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5 Email Strategies That Will Keep Your E-Commerce Customers Buying

You want to sell more from your e-commerce store, but you have limited funds to market and attract new customers. It is much easier to sell to existing customers than to convince new customers to buy from you. So if you have an existing customer base, you can increase your earnings without needing to find any more customers. Easy, right?

Your existing customers have usually given you permission to communicate with them via email. This is a huge advantage for you, as they are more likely to read your emails, which opens the door for you to get them back to your store and increase their purchases.

In this article we will share five key tips on how you can use your email list to keep e-commerce customers coming back to your store and making purchases. Let’s get cracking!

1. Offer Discount Codes as Incentives

Everybody likes a good deal, especially people shopping online. Discounts – even small amounts – are great incentives for customers to make more purchases. You can offer discounts on repeat purchases, related products, or bulk quantities to encourage customers to go back to site.

Memebox Promo Email
Memebox offers shop-wide discounts and promo codes to their email subscribers.

The emails you send to your existing customers are the perfect place to let them know about discounts you are offering. Exclusive discount codes can make your customers feel like part of a secret deals club.

2. Upsell Related Products

Your customer’s interest in a particular product is often a good indicator of their interest in other products you sell. Products related to those they already purchased – like accessories – are good candidates for future purchases.

Misfit Upsell Email
Previous purchasers of a Misfit Shine receive emails about other bundles and accessories.

Use your emails to share links to some other products your customer may be interested in based on their previous purchases. If your selections are well chosen, you can make those additional sales with little effort on your part.

3. Highlight Recent or Popular Purchases

Humans are social animals at heart, and we all like to know that other people like the same things we do. Most online shoppers don’t want to be the first guinea pigs for a product. Social proof can be an important trigger for customer purchases.

eBay Trending Email
eBay shows customers what others are checking out on the site.

Let your emails do the work for you by showcasing some of the products other customers have bought recently. If there are especially popular or trending products, don’t miss this chance to let your existing customers know.

4. Promote Your Social Accounts

Social media is a great way for customers to keep up with what is happening with your brand. Connecting on social media increases the customer’s interaction with you, deepens the relationship and raises their awareness of your brand so it stays top of mind and draws them back.

Musicnotes Social Email
Musicnotes encourages their customers to join them on social platforms.

Don’t miss the opportunity to use your emails to your customers to encourage them to connect with you on the social media platforms you use. You can show some of what you’ve shared on your social platforms so they see the value of connecting with you.

5. Share Your Story

People buy from those they know and trust. Giving your customers a look at your brand story helps them feel like insiders and makes them part of your journey, which makes them even more likely to buy from your brand again.

Ramit Sethi Storytelling Email
Ramit Sethi is known for sharing stories of his life in his emails.

Share your backstory in your emails, give customers an inside look at how you do what you do, and share your ups and downs. Putting a human face on your brand will help your customers connect with you.

Conclusion

The challenge for all store owners is how to increase sales, but your existing customer base is a ready-made market for your products. In this article we outlined five ways you can use email with your list to get them shopping with you again:

  1. Offer Discount Codes as Incentives
  2. Upsell Related Products
  3. Highlight Recent or Popular Purchases
  4. Promote Your Social Accounts
  5. Share Your Story

The customers on your email list are a valuable asset, so go get creative with marketing to them to bring them back to your store.

Do you have any tips for making the most of your e-commerce store’s email list? Share with us in the comments section below!

6 responses to “5 Email Strategies That Will Keep Your E-Commerce Customers Buying”

  1. Betty Perry Avatar

    Tom
    I am co-leader of the GIg Harbor Super Business Group 30-40 members that are all small business folks. We meet every Wed. morning at 7am – 8:30am downtown at Java & Clay. We have speakers from the community to share for about 30-40 min. We have had many ask for a Social Media expert come and give us pointers. Would you be willing to do that sometime. You likely will gain awareness and maybe business from the locals. My phone is 253-312-0322. Thanks. Betty

    1. Tom Ewer Avatar

      Hi Betty,

      I’m afraid I don’t live in the Gig Harbor area; I’m in the UK! So attending would be a challenge ;-)

      Cheers,

      Tom

  2. Eric Amundson Avatar

    Hi Betty,

    I’ve contacted you and Kurt offline and am scheduled to speak to your group on the morning of February 24th.

    Looking forward to meeting you then!

  3. pakaian Avatar
    pakaian

    Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before
    but after checking through some of the post I
    realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely delighted I found
    it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!

    1. Tom Ewer Avatar

      Thanks Pakaian!

  4. Eric Amundson Avatar

    Great question, Jody.

    Segmentation is really important for effective marketing. Personally, I’ve just scratched the surface of it, but know that people use email tools and also CRM tools to help with this.

    My personal fave is MailChimp as it’s what I know best and I like the company, but you can do the same with most other major email list providers like Constant Contact, iContact, VerticalResponse, etc.

    Other companies will use tools like SalesForce, HubSpot, or the like to segment their customers and then push emails to those segments through their provider.

    I hope that helps.

    Are you using GetResponse?