How to Create Irresistibly Clickable Ecom Emails

Aleksandar Nikoloski | May 11, 2021

Reading Time: 5 minutes

If you’ve been in ecommerce for any length of time, you know that your customer list is one of the biggest assets of your business. In fact, we’ve found that communicating by sending daily, weekly, or monthly emails to your list can contribute as much as 30% of your business income.

So why do ecommerce store owners sometimes hesitate to send regular emails?

Overcome Hesitation

Some owners are concerned about sending regular emails to their customers because they don’t want to come across as constantly pitching a product. But you don’t have to communicate in a way that sounds “salesy.” 

In fact, your current customers are the best prospects for repeat sales and will be happy to open and read your emails: 

• If you provided an outstanding customer experience when your customers purchased a product from you, chances are good that these customers know, like, and trust you already and will want to continue to buy from you.
• You can improve your customers’ experience by sending emails they’re excited to open.

As added incentive, know that if you aren’t sending emails and offering your products to your customers, another ecommerce store could be emailing to offer theirs!

What if you don’t know what to say or you’re not good at writing emails? How do you create emails that keep your customers coming back to buy from you again and again?

Here are a few ideas that can help you create interesting and memorable emails that will help you “get the click” …

1. Don’t Be Boring

The number one rule when it comes to writing emails is “Don’t Be Boring.” If you’re going to take the time to communicate with your customers, then make it interesting.

For example, an ordinary email confirming a new order might read something like this:

We received your order today and will send you a confirmation along with tracking details when your order ships.Thank you for shopping with us!

Yes, it’s good that you communicated with your customer. However, the email above is plain boring and feels a bit cold and impersonal.

You can communicate the same message in the type of email that hooks readers, puts smiles on their faces, makes them want to keep reading, and contributes to a fun shopping experience …

Subject: Bam. Your Order Is Confirmed …

2. Tell a Story

Facts tell, but stories sell. If you haven’t been collecting stories from emails or social media posts from your customers, create a file and start now.

As humans, we’re naturally curious and love to peek into the lives of others. Any time you can tell an interesting story about yourself or a customer having a great experience with your product, your customers will bond with and trust you more.

One of my mentors, Perry Marshall, is a master at telling stories in his emails and then closing by relating the story to one of his business products or services.

In a recent email, he told the story of how he and his son were visiting old castle ruins in Scotland. While walking through the ruins, they noticed some of these old massive structures were surrounded by deep crevices in the ground. 

At first, they didn’t realize what these massive ditches were. Then it hit them that these crevices had been moats that surrounded the fortresses to protect them from intruders. They were really deep and Perry and his son could see how effective these would have been in medieval times.

Perry then masterfully transitioned from the story to say that, just like the moats that surrounded those castles, his readers needed to surround their businesses with the type of moat that could protect them from their competition. This, of course, led to the introduction of his new educational product.

By this time, his readers were already hooked by his story and primed to learn more about his product.

You can do this too. Create stories around the benefits of your products. Tell your readers how your product can solve a problem or improve and enhance their lives. This builds a bond with your customers.

3. Create a Sense of Urgency

Nothing spurs people into action quicker than not wanting to miss out!

Let’s say you have some products you want to move quickly or just get rid of because they’re collecting dust on the shelves. You can create a special coupon code and let customers know there’s only a limited supply available. Or you can set the sale for 24 hours only.

If you have a lot of products you want to move, you can hold a 4-day sale. When you spread a sale across several days it gives more customers time to open their emails.

Another mentor, Frank Kern, is famous for holding very successful 4-day sales. He writes his emails ahead of time and schedules them to go out for the duration of the sale.

Once when Facebook was wreaking havoc with my store ad account and temporarily disabled my account during prime selling season, I quickly created a 4-day sale. After I created the special coupon code, I sat down and wrote seven emails to be spread out over the next 4 days and started sending them to my customer list to keep sales coming in. 

This 4-day sale eventually made more income than I had predicted my ads would have produced over those same 4 days. My customers were happy to buy products they loved at a discount, and I didn’t have to pay for ads over those 4 days!

Whatever time frame you decide on for your sale or special offer, make it definite and end the sale when you say you will in order to communicate your integrity.

4. Announce New Products

If your store is focused on a single product and you very rarely add new products to your store, then this might not work for you. But if you have apparel or jewelry—or anything else where you continually add new products to your store—sending out new-product announcements works extremely well.

I know this works from personal experience because I have a favorite women’s apparel store where I order a lot and often. I am addicted to opening their emails and SMS messages entitled “New Arrivals.” 

Here are some subject lines you can tweak and use. Just change up the product to reflect your own:

• We Picked These Exclusively for You
• These Travel Styles Are Trending
• The Wow Maxi You’ll Want Right Now
• The Color of the Moment 
• We Can Barely Keep These in Stock
• Wish Granted—Here’s Your New Dress
• Head-Turning Tops
• The Top Everyone Is Talking About
• Game-Changing Blouses
• It’s So Easy to Fall in Love with These
• Ready for a Refresh?

5. Send Timely Special Offers

Are there any special holidays coming up? Create a special offer around it.

You can find a special day to celebrate almost every day of the month. In addition to creating special offers around the usual holidays, you can draw from lists of unusual special days for celebrations throughout the year.

Note: See www.holidayinsights.com (“Major 2021 Holidays”) for ideas.

Celebrating with your ecom store customers means you offer a discount, make a special offer, or pay for their shipping when they order using the special coupon code during the celebration.

Conclusion

Using these few tips and suggestions will have you sending emails that get clicked. They help you form a bond with your customers quickly, and it’s a bond that can last for months and even years. Why? Because you’ve made your readers feel like they’re a part of your tribe. Remember … your customers are the lifeblood of your business. Don’t treat them like just an email address on a list. Recognize that they’re real people and write to them the way you would if they were your neighbors or friends. Have fun with the process because sending out great marketing emails is a winning strategy that’s worth the effort and can increase your profit margins considerably!