Marketing Skills to Double your eCommerce Sales in 2017

Sometimes all you need is few of the best things to achieve success. Email marketing and data analytics are 2 such mega strategies in digital marketing that can turn around fortunes for your online store.

We break down in detail the resources and the actions you need to take to make the most of these 2 mega strategies.

I. Email Marketing

Email marketing is a deadly weapon for a digital marketer. If wielded with perfection it can help reap maximum results at minimum costs.

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Why email marketing works?

1. It is affordable. Inc.com estimates the average cost of a campaign to be in the range of couple of thousand of dollars.
2. It builds customer engagement easily. 44% of customers complete at least one transaction based on a promotional email.
3. One-to-one interaction is always possible. Customers can always reply to an email that can be attended to by a dedicated virtual sales assistant (or even a chatbot if you can afford one).
4. It is easy to manage. Bulk emailing software (like Constant Connect, Mail Chimp, Campaigner, GetResponse, etc.) comes with dynamic filters that help handle multiple campaigns parallelly.
5. ROI can be accurately measured. Click through rates, conversions, visits and much more can be easily tracked using bulk emailing software.

Resources you will need for a successive email marketing campaign:

1. Copywriters

Copywriters are people who can grab customer attention with words. In an email, you have limited length to express yourself. Each word counts. You need the expertise of a copywriter who can convey the most using the right choice of words.

The words must be fetching as well as strike a chord with the readers and convince them to take action. Take note to create copywriting that will make the customers take an action like click the CTA, make a purchase, read blog, use promo code, etc.

1. Graphic Designers

The copywriting content that you have created must be wrapped in neat visuals that look great on screen. The design elements must be tailor-made to meet the dimensions of a small screen, typically like that of a mobile or tablet device.

Check out how Handy used a perfect blend of visual imagery, graphic designing and copywriting to create a stunning email marketing campaign that got opened, read and re-read.

1. Bulk Emailing Software

A bulk emailing software is far more powerful than your average office or personal mailing system. It can be used to schedule mails, pick mailing lists based on filters, can work with a wide spectrum of SMTP servers.

Most importantly can be used to track the results of your email marketing campaigns. And of course, you can send emails to unlimited recipients, unlike usual mailing programs which restrict recipients to few thousands.

1. Email lists

Now that you have the resources for a full-fledged email marketing campaign ready and in place, you need a list of recipients to shoot the mails to.
Ideally, you must be already having it. The email ids that customers provide for signing up comes into play here.

A mass mailing software will help you shoot mails to those customers who have agreed to receive promotional newsletters and emails from your online store.

Quick tips on how to grow your email list:

1. Create amazing email content that users want to share
2. Include social login buttons or other alternative subscription options
3. Offer a discount or concession for subscribing to email
4. Collect emails through pop-ups, offline events, contests, etc.
5. Conduct webinars, online Q&A sessions, etc. and collect emails of attendees

Series of emails to be used in the strategy

Email campaigning revolves around a series of emails that are sent at the right time to the right person for the right purpose.

You can’t send a welcome email to a customer who just abandoned a cart. Likewise you cannot send a follow-up mail to a new customer either. There is a series to be followed, a pattern to be adopted.

I’ll tell you how.

1. Welcome emails – As soon as a customer signs up or subscribes to your store’s blog, you have to send them a mail thanking and welcoming them to the horde. The welcome mail may also be used to invite the customer to take an action like watch demo, sign up for trial, etc.

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Michaels said they love new customers loud and clear with their welcome emails.

2. Promotional emails – Selling doesn’t end with one order. You have to keep repeating it with timed mails. You can offer customers promo codes or coupons with a calculated expiry data to be used in the next purchase which will force them into buying more.
Note: Don’t spam your customers’ inbox. They will promptly unsubscribe from your mailing list. Your mails will end up in junk folder directly without ever greeting the customer.

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Godaddy rather tricks us neatly into a $75 purchase without much effort.

3. Winning back emails – Emails can be used to win back those customers who abandoned carts or took a demo but did not follow it up with a purchase. The purpose of these winning back emails is to prompt the customer to complete the purchase. This type of emails with personalized product recommendation can even do the wonder. You may also ask for a feedback seeking reasons why the transaction was left incomplete so that things can be set right the next time.

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Sephora sends its customers a friendly reminder of recent cart additions.

4. Follow Up emails – Once you have won your customers, it is important to keep them. Asking for feedback on a recent purchase, prompting why no purchase was made lately, informing ongoing deals – you can do anything with follow up mails to keep your customers.

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True Citrus has a truly sweet way of keeping its customers.

II. Data Analytics

Data can tell a lot about your customers, their preferences and what’s happening with your campaigns.

For an online store, the above data can reveal much more than what market research or any analyst report can say. It can speak volumes about customer behaviour and upcoming trends to lookout for your store.

Here are some metrics to add to your watchlist to make 2017 a profitable year for your online store.
Bounce Rate

According to Google, “Bounce Rate is the percentage of single-page sessions (i.e. sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page).”

Sounds disappointing, right? Of course it is.

Here are some reasons why your customer would have left without staying:

1. Slow page loading speed (anything more than 4 seconds is frustrating)
2. Too many images that take too long to load
3. Too many flashy display adverts
4. Autoplaying videos that slow down page scrolling

What you can do about it?

1. Ensure your page loads under 3 second flat
2. Use minimal design that fits and works across all devices, including mobile
3. Use the right choice of keywords so that only right kind of visitors check into your website
4. Use original, perfected and catchy content that drives straight-forward information
5. Put Google Analytics to use to find what kind of customers check out

Click-Through-Rate

Click-through rate is the measure of users who clicked on the links in your website, email campaigns or blog submissions. CTR helps knowing how effective or engaging the campaign has been.

With analytic tools like Google Analytics and other SEO tools you can always evaluate the origin, demographics and pattern of users who click and view your campaigns. Maintaining a consistent CTR is necessary to ensure steady traffic. A high CTR accompanied by high conversion rate is the recipe to your eCommerce success.

How to achieve high CTR?

1. Set clear and fetching headlines that compel user to click
2. Optimize the header with keyword so that they rank higher in search results
3. Create a sense of urgency in the link (limited period offer, click now, begin right away, etc.)
4. Optimize CTAs to be clearly visible, clickable and with appropriate captions
5. Give out freebies – ebooks, printables, trials, etc.

Bonus Tip: Google in its 2014 I/O Conference indicated that websites with SSl certificate enabled HTTPS encryption will be given more weightage than those without it. So if you can secure your website with a SSL certificate, chances are that you will enjoy a higher CTR than before. In fact, it will even increase conversion rates as confirmed by success stories of some online stores.

Conversion Rate
In the end, everything boils down to one things – How good is your conversion rate? A healthy conversion rate is what keeps your cash register ticking and profits climbing up.

How to analyze your conversion rate?

1. Find out the average conversion rate for a given period
2. Check for patterns after considering seasonal demand and traffic
3. Analyze conversion rate website wise, goal wise and campaign wise
4. Segment your conversion rates into various products or funnels
5. Compare conversion rate to total revenue earned

Revenue Per Campaign

How much did you earn out of every single campaign carried out during the month, quarter or year? This metric is used to see how hard you had to work to bring in traffic or conversions, like in the sample shown below:

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If you had to work numerous campaigns to earn a few dollars, it means something is fundamentally wrong with the campaigns. You can use this metric to zero in on particular campaigns that fared well compared to those which did not take off.
Bringing it all Together

Email marketing and Data Analytics are vast digital marketing tactics which if executed perfectly can position your store or website on the top league of winners. But they are not easy to execute.

From the read above, we hope you have understood what it takes to carry out an email campaign and how to measure various metrics for better planning.