5 Email Drips Every Online Store Needs

Did you know that 72% of US adults prefer to use email as a means of communicating with companies?  

Despite the immediate availability of messaging apps and SMS, email remains to be a vital channel of communication – be it as a way to build brand-customer relationships or to make business deals.  

Email not only allows you to send longer, targeted messages to your prospects and customers, regardless of where they are located in the buying life cycle, but it also makes it easier for you to keep your email list interested and connected.  

There's no doubt that emails are here to stay. This is why email marketing should remain to be a vital part of your marketing strategy next year.  

But, what kind of email campaigns are winning over leads and converting them into customers effectively?

To ensure that the right people see the right content at the right time, email drip campaigns win. In fact, drip campaigns have 80% higher open rates and three times higher click-through rates compared to conventional email campaigns.  

By using triggered emails that are optimized for SEO in Miami to nurture leads for your online store, your average order value and conversion rates will likely multiply!

In this article, let's take a look at the five email drips that your e-commerce store needs to set up and optimize to keep your audience engaged and moving along the sales funnel.  

Before we delve into that, however, let's first discuss what email drips are and why they're important:

What Is Drip Marketing?

Drip email marketing campaigns refer to the practice of sending out automated emails to your audience, based on actions they take or changes in their status. Many businesses use a drip campaign to stay connected with their audience in a more targeted and personalized way.  

For example, if a lead signs up for your newsletter, you want to send them a welcome email first. The next step is to introduce your team via email and share a little bit about your team's background.  

Then, set the right expectations by sending a "What to expect from us" email. After that, send them a checklist so that they only get the relevant emails they want. Build credibility by sending them reviews and testimonials.  

And, finally, once your lead has fully on-boarded, ask them for feedback to improve your business.  

Why Is Drip Marketing Important?

• Boost engagement and loyalty: You can use drip emails to engage current and former customers. Sending automated emails based on a user's action allows you to engage them in both the renewal and the new purchase process.  
• Develop a lead nurturing marketing funnel: Before writing an email and sending it to your audience, consider where they're situated in the sales funnel. If a prospect just registered on the sign-up form on your site, avoid sending them long-form emails. Instead, introduce yourself and allow them to get to know your brand more by sending value-added content, such as tutorials, video content, research studies, and promotional offers.  
• Advertise relevant content: When you know where your audience is in the sales cycle, it's easier to send them relevant content that meets their needs. With an email drip campaign, you can send highly personalized and relevant information to your audience at the right moment.  
• Boost brand awareness: By constantly communicating and engaging with your target audience, you can build brand familiarity and increase brand awareness over time. This will keep your brand at the top of their minds, so that when they're ready to buy, you're the first company that comes to mind.  

• Re-engage with leads that aren't closing and current clients who haven't been in touch: Retain your current customers and prevent them from switching to your competitor by reaching out to them and giving them an incentive to interact again.  

5 Email Drip Campaigns to Boost Your Business

1. Welcome Drip Marketing Campaign

Did you know that welcome emails generate four times more open rates and five times more clicks? On top of this, welcome emails can also get you as much as 320% more revenue per email compared to other promotional emails.  

These stats prove that welcome emails are indeed necessary.  

Sending welcome emails is not only a way to give your new subscribers a warm welcome, but it also helps usher them to your website or online store by providing them with relevant content at the right time.  

Welcome emails have become an essential part of the e-commerce shopping experience. Modern consumers expect them from businesses whenever they sign up or register on their website or email newsletter.  

It could also be the very first point of contact between you and new and/or potential customers, so it's vital to craft the right messaging to motivate them to open your subsequent emails.  

Although you can most definitely use your welcome emails to convert leads right away, they shouldn't aim to hard sell at all. Consumers don't like being sold to. Hard selling messaging turns people off.  

So, if you want your welcome message to successfully come through your audience, it should primarily be transactional. It's meant to confirm that your new subscribers were indeed able to opt-in and that you can reach them via email.  

Many businesses send a series of welcome emails, instead of just one.  

The first email, for example, will thank new subscribers for opting in, ask them to double opt-in by confirming having subscribed and clicking on a link. After your new subscribers confirm, they'll get a second "thank you" email.  

You can include an offer, a short introduction about your brand, links to relevant content they might be interested in, or an invitation to reach out to you if they have any questions they want to ask.  

Sending welcome email series presents an opportunity to build familiarity early on and cultivate patterns of engagement, increasing the likelihood that they'll open your future emails and continue engaging with them.  

Here are some tips on how to create effective welcome series campaigns:

• Offer a form of incentive to urge them to subscribe. It could be a free trial, discount, or exclusive access to free content.  
• Invite them to follow you on social media and check out your blog. Engage with them as much as you can across all touchpoints and build brand familiarity.  
• Avoid using spam trigger words, such as "free", "quote", "trial", and "sample".  
• Make sure your autoresponder email gets sent right away after a new user subscribes - while they're still looking forward to knowing more about you.  
• Optimize your email for SEO in Miami.

2. Abandoned Cart Email Drip Campaigns

Sometimes, people add products to their shopping cart and then get a little distracted or feel a little unsure about buying the item, and then click away from the site. This is a normal scenario, and it happens more often than you think. You've most likely experienced doing it a couple of times yourself.  

Try to re-engage these shoppers and try to get them to convert. This is where the abandoned cart email drips come into the picture.  

Studies on 500 leading international brands show that 44.1% of abandoned cart emails are opened, and 29.9% lead to recovered sales.  

Abandoned cart emails refresh your audience's minds about the items on their cart. They act as a gentle nudge that drives them to hit the checkout button.  

However, not all abandoned cart emails drive users to take action. So, what else do? Below are some tips you can use on how to maximize conversions with your abandoned cart emails:

• Include discounts, free gifts, or free shipping in your reminder message.  
• Create a sense of urgency and trigger fear of missing out (FOMO) by serving a one-time offer or limited time offer.
• Use a subject line that will pique the interest of your target audience like "The mascara on your cart is on sale today!"
• Update users that the supply is low or that the amount of time you'll hold their item is running out.  

• Include positive user reviews and testimonials.  

3. Re-engagement Reminders

Would you believe that you lose a quarter of your subscribers each year? Let’s face it, people unsubscribe. You need to realize that you're losing more than you think.  

It's no secret that trying to get new customers costs a lot - as in 10x times more - than trying to keep your current customers engaged and buying from you again. So, losing a subscriber can hurt you financially.  

Oh, and unsubscribing isn't the only way you're losing customers; some people who remain subscribed may stop interacting with you.

If a large portion of your email list has fallen into the "disengaged audience" category, you should work on bringing them back on your site and purchasing.  

Disengaged audience or inactive subscribers refer to users who haven't purchased from you, visited your site, or responded to your emails.  

By sending re-engagement reminder messages, you can offer them too-good-to-pass-up proposals and motivate them to engage with your email and visit your website again.  

So, what should your re-engagement email look like? Here are some tips to consider:

• Use an attention-grabbing subject or main title, like "We Miss You!" or "Are we *gasp* breaking up?". Touchy headlines will remind your subscribers that they haven't engaged with you in a while.  

• Offer a free product, a discount, or a chance to win a prize.  
• Make sure that your incentives are easy to obtain and they can redeem with minimal friction. Offers like "Use this coupon to buy yourself something nice today!" can be prime movers.  
• Split test which re-engagement offers and tones work best with your email list.  
• Use your subscriber list's purchase history to send out personalized and highly relevant re-engagement offers.  

4. Post-Purchase Follow-Up Prompts

Post-purchase follow-up emails are incredibly powerful. They tend to get twice the open rate compared to promotional emails, and they help you convert new customers into repeat buyers. So, you really should use them to your advantage.

Unfortunately, not all companies send out post-purchase follow-up emails. They just send a receipt and they're done. You can actually put more thought into such emails and show them you really care about their satisfaction even after you've closed the deal.  

If you’re not sure what post-purchase emails to send, here are the top five follow-up emails you need:

• Thank you and Order confirmation: Confirm that their order went through and that you're preparing their orders. Thank your customers and let them know when it will ship and how to track their orders, access to their receipt, how to contact you if they have any concerns, and what they should do next. The main goal of your confirmation email is to give your customers assurance.  
• Shipping confirmation: Update your customers on the status of their orders by sending a shipping confirmation. This helps nurture your relationship with them, and, at the same time, build trust.  

• Check-in on the shipment: Did their item arrive on time? Did it arrive in good shape? This follow-up email doesn't have to be complicated. It could be as simple as saying "We really value you and wanted to make sure that everything is okay. If there's any problem, don't hesitate to let us know".  
• Ask for a review: Positive reviews can help boost your sales. They also give you an insight into how to improve your products, services, and better serve your customers. If a customer leaves a negative review, you have the chance to fix the problem and make it up to them.  
• Re-order or additional order: Offer discounts or free gifts on a re-order or additional order. If you receive positive feedback, use it as an opportunity to get them to re-order or purchase a similar product.  

5. Updates and Information Prompts

One of the main reasons people subscribe is because they want access to exclusive deals and stay informed about the latest promotions and product updates.  

However, people only want information that's relevant to them. Otherwise, if they get too many emails they're not interested in, they'll unsubscribe.  

So, how can you be sure that you’re sending the right email to the right person at the right moment? Use your segmented list to only send updates and information that are relevant to specific segments in your audience.  

Email drips also allow you to do this. By syncing your subscribers' list with their purchase history data, you can send them automated, relevant product updates and promotional emails.  

Apart from carefully segmenting and targeting, here are some other ways you can make your emails feel more relevant:

• Use your customer's first name in the subject line.  

• Let them know what to expect from reading your email.  
• Include a clear CTA and place it in a prominent location to boost your click-through rates.
• Send your emails at the day and time they're most active in checking their inbox.  
• Optimize your email for SEO in Miami by using the right keywords.  

Generate More Sales with Drip Campaigns

Drip emails are among the highest-converting email marketing campaigns. They definitely deserve a central spot in your marketing strategy next year!

If you thought drip emails aren't necessary, we hope this article changed your mind. By sending welcome, abandoned cart, re-engagement, post-purchase follow-ups, and update prompt emails, you can keep your subscriber list engaged, continually buying, and loyal to your company!

If you need help coming up with effective drip email marketing campaigns that your audience will likely respond to, we can help!  

At Digital Resource, our digital marketing experts can help you craft a customer email marketing campaign that will get you more leads, generate more sales, and achieve business goals.  

Contact us today to get started!

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