guide to online retail email marketing strategy

Guide to Online Retail Email Marketing Strategy

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Welcome to our latest guide this one focuses on email marketing strategies and advice for Online Retail Marketers. In this guide email marketing expert and trainer Maria Khoury will take you through three of the most successful strategies that you can implement, without trouble, to improve your email marketing activities.

Implementing a welcome programme Managing expectations So many great online retailers fall down on their email marketing by not managing their recipients expectations correctly from the moment they hand over their details. It is vital that a recipient feels that they are experiencing a seamless brand process from the web sign up to the welcome email as this will form the basis of their belief in you from now on. I mean you wouldnt employ someone who didnt match up to their CV and you wouldnt date someone who claimed that they were gods gift yet were actually pretty useless and unreliable. Not just a welcome message Your welcome programme is not just a welcome message its the first impressions that a potential buyer will have of how you deal with your communications and in turn, them. Its a reflection of your brand and everything it stands for you meet your other halves parents for the first time and you dont wear joggers and smell like the great unwashed. Your welcome programme shouldnt either. Almost perfect Ill take you through an example of an online retailer getting so close to a good experience but just falling short. Figleaves have a great site and their email sign up is nice and prominent on their homepage which is perfect. The sign up page is great very clear, on brand and tells me exactly what Ill be getting by handing over my email address. It has a clear call to action and doesnt ask me for lots of details.


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And then I receive a very bland and text heavy welcome email. No sign of the fresh website here no personalisation, just a lot of dull information that has no human element of connection to it. There are no clear calls to action just a lot of links. This is such a shame after setting my expectations so high.

Potential welcome programmes Now well run through a couple of welcome programmes that you could implement yourselves (keeping those expectations fulfilled of course). The product specific programme Why? To capture people in the process of researching potential products The sign up: The sign up for this programme should feature wherever you have product information on your

site. Keep it relevant If they click on a delivery page then would they like to receive information on

delivery times for their area? If it is a specific product page then would they like to be kept up to date with availability or price changes? If they are on a page with an out of stock product, would they like info on alternatives?

Keep it simple and just ask for an email address you can always ask for more information later.


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The welcome emails:

1 Time is of the essence with this first email and make sure that if your product areas differ in looks dependent on their category, you reflect which category they signed up from with their email design. At the very least make sure that the general look of the site is used, youd be amazed how many brands fail to do this. Reinforce why they are receiving the email

2 After the initial email, the next one must be providing them with exactly the information that they asked for no more and no less, you want to build this relationship by trust.

3 The third email can dig a little further by telling them that youd love to offer them a % discount off their next purchase once theyve answered some simple questions such as name, products of interest, shopping habits. Try to limit this to just 5 questions or you could even offer 2% per question answered and see how far that gets you.

4 In the fourth email ask them if theyd like to join your club and become members this leads on nicely to the next programme which should take you through to sale...

The membership programme Why? You want to keep potential buyers engaged with your brand and products until they purchase The sign up:

Offer members special promotions, previews of the latest products, access only areas of content

such as fashion tips for a fashion retailer or recipes for a food & drink retailer. Make them feel like theyd be part of an exclusive group by registering their details (and most

importantly always deliver on your promises). This page needs to reflect the exclusivity and added value, so show them an example of what

they would be receiving in their email inbox and offer them a sneak preview of the content they could receive.

The welcome emails:

1 It is vital that the first email is immediate and continues to reflect the exclusive nature of the membership. Reinforce what they can expect to receive as part of this membership and personalise the email to them with a first name.

2 At this point you can introduce a preference centre to continue with the all about you theme and ask them what products or areas theyre interested in. How frequently would they like to receive their information?

3 A week later send them their first promotional discount code and here you can ask them some

more questions about their shopping habits, so you start to build a very personal profile about them and their buying behaviour before theyve even purchased a product.

4 The next week send an email offering two content subjects and ask their opinion on which theyd

prefer to hear about on the website this makes them feel that their opinion is valued and better connected with your brand in return youll have greater insight into the popularity of topics.


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5 Finally in the fourth week you can send them a product related email which is totally tailored to their own preferences and you know its relevant to them as theyve told you over the past few weeks.

NB. Dont forget to find out about significant dates to them and dont just stick to their birthday if theyre a Mrs or Mr when is their anniversary? Got kids when are their birthdays/graduations?

Building a profile of your customers/potential customers Getting to know you Weve actually covered in the welcome programme section how you can start to collect information about your recipients. As marketers you know the importance of this kind of insight and how it can make your activities more targeted and connected to your end audience, so I wont wax lyrical about it. Another way you can collect this data is by using online surveys and polls, theyre simple to set up and easy for gathering little titbits of personal data that could be otherwise a bit tricky to gather. Online survey vs polls An online survey is asking more than one question which means a larger investment of time from the user. You will also find that users today are slightly more cynical as to what their answers will be used for so its imperative that you have their trust already or can convincingly gain it. On the upside you can ask as many questions as you like and start to build a fuller picture of them than when using polls. You can also offer them a copy of the completed survey when the information has been collated so they feel theyre getting a bigger value in return for their efforts. Polls are great to gather opinion-based information for a more targeted area such as opinions on perceived quality between two product brands or whether theyd go for price or quality when purchasing a product. You can dig down to some gritty detail with a poll as users arent as suspecting as to what will happen to their answer as its just the one question they can also see immediately how their response stacked up against the masses, which is appealing to their self esteem. Survey & Poll Tips

1. Make sure its easy to access the survey/poll, use your other marketing touch-points such as email signatures, website homepage, thank you pages for sign up forms and email welcome messages to link to it.

2. Make it social link to the survey/poll from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and make sure once someone has filled it in, they are offered the chance to share it themselves amongst their social networks.

3. Incentivise your survey/poll this could be from a free copy of the completed survey report to the latest gadget or money off a next purchase. You could use a prize draw but the prize would need to be very appealing as they know their chances are reduced. Instant gratification is always the most attractive.

4. Test the number of questions every brand will hold a different level of trust with their users so some would be happy to answer 5 questions whereas some would only get away with a


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few. Test out the different numbers (you could use two different webpages and A/B split test them using two email lists) and see what works best for your brand.

5. Bear in mind any legal implications if youre unsure of what T&Cs to use for giveaways then you could always look at what a few other sites use and select elements from each that work for you.

6. State your intentions how are you planning to use the information theyre giving you? Make it clear from the start and offer an opt out from receiving future email communications from it. You may lose some numbers now but in the future itll save you from the junk folder or getting reported as spam.

7. Know what you want be clear in your mind what you are trying to achieve from the start, what is the minimum information are you trying to get from them? Dont lose sight of this.

8. Always say thank you and in the thank you message why not ask them if theyd like to sign up for your newsletter or add your latest sales promotion.

Phrasing your questions

1. Use plain English and avoid jargon and acronyms

2. Try to use short sentences wherever possible. Long questions tend to cause respondents discomfort and they may abandon the survey.

3. Ask one question at a time- avoid confusing the respondent with a question like 'Do you like football and tennis?'

4. Dont influence the answer questions loaded with should can have an influence on this

5. Allow them to answer the question make sure that the answer format used allows the respondent to answer the question being asked, as a last resort you could add a not sure or dont know.

6. Be aware of using yes/no questions these can be good to spot trends but dont work for deeper insightful knowledge

7. KISS Keep it simple stupid! They wont want to spend more than 5 mins completing the survey

8. Softly softly catchy monkey Leave demographic questions until last so you dont scare them off, by then they should be in a good flow.

Dont forget the happy ever after Now youve done the survey or poll you want to make sure that you can analyse it properly and use it to have an impact on your future email marketing. Heres a checklist of making the happy every after: Make sure your survey tool has the ability to collect the data you want and can present it in a

clear way for you to do your analysis


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Once youve collated your responses and done your report then send a copy to the recipients with a thank you note, and make it prompt

Make a plan of exactly how youre going to use the data to impact your email marketing what campaigns will you do off the back of it?

Stick to it!

Retarget your existing database Retargeting your existing database is a really easy way to keep your email marketing costs down and turning dead contacts into ones that are active. Split your database into the following categories and then send a targeting email to each, for example: The opens entice them to click with a special promotion

The non opens change up your subject lines and test different days/times to get that click

through The clicks you know theyre interested but perhaps the price is putting them off or the product

isnt quite suitable? We saw you looking at x and thought wed offer you some alternatives or Today only an extra % off x

The converted these guys are prime for either post purchase feedback (if you have product

reviews on your site then link to that and ask them to leave one) or an upsell with connected product Youve bought a laptop these accessories may be of interest to you.

When youre retargeting, think about what information you already hold about them and use it to personalise the subject lines. Even if you dont have their name you can still use information you do know such as the products they were looking at or the last time they responded to an email. Re-engaging with your database works especially well when you are more personalised with them and show you know what they want, so make sure youve armed yourself with insight as we talked about in the previous two sections. Truprint case study In this example one of our customers Truprint wanted to increase the numbers of purchases they had during an Easter promotion.


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They sent an email to previous non-purchasers, which was designed to drive them to purchase.

They then analysed the results and sent a second email to the non-openers or non-clickers

offering them a further discount

They found that by retargeting their current database they turned a vast number of their non actives into actives who continue to engage with their email marketing campaigns. They also saw an increase in their purchases, so much so that they are now looking at new ways to segment and target their distribution list.

Want to know more? Author of this guide, Maria Khoury, is one of the many talented and experienced people who make up the team at Pure360. Founded in 2001, Pure360 is one of Europes top email marketing companies. Recently listed as the fastest growing email service provider in Europe by GP Bullhound, the multilingual email platform PureResponse is used by 2000 marketers in over 50 countries. Pure360 provides brands and agencies, regardless of size, the technology, know-how and support to run effective email marketing campaigns that have a measurable and positive impact on their business. With a simple online interface and in-depth reporting tools, the PureResponse email platform was created by marketers for marketers to make email marketing easy and enjoyable. Brighton-based Pure360 has a portfolio of customers that includes Innocent Drinks, LA Fitness, Rightmove, Seatwave and media giant The FT Group. The platform can also be available as a whitelabel service for agencies. If youd like to talk to one of us then call 0844 660 7873 or email us at [email protected] Were also on Twitter (@pure360) or sign up for our newsletter online www.pure360.com