How to use email marketing to increase sales and build customer loyalty on Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify

Who is a loyal customer? What does this factor depend on and how can you use email marketing to increase sales? Let’s figure it out together with a specialist of the Nexus digital department.

What distinguishes a “simple” customer from a loyal one?

A loyal customer is someone who prefers to use your brand’s products on a regular basis. That is, they show absolute trust and loyalty to the company, often make repeat purchases and recommend you to other people.

Loyal users are often immune to price dynamics (they are ready to buy goods at a higher cost), but are more sensitive to discounts (they perceive them with special joy).

“Growing” loyal customers is not an easy task for a marketer, because many factors must come together for a person to prefer a particular brand over competitors:

• excellent quality;
• impeccable service;
• fast and hassle-free delivery;
• Wow effect (bonuses, loyalty programs);
• well-built relationships.

The last point is worth considering especially carefully. On the one hand, it’s clear that attentive, friendly service, willingness to solve problems or answer questions play an important role in communication. On the other hand, the question is how to organize this technically, what tools are most suitable for this, and how not to be intrusive but to stay in touch with the client.

How to use email marketing to increase sales

Businesses have a lot of different methods of communicating with subscribers: phone calls, social media, push notifications, messengers, etc. But email newsletters have undeniable advantages for attracting customers:

• mass and automation;
• simple analytics;
• relative cheapness;
• user friendliness;
• long-term effect.

Thus, email marketing is a powerful tool for increasing sales: attracting new customers and retaining “old” ones. It requires very little effort and resources to implement it:

1. Collect the database: enter a registration form when making purchases and/or subscribing to newsletters.
2. Segment the database depending on: interests, preferences, previous purchases, and other characteristics. This will allow you to create more personalized and relevant messages for each customer group.
3. Create a strategy: the number and subject of emails, time and frequency of sending.

Types of emails to increase loyalty in your email campaigns

Our main goals for this issue are to maintain contact, provide valuable information, and stimulate interaction. The types of emails below are ideal for this purpose.

Welcome email

Sent immediately after registration or subscription to the newsletter. They are designed to introduce the company, thank them for registering, and offer useful information about products/services.

Newsletters

They contain information that can be useful and interesting for customers: product usage tips, unusual facts, guides, life hacks, interviews, educational content, etc.

Such emails should be sent at a certain frequency (say, once a month/week) and are essentially similar to a blog (but with information delivered directly to the recipient’s email inbox).

Post-purchase emails

For example, you can ask customers to leave feedback about products or services they’ve used. It’s common to offer a reward or discount for this.

Or you can add information about related products to the email to increase cross-selling.

Exclusive offers

Offer special discounts, promotions, or contests that are only available to your subscribers. These can be discounts for birthdays and other holidays, open pre-orders, or regular drawings.

You can also use email newsletters to “reanimate” those who haven’t placed an order for a long time by offering them special favorable conditions.

Event emails

Share information about new products, improvements, or changes in your company. This helps keep your customers informed and shows that you care about their interests.

By combining different types of emails, you will not only increase sales from email newsletters, but also strengthen relationships with customers, spark their interest in your company, and increase their loyalty.

Technical guide

Amazon and Etsy don’t have their own mailing list service, but they do have integration with external resources. One of the most popular is Klaviyo (we will tell you more about it in a future article).

Shopify, on the other hand, has pretty good built-in email management tools called Shopify Email. It allows you to create and send emails, track results, and interact with customers directly from the seller’s account.