How to optimize email open rate to increase sales on an ecommerce app?

Companies with an ecommerce app always look for different avenues to increase their sales. Email marketing is not the first kind of marketing people think of when trying to promote an app.

And yet, the combination of ecommerce and email is very powerful.

First, it’s important to understand the challenge of selling products with ecommerce apps. People trying to make app online must understand this challenge well.

All studies and surveys show consumers prefer shopping on mobile apps compared to mobile websites. A recent report pointed to the same. Roughly 85% shoppers like shopping on a mobile app compared to a website.

Does this mean it’s easier to sell products on ecommerce apps?

The challenge of selling products with a mobile app

Is it really easier to sell products on apps compared to products.

Yes and no.

If the end users already have the app on their device, it is easier to sell the product to them. As the stat above shows, people like shopping on mobile apps. They are likely to buy a product from an app if it's already on their device.

The problem is this - for many ecommerce entrepreneurs, it is difficult to first make people download the app. Mobile app marketing is more tedious compared to other forms of digital marketing.

Making sales on ecommerce apps is thus notoriously more difficult for small-time companies.

How can this challenge be overcome?

Email marketing and email open rate

Email marketing is not the first solution people consider when trying to optimize sales. And yet, it can become an effective option for an entrepreneur to make the most of existing customers and app users.

In the last ten years, we have seen social media users and platforms explode. This has naturally caused emails and email marketing to sit on the sidelines.

In many cases, email marketing is often an afterthought. Here are a few stats comparing email marketing to social media.

• The average conversion rate in email marketing is roughly 6%. On social media, conversion rate is 1.9%
• More than 58% people open their email when they first wake up as opposed to 14% who open social media
• Average email open rate of email campaigns is over 22%. The click-through rate is 3.7%. The average engagement rate on social media for a given promotional campaign is 0.58%
• There are a total of 3.8B email users compared to 3.4B social media users

Source: OptinMonster

These numbers paint a very different picture to the general perception surrounding email marketing and social media.

Email marketing is an extremely viable channel to market and sell products online.

One significant challenge in email marketing is effectively increasing the open rate. Any email campaign can get higher conversions if it manages to truly shoot up its conversion rate.

Email open rate optimization - Four tips

The following sections will help readers understand how to optimize the email open rate. The tips below are not exhaustive by any means. However, they alone can significantly shore up your email open rate.

#1 - Make sure email doesn’t land under ‘Promotions’ tab

Most people use Gmail as their email partner. Gmail typically categorizes incoming emails into three categories - primary, social, and promotions.

Most users never really open the social and promotions tab. If your email rate is bad, a major reason could be your email landing in promotions.

What is the solution? Write your email copy in a more personable and non-promotional tone.

If your email contains words like ‘buy’ or ‘sale’, Gmail automatically adds it to the promotions section.

Approach your email copy just as you’d approach writing a normal email to a colleague or client. This presents a significant challenge for copywriters as they try to promote products without actually sounding promotional or using any advertorial words.

#2 - Make subject personable and relevant

People generally decide to open an email only after they go through the subject. This is because they can only see the subject and a few more lines of the email in their inbox.

Write a personable email subject that mentions the recipient by name. Remember the recipient must feel you’re writing the email to him/her alone. Recipients must not feel the email is addressed to thousands of other people part of the same segmented email list.

This approach can help email marketers write better subjects and affect real change in the open rate.

#3 - Optimize email schedule

Your open rate also depends on the timing of your email.

For example, consider this situation. As mentioned before, a large majority of people are known to open their email every morning. These are normally working people who have to report to work.

If you send them an email late in the night, your email will be pushed down by the time  typical users open their inbox in the morning. Thus, choosing the timing of your email is very important to capture the full attention of a prospect.

Also read: Seven app marketing you can avoid starting now

#4 - Use personal name as sender

Along with your subject, the next most prominent thing recipients see is the sender’s name. If you bluntly mention your app name, people will probably consider it yet another promotional email.

What if you instead used a real name instead of your company’s or app’s name? Studies show using this tactic can increase your open rate by over 35%

This is a great way to increase open rate and oversee a rise in ecommerce sales.

The best part? Most apps use their official company name while sending promotional emails. This tactic can help set your ecommerce app apart. As someone trying to create an app using a free app maker, it is wise to use a personal name as sender in an email campaign.

In conclusion

This article provides insights into the challenge of selling products on ecommerce apps. Readers also learn how to use email marketing to optimize sales on mobile apps.

Using email marketing is often a case of significantly improving email open rate. This piece also offers users a chance to learn how to improve their average email open rate and oversee a rise in sales on ecommerce apps.  

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Created on Sep 22nd 2020 06:23. Viewed 473 times.

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