Аutomated emails convert 2.5 times more than bulk emails [ecommerce stats]

Coming up with an email marketing strategy for your online store is not fun, we know. Deciding what to do and what not to, judging what will work and what won’t is hard.

Do you need to email regularly?

What should you write?

Do you send mass emails or automate it somehow?

Let us help you. Our platform measures email effectiveness and conversion rates so we can tell you first-hand: automated emails convert 2.5 times better than mass emails.

Here are the major email metrics from our database for this year:

Note – Quick definitions:

mass email: bulk emails sent out to your whole email list. Not customized, general, appealing to a large audience without being provoked.

automated email: personalized emails sent out only when an email trigger action is performed. Customized, targeted, corresponding to an activity of the recipient.

So, this article explains why automated emails convert SO MUCH better (nearly 254%) than the mass emails and why you should, too, set up your own email automation to boost sales.

Reason 1: Frequency and timing

Automated emails are sent when a trigger event happens. This means these emails are less regular and the customer doesn’t feel spammed all the time.

On the contrary, the emails are reactive to something the customer did so they make sense and are well-received.

For example, they download a free ebook you have on your site. This indicates their interest in your topic so it’s a good idea to feed them more informational content. A short content drip is a good idea here.

Or a high-value customer places another order. That’s a great opportunity to say “thanks” with a voucher via an automated email.

Automated emails go at the pace of the customer, instead of pushing them to do things they’re not in the mood/ ready for. It shows respect for the customer’s shopping habits (like how often they can shop).

Also, automation means emailing customers who meet certain criteria is streamlined and no opportunities are missed. You don’t have to work on campaigns every day to get results.

Automated vs mass emails compared by timing:

• Justified and useful vs unexpected and often too general
• Right on time vs wasting resources while waiting for the right time
• Uses natural interest and buying intent vs trying to create one

Overall, the customer experience gets better because they don’t feel overwhelmed by your marketing messages.

Reason 2: Automated emails are more relevant

Since they’re tailored to customers’ actions and tastes, automated emails can deliver more appealing offers.

Think about a customer who only shops one of your product categories – let’s say, yoga gear.

They’re interested in that only and other promotions on the hiking range, for example, won’t convert them. That’s why one promotion for everyone will get you a much lower conversion rate.

Learn more about nurturing different customers with different emails

So no need to waste your time blasting irrelevant offers. Better, send them something special from your yoga products. They’ll love how useful and on spot your offers are – “Hey, they care what I like, they listen.”

Automated vs mass emails compared by relevancy:

• Customized vs generic
• Shows understanding and respect for customer vs indifference
• Uses information you already have vs trying to guess what will work

One of the smartest things a marketer can do is use what the target group is revealing about itself instead of forcing what she thinks they should buy. People give away so much in their actions on your site, it’s a gold mine of information about their tastes and buying decision.

Learn more about monitoring customer behavior

Reason 3: Email delivery issues

Many email providers have ranking systems in place to filter out real spammers and sometimes legit eCommerce businesses with lower sender reputation have issues with delivery, too.

Sender reputation is based on open rate, click rate, spam complaints, unsubscribe rate, and the number of emails sent.

This means that if you send too many emails and get low open and click rates (as you see happens with mass generic emails), your reputation won’t go up anytime soon.

Why is this a problem?

It traps you in a circle of inefficient email marketing because low reputation means your sending quota stays low. And so you can’t send too many emails per day.

So if you load your whole email list for a blast campaign, those emails might never be sent out. You surely don’t want to do that.

The solution?

Send smaller-batch, better-targeted emails to make sure they all get sent. And thanks to improved relevance and better timing, they’ll get higher open, click and conversion rates.

More about email delivery and sender reputation

How automation can help you send better newsletters

Newsletters are the most common mass email sent by online stores. If you want to send one to your email list, think again – and send more than 1!

With automated tagging, you can create different experiences for different types of subscribers and give them more value.

1. You can identify how varying interests your subscribers have by looking at their activity. Some download resources, others engage with social media, yet others only shop with coupons.

2.  Automating segmentation by these behaviors is easy. Most platforms have an option to apply a tag to a customer when they take a trigger action.
3.  This way, you end up with as many lists by interest as you want – “hungry for content”, “coupon lovers”, “potential referrers”, etc. Your newsletter segmentation is ready.
4.  Now, instead of sending a blast email with a low appeal, you can load up a few segments and send a few separate newsletters with great appeal.

See, automation is not the harder thing to do – it’s based on customer actions so it’s easier to come up with an offer. We actually believe it’s harder to find that one thing that will excite each and every one of your subscribers.

Do you use email automation? Tell us about it!