If you're running an ecommerce store, you want to take every opportunity to turn your visitors into email subscribers and stay in touch with them.
Why?
Because there’s an endless stream of stats that prove email marketing is the most profitable channel for e-commerce.
So what are the best to invite people to join your email list? There are a few great tactics, actually, and we're covering these tactics in our new episode.
Want to see real-life examples of how ecommerce businesses get email addresses? Find them on our blog!
Using Shopify? Here are 5 pre-designed email subscription popups for you.
Create beautiful email signup forms, coupon boxes, and pop-up surveys for your store with Getsitecontrol.
If you're running an ecommerce store, you want to take every opportunity to turn your visitors into email subscribers and stay in touch with them.
Why?
Because there’s an endless stream of stats that prove email marketing is the most profitable channel for e-commerce.
So what are the best to invite people to join your email list? There are a few great tactics, actually, and we're covering these tactics in our new episode.
Want to see real-life examples of how ecommerce businesses get email addresses? Find them on our blog!
Using Shopify? Here are 5 pre-designed email subscription popups for you.
Create beautiful email signup forms, coupon boxes, and pop-up surveys for your store with Getsitecontrol.
Hi!
You're listening to Getsitecontrol Insider,
Today is one of our favorite topics, and it's email list building for ecommerce.
If that's something you're struggling with, stay tuned to find out the best ways to get people to join your list.
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You work hard to get people to visit your ecommerce store. Would you let them exit without ever trying to communicate with them again in the future? The answer is no.
Whenever a visitor leaves without a trace, you are leaving money on the table.
So you want to take every opportunity you have to get more email subscribers and stay in touch with them. That's what email marketing is all about.
For ecommerce stores, there’s an endless stream of stats that prove email marketing is the most profitable channel. According to the latest research, it generates $58 for every dollar spent.
But most importantly, an email list helps you generate repetitive sales as long as you keep the buyer active and satisfied with your brand.
Plus, you own the channel. That means no bans from Facebook or penalizations from Google.
The most challenging part, however, is attracting new email subscribers to your list . If this is something you find challenging as well, here are 7 ideas to help you out.
1. Offer welcome discounts in exchange for emails
If there’s one thing online shoppers like, it's discounts. As a matter of fact, 42% of Americans subscribe to email lists to receive discount coupons.
So why not use it as an incentive in your store?
By offering a discount after signing up for an email list, you achieve two goals: you incentivize new subscribers and generate more sales simultaneously.
To offer a welcome discount, here’s what you need to do:
First, you need to define a discount margin: Your margin will depend on your average order value (AOV). You can offer a discount that’s equal to your average AOV — which means you’d be selling on break-even — slightly below it or above it. The goal is to cut your margins in the first sale and recover them later on.
Second, you want to define the type of discount: You can offer a percentage amount — e.g., “Get 20% off your first purchase” — or a monetary one — e.g., “Get $50 off your first purchase”. In general, choose the one with the highest numeric value — in our example, that’d be the $50 off discount.
And finally, add the discount to your signup call to action. For example, if you’re using popups on your website, that’s the best place to feature your offer.
2. Use exit-intent offers to convert abandoning visitors
Every time a visitor tries to exit your site, there’s an opportunity for generating a new subscriber. How? By using exit-intent technology.
Exit-intent technology allows sites to target the users who have shown an intent to exit the site. Brands often use this technology to trigger a popup.
In your case, you want to use exit-intent popups to get more email subscribers.
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “why would anyone want to sign up for an email list if they are leaving the site?”
Well, the visitor may have liked the site but hasn’t found a way to sign up. Or they may haven’t even thought about signing up.
Whatever the case, exit-intent popups are a handy method to get more email subscribers. According to the stats, they can persuade between 4% to 7% of site visitors to sign up.
To make exit-intent popups work, you want to:
Show the right offer: For example, the same discount you’ve defined using the previous strategy.
And
Use the right words: For example, you should acknowledge the fact the visitor is leaving the site. Use words like “Wait,” “Before you leave,” or any other similar wording that makes the user stop and read your call to action.
Tactic #3. Place sitewide signup forms
Persistence pays off. At least, it does in the marketing world.
The more you remind the visitor about your offer, the easier it will be for them to convert when they are ready to do so. That’s what sitewide signup forms are for. Unlike popups, these forms appear as a part of a page.
Their goal isn’t to interrupt or annoy the visitor but to stay close to where they usually click around:
⦁ Below your menu bar
⦁ Between the rows of your product collections
⦁ Or above your footer
Once you have decided what you’re willing to offer in exchange for email subscription, you can place your signup form on every product page or every page of your website.
Tactic #4. Promote your signup forms on social media
There’s a lot to say about making sales through social media, but one thing is sure: it’s much easier to convince a user to give you their email address than their credit card information from a social media post.
If you have a substantial following in your social media accounts, you have a list of subscribers waiting for signing up.
They already trust your brand, so why wouldn’t they sign up for your email list?
So, what you want to do is add a landing page created specifically for that purpose. It’s very easy to create such a landing page using tools like Shogun, Zipify, or Getform, and once you have one, include its URL in your bio URL, which every network offers.
Just make sure to explain what the user can expect to get after clicking on the bio link, and mention it in your posts on social media once in a while.
Tactic #5. Provide an option to sign up after account creation
The moment a user opens an account in your store is often seen as irrelevant for an ecommerce brand. All ecommerce marketers care about is generating sales, not account openings, right?
However, if you think about it, creating an account is a critical part of a buyer's life cycle.
Most times, there’s little value in opening an account without making a purchase. When a user does so, take advantage of the opportunity to get them into your list.
All you need to do is add a new field to your account creation form that asks for the user’s permission to email them about promotions and connect the new user’s email address to your email list.
#6. Provide an option to sign up after checkout
If account creation is an essential step in the customer’s lifecycle, a checkout is the culmination of all your hard work.
It goes without saying that inviting a buyer to sign up for your email list when finishing a purchase is a no-brainer.
Most platforms, including Shopify, make this method easy to execute and require no technical or coding skills from you to do so. Make not to overlook this simple tactic.
The last email list building idea that works well for ecommerce is to run a giveaway
You love free stuff, don’t you? And I’m sure your visitors as well.
The power of giveaways lies beyond the free nature of the product at stake but in its relevance. If you decide to use this tactic, make sure you aim for a product that you know most visitors want. For example, you can select the most widely sold product in your store or one that’s near the top. You can also give away multiple products simultaneously, coupon codes, and much more.
To run a giveaway, you can use a dedicated Shopify app like ViralSweep Giveaways Contests. Or you can display an email signup popup promoting your giveaway and then run the contests using a random name picker tool to select the winner from the emails you’ve collected.
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Having an email list will help you diversify your traffic acquisition while growing your revenue. What’s not to love?
If you want to learn more ways to get email subscribers, head to the description of this episode for ideas and real-life examples.
Thank you for listening,
Until next time!