Shopify email marketing - how to set up a newsletter + the best email marketing apps for more sales

In e-commerce, email marketing is one of the best ways to increase customer loyalty and generate more sales. There is no alternative here, your Shopify store needs an email flow, otherwise you are throwing money away every day. That's why in this article I'll show you how to use automated emails to build up communication with your customers.

Shopify email marketing, what is it?

As the name suggests, Shopify email marketing involves all marketing measures related to the sending of emails. The most common method is a newsletter to which customers can subscribe. There are also various marketing automations that can be sent to customers depending on the situation. But more on that later, let's first clarify why you absolutely need an email list and automated emails.

What opportunities does email marketing offer you?

• An email list gives you direct contact with your audience independently of third-party providers such as Meta or Alphabet.

• You can communicate new products or interesting news with your customers.

• You can segment your customers and send personalized emails.  

• Automation saves you time and keeps you organized.

What are the advantages of Shopify email marketing?

• Increase in sales: You can increase your sales by addressing your target group in a targeted manner.

• High return on investment (ROI): ROI is particularly high with email marketing, making it an indispensable vehicle for success in e-commerce.

• Customer loyalty: Quality newsletters bind customers to your brand and get them excited about your products.

• Automation: Email flows allow you to automate the sending of the right emails; once set up, everything runs automatically.

• Measurability: For successful marketing, you need data, which is not always easy to obtain. With email marketing, however, it is. You can easily view the CTR and conversion rate.

Possibilities of email marketing automation

In addition to a newsletter, for example, which sends a new email every month to all customers who have subscribed to the list. There are various email automations that are sent based on different events. Here are my top seven email flows:

• #1 Welcome emails: This email goes out as soon as a customer has signed up for the newsletter. Here you can thank them for signing up and introduce your brand. You can also turn it into a welcome flow, in which case each subsequent email should increase the customer's loyalty to your brand.

• #2 Post-purchase flow: After the purchase, you can show your gratitude to the customer and signal to the buyer that you value them, which can increase loyalty.

• #3 Abandoned cart flow: Potential customers often add a product to their shopping cart because they want it. But then leave the Shopify store again. There can be several reasons for this; this flow allows you to contact precisely these people and bring the product back to their attention.

• #4 Abandoned checkout flow: Even shortly before checkout, customers keep bouncing. This is particularly annoying as it happens shortly before the conversion. You can use an email to remind users of the abandoned purchase and win back some of the abandoners.

• #5 Abandoned-Browse-Flow: You can go one step further and even address users who have looked at products but not added them to their shopping cart.

• #6 Review flow: The review flow is primarily about collecting more product reviews. These in turn have a direct influence on the trust of new customers. The option to leave a review directly in the email makes it easy for buyers to rate your products.

• #7 Winback flow: With this flow, you target customers who have not bought anything in your store for a long time. This may help you win them back and turn them into paying customers again. 

How to make your Shopify email marketing automation successful

Maybe you've already been annoyed by a newsletter yourself. I know it all too well. There is a fine line between a newsletter that convinces and a newsletter that is perceived as annoying advertising. So let's take a look at the best practices for successful email marketing campaigns.

• Frequency: Monthly, every 14 days or weekly are all acceptable frequencies for a newsletter. It can also vary depending on the target group. However, you should make sure that your automations do not overlap too much. If a customer receives a post-purchase mail, an abandoned brose mail, the regular newsletter mail and a review mail shortly afterwards at the same time, this can appear spammy.

• Personalization: Personalize your emails as much as possible. Addressing your customers personally by name makes them feel valued. Individual product suggestions can increase the conversion rate.

• Segmentation: Segmentation creates relevance, only relevant emails lead to the target. For example, you can segment demographically, geographically or based on behavior.

• Design: Of course, the design also plays a role; it should match your brand and look good on all devices.

• Testing: As with all marketing campaigns, you need to test and optimize again and again . Every aspect of your emails should be tested, fortunately it is very easy to set up A/B tests in email marketing.

The best email marketing tools for Shopify

If you want to start with email marketing for your Shopify Shop (and you do) then you have two options. Either you use Shopify Email, the in-house email marketing app, or you use external Shopify Marketing apps. Here is a brief overview:

Shopify Email

The email marketing solution offered by Shopify.

Advantages: A big advantage of Shopify Email is the seamless integration as a separate application directly in the backend. This allows you to create your email campaigns directly in the Shopify admin area without having to switch back and forth between different platforms. The user-friendliness is complemented by a selection of templates that automatically adopt your logo, your products and the color scheme of your store. This not only saves you valuable time, but also allows you to create, send and track the success of customized emails without any design knowledge. Another plus point: the emails are sent via your own domain, which not only strengthens your brand presence, but also reduces the likelihood of them ending up in your customers' spam folders.

Disadvantages: The segmentation options are not ideal and automation is unfortunately not feasible, which is particularly problematic for stores with a high number of email subscribers. In addition, the options for customizing the email design are quite limited.

Costs: You can send up to 2500 e-mails per month free of charge, after that you pay 1$ for 1000 more e-mails.

My conclusion: The user-friendly handling and the possibility to use the app for free are the advantages of Shopify Email. However, the application is kept very simple, and the lack of automation and limited segmentation options are less suitable for larger stores. For this reason, Shopify Email should only be considered as an entry-level solution. As soon as the store grows, however, you should switch to one of the other tools.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is probably the best-known email marketing tool and is fortunately now available in the Shopify App Store.

Advantages: One of the reasons for Mailchimp's popularity is that there are a total of four plans, one of which is free. Each plan is suitable for different requirements. Another factor is that the free plan offers functions that are also appealing to beginners with higher requirements, such as simple automation or detailed segmentation. The editor can also be used to customize and adapt the templates according to the modular principle.

Disadvantages: Although the free plan offers useful functions, paid subscriptions must be selected for additional features such as advanced automation or individual branding, which can quickly add up. In addition, the emails in the free plan contain an advertising banner.

Costs: The Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium plans are available. The free plan allows you to send up to 10,000 emails per month to a maximum of 2,000 subscribers. However, the costs for the paid plans depend on the number of contacts you have. For example, the monthly fee in the Essentials plan is $9.99 for 500 contacts, while it rises to $74.99 for 10,000 contacts.

My conclusion: Mailchimp offers all the functions required for successful email marketing from the Essentials plan upwards. The app remains easy to use. However, I cannot recommend the free plan. The advertising banner makes your emails look unprofessional 

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a widely used e-commerce tool for marketing automation. Email marketing is one of its main features.

Advantages: The focus on automation is Klaviyo's greatest strength. Customers receive precisely the tailored emails that suit them and their user behavior. One of the reasons why automation is so effective is that segmentation is extremely precise thanks to excellent synchronization. Merchants who use Shopify in particular benefit from the special functions that have been developed specifically for Shopify, such as unique discount codes, emails on re-availability and targeted pop-ups.

Disadvantages: The large number of functions unfortunately has a negative impact on user-friendliness. For inexperienced users or beginners, Klaviyo is quite complicated to use, which is why it is more suitable for experienced users. In addition, the functions are expensive; Klaviyo is more expensive than Mailchimp per email contact.

Costs: The prices depend on the number of contacts, for example 500 contacts cost 20$ per month.

My conclusion: The extensive possibilities make Klaviyo popular with experts. For amateurs, however, the tool is quickly overwhelming. Those who familiarize themselves with Klaviyo will increase their sales the most.

Conclusion

Shopify email marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase your sales. That's why at least the basic email flows for your store should be set up. Otherwise you are missing out on a lot of potential. However, getting the most out of email marketing requires some training and constant testing, which can take up a lot of resources. That's why it can make sense to work with a Shopify agency to work together. Depending on your requirements, we use Mailchimp or Klaviyo to create profitable email funnels and build long-term customer relationships.

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