A Back in stock email, though seemingly simple, can become your secret weapon for re-engaging customers, boosting sales, and improving customer loyalty. But how can you best utilise these potent tools? Let’s explore the world of back in stock emails and how to set them up in SmartrMail.

Every eCommerce retailer has experienced the predicament of a popular product selling out faster than anticipated. While this may seem like a ‘good problem’ to have, it can often lead to missed sales opportunities and disappointed customers who couldn’t make a purchase in time. This is where back in stock emails come into play.

Background on Back in Stock Email

What is a Back in Stock Email?

A back in stock email is a notification that eCommerce businesses send to customers who have expressed interest in a product that was previously out of stock. As soon as the product is available again, an automated email pops up in the customer’s inbox, letting them know they can now make their purchase.

This strategy is crucial in maintaining customer engagement and driving conversions. It bridges the gap between supply and demand by keeping the communication lines open with customers, even when you can’t immediately fulfil their requests.

Back in stock emails not only help you recover potentially lost sales, but they also enhance your relationship with customers. They show customers that you care about their interests and that you are responsive to their needs.

Moreover, these emails can provide valuable data about your customer’s preferences and shopping behaviour. By keeping track of which products have a high demand and the frequency of these back in stock requests, you can manage your inventory more effectively.

The Impact of Back in stock Emails on Customer Retention and Sales

On the surface, back in stock emails may seem like just another notification. However, their impact extends beyond a simple alert. When used strategically, these emails can significantly boost your sales and customer loyalty.

The key to their success lies in their relevance and timing. By providing customers with information that is directly linked to their shopping preferences, you increase the chances of re-engaging them and encouraging a purchase. In fact, customers who return to make a purchase after receiving a back in stock email often continue to engage with the brand, leading to higher lifetime value.

In a world where customer loyalty is hard to come by, back in stock emails offer an effective strategy to maintain your connection with customers and remind them of the value you provide.

Why you should automate Back in Stock emails

Automating ‘Back in Stock’ emails isn’t just a fancy feature; it’s a game-changing strategy for eCommerce businesses.

Firstly, automation brings the boon of time efficiency. The alternative is manually tracking which customers are interested in which products, then sending individual emails when those items are restocked. For larger eCommerce stores with thousands of products and customers, this would be a Herculean task. Automation takes this workload and turns it into a hands-off process that works around the clock.

In addition, automation ensures immediate notification. As soon as an item is back, an automated system sends an alert email to the interested customers. This kind of real-time communication increases the chance of conversion by reaching customers before the item sells out again. Importantly, when customers sign up for ‘Back in Stock’ notifications, it’s a prime opportunity to invite them to join your general email marketing list. It’s a win-win situation – they’re expressing their interest in your products, and you’re gaining a potentially loyal customer for your email marketing campaigns.

But it’s not just about immediacy and efficiency; it’s also about the customer experience. Personalised communication is what customers appreciate, and automating ‘Back in Stock’ emails allows businesses to provide this personal touch at scale. The system knows which customers want to hear about which products, so every email hits the mark.

Then there’s the potential for increased sales. When a customer has shown enough interest in a product to sign up for notifications, they’re likely primed to buy once it’s available. Automating these emails can help capture these ready-to-convert customers.

Meanwhile, automated systems aren’t just sending emails; they’re also gathering data. Metrics like click-through rates and conversions from ‘Back in Stock’ emails can be tracked and analysed, giving valuable insights into customer behaviour and campaign effectiveness. This information empowers businesses to adjust their strategies for even better results.

Finally, automating ‘Back in Stock’ emails is an investment in customer retention. By keeping customers informed about their desired products, businesses nurture these relationships. Personalised communication like this improves customer loyalty, leading to higher retention in the long run.

Email 1: The Confirmation and Assurance

One crucial aspect of maintaining a solid customer relationship is setting clear expectations. When a customer signs up for a ‘Back in Stock’ notification, it’s an explicit expression of their interest in a specific product. This situation presents an opportunity to reinforce your commitment to keeping them updated.

Instead of rushing to offer a discount or make a hard sell, your first ‘Back in Stock’ email should confirm their subscription to the notification and assure them that they will be contacted once the desired item becomes available. An example of such a communication is outlined below.

Your initial ‘Back in Stock’ email should encompass the following components:

A thank-you note for their interest in the product.
Reiteration of the product’s details including a clear image, the name, and possibly a brief description.
Assurance that you’ll notify them as soon as the product is back in stock.
A clear call-to-action (CTA), such as directing them to view similar products in the meantime.
An offer for further assistance if needed.
The last point is vital. Customers might have questions or issues about the product or the notification process. By proactively offering help, you’re showing your commitment to their satisfaction.

The rest of the components also carry weight. The good news is, SmartrMail’s ‘Back in Stock’ email template streamlines this process for you. It automatically generates the product’s images, titles, and descriptions, and includes an easily customisable CTA. The aim is to foster a connection with your customers, giving them a hassle-free experience and reassurance about their awaited product.

Email 2: The Friendly Notification

One of the main reasons customers sign up for ‘Back in Stock’ notifications is because they are truly interested in the product, but the product’s unavailability made it impossible to purchase at that time. This is especially true for unique, hard-to-find, or popular items that sell out quickly.

It might be tempting to bundle in a discount with your ‘Back in Stock’ email, but doing so could eat into your margins for customers who are already primed to make the purchase. For this reason, your ‘Back in Stock’ email should serve primarily as a friendly notification, as illustrated in the example below.

Just like this example, all your ‘Back in Stock’ emails should include:

Clear images of the product that’s back in stock.
The name of the product and potentially a short description.
A clear call-to-action (CTA) button that makes it easy for your customer to head straight to the product page and make the purchase.
Means to contact you for support if they need help.

Everything else mentioned above remains important too. Luckily, with SmartrMail’s ‘Back in Stock’ email template, you can automatically include the product’s images, titles, and descriptions. There’s also an automatic button that links directly to the product page for a smooth and easy checkout process.

How to a Set Up Back in Stock Pop Up in SmartrMail

Setting up back in stock Pop Up in SmartrMail is a simple process:

Step 1: Sign in to your SmartrMail dashboard.
Step 2: Navigate to the “Pop up” tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
Step 3: Click on the “New Pop Up” Button and then select a ‘Back in Stock’ template

Step 4:Configure your pop up settings, design and layout

Step 5:Click ‘Enable’ and you are done, when your product goes out of stock a button will appear for your customer.

How to a Set Up Back in Stock Email in SmartrMail

Step 1: Navigate to the “Automations” tab on the left-hand side of your screen.
Step 2: Click on the “New Automation” button.
Step 3: In the automation type selection, choose “Back in Stock.”

Step 4: From here you can configure your trigger settings, you can choose to Limit your back in stock automation to specific products or collections and then build the rest of the flow
Step 5: Configure your email settings – subject line and email content and design, remember personalisation is extremely effective!
Step 6: Set up any additional automation rules. For instance, time delays, conditional splits, or additional emails

Step 7: Finally, hit “Enable Automation” to activate the automation.

That’s it! SmartrMail will automatically send an email to customers who’ve expressed interest in a product when it’s back in stock. ?

Back in Stock FAQs

1) Can I customise my back in stock emails?

With SmartrMail, you’re the boss. You can tweak the content, spruce up the design, jazz up the subject line, and a whole lot more to make sure your back in stock emails scream “YOU!” Your brand’s style and tone? Consider it done!

2) When is the best time to send back in stock emails?

Firstly, it’s crucial to send these notifications as soon as you have sufficient stock to satisfy the demand. If only a single unit of a product comes back in stock and you have hundreds of customers who have signed up for notifications, sending out an email could lead to disappointment for those who miss out. Therefore, you might want to establish a threshold for restock depending on your customer behaviour and inventory dynamics.

3) Who receives back in stock notifications?

Any visitor on your site can receive back in stock notifications. The process is pretty simple – if a product they’re interested in isn’t currently available, they can sign up to be notified when it’s back in stock. This way, they’ll be the first to know when their coveted item is ready for purchase again. It’s a handy feature that keeps your customers engaged and ensures they don’t miss out on the products they love.

Conclusion

Back in stock emails, when used effectively, can significantly boost customer engagement and sales. They ensure customers are promptly notified when their desired product is available, reinforcing your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Setting up these emails on SmartrMail is a breeze, making it easy for you to harness the power of this effective email marketing tool. Remember, every touchpoint with your customers matters, so make it count! Happy emailing!

Remember, ‘Back in Stock’ emails are not just about letting your customers know their fave product is back. It’s your chance to show them you’ve got their back and are keen on making their shopping experience with you seamless and enjoyable. Plus, automating these notifications means you never miss a beat (or sale!).

Of course, you’ve got to get that perfect blend of info and engagement. It all kicks off with a killer subject line. Need some inspo? We’ve got you covered with our blog post on 70 Compelling Back in Stock Subject Lines

But don’t stop at the subject line! The email content should be a mix of your brand personality and the right information. If you’re wondering what that looks like, don’t miss our post on 13 Brilliant Back In Stock Email Examples To Draw Inspiration.

The post Back in Stock Email Everything you need to know to craft an effective strategy appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

While it’s an excellent strategy to drive conversions and recover potential lost sales, making sure your ‘Back in Stock’ emails are opened and acted upon is the real challenge.

And that’s where subject lines shine.

Considering that nearly a third of your email subscribers decide whether to open an email based on its subject line, crafting an irresistible one is essential to enhancing your open rates.

That’s why we’ve curated this list of 70 proven ‘Back in Stock’ email subject lines. Feel free to use them as a springboard for inspiration when you’re creating your own. Let’s re-engage those customers and convert those once lost sales opportunities!

What makes a good back in stock subject line?

The first impression of your email marketing strategy is encapsulated in your subject line. It’s your golden ticket to achieving increased open rates, so crafting it carefully is critical. Here’s what makes a subject line great:

First and foremost, clarity is key. Your recipients should instantly understand the email’s content from its subject line. If it’s too cryptic or overly clever, chances are they’ll skip opening it. So, always aim for clear communication.

Next, consider length. Since most email inboxes truncate subject lines beyond 50-60 characters, it’s crucial to be concise. This is especially important considering how mobile displays allow even fewer characters.

Instilling a sense of urgency or exclusivity can be a game-changer. Limited-time offers or exclusive deals catch the eye and prompt immediate action.

Personalisation is another powerful tool. Incorporating the recipient’s name or specific details can make the email stand out and feel more personal, thus improving open rates.

Stimulating curiosity can be effective too. If a subject line raises an intriguing question or a tantalising prospect, recipients will likely open the email to satiate their curiosity. But remember, the content must live up to the promise made in the subject line.

It’s also vital to align your subject line with your audience’s interests or needs. The more relevant it is, the more likely they are to open the email. Understanding your audience demographics and behavior can aid in this.

Lastly, but significantly, always test your subject lines. Different strategies work for different audiences, so regular testing can help you find the optimal approach.

Remember, an effective subject line is your email’s entry ticket into your recipient’s world. With a blend of creativity and understanding, you can create subject lines that not only grab attention but also encourage action.

20 General Back in Stock subject lines:

These are some general examples of subject lines used in the past that just contain a simple Back in Stock message.

“Good News! Your Favorite Item is Back in Stock!”
“Missed It? We’ve Got It Back!”
“It’s Back! Grab Your Favorite Item Now!”
“They’re Back! Get Yours Before They’re Gone Again!”
“Back in Stock Alert: Your Wait is Over”
“Just In: Your Wishlist Item is Back!”
“Surprise! That Sold-Out Item is Back!”
“Look What’s Back…Just for You!”
“Get Excited: Your Favorite Item is Back and Ready to Ship!”
“Hot Off the Press: Your Must-Have Item is Back!”
“Guess Who’s Back? Your Favorite Product!”
“It’s Here: That Product You Wanted is Back!”
“Breaking News: Popular Items Back in Stock!”
“They’re Back! Did You Miss Us?”
“Your Patience Has Paid Off: Our Bestseller is Back!”
“Good Things Come to Those Who Wait: Back in Stock!”
“Just In Time: Your Preferred Product is Back!”
“Back and Better Than Ever: Your Favorite Product!”
“Don’t Miss Out This Time: Your Item is Back in Stock!”
“The Wait is Over: Your Item Has Returned!”

15 Restock email subject lines designed to induce a sense of FOMO

“Act Fast! Your Favorite Item is Back for a Limited Time!”
“It’s Back, But Not for Long: Don’t Miss Out Again!”
“Back in Stock, But Going Fast. Grab Yours Now!”
“Hurry, Your Wishlist Item is Back, But It Won’t Last!”
“The Wait is Over, But the Clock is Ticking. Your Item is Back!”
“Missed It Last Time? It’s Back But Selling Fast!”
“Back by Popular Demand and Flying Off The Shelves!”
“Limited Stock Alert: Your Favorite Item is Back!”
“They’re Back and Selling Out Fast: Get Yours Now!”
“Snap It Up! Your Desired Item is Back for a Short Time!”
“Don’t Miss Out This Time: Your Favorite Product is Back!”
“Don’t Let It Slip Away Again: Your Item is Back in Stock!”
“It’s Now or Never: Your Fave is Back in Limited Quantities!”
“The One That Got Away is Back. Grab It While You Can!”
“You Waited, We Listened: Your Fave is Back and Going Fast!”

The aim of these subject lines is to create urgency and scarcity, encouraging subscribers to take action right away. Remember to balance this with providing value and building trust with your audience.

15 Back in Stock email subject lines with a focus on a discount offer:

“Back in Stock and 15% Off: Your Favorite Item!”
“Guess Who’s Back? And Now 20% Off!”
“It’s Back and It’s Cheaper! Your Must-Have Item”
“Back in Stock, Plus a Special 10% Discount Just for You”
“Great News: Your Fave is Back and Now on Sale!”
“Hot Off the Press: Your Preferred Item is Back and Discounted!”
“Our Bestseller is Back and Better – Now with 25% Off!”
“Celebrate the Return: Your Favorite Product + Cool Discount!”
“Your Wait Paid Off: It’s Back and Now 20% Off!”
“Your Item is Back and it Brought a 15% Discount With It”
“They’re Back and Priced to Please – Extra 10% Off Just for You!”
“Back in Stock and Now More Affordable – Grab Your 20% Off!”
“Don’t Miss Out: Your Fave is Back & Now Comes with a 15% Off!”/
“Good Things Come to Those Who Wait: 20% Off Your Back-in-Stock Favorite”
“Finally Back: And Now with a 25% Discount You’ll Love!”

Ensure you balance the promotion of the discount with the announcement of the restock. The emphasis can be adjusted based on what you believe your audience will respond to more enthusiastically.

20 Restock email subject lines with emojis

“Back in Stock Alert! Your ? Favorite Item is Here”
“Surprise! Your ? Wanted Product is Back in Stock”
“? Hot News! Your Favorite Item is Now Available”
“They’re Back! Your ? Must-Have Items Now in Stock”
“Guess what’s back? Your ? Dream Item”
“? Your Wait is Over! Your Item is Back in Stock”
“Time to Shine! Your Favorite Item ? is Back”
“Look ? What’s Back in Stock! Your Wishlisted Product”
“Good News! Your ? Item is Back”
“Celebrate! Your ? Product is Back in Stock”
“It’s ? Party Time! Your Favorite Item is Back”
“Back in ? Stock Alert! Your Item is Here”
“They’re ? Back! Grab Your Must-Have Items Now”
“Check What’s ? Back! Your Dream Item”
“The Wait is Over! Your Item is Back”
“Back in Stock! Grab Your ? Favorite Item Now”
“Your Item is Back in Stock ? Time to Celebrate!”
“Hooray! Your ? Wishlisted Product is Back”
“It’s ? Back! Time to Shop Your Favorite Item”
“Your Wanted Product is Back ? Time to Treat Yourself!”

How often should I send Back in Stock emails?

Deciding when to send your back-in-stock emails really comes down to a balancing act between product availability, customer demand, and respecting the personal space of your customers’ inboxes.

For products that play a quick game of hide and seek—frequently going out of stock and then being replenished—you’ll want to notify your eager customers more regularly. However, if restocks are few and far between, lessen the email frequency accordingly.

If certain items are flying off your virtual shelves, resulting in a high demand, then every time the product reappears, a back-in-stock email is warranted. However, you’ll want to make sure there’s enough inventory to meet that demand, avoiding a situation where customers find the product sold out yet again.

Remember, it’s all about providing value without causing annoyance. Bombarding your customers with too many notifications may have them reaching for the unsubscribe button. So, maintain a healthy balance that suits your customer preferences and business needs.

But what if a product keeps playing the disappearing act, continually going in and out of stock? That could be a cue to re-evaluate your inventory management to provide a more seamless shopping experience for your customers. After all, a satisfied customer is a loyal customer.

Conclusion

And there we have it! An arsenal of creative ‘Back in Stock’ email subject lines, designed to re-engage your customers effectively and increase your email open rates. Be it stirring up a sense of FOMO, offering tempting discounts, or adding a dash of personality with emojis, these subject lines are all set to pique interest and catch your customer’s eye.

But, remember, great email marketing doesn’t stop at an enticing subject line. It’s all about striking the right balance between engaging and informative. A well-crafted subject line is your first touchpoint with your customers when announcing a restock, so make it count!

Feel free to get inspired and mix things up with these suggestions. As always, A/B test your subject lines to see what hits the right chord with your audience.

Now, with these powerful ‘Back in Stock’ subject lines at your disposal, it’s time to elevate your email game. But, don’t stop here! If you need more tips and inspiration on ‘Back in Stock’ emails, check out our blog posts on 6 Exceptional Back in Stock Email Examples and Everything you need to know about Back in Stock Email Campaigns. They’re packed with valuable insights and practical tips to help you ace your email marketing strategy.

Pro Tip: Personalising subject lines with the specific product title that the user showed interest in can significantly increase the open rate. This tailored approach shows customers that you know and cater to their specific interests. And guess what? SmartrMail can help you do just that.

Remember, the effectiveness of your subject line can heavily influence open rates, so it’s crucial to test different variations to see what works best with your audience. You can A/B Test this automatically with SmartrMail

So, take these email subject lines for a spin and watch your customer engagement reach new heights. Here’s to making your customers’ inboxes a happier place!

The post How to write fantastic Back in Stock Subject Lines with 70 examples appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

So, what does it take to create compelling back in stock emails that actually work? A mix of smart strategies, engaging design and copy, and just the right timing can make all the difference.

We’re showcasing thirteen top-notch back in stock email examples from successful brands. Each one is a source of great inspiration, whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your existing back in stock email strategy. But first let’s answer a few frequently asked questions!

What is a back in stock email?

A back in stock email is an automated message that’s triggered and sent to customers when an item that was previously out of stock is available again. These emails are crucial for driving conversions, especially in scenarios where customers have shown interest in a particular product but were unable to purchase due to its unavailability. In other words, it’s an easy way to tap into a ready pool of potential customers who’ve already shown interest in a product. We also know that Back in Stock emails have the highest open rate at an average of a staggering 65.32%! Thanks to this comprehensive 2023 email marketing ROI Statistics report

How to write a back in stock email?

Writing an effective back in stock email requires a blend of timely communication, attractive presentation, and a clear call to action. Here’s a basic formula you can follow:

1. Start with an attention-grabbing subject line, for example: “Good news! Your favorite [product name] is back in stock!”
2. Inside the email, be sure to acknowledge their interest in the product and announce that it’s now back in stock.
3. Provide a clear image of the product to refresh their memory and stir their interest.
4. Add a direct call to action that takes them to the product page, for instance: “Shop Now” or “Get It Before It’s Gone”.
5. Optionally, you can add some urgency or exclusivity to motivate immediate action. You can mention limited stock, high demand, or limited time availability.

Are back in stock emails transactional?

Not quite. Back in stock emails are technically triggered marketing emails, as they’re based on the behavior of the customer (expressing interest in a product that was out of stock). However, they’re not transactional emails like order confirmations or shipping notifications, which are directly related to a customer’s transaction. Back in stock emails can walk a fine line as they’re sent based on a customer’s interaction with a product but are not triggered by a purchase. Their primary goal is promotional—to drive the customer back to the store to make a purchase.

It’s time to see theory in practice, drawing from successful strategies implemented by various brands. The best way to learn is often by observing others, understanding their approaches, and then tailoring those insights to our unique contexts.

Back In Stock Email Examples

Each of these campaigns has been handpicked for their strategic brilliance, showcasing a myriad of tactics, from creating a sense of urgency to employing captivating visuals, offering exclusive access, and more.

As we dissect these examples, we’ll draw out the key strategies and techniques that make them so effective. It’s not just about announcing a product’s return; it’s about seizing the opportunity to re-engage, re-excite, and reconvert.

Keep in mind, the goal here isn’t to clone these emails, but to draw inspiration from them and adapt their winning elements to suit your brand’s unique voice and audience.

1) Margin’s elegant Back in Stock Email

Creating simple yet elegant emails that capture the readers attention and delivers the right information can be a fine line to balance. Margin have been able to effectively roll all these features into their Back in Stock email with ease.

By using a simple font on a contrasting background makes this email easy to to read, especially on smaller screens. This is something to consider with more customers reading emails on their mobile devices than ever before.

The offer of “Today Only” complimentary shipping encourages customers to act quickly as well as increasing the value to the customers purchase.

Key takeaway: Complimentary shipping enhances the value proposition for the customer. By absorbing the shipping cost, Margin removes a common barrier to online purchases and makes the deal more attractive, thereby increasing the likelihood of a sale.

2) Patagonia

Patagonia’s Back in Stock email is an excellent example of effective customer communication, weaving together several key strategies seamlessly. The email begins by placing their brand name prominently at the top, immediately sparking recognition and engagement among readers. Their direct call-to-action, urging customers to “get it while we still have it”, injects a sense of urgency, encouraging prompt purchasing decisions.

The star of the email, the Men’s Houdini Jacket, is thoughtfully presented with a brief yet informative description and clear pricing, making it straightforward for customers to gauge their interest and make their buying decisions. Beyond just selling a product, Patagonia also takes this opportunity to highlight their dedication to environmental preservation, pledging 1% of sales towards this noble cause since 1985. This not only appeals to the growing base of socially-conscious consumers but also strengthens brand loyalty by demonstrating that every purchase contributes to a larger purpose.

Rounding off the email is Patagonia’s ‘Ironclad Guarantee’, a commitment to repair wear and tear damages at a reasonable charge. This reassuring promise serves to inspire confidence in the product’s durability and the brand’s customer service, reinforcing trust and customer satisfaction. With its blend of urgency, clear product information, brand legacy, environmental commitment, and customer assurance.

Key takeaway: Don’t be put off by the importance of blending several key elements to create a compelling and effective communication piece.

3) Hero’s first access Back in Stock email

Showcasing an expertly crafted ‘back in stock’ notification, Hero masterfully leverages urgency, exclusivity, and visual appeal to re-engage their customers. This cleverly-designed email marries an enticing ‘back by popular demand’ tagline with an exclusive 24-hour early access offer, fostering both desirability and immediate action.

The visually striking hero image serves as a powerful reminder of the product, while a clear ‘Shop Now’ button, coupled with strategically placed links to various brand resources, smoothly guides customers on their shopping journey. Overall, it’s a perfect example of how to convert anticipation into sales while enhancing brand loyalty.

Key takeaway: Recognising that the customers have been “patiently waiting” for the restock acknowledges their desire and anticipation, making an emotional connection that makes customers feel seen and valued.

4) Sproos’ to the point Back in Stock email

Sproos’ ‘red is back!’ Back in Stock email doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to delivering their key takeaway; Informing their customers that their Red Showers are back in stock, whilst creating a sense of urgency!

Keeping their email on theme with the product by using the colour red consistently in their design with the juxtaposition of the attention grabbing purple text, draws readers right in.

Building on the sense of community, the use of a specific hashtag encourages customers to share their experiences, fostering interaction both with the brand and among customers on social media. Alongside, a clear and prominent call-to-action guides the customer journey, making the purchasing process straightforward and customer-friendly.

Key takeaway: When most emails use complimentary colours, stand out from the crowd and try something different.

5) Janji ‘s fun Back in Stock Email

Janji’s ‘Back in Stock’ email for their ‘Multipass Sling Bag’ stands out as a visually compelling piece that skillfully deploys several effective strategies. The eye-catching orange background paired with playful cartoon drawings immediately captures attention, setting the stage for the rest of the email.

The email stirs excitement by announcing the return of a “favourite accessory” and reinforcing this sentiment with the “bestseller restock” tagline. This approach subtly emphasizes the high demand and desirability of the product, making it all the more enticing.

Building on this, Janji cleverly instills a sense of urgency with the phrase “get it before it sells out again”, nudging customers towards quick purchase decisions. The clear and compelling call to action, ‘Shop the Sling Bag’, serves as a direct guide, making the path to purchase straightforward and convenient.

Closing the email with their brand motto, “connecting the world through running,” Janji reaffirms their brand purpose, subtly appealing to customers who share similar values and fostering a deeper connection with their audience.

All in all, Janji’s ‘Back in Stock’ email seamlessly blends engaging visuals, a sense of urgency, clear direction, social proof, and brand purpose to create a persuasive and effective customer communication.

Key Takeaway: Adding credibility to your message offer social proof of the product’s quality and appeal.

6) Radio Roasters Coffee

Radio Roasters Coffee’s ‘Back in Stock’ email serves as a standout example of effective customer communication, adeptly blending key strategies for optimal impact. The visually pleasing and cohesive design, with a light yellow backdrop echoing the color of the product itself, creates an engaging aesthetic that draws the eye directly to the star of the show – the steeped coffee single serve bags.

A concise, yet evocative, product description serves to remind customers of the unique features and benefits of the product, thus reigniting their interest and stoking the desire to make a purchase. The clear and prominent ‘Shop Now’ button simplifies the customer journey, providing an easy, intuitive pathway towards conversion, and eliminating any potential obstacles in the purchasing process.

Yet what sets this email apart is its subtle use of cross-selling. By showcasing new arrivals, and notably, a highly relevant cross-sell item – a vacuum canister for coffee beans – Radio Roasters Coffee cleverly extends the customer interaction beyond a single transaction. By offering a solution for keeping beans fresh, they add value to the purchase and foster customer satisfaction.

Key takeaway: Consider using your Back in Stock email as an opportunity to upsell to customers who are ready to buy

7) Bloomscape

The moment you open Bloomscape’s email, you are greeted with an unmissable, bold “Back in Stock!” headline. It leaves no room for confusion, ensuring the reader knows exactly what the message is about. This effective directness hooks the reader from the get-go.

Bloomscape goes a step further by acknowledging customer feedback with the phrase, “You asked, we listened!” The simple act of conveying that they value and act on their customers’ input can significantly strengthen emotional connections and make customers feel integral to the brand’s decisions.

In the world of e-commerce, creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity can drive action. Bloomscape achieves this by stressing that their Trandescantia Nanouk plant, a bestseller from February, is back “for a limited time.” This nudge can motivate customers to make a swift purchase to avoid missing out.

The captivating visual appeal of the email can’t be overlooked. A high-quality, aesthetically pleasing photograph of the plant not only showcases the product in its full glory but also intrigues the reader’s eye, potentially fueling their desire for the product.

Bloomscape understands that the key to persuading customers to buy is to arm them with useful information. Quick facts about the plant, its benefits, and a link to a handy care guide can help potential buyers feel more confident and informed in their decision.

The ‘Shop Now’ button is strategically placed and clearly visible, facilitating a smooth journey towards conversion. The cohesive use of dark and light green colors throughout maintains brand identity and makes the overall design pleasing to the eye.

Bloomscape doesn’t stop at just announcing the restock. The email also includes compelling reasons to buy the plant, reinforcing its value and appeal. And with links to the rest of their store included, Bloomscape encourages further exploration of their offerings, increasing the chances of additional purchases.

Key takeaway: Emulate Bloomscape’s effective strategy in your own ‘Back in Stock’ emails by blending a clear and direct message, a sense of urgency, appealing visuals, useful product information, and upselling opportunities. This combination will help engage your customers, reinforce your brand value, and encourage immediate action.

8) DJI

DJI demonstrates a masterclass in back-in-stock emails with their announcement for the DJI Inspire 3. The email immediately captures attention with an exhilarating snapshot of the drone in action, cleverly hinting at the thrill of ownership. The message is crystal clear and impossible to miss – the DJI Inspire 3 is back in stock and ready for ‘pro-level productions’.

In one succinct line, DJI crafts a sense of urgency, cleverly nudging customers to make a prompt purchase decision to avoid disappointment. A bold ‘Shop Now’ button reinforces this call-to-action, practically ushering customers toward the checkout.

Yet DJI doesn’t stop at a simple product announcement. They supplement their email with additional product information, giving customers a deeper understanding and more reasons to choose the Inspire 3. Meanwhile, by highlighting a selection of other items, DJI cleverly uses this opportunity to cross-sell and potentially elevate the total purchase value.

Underpinning all these sales strategies is DJI’s emphasis on customer benefits. They draw attention to the perks of shopping with them, such as the 1% DJI credit reward offer, swift delivery options, and the availability of officially refurbished products. These benefits are more than mere sales pitches; they’re an affirmation of DJI’s commitment to customer value and service.

Lastly, the email ends with an invitation to engage with DJI across social media platforms, fostering a sense of community around the brand. All these elements together form a back-in-stock email that not only communicates product availability, but also boosts customer engagement, enhances brand loyalty, and drives sales.

Key takeaway: Leverage the power of appealing visuals and a clear call-to-action, as DJI does, in your back-in-stock emails. Additionally, augment your emails with valuable product information, cross-selling opportunities, and clear customer benefits. Also, don’t forget to invite your customers to engage on social media, helping foster a community around your brand. This multifaceted approach not only informs customers about the product but also promotes engagement, builds loyalty, and encourages purchases.

9) Sonos

Sonos’ back in stock email is highly effective due to its visual appeal, clear messaging, and focus on customer service. The email immediately grabs attention with a vibrant graphic illustration of a living room filled with Sonos speakers, setting the scene for a more immersive sound experience. The headline, “the wait is over,” conveys urgency and excitement, further amplified by the promise of free shipping, which can incentivize immediate purchase.

The email then transitions into a grey block that spotlights the back-in-stock product along with a ‘shop now’ button, which serves as a clear and direct call-to-action. The display of the product itself allows customers to visualize what they’ve been waiting for, creating a sense of desire and impatience to own the product.

What sets this email apart, however, is Sonos’ focus on customer service. The brand emphasizes their commitment to customer satisfaction by offering free shipping, easy returns, and full-time support. The presence of a ‘contact us’ link reassures customers that help is readily available, fostering trust in the brand. Overall, Sonos’ back-in-stock email effectively re-engages customers, promoting immediate purchases while highlighting the brand’s commitment to customer satisfaction.

Key Takeaway: Emphasise on excellent customer service in your back in stock emails like Sonos. Alongside exciting visuals and clear messaging, assurance of free shipping, easy returns, and full-time support can significantly foster customer trust and incentivise immediate purchases.

10) Happy Happy Houseplant

Happy Happy Houseplants’ back in stock email is a superb blend of relatability, personalisation, and clever use of visuals. Starting with a warm image of a smiling lady wearing the product that is back in stock, it instantly connects the customer to the product, conveying how it would look and feel to wear the sweatshirt.

The black text on a yellow background, “our faves are back!,” is eye-catching and informative, inciting curiosity about the product’s popularity. The accompanying blurb personalises the message, suggesting that the company listens to its customers’ needs, here being a greater range of sizes. This sense of individual attention enhances customer trust and satisfaction, increasing the chances of them wanting to shop.

Links to different variants of the sweatshirt provide easy access to alternatives, reducing the effort needed to browse the site and enhancing the shopping experience. The email effectively makes the customer feel valued, seen, and heard while showcasing the available product options, increasing the likelihood of immediate purchases and future customer loyalty.

Key Takeaway: Foster a personal connection with your audience like Happy Happy Houseplants. Use relatable visuals, show responsiveness to customer needs, and provide easy access to product variants in your back-in-stock emails to enhance customer trust and make the shopping experience enjoyable and effortless.

11)Haus

Haus’s back in stock email for their Lemon Lavender product masterfully combines beautiful visuals, concise yet evocative descriptions, and a simple, clear call to action to draw in the reader. Starting with a clean, bold heading that immediately announces the return of the beloved Lemon Lavender, the email then presents an attractive image of the product, allowing customers to visualise what they can soon have in hand.

The concise product description beneath the image offers just enough detail to intrigue without overwhelming, and the prominent “Shop Lemon Lavender” button leaves no ambiguity about the next step a customer should take. A highlighted review on a purple block adds social proof to the mix, increasing the email’s persuasive power.

The addition of more detailed information about the ingredients not only provides potential buyers with insight into the product’s unique qualities but also emphasizes the care and quality that go into Haus’s offerings. The repeat “Shop Lemon Lavender” button further reinforces the desired action, while the concluding “Cheers” and prominent “Haus” sign off lend a friendly, personal touch.

Finally, the inclusion of social links offers readers further avenues to engage with the brand. This back in stock email does an excellent job of grabbing attention, building interest and desire, and guiding customers towards the purchase, making it an effective tool in the brand’s marketing arsenal.

Key Takeaway: Haus’s back in stock email offers an effective strategy: blend beautiful visuals with detailed yet digestible product descriptions, incorporate social proof, and clearly signpost the path to purchase. Concluding with a personal touch and providing additional engagement avenues reinforces the brand’s appeal and nurtures customer relationships.

12) Wonder Valley

Wonder Valley’s ‘Back in Stock’ email for their Hinoki Body Oil presents a splendid example of effective marketing communication. The overall design is visually arresting, starting with a yellow background that pops and their brand name contrasted against a beautifully dim-lit image of the featured product. The words “Back in Stock: Hinoki Body Oil” unambiguously announces the product’s return and acts as a call to action to the reader.

The email then delves into a brief message emphasizing the oil’s benefits, engaging the customer’s interest and subtly building a case for why the product is a must-have. This is further reinforced by a second image showing the product in use, a strategy that helps readers to visualize how they might use the product.

Below the picture, a comprehensive list of benefits serves to further justify the product’s value, and a clear, distinct ‘Buy’ button provides an effortless next step for the intrigued reader. The addition of a review not only validates the product but also provides social proof, effectively persuading readers of the product’s worthiness.

The black trim around the email frames the content beautifully, drawing the reader’s attention inward, and image links to other products at the bottom serve as cross-selling opportunities. These factors all contribute to make this a highly effective back in stock email, designed to re-engage customers, enhance their desire for the product, and ultimately drive sales.

Key Takeaway: Wonder Valley’s back in stock email effectively leverages bold visuals, a clear message, in-use product imagery, and compelling social proof. Emphasising product benefits and providing a straightforward call-to-action can amplify customer interest and drive sales, while well-placed cross-selling opportunities can further enhance customer value.

13)Haus

Quince’s ‘Back in Stock’ email takes a minimalist and straightforward approach that’s both eye-catching and efficient. Leveraging a clean, white background with contrasting black text, the email immediately draws attention to their brand name and the announcement, “Did you hear? It’s back in stock.” This simple yet engaging headline helps to pique reader interest right from the start.

Following the headline, a crisp image of the Ultra-Soft Performance Legging is presented, giving customers a clear view of the product. Accompanied by a concise description and a visible price, it provides all necessary information in an easy-to-digest format. The ‘Shop Now’ button, placed strategically next to the product, allows interested customers to act promptly and make a purchase.

The email goes a step further to re-engage customers by showcasing other products that are also back in stock, followed by a ‘Recommended for you’ section. These elements not only promote additional products but also personalize the customer’s experience, enhancing their engagement with the brand.

Closing out with their sustainability information and customer-friendly policies, like free shipping, 365-day returns, and a $20 referral reward, the email effectively reinforces Quince’s commitment to customer satisfaction and responsible business practices. The simplicity and clarity of the email, coupled with its effective use of product promotion and policy information, make this a prime example of an effective back in stock email.

Key Takeaway: Quince’s ‘Back in Stock’ email illustrates the power of a clean, minimalist design combined with clear messaging and strategic promotion of other products. Emphasising customer-friendly policies and sustainability initiatives within the email can further enhance brand image and trust, making it a more persuasive communication tool.

3 Best practices for Back in Stock Emails

1. Personalise the Communication: Tailor your back in stock emails to match the recipient’s interests and past behaviours. If a customer signed up for an alert for a specific product, ensure that the email content is highly relevant to that product. Using their name in the email and mentioning the specific product will make the communication feel more personal and targeted, increasing the chance of a positive response.
2. Use Clear and Exciting Subject Lines: Your subject line should instantly convey that the product your customer has been waiting for is now available. You might consider adding a sense of urgency (e.g., “Hurry, your favorite product is back in stock!”) or using excitement-inducing language (e.g., “Great news! Your awaited product is here!”). Make sure your subject lines are catchy and straight to the point to improve open rates.
3. Implement Visually Appealing Design and Clear CTAs: A picture is worth a thousand words – include high-quality images of the product that’s back in stock to remind your customer why they wanted it in the first place. Also, make sure your call-to-action (CTA) buttons are clear and conspicuous. A bright, easy-to-find “Buy Now” button can significantly increase click-through rates and, ultimately, conversions.

Remember, every email you send is an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your customers. These best practices for Back in Stock emails should not only notify customers about product availability but also enhance their experience with your brand.

Building Your Own Back in Stock Email Campaign

We’ve seen how a solid Back in Stock email can do wonders for engaging customers and bumping up those sales. Whether it’s playing up the exclusivity card like Hero or going all in with a bold design like Sproos, each brand has their unique flavor, and so should you.

The secret sauce? Tailoring your emails to your brand’s vibe, your product’s special features, and, of course, what your customers dig.

One part of the magic formula is your email’s subject line – it’s like the welcome mat to your message. Nail it right, and you’ve got an invitation too good to ignore. Need inspiration? Check out our post on killer Back in Stock subject lines to get those creative juices flowing.

And as you get deeper into creating your Back in Stock email campaign, you might want to level up your game. Timing, automation, tracking your success – yeah, it can feel like a lot. But don’t sweat it. Our comprehensive guide, ‘Everything You Need to Know about Back in Stock Emails’, has got your back.

Remember, Back in Stock emails are more than just a heads-up about available products. It’s your chance to show off your brand, build relationships, and get people excited. So, take a breather, think about what your audience would love, and craft emails that’ll turn heads. Happy emailing!

The post 13 Exceptional Back in Stock Email Examples for Stellar Campaigns appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

This is quite easy to verify by conducting a detailed analysis of competitors via an ecommerce scraper.

Some of these differences are significant, but others just require a shift in thinking. It’s these small changes in thinking that can yield massive results for your business. 

One key difference in thinking is that the most profitable ecom brands recognize just how valuable repeat customers are. 

Acquiring customers is one thing. But generating additional purchases from them is quite literally where the money’s at. It’s actually 6 times more profitable than trying to acquire another new customer.

So it’s not surprising that a small 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by a staggering 95%. 

That’s what post-purchase email flows do.

Wait… what is a post-purchase email flow?

Quite simply: a post-purchase email flow is a series of emails that you send to customers after they convert. 

You might think of email as a marketing channel to convert people into customers (which it’s definitely great at doing) but the top ecom brands know it’s even more powerful when engaging with existing customers. 

This is what post-purchase emails are for: driving more sales from your existing customers (aka your most profitable people). 

An example of a typical post-purchase email

And it’s not just first-time customers that are worth targeting. Every time a customer makes a new purchase it’s well worth following up with a post-purchase flow.

What kind of emails go into a post-purchase flow?

The optimal post-purchase flow consists of emails relevant to your store and customers. 

That said, there are certain types of post-purchase emails that are common across ecom. These include: 

• Order confirmation emails – you might think of these as a purely transactional type of email, but they’re a powerful marketing opportunity
• Customer review request emails where you ask for feedback 
• Cross-sell emails that recommend similar or complementary products to the one your customer just purchased 
• Follow us on socials email where you invite customers to follow your brand on social media
• Product education emails that provide tips on how your customer can use the product they just purchased 
• Win-back emails that re-engage customers who have gone cold

However it’s simply not enough to know about these different types of emails. What will make or break your post-purchase email campaign is how you structure it. 

Beyond depending on what type of products you sell, your optimal flow will also depend on whether it’s your customer’s first, second, third, or even 10th purchase.

So let’s take a look at how top ecom brands approach their post-purchase campaign depending on where their customers are at. 

First-time customers 

So you’ve just acquired a new customer – congratulations! But now’s not the time to rest or take your foot off the marketing pedal. 

While acquiring customers is an important step, your focus should now be on converting them into loyal (and more importantly) profitable repeat customers.

The first email that’ll help achieve this is the order confirmation. 

Thank you for your purchase email

Whether you double this up as your order confirmation email or send it on its own, your goal here is simple: thank your new customer for their purchase. 

For such a small gesture, simply saying thank you goes a long way to increasing customer satisfaction and fostering loyalty. 

It’s also an opportunity to introduce your new customers to your brand and story. 

For example, you could share your founder’s story of how the brand got started and the inspiration behind it. Or you could share your brand’s ethos such as its commitment to quality and customer service. 

The example below from Huckerry is pretty text heavy (certainly don’t feel like you have to match its length) but does this well. 

You’ll also want to include a call-to-action (CTA) in this email (as you should in pretty much every email you send). 

Depending on your brand and how hard you go after sales, this could be a CTA directing people to make their all-important second purchase. Otherwise, if you don’t think being this aggressive would work with your audience, you could simply invite them to check out your latest products.  

Follow us on social media email

First-time customers make for great social followers. Getting them to follow your social accounts also increases the chances they’ll become repeat-customers. 

And you can invite them to follow your brand with a post-purchase email. Fruit of the Loom does this well. 

You don’t have to tie this email to the product they purchased, but sending this as part of your post-purchase campaign is the perfect time as your new customers are still engaged with your brand. 

Check out our guide here on social media follow email tips to master this email.

Product education emails

Educating people on how to use your product is a great idea. After all, if they’re not using it properly, they’re not getting the full benefit making it less likely they’ll become repeat customers. 

So if you have a product that requires some setting up, then sending this kind of email just before your customer’s shipment is due to arrive is a great way to show your appreciation and boost customer engagement.

 The email below from Allergy Buyers Club is a great example of this in action.

Customer loyalty program email 

Customer loyalty programs are a great way to generate repeat purchases and naturally help convert one-time customers into repeat customers. That’s if they know about your program.

Do can do this with an email like what Romper sent their customers below.

The good this about this particular email is that it doesn’t lead with ‘join our loyalty program,’ instead it leads with the benefits and value of being a member. This then leads naturally into the CTA to sign up to become a member.

So if you have a program set up, you’ll definitely want to invite people to join it as part of your post-purchase campaign if they haven’t joined already. 

Cross-sell email

Cross-selling is the process of offering a customer additional products that complement what they have bought.

For example, recommending leather shoe cleaner to someone who’s just purchased a brand new pair of leather shoes. 

This is cross-selling and it’s key to generating repeat purchases by making customers aware of other great products you sell.

Example of a cross-sell email

The great thing about this post-purchase email is that it works pretty much regardless of what you sell. As long as you sell more than one product, chances are you’ll be able to set up some cross-sells. 

Check out our guide on cross-selling with email marketing to dive into this area. 

Replenishment email

This one’s very much dependent on what kind of products you sell. It’s also one of the surest ways to generate repeat purchases. 

It’s all about following up customers who’ve purchased a product that’ll need to be refilled, replaced or reordered. Typical examples include pet food, shampoo, coffee, etc. 

But it doesn’t have to be strictly perishable items that people buy at regular intervals. Kitchen utensils, auto parts, shoes, etc. all wear down over time and will need to be replaced.

The trick is to time this email to when your customers are looking to reorder and then provide a clear CTA to purchase the product again. 

You don’t want to clutter your email with too much. Just compare the two examples below.

Which email do you think works better? Which one makes it easy to reorder? Definitely the one on the right with its clear CTA.

Second-time customers 

If you’ve put together your initial post-purchase flow for first-time customers well, you’ll quickly find they transition into repeat purchasers fairly seamlessly. 

That’s great! You’re now generating additional sales and profit much more easily than consistently trying to acquire new customers. 

But the goal is to transform them into long-term loyal customers. 

Customers who have purchased twice are much more likely to reach this goal than first-time customers, but you don’t want to take your foot off the pedal. 

Instead, targeting second-time customers with another post-purchase flow tailored to them will help seal the deal. 

Thank you for your purchase email

Just like with their first purchase, you’ll want to follow up the second purchase with another thank you email. But you don’t want it to be a carbon copy of the first. 

This time it can be less about introducing people to your brand and more about securing their engagement for the long term. 

If you have a subscription service or program, this is a great opportunity to showcase it. One way to do this is by highlighting the savings of being a subscriber versus manually purchasing over and over. 

Subscriptions are also fantastic at generating reliable, repeat purchases. So if you don’t have one already set up, it’s something to consider. 

If you’re looking for inspiration, Dollar Shave Club does subscriptions extremely well. 

An example of a subscription email from Dollar Shave Club

Another idea for this second thank you email is to include a simple offer as a way of showing gratitude for them becoming a loyal customer and, of course, to incentivize another repeat purchase. 

Review request email

This is the first big deviation from your first post-purchase email flow – the review request email. 

If a customer has purchased from your store a second time, it’s a pretty safe bet they’re satisfied with your products and the customer experience. So why not make the most of that fact and ask them for a review? 

We’ve already written a detailed guide on generating customer reviews, but in short, you need positive reviews to act as social proof to increase your overall conversion rates and boost sales. 

True, may not directly help with converting second-time purchasers into long-term loyal customers, but you could potentially add a coupon as an incentive to leave a review like in the example below.

Because you’re essentially offering your customer the coupon in exchange for them doing something for you (leaving the review), it won’t come across as overly salesy. But importantly it’ll still incentivize another repeat purchase. 

Replenishment email

If your products lend themselves to being part of a replenishment campaign, this is a type of email you should be including in all your post-purchase email flows. 

Sale/offer email

If the emails above in your second post-purchase flow don’t do the trick and the customer isn’t making another purchase, it’s time to pull out the big guns. 

At this point, your customer is essentially in limbo in a ‘no man’s land’. If you leave it too long, chances are they’ll simply drop off and disappear. 

So now’s the time to be direct with a sale or offer email. 

How you construct this email will depend on your store, what products you sell and what kind of offers you usually provide. It could be a simple flat percentage off discount, free shipping, or something more creative like buy one get one free. 

Whatever offer you go with, make sure it’s enticing. 

Third-time customers 

Gotten your customer to make a second repeat purchase? Congratulations! They’re now what you can reasonably call a long-term loyal customer. 

Your goal here is to keep them engaged with regular email marketing and newsletters. This also means sending them what has now become their default post-purchase email flow. 

No more follow us on social media or review request emails.  

From now on, your post-purchase campaigns should consist of simply an order confirmation email and product-specific emails. 

In other words, if they purchased a new laptop, it’s still definitely worthwhile sending them a cross-sell email with cases and other laptop accessories. Product education content is still great to include depending on the product and if it’s perishable, replenishment emails are still great at generating sales and keeping customers active.

Unfortunately, even with the best post-purchase follow-ups and regular email marketing, some customers will still go cold over time. That’s why we have winback emails.

Winback email

Winback emails do what it says on the box – win back customers who have gone cold and stop purchasing from your store. 

When done well, they target customers just as they lose interest in your store and entice them to come back and make another purchase. 

An example of a typical winback email

Having a winback email automated for your customers will go a long way to keeping customers engaged and generating repeat purchases.

Time to start generating sales with post-purchase emails

That’s it! You now know how the top ecom brands generate millions in profit through repeat purchases instead of just focusing on acquiring new customers all the time. 

The only thing left is to start setting these post-purchase email flows up for your store. 

Looking for some help? While we’ve made it easy to set up these automations with SmartrMail, we also realize how busy running an ecom store is. 

That’s why our Customer Success Team is available to guide you through the setup process and answer any questions you have. We also offer assisted migrations to help you move across with zero hassle. 

The post How Fast-Growing Ecom Brands Make Millions in Profit with Post-Purchase Emails appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

By reaching them directly in their inbox, email has the highest ROI of any digital marketing channel (averaging $40 for every $1 spent). And while landing in the inbox is great, it doesn’t beat SMS’ phenomenal 98% read rate (with 60% of customers reading an SMS campaign within 5 minutes). 

So it’s fair to say email and SMS are pretty important. That said, behind every great email or SMS marketing strategy lies one essential element: a powerful list of subscribers. 

It’s no exaggeration to say that your list and how you build it can literally make or break your campaigns. And by extension, your business.

The highest-converting lists are built with active, purchase-ready subscribers ready to engage with your campaigns. This is the closest you’re to get to having a licence to print money. Frustratingly for most merchants, their lists are far from this ideal.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide on how to build an email list that can drive millions in sales.

Steps to building high-converting lists

1) Focus on quality over quantity 

It’s tempting to focus on building your list as quickly and as large as you can. But you need to be selective of who’s signing up and qualitatively determine the filters that will be installed if you use tools such as sales navigator for lead generation.

That’s not to say that quantity isn’t important. All else being equal, a list with a million subscribers is going to drive more sales than a list with only a few hundred. 

But in their rush to build a list, too many merchants just slap together a basic popup overnight with an uninspired offer such as “10% off your first purchase” and try to pass it off as a lead magnet. 

Sure, this will get people to sign up, but it’s a safe bet a lot of them won’t qualify as leads. 

Instead, you should think about who you want on your list. Who do you want to be communicating with? Freebie-seekers? Or people who are your actual target customers and have the potential to become loyal, repeat purchasers? 

In other words, you want people who show purchase intent. Not only will it make your list more profitable, but your sender’s reputation will also remain intact thanks to a clean list. 

Which popup do you think will result in a higher-quality list?

Your existing customers are those with the highest purchase intent, as they’ve already converted. That’s why it’s essential you give people the option to subscribe during check out. 

Obviously you don’t want to limit yourself to just existing customers, that’s why the next step is all about where you get people to sign up. 

2) Think about where to find subscribers

The best way to build a quality list is to think about where and how people are signing up. 

We’ve already mentioned that the best subscribers are your existing customers, but the aim of your list is to scale your sales. This means growing your customer base by growing your list. 

There are two ways you can achieve this: organically, or through paid campaigns. 

Organic is nearly always better so it should be your main focus. 

Ways you can grow your list organically include making the most of your online store’s traffic and your social following. This is because the act of visiting your store or following your brand on social media is in itself a purchase intent signal. These are people interested in what you’re selling. Ideally, they’ll have visited more than just your homepage or a random blog article, but we’ll touch on that in the next section. 

Essentially paying for subscribers through paid activities such as social media campaigns is okay, but it’s definitely the lesser of the two options.  

While not perfect (the value proposition should take prominence above the ‘swipe up to join mailing list’ call-to-action), Bail Body does this reasonably well in the example below.

Whatever you do though, do not go purchasing lists. Only sending campaigns to those who have opted in is essential, unless you want to destroy your sending reputation and end up in the spam folder.

3) How to build an email list 101: Offer them something in return

Now that you have an idea of who you want on your list and how and where to find them, it’s time to think about the what. That’s what you offer them.

People are not going to hand over their email address or phone number for nothing in return. 

And what you decide to offer is going to impact both your conversion rate and the type of people signing up. Remember, you want to focus on quality over quantity. People who display purchase intent over freebie-seekers. 

So what should you offer? 

This is a classic case of it depends. It depends on whether they’re existing or potential customers and it depends on what stage of the purchase journey they’re at. But in general, here’s what we’ve found results in the highest quality lists: 

Tools and resources

This is anything you could consider educational. Think buyer guides, recipes, cheatsheets, even a collection of the latest trends in your industry as a source of inspiration. 

These resources are particularly enticing to potential customers early on in their purchase journey (in other words, at the top of the funnel) as they’re likely still trying to understand your products and which is best for them. 

That’s what makes the popup from Tile Mountain below effective: tiling is something you want to get right the first time, but unless you’re a professional tiler, you’re going to need a bit of help.

Ideally, whatever tool or resource you offer, it will encourage your new subscribers to use your products. You can bet Tile Mountain recommends plenty of its own products in its tiling checklist.

Quizzes

Quizzes are questionnaires visitors answer to get a specific result. They don’t work for every store, but for those they do, they tend to result in some of the highest intent, most profitable lists you’ll build. 

Quizzes work best when customers genuinely need recommendations to make the best purchase possible. Such as finding the right combination of supplements, personalized skincare routine, or what haircare product to buy like in the example below from Curlsmith. 

Deals

This is your quintessential ecommerce lead magnet. Think “free shipping” or “buy one, get one free” (BOGO). 

Yes, everyone does them, but there’s a reason for that: they’ll be the highest-converting lead magnet you’ll have. 

The trick to making sure you capture high-intent potential customers instead of freebie-seekers is where you make the offer. 

Don’t have it pop up on your homepage immediately when someone first visits. Include them on your product pages. Have them appear after your visitor has been on the page for a certain amount of time or has scrolled down most of the page. 

4) Matching your messaging to your audience

Copywriting is a crucial marketing skill, and there are few places where getting your messaging right is more important than your popup. 

The key to making your popup copy work (and where most merchants fall short) is making it relevant by matching it with the context. 

Has your visitor just returned to the same product page for the 9th time this week? Or have they just landed on your site for the first time and are reading a blog article? Is a major event like Black Friday just a few days away? 

The popup below does a good job of leaning into Black Friday with copy including “jump the queues” and the value proposition of getting early access. 

Recognizing that not all your visitors are the same and that time of year can play a big part too will help you write killer copy. 

5) Nailing the execution

Final step before you can launch: think about your popup’s execution. 

We’ve just mentioned that you don’t want your popup appearing immediately when someone lands on a page. We generally recommend a 3-5 second delay. 

Another factor to consider is the format: are you going to be collecting both email and phone number? If so, you’ll want to use a 2-step format where you just ask for email first as people are more willing to hand over their email address than their phone number. (Asking for too much info at the same time will hurt your conversion rate.)

When they get to the SMS step, you’ll want to offer something extra above and beyond the email offer as well. Otherwise there’s no reason for them to also provide their phone number. 

Once you’ve got a solid plan for execution, it’s time to launch! 

6) Test, test, and test again

You’re not finished yet, though. In fact, you’ll never be ‘finished’ if you want to build a high-quality list. 

No matter how much care and attention you put into every step above, you won’t have created the perfect popup. 

And even if you did, the performance of different strategies varies over time. What was highly successful last year might not convert that well this year. Especially in a fast-paced industry like ecommerce. 

The only way to keep your offer fresh and enticing is to continually optimize it. This means running a split test, then another split test, and another (you really should not stop testing). 

But don’t just test things randomly. Approach your split tests in a methodical way by testing one element at a time and tracking the conversion rate closely. Test your offer, then your messaging, then your design, then your execution, and repeat. 

Learning how to build an email list is just the beginning

A high-converting list can make or break your future email and SMS campaigns. But it’s also simply the foundation of your campaigns.

Following the strategies we’ve just covered, such as focusing on quality over quantity and being conscious of who’s signing up, will put you on the right path. What will bring in the actual sales are the campaigns you send to your list. 

Now that you know how to build an email list, check out our blog for strategies on sending killer email and SMS campaigns. 

The post How To Build an Email list & an SMS List That Drive Millions In Sales for Ecommerce appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be just as stressful for e-commerce merchants. But with lots of planning and preparation, and you can turn one of the biggest annual sales events into a huge success for your business.

In this guide I’ll teach you how to do just that…

1) Pre-Black Friday Hype and Preparation

Black Friday shoppers are starting to choose to shop online, rather than lining up in front of bricks and mortar stores. I definitely get it. I wouldn’t want to get up early, brave the cold, or deal with big queues and vicious doorbusters in the hope of picking up a few bargains either.

Yikes.

This is where you come in as an e-commerce merchant – Black Friday shoppers can sit in the comfort of their own homes and take advantage of your online sales. But to make this event as smooth as possible (both for you and your store’s customers), there are some housekeeping things you need to take care of well in advance.

Tip 1: Prepare for a huge spike in sales

Black Friday is one of the biggest e-commerce events of the year, and it’s important that your e-commerce store is able to handle a massive increase in traffic and sales.

Source

Firstly, this involves making sure your site is stable enough to handle a massive amount of traffic. Start testing now! This is especially important for Cyber Monday (more on that later). The last thing you want is for your website to crash during one of your busiest trading periods of the year.

You’re obviously going to miss out on a lot of potential sales, but you might also get a lot of angry emails, messages and Tweets from shoppers (remember: Black Friday makes people a little crazy), damaging your brand and customer lifetime value.

You should also make 100% sure that you have enough stock. It might even be a good idea to overstock; it’s better to be safe than sorry. You also need to worry about whether you have enough people on hand to handle customer enquiries, whether you are able to handle shipping, and so on. All of these things need to be looked after months in advance.

Tip 2: Start hyping your offers with email and social media marketing

Before you start sending out a bunch of emails, tweets and Facebook posts, you need to plan out what you’re actually going to advertise. In other words: what will you be offering your customers on Black Friday?

Some options include offer codes, sales on specific products, free gifts and free shipping. It’s also important to clearly state the conditions of your special offers: When will the offer expire? Do customers need to spend a certain amount of money? Are there any conditions to get a free gift?

Once you have planned this out, you can start creating a content calendar, and schedule your social media posts and emails. This is something you can start doing now.
Your email and social media marketing should start 2 months before Black Friday.

You can starting sending out emails and posts about once a week to pique people’s interest. Start asking them to sign up to your email list, or to follow your social media accounts so that they can stay up to date with (and stay interested in) your sales.

What I like about this email: The call to action is really clear throughout – I need to follow their social media accounts to stay up to date with their sales. This is also reflected in their use of colour, which draws attention to the backlinks and social media icons.

What could be improved: For consistency, they could have also included a backlink to their Pinterest account in the body of their email. I would’ve also emphasized the timeline of their sale, as well as their free shipping offer – Mabel’s Labels could’ve included these details in the eye-catching graphic.

For more tips on how to grow your email list in preparation for Black Friday, read here: 5 Steps to Supercharge Your Store’s Email List Growth.

As people begin to subscribe to your email list, it’s also a good idea to avoid spamming those that aren’t actively engaging with your emails. Simply segment your active and inactive subscribers, based on those who have engaged with your previous email campaigns. Send 2-3 emails per week to active customers, but inactive customers should only continue to receive a maximum of 1 per week.

By not overloading your inactive subscribers’ inboxes with emails, you won’t be ruining your store’s email deliverability as you send out a large volume of emails over this period. This has a number of disadvantages for your e-commerce store.

Firstly, there is a negative impact on your email open rate, which will drop as customers become less likely to read your newsletters. As these unopened emails build up, you risk having ISPs sending your emails straight to your subscribers spam folders, or having them blocked altogether. Alternately, subscribers could start marking your emails as spam by themselves if they are receiving too many irrelevant emails. Your emails will therefore be unread, meaning that click-through and conversion rates will drop as well.

This means that it’s extremely important to send personalized content. Since you know what offers you’re going to have or what products you’re going to have on sale, segment your email list based on their purchase history – for example, those who have purchased cameras or camera equipment from your store.

To read more about email segmentation on SmartrMail, read here: 6 Ways You Can Segment Your Email List with SmartrMail.

In late October, about a month away from the big day, start sending members of this segment emails showcasing your sales offers on tripods, lenses, and other related items they might be interested in buying on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

What I like about this email: The objective of of this email is really straightforward, with a clear call to action.

What could be improved: For a company known for their product recommendations, they could have found a way to include a few to personalize this email.

What I like about this email: Zagg does a great job at creating hype for their Black Friday sale. By including a timer counting down to the big day, this helps to generate anticipation for their sales event. They also attempt to combat the pre-Black Friday sales slump by throwing an early sale two weeks out from the actual date.

What could be improved: This email splits focus between their current pre-Black Friday sale, and their actual Black Friday sale. It might have been better had they focused solely on one, and created a separate email that markets the other sale.

A week before Black Friday, you can increase your email and post frequency yet again. Send 3-4 emails this week to engaged subscribers, but again keep unengaged subscribers frequency capped at once per week.

What I like about this email: Again, the inclusion of a countdown works to get subscribers excited in anticipation of the sale.

What could be improved: Vistaprint could have included a few extra things in this email. Firstly, there aren’t any specific details on what their offers are. It might have helped to generate more excitement had they included what discounts Black Friday shoppers can expect. The email simply asks subscribers to visit their site at the start of the sale; Vistaprint could have made their call to action to visit their site now, so that customers can browse their products beforehand.

2) The Day of Black Friday

Tip 1: Allow top customers in on a special pre-sale

Sending out an exclusive email to your high-value customers, giving them early access to your special offers, can do wonders for customer lifetime value. To do so, send out an email to the aforementioned segment of those who actively engage with your emails a day or so before your official sale has been scheduled.

What I like about this email: The text in the body of the email reads as genuine – Victoire seems to really appreciate their high-value customers.

What could be improved: This email is really unclear about what their specific deals are. They also don’t include a button to easily click through to their website. As such, I don’t really feel inclined to take advantage of their Black Friday sales (whatever they may be). And as much as I love Oprah, the inclusion of a Christmas-themed picture seems a little irrelevant to this email, and their brand in general.

What I like about this email: The deals and conditions are crystal clear in this email from Urban Outfitters. The call to action is also really clear, and the inclusion of a button at the bottom of the bottom makes it easy for shoppers to click through and start buying.

What could be improved: It would have been nice if they had shown more appreciation for their high-value customers; a quick message to thank Urban On Members somewhere in the email would have done the trick.

Tip 2: Send frequently to engaged customers

Send out your big email at the very start of your sale – the one that lets everyone know that your sale is live. Make sure again to clearly state the conditions of your sale (when the offer ends, minimum purchase, etc.) and the offer code, if you have opted for that.

What I like about this email: The discounts, conditions, offer code and call to action are all really clear. And not to be shallow, but I really like the design of the email as well.

What could be improved: Although they include the time frame of their offer in the fine print, Bonobos could have included some sort of time-sensitive element in the body of the email. This would have increased the sense of urgency.

What I like about this email: I like how CanvasPop really emphasizes their huge 40% off discount throughout the email – not only by repeating it several times, but making use of font size and colour to draw attention to their offer.

What could be improved: Again, they have included several subtle time-sensitive elements (“Last chance” in the body of the email, and the offer expiration time and date in fine print). However, a stronger emphasis on the limited time frame of their offer would have increased a sense of urgency.

Don’t hesitate to schedule a few emails and posts on social media during the course of Black Friday. As mentioned before, just make sure you’re emailing your most engaged subscribers. For unengaged subscribers, it might be worthwhile sending out a quick reminder of your sales anyway (they might have been busy with Thanksgiving or actually attended Black Friday sales in person).

It could be a good idea to include some time-sensitivity to your emails and social media posts, increasing a sense of urgency. This can be either letting customers know how long is left to go on your sale, or letting customers know that some of your items are running out of stock.

What I like about this email: The inclusion of “Hurry, ends Sunday!” increases the sense of urgency with this email. Tradesy’s Black Friday offer is also really clear, with the inclusion of conditions in fine print as well.

What could be improved: Their choice of balloons as the centerpiece of this email is confusing, and irrelevant to their brand. As such, I think the inclusion of personalized product recommendations (or at least a few products from their website) would have improved the relevance of this email.

What I like about this email: The timer counting down to the end of Diamond Store’s sale really increases the sense of urgency.

What could be improved: Diamond Store could have clarified what their offers specifically are, rather than just including a general “All items reduced” statement. And while they have included links to specific parts of their website underneath the logo, including another button at the bottom of the email would have strengthened the call the action.

3) Cyber Monday

People often view Cyber Monday as less important than Black Friday. Don’t be one of those people.

Hear me out.

If other e-commerce stores ignore Cyber Monday, there’s less competition for you. Additionally, many Black Friday doorbusters continue the tradition of lining up at bricks and mortar stores (although this trend is decreasing slowly over time), so pay less attention to online sales, whereas Cyber Monday is purely an online event.

Therefore, you have so much to gain from giving as much attention to your Cyber Monday marketing efforts. In fact, online sales figures from 2016 show that shoppers spent $3.45 billion on Cyber Monday, compared to $3.34 billion on Black Friday.

While there isn’t a big difference between the two when marketing your sales for these events, there are some things you can do to make the most of Cyber Monday.

Tip 1: Make use of paid advertisement

Cyber Monday is a good opportunity to make use of paid advertising platforms, like Google AdWords or Facebook Dynamic Product Ads. Because the marketplace is less crowded in comparison to Black Friday, your ads are much more likely to be seen.

However, cost per click (CPC) costs tend to skyrocket during the holiday period, as lots of advertisers make use of these platforms to market their own sales. Bigger companies spend more money, meaning that the CPC is increased for everyone else too.

Source

Facebook CPC too spikes during this period. In fact, CPC for Facebook advertising saw a 24% increase from the third to the fourth quarter last year.

We don’t recommend that small to medium businesses attempt to outbid massive companies, like Walmart and Amazon, in an attempt to acquire new customers through these channels. However, a much more effective strategy to implement over this busy period is retargeting customers.

To get the most out of Facebook advertising, use Custom Audiences for your ads. Create a Custom Audience to target those who have engaged with your website. By doing this, you are ensuring that you are delivering ads to only those who are interested in your products (since they have viewed these products from your store, or purchased from you already).

This makes using these paid advertising platforms during Black Friday and Cyber much more cost effective, given that repeat customers generate the majority of e-commerce revenue.

Tip 2: Abandoned cart emails

If you don’t use abandoned cart emails, Cyber Monday is probably the best opportunity to start integrating this into your e-commerce marketing.

You can target the many shoppers that abandoned their carts on Black Friday for whatever reason, and convert them by reminding them of the products they were interested in, or offering an incentive.

For more information on abandoned cart emails, read here: How to Get More Sales with Abandoned Cart Emails in 2022.

4) Extension into Cyber Week

If your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales went successfully, you may decide to extend your sales into Cyber Week.

If you choose to do so, it would be a good idea to reduce your email and social media post frequency. By this stage, if a transaction was to have happened, it would have happened already among all the Black Friday/Cyber Monday hysteria.

Flooding your customers’ inboxes and social media feeds will just annoy them, especially if they have already spent a lot of money over the weekend. Limit your Cyber Week emails and social campaigns to customers who didn’t purchase over the weekend, rather than targeting customers who’ve just forked up hundred (if not thousands) of dollars on sales.

Continue to make use of segmentation (both with email and on Facebook) to ensure that the offers and product newsletters you send to your customers are relevant to them.

As Cyber Week dies down, start analyzing your data – which marketing tactics and channels worked best for you over this period? Which ones weren’t as successful? What improvements can you make to your email and social media marketing for better conversion results? All of this is really important, so that you’re better prepared for future e-commerce events.

The final step: sit back and relax. But not for too long, Christmas and Boxing Day are just around the corner!

The post The 2024 Guide to Black Friday E-Commerce Email Marketing appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

With every $1 spent on email marketing generating a $38 return – it’s no surprise that the top ecommerce fashion stores are focusing their efforts on email marketing. But fashion email marketing is no longer “This Month’s Top Picks” sent to your entire subscriber list. A successful fashion email marketing strategy includes campaigns that are personalized, triggered, and automated.

We’ve put together 12 different emails that every ecommerce fashion store needs to be sending. While 12 email campaigns might seem like a lot to be sending, most are automated, and you’ll start to see more sales by only implementing a third of the suggest emails into your fashion store’s marketing strategy. If you’re on Shopify, BigCommerce, or other ecommerce platforms – you can integrate email marketing apps to start sending fashionable emails in minutes.

1. Welcome Email

Your fashion welcome email is your chance to make a good first impression – don’t be lazy. The average welcome email generates four times the total open rates and five times the click rates compared with other bulk promotions. More importantly, revenue per email is eight times higher and transaction rates are nine times higher. But you won’t cash in on this sales opportunity with a black and white confirmation email.

When designing your welcome email include:

• A sincere thank you
• Creative imagery
• Content associated with your brand
• Links to your social profiles

The majority of ecommerce fashion stores also email a 10-20% discount to entice subscribers to make their first purchase from the store.

Take a look at how leading fashion brands send welcome emails that engage their subscribers and get them more sales for their stores.

2. Content Email

Sadly the first thing many ecommerce fashion retailers do is start hard selling their products right away. The result is a boring brand and an endless stream of apparel that your customer knows nothing about.

Luckily as a fashion retailer you have a wealth of content options you can send your subscribers. Use your content newsletter to promote your brand, educate your customers on the latest styles, and entertain them with meaningful content. You can get started with these 3 examples from leading fashion brands:

Email 1: Tell Your Story

Let your customer get to know you before they make a purchase from your store. Tell your brand’s story, including why you sell your products and who you sell them too. While not strictly a fashion or apparel retailer, no one can deny that Huckberry are the masters of email marketing. Their email does a great job of telling their story, while still including some products from their store.

Email 2: Style Tips

Emailing products that your customers don’t know how to wear is pointless in fashion marketing. Use your content email to educate your subscribers on the latest styles and how to wear certain items. If you have an accompanying brick and mortar store, get your staff involved in blogs where they share how they wear their favourite items. Banana Republic includes helpful style tips when they launch new collections.

Email 3: Guest Blog Feature

You no longer need a celebrity to wear your products for ecommerce fashion success. Partner with a local fashion blogger or influencer to create a blog post on your website. Get them to write on how they create their favorite outfits and put together a collection of related items. Share the blog post via email to nurture your leads and provide a fresh dose of content.

Check out Urban Outfitters’ guest blog with surfing influencer, Mick Rodgers.

Depending on the size of your store and the capabilities of your marketing team, schedule content emails once to twice a month as you don’t want to overfill your subscribers’ inboxes.

3. Promotional Email

Now that you’ve given your subscribers a warm welcome with thank yous, branding, and content – it’s time to run your first sales campaign. The best channel to do this is email.

When it comes to purchases made as a result of receiving a marketing message, email has the highest conversion rate (66%), beating out social, direct mail and more.

The first step of any promotional email is picking your offer. If you’re putting specific products on sale, segment your list so the right offer gets to the right customers. Don’t forget to flex your creative muscles, as your only goal shouldn’t be to get more sales. You can start with these 3 goal examples…

1. Increase average order value: A generic 20% discount might get you more sales but it also cuts into your bottom line. Add a minimum threshold that customers need to receive the discount. This will get you more sales while also increasing your average order value.

2. Get rid off overstocked or old items: Your stock room might be filled with sunglasses that didn’t sell over summer, but your customers don’t need to know that. Give them away for free for customers who spend a certain amount.

3. Encourage repeat purchases: Instead of offering a discount, give away loyalty points instead. On average, 40% of an ecommerce store’s sales are generated by only 8% of their customers.

The next step is to create your email.

Don’t overfill your promotion email with products, one of the purposes of this email is to drive customers back to your site so they can shop. The data collected from their browsing behavior can be used to power your product recommendation emails (which we’ll get to next). Make your offer clear, have a clear call to action button to drive traffic to your site, and include a few products related to the sale.

Now it’s time to send your email….

And send it again. and again. We can’t stress enough to SEND MORE THAN ONE EMAIL. People are too busy and inboxes are too full for a single email to grab anyone’s attention. Average ecommerce open rates are only 17.68 percent, making your time perfecting your campaign worthless if you’re only sending it once. By counting down your sale in your subject lines, you create urgency and increase the chance that your customer opens your marketing message.

If you think its too much work and you’d rather do social, consider this: Only 2% of your Facebook fans will see your post in their newsfeed, while 90% of emails will be delivered to the intended recipients inbox.

4. Personalized Product Recommendations

Do you know the recommended products you see when on a fashion product page? Now these product recommendations can be emailed as well.

But don’t send the same selection of dresses to everyone. Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates compared to bulk email newsletters. Shopify and BigCommerce email marketing apps make it easy to track your customer’s past purchase history, browsing behavior, and email clicks to power hyper-personalized product recommendations straight into your customers’ inboxes.

It might sound creepy but your customers want you to do this. 73 percent of consumers prefer to do business with online retailers who use personal information to make their shopping experience more relevant. If I’m consistently shopping for shoes on your site, I don’t want an email filled with hats.

Send your personalized product emails every week or two to keep your subscribers engaged and one click away from their next purchase. You only have to set up and design them once, giving you time to plan and perfect your promotional email campaigns.

Learn more about SmartrMail personalized product emails.

5. Abandoned Cart Emails

Shopping cart abandonment alone accounts for $18 billion in lost revenue for ecommerce companies. Can you imagine what $18 billion of t-shirts, dresses, and other fashion apparel would look like in those carts?

By sending abandoned cart emails, fashion retailers have a chance at converting the over 68 percent of customers abandoning carts on their sites.

Radley London, a fashion accessory brand, recovered 7.9% of lost sales after sending cart abandonment emails. Now lets say your store store brings in $1 million in revenue through the one-third of customers who aren’t abandoning their carts. If you recover 7.9% of the two-thirds abandoned carts, you generate an extra $158,000 in revenue for your fashion store.

To craft the perfect abandoned cart email, fashion stores must understand what causes cart abandonment in the first place. According to a UPS and comScore study, the top 5 reasons why customers abandon their online shopping carts are:

1. Unexpected shipping costs or conditions at checkout
2. Browsing for a better price elsewhere
3. Didn’t want to create an account to purchase
4. Preferred payment was not offered
5. Got distracted and forgot to complete the order

Now lets use these insights to recover our lost sales.

Firstly, your customer probably isn’t expecting a reminder email, so your subject line should clearly indicate what your email is about. Knowing that your customer likely left their cart due to the costs of the shipping or to find a better price elsewhere, offer free shipping or a small discount to sweeten the deal.

72 percent of customers who buy from abandoned cart emails convert within the first 24 hours – so set your email to send quickly. If your customer doesn’t convert, send it again and again. Over the course of 3 emails create urgency by holding the item in their cart for a set time or by noting how many items are left in stock.

If you want to supercharge your abandoned cart emails, add a few personalized product recommendations. These recommendations can bring your customer back to your site incase they fall out of love with the original product, or if they need to meet a minimum threshold for free shipping.

Lastly, no one likes a nag. Use witty copy and fun images to give your customers a laugh and drive them back to their carts. If you need help getting started, check out these 5 abandoned cart emails every ecommerce fashion store should steal.

6. New Inventory

With the cost of acquiring new customers continuing to rise, ecommerce fashion stores must shift more focus to engaging their current customers. After all, it costs 5 times more to acquire new customers than it does to keep your existing ones.

Fashion stores can do this by regularly notifying their customers of new items and inventory.

When sending a new inventory email, fashion marketers must keep their email focused. Don’t overcrowd your email with information not relevant to the new inventory. The only goal of this email is to drive customers back to your site to check out your new inventory and ultimately make a purchase.

Some other best practices include:

• Include a few professional product photos: Adding a few of your best items to the email motivates customers to browse the entire range of new items.
• Have a clear subject line: This email doesn’t require a lot of text. However the text you choose for your subject line will effect your open rates. Keep it simple and clearly indicate what the email is about.
• Segment your email list: Your new selection of summer dresses won’t get much interest from your male subscribers. Send your new inventory email to subscribers who have previously purchased or browsed similar items. Doing so will improve your open rate, clicks, and revenue per email.
• Link to a relevant collection: Link to a separate collection of your new items on your Shopify or BigCommerce store. Don’t send your subscribers to your home page and hope they find their way.

7. Post Purchase Email

Post purchase email receipts have an open rate of 70.90%, compared to an average email marketing open rate of 17.68%.

Fashion email marketers should use this marketing opportunity to offer discounts, cross-sell, and promote their social channels. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. In fact, Amazon reported that 35% of their revenue is through cross sales and up selling efforts, mostly through receipt emails.

Here are some examples of what you could include in your post purchase email:

• Post purchase survey
• Coupon code for next purchase
• Referral code
• Cross sell product recommendations
• Links to social profiles
• Link to share purchase on social

If you have a Shopify or BigCommerce store, try out Receiptful for customizable confirmation emails.

8. Review Request Email

Consumer product reviews are 12x more trusted than product descriptions that come from manufacturers and store owners. The content you generate from reviews can be used as social proof on your site and in future promotional emails. Customer generated content is also great for your SEO rankings as you’ll easily be able to add keywords that differentiate from the standard manufacturer description used by other fashion stores selling similar products.

Send your product review request email 2-3 days after you expect your customer to receive their items – keeping their purchase fresh in their mind and giving them a chance to assess the quality of the products.

You should be using Yotpo for this. Their app allows you send review requests email, display them on your site, and distribute the content on your social channels.

9. Testimonial Email

Now that you’ve collected great product reviews, start emailing them. 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and 72% will only take action once reading a positive review.

When designing testimonial emails, ensure that the text and product images are clear. Link each product review to a product page where customers can see more reviews of the product.

10. Reactivation Email

Over time your subscribers will begin to tune out from your emails. They’ll stop opening emails, clicking to your site, and buying your products. Don’t make saying goodbye so easy.

Automate a reengagement campaign that reengages and reactivates dormant subscribers after 60 days. While your main goal is to make more sales, opens and clicks you get from your reengagement email also signal to Gmail and other ESPs that your customers still love getting emails from you. If a large portion of your email list remains inactive your emails will start ending up in the promotions tab, and eventually – the deadly SPAM folder.

Read: 5 more tips for ecommerce stores to avoid the SPAM folder

Like other promotional emails, sending it once won’t get you results. Implement this series of 4 reengagement emails into your fashion email marketing strategy now.

Email 1: “We’ve missed you”

Include a sad face in your body text to create sympathy, and add a products based on past purchases and popularity. You can choose to offer a small discount here to further incentives visiting your site.

Email 2: “50% OFF EVERYTHING – JUST FOR YOU”

Offer a massive discount that they can’t refuse. Be prepared to not to make any money from this sale. However you can leverage the data from their purchase and browsing behavior to deliver more personalized product recommendations in the future.

Email 3: “You will be deleted from our list in 7 days”

If you’re still not getting any response after that massive offer, it’s time to think about letting go. Notify your subscriber that they will be removed from your list in 7 days and that the offer will soon expire.

Email 4: “You’ve been unsubscribed”

Continuing to email inactive subscribers will lead to your emails being flagged as SPAM. Say your final goodbye to your inactive subscriber, but include a link for them to resubscribe to your email list and reactivate your offer.

11. Holiday Email

On Black Friday in 2015, email marketing drove the most ecommerce sales at 25.1% – more than both social and search.

Considering the creative and sales potential in holiday events, it’s important that you keep your fashion store’s email marketing a step ahead of the competition. Based on your target market, add important events such as Back-to-School, Halloween, Christmas, and Black Friday to your content calendar.

If you’re looking to get started, these are 12 ecommerce holidays that you should build fashion email content around:

1. Valentines Day – February 14th
2. Mother’s Day – May 10th
3. Father’s Day – June 21st
4. Independence Day – July 4th
5. Back-to-School – September 1st
6. Labor Day – September 7th
7. Halloween – October 31st
8. Black Friday – November 27th
9. Cyber Monday – November 30th
10. Super Saturday – December 19th
11. Christmas – December 25th
12. Boxing Day – December 26th

Once again! Send more than one email. Counting down your holiday sale will a sense of urgency with your subscribers and encourage them to act quickly.

12. Birthday Email

With personalized birthday emails having 5x the transaction rate of standard bulk mailings, your subscribers aren’t the only ones getting a reward on their birthday.

While the goal of this email is to make a sale on your site, appreciate your active subscribers by giving them a substantial discount. An Experian study found that giving a ‘$X off’ gift had the highest transaction rate and revenue per email, when compared to other percentage-based, point-based, or free shipping gifts.

Closing Note:

If you’ve made it this far, you’re ready implement your fashion email marketing strategy. We’ve put together a handy checklist for you to put this guide into action.

For your personalized product emails, newsletters, and abandoned cart emails – I’m going to encourage you to start using SmartrMail. Within minutes you can design and automate 2 of the above emails. What’re you waiting for? Start getting more sales for your fashion store now!

The post 2024 Email Marketing Guide for Fashion Brands with Examples appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

But with 68% of online carts being abandoned, a huge remarketing opportunity presents itself. In a recent study, Business Insider estimated that about 63% of abandoned products can be recovered by savvy e-commerce marketers.

Being a savvy e-commerce marketer doesn’t mean sending the default abandoned cart email that comes with Shopify, Neto, or other ecommerce platforms. To get more sales, you need to use an advanced email marketing app that allows you to send a series of emails. People are too busy, and inboxes are too full for one email to get you sales.

To craft the perfect abandoned cart email series, you must first consider that customers abandon their carts for a variety of reasons. A study by UPS and comScore found the top 5 reasons why customers abandon their online shopping carts were:

• Unexpected shipping costs or conditions at checkout
• Browsing for a better price elsewhere
• Didn’t want to create an account to purchase
• Preferred payment was not offered
• Got distracted and forgot to complete the order

As you can see, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all email that will solve your cart abandonment issues. By sending a series of emails, you’re able to customize and combine offers to win back customers who could have left for different reasons. We recommend sending these 3 emails to increase your abandoned cart recovery and boost sales for your store:

Email 1: Reminder

72% of customers who buy from abandoned cart emails convert in the first 24 hours, so don’t waste any time! Send your first abandoned cart email 1 hour after your customer leaves your site.

Many ecommerce marketers make the mistake of offering a discount in their first email. When you’re using the default single abandoned cart email, that might be your best shot at getting a sale. But if you have the ability to send a series, you’ll be throwing away your profit unnecessarily.

When constructing this email include a photo of the product, a link back to their cart, and your customer service contact information. When including you contact information, ask the customer if they have any questions or need assistance. You’ll find that responses uncover pain points in your sales funnel such as shipping costs or payment options.

Email 2: Free Shipping Offer

Shipping costs are the top reason why customers abandon items in their cart. If you’re able to offer free shipping on an order, do it on this email. For orders that don’t meet a minimum free shipping threshold, you’re not out of luck. Use this email to cross-sell and encourage customers to increase their order value to meet your free shipping threshold.

Amazon (the best email marketers in the world) attributes 35% of their revenue to cross-selling recommendations. Cross-selling in your abandoned cart emails will recover lost sales, increase your average order value, and boost revenue for your store.

Like your first email, send this one within 24 hours. Doing otherwise is throwing away a valuable sales opportunity. As a bonus, include promotional branding stating what makes your products unique, why you’re awesome, and what your customers say about your products.

Email 3: Hail Mary Discount

Still no purchase? It’s likely that your customer is price-sensitive and a discount will push them over the line. It’s time to consider how much you’re willing to give up to make a sale. We’ve found that abandoned cart emails with discount offers 10% and up or free shipping recover the most sales.

Once you’ve decided on a discount offer the next step is adding urgency. Add one or a combination of these element in your discount abandoned cart email.

• “Your discount expires on…”
• “This item sells out fast… “
• “Items in your cart are almost sold out”
• “Cart expires in 24 hours”
• “Items are low in stock so we can’t hold your cart”

It’s a good idea to include a link to a short survey in this email asking customers why they didn’t complete their purchase. Doing so will provide you with data to further optimize your abandoned cart emails in the future.

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The post 3 Emails to Increase E-commerce Abandoned Cart Recovery in 2023 appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

Few things in email marketing are as dull and boring yet incredibly important as subject lines. Just a single line of plain text to summarize and entice people into opening your email. Consider using emojis in subject lines to capture your audiences gaze!

It’s no wonder then that over the past few years we’ve seen a steady increase in email marketers adding emojis to their subject lines. 

But does including an emoji in your subject line help or hinder your email campaign? Do they make your email stand out among the others vying for attention? Or do they just annoy your subscribers? 

When one third of your email list base their decision to open and read your email entirely on its subject line, and two thirds report emails as spam solely on subject lines, the stakes are high. 

So, to give you the ability to make an informed decision, let’s take a look at what the data says about using emojis for email subject lines and all the considerations you should be aware of. 

The effects of including an emoji in your subject line

Adding emojis usually increases open rates

One of the most comprehensive studies on the effect of emojis on subject lines comes from Return Path. By looking at the effect of the most popular emojis on open rates for various holidays, they found that adding an emoji usually sees an improvement. 

Take New Year’s for example.

The overall average open rate for a New Year’s promotional campaign is 18%. But subject lines that included the Champagne bottle () or the confetti ball () saw an average open rate of 22%. 

However, New Year’s email subject lines that included the clinking glasses () had an average open rate of only 9%.

There’s similar results for Mother’s Day. Subject lines including nail polish () achieved an average open rate of 24% whereas those with the woman () emoji saw only a 7% open rate. This is compared to an overall average of 20%. 

In addition to Return Path’s study, Experian reported that just over half of brands (56%) that used an emoji in their subject line achieved higher open rates. This means that for 44% of brands, including an emoji either resulted in no difference or a decrease in open rates.

Emojis may also increases complaint rates

Going back to New Year’s, the two emojis that improved open rates to 22% also resulted in an increased complaint rate (the rate at which subscribers complained to their inbox providers about receiving the email).

In this case, the Champagne bottle () subject lines had an average complaint rate of 0.22% and subject lines with the confetti ball (?) 0.49%. This is compared to an overall average of 0.11% for New Year’s emails. 

The story is similar for most of the other holidays analyzed. Suggesting that using emojis in your subject line tends to increase your complaint rate. 

Making sense of the results

So the data out there suggests that including having an emoji in your subject line usually, but not always, improves your open rate. But sometimes it will harm your open rate and other times it’ll have little effect. 

Then there’s the more clear trend of an increased complaint rate.

The most probable explanation for what’s going on is that emojis are simply doing exactly what email marketers intend them to do: grab people’s attention. 

This explains why most of the time you’ll see an increased open rate by using emojis. However if you include an irrelevant emoji, chances are people will still take notice of it, but you’ve turned them off clicking on your email. 

It also explains why emojis increase complaint rates. If your email has been flying under the radar of subscribers who for whatever reason don’t think they should be receiving your email, slapping an emoji on your subject line is a surefire way of finally getting noticed. 

So does all this mean you should or shouldn’t include emojis in your subject line? 

It means that you should carefully consider when to use emojis.

By following the best practices for subject line emojis in this guide, you should achieve better opens. Even if it comes at the expense of a few more complaints, but if you maintain proper email list hygiene, that shouldn’t be a problem. 

If you instead start just throwing in emojis for the sake of it, your open rate will likely take a hit, your complaints grow and your email list shrink as people unsubscribe.

Best practices for using emojis in subject lines 

So what are the best practices when it comes to including an emoji in the subject line? To give your emails the best chance at benefiting from adding emojis, there’s definitely a few practices you’ll want to follow.

Use emojis sparingly

Just like how you shouldn’t write your subject line in all caps or include excessive punctuation, you also shouldn’t include too many emojis. 

Less is more when it comes to emojis in subject lines. One or two well-placed emojis can add value, but overcrowding your subject line with symbols can make it look cluttered and hard to read. The goal is to complement your text, not overwhelm it.

Also, including too many emojis will make your email come across as spammy. There’s no reason to have two smiley faces when a single one does the job. The subject lines below are good examples of what to avoid doing.

You might be able to get away with two emojis but don’t push your luck with three or more. If you want to play it safe, keep it to only one. 

Keep it relevant

There’s over three thousand different emojis available for you to choose from. So there’s no excuse to keep using the same smiley face with every campaign. 

Remember the Mother’s Day stats from above? 

The much more relevant nail polish (?) achieved an open rate of 24% whereas when the far less relevant woman (??) saw only a 7% open rate. Using an irrelevant emoji or even one that just doesn’t resonate with your audience will hinder your engagement rates. 

Consider your audience

Understand your audience’s preferences and demographics. While younger audiences might appreciate playful or trendy emojis, a more formal or older audience may find them unprofessional or confusing.

Tailor your emoji usage to suit the tone and expectations of your target group.There is no hard and fast rule as to what every audience will consider acceptable.

Whether emojis help or harm your email marketing depends largely on who is opening your email.

You probably already have an idea of how your audience will respond to emojis, but important differences to consider include:

Young vs. old

As you might suspect, younger audiences respond better to emojis than older audiences. A study of 1,000 Americans found that 68% of millennials view using emojis positively, compared to just 37% of those over 65. 

This doesn’t mean that you can’t use emojis if your audience tends to be on the older end of the scale. However the older your audience is, the more you should consider if using an emoji is appropriate.

Instead of using them with every campaign, reserve them for special events. And when you do use them, be more conservative with your choice of emoji and keep it to only one per subject line. 

B2B vs. B2C

Emojis change the tone of your email. While different emojis can change the tone in different ways, every emoji will make your subject line less formal and more playful. 

This can be great for B2C emails, especially if your brand embraces informality. 

B2B emails on the other hand often require a more professional tone as they’re more a form of business communication. This makes using emojis more risky and something that can even come across as inappropriate. Especially when a survey of workers found that a third thought a simple smiley face was unacceptable in business emails. 

Women vs. men

There’s some research that shows that women tend to react more positively to emojis than men. Even though the difference was substantial (4% compared to 13% viewed them negatively), overall both men and women are far more likely to respond positively than negatively.

Test, test, test

No matter how well you know your audience, you still won’t know exactly how they’ll respond until you add emojis to your subject lines. 

Use A/B testing to see how different emojis impact open rates. What works for one campaign or audience segment might not work for another. Testing allows you to optimize your subject lines for maximum engagement.

If you haven’t done any testing before, we have a guide on A/B testing subject lines that you should  check out. 

How to put an emoji in a subject line

By now, you might be wondering how you can actually insert an emoji into the subject line field. After all, most people only use emojis on their phones. 

To insert an emoji on your computer you have a couple of options:

• Copy and paste the emoji from a site like Emojipedia. 
• On Macs, click in the subject line field and then press CONTROL + COMMAND + SPACE to bring up the selector. 
• On PCs, click in the subject line field and then press the Windows key + either the period (.) or semicolon (;) key.

Considerations when including emoji

Emojis render differently on different devices and email clients

The same emoji will not look the same across every device. Each operating system has its own design language. For example, take a look at how the smiley face renders across various platforms:

The differences are subtle, but for some emojis the differences are much more pronounced. The t-shirt for instance completely changes color.

So one subject line you definitely don’t want to send your email with is “Flash Sale on Blue T-Shirts ?”

The bottomline: Test your subject lines on various platforms to ensure that the emojis render correctly and don’t lose their intended meaning.

Brand new emojis may not render at all

Every year a new set of emojis are released. For example, last year we got a stethoscope (?), flamingo (?) and person kneeling (?) emojis, among over 200 others.  

When new emojis are released, the task of supporting them falls on operating system providers. So that people can view the new emojis, software updates are required, and for brand new emojis, this can take time. 

You might even find that you view the emojis above because your device hasn’t yet received an update to render them. 

Within a year or two most mobile devices will be able to display the new emojis. That said, to ensure your subscribers don’t end up seeing square boxes in their place, avoid using any newly released emojis in your subject line. 

For more on emoji rendering in subject lines, check out our support doc here. 

Final thoughts

Subject lines exist to let people know what an email is about. 

When used well, emojis can provide more information about the email more concisely while also grabbing people’s attention. 

However, when abused to purely grab attention and get clicked, chances are they’ll end up hurting your email marketing. 

And as with everything in digital marketing, approach any change in how to write your subject lines methodically and run A/B tests so you gain a clear idea of whether results are improving or not.

The post The 2023 Definitive Guide to Using Emojis in Subject Lines appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

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