The ultimate goal of any online marketplace is to generate as much revenue as possible. However, many customers don’t complete the purchase even if they initially place an item in their shopping cart. The average cart abandonment rate in 2022 was as high as 65.5%. It means 7 out of 10 potential customers don’t buy the products they were interested in.
Source: OptiMonk
Online vendors can deploy different marketing strategies to increase customers’ conversion rates. One of the most effective solutions is using the email marketing channel for new email remarketing campaigns.
In this article, we will introduce you to email remarketing and show you how it can help to reactivate potential customers.
What Is Email Remarketing?
You’ve probably noticed how email remarketing and email retargeting are used interchangeably. In the context of email marketing, these terms are pretty close. Still, we should determine the difference between remarketing and retargeting to ensure clarity.
First of all, remarketing and retargeting are different marketing strategies. Email marketing works by collecting customer data and tracking their behavior on the website. Retargeting uses the same way of reconnecting customers.
Source: Distress Marketing
When customers visit a website, cookies collect data about their activity and interaction with webpage content. Then, brands can analyze the captured data to implement specific marketing strategies and convert customers. So, remarketing and retargeting pursue the same goal – to re-engage the customers and nudge them into buying a product.
The main difference between remarketing and retargeting is the reason behind re-engaging. Marketers and brands use remarketing to re-engage consumers based on their purchase history. Retargeting aims to re-engage prospects interested in a service or product. However, both rely heavily on personalized ads that potential and actual customers can see on the website or elsewhere online, including social media and search engines.
Email remarketing, on the other hand, is all about reconnecting with customers via email. Similarly to retargeting, email remarketing uses highly personalized remarketing emails to reactivate users who once visited a website and placed items into a shopping cart but didn’t finish the purchase.
Email remarketing and retargeting are not exclusive of each other. In fact, email remarketing and retargeting campaigns can be supplementary and help generate more revenue.
When Should You Use Email Remarketing?
It can be difficult to define whether email remarketing is an appropriate way to re-engage the customers. Let’s discuss in which circumstances an email marketing strategy can ensure higher customer conversion rates.
Email remarketing can pursue one of the following goals:
- Engage inactive website visitors. It’s common for marketing website visitors to simply browse the page without taking any action. Since they visited your website, it’s a good idea to reach out to them and convert their interest into a purchase with the help of your email remarketing campaign.
- Target visitors with abandoned carts. Another reason for website revenue loss is shopping cart abandonment. Around 75% of shopping website visitors interrupt their checkout journey without buying a product/service. Sending abandoned cart emails is an excellent email marketing strategy. Retargeting emails remind customers about the purchase intent or offer special bonuses, such as discounts or free shipping.
- Upsell existing customers. This technique is another example of email remarketing. It allows you to engage customers who have already purchased and are satisfied with your products. Remarketing emails can offer additional discounts or other products from your catalog.
Source: Beeketing
How Does Email Remarketing Work?
Email remarketing uses various ways of analyzing customer behavior on a website and collecting relevant data. For example, email remarketing services monitor customers who placed products in a virtual shopping cart but didn’t complete their purchase. You consider their behavior patterns to check what type of retargeting emails they are receptive to. Then, you can start an email remarketing campaign and send them retargeting emails offering a discount or try to upsell other products. In such a way, you will reactivate your potential customers.
Email remarketing services use the following tools to track and analyze your customers’ interaction with the website:
- Website cookies
- Pixel-targeting tags
- ESP data
1. Use Website Cookies
Website cookies are the technology at the core of email remarketing. Cookies are small bits of information gathered by your web browser and sent to a website you visit. This information may include what items a customer clicked on, how they navigated through a site, etc. In other words, cookies help facilitate your interaction with a webpage by identifying your computer and improving your user experience.
2. Add Pixel-Targeting Tags
However, with new regulations in place, using cookies to collect customer data is getting increasingly more difficult. For example, Google decided to ditch third-party cookies in 2024. Luckily, you can also use pixel targeting to collect customers’ data for email marketing purposes. Tracking pixels operate similarly to website cookies. The pixels integrate into the HTML code of an email and help track user behavior once they open an email.
3. Analyze ESP Data
Another way to reintegrate the customers who visit your website is to use data stored by your ESP (Email Service Provider). Remarketing using email lists allows you to create segmented groups of the customers you contacted before and analyze their customer journey. If you identify potential customers, you can start sending remarketing emails.
Now that you know how email marketing collects information about your customer’s behavior on the website. Let’s discuss how to launch a new email remarketing strategy effectively.
How Do I Start Email Remarketing?
The success of an email remarketing campaign depends on how well you know your target audience and how good you are at creating highly personalized remarketing emails. Learn more about how personalization supports marketing strategies.
Here is how you can optimize your email marketing strategy.
1. Develop Your Email (and SMS) Subscriber List
Developing a subscriber list is an essential part of email retargeting best practices. Your user subscriber list consists of people who actively consented to stay in touch. It means your retargeting emails or text messages will reach an engaged and loyal audience.
To collect customers’ contact information:
- Add a pop-up CTA on your website. It can be either an exit message or a scroll-up pop-up. Remember to include a small discount or other perks to motivate users to sign in. Below, you can find a remarketing example of a CTA pop-up.
Source: Popupmaker
- Place a sign-in feature on your website footer.
- Use gamification to encourage customers to sign in. Game elements encourage customers to share their email addresses. Offer free shipping or extra discounts in exchange for website visitors signing up with you.
Source: Popupmaker
- Use the power of social media. Pitch an email newsletter if you use Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn accounts for business. Your followers are people who know you and like you. If they don’t receive your remarketing emails, it’s time to change it.
Source: Popupmaker
- Collect both emails and phone numbers. Using an SMS subscriber list is another effective marketing strategy that helps convert subscribers at a high rate. Not all customers check their email inboxes regularly. But they almost always check text messages.
2. Segment Your Contacts
To use email retargeting effectively, you should define what information is relevant to a particular group of customers. Segment your contacts into smaller groups to better understand your audience’s needs, requests, and values.
Email marketing tracks any relevant characteristics of the groups:
- Cart status
- Product type
- Interaction history
- Demographic
- Geographical location
Source: BarnRaisers
The more specific the segment is, the easier it is to identify what retargeting strategy you should implement.
3. Sequence Remarketing Emails
Email campaign analytics determined that proper remarketing email frequency is crucial for the effectiveness of an email remarketing campaign. Ideally, you should send remarketing emails within an hour of a customer leaving your website.
However, the email quantity also plays its role. Sending excessive emails may annoy customers, as it looks more like spam. Instead, plan your email remarketing sequence carefully.
Your retargeting emails can carry the following functions:
- Remind about an incomplete purchase
- Offer additional perks and bonuses
- Emphasize the urgent nature of the offer
4. Create Quality Emails
Email remarketing aims to create retargeting emails that attract customers’ attention. You should maintain a balance between captivating designs and relevant content. In addition, remarketing emails should stay consistent with your brand.
Follow these tips to create top-level remarketing emails:
- Use email marketing automation tools. Consider using email remarketing software to search for and apply remarketing templates. For example, template tools can save time and help you create retargeting emails with eye-catching designs.
- Opt for laconic designs with optimized images and lifestyle shots. Avoid overstimulating your audience with intricate graphic elements. Keep the design of your remarketing emails simple. Replace product pictures with lifestyle shots to evoke an emotional response from a customer.
- Add strong CTAs to encourage readers to buy a product. Don’t forget to include short CTA phrases in your remarketing emails to prompt a user to perform a desirable action.
Source: CROCOblock
- Avoid large chunks of text not interrupted by images. Most customers lose enthusiasm when they open a remarketing email and see a homogenous text. Placing relevant pictures and animated GIF images will contribute to the effectiveness of your email remarketing campaign.
- Personalize remarketing emails. Use your customer’s name, job title, or any other information you have to establish a strong personal connection. If appropriate, add personalized images or even emojis.
- Add something of value to entice customers. That is another helpful email remarketing tip. Re-engaging customers who placed a product in a shopping cart but didn’t finish the purchase is useful. A small incentive, such as free shipping, a discount, or a complementary product, often makes a customer return to a website.
PRO TIP: Use A/B testing to analyze the effectiveness of your email remarketing strategy. A/B testing is one of the email performance metrics. It compares how well two email retargeting strategies work. Launch two separate email remarketing campaigns containing different CTAs, designs, and offers. After some time, compare and choose a more effective email marketing strategy.
Email Marketing Extravaganza at MailCon Show in New York
MailCon is back with a one-day email performance and deliverability conference on July 28th in New York City.
Every attendee will get:
- Productive email marketing sessions reinforced with panels and workshops addressing the most pressing topics for mailers
- Speaking and exhibition opportunities
- Connecting with renowned email marketing professionals and experts
And here’s why MailCon is the coolest email marketing event you can attend:
Here are some of the topics you’ll get covered on July 28th:
- Brand Safety & Better Subscriptions: What You Need to Know, by Ebenezer Anjorin, Lead Product Manager at Google Workspace
- Email Deliverability Starts Where Best Practices Fall Short, by Adrian W. from Email Angels
- The Importance of Securing Your Email Infrastructure and How to Do It, by Kevin A. McGrail, CEO of Peregrine Computer Consultants Corporation, and LB Blair, Head of Deliverability at Email Industries.
- Future-Proof Your Brand Like Beyoncé: Integrating Email & Social Media for Iconic Digital Presence, by Carlos Gil from GetResponse
- Insights from the expertise of renowned email deliverability consultants like Trey Bennett, Keith Kouzmanoff, Jakub Olexa, and more
- Expert panel on navigating the complexities of consumer privacy and compliance regulations, by Eric J. Troutman, Puja J. Amin, and Brittany Andres
- Marketing Crossfire session hosted by Channel Automation™ and featuring industry thought leaders
And so much more!
Get your tickets now before they sell out!
For those new, here’s everything you need to know about MailCon in just 90 seconds:
