Social commerce is booming! 💸

Essence of Email Weekly‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌ Essence of Email Weekly Read in Browser Essence of Email Weekly January 28, 2022 Hey everyone! We’re happy to announce that we released the latest version of our Essence of Email Quarterly report last Friday! We created the report as a way to look back on all eCommerce and email marketing events that happened in 2021, systematize them, and learn from them. We hope this report will inform you and point you towards where your marketing efforts need to be in 2022. In case you missed it, you can download your copy here . Happy reading! EMAIL MARKETING Email, SMS, and web push stats Source: Giphy The big picture: Apple’s update that affected email open rates, supply chain crisis, extended holiday shopping season, the focus on first-party data… Yes, we’re talking about 2021! Omnisend prepared its annual statistics report and analyzed email, SMS, and web push performance in the year behind. The numbers will help readers understand the importance of these channels and shape the strategy for 2022. Here are some key findings: Automated emails generated 29.6% of all email marketing orders but accounted for only 2.2% of email sends. As expected, the Apple update impacted open rates, causing an increase of 59% compared to the nine months before the update was released. The conversion rate for promotional email campaigns was 0.10%, which is a 14% YoY increase. 34% of recipients who click on an automated email go on and make a purchase, compared to 7% of campaign email clickers. Transactional emails continue to generate sales. Conversion rates for order confirmation and shipping confirmation messages increased 24% and 53% YoY, respectively. SMS continues to rock! Promotional campaign sends increased 75% YoY while automated sends increased 258%. SMS drove 106% more orders in 2021 than in 2020. Push messages generated 171% more orders compared to 2020. 28% of consumers who click on a push notification message go on to make a purchase. Main takeaways? The decrease for low shopping intent messages (such as a product review) and an increase for high intent messages (for example, abandoned cart) confirmed there is a continuing trend of intent-based shopping. Therefore, eCommerce brands should focus on flows with high customer intent, such as the Welcome flow and Cart, Browse, and Product Abandonment flows. In addition, they should use workflow splits to optimize automations by splitting emails based on the abandoned cart total or purchasers’ history. Finally, they should optimize transactional emails to include product recommendations and purchaser-only offers. Regarding SMS , brands are advised to grow SMS subscriber lists by asking for mobile numbers at the same time as email addresses. In addition, they can use SMS messages to drive increased awareness of promotions and for time-sensitive offers like flash sales. When it comes to push messages , brands should look to optimize them for clicks and include them in their omnichannel workflows, especially automations such as Cart Abandonment. Bearing in mind that nearly 30% of all clickers go on to make a purchase, brands who want to stand out should definitely implement a push messages strategy this year. For more details and stats, head to this page. EMAIL MARKETING Ready for Valentine’s Day? Source: Giphy Holidays are behind us, Christmas is done, and the stores are now decorated with pink and red hearts all over. Valentine’s Day is around the corner. Do you have your email strategy ready? Mailjet prepared some tips and tricks to help eCommerce brands use this occasion to strengthen the relationship with customers via email marketing. Here’s what they advise. Send a first email campaign before Valentine’s Day Warm your audience up before the actual holiday. They’ll probably appreciate the reminder that they need to start shopping. For this campaign, you can keep it simple and play with the expectations and excitement that come with the holiday. If you start by creating a tempting first email in this first promotional email, your customers might remember you and show more interest as the day approaches and you send the main offer. Segment your Valentine’s Day email marketing based on activity Segmentation matters! You can start your Valentine’s Day campaign with a general email about your upcoming sale to your main list. After this, send a campaign to the people that converted, and provide them with upselling or cross-selling opportunities. A/B test the subject lines Basically, you can A/B test any element of your Valentine’s Day campaign, be it a template, type of imagery, CTAs, etc. But if you feel like you’re short on time, this might seem a bit overwhelming. In that case, subject line testing is something that’s quicker and can easily be done. And if you test subject lines for your warm-up campaign, you can use the winning variant as a reference point for crafting a compelling subject line for your main offer. Leverage your order confirmation emails Transactional emails have consistently higher open rates than marketing emails. You can use them not only to inform people who make a purchase of their order status but also to offer items that match their previous purchase. It’s a great way to try and go for an upsell and make sure your customers are aware of all the awesome products you have to offer. To sum up: Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to play around with different strategies and figure out what works best for your audience. It’s also a great opportunity to show your subscribers how much you love them, so make sure to throw in some special offers just for them. For more details, check out Mailjet’s blog post. SOCIAL COMMERCE The social commerce boom Source: Giphy What’s it all about? Social commerce is the integration of social experiences and eCommerce transactions in a single path to purchase. Basically, it’s making a purchase via social media. As consumers spend more time on social media platforms for news, entertainment, and communication, it’s believed social commerce will become a bigger priority for brands and retailers in 2022. Zoom in: The global social commerce industry is expected to grow three times as fast as traditional eCommerce, from $492 billion in 2021 to $1.2 trillion by 2025, according to Accenture’s report . The highest number of global purchases will be in clothing (18%), consumer electronics (13%), and home decor (7%). Millennials and Gen Z-ers are expected to lead the growth and account for 62% of global social commerce spend by 2025. And this is not unexpected, considering that social media platforms, brands, and retailers are constantly making significant updates, integrations, and partnerships. In the press release, it is said that “The steady rise in time spent on social media reflects how essential these platforms are in our daily life. They’re reshaping how people buy and sell, which provides platforms and brands with new opportunities for user experiences and revenue streams.” Key social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc., are constantly rolling out new features and partnerships that seek to increase adoption by brands and consumers. But everything’s not that great: half of surveyed social media users are worried that purchases via social media won’t be protected or refunded properly. The distrust suggests that everyone involved still has some work to do in order to alleviate customer anxiety and capitalize on the interest in this kind of shopping. But eCommerce faced similar challenges back in the day when it started getting popular. Trust the process. All will be well. EMAIL DESIGN INSPO The top of the line Source: 99designs Yes, everyone likes to see a nice-flowing email, but yes, compartmentalized emails are becoming a thing in 2022! This new trend uses black lines to create boxes or grids. The final result is a retro email that’s also neat and easy to scan and read. Such emails can be either asymmetrical or neatly organized. Above, you can see the perfect example of the latter. The Hustle crafted this simple, yet very attractive email with compartments created by thin black lines. Ok, we admit it, they also crushed it with the hero image. The ultimate example that more is less! Source: 99designs EMAIL MARKETING SERVICES BOOK A CALL Copyright © 2022 Essence of Email Essence of Email, 26310 Bolton Trails Ln, Katy, Texas 77494, United States Unsubscribe