An example from our practice: a healthy food store generated an important part of its sales with email, by its own data. They sent messages regularly every week; each had introductory content, a recipe and a promotion.
Two key advantages of email marketing for the store:
- Cost-effective advertising and informing customers: This is mainly because most mass email marketing tools charge based on the number of email addresses in the database.
- Analytics - precise measurement of response: Tracking various statistics and the success of executed actions enables easier planning of future campaigns.
The addresses were collected through three methods:
- Free e-book with healthy recipes.
- Online contests.
- Newsletter sign-ups on the website's entry page.
Five key features of effective and sales-oriented emails that have been proven to work:
1. Grab attention with the subject: The number of people who will open the email depends on the subject. It is crucial that the subject arouses curiosity. Do not use the open rate as a measure of success: Apple Mail Privacy Protection (since 2021) automatically "opens" part of the messages, so the open rate is inflated. Measure clicks, revenue per message, the unsubscribe rate and spam complaints.
2. Sender must be familiar: Always send email messages under your name (for example, Nastja, Nastja Kramer, or Malinca Nastja) and using your email address.
3. Relevant content: The content should relate to the topics you deal with. The email messages from the store always cover three things: introductory content (news, a short article about healthy eating or a specific food, a question for readers, personal testimony/experience, etc.), a healthy recipe, and a sales promotion.
4. Personal approach and personalization: Communication should be on a friendly level. In the store mentioned in the example, readers are addressed informally, and their names are used in email messages. They are often asked for their opinions on recipes, new projects, their thoughts on a specific food or product, thereby directly involving them in brand building.
5. Light format. This store's messages were simple, with few images and short lines; tests showed that this format brought them more clicks. Test both - a simple and a richer message - and compare clicks and sales. Always give images alt text.
Frequently asked questions
With content that reflects the values and interests of the target group. For healthy food, these are recipes, healthy living tips, stories about product origins, and seasonal offers. The email should be enjoyable reading, not just an advertisement.
Newsletter with recipes and tips (builds trust), seasonal offer (promotion at season change), abandoned cart email, loyalty email for regular customers, and a subscription (regular delivery package of products).
By segmenting the list based on past purchases (vegan product vs. meat) or a questionnaire at signup. Klaviyo and similar tools enable dynamic content - the same email template displays different content to different segments.
Well before the season (2-4 weeks), to be among the first in the customer's mind. For food products, key times are season transitions, holidays, and calendar dates (Valentine's Day, start of school year, summer). Prepare the timing plan at the start of the year.
With clicks, conversion (purchases from email), revenue per message, and the value of orders from the email channel. Specifically for the food industry, we track seasonal fluctuations and the effectiveness of recipe emails (reading time, clicking on the recipe).
My name is Anže, I am a certified Magento solution expert and the maker of several award-winning online stores. I am the architect of all Degriz projects.
Write to me →
Reading
