4 Reasons Why Email Marketing for eCommerce is Not a Thing of the Past

If you’re running an eCommerce store, or any other type of online business you probably have an email list. You might send out emails every now and then, make announcements, send messages to customers, but do you really utilize email marketing to its fullest potential?

I mean, with all the latest marketing crazes – SEO, social media marketing, content marketing – who even has time for something as old as email? (Fun fact: the first email was sent 40 years ago!)

Well, email might be old, but it definitely is not outdated! Email marketing boasts a high click through rate, conversion rate, and ROI, and though it is behind organic search in terms of conversions, as SEO becomes more and more competitive, email marketing provides an excellent alternative.

In this post we’ll explore a few reasons why all eCommerce stores should be using email marketing!

The Preferred Method of Communication

As of today there are over 2.5 billion email users in the world using a whopping 4.1 billion email accounts!

Just to put that into perspective let’s compare that with the World’s population:

That’s right, there are more than half as many email addresses as there are people in the World! Now anything that can be compared to the World’s population and not look miniscule is pretty significant, but that’s just crazy.

Now to give this information a little eCommerce spin – 91% of consumers use email at least once a day, and U.S. consumers on average interact with 11 brands via email per day (Captera)! That means that your target customer is almost certainly actively using their email and actively engaging with brands already.

Ok, but people don’t actually like to get marketing information to their inbox, right?

Wrong! Email is actually the preferred medium for marketing information!  According to a study conducted by Exact Target, 77% of people prefer to receive opt-in marketing information via email. This number absolutely crushes the second place choice, direct mail, which received a meager 9%.

Quite clearly email is a fantastic place to be marketing, because so many people use it and so many people like to be marketed to on it.

The next question though is why do people like it so much for marketing?

The King of Customization

There’s more than just convenience and familiarity behind consumer’s appreciation of email marketing – they love it because it can be customized just for them!

How so? Well, just about every email platform that you would use for your business comes standard with list segmentation and analytics features. By using these features you can send targeted and relevant emails to the people on your mailing list.

Segmentation Example

Let’s say you sell sports gear and you want to send out an email promoting men’s (American) football pads, you can go through your segmented lists in order to pick out the right targeting options. In this case you may want to send your email to men living in the U.S. between the ages of 14 and 30.

Another thing you could do is to send this email out with even more specific locations and then mention the local football team for each specific location – so people living in Philadelphia would get an email about the Eagles, people in New York would get an email about the Giants and the Jets, and so on.

You can see how by using segmentation your emails can be far more personalized, and would certainly be appreciated much more by your customers.

Analytics Example

To take the segmentation example to the next level you can dive into the analytics. By doing this you can see what types of content your customers have interacted with most, or what products they seem to prefer.

You can then create lists based on this information in order to send even more highly targeted emails.

Clearly people who received highly personalized emails would prefer over less relevant advertisements.

Need a little proof? Take a look at these stats from a study done by MailChimp comparing emails sent from segmented lists with general ones:

The targeting and personalization abilities that email provides for you really make it a very powerful tool. And hey, if the people receiving your emails are happy, then you will definitely be happy too.

The Perfect Partner to Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the hot topics in the wide world of marketing these days. Everyone wants in. It provides tremendous opportunities for companies to gain exposure organically and through social media while also helping to establish brands as “authorities in their field.” (Check out this post for more on Content Marketing for eCommerce).

All of this contributes to a brands potential for direct and indirect sales. After all, organic search still accounts for the lion’s share of all online sales.

The problem is that gaining organic recognition is becoming increasingly difficult as more and more businesses compete for the same space. On top of that, even if your SEO strategies are top notch, and you’re sure you will be ranked well (because you found the secret to success by breaking into the Google vault…) it will still take a while for your content to actually rank.

This is where your mailing list can really help you out. By building an opt-in mailing list for your blog you are essentially building a guarantee that your content will in fact be seen, because the people that sign up for your list, actually do want to read your content.

This can give you a huge boost!

Click through rates (CTR) from email is 3% for eCommerce stores (and varies for other industries). That means if you send out an email to 1000 people, 30 people will be clicking through to your content, reading it, and potentially sharing it with their friends on social networks, giving your content an added boost.

Are you ready for those numbers to be blown out of the water?

According to a study which tested the difference in CTR for emails that included social share buttons vs. those that didn’t, CTR increases by 158% when share buttons are included! That brings your CTR up from 3% to 7.74%, meaning around 77 people will now see your content!

By utilizing email for your content marketing and combining it with your social networks you can really give your content a boost.

The Most Bang for your Buck

After everything that we have discussed so far, it should come as no surprise that the ROI on email marketing, both in terms of customer acquisition and in terms of sales, is excellent!

Lead Generation: Email is second only to organic search in customer acquisition, accounting for about 7%.

Sales: Email has an impressive ROI of around $44.25 for every $1 spent! 

Needless to say, your money can go very far with email.

What Should You Do?

You may be finishing this article now and thinking to yourself, if email is so great, why have I been wasting all this time on social media? So let me stop you there and say – don’t think that!

Social media is an amazing tool that can help you grow your business in countless ways. It enables you to actively interact with your customers on a personal level, which helps with brand trust, customer support, and brand awareness. It is also very important to maintain multiple marketing channels.

That being said, you should definitely take time out of your schedule to build your email list and to plan out your email marketing strategy.

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3 Ways To Grow Your Email List

Email marketing is a valuable tool in your personal branding strategy, but you may be wondering how you can find the right subscribers for your list. Here are three types of activities you can implement that will attract people to your email list – and your personal brand.

#1: Host an online challenge

An online challenge is when participants agree to accomplish certain tasks during a specific period of time. Typically, online challenges last 30 days, but don’t let that restrict you. Even a 14-day challenge will do the trick!

Create an online challenge that helps people accomplish a specific goal and positions you as an expert who helps them achieve their objectives.  For example, if you are a photographer, host a 30-day challenge where people can improve their photography skills. Or, if you are a social media consultant, create a challenge where people learn to use Facebook for marketing. Once you decide on a topic, create a landing page that requires people to enter their email address to participate in the challenge. Bonus Tip: Start a private Facebook group just for your challenge participants so they can network and ask you questions.

#2: Host a webinar

Another type of event that attracts your ideal customers is a free webinar. Research a topic that will answer your audience’s top question. Like with the online challenge, set up a landing page about your webinar and have people register by providing an email address. Make sure to offer a recording of your webinar in case people can’t make the live event. Also, write a post-webinar email to thank your new subscribers for participating.

Don’t forget: Co-hosting challenges with another expert is a great way to diversify your webinar offering. When you pair up with an expert with a big email list, you will be exposed to her email list too.

#3: Offer a special, one-time gift

Offering a fantastic free gift on your homepage is a way to perpetually attract new subscribers, but don’t forget to offer other gifts during the year as well. When creating your marketing plan and calendar, consider adding two additional gifts throughout the year. If you need help determining what to offer, consider the time of year. A free gift in December could be holiday themed, or consider a “back to school” gift to your audience after Labor Day.

Like with the online challenge and webinar, the key is to create a landing page where you require people to register with their email address. Once they plug in their email address, use an autoresponder to email the free gift to them.

Email marketing is best accomplished when you keep it top of mind. Remember the acronym, A.B.C. (Always Be Collecting). Look for fun and creative ways to entice your ideal customers to your email list through hosting online events or webinars, or offering a free, one-time gift. When you experiment with different ways to attract subscribers, your email list will grow exponentially, and your personal brand will benefit as a result.

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Email and Social Media: Why Marketers Need Both

Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing

Why social media marketers should focus on email marketing

DJ tells a story of when he heard Jeff Pulver talk about his famous quote, “You live and die by your database.” DJ explains how it’s a phrase that he probably says at least once a week. The reason it’s so important is because when it comes to marketing, email is your database.

You have a virtual database of social media followers, but your database is your email contacts. Email is the glue that binds everything together.

Email is your database. Image source: iStockphoto

DJ doesn’t discount social media, and he uses it a lot. But he explains that if Facebook decided to change their terms of service, then the connection with your friends and followers could disappear. Email addresses stick with you.

With Facebook, there are over 100 different email notifications. Even if you turn off most of the notifications, Facebook still messages you through email and Twitter does the same.

You’ll discover how all social networks use email marketing.

Listen to the show to find out why DJ encourages people to log out of Facebook or Twitter and go back to these sites for the first time.

Why social media marketers should work email into their social media activities

DJ explains how he has heard “social media folks” talking more about email.

You’ll hear examples of how Chris Brogan and Amy Porterfield focus on how to grow their email lists.

You can take the loyal followers you have on social networks and bring them over to your email list. You’ll find out the advantages of bringing your social media connections over to your email list and why it’s easier to sell via the email channel versus the social channel.

Listen to the show to find out how at Social Media Examiner, we have about 500 new people every day come to our content.

Where email is heading in the future

DJ shares how a lot happens with email behind the scenes that the average person doesn’t necessarily see.

There has been innovation around filters impacting email deliverability. From a consumer standpoint, there is a new app called Mailbox that helps you manage all of your marketing messages in one place.

Mailbox is an app that lets you put your email in one place.

DJ has started to see a lot more integration of email into social and can see it play out in a couple of different ways.

One of his favorite plugins for Chrome and Gmail is Rapportive. It sits on the side of Gmail and as you hover over somebody’s email address, if that email address is used publicly to tie to different social networks, it will pull in all that information.

You can use Rapportive to find out information about your contacts right inside your inbox.

You’ll hear an example of what information it will show about that person and how salespeople can use it.

DJ explains that the advantage of this plugin is that it shows a little bit more about where he sees email going. The lines are starting to blur between social networks and email marketing.

Listen to the show to hear stats from ExactTarget on the number of people who check their email on a daily basis and the number of people who prefer to get marketing-related messages through email.

Some ways marketers can grow their email lists using social media

DJ says there are many different ways for marketers to grow their email lists using social media.

At a very basic level, if you have a strong following on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, he believes it’s important to let your community know how they can get onto your list.

You’ll hear DJ give examples of social updates you could use to get people onto your list. DJ also reveals how Chris Brogan and Pat Flynn get people onto their lists with the use of video.

On Facebook, you can build a tab that has an opt-in form and a lot of email providers will make it easy for you to create the form directly in their system. You can then drop the code into a tab on Facebook. Although DJ has seen this work, he thinks the problem is that you still put a lot on the potential subscriber.

You’ll hear what DJ recommends if someone is following you and they’re engaged on Facebook.

Listen to the show to find out why DJ would rather have people on his blog than on Facebook.

How can email be used to move your blog readers to action for social campaigns?

DJ has tried lately to practice what he preaches. Now when you opt into his list, you’ll see automated messages as well as some more personal things.

DJ Waldow's opt-in form for the "Waldow Social Weekly" newsletter.

People forget that you have to build your list first, and then build trust with your audience and community. You can’t expect somebody who just opted into your list to do something for you. You have to earn that trust over time.

DJ believes that a combination of both email and social can be really effective, once you have built sufficient trust. One way DJ has seen this work is to create a call-to-action link within your email. You can easily take that call to action and put a link next to it that says “tweet this” or “post this on Facebook.” Prepopulate the tweet or Facebook post with the exact message you want it to say.

DJ gives an example of what he does in his newsletter and where and what your call to action should say.

Listen to the show to hear how at Social Media Examiner, we used our email list for the launch of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

Once someone opts into your email list, what is the appropriate frequency for contact?

DJ advises if you start to do anything that is less frequent than monthly, your audience is not going to remember who you are. He thinks daily is great if you can manage, but a couple of times a week is probably better.

You’ll discover what the sweet spot is for DJ and when he does a sales-type email.

Listen to the show to find out why the frequency question is one of DJ’s favorites.

DJ’s top tips on email marketing

DJ shares a great service that he uses called JA.TXT. It’s an SMS-to-email service, which provides you with a dedicated SMS number.

JA.TXT is a great SMS-to-email service.

You’ll discover how this is a great way to add email addresses to your list and why it’s really effective when you’re in front of an audience.

The second service that has been effective for DJ is LeadBrite. It’s a plugin for WordPress called Welcome Gate.

You’ll find out what happens when you’re a first-time visitor to DJ’s site and how Welcome Gate has helped him grow his list.

Listen to the show to learn why you should give visitors an opportunity to opt in right away.

Discovery of the Week

At Social Media Examiner, we have an awesome free service called the Networking Clubs.

We have made a significant investment in hiring one of the best developers on the planet to put together a social network that lives independently of all of the other social networks.

The Networking Clubs are a great place to connect with other social media marketers.

There are almost 12,000 social media marketers who belong to the Networking Clubs. With the click of a button, you can join using LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. It’s a place where you can lend a helping hand, connect with your peers and get help.

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Why Email Subscribers Unsubscribe [INFOGRAPHIC]

One of the most important things that you can do to drive repeat sales is to create an email list (at least according to this study). One of the huge advantages of email is that most businesses achieve about a 20% open rate on email and a .3% opt-out rate. Compare that to social media and email has a huge advantage, not to mention it is much more likely to be the last touch prior to sale. Email closes if you do it right.

 

This is a great infographic on why email subscribers leave and why they stay. I would add one best practice: consider giving them something. Coupon, discount, widget – little drives people to act than a good incentive or a deal. Let me know your thoughts on this one! 

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How to Grow Your Email List With Facebook Promotions

 Facebook Page promotions and how companies can use them to build their email lists.

Why Email?

Email marketing continues to be a strong method digital marketers use to inform, educate and push information to opt-in recipients. It is a universally used tool that everyone sits down to check at work or home.

As outlined in a past interview with Mike Stelzner, Christopher Penn, director of inbound marketing at What Counts and co-founder of PodCamp, notes that email is an important “push medium.”

Reach people where they must take action ---> their inbox. Image source: iStockPhoto.

Email serves as one leg of a three-legged marketing tool along with a blog and social media. Within this three-pronged strategy, email is the distribution mechanism, while a blog is the content center and social media is the conversation mechanism.

When new content is posted on a blog, email can be a method of distributing notice of the new article, while social media offers a conversation mechanism for users to talk about the content.

For many companies, their email list is really the foundational marketing piece. It’s a jewel of great value containing the names and direct contact method of customers and would-be customers that enables them to “get in front of” these people regularly.

The Facebook Advantage

Facebook, with over 1 billion users, including over 680 million daily active users, has the broadest age-range diversity of any social platform.

Because of the active user base and penetration across key purchasing power demographics, it’s a very important place for companies to have an active presence.

Reach people where they spend time ---> Facebook. Image source: iStockPhoto.

When Facebook Pages use app promotions on tabs, the tandem of Facebook and email can help marketers reach people where they are (Facebook) and engage with them.

This adds value to their social media efforts, while—when done with intent—also builds their email list.

Engage, Capture, Grow, Distribute = Facebook Promos + List-Building. Image source: iStockPhoto.

List-Building Facebook Promotion Examples

Facebook promotions offer marketers a powerful way to boost engagement and extend the reach of their Facebook Page. There are numerous types of Facebook promotions that can be run on Pages. Below we’ll outline a number of examples of ways a Facebook promotion can be used to grow your email list.

All of the types of promotions mentioned below must use third-party apps displayed on a Facebook Page tab. This is necessary to comply with Facebook’s promotion policy.

#1: Sweepstakes Promotion

A sweepstakes is a chance-based promotion that can be hosted on a Facebook Page tab and typically has users complete a simple form to enter. After a set date, winners are then drawn randomly from all entries.

With the form for entering the sweepstakes, those setting up the promotion canoutline in the terms that submitting their email address also is their agreement to opt-in to the associated email list. Users must click the box to accept the terms to enter.

Below are two examples of sweepstakes apps that could be used as part of a Facebook engagement strategy and email list-builder.

Facebook Page sweepstakes example as potential email list-builder.

Viral friend sharing component plus simple form entry opt-in.

#2: Trivia Promotion

Another chance-based Facebook promotion that can be used to engage Facebook fans and their friends as part of an email list-building strategy is a trivia promotion. With a trivia tab, users typically must complete basic entry information, including their email address, and submit their answers to the trivia questions.

Users are intrigued by the trivia itself or the prize offered and are willing to complete to enter.

The opt-in would either need to be outlined with a checkbox to agree in the terms or upon submission an opt-in email could be sent for the user to agree to. Best practice is always to make this clear up front to ensure the greatest opt-in percentage.

Below is an example of a trivia app by the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves that is being used as part of a Facebook engagement strategy.

Trivia tab promotions can help grow an email list.

#3: Facebook Contests

Contests come in all variations from photo, caption, essay or video submission contests. Each offers a great opportunity to draw entrants and voters to a Facebook Page.

A contest can also be a great way to build your email list! The key is to make sure you know and focus on your primary goal. Since the primary goal of a Facebook contest typically will be engagement and expanding Page reach, the email opt-in should simply be a natural part of the entry process and not something that draws undue attention to itself.

A helpful way to incorporate email opt-in as part of a Facebook contest is toinclude information about the email list in the terms of the contest. Facebook fans then enter the contest and receive a follow-up opt-in email from your business inviting them to confirm being added to the email list.

Facebook photo contest entries can be part of an email opt-in strategy.

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3 Ways to Grow Your Email List With Twitter

One of the most powerful aspects of social media is just how well it integrates with building a strong email list for your business.

Of all of the various platforms, Twitter offers some of the best (and most unique) tactics to use if you’re looking to increase email sign-ups.

In this article I’ll go over 3 tactics to utilize Twitter’s massive audience to grow your email list with qualified leads.

Let’s get started!

#1: Link Your Twitter Bio to an Opt-In Page

Putting your website in your Twitter bio is a no-brainer, but smart marketers know that when you link to a page with a direct call to action (a “landing page”), this is going to convert much better than your general homepage.

Amy Porterfield does this well. She links to her webinar page in her Twitter bio so followers who are interested can opt in right away.

And there’s another reason why Amy does this well. She uses a WordPress plugin called Pretty Link for her webinar link instead of a random short link. Notice how the Pretty Link uses your own domain name for the link.

Here's Amy's bio with an in-profile link to her webinar.

This method is great because it will provide the authority of your domain. It’s easier to trust a link entitled “AmyPorterfield.com/webinar” than some random short link.

More importantly, it will give people an easy link to share to refer others to the resource, especially on Twitter.

Another benefit to having the link listed in your bio rather than below it (next to your location) is that the links in your bio show up all around Twitter and related sites.

Lastly, an added benefit is Pretty Link tracks the clicks.

When browsing Twitter lists (of all types), the bio is the only thing that shows up and only links or @Mentions are clickable.

Here’s an example of how a link in your Twitter bio will appear when people browse large aggregation sites like Klout.

Here is Amy’s bio with her aforementioned webinar link:

Third-party sites often show only profile information.

Your Twitter bio will get more exposure than you think, and having a clickable link to an opt-in page is a fantastic way to create more signups, all with one simple tweak!

#2: Use Twitter Tools to Offer a Free Bonus

You’ve likely come across tools like Pay with a Tweet or Cloud:flood before, but you’ve probably never used them like this!

If you’re unfamiliar, these tools allow you to give away something free for the “price” of a tweet. After a reader shares the link provided, they get access to the free content.

Here we see Pay with a Tweet in action, promoting a "free" ebook.

Most people do ask for these shares randomly within posts.

But there’s an even more powerful way of using these tools: ask for a tweet AFTER they’ve already opted in to your mailing list.

To do this, simply redirect new signups to a page where they can “pay with a tweet” for even more content.

Here’s what this 3-step process looks like:

1. A new subscriber will opt in to your newsletter from a newsletter signup page:

This page is used to download the ebook and share the landing page, all at once!

2. After they confirm their email, you would use your email marketing service (for example, AWeber or MailChimp) to redirect people to a “Pay with a Tweet” page that has additional content available for the price of a tweet.Use Pay with a Tweet or Cloud:flood to make sure that the link they tweet out sends people to your newsletter page.

3. Lastly, enjoy the benefits of giving extra value to your readers and having tons of people send out direct tweets to your newsletter page!

Nice!

All it takes is a free resource to give to readers who send out the tweet, a little effort toset this up behind the scenes and you’re set to have a newsletter page that receives a ton of shares.

#3: Use Click to Tweet to Make Your Signup Page Easy to Tweet

In addition to clever strategies to get more tweets for your blog content, take time tomake your newsletter signup page worth tweeting about.

You can do this without having a freebie incentive too. When done right, this can helpgenerate a massive amount of new email leads for you.

Here are some tips to get your newsletter signup page tweeted more:

1. Add a “sound bite” to your newsletter page. This is one of those tips that, once you see it, you’ll wish you’d have thought of it sooner. It’s dead simple to implement. On your newsletter page, add something that’s worth tweeting (a quote will often do) and allow it to be tweeted with a single click. You can use a tool like Click to Tweet to accomplish this.

Hiten Shah, founder of KISSmetrics, does this well on his newsletter page (which has over 150 tweets).

Now people have a call to action and a legitimate reason to tweet about your newsletter page.

Another tool you can use to achieve the same outcome is the Twitter @Anywhere Plus plugin, which allows you to create premade tweets like this:

This page can be shared on Twitter in a single click.

Add one to your newsletter page, and you’re set.

Make sure the content is something that your readers would like to tweet out(this is why quotes work well); don’t make it all about you!

2. Add a “tweetable” to your welcome email. This second tip does require people to opt in, but it’s also really effective. After people sign up to your newsletter, you can assume that they are quite engaged with your content and your message. One of the best times to ask for a small favor (like a tweet) will be to send a follow-up message immediately after a reader has signed up.

Here's the text that Jonathan Mead of Paid to Exist uses to get people to share his newsletter page on Twitter.

Again, for the call to action (“call to tweet”), the service Click to Tweet was used. You’ll notice the copy asks “if you agree,” rather than an outright request to share.

In psychology, this would be known as commitment and consistency: people prefer to stay consistent with things that they’ve already done, and if they’ve signed up for your newsletter, they are likely to commit to another small favor if asked nicely.

Use both of these tips. They give your readers an easy way to share your newsletter page.

This will ultimately attract a TON of qualified leads for your email list.

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