9 Ways To Improve Email List Engagement As An Ecommerce Brand

If you're an e-commerce brand owner, you’ve probably tried time and time again to improve your email list engagement. 

You aren’t alone. Every e-commerce brand owner tackles this issue and tries little experiments to improve their email engagement rates. 

Today, we're discussing the world of e-commerce email marketing, unpacking 9 actionable ways to enhance your email list engagement rates and improve your customer’s lifetime value. 

Personalization 

Personalization in e-commerce email marketing isn't just about addressing your customers by name, it's about creating an experience that feels tailor-made for them. 

It starts with data collection - diving deep into your customers' behaviors, preferences, and purchase history. This step is crucial because it sets the stage for a more intimate, engaging email experience. Once you've got your insights, it's time to use them. 

Here are some steps to increase your personalization: 

Segment Your Audience: Break down your email list into much smaller, more specific groups. Segmentation can be based on criteria like past purchases, browsing behavior, or geographic location.

Behavioral Triggers: Set up emails that trigger based on specific customer actions like abandoned cart emails, browse abandonment emails, and post-purchase thank you emails.

Personalized Recommendations: Leverage your brand’s customer data to offer personalized product recommendations. AI based email marketing tools like ltv.ai can help predict what your customer might be interested in next, making your emails more relevant and engaging.

Personalization is our bread and butter over at LTV.ai. We send hyper-personalized emails to your entire email list at scale, so your customers truly feel like each email was made just for them. 

A/B Testing

A/B testing is often ignored when it comes to perfecting your email marketing. 

It's all about hypotheses; maybe changing your subject line's tone boosts open rates, or emojis make your emails stand out - A/B testing will give you the chance to test this out. 

Here’s how to streamline the A/B testing process:

Select a Single Variable: Focus on one variable - subject lines, CTAs, layout, or send times.

Divide and Conquer: Randomly split your control group into equally sized groups to ensure any performance differences are due to the variable being tested.

Create Variations: When testing subject lines, develop two distinct options. For CTAs, experiment with wording or design changes.

Measure KPIs: Launch your campaign, then track open rates, click-through rates, or conversion rates, based on your KPIs.

Analyze and Adapt: Use the data from the previous steps to improve and adapt. 

Use Engaging Visuals

Visuals are not just extras, they're tools to capture and retain attention while conveying your message instantly. The right image, gif, or video can transform a good email into a great one, making it memorable and engaging for your subscribers. 

Quality Over Quantity: Choose high-quality images that reflect your brand's aesthetic and complement the message of your email.

Embrace Diversity: Use a mix of visuals like pictures, illustrations, infographics, or videos to keep your content fresh and appealing. 

Optimize for All Devices: The majority of emails are being opened on mobile devices, so it’s necessary that your images and videos are responsive and load quickly.

Align with Your Message: Choose images that are relevant to the content of your email and help get your points across clearly.

Call to Action (CTA) Visibility: Incorporate visuals that direct attention to your CTA like a well-designed button or an arrow pointing towards the CTA. This can significantly increase click-through rates.

Content That's Worth Their Time

Engagement rates depend not just on how your email looks, but also on what it says. Creating content that resonates with your audience is crucial. 

Value-Driven Messaging: Every email should offer some value. It could be insights, entertainment, or exclusive deals. Ask yourself, "Why would this matter to my audience?" before hitting send.

Storytelling: Create or incorporate narratives around your products or brand that connect on an emotional level. Stories about how your brand started or how a product is making a difference in customer’s lives can be incredibly compelling.

Clear and Concise: Less is often more. Keep your messages clear, and concise and make every word fight for its place.

Actionable CTAs: Your content should always encourage action. Whether it’s "Shop Now," "Learn More," or "Join the Conversation," make sure your CTA is clear and easy to find.

Mobile-Friendly

Ensuring your emails render beautifully on smartphones and tablets is non-negotiable. 

Use an email tool or platform that lets you visualize each email before it goes out on both mobile and desktop. 

Make sure to keep text extremely short as mentioned earlier and ensure all images are optimized. 

Always test before sending the email out.

Social Proof

Social proof is a powerful tool in email marketing and increases engagement tenfold all while helping to build trust and credibility with your audience. 

Showcase Customer Reviews: Highlight positive reviews and testimonials from happy customers.

Feature User-Generated Content: Share photos, videos, or stories from customers using your products. This adds tons of authenticity to your brand. 

Include Endorsements: If your product has been endorsed by influencers or industry experts, mention this in your emails and link out to their posts. 

Invite Interaction

Always invite your customers to interact with you and don’t just always ask them to go buy. 

One effective way to do this is by weaving questions into your content, and inviting responses that can provide valuable insights into your audience's preferences and needs. 

Add in short surveys or polls within your email marketing to not only make your customers feel heard but also give yourself feedback to improve. 

Quick extra tip - offering incentives for engagement (discounts, exclusive content, or contest entries) adds an extra layer of motivation for subscribers to interact with your content. 

Re-engage Lapsed Customers

There are always going to be some customers in your email list that aren’t active, engaged or even interacting with your emails. These few require special attention to get them re-engaged and bring them back into the picture.

Segment Inactive Subscribers: Start by identifying who hasn't engaged with your emails over a specific period, such as six months or a year.

Personalized Subject Lines: Use compelling subject lines for your re-engagement emails. Go beyond phrases like "We miss you!" and make it hyper-personalised by adding their first name etc. 

Offer an Incentive: Encourage inactive subscribers to re-engage by offering discounts, access to premium content, or a gift with their next purchase.

Feedback Request: Include a short survey or a feedback request in your re-engagement email, asking why they've been inactive. This shows you value their opinion and gives you insights for improvement.

Make It Easy to Unsubscribe: Including a clear unsubscribe option can improve engagement by ensuring your list is filled with genuinely interested subscribers.

This is another one of our specialties over at LTV.ai. 

We have an entire reactivation program we incorporate with many of our customers. Explore a case study here. 

Offer Exclusives For Your Email List

Treat your email subscribers like VIPs to not only boost engagement but also foster a sense of loyalty. 

Give your email list first dibs on new products or sales or create special discounts or offers specifically for them. Or you could also share behind-the-scenes content.

However, also make sure to let customers know before they sign up to the list that they’ll be getting all of this. It starts the relationship off right with high expectations. 

But most effective of all -

Personalized Recommendations: Based on their purchase history and browsing behavior, offer personalized product suggestions. (another LTV.ai speciality)

If you’re an e-commerce brand owner looking to increase your customer LTV, re-engage lapsed customers and increase revenue - take a look at LTV.ai.