the end!