How To Increase Your Ecommerce Reach With Newsletter: Ideas, Examples, And Tips

Published On: 31 Mar 2023

Table of contents

Learn how to use newsletters to increase your ecommerce reach with our ideas, examples, and tips. Boost your sales and connect with your audience!

Think of it: An Ecommerce brand owner is competing with dozens of other brands in their customer's inbox, fighting to get attention, and hopefully an order or two.

If you're an Ecommerce business owner looking for new and exciting Ecommerce newsletter ideas to implement, this article is for you.

How to create professional newsletters for your Ecommerce Store ?

Here is a step-by-step guide to creating an Ecommerce newsletter.

1) Choose your email marketing platform: From the seemingly unlimited options, here's how you can choose an email marketing platform that fits your needs.

2) What kind of emails are you planning to send? They could range from transactional, drip campaigns, newsletters, or a combination of all.

Lifesight for emails is ideal if you're looking to send hyper-personalized emails based on customer segmentation.

In case you're just starting your Ecommerce/DTC newsletter, Mailchimp offers many marketing features for beginners.

3) Determine the must-have features: They could range from A/B testing, automation, template editing, email volume, and HTML editing.

In short, find an email marketing platform that meets all your needs while staying within the budget.

4) Define your goals: Diving head-first into your Ecommerce newsletter campaign, without setting any concrete goals, will make it impossible for you to understand the performance level of your campaigns.

Establishing goals for your upcoming email newsletter campaigns enables you to get a sense of creative direction.

For example, if you want to create an informational and educational newsletter, your content team starts suggesting easy-to-understand pointers for complex topics.

On the other hand, a newsletter designed for increasing sales will carry subtle promotional language apart from the interacting sub-sections.
Or, you can just create a monthly Ecommerce newsletter to keep your subscribers updated about the company's progress.

5) Define your audience: Understanding your audience's demographics enables you to come up with topics that are engaging for them. In addition, it will help you find the perfect tone for your newsletters.

Millennials appreciate a conversational and informal tone in their newsletter, while the older generation prefers formal and direct communication.

Alternatively, if your brand targets customers across a wide range of ages, you can create multiple newsletter templates to cater to the different needs of your diverse subscriber base.

6) Build your email list organically: Prioritize creating an organic email list as it ensures your subscriber's intent to interact with your brand. Use the double opt-in method to filter out bot accounts and cold prospects.

Of course, if you already have a healthy subscriber base, you can send them an email to get consent to add them to the Ecommerce newsletter list. Within the email consider mentioning:

The frequency of the newsletters,
The benefits they will receive from being on the list, and
What kind of content do you plan on sharing?

Finally, maintain the hygiene of your email list by occasionally removing inactive accounts to increase the click-through rates of your email newsletters.

7) Choose your template: Now, choose an email template that reflects your brand identity. Most email marketing platforms are equipped with massive template libraries hosting thousands of optimized email templates.

Sendinblue, an email marketing platform, allows its users to import template designs from marketplaces like Litmus and Email On Acid.

Or, you can use the in-built template editor to design an email Ecommerce newsletter from scratch.

8) Be consistent in sending emails and brand aesthetics: Keep the design philosophy of your newsletter consistent with your brand aesthetics.

For example, use the same brand voice you use for your organization's social media handles.

Seasoned email marketers also encourage brands to use the same color scheme in their newsletters. From the customer's perspective, it builds cohesiveness and familiarity with your brand design. It allows them to instantly identify your newsletters with a single glance.

Also, rather than sending your DTC newsletter on an ad-hoc basis, choose a specific day and send your emails consistently.

9) Include clear and compelling subject lines: Inserting a clear and compelling Ecommerce email newsletter subject line in your template is winning half the battle. This subscriber sentiment can also be confirmed by recent reports that suggest almost 50% of the recipients interact with the email based on the subject line.

Adding a touch of personalization to the subject line can also improve the open rates. The subject lines should be attention-grabbing, but not misleading. Your subject line, along with your sub-header, should work together to set the expectation about what the reader will find within the newsletter.

10) Focus on creating engaging content: Needless to say, the best Ecommerce newsletters have engaging content that adds value to the reader's life. While it is generally recommended to use short email copies, you can enjoy some creative liberty with email newsletters as your audience expects them to be descriptive.

Use Ecommerce newsletter templates for different types of emails: Promotional, sales, product launches, and more.

11) Add images and visuals: The next-generation marketing leaders focus on creating crisp emails and support more images for easy readability.

Maintaining a 60:40 text-to-image ratio should keep you away from any deliverability troubles.
You can also go 80:20 ratio if you see any deliverability issues with your email newsletter campaigns.
Remember to use high-quality images of your products or pictures from notable events during the month.
You can even include a GIF or animated visual based on your Ecommerce brand's tonality and narrative.

12) Promote exclusive offers and discounts: Encourage more website visitors to sign up for your Ecommerce newsletter. You can give them a discount or incentive upon subscribing and the coupon can be redeemed when they make their first purchase.

In addition, the other types of discounts to nudge subscribers to purchase your products could be:

Early-bird discounts for upcoming products
Exclusive subscriber offers
Sell bundles combining low-selling and high-selling products with an additional discount

At a time when finding loyal customers and brand ambassadors is a challenge for Ecommerce and DTC brands, a highly engaging Ecommerce newsletter would keep the users coming back for more.

13) Include effective CTA buttons:

Now, there are a few different methods of including CTA buttons in email newsletters.

For longer newsletters, you could use a single CTA button that follows the logical progression of the narrative.

But, if your newsletter contains multiple short sections discussing different events and products, you can utilize multiple well-placed CTA buttons.

Try to get creative with your CTA buttons and use other phrases than simple ‘buy now' buttons. Refrain from using action words that sound like a direct order instead of a simple request.

14) Optimize for mobile: As per Litmus's survey, mobile clients account for over 41.6% of email opens, followed by webmail opens at 40%, and desktop opens at 16%.

Brands have already started designing Ecommerce newsletter templates according to the layout of mobile devices and then optimizing it for desktop view.

You should know, designing a mobile-first template is no easy task as you have to account for different screen sizes of different devices. Using dynamic email templates can make things easier for you during the design stage.

15) Test and preview: Ecommerce newsletter best practices involve extensive testing. Multivariate testing or A/B testing your email newsletter campaign before the official launch should help you identify the cracks in the email marketing strategy, content, delivery, and so on.

Use this opportunity to make small tweaks to your designs, layouts, font design, and background colors to see what performs better. Also, A/B test the images and GIFs you are including in your emails. Ensure that your custom fonts are equipped with fallback fonts, and images are integrated with alt-texts to make the emails more accessible to the audience.

Use the email preview option provided by your email marketing platform to see how your emails are looking on different mail clients and mobile devices. Testing the email layout screen fit for all the available devices is almost impossible. Therefore, test your template layout for the devices majorly used by your customers.

16) Send and measure: After following the Ecommerce email newsletter best practices, you should now have a template that is ready for your subscribers.

You can add a bit of personalization by including dynamic content modules in your templates.
These modules change depending on the preferences of your subscribers and can easily enhance the engagement rate.

However, the duty of an email marketer does not end after hitting the send button. You need to constantly monitor the performance metrics and use the learnings to craft your next Ecommerce newsletter.

Let's look at some ecommerce newsletter inspirations to help you while designing your next template.

1) New product releases: One of the most common use cases of email newsletters is announcing product releases. There are many ways brands promote their upcoming product line-ups including the concept designs, the intent behind launching the product, and more which could be included in your Ecommerce newsletter.

BetterBrand's mysterious Ecommerce newsletter template builds hype around their new upcoming product release by generating curiosity with this template.

What's notable about this Ecommerce newsletter example?

By asking the readers to sign-up for the SMS list, the brand strengthens its omnichannel marketing strategy.
The red and black background colors contrast well.
The emojis give a playful look to the email.

2) Sales and promotions: In the same vein, you can also promote your upcoming seasonal or flash sales. And, while doing so, you can offer special discounts to your newsletter subscribers and leverage exclusivity to drive your revenue.

Ecommerce newsletter tip: Sales and promotional newsletters need not be long and monotonous.

Drizly changes the norm by including a step-by-step recipe to recreate a delicious cocktail with the featured spirit. The images included in the newsletters are appealing enough to make the reader click on the CTA buttons. If you look closely, Drizly has used a unique phrase on its CTA button to make things more exciting for the reader.

3) Product recommendation: These are not only limited to promotional emails. You can slide in a couple of personalized product recommendations in your Ecommerce newsletters by using dynamic content modules. The extensive narrative of the newsletter can prime the readers for purchase, and including a product recommendation only makes it easier for them to make the final transaction.

Huckberry, a leading fashion DTC brand, includes curated items in its product recommendation newsletter.

Why is it an Ecommerce newsletter inspiration?

Although the email is long, the design is neat and does not overwhelm the reader.
Each of the 9 products included has individual CTA buttons to help the readers prepare themselves for any upcoming adventures.

4) Customer reviews: Think of the Ecommerce newsletter as a highly personal communication channel that signals your customer-centric approach to business. For added social proof, include customer testimonials and top-rated reviews to show how well your Ecommerce products are working for your clients.

Luxury Ecommerce brand Italic includes the top reviews from its customers in the Ecommerce newsletter. Customer testimonials increase the trust of people in the brand. In addition, it also generates FOMO. That is, when the reader notices other people enjoying the product, they too crave to attain the same level of comfort from Italic's products. Apart from that, the newsletter template oozes luxury with its minimalistic designs and gradient-colored backgrounds.

5) Educational content: Most brands with evolving products and services will use the newsletter to educate their customers. Including best practices, Ecommerce newsletter tips, tricks, and screenshots of how others are using your products can help your readers visualize the value of your offerings.

MeUndies has one of the best Ecommerce newsletters on the list. It guides readers through the entire creative process of designing its iconic unicorn undies. The newsletter introduces MeUndies' Senior Textile Print Designer and tells us more about her sketches. MeUndies has also included an image of her work that shows all the equipment used to make a single pattern for their innerwear lineup.

Ecommerce newsletter idea: Your newsletter does not have to be boring or salesy. Add your brand's distinctive flavor around the messaging, the way MeUndies does.

6) Behind-the-scenes content: Sharing behind-the-scenes footage of your product process, strategy meetings, design levels, company culture, and upcoming concepts with your subscriber makes them feel included and builds brand loyalty.

Away, a travel accessories DTC company uses its newsletter to explain the thought process behind its product design.

What caught our attention is that before the Ecommerce newsletter goes into details, it has a prominent CTA button for the about us sections to help the new readers get up to speed about the company's history.

Following this, they have explained how they reached out to travelers to understand their traveling requirements. And, used their newfound insights to design the luggage. Away uses minimalistic visuals to showcase the features of its products.

7) User-generated content: If you are facing hurdles while coming up with interesting topics, you can always rely on your users to provide you with content. For example, you can add photos and videos of them using your products.

Paravel, another DTC travel accessories brand, uses the images shared by its customers in its Ecommerce newsletter. The images have been carefully curated to match the color palette of the brand's aesthetics. In the newsletter, they thanked their customers for using their products for their beautiful trips.

8) Seasonal content: Remember to change the theme of your newsletters for seasonal content. For example, you can use green pastel colors in your template to represent the arrival of spring.

In their spring newsletter, Tracksmith welcomes the runners back to the track. The image of the forest included in the newsletter is still reeling from winter. The green tracks and light pastel green background of the email welcome spring. Tracksmith has included two CTA buttons; one for the website and another for the spring style guide.

9) Social responsibility initiative: If your brand represents a social message such as sustainability, being carbon-neutral, or vegan, don't forget to mention it in your monthly ecommerce newsletter template to highlight all the environmental and social initiatives undertaken during the month.

Email marketers at Rothy's, an Ecommerce fashion company, use the newsletter to show how they are contributing towards the betterment of the environment by using sustainable materials in their products.

Like Rothy's, an Ecommerce newsletter tip would be to quantify the impact of your initiatives. The case in point, Rothy's mentions the total number of bottles they have recycled to create their products.

10) Exclusive content: Ecommerce newsletter ideas can also be utilized to offer early access to sales or provide exclusive discount codes to the customer.

In its newsletter, Bombas thanked its patrons for their continued support and for helping them donate over 3 million pairs of socks for those in need. To celebrate this milestone, they offered their readers an exclusive and time-limited offer code.

Summarizing

To summarize, Ecommerce newsletters are a cost-effective way of informing the customer about product releases, upcoming sales, seasonal trends, and so much more. Every example on the list has something unique to offer that would entice your subscribers to take action.

We hope these Ecommerce newsletter best practices help you when you plan your next email marketing campaign.