Have you heard about Amazon’s email marketing tool? The new email marketing feature for sellers was just released this year and is already changing the game for merchants wanting to communicate with customers free of charge. With this new update, Amazon allows sellers to send emails to repeat, recent, and high-spending customers at no additional cost. This means it’s much easier to build connections with loyal Amazon customers.
In a recent Amazon annual seller conference, Benjamin Hartman, Vice President of Amazon North America Selling Partner Services, said, “Brands are able to quickly acquire new customers in the Amazon store, but they expressed a need for improved tools to increase customer lifetime value.” He added, “These improvements help unlock the value of remarketing as we further our commitment to helping sellers reach the right customer at the right time.”
Emails are more than merely a way to show your recent catalogs. This recent email marketing update has opened doors for many Amazon sellers. Now they can connect with their customers in creative ways. In an interview, Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide selling services, said, “Many brand owners have spent years becoming experts in their product area, and this is an opportunity to connect customers with their brand.”
As an expert in your niche, you know what makes your products unique and worthwhile. Now, you can share that information with your customers, too. By taking notes from the very emails that Amazon sends merchants, you can create campaigns that inspire customers to check out new products, learn about the benefits of a product sitting in their cart, or let them know a flash sale is coming up soon.
Free email marketing campaigns offer endless possibilities, and taking advantage of them will allow your Amazon merchant business to grow. Consider the following types of emails that you can send to boost your merchant account and grow your online brand.
Product Recommendation Emails
Because Amazon’s email marketing feature allows you to send emails to recent shoppers, you can effectively supply prior customers with further product recommendations that will complement their recent purchases. For example, suppose one shopper bought a face cleanser. You might send an email afterward to show the customers what other beauty and hygiene products you have in stock or pair their purchase with a similar facial moisturizer. This kind of email is best for showing new arrivals, best-sellers, trending items, and ‘purchased together’ bundles that would pique your customers’ interest and bring them back to your online store.
Reminder Emails
You can send reminder emails to alert your loyal customers about limited-time offers such as Black Friday discounts, a Christmas sale, or even member-only offers. Reminders are a great way to tell your customers that an offer is going on and to act fast before the timer hits zero. With these emails, time is of the essence, so be sure to allow your customers an adequate amount of time to see the email in their inbox and navigate to your store for purchases.
Drip Campaigns
As an online merchant, drip campaigns are a great tool to create brand awareness and generate more sales. Not all customers enjoy one-and-done sales emails. Instead, drip campaigns are a series of emails broken into various steps of the buying process to help customers first gain awareness, then knowledge, then finally, desire for a product.
Try drip campaigns if you’re selling expensive goods or something complicated to use. For example, you might create emails highlighting a single product by writing about its benefits, uses, and maintenance in a series of emails. You can also send your customers informational emails regarding a product they might purchase. This could look like sending them information about the basics of using a dishwasher or how to maintain an espresso machine.
A series of non-transactional or promotional emails won’t bring instant results, but frequent communication builds awareness for your brand and makes your products more sought after. Building strong relationships with your customer takes time, yet it’s worth the effort.
Reward Campaigns
Rewarding emails will be best for repeat or high-spend customers. As consumers, we all like to receive appreciation or acknowledgment when we spend money on our favorite brands. As a merchant, you can appreciate your loyal followers by offering them discounts, coupon codes, free delivery, or gifts. Amazon’s email marketing tool allows easy communication with repeat or high-spend offers, meaning reward campaigns are more accessible than ever and can help boost your store’s customer satisfaction rate.
Improve Your Amazon’s Email Marketing Performance
As an Amazon business, it is exciting to see useful improvements being added to the website’s functionality. Yet, with all changes, it will take some time to get used to it. Consider the following tips and tricks as a starting point to begin increasing your email engagement, sales, and revenue.
1. Avoid Sending Useless Emails
This new marketing tool lets you send emails directly to Amazon customers. But you cannot see any data about them. According to Matt Day, “These sellers can’t see any data about customers, and that must be creating problems for them.” He added, “If 90% of your sales are on Amazon, you are flying blind, and a dumb seller is not good for Amazon.” That means sending useless emails wouldn’t be wise for your brand, your business, or your customers.
Before you send anything through this new email marketing tool, think about the effects. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and find out what they expect. You can send value-added emails that interest your customers to engage more customers and create a loyal base. In doing so, you set your customers up for success when they see your emails and get excited about your products or choose to support your brand.
2. Be Aware of Compliance
Even the greatest email campaign sometimes passes right by potential customers and lands in spam or trash folders. This can easily happen if you include spammy words, offers, or titles. There are also anti-spam laws and regulations you should be aware of. If your emails don’t comply with them, it can spell trouble for your business. After all, you’re spending hours on an email campaign to boost sales, not to have legal issues.
Fortunately, there are various Amazon marketing services available on the market today. These services can help you stay within regulations and ensure your marketing efforts reach the right audience.
3. Learn Copywriting
Have you ever thought about those beautiful e-commerce emails that drop into your inbox almost daily? Immediately interesting emails prompt you to read all the way to the end and leave you wondering why you haven’t already purchased whatever is being advertised. That entertaining, engaging, and informative language is the language of conversion, and it’s what gets results.
Learning the basics of email copywriting can help you write compelling copy that helps customers stay interested in what you have to say. Purpose-driven copywriting lets you present a clear message and maintain readers’ attention. A well-written and entertaining email is more likely to generate sales and conversions. As such, now is the time to learn copywriting techniques or use Amazon marketing services to generate the best results for your online store moving forward.
The recent addition of no-cost email is good news for all Amazon sellers. Now marketers can build relationships with their Amazon customers from the native platform, and there is no need to spend a pretty penny on expensive 3rd party platforms. Taking advantage of the many forms of email marketing while refining your process will ultimately allow your business to expand and help you establish connections with your growing audience.
