January Sales 2017: Increase your Conversion Rate with Email Campaigns

The Christmas holidays have just ended and it is now time to prepare for the winter sales. Throughout the whole of January, we enter an intense period of markdowns. Are you ready?

January sales remains an important period in terms of turnover. To make the most of it, and to satisfy increasingly demanding consumers, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to optimise your January sales email campaigns.

Prepare in advance, and opt for personalisation

The most important part of setting up an effective email campaign is to anticipate the event well in advance. To do this, you can set up a content calendar that will serve as a reminder for what to schedule and when, to allow you to send the right message at the right time. To be even more precise with your scheduling, you can develop a workflow. This allows you to define your mailing schedule according to different outcomes of a customer’s shopping process. You can prepare for several scenarios according to the reactions of your clients, and set up emails that address these scenarios. For example, if a product is out of stock, you can send your customer a discount code, and if they’ve abandoned their basket, you can send them a reminder email. According to Nchannel, 54% of shoppers will purchase products left in shopping carts, if those products are offered at a lower price.

In both cases, emails are intended to keep the shopper in the buying frame of mind, and encourage them to complete their purchase.

Customisation is key – you should target your customers as if you are addressing them all individually. This requires you to qualify your customer database and then subdivide it according to the variables you want, e.g location, browsing history, shopping trends, etc. The aim is to send content and promotions that correlate with the your customers interests. For example, a sale on activewear for those that have bought or browsed sporting goods or apparel.
It’s worth noting that personalised email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10% . Predictive marketing solutions such as Boomtrain allow you to analyse purchase history and buying behavior, and therefore help you recommend the right products to your customers.

Focus on interactivity and stand out from the crowd

During the sales period, your customers are going to be bombarded by promotional offers, so it is essential to stand out to catch their attention. It’s therefore a good idea to go beyond the traditional email. Interactive campaigns are a great way to engage your customers and encourage them to buy. 
For example, you can show best selling products in the email, as if the reader is already shopping. So directly from the email, the customer selects the item that they like and their size, and then they are redirected to the site where they can finalise their order.
Accordians are also a good way of keeping your customers engaged. By swiping their mouse, readers can open a new part of the email. This formatting solution allows you to organise your content into several sections, and the customer is free to consult only those that interest them.

Also, it’s important to show clear information about the different payment methods available, as well as delivery and returns, and click and collect services. Click and collect has grown to be very popular in the UK – last year it was found that 3 in 4 online shoppers in the UK have used click and collect services. The convenience of being able to pick up shopping at a time and place that suits you is clearly something that Brits hold to be very important, so if you offer click and collect services, make sure you mention this in your email campaigns!

Optimise for mobile

Nowadays, around 53% of emails are opened on a mobile device. It is therefore essential to show your emails in the correct format – 89% of email marketers are losing leads and opportunities because they’re not optimising their emails. 

There are a few important things to remember when it comes to optimising your emails for mobile. Firstly, make sure your files aren’t too large, so that they download fast. It’s also essential that your images fit to the size of a smartphone/tablet screen, so that the design is neat and easy to see. Another important thing to remember is that people will be clicking on CTAs with their thumbs, which is harder to do accurately than with a mouse. Make sure that your CTA buttons are therefore big, and spaced out from any other links, to make it easy for the user to follow them without clicking on the wrong thing and causing frustration.

See also: January Sales 2017: The Perfect Time to Start Using Affiliate Platforms