The management of a e-commerce, in addition to many other elements, is also based on a good marketing strategy, which must be structured to exploit its potential and thus increase the value of the ROI, which stands for Return of Investment. As for the’e-mail marketing, It is often mistakenly believed to be an outdated strategy, but the reality is quite different: in fact, it is still a tool for creating and maintaining strong customer relationships, and in this article we will look at how to make the most of precisely this type of strategy.
Why use e-mail marketing for an e-commerce
To better understand the effectiveness of e-mail marketing for an e-commerce, several aspects must be taken into account, first of all the fact that a large proportion of consumers prefer just this medium to receive communications from companies, and despite the innovations being introduced in the world of technology, e-mail still remains one of the most used channels of communication by users all over the world.
Besides all this, it is indeed one of the marketing tools that can generate a very high ROI, which according to some industry studies is around 42 dollars earned for every dollar spent on e-mail marketing, meaning that a return on investment of 4200%. However, for this important increase to be realised, the e-mail marketing strategy needs to be structured and planned in detail, sending the customer messages that are consistent with their needs and interests, and with the stage of the buying journey they are at with respect to the brand.
Some useful e-mail marketing campaigns for e-commerce
So, knowing the importance of e-mail marketing for an e-commerce, one can choose different campaigns to be used, which fit precisely into the different phases of what is called the life cycle of a customer, which starts with an initial contact between user and brand, and goes on to contemplate all options until a hypothetical cooling-off of the relationship between these two actors.
Therefore, the first campaign to use is certainly a welcome campaign, which make it possible to establish an initial contact with the user in which the brand and its products or services can be presented, but also include some call to action as a discount code for the next purchase. In addition to this, you can also use campaigns for abandoned trolleys, This means messages that are sent when the user places products in the shopping cart, but does not complete the purchase. This is one of the most profitable campaigns in terms of ROI, and generally contains incentives to conclude the purchase, such as offering discounts or requesting information on abandoning the cart.
Similar are also the exit campaigns, messages sent when the user leaves the page after looking at a product without placing it in the shopping cart. Clearly, messages of this type also push the conclusion of the purchase, informing the customer about the characteristics of the product, how to shipping parcels, and giving any other information that might convince him to buy from our e-commerce. When a user actually concludes a purchase, the following can be used cross-selling and up-selling campaigns, which go to incentivise complementary purchases or higher-end items. This type of message is well received by the user, who is then offered articles in line with his preferences and needs, even anticipating a future purchase intention.
Once you are faced with a slice of loyal customers, is certainly not the time to stop e-mail marketing activities, but rather, it is the right time to start some VIP campaigns, which must necessarily be based on the particular treatment of a certain clientele, in such a way as to maintain and strengthen the relationship over time. Regarding the content of these messages, it is possible to include presentations or preview sales of new products, discounts, the possibility of international shipments or with express courier at subsidised prices, and so on.
Thanks to campaigns of this kind, it will be possible to reach different objectives, such as the’increased sales thanks to targeted messages addressed to those users who may find them interesting and in line with their needs, the recovery of inactive or lost customers, l’increased ROI general, and much more. By achieving all these objectives, it will be possible to grow globally as an ecommerce company, having more customers, more purchases per customer, and also a higher value of the individual purchase, thus also increasing the company's total revenue. In this way, it will be possible to offer better and better services to customers, such as entrusting shipments to the best carriers, such as the DHL courier.
How is the ROI of e-mail marketing calculated?
We conclude this article on the ROI of e-mail marketing strategies with a more technical note, which concerns the specific calculation of the ROI of the activity of this type that you choose to do for your e-commerce, a very important calculation that allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign and its improvement in weak points.
The ROI calculation is based on a rather simple formula, namely: net profit (profit - costs / costs. In particular, when we talk about the costs of an e-mail marketing campaign, we are referring to the costs of the provider and message flows, time spent in the creation and drafting of the various messages, and all costs related to the’graphic design of messages. The calculation of profits, on the other hand, is more complex, because these depend on several factors, such as the specific objectives of the strategy, but to get an idea of what these might be, simply calculate how many of the e-mails sent were openedand, how many responses were received from the call to action, and how many of these call to actions are ended with a purchase effective.
