Do you run a Shopify store? You’ve likely been asked this question many times over the past year. At this point, the answer is probably yes.
While Shopify’s growth has been nothing short of phenomenal – from a small team of 24 employees in 2014, to almost 300 today – the platform’s email marketing integration has lagged behind.
Why Should You Care About Email Marketing?
To truly understand why email marketing is so important, you need to consider both the short and long term.
In the short term, email marketing allows you to stay top of mind with your audience and potential customers. Even if you don’t personally believe you have a large enough audience to support a regular email blast, having a platform like Shopify handle your email marketing allows you to focus on growing your business.
In the long term, email marketing allows you to build a reputation as a thought leader in your industry. When potential customers and clients start to hear about you via email, they may develop an interest in what you have to say – regardless of whether they want your product or service outright.
With Shopify’s Email Marketing integration, you can take advantage of both the short and long term benefits.
Let’s take a closer look at how to do exactly that.
Set Up Email Marketing
In order to utilize the power of email marketing, you first need to set it up. The first step is to log in to your Shopify account and click on “settings” in the top right corner.
From there, you can access your email marketing dashboard – a place where you can get an overview of all your current and upcoming campaigns. If you’re just getting started or if you haven’t set this up already, the first thing you should do is ask a member of your team to walk you through the process.
When it comes to email marketing, a good rule of thumb is to send an email every two weeks – every other week is even better. Not only will this ensure you aren’t over or underusing the platform (common complaints when email campaigns are sent too frequently or too rarely), but it will also allow you to connect with your audience on a more personal level.
Target the Right People With Your Marketing Campaign
In the past, marketers would blast their email list with promotional messages – even if they didn’t have a single person on their list who fit the target audience for their product.
Thankfully, today’s marketers have the ability to target their audience based on numerous factors, including geography, behavior, and personal information – like email lists and phone numbers.
For example, if you run a store that sells beach towels, you might want to send an email to people in the US who live near the beach. Or if you cater to dog lovers, you could send an email to people in Germany who have a dog and spend lots of time with them.
This level of precision allows for more relevant and personal communications – and it benefits both you and your customers. After all, if you’re communicating with the right audience, you’re more likely to convert them into customers.
Use Personalization In Your Email Marketing
Last but not least, we want to talk about one of the most critical components of an effective email campaign: personalization.
As we mentioned above, the success of an email campaign depends on a number of factors. However, one of the most important factors is the personalization of the email.
When a marketer sends an email campaign with a personalized message, it means the email was individually crafted based on the interests and/or previous behavior of that particular user.
For example, if you run a store that sells office supplies and you send an email to a list of your past customers, you might write something like this: “Happy Anniversary! Just a quick note to wish you both a lot of love and happiness together. Many thanks for all your business – I look forward to continuing to work with you in the future.”
While this might seem like an easy enough task, a lot can go wrong when trying to personalize an email message. The person receiving the email often doesn’t know what triggered the message, meaning you didn’t get the chance to truly tailor the content to their interests.
To avoid this, use the same tactics that you would for any other customer: ask for feedback and make continuous improvements. With a little bit of effort, you can make sure any email campaign is as personalized as possible – and that your customers are truly happy with what you have to offer.
At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of how to set up email marketing on Shopify. And we hope we were able to convince you that this is one element you shouldn’t underestimate.
Email marketing is pretty easy to set up and can be used to efficiently grow your business. But to get the best out of it, you need to do a few things right. First, make sure you have an email list – either manually or via one of the various opt-in sources available. Second, make sure you’re emailing your list at the right frequency – at least two to three times a week. Finally, make sure you’re sending personalized emails to your audience by using tactics like segmentation and targeting.