Success in eCommerce depends on a number of factors, including a sound marketing strategy. One underused method for driving sales and improving brand appeal is through the use of email. Despite what you may have heard, there are numerous benefits to email marketing that can help you improve your business, if approached correctly.

If you are in the process of growing your eCommerce business and want a viable way to strengthen your brand, increase traffic to your website, and bring in more revenue, a digital marketing campaign that focuses on email outreach might be the solution. This quick guide outlines just a few of the key benefits of using email in your eCommerce marketing strategy, and why this is still one of the best ways to promote your brand.

Is Email Marketing Still Effective?

The first question you might be asking yourself is whether or not email marketing is even still effective. Do businesses really still collect emails when other forms of digital marketing like SEO and social media have completely changed the way we think about connecting with businesses and performing lead generation?

The answer is, mysteriously enough, that email marketing is still booming. Despite the fact that many of us profess not to use email all that much, it’s still a mainstay and produces shockingly good results, especially in certain niches. Not only is an email marketing campaign a great way to simply drive traffic to your products, but there are also a variety of other benefits of it as well, which we will go into greater detail about below.

Even after all this time, shoppers are quite receptive to emails when they volunteer to get them, and when the emails in question actually provide value and don’t spam. For business owners looking for a way to improve their brand and simply engage customers, this is an effective form of eCommerce digital marketing that you can’t afford to overlook.

Get More Sales For Your eCommerce Business

Email marketing can be an effective way to connect with customers and generate sales.

The Most Important Benefits of Email Marketing

So how does email marketing benefit your business specifically? It’s worth noting here that email is a very different format than what you may be accustomed to with digital marketing. In order to provide your email list with value and make them feel like a part of a community rather than simply a potential customer, email campaigns have to be crafted in such a way that they drive action but also build trust. Some find it difficult to get the balance just right, which is why it’s often worth letting a professional marketing agency handle them.

Effective Way to Drive Conversions

The first key benefit of email marketing has to be its ability to improve traffic and conversions. If you have carefully cultivated an email list that trusts you, an email blast becomes a powerful means of instantly receiving an influx of qualified traffic to your most important offers.

This is key because we’re not talking about cold leads here. These are shoppers that already have some knowledge of who you are as a brand or company, and theoretically have some kind of rapport with you already. If you have treated your list with respect and understand how to message properly using email, then you are set up well to be able to generate conversions with an email campaign. Undoubtedly this is one of the best reasons to utilize email in your digital marketing strategy.

Great Way to Connect With Your Customers

In that regard, it’s not all about conversions. In order to cultivate a successful brand online, you have to put time into your audience. Sure, social media is a great way to instantly talk to potential and former shoppers, but an email list provides a kind of exclusivity that fosters a better connection than what can be achieved with social media platforms.

Being on an email list is almost like being a part of a club. You get exclusive access to their email newsletter and special sales and deals. While anyone can join, of course, there’s something special about knowing that you are part of a limited pool of people and that only a select few have access to such offers. This feeling of exclusivity is part of what makes email lists so potentially rewarding for eCommerce businesses. Email provides an easy way to get feedback on the shopping experience and openly communicate with your customers in a way that feels much more targeted and personal than through social media.

Announcements and Sales

Speaking of sales, making announcements through email campaigns is one of the most useful reasons to build a list in the first place. It can be difficult to make it known that you are running a specific sale or have a special deal running. You can place a banner at the top of your website, and make announcements on social media, but there is no guarantee that customers will visit your socials or your store and see the message.

An email campaign on the other hand allows you to send a message directly to your list, alerting them that you have a special sale going on or bringing other important information to their attention. Since most people check their email at least once a day, you are almost guaranteed to get the attention of your most diehard customers within 24 hours. This is one of the clear benefits of email marketing that can help improve your business if utilized responsibly.

An Audience You Own

This last point is also important and is perhaps the most important benefit of all. The fact that you “own” your email list is incredibly important. At the end of the day, we are all at the mercy of various companies and corporations that technically own much of our digital presence. Whether it’s a super popular social media business page or the host your store is on, you have no control over these digital entities. If the majority of your audience communicates with you on Facebook and the whole company suddenly goes under for whatever reason, can you say in good confidence that you would be able to pick up where you left off somewhere else?

An email list is yours. Even if you use one specific service, such as MailChimp for instance, they don’t own your list, their service is merely a tool you use to send emails with. You can take your entire list and “move” it someplace else, if need be. This is the real power of email marketing for eCommerce, because it provides a means of reliably building a following that will stay with you no matter what platforms you use or what changes online.

Not sure about handling a full-scale email campaign by yourself? Don’t worry, you don’t have to. If you want to take advantage of everything that email marketing has to offer when it comes to your eCommerce business, simply get in touch with our marketing team here at Genius eCommerce® and we will be happy to manage your campaign for you. Our eCommerce marketing experts know how to implement best practices that ensure your list is treated with respect, while harnessing the power of this marketing channel to drive more sales. Give us a call at 888.982.8269 to get started.