Email marketing is a crucial strategy for ecommerce businesses to engage customers, promote products, and drive sales. However, managing email campaigns manually can be tedious and time-consuming. That's where automation comes in. Email marketing automation tools help streamline workflows, segment contacts, increase engagement, and optimize performance. In this article, we'll explore how automating email marketing can lead to ecommerce success.
Automating Email Marketing Workflows
Setting up automated email workflows is one of the biggest time-savers for ecommerce email marketers. Instead of manually sending one-off blasts, you can create sequences triggered by user actions.
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Welcome new subscribers with an automated onboarding sequence. Send a series of emails to introduce your brand, products, and promotions.
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Set up post-purchase follow-up sequences to encourage repeat purchases. Thank customers and suggest related products based on their purchase history.
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Schedule promotional emails to go out automatically during sales or holidays. Set and forget seasonal campaign workflows.
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Trigger cart abandonment emails when customers don't complete a purchase. Remind them of items left behind.
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Send re-engagement emails to re-activate subscribers who have been inactive for 3+ months. Bring them back with special offers.
Workflow Automation Levels the Playing Field
Automation makes effective email marketing achievable for small ecommerce businesses. Workflows let you execute sophisticated campaigns that engage customers without a large team.
Workflow Automation Tools
Robust email service providers like Sensorpro make it easy to set up automated workflows with user-friendly features:
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Drag-and-drop editors to visually build sequences without coding.
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Browse pre-made template workflows for common ecommerce scenarios.
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Set up triggers based on specific user actions, inactivity periods, tags, and custom attributes.
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Schedule emails and staggered campaigns ahead of time for hands-free execution.
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Connect workflows to ecommerce platforms like Shopify for real-time data triggers.
Benefits of Automated Workflows
Automating email workflow processes provides a wealth of benefits:
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Saves significant time by eliminating repetitive manual sending tasks.
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Ensures consistent messaging, timing, and branding across campaigns.
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Frees up time for marketers to focus on testing and optimization.
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Enforces better organization and structure for email programs.
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Allows hyper-targeted timing and content tailored to user behaviors.
Overall, automated workflows powered by email marketing automation ensure ecommerce email campaigns run smoothly and efficiently with less effort.
Segmenting Contacts for Targeted Campaigns
Flooding all subscribers with the same bulk emails results in low engagement and high unsubscribe rates. That's why segmenting your list into targeted groups is so important.
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Divide contacts by interests like product categories or brand affinity. Send relevant content they want.
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Create segments for high-value customers who have spent over $500 lifetime value to provide VIP treatment.
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Target customers who recently abandoned their cart with special offers to complete the purchase.
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Re-engage subscribers who have been inactive for 3+ months by sending them tailored re-welcoming messaging.
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Segment by demographics like location and gender to personalize content.
Methods of Subscriber Segmentation
There are myriad ways to slice and dice your email list for segmentation:
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Demographic data like age, gender, location, job title, income level, etc.
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Interests like categories, brands, or topics they engage with.
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On-site behaviors such as pages visited, links clicked, searches, content downloads, etc.
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Purchase history including products bought, order recency, frequency, monetary value.
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Engagement metrics like open rates, click rates, on-site activity after emails.
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Traffic source such as organic search, referrals, paid ads, social media.
Segmenting with Sensorpro
Sensorpro's email marketing automation platform makes it easy to segment contacts for targeted campaigns:
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Intuitive drag-and-drop interface to create segments without coding.
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Browse pre-made segments tailored to common ecommerce scenarios.
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Combine multiple data points using AND/OR to zero in on user groups.
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Access customer metrics from integrated ecommerce platforms.
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Segments update automatically as new data comes in.
Targeted email campaigns aligned to subscriber segments drive higher engagement, conversion rates, and sales for ecommerce businesses.
A/B Testing Emails for Optimization
It takes continual testing and optimization to improve email campaign performance. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different email variables and identify the best variants.
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Test promotional or transactional email subject lines using different formats and emotional appeals.
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Try different content section focuses like educational vs. entertaining.
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Experiment with call-to-action placement, offers, and design prominence.
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Test email templates, layouts, color schemes, and branding elements.
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Tweak timing and sending cadence for automated workflows.
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Test segmenting the list in different ways to target each group optimally.
Elements to Test in Emails
Every element of an email can be tested for improvement:
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Subject lines using contrasting lengths, urgency levels, emojis, personalization.
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Content sections focused on education, storytelling, advice, entertainment or inspiration.
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Calls-to-action with different offers, copy, designs, placement and prominence.
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Layouts like single column, two columns, picture/text, embedded video.
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Templates and color schemes aligned to brand, season, or audience.
Best Practices for A/B Testing
Follow these guidelines to run statistically significant A/B test experiments:
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Only test one variable at a time to isolate its impact.
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Use relevant subject lines that match the actual email content.
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Ensure large enough sample sizes for each variant.
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Run tests long enough to collect statistically significant data.
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Target customer segments separately based on their attributes.
Continuous A/B testing provides data to refine and optimize every aspect of email campaigns for higher ROI. Analyzing metrics like open rate, CTR, and revenue per email quantifies the impact of optimizations.
Increasing Deliverability
Crafting great email content means nothing if your messages never reach subscribers' inboxes. That makes deliverability one of the most crucial elements for email success.
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Authenticate your sending domain with methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to build trust.
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Monitor inbox placement and spam complaints in real-time to identify issues quickly.
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Maintain useful, personalized content subscribers expect and want to receive.
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Honor unsubscribe requests immediately and keep lists clean.
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Comply with data protection regulations like GDPR to avoid legal issues.
Optimizing for Deliverability
Follow these best practices to maximize inbox placement:
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Keep content relevant with segmentation and personalization. Avoid spammy mass blasts.
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Minimize images, HTML, and attachments to improve deliverability.
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Use confirmed opt-in subscription flows to build your list ethically.
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Address spam complaints immediately and remove troublesome emails or links.
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Analyze email metrics regularly and continue optimizing based on data.
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Adhere to anti-spam laws like the CAN-SPAM Act.
Sensorpro Deliverability Features
Sensorpro offers advanced deliverability tools and expertise:
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Own sending infrastructure with dedicated IPs carefully maintained to protect sender reputation.
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Real-time feedback monitoring with major mailbox providers to catch issues early.
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Ongoing IP warming and protection from blacklists to ensure email reliability.
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Detailed email analytics to optimize programs and maximize inbox placement.
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Subject line and preheader text encoding optimized for each subscriber's inbox.
With a deliverability-first approach, Sensorpro ensures your emails reliably reach the inbox.
Integrating with Ecommerce Platforms
Integration between email service and ecommerce platforms supercharges marketing automation.
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Sync product catalogs dynamically to showcase latest inventory in emails.
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Trigger post-purchase follow-ups when new orders are placed.
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Create workflows to recover abandoned checkouts by reminding customers of items left in cart.
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Automate browse abandonment emails when customers leave your site without buying.
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Automatically send coupons to lapsed customers to incentivize purchases.
Key Platform Integrations
Leading ecommerce platforms integrate seamlessly with Sensorpro:
- Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce
- Magento, PrestaShop, Salesforce Commerce Cloud
- Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Etsy
- Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Constant Contact
Valuable Automated Emails
Automating these workflows provides big ecommerce benefits:
- Abandoned cart and browse abandonment recovery emails.
- Post-purchase follow up surveys and reviews requests.
- Win-back and re-engagement emails for inactive customers.
- Cross-sell recommendations based on purchase history data.
- Anniversary and loyalty emails to delight VIP customers.
In summary, integrating email marketing automation with your ecommerce platform turbocharges results by synchronizing data to trigger highly-targeted, timely, and relevant campaigns. Tying email metrics to business KPIs like lifetime value and repeat purchase rate quantifies the impact of optimization efforts.
Conclusion
Implementing email marketing automation provides a myriad of benefits for ecommerce businesses. Streamlined workflows ensure consistent messaging and save time. Subscriber segmentation allows hyper-targeted campaigns optimized for engagement. Continual A/B testing enables data-driven refinement of emails for higher conversions. Deliverability tools get emails to the inbox reliably. Integrating with ecommerce platforms triggers automated workflows that sync with customer behaviors to drive repeat sales. With the rise of automation, email marketing automation for ecommerce is easier than ever to execute successfully and generate impressive ROI.
