Ultimate Guide to Newsletter Marketing for Ecommerce Brands

Are you struggling to create effective email marketing campaigns that drive sales and engage your audience? This ultimate guide to newsletter marketing may be just what the doctor ordered.

Newsletters have been around for ages, and to the millennial marketer, they may sound like outdated artifacts that belong to the last century. But for many brands, newsletters are still a valuable option for reaching customers. 

This is why 31% of B2B marketers continue to send email newsletters to nurture their leads.

In this guide to newsletter marketing for ecommerce brands, you’ll learn everything you need to know about creating an effective email newsletter marketing strategy, including:

• Newsletter content creation.
• Optimization.
• Promoting on social media.
• How to automate your newsletter publication.

By following these guidelines and utilizing powerful email marketing tools, you can create newsletters that engage subscribers with relevant content while driving conversions. Let’s get started optimizing your marketing emails!

Table of Contents

What is an E-commerce Newsletter?

An e-commerce newsletter is a powerful marketing tool used by e-commerce brands to inform their customers and prospects about products, services, offers, events, and promotions. It’s an effective way to keep your brand top-of-mind with existing customers while also generating leads from potential buyers.

An e-commerce newsletter can be sent out regularly or just when some special announcements or promotions need to be shared.

A newsletter tailored to e-commerce can be a powerful tool for staying connected with customers and increasing your brand’s reach. The first step in creating successful email campaigns is to know what to include in your newsletter.

Utilizing newsletters to your advantage can be an effective way of boosting conversions, as content marketing is a great way to offer discounts on certain items or advertise upcoming events related to the company. By collecting data from subscribers such as location, you can tailor marketing emails specifically for those who meet certain criteria and allow them the opportunity to take action before offers expire or events fill up too quickly.

Why Your Ecommerce Brand Needs a Newsletter

Newsletters are an effective way to reach your target audience without spending too much on paid advertising campaigns. With newsletters, you’re able to send promotional content directly into people’s inboxes at a fraction of the cost of other forms of outreach.

Plus, it’s easier than ever to create engaging email campaigns using tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact which have drag-and-drop templates for easy customization.

Establish Authority in Your Niche

By creating regular newsletters full of relevant content related to your industry, you can establish yourself as an authority within your niche and build trust among consumers who may not be familiar with your brand yet. This is especially important if you’re selling in a highly competitive space.

With regular newsletters featuring helpful advice from experts within the field, readers will begin recognizing your name more often and become more comfortable trusting what you have to say about their area of interest.

Boost Conversions

Newsletters can also be used for marketing purposes by offering discounts on certain items or promoting upcoming events. You can even use newsletter data collected from subscribers (such as location) so that targeted messages appear only for those who meet certain criteria, making it easier for them to take action quickly before the offer expires.

1) Pick one topic
2) Post 3-5x per day
3) Engage with like-minded people along the way
4) Start a newsletter
5) Email your offers

Commit for 6-12 months.

Congrats. Now you have a brand + skill stack in writing, marketing, branding and audience building.

Bookmark 👆

— Eddy Quan (@waronweakness) March 5, 2023

Build Your Email List

Before you can send out newsletters, you need to build your email list. There are several ways to do this, but here are some of the most effective tactics.

Opt-in Forms

Create an opt-in form on your website where visitors can enter their email addresses in exchange for something valuable such as a discount code or exclusive content. This is one of the best ways to build a group of subscribers who will be more likely to open and click through emails. Make it easy for people to sign up by keeping your opt-in form short.

Social Media Ads

You can also run social media ads that target people who fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). Create lookalike audiences based on existing customers or use retargeting campaigns aimed at those who have already visited your site before. When someone clicks on your ad, they will be taken directly to an opt-in page so they can join your mailing list.

Landing Pages

Dedicated landing pages are great for capturing leads from organic traffic sources like search engines or blog posts. These pages should feature compelling copy about why someone should subscribe to your list plus attractive visuals that draw attention and encourage readers to take action. Include multiple CTAs throughout the page along with a visible opt-in link so visitors don’t miss out on joining your mailing list.

Referral Programs

Word-of-mouth referrals are another way to get people to sign up for your newsletter. Offer incentives such as discounts or free products when friends refer new subscribers to join your mailing list via special referral links. This encourages existing customers to spread awareness about what you are offering.

The Shopify newsletter is one of the best newsletters that every entrepreneur should subscribe to.

Guide to Newsletter Marketing for Ecommerce Brands: What to Include in Your Newsletter

The first element of a great e-commerce newsletter is compelling content. Your newsletter — no matter how short or how long — should provide useful information or entertaining stories that your subscribers would want to read.

You could share product reviews, market trends, how-to tutorials, exclusive discounts, or even customer success stories. Make sure each piece of content is engaging enough that readers will want to continue reading until the end of the email.

Write a Concise Copy

Make your point in the first few paragraphs and keep the language simple and easy to read. Bullet points are great for creating white space. Avoid “word salads” that are difficult for readers to digest.

Speak like your audience by using their words and phrases. 

Personalize Your Newsletter

Address them by their first name throughout the email body when appropriate. 

Studies have shown that people respond better when emails end with a sign-off from a particular person in the company rather than just the company name itself — so take advantage of this opportunity. You can easily personalize an email sender by adding a signature line that includes your name and contact details.

Remind Customers of the Benefits of Your Product

Don’t forget why customers should be interested in what you have to offer. Remind them how your product solves their problems so they can be motivated to take steps towards purchase or engagement.

Use an Eye-Catching Design

Unfortunately, getting people to read your newsletter can be a challenge. Only 20% of people actually read the content when they visit a website. The rest simply skim through and bounce if they don’t find your stuff interesting.

This is why visuals have become a very important part of content marketing. High-quality images and videos can draw attention, making your message more memorable than plain text alone. So try spicing up your newsletters with some eye-catching graphics and videos that add character to your newsletter.

A simple design with a few graphics is usually best as complex designs can be distracting and take longer to load up. Responsive design is key when creating an effective newsletter – make sure that your content looks good on all devices, from desktop computers to mobile phones. This way you won’t miss out on potential readers who access your newsletter through different platforms.

Think about what kind of message you want to convey and how best to communicate it visually – this could mean using bold fonts or adding infographics.

Make sure to include relevant keywords throughout the content as well as your image alt tags so it will be easier for customers to find them when they search for these terms.

Add a Compelling CTA

The call-to-action is the lifeblood of content marketing. It provides readers with a direct path to take action, whether it be subscribing to an email list, downloading a free ebook, or making a purchase. When used correctly, CTAs can drastically increase conversions and make your website more profitable.

One way to create urgency in your CTA is by using countdown timers when promoting products or services. This technique works best for limited-time offers that have an expiration date attached to them.

By counting down the time until the offer expires, you give people motivation to act quickly before they miss out on the deal. Studies show that this method can boost conversion rates by as much as 14%.

When writing your CTA, make sure that it’s clear what action you want readers to take and why they should do so immediately. Use phrases like “Act now” or “Get your free ebook today” to motivate readers to act now rather than wait.

Now let’s look at how to optimize your content so it resonates with readers and drives conversions.

Still not invested in visual content? Look at these numbers from Venngage.

Optimize Your Newsletter Content

When creating an e-commerce newsletter, consider what topics may be of interest to your target audience. Look for industry trends that could draw their attention.

Once you’ve chosen a topic for your e-commerce newsletter, think of a compelling headline that will get people to click through and read more. Power words like “amazing” and “incredible” can draw readers in quickly. Make sure your headline precisely conveys the content of the article so readers know what to expect when they click it.

When writing an email newsletter for an online store, keep it short and sweet. Remember, not everyone has all day to read through lengthy articles. Aim for 500 words per article.

If you find yourself going over this limit too often, consider breaking down longer pieces into multiple sections so your reader doesn’t feel overwhelmed.

SEO tactics can go a long way toward increasing brand visibility across search engines like Google or Bing. When writing a newsletter, always include a link to your website or blog posts so readers can find more information when needed. Links also signal relevance between different pages which could boost overall rankings.

Promote Your Newsletter on Social Media

Social media is an indispensable component of a successful marketing strategy. It’s a great way to reach out to potential customers and build relationships with existing ones. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be effective tools for promoting your e-commerce newsletter.

Create posts that are interesting enough for people to click on them and read more about what you have to offer. Focus on topics related to your industry or niche so that readers know they will get valuable information from subscribing.

Incorporate hashtags where suitable to enable users to discover your material in search results or through other accounts that could be interested in a similar topic.

It’s also important to create visual content when possible – like videos or images – since these tend to grab attention more than text alone would do. You could showcase a new product with pictures or demonstrate how it works in a video tutorial.

Don’t hesitate to cross-promote across different platforms. Sharing links from one platform to another allows you to reach multiple audiences at once. Doing this consistently will help increase visibility, establish brand recognition, and hopefully generate more leads.

To maximize the impact of your email campaigns, consider combining organic strategies with paid advertising options such as Facebook Ads Manager. This will allow you to target specific demographics and reach a broader audience beyond those who already follow or interact with your account regularly. If you want to give your e-commerce newsletter promotion a real boost, give both tactics a try.

Embrace Automation

More than 63% of marketers are already using automation for email marketing. Automation is a great way to manage the marketing emails that you regularly send out to your newsletter subscribers.

Marketing automation tools can help speed up the process of sending out newsletters and managing customer data, leading to both time and cost savings. For example, an automated system can be used to segment customers based on their preferences or buying habits — this means busy parents only receive short messages from you while audiences with a flexible schedule can receive long-form content. This way, your customers do not feel bombarded with ads which could lead them to unsubscribe from your email list.

Email marketing software also enables you to set up automated RSS feeds that deliver updates on new products or services directly into their inboxes. This makes it effortless for customers to remain in the know about your company without having to look you up manually.

Through automation, you can also personalize content for each individual customer according to their interests or past purchases. By setting up targeted campaigns based on customer data such as age, gender, or location, you can ensure that each message speaks to the recipient’s needs — increasing engagement rates significantly.

Another great feature offered by many email marketing platforms is A/B testing which allows you to test different versions of an email before sending it out. Determining which one performs better helps you maximize open rates and click-through rates (CTR) so no effort is wasted.

Additionally, some systems offer advanced analytics features that provide detailed insights into how well each campaign performed so you can fine-tune future issues.

If you need to send out several newsletters each week and cannot keep up with your editorial calendar, automation can also help you meet your quota on time. BrandWell is one powerful tool that can help you write your how-to guides, case studies, and other forms of curated content.

Watch how the app works in this video.

Follow This Guide to Newsletter Marketing for Ecommerce Brands & Get Results

By following the tips in this guide to newsletter marketing for e-commerce brands, you can build a successful email campaign that will help your business meet its objectives.

With an optimized content strategy, automated processes, and effective use of social media platforms, you’ll be able to grow your subscriber list more quickly. By staying up-to-date with trends in digital marketing strategies as well as best practices for crafting compelling emails, you can ensure that each message is tailored specifically to your target audience while delivering value every time.