Email marketing is a significant component of many e-tailer’s web strategies. In fact, somewhere upwards of 40% of e-tail business can occur during the few weeks of the holidays season, whereas many e-tailers see slowed sales and traffic during the summer. However, it’s not as simple as be prepared for the holiday push alone. In fact, e-tailers should start prepping now – especially when it comes to email strategy. Here’s what you need to know: Build those customer relationships throughout the year. Customers are pummeled with promotions during the holiday season, so it’s easy for yours to get lost in the mix. But by establishing a trusted repertoire with them beforehand, they’ll be less likely to hit “unsubscribe”. Birthday promotions, off-season specials and mobile friendly emails can all help build your case. Test timing before the holidays hit. If you’re not sure when customers are most likely to open your emails, then it’s time to find out. Try a test campaign before you send a full-fledged back-to-school or holiday campaign to determine best day, time of day and headline to entice customers. Cross promote to build your database. Make sure it’s easy for customers to sign-up to receive your emails. Include this call to action in the top header of your website, add a custom tab for e-news sign-up on Facebook, and make newsletter sign-up a part of your shopping or order process. Also, provide an incentive for those who refer a friend – it could be a discount on shipping, or a % off the next order. These will all help you build your list and expand your reach. Get personal to build trust. According to Marketing Sherpa, users clicked an average of 17% more on emails that included some type of personalization than those that did not. Personalization is easy-to-implement with any email campaign management software, and it pays off. It’s even better if you can segment your list by purchaser behavior (previously viewed or complementary items) or by preference. Re-target to close sales. Ever add an item to a shopping cart only to abandon it? If so, you are like the 67% of online shoppers who do the same. What that adds up to for e-tailers is a lot of lost revenue – for those who don’t re-target. Instead, if you know that an existing customer has added items but not completed check-out, send them a reminder email to finish their purchase. Evoke some type of call to action, sense of urgency or value-added promotion to close the sale. Provide CTAs that can occur in the inbox. Many email programs are now offering features that allow marketers to connect and engage with customers without leaving their inbox. For example, Gmail now allows customer reviews, reservations and retrieval of promo codes without customers ever having to leave their inbox. Now that’s a whole other level of email efficiency! Test for optimization. With the flurry of new devices on the market, e-tailers are faced with the biggest challenge ever when it comes to design optimization. The two strategies that address and can help overcome this issue are scalable and responsive design tactics that are readable even on the smallest of devices. With summer web traffic at a lull while shoppers prepare for family vacations and back-to-school season, capitalize on the down time and use it to build your email strategy for the rest of the year. Come Q4, you’ll be ready.Email marketing is a significant component of many e-tailer’s web strategies. In fact, somewhere upwards of 40% of e-tail business can occur during the few weeks of the holidays season, whereas many e-tailers see slowed sales and traffic during the summer. However, it’s not as simple as be prepared for the holiday push alone. In fact, e-tailers should start prepping now – especially when it comes to email strategy. Here’s what you need to know: Build those customer relationships throughout the year. Customers are pummeled with promotions during the holiday season, so it’s easy for yours to get lost in the mix. But by establishing a trusted repertoire with them beforehand, they’ll be less likely to hit “unsubscribe”. Birthday promotions, off-season specials and mobile friendly emails can all help build your case. Test timing before the holidays hit. If you’re not sure when customers are most likely to open your emails, then it’s time to find out. Try a test campaign before you send a full-fledged back-to-school or holiday campaign to determine best day, time of day and headline to entice customers. Cross promote to build your database. Make sure it’s easy for customers to sign-up to receive your emails. Include this call to action in the top header of your website, add a custom tab for e-news sign-up on Facebook, and make newsletter sign-up a part of your shopping or order process. Also, provide an incentive for those who refer a friend – it could be a discount on shipping, or a % off the next order. These will all help you build your list and expand your reach. Get personal to build trust. According to Marketing Sherpa, users clicked an average of 17% more on emails that included some type of personalization than those that did not. Personalization is easy-to-implement with any email campaign management software, and it pays off. It’s even better if you can segment your list by purchaser behavior (previously viewed or complementary items) or by preference. Re-target to close sales. Ever add an item to a shopping cart only to abandon it? If so, you are like the 67% of online shoppers who do the same. What that adds up to for e-tailers is a lot of lost revenue – for those who don’t re-target. Instead, if you know that an existing customer has added items but not completed check-out, send them a reminder email to finish their purchase. Evoke some type of call to action, sense of urgency or value-added promotion to close the sale. Provide CTAs that can occur in the inbox. Many email programs are now offering features that allow marketers to connect and engage with customers without leaving their inbox. For example, Gmail now allows customer reviews, reservations and retrieval of promo codes without customers ever having to leave their inbox. Now that’s a whole other level of email efficiency! Test for optimization. With the flurry of new devices on the market, e-tailers are faced with the biggest challenge ever when it comes to design optimization. The two strategies that address and can help overcome this issue are scalable and responsive design tactics that are readable even on the smallest of devices. With summer web traffic at a lull while shoppers prepare for family vacations and back-to-school season, capitalize on the down time and use it to build your email strategy for the rest of the year. Come Q4, you’ll be ready.