“My email open rates are really low for my online shop. What am I doing wrong?”
Would you like to improve your e-commerce email open rates?
My client wants his email open rates to improve and I’m assuming it’s because he feels it will lead to more sales (he and his partner own an online clothing & jewelry boutique hosted on Shopify).
Why are my email open rates so low? Let’s start with the basics…
1. Is your list fresh? Scrub it! Newer subscribers are more highly engaged
2. Where did the names come from? JH client story – LINKEDIN. Nooooooo!!!
3. Consistency matters!
4. “Occasional” emails actually lower your open rates, unsubscribes, spam reports
5. Best time to send – not as important as you think
6. Too sales-y or gasp!! BORING.
If you want increase open rates and ultimately make more money, think about it. The big picture. We want the CUSTOMER. Not the one-off sale.
If you want to sell, stop trying to sell. Do the opposite.
In this episode, I’ll explain what to do. You can watch the video version or listen to it as a podcast.
You can also listen on iTunes and Stitcher Radio
If you want to learn MORE about email marketing to sell physical products? I have a free class for you.
How to turn email subscribers into paying customers – FREE class:
https://janehamill.com/emailclass/
In this episode:
- 01:11 – The three things that you really want to think about to be successful with email and getting good open rates
- 02:29 -“An email list of 1,000 people will outperform a Facebook following of 20,000 people.” – Jeff Walker. BTW, same goes for Instagram.
- 05:27 – If you have an e-commerce store or online shop, email should account for at least 30% of your sales.
- 07:33 – The the fresher the people are on your list, the more engaged they’re going to be.
- 09:52 – How often should I email my list?
- 17:03 – How can you help them (subscribers) look or feel better or improve their day in some little small way, right? And build that relationship.
- 17:03 – You can always have a soft offer wrapped in your content. And then contrast that with a straight offer. What’s the ratio? Content versus pitch?
- 24:07 – Really think about how email marketing is going to be for the future. Segmentation, personalization, I recommend Klaviyo for all my e-commerce clients and they LOVE it. (Full disclosure – I’m an affiliate and this is my affiliate link).
Thanks, Jane! What’s to lose by not scrubbing your list? Why not wait for people to unsubscribe once they decide they are no longer interested? Email is free, after all. Is there a downside to emailing less interested potentials other than lower open rates?
I do understand that those segments who are less engaged might deserve more targeted emails. Just curious . . .
Rose
Hi Rose!
This is a good questions. A few reasons to remove inactive subscribers are to lower your sending costs (you pay for list size), reduce your bounce rate, reduce your SPAM complaints, protect your email “reputation”. For instance, too many bounces have the same effect as spam complaints: they hurt your reputation which affects email deliverability. And email deliverability is EVERYTHING.
I hope this helps,
Jane