According to Statista, there were 361.6 billion emails sent in 2024, and that number is projected to reach more than 400 billion in 2027. But why??? Email marketing is an incredibly useful marketing tool in business. According to Indeed, email messages can “save time, offer guidance, show competency, and establish a relationship for a person or a business.” However, there’s no doubt about it – with all the noise out there, it’s important for your email to stand out. In this blog, we’re going to uncover the top email marketing best practices, tailored to Amazon sellers, so you can use these tips to improve your email marketing efforts and grab that ROI you need.
It’s worth mentioning that Amazon’s pretty strict with communications. They frown upon any communication that directs customers off Amazon, and prefer that you check Amazon messages through their buyer-seller messaging platform. However, should you manage to find a way to implement email engagement, whether through social, your Shopify site, product inserts, and more, then it’s a good idea to implement these best practices for email marketing.
That way, your message gets through to the customer, and you can embark on a campaign to improve brand loyalty.
If you’re selling globally, it’s incredibly important to localize your emails, so you comply with regulations and appeal to cultural sensitivities and ways of communicating all over the planet.
Shall we get started? Read on for the important email marketing best practices to implement in your eCommerce business in 3, 2, 1…
Section 1: Understanding Amazon’s TOS for Email Marketing
Jungle Scout produced a really helpful guide on Amazon’s terms of service.
Here’s what it says about emails:
“Any attempt to circumvent the established Amazon sales process or to divert Amazon users to another website or sales process is prohibited. Specifically, any advertisements, marketing messages (special offers), or “calls to action” that lead, prompt, or encourage Amazon users to leave the Amazon website are prohibited. This may include the use of email or the inclusion of hyperlinks, URLs, or web addresses within any seller generated confirmation email messages or any product/listing description fields.”
You’ll even find several Reddit threads of annoyed customers and Vine reviewers who’ve been contacted by sellers through their private emails – a clear abuse of email communications.
But here’s where it gets murky. One of the popular marketing tactics employed by sellers, which isn’t technically anti-TOS, is to use product inserts to direct customers to a page where they can get warranties, free gifts, coupons, etc. – as long as you don’t posit these giveaways as a “prize” for a review (even a neutral one). This is because Amazon doesn’t want customers to feel like they’re being incentivized or manipulated into leaving a review (even a negative one).
Many sellers do this and Amazon doesn’t seem to mind, especially if the link pertains to a helpful eBook, a warranty, and so on. Here’s where you can request for an email address from the customer. Again, as long as the link leads to information that helps buyers amplify their use of your product, Amazon doesn’t seem to mind.
With that in mind, let’s get into the different kinds of email marketing best practices to help you improve your campaigns!
Section 2: Email Marketing Campaign Essentials for Amazon Sellers
Let’s start at the very top of the pyramid: the important things you need before you get into the details of setting up your email campaigns.
Double Opt-In Subscription: The Importance of Building a Legitimate Email List
It’s absolutely imperative to ask your subscriber for their consent before bombarding them with your email campaign. It’s not just for legal compliance, either; it’s also for ensuring high engagement. The double opt-in subscription method serves as vital mechanism in this process.
Here are the two steps:
- A potential subscriber enters their email address into a signup form.
- They receive a confirmation email and must click a link to verify their intent to subscribe.
It serves a benefit for you, too. This double opt-in subscription safeguards your email list against spam and unauthorized entries, ensuring that only customers who are genuinely interested in your offers are contacted. It enhances deliverability and open rates, because customers have already confirmed their interest in receiving emails from you. Moreover, this practice aligns with global anti-spam laws, including GDPR, thus protecting your eCommerce business from potential legal issues, while fostering trust with your customers.
Furthermore, it’s important to have an easily accessible button that allows your customer to unsubscribe if they wish. It communicates that you respect their wishes and don’t wish to spam them in any way.
Personalization and Segmentation: Utilizing Customer Data
Here’s where you tailor email content to appeal to the specific interests and needs of different audience segments, through personalizing and segmenting your audience list.
Here’s how Amazon sellers can implement these tactics:
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Personalization: This involves using customer data to create a more individualized communication experience. You already know what this is: making sure the email says “Dear John” and not “Dear subscriber,” and recommending products based on past purchases (and not just products you feel like pushing that day).
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Segmentation: This strategy involves dividing your email list into smaller groups based on specific criteria, such as purchase history, geographic location, or behavior on your site. For instance, sending targeted emails to customers who have previously shown interest in your funny socks can lead to higher relevancy and, consequently, better probability that they’ll buy another pair for themselves or a friend. Segmentation ensures that your marketing messages are relevant to the specific needs and interests of a group, enhancing the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.
Responsive Email Design: Ensuring Mobile Compatibility
This is one of the most important email marketing best practices – make sure your email is mobile-friendly! Many of your customers are likely to read their emails on the go, while taking the train or sitting in the car, or on a quick break at work. Campaign Monitor reports that in 2018, 50% of emails were opened on mobile devices.
So keep your email short, sweet, and to the point. The design approach ensures that emails render correctly across different devices, from tablet to phone to desktop, so the viewing experience is consistent.
Key aspects include:
- Fluid Layouts: Employing a fluid design ensures that your email content adjusts to the width of any screen, improving readability and interaction.
- Scalable Images: Images in emails should be optimized so they scale correctly on mobile devices. Large images can slow down load times, negatively impacting user experience.
- Touchable Elements: Buttons and links should be of adequate size and spaced apart to accommodate touchscreen navigation, making it easier for mobile users to interact with your email content.
Mobile responsiveness is one of the most important email best practices because it enhances user experience and boosts engagement rates.
Emails that are easily accessible and readable on mobile devices are more likely to be opened and clicked, driving higher conversions and fostering customer loyalty.
Section 3: Email Marketing Design and Content Best Practices
Now that you understand the broader perspective of email communications, let’s talk about email marketing best practices for design and content.
Compelling Subject Lines: Tips for Increasing Open Rates
Your subject line is the first impression of your email! It will determine if customers open your email or send you straight to spam.
Here are some best practices you need to craft a winning subject line:
- Be Clear and Concise: Keep your subject lines short and to the point. Aim for 50 characters or less to ensure they are fully visible on mobile devices.
- Create a Sense of Urgency and Scarcity: Phrases like “limited time offer” or “last chance” prompt quick action from readers.
- Use Numbers and Lists: Subject lines with numbers or list-based content, such as “Top 5 styles” or “3 days only,” are direct and tend to perform well because they set clear expectations.
- Ask Questions: Posing a question in your subject line can pique curiosity and personalize the experience, prompting recipients to open the email for answers. Hint: questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no” won’t do it for you.
- Avoid Spam Triggers: Steer clear of overly promotional phrases like “Buy now” or “Free,” which can trigger spam filters and decrease the chances of your email being seen.
Engaging Body Content: Strategies for Crafting Content That Converts
The body of your email should maintain the interest generated by the email subject line and guide the customer toward a desired action.
Here’s how to create content that engages and converts:
- Match the Tone with Your Brand: Ensure that the tone of your email reflects your brand’s voice, whether it’s professional, friendly, or informational, creating a consistent experience for the customer. You don’t want your product detail page to sound luxurious and elegant, and your email template to sound casual and friendly. You’ll dilute your brand image.
- Use High-Quality Images: Including eye-catching, relevant images can significantly increase engagement. Ensure images are optimized for quick loading and are relevant to the accompanying text.
- Keep Text Clear and Concise: Your email body should be brief but powerful. Use short paragraphs and bullet points to make the content easy to scan.
- Personalize the Content: Tailor the email based on the recipient’s past interactions with your brand. Personalized product recommendations or content can significantly boost conversion rates.
- Educate Your Audience: Provide valuable information or tips related to the products you are promoting. This adds value to your emails and can help establish your brand as an authority.
Ensure your email campaign is fun to read. That’s pretty much it. Simple, right? These are marketing emails, after all. Remember that people know when they’re being sold to, so the best way to keep your email subscribers is to keep them entertained. Provide value to your email recipients so they’re incentivized to keep opening your emails.
Strong Calls to Action: Effectively Driving Customer Action
A well-crafted call to action (CTA) is essential for converting an interested reader into a customer.
Here’s how to use CTAs effectively:
- Be Direct with Your CTAs: Use action-oriented language that tells readers exactly what you want them to do, such as “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” or “Get Started.”
- Use Buttons for Important CTAs: Text links are fine for secondary actions, but use buttons for your main CTAs to make them stand out and easy to click, especially on mobile devices.
- Keep It Above the Fold: Place your main CTA where it’s visible without scrolling down to ensure it’s not missed by readers who may not scroll through the entire email.
- Limit the Number of CTAs: Too many CTAs can overwhelm the reader and dilute the message. Stick to one or two related actions to maintain focus and improve conversion rates.
- Test and Optimize: Regularly test different CTA designs, placements, and messages to find what works best with your audience. Use A/B testing to refine your approach based on actual performance data.
Okay, now you understand the best email marketing practices for content and copy. Remember to use different subject lines and personalize them. Express your brand through copy and fun visuals. And make sure your CTAs drive customer action. A link in your email can lead to a secondary action, but the CTA should be in a button that’s easy to find. Successful email marketing will release emails that are informative, value-filled, and fun to read!
Section 4: Email Marketing Best Practices for Deliverability
Every email needs to be very demure, very mindful – rather, keep in mind the convenience of your customers, and make sure every email you send lands where it’s supposed to.
Avoiding Spam Filters: Ensuring Your Emails Reach the Inbox
To ensure that your marketing emails reach your customer’s inbox instead of the spam folder, follow these technical and content-based strategies:
- Set Up SPF and DKIM Records: These are email authentication methods that help prevent spammers from sending messages on behalf of your domain. Setting up Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) correctly can boost your authenticity and increase the chances of your emails reaching the inbox.
- Avoid Spam Trigger Words: Words like “free,” “guarantee,” and “no risk” can trigger spam filters. Craft your content carefully to avoid these terms while still engaging your audience effectively.
- Monitor Your Sending Reputation: Tools like SenderScore can help you understand how email providers view your domain’s trustworthiness. A poor sender score can lead to your emails being blocked or sent to spam.
- Follow Email Volume Consistency: Sudden spikes in email volume can alert spam filters. Maintain a consistent sending volume to avoid red flags from email service providers. Email frequency matters.
- Educate Your Subscribers: Encourage new subscribers to whitelist your email address. This preemptive action can significantly improve deliverability as it tells email systems that your communications are welcomed by the recipient. In other words, part of your newsletter or email needs to include copy like label this as “not spam” or “not junk” and move us to your address book or contacts list to make sure you receive our emails!
Regular List Cleaning: Maintaining a Healthy Email List
Keeping your email list clean is crucial for maintaining high deliverability and engagement rates:
- Remove Inactive Subscribers: Review your email subscribers regularly, and identify and remove people who have not engaged with your emails over a defined period, such as six months or a year. This helps improve your engagement rates and deliverability. You probably don’t want them anyway.
- Use Double Opt-In: This method ensures that only people who really want to receive your emails are subscribed, which enhances engagement and reduces spam complaints. We talked about this before, so scroll up to get the details in case you missed it!
- Regularly Update Your List: Periodically ask your subscribers to update their preferences. This not only re-engages your audience but also helps in segmenting and targeting more effectively.
- Bounce Handling: Did you mistakenly add an email address like “info@gmail.com?” Chances are, nobody’s reading your emails. Quickly remove email addresses that return hard bounces. Keeping them on your list can damage your sender reputation and affect overall deliverability.
A/B Testing: Optimizing Email Campaigns Through Testing
A/B email testing is a powerful tool to understand what works best for your audience and can significantly optimize your email strategies:
- Test Different Elements: Regularly test different aspects of your emails, such as subject lines, email content, call-to-action buttons, send times, and layouts to find what generates the best response from your audience.
- Use Small Segments for Testing: Test changes on small segments of your email list. This allows you to see the impact of one variable at a time without affecting the performance of your entire list.
- Analyze Results Thoroughly: Look beyond open and click rates. Analyze how different tests affect unsubscribe rates, spam complaints, and ultimately, sales conversions.
- Iterate Based on Data: Use the insights gained from A/B testing to continually refine your email strategy. This iterative process helps in creating more personalized and effective email campaigns.
- Document and Share Learnings: Keep a record of the outcomes from various tests and share these learnings across your marketing team to inform broader marketing strategies.
As you can see, it’s not just the big picture. It’s not just the design and content. You have to determine things like the best time to send your email, culling your list to find customers that truly are interested, and making sure you test, test, test.
Section 5: Email Marketing Best Practices for Global Success
Selling globally? All the more is it important to localize your emails. This makes sure that you’re on top of cultural nuances and sensitivities, and don’t trigger your Polish customer by assuming they digest emails the way your Brazilian customers do.
Understanding Cultural Nuances: Cultural sensitivity has a critical role to play in email marketing. It will ensure that content resonates with diverse audiences. It’s really important to adapt marketing strategies to reflect local customs, values, and communication styles, thereby increasing engagement and effectiveness.
Language and Tone Adaptation: This is where you need to employ professional translation services to ensure the accuracy and relatability of email content across different languages. Proper translation enhances clarity, maintains the original message’s intent, and respects cultural nuances, contributing to more effective communication. Good thing YLT has you covered with its email translations service.
Localized Promotions and Offers: Different markets have different promotional calendars. Make sure your digital marketing efforts correspond with the days that matter. Greet your US and UK subscribers a Happy Valentine’s Day, but think about telling your Japanese customers to enjoy White Day. They’ll appreciate the relevance of your content, and if you’re adding value too by providing information, all the better. Remember, now every email you send has to be a sales-related one.
Lucky, YLT Translations can localize your email campaigns. Remember, all our translators are native speakers, so they’ll let you know if your content will resonate with the demographic or not. Reach out; we can help!
Section 6: Integrating Your Email Marketing Strategy with Other Marketing Efforts
Now, your email marketing best practices don’t exist in a vacuum. When creating an email marketing plan, make sure that your key communication points align with the rest of your marketing plan.
- Cross-Channel Marketing: Integrate email marketing with other channels, such as your social media and PPC advertising, to create a cohesive marketing ecosystem. Furthermore, providing multiple messaging across several different platforms ensures that your messages are delivered. Think about it: not every single customer is on social media, right? Some don’t check their socials very often. That’s where it gets really handy to have different ways to communicate with your customers. By employing cross-channel marketing, you reinforce brand messages, increase your reach, and drive conversions by leveraging the strengths of each channel.
- Feedback Loop: Do not send emails with a do-not-reply address! You want customers to reply to you by sending them emails through an address they can communicate with. If the conversation is one-sided, your email campaign isn’t going to be very successful. Now, it’s a good idea to grab the feedback gathered through email interactions to enhance and refine your overall marketing strategies. Think about email surveys, review requests, and direct responses. This data can inform improvements in product offerings, customer service, and communication tactics across all marketing channels.
In other words, when we talk about the email marketing best practices, it’s important not to take the trees for the forest. Look at your entire marketing plan as an ecosystem. Aim to enforce your branding every step of the way.
Section 7: Email Marketing Best Practices – Measuring Success and ROI
Any successful email marketer understands the need to measure the success of every campaign, starting with the welcome email all the way until the opt-out message.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measure the open rate, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rate. Each indicator provides insights into different aspects of campaign performance, from recipient engagement all the way to actual sales conversions. Which email marketing metrics to measure – and how – are a blog all on its own, so we will refer to Lead Squared’s helpful guide, where you’ll find an entire list including formulae to help guide you.
- Analytics Tools: Luckily, there are lots of tools that can help you track how effective your campaign is. Each of the below offer things like comprehensive analytics, CRM integration, segmentation capabilities, and AI-driven insights to analyze customer engagement across campaigns.
- Continuous Improvement: Now, effective email marketing, like all things, is data-driven. An email marketing software like the ones listed above will give you valuable analytics – these can be used to refine every campaign you send. Feedback from KPIs and analytics tools will give you a roadmap on testing different approaches in your email copy, design, and delivery timing. In order to get the best open rates and encourage sales, implement a cycle of testing, measuring, learning, and optimizing regularly to enhance effectiveness, drive better engagement, and increase sales conversions over time.
Conclusion:
So, what did we learn? In today’s ever-evolving digital marketplace, email marketing remains a cornerstone of successful business strategies, especially for Amazon sellers aiming to globalize their reach. You now have a better idea of the email marketing best practices you need to engage customers and harness sales, while ensuring compliance with Amazon’s stringent TOS. From harnessing the power of double opt-in subscriptions to ensure engagement and compliance, to personalizing content for diverse global audiences, these strategies are crafted to elevate your email campaigns to new heights.
Don’t forget – localization emerges as a critical theme, emphasizing the need to tailor your email campaigns to align with the cultural nuances and communication preferences of your global audience. Employing professional services like YLT Translations can be instrumental in adapting your language and tone, ensuring your emails resonate well across different regions.
Ready to globalize your email marketing efforts with precision and cultural sensitivity? Reach out to YLT Translations today, and let us help you tailor your campaigns to captivate and engage your international customers effectively. Together, we can transform your email marketing into a powerful tool for global success. Reach out at info@ylt-translations.com and we’ll be happy to help!
Speaking of cultural nuances, do make sure to employ cultural sensitivity in all the communications you release. It’ll help you connect with customers all over the globe.