Cold outreach is more often than not viewed as spammy, and so is usually pushed to the side.
A “cold” email is a message that comes from an address that you have never been in contact with. And people are naturally skeptical of these.
Let’s cut straight to the chase. Can you rely on cold email outreach for eCommerce sales? No.
So what’s the point of this article? Here, I’ll share some tips on how you can make emails work for you, just not necessarily in a cold salesy-way.
In the world of regular consumers, people ignore 99% of the emails coming from somebody they don’t know. Personally, I have two personal email accounts and 5 work ones.
I never check or care about anything in my personal accounts – those exist simply so I can register and use certain software and services. And most people are exactly the same way. So if you’re selling clothes, trinkets, food, or anything consumer-oriented, you will have a hard time catching anyone’s attention through email.
Businesses, however, rely on emails as a way of professional communication to a huge degree. During work days, everyone checks their work emails at least once a day. So, if you’re selling business-oriented things like services, tools, or applications, cold emails might help you get quite a lot of extra sales.
The best thing about cold emails (and email marketing in general) is how little monetary investment you need to put into them.
And because of that, the return on investment is extremely high.
But one factor that turns most people away from cold emails is that on average, their success rate is only around 1-2%. This means that for every 100 emails sent, you may earn one sale/demo.
And it takes tons of time to send hundreds of emails.
Now, warm emails are a whole different story. A “warm” email is a message to someone you have already been in contact with, and they provided you with their contact information.
Warm emails work flawlessly for eCommerce. You may acquire people’s contact information in a number of ways:
Newsletters are considered warm emails too. If you haven’t set one up for your store yet, it’s well worth it.
In your newsletter, you can promote your latest product releases, sales, and even coupons to retain customers and encourage them to buy more from you.
One of the best ways to nudge someone to make a purchase is to keep track of which products your users are browsing. If they look at it, but don’t make a purchase, you can create a personalized message with a discount offer on that product.
I know I have made purchases because of these emails in the past!
If your store doesn’t really have a big enough reach yet, your warm email list might look a little short.
So, a good way to dip your toes into cold email marketing is to send out coupons and discounts to potential customers. In-store, using QR codes can help you obtain data and email IDs of interested customers for your warm emails. If you can get a hold of the contacts of your competitors’ customer base, one way that can lure them to you instead is if you send them offers with discounts.
This way, while still technically being cold emails, you can be sure that the people you’re emailing are interested in what you’re selling, because they have previously bought from your competitors.
But, tapping into their customer base will definitely be a challenge as it is not the type of data that’s readily available.
It can be easier to get for B2B brands, though.
Cold emails along with cold calling are not very effective in the world of B2C. So, what is the best strategy to secure eCommerce sales in 2022?
You should really invest the time and resources into building as good of a website for your store as possible.
After your store is done, invest in search engine optimization, and a blog. Ranking high in search results for your target keywords is the best and most sure-fire way to grow your eCommerce business.
