eConnect Email Blog

Tip to recovering abandoned online sales through email marketing

GravatarPosted on December 01st, 2011
Simply Marketing, Tips & Best Practices

Statistics show that roughly 7 out of 10 online shopping carts are abandoned before a purchase is made. Crazy. 7 out of 10.

It takes too much time and effort to get someone to your site, get them to shop, put items in their cart to only walk away with nothing 70% of the time.

Obviously, physical stores rarely have this problem.  Of course you can walk in and walk out with nothing if you don’t find what you are looking for at the price you are willing to pay.  However, if you grab a shopping cart and start filling it with things you need or want, you are not going to just leave the store without paying for and taking those things home, it just doesn’t happen.

Now there are a lot of people who can go beyond these simple statistics and give you reasons why ecommerce shoppers do this, we just want you to know that through email marketing there is a way to increase your abandoned cart sales.

Fickle Shoppers

Of course, there are many things you can do to convert more visitors into paying customers such as the design, price pointing, special offers, etc. But with all that said, clients are fickle and may change their mind and walk away.

So by all means, do everything in your power to provide an optimal shopping and check out experience. But regardless of why they didn’t complete the transaction – you’ve got a secret weapon that doesn’t care and it’s called email marketing.

The eConnect Email solution to making your cash register go cha-ching!

eConnect Email has a solution to this cart abandonment saga.  Our email system triggers real-time, automated email follow-ups to your potential buyers, helping to convert abandoned shopping carts into money in the bank. By delivering timely follow-up messages, cart abandonment emails can remind, gently push and motivate lost sales to come back to you. Here’s a few simple examples of how customers use cart abandonment:

  • Remind customers of the products they left in their cart
  • Cross-sell/up-sell complimentary products
  • Offer discounts or incentives to complete the sale
  • Run surveys to ask why they didn’t complete the purchase
  • Trigger special messages after purchase that entice new sales

Recovering lost sales with the help of email marketing will be worth the time and effort.  I would highly encourage you to use the technology at your fingertips and statistically speaking you can recover 50% of those lost sales.  Do the math yourself and ask why you’re leaving money on the table.

To learn more about email marketing automation, and specifically cart abandonment services, connect with us. We’d love to hear about your business and e-commerce goals and how we might help.

About James Trumbly:
Director of Business Development for eConnect Email, an email marketing software company. James enjoys spending time at the beach and traveling in his free time. Follow him on twitter @eConnectEmail

Designing for Outlook 2010 – the good and the bad.

GravatarPosted on November 17th, 2011
Design For Email

Do you use e-mail marketing at work or in your own business?  If you do, here’s the good news: Outlook 2010 Beta is now ready for use in your Inbox Preview reports within eConnect Email.  While some email marketers weren’t happy with the fact that outlook 2010 is using the Microsoft Word 2010 rendering engine in nearly the same way that it did in 2007, there have been some improvements to 2010 that will help you in your email marketing.
The reason for uproar over the 2007 version with Word was that many preferred to view in a browser.  This uproar at least got the attention of the folks at outlook, and the small concession that resulted was the little message/link “view in web browser” that allows the viewer to open up a web browser.  This just ensures additional rendering options available for your recipient, which is a wonderful thing if you use e-mail marketing.

To ensure that the link will be visible to your recipient, use the following steps:

1.    If you’re already using a <style /> tag in the <head /> of your email just tack on this line of code:

#ForceOutlook2010BroswerLink span { padding: 0px; }

2.    If you aren’t using <style /> tags or prefer a cleaner method just place this span tag in the <body /> of your email:

<span style=”padding: 0px;”></span>

While nothing else seems to have changed much with Outlook 2010, and this change seems to be a small one, it is at least proof that things may be heading in a better direction.

About Johnny Jeffers:
Creative Director and all around cool guy. In his free time you will find him jamming in the local music scene around Austin, TX with his band, With An Orange. You can also follow him on twitter @eConnectEmail

A tip on how to reduce your unsubscribe rate

GravatarPosted on November 14th, 2011
Simply Marketing, Tips & Best Practices

Want to reduce your unsubscribe rates?  Why not create a landing page that gives the reader options for receiving mail.

Chances are your subscriber just has an overwhelming inbox, or feels like they hear from you more than they would like to.    Let them choose the frequency of their newsletters or re-subscribe to a specific mailing list.  It’s worth a try.

About Johnny Jeffers:
Creative Director and all around cool guy. In his free time you will find him jamming in the local music scene around Austin, TX with his band, With An Orange. You can also follow him on twitter @eConnectEmail

Four Simple Ways to Improve Your Email Open Rates

Is your email marketing campaign struggling to get off the ground? Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time crafting beautiful emails with enticing copy and images, but more often than not, your subscribers are hitting delete without even opening the message. Let’s take a look at four ways to increase your open rates and maximize the effectiveness of your campaign.

Subject Line

The subject line is your first point of contact with subscribers. Blow it, and you’ll never get the results you’re looking for.

  • Simplify It—Creativity is great, but getting too flowery with your subject line can make you look suspicious. Stick to the essentials: email topic, special offer, or product name.
  • Personalize It—Write your subject line in terms of the way it will benefit the subscriber. Use action words such as save, enter, or win. Speak to the reader rather than at him.
  • Test It—Set up an A/B test to determine which subject line produces the best results. Use test results not only to determine the actual wording for a certain campaign, but to influence the style you use for future emails.

Send Time

The time of day you send your email can greatly affect your open rates. However, the best time of day for you will depend on who makes up your primary target audience.

  • Optimize It—If you send primarily to business people, for instance, avoid sending first thing in the morning or right before 5:00. Both of these times are likely to lower your open rates.
  • Test It—Try sending emails at different times to find out what time of day generates the most opens among your target audience.

Send Day

  • Accommodate It—The day you send will be influenced by the type of special offer you’re promoting (a weekend sale announcement might be sent on Thursday, for example). Mondays and Fridays tend to generate lower open rates than other days.
  • Test It—Experiment with different days of the week to find out when your subscribers are most likely to open and read your messages.

Subscriber List

  • Segment It—Acknowledge and cater to the differences in your subscribers, especially if your list is very large. Use profile information or customer surveys to develop customized special offers based on your subscribers’ interests.
  • Test It—Once again, the best way to know what works for any group of people is to test. Set up a series of tests to determine what kinds of emails appeal most to the various groups in your subscriber list.

Did you notice a pattern in the tips above? eConnect Email can help you design and run tests for your email campaign, displaying detailed reports to help you make the best possible decisions.

About James Trumbly:
Director of Business Development for eConnect Email, an email marketing software company. James enjoys spending time at the beach and traveling in his free time. Follow him on twitter @eConnectEmail

Five Email Copywriting Tips Guaranteed to Engage Your Audience

GravatarPosted on November 01st, 2011
Tips & Best Practices

Your click-through rates depend heavily on how well your copywriting engages subscribers. If they find your content boring or otherwise not worth their time, they may even decide to stop opening your emails or unsubscribe from your list. The good news is that you can polish your copywriting by making sure each email demonstrates these characteristics.

Be Personal

Email is inherently more personal than social media or blogging. People tend to guard their email addresses jealously, so when they sign up for your email list they’re displaying a certain level of trust and interest in what you have to say. Take that trust seriously and treat them as the valued customers they are. Send birthday emails, thank you emails, special offers, and whatever else you can think of to let your subscribers know you view them as individuals.

Remember, Your Subject Line is Copy Too

It’s easy to tack the subject line on at the last minute without giving it much thought. But doing so could be detrimental to your email campaign by sabotaging your open rates. Pay attention to things like simple, concise action wording, being straightforward, and not looking like spam.

Be Conversational

Don’t sound overly formal or salesy when you’re writing email copy. Let your subscribers know that you’re a person too, and include details that highlight a personality rather than merely a corporation. Talk about your latest blog post, your daughter’s birthday, or a special person who inspired you—anything to create a connection between you and the reader.

Provide Content That Benefits the Reader

Benefit doesn’t always have to be monetary. Give the reader something to make him laugh, pique his interest, tell him something he didn’t know, or tell him a story that means something to you. These types of emails capture interest and as an added bonus, they often inspire the subscriber to forward your email to friends and family who might become subscribers themselves. Of course, you can also provide benefit by offering discounts, freebies, or sneak previews of sale events.

Always Include a Call to Action

No matter how great your email is, the subscriber is unlikely to click through to your website if you don’t give him a reason for doing so. Ask the reader to take action in every email you send using compelling wording and a great incentive.

eConnect Email can help with you with every stage of the email creation process. Upload and manage images, implement customizable templates, preview how content will look in the inbox, personalize your messages, and insert content snippets into emails all from one centralized location.

About James Trumbly:
Director of Business Development for eConnect Email, an email marketing software company. James enjoys spending time at the beach and traveling in his free time. Follow him on twitter @eConnectEmail

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