Featured Post: My Reading & Podcast List
Here are recent books I’ve read and podcasts I enjoy. If you’re looking for something interesting to listen to or read, these are a few that have stood out to me. Let me know if you have a recommendations.
3-Minute Video Tip Series: How to Grow Your Email Marketing List
I recently created a three-minute marketing tip series designed to help busy marketers generate more revenue from their email marketing program. The idea was simple: in three minutes or less each day, I would provide easy-to-follow advice on how to improve specific aspects of their program. Each episode can be found on YouTube, embedded below, and syndicated as season four of the Cart Insiders Podcast.
The topics I covered were:
Email marketing list growth
Email marketing welcome series
Email marketing cart abandonment
SMS marketing
This week’s tips covered how to grow your email marketing list. Let’s dive in.
I recently created a three-minute marketing tip series designed to help busy marketers generate more revenue from their email marketing program. The idea was simple: in three minutes or less each day, I would provide easy-to-follow advice on how to improve specific aspects of their program. Each episode can be found on YouTube, embedded below, and syndicated as season four of the Cart Insiders Podcast.
The topics I covered were:
Email marketing list growth
Email marketing welcome series
Email marketing cart abandonment
SMS marketing
This week’s tips covered how to grow your email marketing list. Let’s dive in.
What kinds of information should I collect on an email pop-up form?
My recommendation is to keep this information to a need-to-know minimum, focus on customer intent, and let them carry on with their shopping session. Collect only what you need or will immediately use.
When it comes to customer intent, think to yourself, “why did someone sign up for my email program?” Was it so they could receive a birthday message 8 months from now or so they could share their zip code? Of course not. Their intent is most likely to make a purchase.
So while birthdate and location are nice to have, they are not need-to-have pieces of information.
Information like gender is slightly different. Knowing their gender may help you determine what style of products they may be shopping for. If this is information you will USE immediately, like with customized product recommendations or features in your welcome series, then you can collect it. Otherwise, don’t bother. You can get this info with your welcome messages themselves — more on this in a later episode.
The same holds true for other types of similar information, like whether they are a B2B or B2C buyer if you service both types of customers, or for some sites are shopping for themselves or as a gift.
Listen to the complete answer below.
Should I collect mobile numbers on an email marketing pop-up form?
The short answer is yes!, regardless of whether or not you have an SMS program in place. SMS is a must-have marketing channel, and collecting this info now will be beneficial for a few reasons.
Here are 5 reasons you should collect mobile numbers for SMS marketing:
It is an opt-in channel, meaning only people who want to sign up will.
It will indicate whether your audience wants to receive SMS messages from your brand.
SMS can fill in brand-to-consumer marketing gaps left from email unsubscribed.
It can help reduce your retargeting costs (especially for email unsubscribers), since SMS is an opt-in channel.
Everyone texts! It is no longer about generational cohorts. Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z all text.
Need more proof? SMS sends increased 94% in 2021 compared to the year before, and 2020 saw a nearly 400% increase from the year prior. If you’re not using SMS, you’re leaving money on the table.
Listen to the complete answer below.
What Types of email list growth forms should I use?
Three types of email sign-up forms your store can use are a common pop-up form, an exit-intent form, and a spin-the-wheel form.
An email capture pop-up form is the most common form you likely come across on most brands’ websites, like is seen here. A visitor is prompted to enter their email address to sign up for a brand’s marketing emails.
A spin-the-wheel form is a gamified form where a visitor enters their email address and after clicking “submit,” a game wheel spins, stopping on a discount. This discount can then be used immediately and encourages a purchase.
An Exit-intent form is a pop-up that appears when a web visitor makes a movement indicative of leaving. Ecommerce brands can reveal a form that makes a last-ditch effort to capture an email address before the visitor leaves.
How to style an email pop-up form?
When designing your pop-up form be sure to incorporate your brand assets like colors, product images, and company logo. At certain times of the year, consider creating holiday-specific designs, such as for Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s Day.
Listen to the complete answer below.
How to Make your list growth pop-up form convert better
First, make sure the pop-up can easily be closed if the subscriber is not interested. Make sure you can easily find the “close” button on both mobile and laptop.
Second, test the pop-up on multiple browsers and phones, including using different text sizes on phones. Zoomed-in text can make pop-ups frustrating for users. While you can’t account for every size, do your best.
Third, if you are OK doing so, offer an incentive. Presume the intention of being on your site is to shop. Offering an incentive can help you increase the sign-up and conversion rate.
Fourth, make sure your pop-ups are ADA compliant. Using ADA-compliant forms can help you sidestep any legal obstacles that may arise.
Finally, make sure the information is being added to your email provider after submission. After all, that’s the point!
Listen to the complete answer below.
Email list growth and pop-up best practices
Ecommerce brands looking to grow their email and SMS marketing lists should utilize optimized pop-up forms. Here are 8 list growth best practices I talked about this week.
When it comes to asking for information on your pop-up, focus on things that will help you immediately send more relevant messages, such as gender or the purpose of shopping—like gifting. Consider collecting nice-to-have information such as birthdate later.
Collect mobile numbers. SMS is a must-have opt-in channel used by all generational cohorts.
Brand your form with stylized text, colors, images, and logos.
Test different types of email collection forms, including gamified spin-the-wheel and exit intent forms.
Offer an incentive if you can, but don’t feel required to.
Ensure the pop-ups are easy to exit out of and test them on different browsers and phones.
Be sure your pop-ups are ADA-compliant.
Ensure all contacts are being passed to your email marketing provider.
I hope you enjoyed these list growth tips.
If you think these tips can help someone else, please feel free to share them. and be sure to reach out if I can help in another way. Cheers!
The Slowdown of E-Commerce and How Online Brands Can Adapt
A recently released Mastercard SpendingPulse report showed a year-over-year (YoY) retail sales increase of 7.2 percent in April. However, within this figure, we see that in-store sales increased 10 percent while e-commerce declined by nearly 2 percent.apt their marketing efforts to these market conditions to increase customer retention, reduce paid media costs, and increase profit.
The COVID-fueled e-commerce party couldn’t last forever. Businesses knew that it was only a matter of time before consumers reverted to their pre-pandemic shopping habits of mixing online and in-person shopping. That time appears to be upon us.
A recently released Mastercard SpendingPulse report showed a year-over-year (YoY) retail sales increase of 7.2 percent in April. However, within this figure, we see that in-store sales increased 10 percent while e-commerce declined by nearly 2 percent.
Amazon.com, Wayfair, and Target all reported slowdowns in their e-commerce business in Q1. Amazon saw online sales decline by 3 percent, and Wayfair reported fewer active customers. While Target’s digital comps were up 3.2 percent, that was down from the pandemic-driven 50.2 percent increase in 2021.
If the slowdown of e-commerce wasn’t enough, customer acquisition and retargeting costs continue to increase. Business Insider reported YoY ad cost increases for Google, Meta (Facebook), TikTok, and Amazon sponsored products.
While retail is still strong overall, inflation’s impact on consumer spending combined with the return to in-store shopping means e-commerce businesses are left fighting for a bigger piece of a smaller, crowded, and uncertain pie. Throw rising acquisition and retargeting costs into this mix, and you have yourself a not-so-favorable recipe.
Luckily for e-commerce brands, there are ways they can adapt their marketing efforts to these market conditions to increase customer retention, reduce paid media costs, and increase profit.
Focus on Intent-Based Marketing
When it comes to marketing, sending messages that are highly relevant to the current state of a customer’s journey leads to sales, especially with opt-in channels like email and SMS. With an average conversion rate of 1.9 percent (compare this to paid media), behavior-based automated emails accomplish this. They generate nearly 30 percent of all email orders while accounting for only 2 percent of the sends.
The reason: they’re driven by consumer intent.
3 Ways to Use Marketing Automation to Improve CX
Retailers are constantly looking to improve the customer shopping experience. For e-commerce brands, it may mean implementing live chat, improving site speed, using 3D product images, and offering free returns. However, the shopping journey isn’t isolated to technical website details and store policies; it also applies to marketing.
Retailers are constantly looking to improve the customer shopping experience. For e-commerce brands, it may mean implementing live chat, improving site speed, using 3D product images, and offering free returns. However, the shopping journey isn’t isolated to technical website details and store policies; it also applies to marketing.
With email marketing, brands tend to look at it exclusively as a direct sales channel — especially when it comes to automated emails. And for good reason. A recent Omnisend report shows that in 2021, behavior-based automated emails generated 29.6 percent of all email marketing orders with only 2.2 percent of sends.
But focusing automated emails only on sales and not on how they can improve the customer experience is a mistake most brands make. In today’s environment, brands need to do both simultaneously. Here are three ways e-commerce brands can use marketing automation to improve the shopping experience and increase sales:
1. Ditch the old welcome series.
A welcome series is a set of messages sent to new email subscribers. Last year, these messages generated a conversion rate of 2.8 percent compared to 0.1 percent for scheduled promotional messages, and were responsible for 43 percent of all automated email orders.
The 'Buy it Now' Consumer is Here: Are You Prepared?
Consumer expectations and shopping habits are constantly evolving. How brands adapt to the constant evolution, from logistics and staffing to marketing strategy and tactics, ultimately determines whether they stay relevant in consumers’ eyes and their business continues to grow.
We’re witnessing another evolution in purchasing behavior, ushering in a new breed of consumers — the "buy it now" consumer. What exactly is the "buy it now’" consumer, what propelled their emergence, and what do brands need to know about them in 2022?
Consumer expectations and shopping habits are constantly evolving. How brands adapt to the constant evolution, from logistics and staffing to marketing strategy and tactics, ultimately determines whether they stay relevant in consumers’ eyes and their business continues to grow.
We’re witnessing another evolution in purchasing behavior, ushering in a new breed of consumers — the "buy it now" consumer. What exactly is the "buy it now’" consumer, what propelled their emergence, and what do brands need to know about them in 2022?
The Rise of the 'Buy it Now' Consumer
This evolution has been happening over the past several years and COVID may have been the tipping point for its ascension. Both email and SMS conversion rates have steadily grown, but saw a significant jump in early 2020, despite the fact click rates declined over this period — indicating more intent-based shopping where consumers identified products and made an immediate purchase. But that’s just the beginning.
How iOS 15 Will Kill Email Open Rates—And How Marketers Can Prepare
Picture this: Your company's email campaigns have an average open rate of around 15%. Then one day it suddenly skyrockets to 40%.
Maybe it's just a fluke, you think... until it happens again. And again.
Picture this: Your company's email campaigns have an average open rate of around 15%. Then one day it suddenly skyrockets to 40%.
Maybe it's just a fluke, you think... until it happens again. And again.
Anyone with marketing chops will know it's not a cause for celebration. Something is just not right.
For companies that send emails, that scenario may play out as early as mid-September. But it won't require much detective work to solve: Apple's forthcoming iOS 15 privacy update will soon render open rates irrelevant, and marketers need to start adapting now.
Why Traditional Open Rates Will Die
You might be wondering how one tech giant's move could obliterate a metric that marketers have depended on for two decades.
Here's how: Apple users who upgrade to iOS 15 will choose whether they want to activate "Mail Privacy Protection" for any Apple Mail apps they use to read emails. Language in the beta version makes the convincing case that most users will choose to do so, and in that case all emails will be marked "opened"—even if they aren't.
The change is understandably rattling e-commerce merchants, whose clientele is more likely to check their emails via mobile app. But it also matters to B2B businesses, even if just a small portion of their email subscribers fit that profile.
How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales
In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.
Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.
In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Greg Zakowicz.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
The Death of the Open Rate: How Email Marketers Can Prepare for iOS 15
Email marketers at e-commerce brands use traditional reporting data such as open, click, and conversion rates to measure email campaign performance. But what happens when you suddenly take away one of those long-established data points?
Buckle up because we’re about to find out.
Email marketers at e-commerce brands use traditional reporting data such as open, click, and conversion rates to measure email campaign performance. But what happens when you suddenly take away one of those long-established data points?
Buckle up because we’re about to find out.
Apple’s announcement of its upcoming iOS 15 update, which is expected this fall, includes a feature that prevents companies from seeing whether subscribers opened their emails while using the Apple Mail app. Not everyone uses iOS or Apple's email app. But losing even partial data makes the rest unreliable for making informed marketing decisions across your email program.
It’s not all doom and gloom for marketers, even if 61.7 percent of all emails are opened in Apple Mail. I believe it’s quite the opposite. This is an opportunity for e-commerce brands to work on what really matters.
Here are six ways you can prepare your email marketing program for the death of the open rate:
SMS Marketing Examples & Stats
SMS and MMS Marketing Examples
SMS is a must-have marketing channel for ecommerce brands. The reason: everyone texts. It is no longer reserved for younger generations. Brands that fail to utilize SMS marketing are missing out on sales.
SMS Marketing Statistics
SMS marketing continues to grow. Ecommerce brands sent 31% more SMS sends in 2024 than the year before. Previously, the year-over-year lift was 58% in 2023, 62% in 2022, and 75% in 2021.
2026 SMS Marketing Statistics (promotional messages):
Click-to-sent rate: 12.38%
Conversion rate: 0.12%
Click-to-conversion: 0.97%
AOV: $125
Revenue per send: $0.15
2026 SMS Marketing Statistics (automated messages):
Click-to-sent rate: 20.32%
Conversion rate: 0.77%
Click-to-conversion: 3.81%
AOV: $96
Revenue per send: $0.74
Automated SMS messages generated nearly 5× more revenue per send than campaigns ($0.74 vs. $0.15). That gap exists for the same reason it does in email: automated messages reach subscribers at high-intent moments triggered by their own behavior, rather than interrupting them with batch-and-blast messages.
I’ve been saying it for years, SMS is a must-have channel in the shopping journey. — Greg Zakowicz, Email & SMS Marketing Epxert
SMS Marketing Examples
The Customer Journey Has Changed — Has Your Marketing?
Let’s face it; the traditional linear model of the customer journey is no longer accurate. Today’s consumers shop how they want, where they want, and when they want—all while facing distraction at a moment’s notice. They are choosing how they interact with brands and on which channels they do so. They have all of the power. Who said being a marketer is easy?
Let’s face it; the traditional linear model of the customer journey is no longer accurate. Today’s consumers shop how they want, where they want, and when they want—all while facing distraction at a moment’s notice. They are choosing how they interact with brands and on which channels they do so. They have all of the power. Who said being a marketer is easy?
Today’s model more closely resembles that of a spiderweb, with its zigs, zags, and non-uniform strands. As chaotic as it may look, everything is connected and working in concert with one another.
This is the new digital customer journey—unique, non-uniform strands that are all connected to serve a common goal.
Because of the multitude of siloed channels, the distraction, and increased global competition, marketers need to rethink how multiple channels, like email and SMS, can work in unison with one another to create a relevant experience that meets consumers’ ever-increasing expectations of retailers.
How The Journey is Moving Beyond Single Channels
According to a report by Omnisend, marketing campaigns utilizing three or more channels have a 287% higher conversion rate than campaigns relying on a single channel. For retailers, ensuring that campaigns have multiple cohesive channels working together can have a significant impact on the bottom line. Multiple channels matter, but how they’re delivered matters more.
While retailers are using multiple channels to communicate with and retarget consumers, many of them are working in silos. For example, an email subscriber may click on an email and then abandon the website. In response, they begin seeing ads on their social media platforms. But if the consumer comes back and makes a purchase, often these retargeting ads follow them around the internet, sometimes for days or weeks, while still receiving generic promotional email messages.
Consumers increasingly expect communications from brands to be both timely and relevant. The example above is not that.
Retailers need to understand how consumers naturally interact. Take Gen Z, for instance. These digital natives make up more than a quarter of the US population, and being digital natives means SMS is a natural communication channel. Even so, 83% expect to increase or maintain their email usage over the next several years. Both channels hold importance to them.
Retailers who have adopted SMS as a marketing channel have reported over a 2,700% ROI, and omnichannel campaigns that involve SMS are 47.7% more likely to end in conversion.
It’s time for retailers to break down these silos and make available additional channels for customers to opt into. Adding channels that appeal to their customers is just the first step. Creating relevant messaging is another.
The Rise of Multi-Channel, Behavior-Based Messaging
Consider that customer who is on a website and browsing products only to leave without placing an item in the cart. The consumer has shown some level of interest. Recognizing this, a retailer would traditionally continue sending them standard promotional emails and retarget the customer through search and social media. But this experience has challenges. Paid retargeting can be expensive, the strategy is siloed, and standard promotional emails are not always relevant.
But this relevance matters. The same Omnisend report showed that that segmented campaigns earned 62% higher order rates than non-segmented ones. The reason—segmented messages are more relevant.
This is where automated behavior-based, multi-channel messaging can deliver a more user-friendly experience and guide the customer along their purchase journey.
Consider the impact of sending abandonment messages via the channel(s) of the customer’s choosing—after all, no one chooses to see ads on their social feeds. Retailers can easily send automated reminder messages (e.g., email, SMS, push) for the products they were viewing via any, or all, channel(s)—and if the consumer completes their order, the other channels recognize and cease their retargeting efforts.
Automated behavior-based messaging, such as browse abandonment, delivers segmented, relevant, and timely messaging to customers. Consumers recognize the value in them. That’s why it is not uncommon to see retailers drive over 25% of their email revenue on these messages alone.
This is just one example of automated, behavior-based messaging. Others include cart abandonment, welcome series, post- and lapsed-purchase, and re-engagement messages. I expect to see a continued increase in behavior-based automation adoption and the use of data, such as cart total or purchase history, to make these messages even more relevant than they naturally are.
Paving the Way for the Future
Utilizing behavior-based marketing automation to create relevant messaging and delivering it via the channel(s) of the customers’ choosing is going to be essential for catering to the modern-day online customer journey.
Tomorrow’s successful retailers will be those who cohesively incorporate other channels into their traditional siloed pillars of email, paid search, and paid social to create one unified, spiderwebbed e-commerce journey. After all, if you’re trying to catch flies, it’s good to be the spider who makes the web.
3 Easy Yet Effective Ways to Create Transactional Emails
Relevant, personalized and timely transactional emails are virtually impossible to over-hype as they can generate five times more revenue than non-transactional messages. Even though these messages are some of the most highly read emails sent by retailers, because they're so common improving them is often an afterthought. However, their value shouldn't be overlooked, as each additional open holds the potential to increase engagement and generate sales.
Relevant, personalized and timely transactional emails are virtually impossible to over-hype as they can generate five times more revenue than non-transactional messages. Even though these messages are some of the most highly read emails sent by retailers, because they're so common improving them is often an afterthought. However, their value shouldn't be overlooked, as each additional open holds the potential to increase engagement and generate sales.
What’s a Transactional Email?
When used in e-commerce, transactional emails are automated messages based on some sort of transactional relationship between the consumer and the brand, such as an order or shipping confirmation. Because of the personal nature of the messages, transactional emails always deliver value for recipients. When they demand attention and are engaging, these types of emails often have higher open and clickthrough rates than promotional emails.
By optimizing three key elements of transactional emails, retailers can see greater return on investment and results, such as increased open rates.
47 Ways to Prepare Your Email Marketing and Ecommerce Store For The 2020 Holiday Season
The holiday shopping season is fast approaching there is a lot of uncertainty about what will unfold. Questions surrounding the health of the economy and what a resurgence of COVID-19 might have on the supply chain make planning for this holiday season unique. Here are 47 ways you can prepare your marketing program and e-commerce store for the holiday shopping season.
The holiday shopping season is fast approaching there is a lot of uncertainty about what will unfold. Questions surrounding the health of the economy and what a resurgence of COVID-19 might have on the supply chain make planning for this holiday season unique.
One thing I do expect from this season is for ecommerce to further increase its already-increased share of retail sales. We saw email become a go-to channel for consumers during the COVID pandemic with a nearly 23% lift in conversion rates, and I expect this to carry over into the holidays. If you are an email marketer, here are 47 ways you can prepare your marketing program and ecommerce store for the holiday shopping season.
General:
- Start marketing early — e.g., late October
- Pay attention to the Cyber 10
- Pay close attention to the feel of the nation (COVID, economy) and adjust your marketing copy accordingly
- Don’t wait until Black Friday to start marketing—again, start early
Technical Prep:
- Collect SMS numbers along with email addresses—grow your trusted marketing channels
- Audit website forms (e.g., sign-up, exit-intent)—how to edit them and who has access to do so
- Test sign-up forms and ensure they work properly
Email Design:
- Use emojis in subject lines
- Use emojis in the preheader text
- Make your emails mobile-friendly
- Include a “top gifts” or similar section in your nav bar
- Create a custom, holiday-themed header
- Keep the CTA obvious in emails (let people digest the message quickly)
- Make sale exclusions obvious—avoid misleading people and frustrating them at checkout
- Acknowledge that self-gifting is real and design your messaging to account for it
Promotional Marketing Messages:
- Promote value-adds/differentiators in your emails (e.g., extended return policies, always free shipping)
- Use remails—but not every time (think about when it makes sense)
- Send multiple emails on peak days (Thanksgiving Day, Back Friday, Cyber Monday)
- Utilize SMS marketing, both as a stand-alone channel and to complement email
- Utilize a sense of urgency (subject lines, CTA, copywriting)
- Use product recommendations in your emails (for self-gifting, of course)
Automated Email Marketing Messages:
- Adjust workflow timing (are you suppressing new signups from Black Friday emails?)
Welcome series
Cart abandonment
Lapsed-purchaser
Product review emails - Create seasonal automated messages (e.g., holiday-specific welcome series)
- Optimize your transactional messages for sales (shipping and order confirmation)
- Adjust abandoned cart timing rules
- Increase the number of abandoned cart messages
- Adjust the discounting strategy in your cart abandonment messages (is the discount worse than your holiday everyday promotion?)
- Use browse/product abandonment messages—please, use them!
- Integrate SMS messages into your email automation workflows, especially cart abandonment
Paid Search/Social:
- Monitor your ROAS
- Retarget email contacts on social and paid search
- Test different/new social channels and search engines (e.g., Bing, Pinterest, YouTube)
- Use influencers
Customer Service:
- Implement live chat on your website
- Extend your return policies
- Solidify your BOPIS strategy/expand BOPIS offerings
- Collect info for gift-reminder messaging
Discounts/Benefits:
- Test different incentives (% off, & off, tiered discounts, deals of the day, X days of deals, flash sales, free shipping, free express shipping, VIP-only, SMS-only, email-only, for BOPIS-only orders, etc.)
- Understand that free shipping has increasingly being used as THE incentive as the season winds down. Test it and save yourself some margin.
- Make a holiday playlist on Spotify (for both your customers and employees)
- Offer free gift wrapping
Prepare for the Unexpected:
- Prepare an “oops” email in advance
- Have backup promotions and coupon codes already created and loaded in your ecomm platform
- Identify potential shipping challenges and have a contingency plan in place
- Identify possible supply chain chokepoints and prepare for the “what if”
- Prepare for a pandemic resurgence — and what that measns for your business
Finally:
- Have fun and enjoy the season!
If you have any specific questions around the holiday season, please feel free to contact me!
And, of course, some of these tips from 2019 may still be useful, so check out this post, “Top Holiday Email Marketing Planning Resources”
How COVID-19 Has Impacted Email Marketing Performance
We know COVID-19 has impacted all aspects of the retail industry and increased online sales. We saw a 40% year-over-year rise in the number of unique digital shoppers in Q1, and year-over-year unique page views and order count reached 15% and 21% respectively in March before skyrocketing in April to 96% and 88% percent.
We know COVID-19 has impacted all aspects of the retail industry and increased online sales. We saw a 40% year-over-year rise in the number of unique digital shoppers in Q1, and year-over-year unique page views and order count reached 15% and 21% respectively in March before skyrocketing in April to 96% and 88% percent.
As the need for online shopping grew, so too did the number of retailers stepping into email marketing for the first time, while others tried to squeeze even more out of the channel.
But did COVID-19 impact the way consumers respond to email marketing, and what can retailers learn from it?
In a recently released report, How COVID-19 Impacted Email Marketing Performance, Omnisend analyzed the email open, click and conversion rates of over 2.5 billion promotional emails sent from its marketing automation platform from Jan. 1 through April 26 in both 2019 and 2020. The results were quite telling about how consumers shopped during this time and what lessons retailers can learn from the results.
How Consumer Email Behavior Changed During COVID
We learned from the report that COVID did have a significant impact on consumer email behavior and the online purchase experience. Without going into all of the detail, let’s take a quick look at the three email marketing metrics analyzed.
Email open rates: Overall, the report showed the year-over-year lift in open rates for the entire period increased by nearly 14%. But as you can see in the chart, the open rates significantly increased as we moved deeper into the pandemic, and from March 16 to April 26, year-over-year open rates increased by nearly 32%.
Email click rates: Click rates saw the opposite effects of COVID, realizing a decrease of just over 17%. Like with open rates, you can see how click rates suddenly decreased as the pandemic unfolded. In fact, during an 18-day stretch from March 12 to March 29, many days saw a 30% and 40% drop in click rates before ultimately rebounding.
Email conversion rate: Email marketing continued to be a revenue-driver with increased conversion rates during the pandemic. Year-over-year conversion rates increased by 17% and saw a nearly 23% year-over-year lift from March 16 to April 26. Like with open rates, you can see the acceleration as we moved further into the pandemic.
Key Takeaways and Email Marketing Lessons for Retailers
Two things became apparent when looking at the shift in consumer behavior:
Consumers turned to brand emails. As consumers across the country became increasingly reliant on online shopping, they turned to trusted brand emails for both sales updates and product discovery, increasing open rates.
Email was an effective communication tool. As consumers shifted from want-based shopping to need-based shopping, they moved on if a retailer email failed to meet their needs, negatively impacting click rates. If the retailer met their needs, consumers clicked and purchased, increasing conversion rates and generating online sales.
Recognizing how consumers interacted with brand emails during this crisis is one thing. Learning from it is another. Retailers should look to this consumer behavior and find ways to improve their marketing program by further differentiating from the competition, better preparing themselves for the next crisis, and recognizing email as a go-to marketing channel for consumers. Here are a few ways to do so:
Focus on list growth. By utilizing and optimizing tools like a website or exit-intent pop-up form, retailers can increase their audience size and become a trusted brand for consumers.
Increase your automated messaging capabilities. With email automations set up, retailers can deliver relevant messages to subscribers, making emails even more valuable. Consider how messages such as product and browse abandonment can help remind and convert customers who are shopping for specific products but have not yet pulled the trigger. FOMO became real during the crisis.
Audit your current automated messages. Ensure your automated messages are not only up to date but note which ones may need to be updated in times of crisis. A lighthearted cart abandonment message might normally be great, but not when a life-altering crisis hits.
Expand your opt-in channels with SMS. Email is a trusted communication channel, but it has become more crowded since COVID-19 struck. Other forms of trusted brand communication, most notably SMS, are increasingly desired channels by consumers. You can begin capturing mobile numbers on your email sign-up forms and as a stand-alone initiative. Consider sending an email campaign to your subscribers announcing the launch of your program and asking members to sign up.
Retail will likely be changed forever by COVID-19, but it doesn’t mean it can’t make you a better business. Focusing on building a stronger relationship with your customers will help you become a better company today and help offset any future negative impact of the next crisis. At the end of the day, email and SMS are opt-in marketing channels. If you’re a trusted retailer, your messages will be welcomed by your customers.
8 Ways the Retail Landscape May Change After Coronavirus
The world is a different place than it was just a month ago. As companies try to maintain their business and stay afloat, many are wondering about the long-term impact of coronavirus on the retail and ecommerce industry. Here are some ways the dynamics of retail and services may be impacted in near term and in the years to come.
The world is a different place than it was just a month ago. As companies try to maintain their business and stay afloat, many are wondering about the long-term impact of coronavirus on the retail and ecommerce industry.
Marketers have adjusted their marketing campaigns over the recent weeks, but those will eventually revert back to normal. Retail and e-commerce, on the other hand, may be in for more permanent changes. The aftereffects of coronavirus are sure to be felt long after it’s gone, surely changing how consumers shop, interact and prioritize lifestyle choices.
We’ve all experienced some consumer shifts, but are they a product of the times or will they stick around for the long haul? Here are some ways the dynamics of retail and services may be impacted near term and in the years to come by the coronavirus aftermath.
Consumers Become Hyper-Focused on Shopping Local
There’s been a growing trend to shop local. But millions have been furloughed or unemployed, many from local businesses including retail shops. In many places, keeping dollars in the local community and supporting small businesses post-pandemic will become more important than ever.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see local restaurant days or other small business days pop up across the country. Communities have a way of coming together after catastrophes like New Orleans did after Hurricane Katrina.
Local businesses should invest in growing their online presence an their email and SMS subscriber list for when things return to “normal.”
E-Grocery Delivery Goes for a Ride
Online grocery adoption has been slow in the U.S., but the coronavirus pandemic may turn out to be the catalyst grocers have been seeking.
According to CivicScience, 47% of consumers said they were shopping for online groceries more during the week of March 22, 2020, compared to only 11% just three weeks prior. And a recent Gordon Hasket Research Advisors survey conducted on March 13, 2020 found 41% of those who ordered food online during the previous week were first-time online grocery customers.
Apptopia reported a spike in app downloads for e-grocery services. Walmart’s grocery app downloads increased by 160% and Instacart by 218% compared to the average in February.
For consumers, one challenge with e-grocery is getting used to selecting and ordering a large number of items. Normally, the time to adjust to this process can be too much of a hurdle, but forced quarantines have accelerated that process. The convenience may be too much for some consumers to ignore post coronavirus.
BOPIS and Curbside Pickup Accelerate
Buy-online pick-up in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup have become increasingly popular, but similar to e-grocery have seen a sharp increase because of coronavirus.
According to Adobe, BOPIS saw a 62% year-over-year increase from Feb. 24 to March 21, 2020, and according to apptopia, U.S. downloads of Target’s mobile app more than doubled from Feb. 15-March 15, 2020. Arts and crafts retailer Michael’s and fabric retailer Joann are two of many who started offering curbside in response to the call for social distancing.
As with e-grocery, BOPIS and curbside are all about convenience. For retailers, this comes with both pros and cons. In-store foot traffic drives planned and unplanned purchases and helps them merchandise the square footage they’re already paying for. On the other hand, pickup services drive sales from convenience-minded shoppers and can make store economics look “normal.”
According to Target CEO Brian Cornell, when an online order is fulfilled from the back of a store instead of an FC, about 40% of the cost goes away. And when a customer orders online and uses BOPIS, curbside or Shipt, about 90% of the cost goes away. So, there are some hefty benefits for stores to keep the adoption of these services high.
Even with BOPIS adoption increasing over recent years, the necessity of using it now may cause permanent adoption to spike.
Improving the In-Store Experience
While brick-and-mortar retailers were already investing in ecommerce and reshaping their store economics to become more profitable, massive store closures may force them to rethink their physical assets. Every CEO has to be thinking, “What if this happens again?”
Thus, we may see store footprints shrink further, meaning less staff required to operate them. We may see an increase in offerings like BOPIS and same-day delivery to hedge against a possible future situation.
We may also see more testing of concepts that draw customers into stores, whether it’s experiential elements like VR or designing entirely new concepts. Some are already planning pickup-only locations.
Of course, there may be a boomerang effect where consumers will want to shop stores because they crave the social aspect. But will retailers benefit from this or local shops?
At-Home Fitness Goes Mainstream
The at-home fitness market, from stationary bikes and treadmills to smart fitness mirrors, has been increasing in popularity an self-containment may finally convert skeptics into customers. Just because gyms temporarily close their doors doesn’t mean people want to stop exercising.
With people forced to exercise at home, many may adapt to the flexibility it affords, especially if they recently purchased equipment. While the social aspect is one draw at the local gym, at-home providers like Peloton provide an online community of friends and virtual high-fives.
They also offer instructors to keep you motivated and on-task. Users can partake in live and recorded workouts, including engagement with other users and instructors. Now, with connected bikes, treadmills, and smart workout mirrors there are devices to meet just about everyone’s needs.
An Increase in Popularity of the “Side Hustle”
Like in previous recessions, unemployment is a hard-hitting reality of the pandemic. While jobs were lost in all sectors and levels, uncertainty may cause workers to look for added income and protect against future outbreaks.
We may be at a similar turning point, but unlike in the post-9/11 world with its explosion of entrepreneurship, we’ll more likely see a greater emphasis on gig economy jobs.These service-type businesses may help not only individual workers but also retail businesses expand and thrive in areas like e-grocery.
Subscription Services Get a Lifeline
It seems like everything is subscription-based nowadays. I never thought they were a sustainable business model, but consumer reliance on delivery has substantially increased with coronavirus. This speaks to the heart of product subscription businesses.
One common challenge with this model is the cost of customer acquisition. Now, between consumers seeking out subscription services (reducing acquisition cost) and the convenience factor, this may be a time for these companies to retain customers and remain viable.
The Supply Chain Evolves Yet Again
The retail supply chain, which has already been evolving, is one again under pressure to adapt. As more and more U.S. retailers have outsourced manufacturing overseas, especially to China, they put most or all of their eggs in one basket, and are now paying the consequences. Some have already reallocated sourcing to other countries like Vietnam in the wake of the 2019 trade/tariff wars, but even that is tied up in coronavirus-related issues.
Retailers have to rethink their manufacturing and distribution models and plan for diversification. As a result, some may re-shore a portion of their manufacturing, while others set up multiple facilities in different countries to mitigate any potential future risk.
For consumers, this might mean higher prices. By reducing production at certain facilities, a company’s power to negotiate price may be diminished. Layering on additional costs for shipping from multiple facilities may force retailers to pass on the added costs. It might be tough on consumers but a boon for those in the supply chain business.
Imagining the Post-COVID World is Hard
Will we be in a prolonged recession, or slide right past it to a depression? If the economy recovers quickly, will consumers be more reluctant to spend, especially during the Q4 shopping season? And what f a second wave hits this fall as some predict?
While there are many unknowns, we do know that consumer shopping habits will change, and retailers need to adapt in concert while remaining financially viable. With adversity comes opportunity. For retailers, focusing on customer needs and building loyalty may never be as important as it is right now.
AMA Webinar Recap: COVID-19: What It Means for E-commerce
On April 2, Omnisend hosted their first AMA (ask me anything) session on the topic of e-commerce during the COVID-19 crisis. During the session, we covered questions on a variety of topics, from how to appropriately approach your email and SMS marketing campaigns to ways to properly maneuver customer acquisition via different channels.
I was a part of a four-person expert panel with wide-ranging backgrounds where we answered questions from retailers about doing business during the crisis.
On April 2, Omnisend hosted its first AMA (ask me anything) session on the topic of ecommerce during the COVID-19 crisis. During the session, we covered questions on a variety of topics, from how to appropriately approach your email and SMS marketing campaigns to ways to properly maneuver customer acquisition via different channels.
I was a part of a four-person expert panel with wide-ranging backgrounds where we answered questions from retailers about doing business during the crisis.
The four-person panel consisted of:
Email Marketing During COVID-19: How to Send Emails During a Crisis
Marketing in a crisis, any crisis, is not easy. Marketers need to balance their human side with business needs, and knowing where that line sits is not always clear. But know this — what you do now will determine how your brand is perceived in the future.
This post by Whitney Blankenship explores the right way to approach your customers during a crisis, whether it’s COVID-19, or another future catastrophe, and how you can add value to your customers while trying to maintain your needs as a business.
Marketing in a crisis, any crisis, is not easy. Marketers need to balance their human side with business needs, and knowing where that line sits is not always clear. But know this — what you do now will determine how your brand is perceived in the future.
This post by Whitney Blankenship explores the right way to approach your customers during a crisis, whether it’s COVID-19, or another future catastrophe, and how you can add value to your customers while trying to maintain your needs as a business.
In this article, she discusses:
How to adjust your marketing during a crisis
Ways to adjust your message
How to still promote without alienating customers
Considerations to make around pricing