The importance of email marketing and databases in e-commerce

Before we tell you why you should include this powerful sales channel in your digital strategy, let's start with a brief introduction for those of you who haven't taken full advantage of this channel or associate it with spam.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is the use of email to promote products or services. Email marketing is the use of email to develop relationships with potential customers or clients. A channel of communication between a sender and a receiver to promote or develop relationships of interest, whether commercial, informational or otherwise. 

Why is email marketing so important for e-commerce?

This communication channel has the advantage that it is not just a channel for large companies or one that requires large investments. It can be used by all types of companies regardless of their size. 

Reasons why you should have this channel as part of your digital strategy:

• Accessible channel for any type of business

Many companies have the misconception that email marketing is a channel that can only be used by large companies, as they have to make large investments in email sending platforms, designers, layout designers with knowledge of html, etc ... But it is not true, you can find the right solution for your needs. 

We have compiled 8 free platforms on the market in case you don't have the budget to get started:

1. MailChimp

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms for individuals and small businesses. The free version allows you to have up to 2,000 contacts in your database and send up to 12,000 emails per month. Which is not bad for a start.

2. Mailjet

Mailjet, unlike Mailchimp, has an unlimited contact base, so you can enter as many emails as you want, but you can only send up to 6,000 emails per month or 200 emails per day (which can be a bit limited if you want to launch a campaign on a specific day to your entire base, such as backfriday).

3. SendPulse

Sendpulse allows you to add up to 2,500 contacts and to send up to 15,000 mails per month.

4. Benchmark

This simple but powerful platform allows you to add up to 2,000 contacts to your database and send a maximum of 14,000 mails per month. 

5. SendinBlue

Free multi-language email marketing tool. Like the Mailjet platform, it allows an unlimited number of contacts in your database, although you can only send a maximum of 300 emails per day.

6. ZohoCampaigns

ZohoCampaigns is one of the free email marketing platforms with more free options. You can use A/B testing, templates and other options completely free of charge. Its limitations consist of a maximum of 2,000 contacts and up to 12,000 sends per month (which makes it a very complete solution).

7. MailerLite

MailLite offers the sending of up to 12,000 mails per month, but with a maximum of 1,000 contacts in the database.

8. Campayn

A very simple and easy platform, ideal for those who want to get started in email marketing, although you will quickly outgrow it. You can only have up to 500 contacts and 12,500 emails per month.

In case you already have some knowledge of e-mail marketing or can invest in more professional toolsIf you need tools with more specific functionalities, such as drip marketing or marketing automation, we recommend the following platforms:

1. Active Campaign

Platform that adapts to your needs, variable prices depending on the service contracted. Basic version for 9$ per month with unlimited sending but with a maximum of 500 contacts.

Advantages

• Scalable tool: It allows you to choose the plan according to your needs, without the need to contract services that you do not use or that the tool is not enough for you.
• High reputation for deliverability: They take great care in their anti-spam policy so they have a high reputation, ensuring that campaigns that are sent will have a guaranteed delivery rate.
• Integration: It is a well-known tool within the industry, so many third-party companies create their tools to be easy to integrate with this platform.
• Automation: Automated email flows can be easily created.
• Support: You can work with the tool in Spanish, which opens the door for those whose English is a little rusty.

Disadvantages

• High average learning curve
• Own templates are not very attractive

2. Constant Contact

Email marketing platform with two plans, Normal and Plus, €18 and €40 respectively per month. Basic plan with unlimited email sending, the database is limited to 1GB.

Advantages:

• Hundreds of templates for your campaigns: You have a library of more than 400 responsive templates for your campaigns.
• Quick and easy customisation: You don't need design professionals to customise the templates to suit your mailings.
• 1 month free trial period
• Automation: Allows you to send mails automatically according to user behaviour (registrations, birthdays, etc...).
• Low learning curve: You won't have to spend thousands of hours to get started with this platform.

Disadvantages

• Not very scalable tool: It only has two plans, so it does not adapt to the needs of each company.
• Limited subscriber list during trial period
• Support in English

Highly rated tool in the TrustPilot rankingswhich offers trust based on user reviews. You can use it for as little as $20 per month, up to 500 shipments.

3. Hubspot

HubSpot email is not only used to send as many email messages to your contacts as possible, but also to send the right content to the right prospects. HubSpot's email tools allow you to personalise the email you send to your contact and grow your contact database.

Advantages

• Scalable tool: You can choose the plan according to your needs.
• Multi-tool: Not only can you use it as an email marketing platform, you can make use of a wide range of tools such as customer service, live chat and many other options.
• Easy to use and intuitive
• It is the most complete all-in-one solution.

Disadvantages

• To be contracted for a minimum of 12 months
• Cost

4. GetResponse

This platform, like hubspot, is not only a mail marketing platform, it is constantly increasing its functionalities by integrating new tools for its users. It adapts to the needs of small and large companies.

Advantages

• Large number of templates
• Customisable, templates can be easily modified
• Many possibilities with the number of tools available

Disadvantages

• Duplicate contacts count as different contacts
• The basic plan has almost no options
• CRM is very limited

• Helps you get in touch with your audience and customers

It allows you to keep in touch with customers or potential customers who at a certain point in time were interested in services or products. When they subscribed to your database, they gave you permission to keep sending them information relevant to them. Email marketing serves to open an important channel of communication with these subscribers, being in the "top of mind" (that brand that occupies the first place in the memory of a person when they think of a certain product or service).

It will allow us to be in direct contact whenever there are new promotions or changes in our business.

• Campaigns tailored to your target

One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is sending the same email to their entire database. Do you wonder why this is a mistake? Well, simply because each person is in a different moment of purchase. Does a subscriber who was looking for information about a product "A" and we send offers on product "B" have the same possibility of buying? or... The one who entered looking for product "B" but there was no stock and now we send him a promotional offer for product "B"?

To give an even clearer example, a man will not be a good target when we want to send an email with an offer for push-up bras!

Take advantage of database segmentation. Not all subscribers are the same, nor are they at the same point of purchase... or even repurchase.

Basic segmentation:

• Inactive customersThose who have not carried out any transaction with us within a defined period of time.
• Potential customersThose who have never bought to date.
• New customersThose who have just completed their first transaction.
• Loyal customersThose customers who have made "x" transactions in a period of time defined by us.

• Contact your subscribers in real time

Nowadays most of us have our email on our smartphone, updated in real time, which allows communication with potential customers or clients, in real time. Subscribers will be able to respond in a short time to our offers or promotions. 

Imagine the potential of getting in touch with a potential customer with flash sales (discounts or promotions offered that expire within a limited period of time).

• Emails are more personal than other contact messages on the internet.

The emails we receive are more personal, thanks to automation, when a person subscribes to our database, they leave us all the information such as email, names, or date of birth... With email marketing platforms we can address someone personally, by name, or even on their birthday, making communication much more personal and close, far from the advertising impacts such as Facebook or Google Ads.

• Ease in analysing results

A very important tool, as it will allow us to have valuable information in a short period of time such as; conversion rates, click-through rates, subscription rates, email open rates and many other metrics that you can consult in our post of the 5 essential metrics of the new email marketing

In email marketing sales can be tracked, so it is essential to evaluate each campaign we do, being able to obtain the ROI (return on investment value of a campaign).

• Email marketing automation

Email marketing automation will make your life easier and simplify sending to your subscribers, it is a powerful tool that also creates a bond with the recipient.

What is email marketing automation?

Email marketing automation is the automation of email marketing actions. Being able to automate certain processes such as; sending emails, generating automatic segments, creating a database, using new templates, etc. ....

Email automation can help you create a better brand image and brand closeness with your potential customers. We all like to receive personalised welcome emails, with personalised special offers. All this automatically, without having to spend a single second once set up. To learn a little more about it, we invite you to read 9 examples of email marketing automation.

Within marketing automation, we can find drip marketing. It is a way of automating contact with our subscribers.

What is Drip marketing?

Drip marketing campaigns are marketing actions that focus on sending a series of emails to a segmented list of contacts over a set period of time, with the objective of getting the recipient to take one or more specific actions and act on them.

Drip Marketing is a key part of the marketing strategy of lead nurturing that are used in inbound marketing. In addition, email drip campaigns are essential to any email automation strategy. digital marketing. Basically because a series of automatic interactions with the user are established, based on logical behaviours, which are visualised in the creation of personalised content of value to the users.

You can learn more about Drip Marketing in our post "Drip Marketing".Why you should use Drip Marketing in your Email Marketing Campaigns"

• An excellent loyalty channel

Many people think why they have to build customer loyalty or waste time with these people if they are already customers... It is a huge mistake to think that a company's strategy should be based solely on attracting customers. Building customer loyalty is going to give us a greater return on investment.

Reasons why loyalty is not an option, but an obligation for companies:

• In the digital channel, acquiring a new customer is 5 to 10 times more expensive than building customer loyalty.
• A customer's LTV increases as they stay loyal to the company for longer and make higher value purchases.
• It is possible to allocate more CAC (Cost of Customer Acquisition) if we extend the LTV, even if we lose money on the first purchase, we can make it profitable in the long term with a good loyalty strategy.
• A loyal and satisfied customer will recommend us both to their closest circle and on social networks.
• Users who become customers, after making their first purchase, have a 27% chance of buying again from the same e-commerce site. In addition, if that customer makes a second purchase, they have up to a 45% chance of making a third purchase. 
• A loyal customer spends 67% more within e-commerce than a new customer. 

The benefits of email marketing as a loyalty strategy:

• Very low costIt allows us to target our customers and reach thousands of users at a very low cost.
• VersatilityWe can contact you personally (using names and surnames), using a variety of formats, from videos to classic text. 
• AutomationAs we have already mentioned, we can get in touch in an automatic and personalised way. We can send from personalised offers to birthday greetings (something that will easily distinguish us from the competition with a simple automatic email).
• Bidirectionality: The customer has this channel to contact us, it is an open channel of communication in real time (being able to use the channel as customer service to provide better service).
• We create brandBy sending newsletters, personalised offers and content strategies, we can always be at the top of our customer's mind. Avoiding infidelity with other brands.

If you are interested in knowing more about how email marketing can help you in your loyalty strategy, visit our posts the power of email marketing as a loyalty channel.

Don't have a database in your e-commerce?

Not all e-commerce companies have a clear digital strategy from the start, often over time is when you start to analyse the data and create a digital strategy. In case you want to start with email marketing as part of your new digital strategy, but you do not have a database or you want to expand your database, you can turn to professional companies such as CoRegisterswho will capture the database you need to carry out your digital strategy.

Databases are the fuel of e-commerce, for that reason it is very important to have quality databases, which are standardised (cleaning and filtering process to eliminate false mails or mails with erroneous characters) and which have been obtained in compliance with the laws in force. 

Databases captured from a specific sector such as "insurance" will not be useful if your business sells "nappies", for this reason, go to professionals in the sector, who will be able to advise you and capture the specific database for your business.

If you want to know how to choose a lead generation company, check out the post lead generation companies

A database is the collection of all the data of your customers or potential customers, so it is very useful to be able to segment as we have already seen. Run campaigns to specific segments, send information of interest to each segment. Not all customers are at the same point in the buying process, nor are they looking for the same product or service.

How can you improve your email marketing?

If you have reached this point, dear reader, you have seen the potential of this channel. Here is a list of tips so that you can start to become an email marketing crack:

• Not being a spammer

Some companies think that their objective is to bombard their customers or potential customers with mails that do not provide any kind of value. This creates the opposite effect as they associate the brand with spam. With the consequence that if many people mark a company's email as spam, it will be considered as spam in the ESP (Email Service Provider), preventing us from going back into the inbox.

• Your audience is special (build loyalty)

We've said it time and time again, we won't tire of repeating it. Make your subscribers and customers feel special. Congratulate them on Christmas, New Year, their birthday, etc... address them personally with their name, ask them what they thought of their purchase once they have received the product, encourage them to share their reviews, solve any problems they have with a "10" customer service and if they have had problems, solve them quickly and with the least inconvenience for the customer and even provide a discount or compensation on their next purchase.

Remember, acquiring a new customer costs 5 to 10 times more and spends less than a loyal customer.

• Do A/B Testing

Often what we think is logical is not what works best, so always analyse and test your campaigns. A simple subject line can make all the difference in getting completely different results. 

During the US elections with Barak Obama, during fundraising, testing different issues, they saw that issue "A" generated 403,600$, while issue "B" generated 2,540,866$.

• Segment your subscribers and users

As we have said, you should not send the same type of email to potential customers as to inactive ones. For some, we will try to get them to make their first purchase through discounts or promotions, while for others, we will try to get them to open the email with a subject line that catches their attention.

We hope you liked our post and if you want to know more about email marketing, don't hesitate to keep reading our blog.