E159: 3 Key Email Marketing Sequences for Your Ecommerce Business

Is email marketing dead?

I certainly don’t think so. Email marketing is responsible for generating about half of our company’s revenue.

Fortunately, my guest on today’s podcast shares the same sentiment.

In this episode, I’m talking to Xiaohui or better known as “X”. He’s an industry expert, who along with his team of email marketing specialists, are helping ecommerce businesses reap the benefits of an expertly crafted email sequence.

And email sequences are at the heart of this episode. X identified the top 3 types that ecommerce entrepreneurs should be aware of. We’ve listed them below.

1. Abandon Cart Sequence

• Email 1 - a reminder about the abandoned shopping cart; sent somewhere between 15 minutes to a couple of hours after a cart is supposedly abandoned.
• Email 2 - encourages the person who abandoned the cart to return to it and complete the purchase with a discount incentive; sent 24 hours after the first email
• Email 3 - introduces the sense of urgency (cart/discount expiring soon!); sent 24 hours after the first email

2. Prospect Nurture Sequence

This sequence is defined as a welcome sequence specifically for prospects. When done properly, it has proven to be very effective for generating additional email addresses. It propels the prospect forward in the email sequence and eventually results in revenue.  

The prospect nurture sequence often uses intelligent pop-ups that offer value to the recipient instead of just plain ‘hard selling’. Tried and true incentives tend to work best in this type of email sequence. A sequence is typically made up of 3-5 emails.

• Email 1 - deliver the incentive
• Email 2 - a reminder
• Email 3 - last chance to get the incentive

3. Post Purchase Sequence

This email sequence targeted towards people who have become customers.

• Email 1 - Differentiated welcome emails (depending on whether it’s a first time or repeat customer)
• Email 2 - Transactional emails (e.g., order confirmation and shipping confirmation emails)
• Email 3 - Creating opportunities to cross-sell and upsell

X also touched a bit on the win-back sequence and offered tips on how to use it to get customers back and still manage to make a conversion in the process.

Other Resources Mentioned:

Essence of Email

MyEcomcrew

Thanks for listening to this episode! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!