The modern ecommerce communications space is beyond cluttered. Between the branded listicles and advertorials, the social media feeds across multiple channels, and the array of advertisements across every online touchpoint possible, it’s no surprise that audiences hardly know where to look anymore. Or, they don’t bother to look at all. In a world of mega-media, marketing content has just become background noise.
But there is one channel that still stands out in this media ecosystem. It’s unassuming and private, something that—in contrast to the flashy feeds of TikTok ads and livestream shopping—feels like a bit of a bygone relic. It’s email marketing.
Despite the many new platforms that have cropped up over the past decade, email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for driving direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales. According to research done by Tidio, each dollar spent on email marketing yields a return of between $32 to $45, with an average of $36, depending on the industry. With the retail, ecommerce, and consumer goods space, average ROI hovers at $45 per $1 dollar spent.
Not only that, revenue from email marketing has been forecast to grow to nearly $18 billion by 2027, with marketers reporting that 27% of their website traffic comes from email marketing campaigns. In other words, email marketing is a major source of where your traffic, and as a result your sales, are coming from.
With such a powerful platform, it’s only right that ecommerce businesses take the time to optimize their email marketing strategy. Email campaign services such as Klaviyo and MailChimp are great for executing towards your conversion goals, but before you jump in, you’ll need to figure out your email marketing strategy and tactics first.
In this article, we’ll be covering the key advantages of email marketing, best practices on how you can create an effective ecommerce email marketing flow for your online store, and how that ties in with your website landing page or product page.
To access our in-depth analysis of top email campaign examples and email campaign templates from top DTC brands, click here.
Let’s get started!
Why Use Email Marketing Campaigns for Your Ecommerce Business
It’s no secret that email marketing is a highly effective channel that brings in an impressive ROI for marketers across all industries.
Here’s how the channel is so adept at turning clicks into conversions:
1. Email has an expansive reach beyond that of any recent social media platform. Think TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, even Facebook—all of these platforms are limited by the tech ecosystem and usage habits of the populations you may be targeting.
Email, however, has been around longer than all of these channels; long enough that its presence is ubiquitous among all audiences around the world. Modern day use of chat and messaging apps has not taken away from the prominence of email. In fact, Statista forecasts that the number of global e-mail users is set to grow to 4.73 billion users in 2026. That’s more than half of all of the human population—a very impressive reach for any form of communication technology. And you get to tap into it to market your ecommerce business.
If you ever thought there wasn’t much you could do with email, think again. Even from just the sheer volume of numbers alone, the possibilities are endless.
2. Email is a great way for DTC brands to send highly targeted and personalized content to different customer segments. Interestingly enough, 71% of audiences now expect personalized marketing and 76% are annoyed when it is not there, according to research conducted by McKinsey.
Not only does tailored content generate greater reader interest, according to MailChimp, an email marketing software, it also leads to a 100.95% increase in clicks and a 14.31% increase in opens, as compared to non-segmented email campaigns.
Improved reader engagement and clicks means a greater chance of an increase in purchase. McKinsey’s research points towards how brands using personalization generate 40% more revenue than those that don’t.
3. Last but not least, email campaigns are an owned marketing channel. This means that brands can easily customize each step of the customer’s email experience from first touchpoint to post-purchase.
In addition, you can segment email lists and contact audiences at their own timelines, enabling greater flexibility and control to optimize your email marketing campaign strategy for maximum impact. Finally, you get direct access to your own analytics, so it’s easier to analyze what is working and what isn’t, and then iterate on your email content to hit campaign goals.
Email Flow Step-By-Step and Email Marketing Best Practices
By being strategic with your email marketing, you can nurture leads, convert first-time buyers, increase customer lifetime value, and boost overall revenue.
Here’s our step-by-step to create a high-impact email marketing flow for your ecommerce business:
1. Build Your Email List with Enticing Opt-In Offers
Growing a quality email list is crucial for successful email marketing. To entice visitors to subscribe, offer something of value like discounts, free shipping, exclusive content, or product samples in exchange for their email address. Use pop-ups, header bars, and other prominent sign-up forms to maximize conversions.
2. Create an Engaging Welcome Series
An automated welcome flow is a great way to introduce new subscribers to your brand and products. Start by thanking them for signing up and set clear expectations for the type of content and how often they’ll hear from you. Sweeten the deal with a special discount to encourage their first purchase.
In addition, use this opportunity to share your brand story, values, and what makes your products unique. This helps start building a strong relationship right from the get-go and helps cultivate a brand-to-audience connection.
3. Segment Your List for Targeted Messaging
Not all subscribers have the same interests, behaviors, or are at the same stage in their customer journey. That’s why it’s important to segment your email list based on factors like demographics, purchase history, browsing behavior, and email engagement. By doing this, you can send more relevant and personalized content that really resonates with each group.
As noted earlier, segmented campaigns lead to a boost in open and click through rates, as well as an increase in revenue. So, take the time to understand your subscribers and tailor your messages to meet their specific needs.
4. Set Up Automated Abandoned Cart Emails
Nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, but timely follow-up emails can recover a significant portion of those potential sales. In fact, research from Klaviyo, an email marketing campaign software, shows that cart abandonment emails can earn back 3% to 14% of lost sales, with an average revenue per recipient of $5.81.
On top of that, abandoned cart emails are known to drive greater action than any other email flow; abandoned cart flows drive the highest average RPR ($3.65) and the highest average placed order rate, or conversion rate (3.33%) of all flows.
Why? Simply because potential customers who have abandoned carts already have the intention to buy.
A common abandoned cart email flow includes 3 emails: a simple reminder after 2-4 hours, a follow-up with a discount after 24 hours, and a final message after 48 hours that includes alternative product recommendations or asks for feedback. Offering an incentive, like a limited-time discount code or free shipping, can also encourage action.
5. Send Post-Purchase Emails to Drive Loyalty
The customer journey doesn’t end with the first sale. Post-purchase email flows, like order confirmations, shipping updates, and product review requests, keep your existing customers engaged and informed.
You can also recommend complementary products based on their recent purchase. Better yet, invite them to join your loyalty or referral program; this not only helps cultivate brand loyalty between your target audience and your brand, it will also encourage repeat sales and boost lifetime customer value.
6. Use Lifecycle Marketing to Retain Customers
As customers move through their lifecycle with your brand, use email to keep them active and interested. Send personalized product recommendations, special offers, and valuable content to drive repeat purchases. For lapsed customers, win-back campaigns with strong incentives should be sent to reactivate them.
7. Incorporate User-Generated Content
Featuring customer photos, videos, and reviews in your email campaigns provides social proof and builds trust with potential buyers. Encourage customers to share their experiences with your products and showcase the best user-generated content in your email copy and on your website.
This approach not only enhances credibility but also makes your marketing more engaging and relatable. Plus, an increased sense of user involvement will help generate higher click-through rates for your email content.
8. Continuously Test and Optimize
Regularly A/B test elements of your email newsletters, like subject lines, content, calls-to-action, and send times to identify what resonates best with your audience. Use your email performance data and customer insights to continually refine your strategy and improve results over time.
With these email marketing strategies, your DTC ecommerce brand can effectively reach customers at every stage of the conversion funnel. Email allows you to deliver value and build relationships through personalized, timely communications—when done right, you’ll see your ecommerce sales soar.
We recommend taking advantage of email marketing platforms, such as Klaviyo email marketing flows or MailChimp, to streamline email campaign management.
Ready to start building your email marketing flow, but not sure where to start? No worries. We analyzed over 300 email flows from leading DTC brands, breaking them down into 500+ tips across 200+ email templates and flows, so you can get inspired on email flows for your brand as quickly as possible.
Access the full guide to tap into ecommerce email marketing campaign ideas, analyses, and templates across all DTC sectors.
Building Your Email Flow From Welcome Message to Landing Page
At the end of every email marketing campaign is the landing page. This is where your call-to-action and your brand offering sits—it is the key to driving your traffic to purchase.
Now that you’ve finetuned your email flow, the next step is to make sure your landing pages are operating as efficiently as possible. The best way to do this? By tailoring your landing pages to complement your email flow, something you can quickly and easily achieve with Replo, which comes fully integrated with the majority of your tech stack, including with Klaviyo.
Remember, it is called an “email flow” not an “email cliff.” Your landing pages should feel like a natural extension of the email sequences that have led up to it, not a drastic shift.
Here’s how:
1. Maintain Consistent Branding and Messaging
Ensure a seamless experience by aligning the branding, design, and
messaging between your emails and landing pages. Use the same colors, fonts, and overall visual style across both. Plus, you can mirror the email's headline, value proposition, and key points on the landing page, while maintaining the same voice and tone in the copy.
Replo’s no-code drag-and-drop editor makes any design or content edits simple, quick, and highly customizable. With it, you can create consistent email flow to landing page content that builds trust and keeps prospects focused on converting.
2. Deliver on the Email's Promise
The landing page should fulfill the specific offer or CTA promised in the email. If the email offers an ebook download, the landing page should provide the ebook, not anything else.
Avoid clickbait email subject lines that don't align with the landing page. Ensure the landing page gives the user exactly what they expected from the email. Failing to deliver on a customer promise erodes trust and leads to higher bounce rates.
3. Keep the Conversion Flow Focused
Design the landing page to convert by eliminating distractions and friction. Remove site navigation and external links that enable users to click away. Keep the forms short, and only ask for essential information.
Make the CTA prominent and repeat it above and below the fold. Use directional cues like arrows to draw attention to the CTA. A clean, streamlined flow from email touchpoints to landing page to conversion will increase campaign results.
Instead of starting from scratch, leverage our collection of hundreds of page templates (and growing!) inspired by top brands to create a clean and hyper-focused ecomm website in no time. The key here is to work smarter, not harder.
4. Segment and Personalize
Tailor landing page content to different email segments and user behaviors for higher relevance and engagement. Use dynamic text replacement to customize headlines and CTAs based on email list segments; iterate on content by retargeting landing pages with different offers based on past user actions.
Replo comes with in-site and third-party integrated analytics, so you can track your email and site visitor segments for accurate insights. Plus, our easy-to-use platform makes it so that you can create as many variants of your landing pages as you need.
5. Test and Optimize
Continuously A/B test email and landing page variations to improve performance over time. Replo’s Experiments feature enables A/B testing built right into the app, so you don’t need to integrate any third party provider to get your data right.
Test subject lines, preview text, CTAs, and imagery in emails to get the best email campaigns. On landing pages, you can test elements such as headlines, copy, signup form fields, and page layout.
While testing, remember to consider traffic source, audience segment, and other targeting criteria. Regular testing allows you to optimize the entire email to landing page flow for your unique audience. Personalize your content as needed and test accordingly.
If you hit any blockers, reach out to us! Replo comes with a community of professional Experts for hire and 24/7 support to help you make the most out of Replo.
With these email marketing strategies, your DTC brand can create a seamless, engaging experience that drives conversions and builds trust with your customers. It’s work that takes time and consistency, but stay focused on delivering value to your visitors, and you are bound to see your conversions grow.
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