Email marketing is a great way to connect with your customers and drive floral sales. While digital marketing is a term ubiquitous, most businesses focus on social media marketing and PPC. Email marketing often gets left out despite being one of the most effective means of spreading brand awareness and increasing e-commerce sales. In fact, the return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is higher than other types of digital marketing, with one estimate saying it’s 4200% – $42 for every $1 spent. The floral industry has many sectors and we are sure that email marketing can work for all sectors and it is not relegated to only targeting consumers.
Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Women’s Day, Chinese New Years, and prom season are great times for sales in the floral industry. Methods like email marketing can ensure high sales for the rest of the year as well. Whether you’re looking to refine your existing email marketing strategy or are new to email marketing, the following tips can help.
Follow Email Marketing Etiquette
Before we get into strategies, it’s important to ensure that you’re following basic email marketing etiquette. The first rule of email marketing is to have permission to email customers. Make sure that every contact has opted in to receive emails, whether it’s through a sign-up link on your website or otherwise. Sending unwanted emails to people doesn’t result in conversions; instead, it only fills up their spam accounts.
You should also include a link for recipients to unsubscribe if they no longer want to receive your emails, as per the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act. Additionally, while it’s good to be regular, do not send too many emails. This will only result in recipients clicking the “Unsubscribe” button.
Determine the Best Day and Times to Send Emails
According to Mailchimp, the average email open rate is 21.33%. One of the ways you can make sure people open your email is by figuring out the best days and times to send them. Saturdays are great for sending out emails, but research shows that Saturdays show some of the lowest open rates at only 17%. Globally, Fridays see the highest email open rates at 18.9%.
If you’re unsure when to send out emails, you can always divide your email list into two and send out emails on different days or at different times to see how your audience responds.
Send Out Different Types of Emails
From welcome emails to purchase follow-ups and holiday emails, you can send many different types of emails. Welcome emails are extremely popular since they’re opened four times as much as other emails and generate ten times as many clicks as other emails. Instead of following into the same rut as other people and only sending out emails about discounts, make sure to send out abandoned cart emails, order follow-ups, and holiday-themed emails.
While not everyone purchases flowers for every holiday, reminding people about different holidays and highlighting different events, or giving florist floral tips and insight into trends can increase floral sales, engagement, and loyalty. Whether it’s Women’s Day or Easter, emailing your clients about special discounts and offers can remind them of the holiday itself and urge them to buy flowers for their floral projects.
Make Your Emails Compelling
If you want customers to open your emails, it’s important to make them compelling. Use interesting subject headers that evoke curiosity. You can also add personalization by using the client’s first name and urgency by advertising a one-day-only sale or a limited-time offer and including a clickable CTA at the end. You can also build anticipation for the next email by including teasers and building up to a reveal.
Email marketing has great ROI and at the same time, it is great for increasing engagement and adding value to your customers' lives, which builds brand loyalty. If you are overwhelmed with all this email marketing and digital marketing talk, then reach out to us here at New Bloom Solutions, we are here to help.