A newsletter is an important part of your ecommerce email marketing strategy.
The purpose is to attract attention, grow your audience, and ultimately, sell more, right?
If you don’t have one – or if you do and it’s floundering – you may need to evaluate to make sure you’re including the most important elements.
Your newsletter should be brief, educational, and big on value for your audience.
Here’s what to include to get the most out of this important communication with customers and potential buyers.
We put this first on the list because a newsletter that doesn’t look good isn’t going to be read.
If your current design looks like it was last updated by a designer sitting on a floral couch wearing denim overalls with one side unhooked while watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, it’s probably time to change it up.
Yeah, it’s THAT bad.
But we won’t just call you out without admitting that we’ve been guilty, too. In fact, we just gave our newsletter a pretty sweet makeover, and we ❤️ it.
Here’s the before:
And here’s the new version:
Make your newsletter look current and appealing so your audience will be compelled to check it out. You may be surprised by the impact this change can have on the success of your overall ecommerce email marketing strategy!
Your audience is receiving your newsletter because they want to stay up-to-date on what’s going on with your business. (Or, they don’t know where to find the unsubscribe button. But we’ll go with the first one.)
So, give your people what they want.
Share things like:
When you keep your clients and prospective customers in the loop, you’ll be top of mind when they need what you’re offering.
Regular blogging is a vital part of any ecommerce marketing strategy.
And you can use your blog in several different ways in your newsletter.
Here are a few ideas:
Don’t feel like you have to pick one of these ideas and stick with it. Try one, try two, try combinations, etc. Experiment until you find what works best and resonates with your audience. It’s all about the traction.
Letting your email list in on special events is a solid way to increase awareness of your brand and to bring in leads.
But don’t limit that impact to the event itself. Leverage the time leading up to the event and a recap after to get the most value.
What kind of events are we talking about?
Obviously, telling your audience about the event before it happens gets them excited about being a part of it.
But sharing afterward has value, too. Nobody likes to miss out. (That’s why “FOMO” is a thing!) When they see what they missed, they’ll be more apt to stay in the loop for the next one.
It would be a pity to put all your effort into creating an exciting, engaging newsletter and then not giving visitors anywhere to click!
Scary, indeed.
Put links and calls to action throughout your newsletter, for example:
Make the action you want your readers to take clear, but be careful not to overdo it. Too many links and buttons will be overwhelming and they won’t click on anything.
The items we’ve already listed are important elements to include in your ecommerce email marketing strategy.
But they aren’t the only ones.
Here are some other ideas for sharing with your audience:
Depending on what your ecommerce business sells, there are certainly questions you hear over and over. Consider making a list and putting them in your newsletter.
If you do a survey, share the outcome with your audience. If they participated, they’re probably curious about how their answers match up with other people who answered.
You can write, post, or share constantly about how your product or service can help people. But for many, they put much more stock in an actual experience a “real” person has had. When you get a great review or someone shares how you changed their life, you better believe that needs to go in your newsletter.
Your newsletter is a critical piece of your overall ecommerce email marketing strategy, so you need to put some serious thought into what you want it to say to your audience.
Start with the aesthetics and then decide on the elements that will best showcase your products or services. Don’t be afraid to experiment to find what gets the best results.
