As an eCommerce business, the accessibility of the internet is one of your greatest advantages.
For you, it allows you to reach out to potential customers from the comfort of your desk.
And for your customers, it makes your business just as reachable.
But this advantage can also be one of your biggest disadvantages.
Your drop shipping business isn’t the only one out there on the internet. And because of the internet’s convenience and accessibility, there is no shortage of competitors.
So how can you stand out from the rest of the noise?
How can you make your dropshipping business the go-to place for customers looking for their online shopping fix?
Well you see, it takes more than just an abundant catalog of products. More than just a pretty website with fancy graphics and convenient UI.
If those won’t cut it, then what can you have that can help you trump all other competitors?
The answer—Customer-Relationship Management
No matter how much potential your dropshipping business has, if you don’t nail your customer-relationship then your business’ days won’t last.
Luckily, out of all the online marketing strategies available to you, one does the job right when it comes to building customer relationships.
And it’s called email marketing.
You’ve heard of its power. From increasing ROI to even saving businesses from the verge of closing down.
It is a powerful tool, but only when used right.
So what is the way? Do you want to know the way of email marketing?
But before we get to that, there’s one question you need to ask yourself—
What Type of Dropshipping Business Am I?
Yes, as much as we would love to just lay down the good stuff for you, we’ll need to take this step by step.
Remember, it’s not just about using email marketing. It’s about using email marketing right.
Knowing where your business fits in the broad landscape of drop shipping can help you better understand the best ways to utilize marketing emails.
Here are the two types of dropshipping. Can you spot your category?
General Dropshipping
Do you find yourself selling a wide variety of categories of products?
We’re talking about school supplies, sports, children’s toys, hobby collectibles—you name it.
If so, then you’re a general dropshipping business.
Niche Dropshipping
Is your business focusing on only one specific category of goods?
Let’s say if you’re selling school supplies, then everything else in your catalog is either just school supplies or other school-related products.
If so, then you’re a niche dropshipping business.
So you found where you belong and you now have a clearer idea of what can work for your particular dropshipping business.
Now let’s go ahead and get to the nitty-gritty of the marketing tool you need to be using.
How Can Email Marketing Benefit Your Dropshipping Business?
As a dropshipping business, you act as the middle-man between retail stores and their customers.
This kind of business requires building long-term relationships with both.
Why? Because as the middle-man, you don’t really have a solid presence in the online market.
In other words, your dropshipping business could just be another option among many.
Email marketing can help you build the customer relationships you need to rise above the noise.
For example, here’s a general idea of how much revenue a dropshipping store can get from email marketing.
Not only that, but email marketing can help give your eCommerce business the returns it needs to survive and thrive.
How exactly does it do that, you ask?
It Has Opportunities for Targeted Marketing
Email marketing makes use of an email list. With this list, you can store useful information about customers who subscribed to your business.
What does this have to do with dropshipping?
Well, in dropshipping you need the convenience of market segmentation to make sure your online store attracts the right people.
What do we mean by the right people? People who are actually interested in what your store is selling.
If you’re a general dropshipping business, you can segment your email list to group together customers with similar interests.
Now you can send the appropriate marketing emails for each group of customers.
This ensures everyone in your email list receives content related to them.
Example:
Your store sells products falling under three categories: computer gaming, children’s toys, and apparel.
You can segment your list of subscribers based on the customer data you collected. Let’s say:
- Group A consists of gamers
- Group B consists of parents
- Group C consists of teens or young adults
Now you can send the right marketing emails about computers to Group A, emails about toys to parents, and emails about apparel to Group C.
If you’re a niche dropshipping business, email marketing can help you filter your email list and reach out to a specific niche of customers.
You can then focus all your efforts on designing and sending the appropriate marketing emails to your niche customers.
Example:
Your store sells only computer gaming-related items.
You can reach into your email list and bring out all the subscribers who show interest in that category of products.
This will ensure you send emails with computer-related content to only your consumers interested in those products.
It is Data-Driven and is a Measurable Marketing Channel
Email marketing provides an easier way to monitor how everything is going in your dropshipping business.
Information like:
- Open Rate
- Bounce Rate
- Opt-Out Rate
- Click Through Rate
The data you can get from these can help you make necessary improvements to your marketing strategy as a dropshipping business.
It Creates Increased Traffic and Sales
Nothing is more important to a dropshipping business than growth.
According to marketer Jay Abraham, there are only three ways to grow revenue:
- Increase the total number of customers
- Increase the total number of purchases per customer
- Increase the average order value
The growth of a dropshipping business means you can expand your catalog of products to cover more niches.
Email marketing campaigns can help your business in its journey to achieve this.
To be specific:
- You can use automated welcome and abandoned cart emails to increase conversion rates.
- You can use bounce back or win back campaigns to increase your customers’ number of purchases.
- You can use lifecycle campaigns and broadcasts to automatically highlight your store’s high-value products to the right customers.
Did you know? According to Baymard Institute’s research, about 70% of online customers abandon their carts before completing their purchase.
Also, abandoned cart emails can recover 15 to 50% of lost revenue.
Think about that for a second.
It is Affordable
Email marketing is one of the most cost-efficient marketing tools available to eCommerce businesses such as yours.
Set-up and ongoing maintenance costs mean nothing when you’re dealing with high ROI, and that’s what email marketing gives you
Imagine—
Your business gets up to $40 dollars back in revenue for every $1 spent on emails.
Actually, scratch that, you don’t have to imagine it.
Because it’s already a reality.
This is beneficial to your dropshipping business because such returns can help maintain your business and provide opportunities to grow.
It is an Omnipresent Medium of Communication
Name one person who doesn’t use email nowadays.
Even people who are more into social media platforms would still need to create an email account to even have a social media account in the first place.
In fact, every website around the internet requires you to sign-up with a legitimate email account.
It’s no exaggeration when we say that on the internet, all roads lead to email accounts.
With email marketing, you have access to a large audience already.
In fact, 70% of people prefer receiving promotional materials through email.
Now that’s a lot of people. Or in your case—potential customers
With all these benefits, it’s hard to dismiss email marketing as just another marketing strategy.
In fact, it is the marketing strategy you need to use.
So here’s the next question—
How do you use email marketing effectively?
Or rather—
How Can You Maximize Email Marketing for Your Dropshipping Business?
So you now know your dropshipping business and its place in the wild eCommerce jungle.
You also now know what email marketing can do to keep your business in the air and help it continue to ascend to greater heights.
Now, all you need is the know-how for these amazing tools.
Here are the best practices you can observe when using email marketing for your dropshipping business:
Initiation and Engagement Emails
This is your first step to building a long-term relationship with your customers.
When visitors check your site out, these are the emails where you acknowledge their interest in your dropshipping services.
Target Audience:
- New leads
- New customers
- Abandoned cart leads
Goal: Introduce your dropshipping brand to new customers
Abandoned Cart Emails
It’s your job to send your customers a friendly reminder they still have items waiting for them at your website.
Usually, that’s enough to get your customers to come back and complete their transactions.
But if that’s not enough, you can offer the following to your emails:
- A coupon for their purchase
- Ask your customers for feedback
Target Audience:
- Customers who reach checkout but doesn’t buy
Goal:
- Your goal is to engage with your customers to get them to complete their transactions.
- Carefully encourage your customers to purchase. The last thing they need is someone forcing them to buy something.
Post-Purchase Emails
These are the emails you send to customers after they made purchases on your website.
This is another important step because it helps build customer relationships by showing your customers you care about them even after they purchased from your store.
Target Audience:
- People who have purchased
Goal:
- Reduce buyer’s remorse
- Increase the lifetime value of your customers
- Gather testimonials and reviews
Customer Loyalty and Re-engagement Emails
Now let’s say that it’s been a while since your customers’ last purchase from your store. What can you do to remind them of your business?
Here are some examples of emails you can send under this category:
Life Event Emails
Imagine you’re on the receiving end of an email wishing you a happy birthday.
With it, a special code or coupon giving you a discount on any purchase you make for the month.
Now tell us you wouldn’t spend your next online shopping session with a big smile on your face.
What’s the best way to get customers to come back? Incentivize
Offer special “welcome back” discounts and include a message showing them your gratitude for their return.
Repurchase Emails
Do you think your customers are running low on a product?
If you have a good idea on the lifespan of a product, you can send re-purchase emails to remind your customers they can restock from your store.
Target Audience:
- All of your customers
Goal:
- Keep your customers remembering you and your dropshipping brand
Promotional Emails
Your suppliers got a special sale going on? Spread the word to your customers.
Did you know? Price decrease emails have the highest conversion rate at 1.04% and click-to-conversion rate at 9.68% of all promotional emails.
Here are different ways you can use promotional emails:
- Announce new products and features
- Announce sales
- Offer subscriber-exclusive discounts
- Offer holiday and seasonal promotions
Target Audience:
- All of your customers
Goal:
- Create more sales
- Grab your customers’ attention
Up-Sell and Cross-Sell Emails
These are follow-up emails you send to customers after they purchased products from your store.
The difference here from the above post-purchase emails is these emails aim to sell products related to the ones your customers bought.
You can do this in 3 ways:
Product follow-up: You offer similar products to what your customers purchased.
Category follow-up: You promote categories related to the product your customers purchased.
Receipt follow-up: This is a confirmation email for your customers’ purchases.
More than 70% of customers open purchase receipt emails, giving these emails one of the highest open rates.
Target Audience:
- All your customers who have made a purchase in your store
Goal:
- Promote other products your dropshipping store is offering to increase sales
Takeaways:
Email marketing specializes in engaging with your customers and building long-term relationships with them.
As a dropshipping business, this is especially important when engaging with your suppliers and retail stores.
An eCommerce business with a loyal following has a strong presence on the internet.
Imagine your customers and retailers recommending you to others, you are sure to pop up more often in search engines and in social media.
Dropshipping Resources:
Do Dropshipping is a great source for everything dropshipping. From beginner guides to in-depth studies of the art, Do Dropshipping is like a dropshipping course but completely free!
They have a comprehensive list of the best dropshipping companies. Take a look and learn about each of them to help guide your business.
