Email Retargeting Strategies for eCommerce Brands

Email retargeting is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal as an eCommerce business owner. It allows you to target customers who have already shown an interest in your products or services, and brings them back to your website to convert.

Let’s go over how email retargeting works, and how you can use it to boost your eCommerce business.

What is email retargeting?

Email retargeting is a technique that uses email marketing to target customers who have already shown an interest in your products or services. It uses an email to bring them back to your website to convert, which can result in increased sales for your eCommerce business.

For example, let’s say Jones is logged into his favorite sports apparel store and looks at a Lakers hat. As he’s getting ready to add it to his cart, he receives a call from a friend. He gets distracted and never completes the purchase.

That sports apparel store has his email address and then sends an email reminding Jones about that Lakers hat. He sees the email, is reminded how excited he was about this hat and finishes the purchase. This email retargeting campaign has increased sales for the eCommerce brand and helped the shopper buy something that will (hopefully) make them happy.

How does email retargeting work?

​​Email retargeting typically works by placing a cookie on a customer's computer after they have visited your website.

When a customer visits your website, the retargeting system will place a cookie on their computer. This cookie can track the customer's activities, including what pages they have visited and what products they have viewed. Once the customer has left your website, you can use this information to send them tailored emails based on their interests.

Why is email retargeting important for eCommerce businesses

Email retargeting is useful for eCommerce businesses because it allows you to target customers who have already shown an interest in your products or services. It brings them back to your website to convert, which can result in increased sales for your business.

Additionally, email retargeting is a cost-effective way to reach out to potential customers, and it can be more effective than other forms of advertising.

Email retargeting strategies to use for your eCommerce brand

There are several different email retargeting strategies that you can use to boost your eCommerce sales. Let’s go over some of the most effective strategies.

Reach more shoppers with SafeOpt

When you’re using retargeting ads, you can reach nearly anybody who’s visited your online store as long as the cookie is on their browser. It gets a lot trickier with email retargeting because you may not have that shopper’s email address and there are lots of privacy laws (rightfully) restricting how you can reach people via email.

Thankfully, there are innovative solutions like SafeOpt which empower eCommerce brands to reach more shoppers via email and to boost sales.

With SafeOpt, you simply install simple javascript tags on your store. When a shopper browses your site and doesn’t complete a purchase, SafeOpt lets you email them with an incentive to finalize that purchase.

SafeOpt is fully compliant with privacy and email regulations. It can reach shoppers because SafeOpt has a network of more than 175 million shoppers who have joined to receive verified offers from the best brands.

Best of all, SafeOpt essentially guarantees ROI with its business model: you only pay on a cost-per-transaction basis, so you only pay SafeOpt if it’s driving sales for your business.

Segment your lists

One of the most important things to remember when using email retargeting is to segment your lists. This means dividing your customers into different groups based on their interests or past interactions with your business. This will help you target them more effectively and increase your chances of converting them into customers.

Use dynamic content

Dynamic content is also useful for email retargeting. This refers to content that changes depending on the interests or past interactions of the customer. For example, you could show different products or offers to customers who have visited your website before, or who have shown an interest in a particular product.

Track your results

It’s important to track your results when using email retargeting. This will help you determine whether or not the strategies you are using are effective, and allow you to make changes as needed. By tracking your results, you can improve your conversion rates and boost your eCommerce sales.

3 email retargeting campaigns to use for your eCommerce business

Here are some of the most effective email retargeting campaigns you should consider.

Cart abandonment campaigns

This should be at the top of your email retargeting lists because it’s low-hanging fruit. This is an email targeting shoppers who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase. They’ve already shown a strong amount of interest by browsing your store and adding the item to their cart.

A nudge via email could be all they need to finish that transaction and add some revenue to your store. With logged-in shoppers, this should be relatively easy to set up with your existing email software. With SafeOpt, you can also potentially reach interested shoppers and visitors to rescue multiple sales.

Cross-selling/upselling campaigns

Email retargeting is a great venue for introducing cross-selling and upselling campaigns based on what you know about the shopper.

In our example above, we spoke about Jones receiving an email retargeting message that helped him complete his purchase of a Lakers hat. A future email retargeting campaign to Jones could include offers for more Lakers merchandise like jerseys or tracksuits. Because you know Jones is interested in this type of product, he’s a great target for more upselling campaigns.

Inventory restocking campaigns

Email retargeting is a great way to let your shoppers know about new inventory or restocked items. Again, you should personalize this based on what you know about the shopper.

Email retargeting for the win

Email retargeting is a cost-effective way to drive more sales that every eCommerce brand can benefit from. When you combine your internal email retargeting efforts with services like SafeOpt, you’ll have a repeatable marketing channel that repeatedly drives revenue.

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