This is number one on this email automation list because it’s probably the most common ploy that I see used on eCommerce sites, and that’s for one simple reason; it works!

Here’s what you need to know about these types of emails:

• They’re an important part of the mix because they’re one of the quickest ways to capture a customer’s email address
• They’re also important when you consider that acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing one
• They should always be part of a series of emails (or, as marketers will call them, an ‘automated sequence’)

Sending out a single email when someone has subscribed to your list is essentially futile if they don’t use the discount you’ve given them. 

This is because research shows that the likelihood to purchase decreases over time, meaning the sooner you can get someone to make a purchase on your site, the better!

A really good way to make the most out of these emails is to create a three-part ‘welcome’ campaign.

Here's what it should look like:

Email 1: Sent immediately after a customer subscribes

The first email should give your subscriber the coupon code (or whatever you’ve offered them) upfront, then it should add in some useful information to hook them back into your site (for example, articles or product recommendations).

Email 2: Sent 48 hours after subscribing IF no purchase has been made

The second email should remind them about their coupon, introduce an expiry date to increase urgency, and have a button to send them back to your store page...and that’s it. 

Keep this one super simple.

I tend to gravitate towards emails with a bit of humour in them, which is why I love this example from Beardbrand.

Email 3: Sent 72 hours after subscribing IF no purchase has been made

This final email needs to prominently display the time left before the coupon expires as well as a button to your store page.

It's basically a rehash of the previous email with the logic being that, if they haven't completed a purchase by now, they're not likely to as a result of your coupon code anyway.

The second type of automation that should be a staple in every eCommerce strategy is the ‘abandoned cart’ email.

There are a number of reasons why a cart is abandoned but, most commonly, it’s because of unexpected costs at the checkout.

Added costs such as taxes or shipping costs are estimated to account for 15% of all cart abandonments.

In fact, on average, abandoned cart emails have an open rate of 45%, and if they’re sent within 20 minutes, a conversion rate of 5.2%.

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, here are some more stats from Salescycle that might:

• More than a tenth (11.61%) of cart abandonment emails are clicked
• The average order value (AOV) of purchases from basket abandonment emails is 14.2% higher than typical purchases
• Nearly a third (29.9%) of clicks lead to a purchase back on site

Here's the Skinny on Birthday Emails:

• Birthday emails get 481% higher transaction rates than other promotional emails.
• Birthday emails generate 342% more revenue than promotional emails.
• And birthday emails get 179% higher unique click rates than promotional emails.

For all of the reasons above, birthday emails have become a highly popular tool for eCommerce businesses. Check out our pro tips below for a few effective ways that you can stand out from your competition.

In eCommerce email marketing, more than email marketing in other industries, this is probably one of the most important automations you can have, but it’s also the one task that most eCommerce businesses fear the most.

And I get it… it seems counter-intuitive to actively remove people from your database, especially because you might be “proud of having a big database”.

But, there are a number of reasons why you need to embrace this campaign for your business.

4 Reasons You Should Regularly Clean Your Email Database

• Your email marketing tools will charge you for a certain tier of users, and in a world where every cent counts, wouldn’t it be great if you could maintain a list that was both cheaper and more profitable!

• A clever list cleaning campaign can help drive sales from customers who may not have purchased from you in some time (and may just need an extra little nudge).

• How great does it look that you care enough about your customers that you’d offer to stop sending them emails they don’t want to receive?

• Reputation is everything! These days, your ability to send email marketing campaigns is all predicated on having a squeaky clean reputation. Removing dud emails helps to reduce things like bounce rate and spam complaints, which all count towards your reputation.

Now, before you start this campaign, there’s something you can do immediately that will help improve the return on investment (ROI) of your list. 

In your email marketing tool, locate the customers who you’ve tried to email but who’ve bounced. 

There are generally two different types:  ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ bounces. Here’s how I like to think of them: 

A soft bounce = Can’t be delivered right now

A hard bounce = Can’t ever be delivered

Find all of the ‘hard’ bounces and archive those users ASAP!

So here’s the anatomy of a list cleaning email campaign...

A follow-up email can be used for a number of things, but here are my two favourite ways to use these emails:

1. To ask your customers how they found using your service. These should be triggered once your shipping tool has registered a successful delivery (which doesn’t work for non-tracked orders) and is a great way to capture feedback from your customer - while you have their attention.
2. To ask your customers how they’re finding your product. You can set these for a certain time after the delivery (long enough that they’ve had time to use your product).

So, how do customer review emails work?

Firstly, figure out what you want your customers to review and where you want them to review it.

If you’re asking them to review the overall experience they had shopping with you, send them somewhere public like Google or Facebook* (whichever one is your biggest source of traffic).

If you’re asking them to review the product they’ve purchased, check whether or not your store allows customers to leave reviews directly on the product page - if they do, this is the best place for these reviews.

This is because:

• Google often uses customer reviews as rich snippets in their search results which can help with ranking, and also helps make your search results take up more space on the results page.

• If a customer lands on your product page (or searches for a specific product), chances are they know what they’re looking for and they’re just looking for a bit of social proof that your products are worth their money - customer reviews are a powerful conversion tool.