Email Marketing Tips, Tools, and Best Practices for Start-Ups
Ask any seasoned e-commerce expert where to start and they’ll tell you, “The money is in the mailing list”.
They’re right.
Email marketers have a big job on their hands but when the average return is $45 for every $1 spent, this is a channel worth getting right.
Welcome to email marketing 101 for start-ups (and scale-ups, should you need a refresher).
This blog will explain the basics, providing email marketing tips that are easy to action so your brand can reach its full potential.
Email Marketing Basics
We’ll start here for the sake of being thorough. At its core, email marketing is the direct line of comms between you and your customers. It’s personal, targeted, and when done right, it converts better than the likes of social media and paid ads.
Unlike other forms of advertising that are fleeting, email sits in your customers’ inbox (unless you’re bad at it, then it sits in their junk mail), allowing you to build a relationship that drives repeat purchases, loyalty, and brand advocacy.
Grow With The Flow
Email marketing flows are your 24/7 sales team. They reel back in the people that flirted with your checkout, then ghosted. They thank the people that have already opened their wallets, and they wish your loyal shoppers a happy birthday every year. Flows can automate whatever it is your brand needs, in the interests of nurturing community.
Email flows vary in length depending on the focus and target. To get started, we recommend the three essential flows found in this blog. That’s the Abandoned Checkout, Welcome, and Abandoned Browse flows.
You get extra points for starting with a Post-Purchase flow, and you’re simply showing off if you add in a Win Back and Sunset from the get-go.
If you’re the type that has to go all in early, the That’s Nice Copy Email Marketing Template is our gift to you, with messaging prompts for nine full flows — download it here.
Keep Current with Campaigns
Your flows are automated, your campaigns are one-time blasts that keep your community in the loop. This is how you tell them about a product launch, sale, or event. Campaigns keep you constantly connected, which is why email marketers like us love them.
Email Marketing Tools
Email marketing tools streamline your efforts, automate your flows, segment your audience, and give you the data that you need to analyse before optimising.
Here are four of our favourites for your consideration:
Klaviyo: The experienced email marketer’s favourite. Klaviyo offers advanced segmentation and automation, deep integrations with Shopify, and robust data analytics. If you want to go straight to the best, start here.
Mailchimp: Known for its user-friendly interface, Mailchimp is perfect for smaller brands or businesses just getting started. It’s packed with features like basic automation, A/B testing, and pre-built templates, helping you set up and run campaigns without technical expertise.
Omnisend: Designed for brands focused on omnichannel marketing. Omnisend helps you run seamless email and SMS campaigns, with advanced automation flows and segmentation options. It’s a great all-in-one solution for scaling e-commerce brands.
Shopify: Shopify Email is a native tool for Shopify merchants, Shopify Email allows you to send branded email campaigns directly from your dashboard. It’s an easy-to-use solution that integrates your product data automatically, a pretty good option if you’re looking to keep things simple.
Email Marketing Best Practices
Segmentation: Segmentation means dividing your email list into smaller groups based on behaviour, demographics, or preferences. This allows you to send more personalised emails. The more relevant an email, the more seen and heard your audience feels, so segmentation results in more sales.
Email Cadence: How many emails should you be sending? The best practice email marketing cadence varies by brand, but generally, 2-3 campaigns per week is recommended. Finding a balance is key. Too many emails? You’re annoying. Too few? You're forgotten.
When working out how many emails to send, our advice is simple, send what your audience will find valuable and scrap the rest.
Word Counts: When was the last time you read a really long email? Exactly. Campaign emails should have a singular message and pack a punch in 50 -150 words.
Flows are designed to nurture the customer through their journey, so some detail won’t hurt but avoid overwhelming your reader. Keep it between 100-300 words — say what you need to say and then sign off.
Personalisation: Personalised emails perform better so throw the recipient’s name into the subject line or body copy every now and then. More advanced methods will become the norm as you grow, such as product recommendations based on browsing behaviour.
What Makes Emails Worth Opening
Subject lines:
Your subject line has to slap. We’ll say it louder for the people at the back. Your subject line has to slap.
Poor effort here and your email doesn’t get opened, meaning any time spent on copy and design is a total waste and your ROI is none. That would be a shame, wouldn’t it?
Keep your subject lines under 40 characters or they’ll truncate on mobile, A/B test frequently, and personalise often.
Copy and design:
Email marketers will argue over which of these is more important, our take is that they work in tandem. Design guides attention, words sell.
Write in your brand’s unique TOV and don’t be afraid to have fun.
Stick to micro-messaging, which means offering your readers one clear message per email rather than overloading them with too much to think about.
Calls To Action:
Your CTA converts intention into action. Make sure it stands out and use words that create urgency when possible. Two to five words is the sweet spot as anything longer loses impact.
If you can sell a solution within the CTA, then do. What do we mean by this? Beauty brands can use “Start Your Glow Up” rather than “Shop Now”, a supplement business might go for “Fuel your Gains” over “Buy Creatine”.
Some quick email marketing tips:
Keep your key message above the fold
Stick to one primary CTA
Ensure your design is responsive on mobile
Analysing and Optimising: Your Key Metrics
Even with all the best practices in place, the only way to know if your email marketing strategy is working is by analysing performance. Track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to understand what’s going well and what isn’t.
Regular A/B testing is vital for continuous improvement. Test different subject lines, email designs, CTAs, and sending times. Listen to the data, the secret to selling more is in there.
Email Marketing Strategy: It’s Time To Get Serious
Just trust us on this one, an effective email marketing strategy is the backbone of a successful e-commerce business.
Let’s personify your strategy for a second and imagine them holding the hand of your customer, guiding them through every stage of the marketing funnel.
From the first interaction, to the decision to purchase, and then the desire to return, email is right there to educate, entertain and connect with your audience.
This blog has covered the email marketing tips you need to get started. To get a bit more serious with strategy, you need to read this.
Of course, you can’t get up and running without some high-converting copy, so subscribe to That’s Nice Copy and submit your first brief today.
