How to Engage Your apparel Audience with an Email Newsletter

How to Engage Your apparel Audience with an Email Newsletter

There are many ways to engage with your apparel web store’s audience, from sharing content on your social media channels to creating your own compelling website content. You’re likely already doing these things, but are you missing one of the other very useful and engaging marketing tactics? 

Email newsletters are a great avenue for fashion eCommerce brands to keep their customers engaged and informed without waiting for them to come to their website or social media channels. Newsletters help brands stay top of mind, establish authority and, of course, notify readers about new or interesting products and promotions. 

However, despite all of these useful qualities, email newsletters can sometimes be overlooked because they can seem like a lot of work, or that they’re hard to get right. But like any kind of marketing, there are tactics you can follow and metrics you can use for measuring your success, including the number of subscribers, open rates and click-through rates.

Use your brand voice and keep it consistent

The best fashion eCommerce newsletters are imbued with the brand’s voice, which is then maintained and developed over time. Some brands find value in letting other staffers take over their newsletter temporarily (similar to an Instagram takeover), but regardless of who writes it, your newsletter should keep a consistent tone.

Athleisure brand Entireworld has a great newsletter that is fun, casual and inviting. Their welcome email is filled with original GIFs, funny copy and even a video of their founder. Importantly, the newsletter stays true to the tongue-in-cheek tone they’ve established across their website and social media.

Devise a content strategy and schedule

Instead of cramming all types of content into the one email, keep it simple by focusing on one topic or kind of content per email. Establish a schedule with different content focuses for different days of the week or month, allocating promotional emails to certain days and informative/educational emails to other days. You want to avoid overwhelming your readers with too much content all at once, which could send them clicking elsewhere.

Once you’ve decided on your schedule, stick to it, whether it’s weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. This will benefit your brand in a number of ways. It will create a sense of urgency and expectation for your latest release, help you maintain top-of-mind status with your audience, and avoid the spam folder. (On that note, be clear on your newsletter sign-up page about when and how often your subscribers can expect to hear from you.)

Be informational as well as sales-driven

Your email newsletter is a valuable sales-driving tool, but it should also offer content that adds to your brand and engages your audience on an informative or entertaining level. Marketo suggests a balance of 90/10: 90% information, 10% sales material. This is because consumers get tired of constantly being told to “buy buy buy.” Customers want to also learn how to style apparel and accessories, how they’re made, and who else wears and enjoys them.

Aim to strike a balance, with the idea that less is more when it comes to hard selling. You’ll likely see your informative content compelling people to click and buy. Use one main, clear call to action to direct readers to check out your latest products, promotion or content on your website.

Feature unique content

Unique content can be a strong impetus for subscribers to sign up, so try including special newsletter-only content such as backstories on designs and the inspirations behind them, or behind-the-scenes content such as outtakes from photo shoots. Be sure to include alt text on your images, as not all people enable images in their emails, and therefore they might not see what the image is. This is particularly important if your CTA is in your image.

Service-style content or advice can also be greatly appreciated by subscribers, for example, styling advice, garment care advice, or information on how to increase longevity of products made with special materials. This kind of useful content can help your brand become a trusted source of information, beyond simply a source of clothing.

Include newsletter-only offers

There are still a lot of people who don’t care about unique content, and just want deals. Newsletter-only offers are a great way to build your brand’s email list and entice people to sign up and then keep opening your emails—just be sure to mention them in your subject lines! When word gets out about these special offers (either from you or your subscribers) others will also be encouraged to sign up.

Special offers could include first looks at new collections, first dibs on sales, and subscriber-only sales or discount codes. You could also feature special competitions with unique rewards, only for subscribers. However great your offers may be, there will always be some people who want to unsubscribe for whatever reason, so be sure to make it easy for them to do so. Again, don’t risk getting sent to the spam folder!

Establish a connection with your audience

Customers who have a strong attachment to a company spend 23% more than average consumers who don’t have that attachment. That’s why it’s important to nurture your customers with this special content that connects with them and reminds them why they follow your brand and signed up for your email newsletter.

Inboxes are more personal terrain than your website or social media, so you should feel free to talk to your audience more personally in your newsletters. Bring personality and connectivity to your brand through playful and engaging content. This will help you establish longevity with your customers.

Reformation does this well with their eye-catching imagery, lively copy, and by featuring their followers in a special section of their newsletter, called “You guys being wild in Ref.” This includes photos that customers have posted to social media of themselves wearing items by the brand, and further encourages and deepens that valuable sense of community.

Conclusion

Our marketing team works with a range of fashion and apparel clients on a regular basis to help improve and optimize their eCommerce email marketing campaigns. Want help developing and distributing your brand’s email newsletter? Contact us for strategy consulting and support with technical integration and execution.

Get in Touch

Connect with one of our experts today to discuss your eCommerce needs!

Contact Us
Four Pop-ups Your Fashion Webstore Must Deploy

Four Pop-ups Your Fashion Webstore Must Deploy

Pop-ups get a bad rap, but that’s when they’re overwhelming, unhelpful and irrelevant. Those kinds of pop-ups can cost you customers, as they get frustrated by the interruptions and invasive shopping experience and swiftly leave your web store. What’s more, Google can also punish your site if it’s deemed to provide a poor user experience by displaying pop-ups that cover up crucial information, or arrive too quickly. 

However, when they’re used correctly, pop-ups can be very beneficial, helping to grow your audience, drive sales, improve your customer experience and guide the customer journey. According to BigCommerce, the 10% highest-performing pop-ups have a conversion rate of 9.28% on average. That proves there’s a lot of value to be found in the humble pop-up. 

If your fashion web store isn’t using any pop-ups, now is the time to get started. Here are four kinds of pop-ups, with examples of how you can utilize them on your apparel eCommerce website.

Greet your customers & grow your email list

A pop-up upon first visit to your homepage is a great way to greet your new visitors and make them feel welcome. Think of it like how you greet customers in your physical retail store: providing a warm welcome into your space. When this kind of pop-up is combined with a newsletter sign-up CTA and a discount, it can be an excellent method for growing your email list (which might otherwise languish in the footer of your homepage).

Pop-ups that offer a tangible financial incentive perform well, as they often prove irresistible to shoppers. Often they read something like this: “Welcome! Subscribe to our email newsletter and receive 10% off,” or “Stay in the know and receive 15% off your first order.” Even if you don’t offer a specific discount, it can be beneficial to mention that an offer will be available in the future for those who enter their email address. Aerie opts for this approach, with the following message: “SIGN UP FOR EMAIL! Get an exclusive offer when you sign up, plus insider access to even more offers, new arrivals, style tips and more.”

Discounts for first-time buyers have become de rigueur in fashion eCommerce—to the point where brands now stand out if they don’t serve pop-ups featuring some form of this offer, according to the website Glossy, so it’s wise to try it as part of your marketing. And if you’re concerned about coming off as aggressive or potentially overwhelming your prospective customer, you could try an extended timed pop-up that appears only after the visitor has been scrolling or had the website open for a number of minutes.

Drive sales

While the above “welcome” style of pop-up certainly helps to drive sales, there are more direct approaches that your apparel eCommerce brand can take, if that is your top priority. One way that pop-ups can drive conversions is by announcing a sale starting at a certain time, using an animated ticking clock or a countdown to build excitement and provide a compelling visual representation. Uniqlo has an interactive pop-up that presents the opportunity to obtain one of three types of discounts, with the CTA inviting visitors to “Spin to reveal your offer.”

Another tactic is to share a special discount code that’s available for a limited time only or that’s available only on certain popular products. For example: “Save up to 50%, today only,” with a CTA that takes them to a unique sales page.

To achieve even more success with these pop-ups, use personalization to speak to the visitor in a compelling way. Acknowledge and welcome first-time visitors and provide a concise introduction to your brand; and welcome back returning customers and encourage them to check out your newest offerings that have been added since their last visit. Regardless of whether you want to steer them toward hero pieces or new collections, ensure you have a clear CTA that compels them to click. And when you do so, use micro copy below the CTA to tell users what will happen when they click the button. For example: “Clicking ‘yes’ will open another page.”

Improve your customer experience

Sometimes your sales are ticking along nicely and you want to ensure it stays that way. Nurturing your community of customers can take many forms, from customer service to social media and email marketing, but it can also take place in pop-ups.

On your website, install pop-ups that are helpful, educational and supportive. One tactic for achieving this objective is to provide timely and relevant information, or offer personalized help for shoppers who may have questions but not a burning desire to initiate contact with customer service. A simple, friendly and polite pop-up that reminds customers of your store’s extensive size chart, FAQ and/or virtual assistance can go a long way in increasing their trust in you and your products, and build credibility. Meaning, they’ll recommend you to their friends.

The copy should be simple, cheerful and helpful, for example: “Need help with sizes or styles? Chat with a stylist!” or, “Wondering about how to style this look? Talk to a stylist!” or even more simply: “Talk to a stylist.” This could be accompanied by a CTA button that launches a chatbox with one of your customer service and styling associates, or directs visitors to another page in order to connect.

This kind of pop-up works best when it’s delivered as a delayed pop-up, after the visitor has been on a product page for a while. Perhaps they have selected a size and color option of the product, but not added the item to their cart yet. In this case your pop-up would also work toward combating exit intent and cart abandonment.

Guide the customer journey

This form of pop-up is perhaps the most innocuous of all, but no less important. Simple pop-ups that occur when a visitor adds an item to their cart may seem standard and uncontroversial, but they are still worthy of calling out for the crucial UX function they perform. “Added to cart,” “Edit cart,” or “Checkout now” pop-ups all serve to show your visitor that their action was completed and that they are progressing through their shopping journey. Like the “sign up and get a discount” pop-ups, they are very commonplace, yet if your store goes without them it runs the risk of standing out for the wrong reason.

Make your customer’s journey clear and straightforward. Show them their cart’s status, including the number of items and total dollar amount, to allow them to continue shopping without having to leave the page to check their cart’s status. You could add “Continue browsing” to this pop-up message for that purpose. And most importantly, for these and any other kind of pop-ups you install, make sure they work on mobile, as this is how most of your customers are visiting you.

Conclusion

It should be noted that all of these points are subjective, and different websites have different needs and styles. For best results, you should always A/B test to find out what works best for your brand. But generally speaking, pop-ups have become everyday tricks for the vast majority of savvy eCommerce websites, so your web store could likely benefit from utilizing at least one of the above kinds of pop-ups.

InteractOne works with a number of fashion and apparel eCommerce brands to build pop-ups into their websites, with amazing results. If you’d like assistance  with building pop-ups into your website, set up a time to talk with us about how we can help you.

Get in Touch

Connect with one of our experts today to discuss your eCommerce needs!

Contact Us
A Robust User Review Platform Is the Key to Promoting Your eCommerce Store

A Robust User Review Platform Is the Key to Promoting Your eCommerce Store

Turn Your Customers into Your Multimedia Team with User Reviews, Product Photos, and Videos

User reviews are paramount in the world of eCommerce, both on-site and off-site. Just consider the statistics: 95% of shoppers read product reviews while they’re browsing your store, and 72% of your customers won’t make a purchase if they can’t find any reviews of a product you offer.

And that’s only considering  the brand lift and product authority that user reviews bring to your site. There are also a myriad of additional benefits that come along with a robust user review platform, from search engine optimization improvements, to free on-site multimedia content. In this blog we’ll show you how to turn customers into your own personal multimedia team and how to optimize their content.

User-Generated Reviews Equal Free SEO

Every user review posted on your site is essentially a miniature blog post or product article in the eyes of Google. While public reviews aren’t generally featured high in SERPs with as much authority as an actual, professionally-written product blog or article, they do bring some additional SEO benefits to table.

If you do a bit of keyword research, you’re bound to find that some of the most popular search phrases for the majority of your products are from users searching for reviews directly on Google. I.e. a large subset of shoppers are searching for your product keywords with included long-tail phrases like “user reviews”, “product rating” or “comparison”.

A well-populated user review platform on your site functions as a self-sustaining SEO tactic for targeting such traffic organically.

The More Photos and Videos, the Better

Quality multimedia content does wonders for your eCommerce store, both in terms of user experience and SEO. Users want to see their products in every optional color and configuration, from every angle, in every type of lighting. Moreover, they want to see real-world pictures and videos of their products beyond the generic stock media they can find on the manufacturers’ (and your competitors’) sites.

Beyond what your customers want to see on-site, product images and videos should be an integral part of your off-site content strategy. What’s the first thing a huge percentage of your shoppers do when they come across a product they like? They swipe over to Google Images and go browsing for additional product media. When that happens, you want your product pages to be the click-through for as many of the top Images results as possible.

Ideally, you’d be able to publish a multimedia showcase for every one of your products with unique, high-quality photos and videos. Unfortunately that’s not practical unless your store only offers a handful of boutique products.

So instead, you can utilize your customers and turn them into your guerilla multimedia team. Offer them deals and incentives for posting reviews with pictures and videos, hold “photo of the day” contests on social media for some of your most popular products. If you are going to go down this route, we recommend working with a marketing firm that has experience handling interactive engagements. The web isn’t the wild west anymore. There are legal restrictions around what you can ask of and reward your customers with. Please consult an experienced team to prevent potential public legal nightmares.

How to Generate More Reviews

Follow up After Your Customers Make a Purchase

Obviously your store should be sending follow-up emails to paying customers, asking if they are satisfied with their purchase and offering customer service. That’s one of the first steps to customer retention. Those follow-up emails should also include a way for customers to leave a review as easily as possible.

Include a custom form in your post-purchase auto-responder emails that allows users to write and submit a review straight from their email apps. You want to eliminate as many pain points as possible between the user sharing their thoughts and submitting them in the form of a review.

Your review form should also include a built-in file uploader for product photos and videos. The photos and videos they upload, combined with the generally keyword-rich written content of their reviews, will amp up your on-page SEO every time a user hits “submit”.

Offer Deals and Incentives

Streamlining the product review process is great and all, but you’ll still find that most of your customers simply can’t be bothered to spend the time. That’s why you have to sweeten the pot by offering discount codes and coupons. You can even make your customers feel like they’re getting paid directly for their reviews by offering a small gift card.

As an added bonus, slipping small discounts and gift cards into your customers’ inboxes is a strategy that can more than pay for itself via increased customer retention. With the free SEO content you receive out of the deal, it’s also essentially the cheapest content creation strategy that your marketing money can buy.

Respond Publicly and Productively to User Reviews 

Finally, give your store a trustworthy voice by responding to your customers’ reviews. Never leave a negative review unattended. Respond professionally to every negative review and address all of the user’s concerns.

Offer to resolve the issue as generously as possible. Remember – you’re not just writing to one customer, you’re writing to every future customer who browses your store. You want those customers to know they can rely on your products and your customer service.

Additionally, respond to positive reviews periodically. Congratulate customers on their purchases, say you’re happy to hear they’re enjoying their products, and always offer an easy way for them to get in contact. It’s another easy way to increase the likelihood of customer retention while publicly exemplifying your store’s proactive customer service department.

User Reviews Are a Major Rung on the Ladder to On-Site Authority

Building a robust user review platform is a long-term strategy that will help establish your eCommerce store as an authority in your niche. If you’re looking for additional ways to grow your on-site review platform organically, or you’re looking for some more advanced tools to manage and streamline the whole process, get in touch with the experts at InteractOne.

Get in Touch

Connect with one of our experts today to discuss your eCommerce needs!

Contact Us
How to Create Amazing Browse Abandonment Emails

How to Create Amazing Browse Abandonment Emails

Most users come and go when they visit your website. As a webstore, you may notice them checking out different landing pages, products or information, or you may even witness them adding items to their cart and then abandoning. Once they leave your site or their cart, it is not the end. They are not forever lost to the ages. You have the tools to reconnect with these customers and bring them back to complete a purchase. We’ve already discussed the ins and outs of cart abandonment emails, but now we are diving into a topic not as well known — browse abandonment emails. 

What is Browse Abandonment?

Browse abandonment is where a customer visits your site, views different landing pages and products, but ultimately doesn’t add anything to their cart or make a purchase. These users end up leaving the site. 92% of consumers who visit a site do not purchase on their first visit. Abandoning your webstore isn’t the end. You can bring them back by implementing a series of browse abandonment emails that will help remind them of who you are and the products they viewed. But before sending off these emails and reconnecting with visitors, you first must collect the visitor’s email address. Without their email address, you have no way to track their actions on-site or add them to an email list. There are many ways for users to input their email (pop-ups, creating an account, etc.) as well as CTA tracking, but that is perhaps another topic for its own blog. For now, we’re going to assume that you have the email addresses of the browse abandonment customers we will be discussing.

Know Your Audience

Before sending off browse abandonment emails, you must know your audience. Knowing your audience is the first step in creating anything for your webstore. If you do not know your audience, how are you going to market or sell to them? When it comes to browse abandonment emails, you do not want to send these emails to everyone on your subscriber list. This action would feel inauthentic and confuse many viewers. You wouldn’t want to get an email about your ‘recent website browse’ if you hadn’t visited the website in months, would you? Consumers such as people who have never purchased, loyal customers, one-time purchasers, shoppers who show interest in a specific product or users who viewed a particular item are perfect candidates for browse abandonment emails.

Implement a Series of Emails

Sometimes one email isn’t enough to persuade shoppers to come back to make a purchase, but sending a second reminder can encourage shoppers to return. And, a third follow up would be advisable but you do not want to bombard your customers’ inbox. So, depending on your brand, there is no set number of emails that you should send out. For years companies practiced typically sending only two browse abandonment emails. But each brand and its audience is different. If you want the best number of emails, you need to A/B test this email campaign to see how many people open more than two reminder emails. If you do decide to stick with only two, send the first one 2 hours after they left and the second one 24 hours after abandonment. And again, you can A/B test the times you send out these emails to match your customers’ behaviors.

Use the Appropriate  Subject Lines

Subject lines are the first element people see before they open any email. These lines persuade customers to open it. Subject lines are typically eye-catching, a hint of what is in the email, short, include a sense of urgency and persuasive. Just like any other email, you want to use the right subject lines on your browse abandonment emails. 

Subject lines that get over 52.79% open rate are:

Did you see something you like?

We saw you checking us out

Recommended just for you

Typically subject lines that are 40 characters or less do better than ones that have more characters. You can add emojis (only one or two) as well to add some fun and personalization.

Personalize the Emails

70% of shoppers prefer personalized emails over emails sent to all subscribers. Consumers like it when companies take that extra step of adding elements that they would enjoy. It also helps the brand feel more authentic to them. Essentially, they want to know if the person behind the emails they receive cares about what they want and what they think. Browse abandonment emails are the perfect opportunity to include a personalized experience. While creating your browse abandonment email campaign, include the items they viewed, similar products and their name (This can be done by dropping tracking Cookies on their computer while browsing). Also, remember to keep these emails on-brand as well. You want customers to recognize your company even through personalized emails.

Keep it Simple

Just like cart abandonment emails, you want to keep your browse abandonment emails simple and straight to the point. You do not need to include additional information like promotions, sale items, other brands, store news and other information. Don’t include cross-selling messaging. Instead, keep it to the point of reminding them of what they are missing out on. These emails need to have a catchy headline, images of the products they viewed or similar items, a call to action and possibly a discount code. A discount code is not necessary but does entice customers to shop before the offer goes away. 

Target does an excellent job of keeping their browse abandonment emails straight to the point with a catchy headline and call to action while upselling at the same time:

Upsell

Never miss out on the opportunity to sell even more products. You do not need to only have the items they viewed on these emails. Browse abandonment emails are the perfect opportunity to upsell other products on your site. Upselling will also help when you are sending these emails to new or potential customers who do not necessarily know everything you sell. You can show items that complete an outfit, similar products and items with similar price points.

Every webstore needs to send out browse abandonment emails. There are even more tips and ideas when it comes to creating these types of emails. The best way to know what is right for your company is to work with a knowledgeable marketing team that understands all the moving parts and technical assistance that comes with creating browse abandonment emails. If you are ready to improve your webstore, social media, email campaigns and more, send Interactone a message today.

Get in Touch

Connect with one of our experts today to discuss your eCommerce needs!

Contact Us
Grow Your Automotive eCommerce Through Community Building

Grow Your Automotive eCommerce Through Community Building

Increase Your Sales, Customer Retention, SEO, and Brand Loyalty with On-Site Social Platforming.

Bringing shoppers through the virtual doors of your automotive web store is one thing; turning your traffic into paying, repeat customers is far more than half the battle.

Creating an actively engaged community within and around your web store ensures that you have a steady base of users signing on to browse your products month after month. More importantly, an active digital community holistically optimizes your website for eCommerce by improving your brand authority, customer loyalty, SEO, and social networking outreach.

The Importance of User Engagment 

In the world of eCommerce, increased user engagement translates to increased sales conversions. Essentially, every second that a user spends browsing your website is another opportunity to convert them into a paying customer.

Populate your site with unique content to engage with, integrate some social media features so users can socialize while they browse, then sit back and watch your time-on-site stats climb.

Just as important as the increase in average user on-site time are, the branding benefits you’ll enjoy when you integrate engaging content with social platforming. Quality content makes your site an authority figure on a given automotive niche, while social platforming makes your store the virtual garage in which all your gearhead customers hang out and talk shop.

Establishing a Dialogue with Your Shoppers

Content is meant to be commented on, and social platforming was intended to be a two-way street. 

Take an active role in responding to user comments, questions, and reviews. When users write comments on your blogs and social media posts, jump into the conversation. When they post pictures of their cars and components, comment back and compliment their rides. Doing so personifies your store as an active member of the car enthusiast community, which will do wonders for your branding efforts.

Most importantly, when users post product questions or unsatisfactory reviews, respond professionally with an informative post that addresses all of their concerns. If one user has a product question or negative experience, chances are that other users are concerned with the same issues.

Public comments from your store not only address the specific shopper you’re responding to, they address the unwritten concerns of every shopper who lands on that product page.

How to Build a Community Around Your Automotive Aftermarket Shop

  • Comments and Commentary Everywhere 

Bring your product pages to life with prominent sections for user comments, product questions, and reviews. You want to separate yourself from the myriad of aftermarket shops that feature generic car parts with only a spec listing and stock photo.

Your product pages will become authoritative, with written posts addressing the most common product questions and concerns. All of that quality content will be supplemented by an abundance of user-generated content related to the product.

Google will reward your efforts with improved SEO rankings. Shoppers who land on the page will be more likely to stay on-site and convert into sales.

  • Create a Blog and Integrate It

A site blog can be the centerpiece of your brand and webstore. It’s a hub where all of the best content you post across the web is aggregated. For your shoppers, it’s the water cooler they gather around whenever they sign on to shop for car parts.

An effective eCommerce blog will have a mix of content. Tech articles related to the automotive niches you serve are a great way to showcase your products while adding to your on-site SEO. Insider updates about your shop are a great way to establish a more personal connection between your brand and customers.

Recurring content series such as a shop project car, real-world automotive event coverage, or a product comparison series are all great ways to keep your shoppers tuning back in.

  • Tune Your Shoppers in on YouTube 

YouTube is an especially useful marketing tool when it comes to automotive aftermarket retailers. Whether you’re selling ceramic wax spray or performance exhaust headers, shoppers want to see (and often hear) their aftermarket accessories in action, ideally showcased on the same make and model of vehicle that they drive.

Whether you build a full-blown channel to make your automotive shop famous or you simply use YouTube as a glorified hosting platform, it’s an invaluable tool for creating product videos to showcase on your blog and landing pages. After all, 72% of shoppers prefer learning about products through videos as opposed to written content.

  • Use Social Media as a Megaphone 

Cross-post your content to all of your social media channels. A steady stream of posts will significantly increase your social media outreach over time, and every post is essentially free advertising for your store. Additionally, every social media post is an opportunity to interact with your shoppers in the comment threads. Doing so consistently will further improve your brand awareness and authority.

  • Engage and Interact 

As mentioned above, meaningful customer engagement and interaction are paramount. From the little questions that shoppers post on low-traffic product pages to the headline content you showcase on your blog and social media pages, be pervasive with your user engagement. Treat every comment or reply that you write like a unique piece of professional content capable of adding to your overall branding and marketing strategy – because it is.

Conclusion

Creating a user-driven community around your website won’t happen over night. You have to integrate the framework into your overall content strategy, then grow your on-site community over time alongside your blog and social media channels.

However, once you do have a vital community integrated around your web store, you’ll have a long-term sustainable platform to amp up your marketing ROI. You’ll also have a reliable customer base clicking through your content (and checkout lanes) every day.

Of course, if you ever need help turbocharging any stage of the automotive eCommerce process, get in touch with InteractOne and let’s talk shop.

Get in Touch

Connect with one of our experts today to discuss your eCommerce needs!

Contact Us