Email marketing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to drive sales to your online store. If you own an e-commerce website it is essential that you are collecting email addresses from your customers and sending out regular promotions and marketing materials via email. This enables you to maintain a relationship with your previous customers, as well as offer them promotions and incentives for future purchases.

Not only should you be sending email campaigns to your previous customers, but you should also have an email signup somewhere on your site, where potential customers can give you their email address for updates and special promotions. This is a great area to target because these are people who are interested in your product, but need a little more “convincing” before they make a purchase. Email campaigns are a perfect medium to target these potential customers.

One reason why email marketing is so effective is because you can reach a relatively large audience, for a very small amount of money. With a little research you can master the art of email marketing and manage and send out your own campaigns. Below I have compiled a list of 5 important aspects to a successful email campaign.

1. Have Good Email List – No matter how good you email message is or how many times you send it, if your list of emails you are sending your message to is bad then your campaign will be doomed to fail from the start. One big misconception is that you can purchase a “targeted” email list online. You have probably seen the ads – “100,000 targeted email addresses for only $199” Don’t waste your time or your money. I can assure you that any email list you can purchase will be complete garbage.
In order to succeed with your marketing campaigns you need a quality “home grown” email list. This means that you have to build the list yourself with your email addresses from your previous customers and also people who sign up at your website to be part of your mailing list. One question I see a lot is, “How do I get my visitors to give me their email address?” This can be achieved by having a “sign up for mailing list” section of your site. Make sure it is global throughout your site, and make it simple to sign up. All you need is your visitors email address. You don’t need their name or phone number or any other information. Once you have a mailing list section on your website, offer your visitors something to sign up. Give them a chance to win a free product or offer them a 10% off coupon – do whatever it takes to get your visitors to sign up you’re your email list.

One really good method is to tell your visitors if they sign up for your email list, they will receive a 10% off coupon. This is called a trigger email. Set up your email signup form to automatically send each person who signs up a 10% off coupon. This gives them motivation to sign up for your list, as well as motivation to purchase from your store. You will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who come back to make a purchase because of this coupon. It is a great selling tool.

2. Have Something to Say / Offer – Once you have your quality email list, the next important thing to focus on is your message. You need something to offer your customers that will interest them. This includes special offers and promotions, online only sales, discount coupons, closeout products and holiday discounts. People don’t want to hear about your new employee you just hired or any other unrelated company news. They are interested in your products. Do you have a new product coming out soon? Why not send all your previous customers an email campaign highlighting you new product and offer them a promotional discount. This is a great way to drive sales to you website and it works very well.

You should always be testing different offers on your customers. Maybe one month you give them a discount coupon and the next month you offer them a buy 2 get 1 free. Test, Test, Test. You have to constantly be testing out different offers in your email campaigns to see what works best for YOUR customers.

3. Design – You have to remember that when you are designing you email campaign how it is going to be viewed. “Design you campaign for the inbox”. This means because your email is most likely going to be viewed on Microsoft Outlook or a similar mail program design it accordingly. Make sure it is readable within these programs. This means keep the overall length and width down. Don’t make an 8.5” x 11” email. This is unpractical and will not display well in most email programs. A standard size we use with most of our client is 550px wide by 700px tall.

Also make sure you email design uses both text and images. This ensures people who do not accept HTML emails can still read your message.

4. Delivery – Once your email message is ready to go, you need a way to actually send it out. DO NOT just put it into outlook and send away. This is inefficient and unpractical. There are online email sending programs out there which are very effective and easy to use. They allow you to upload a list of emails, and then send your message to your list with a click of a button. One really nice thing about using one of these email sending companies, it they provide real time stat tracking. This includes message opens, and click though rates. This allows you to track the success of your campaign which is very important. They also comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. This allows your recipients to unsubscribe from your email campaign if they wish to. We have been using a company called IContact for a couple years now, and I would highly recommend them. They have great software and it is very easy to use. You can get a free trial of IContact here.

5. Frequency – Now you have successfully sent out your first email campaign, when is a good time for the second one? You always want to space out your campaigns so you don’t overwhelm your customers. A good rule of thumb is only once a month. However this is not written in stone. Feel free to experiment a little bit, just don’t overdo it. Always monitor the results of your last campaign and adjust according.

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About the Author: Brennan Heyde is an e-commerce consultant working in San Diego, Ca. He specializes in online marketing and SEO for e-commerce.  Have a struggling e-commerce website? – Contact Brennan today for a site analysis.