One of the key elements in growing an online business is building your email list.

Collecting contact information from your (prospective) customers and building valuable relationships with them can have a beneficial effect on your online business.

Email marketing is known to be responsible for 23% of online sales.

However, creating a successful email campaign can be challenging, and many retailers give up after not seeing the expected results.

It is important to have a clear email marketing strategy to follow, before running an email marketing campaign.

Here are 5 proven email marketing campaigns you can run to generate additional revenue for your business.

1. Welcome email series

Welcome email series are promotional email campaigns sent to new subscribers.

A welcome email is one of the best and cheapest ways of motivating your new subscriber to come back to your store (and maybe buy your product).

The goal of sending a welcome email is to encourage your new subscribers to check your offer and place an order.

They generate more than 320% of revenue in comparison to other promotional messages, which makes them the most effective email marketing campaign right beside Cart abandonment emails (see section 3).

In general, welcome emails have the highest open rate - 91.43%, a click-through rate of 26.9%, and they increase the unique click rate by 196%.

The key elements of success for welcome emails are:

Personalization
Personalized emails have a 6 times higher conversion rate than non-personalized ones. Try including your subscribers’ names in the subject line and text. Or segment your customers into groups by age, income, education, and possibly gender identity, then send different emails depending on the group.
Clear CTAs
Encourage your subscribers to visit your page by including a call to action with an offer link like Levis or a discount code like Freemans.
Right timing
Most subscribers will expect a welcome email in the first 48 hours. Ideally, you can opt for an automatic email campaign that reaches your new customers just minutes after the subscription.

Freemans attracts new subscribers to visit their page by gifting them a 10% discount:

Lewis is giving the option to shop by preferences instead:

While Ikea showcases other attributes of its brand by adding links and a strong call to action button to their blog and collaborative “Share Space” page:

2. Browse abandonment emails

Browse abandonment email campaigns are targeting subscribers, who were viewing products on your website but didn’t add any of them to the shopping cart.

Distinctively from cart abandonment, browse abandonment does not suggest a person is interested in buying a specific product.

The goal of browse abandonment emails is to generate shopping intent.

While only 5% of visitors actually add an item to the shopping cart, browse abandonment email campaigns target the other visitors who browsed your product or category pages but didn’t add to cart, and can generate up to 8.5% of all email channel revenue.

View browse abandonment emails as an opportunity to help your prospective customers discover the right product for them.

The first browse abandonment email should be sent in 30 min after the subscriber has left your website, with a follow-up 24 hours later.

In essence, browse abandonment emails should:

Use short but engaging copy
Showcase the products that have been viewed
Include the best-selling products
Mention your high selling points
For example free shipping, discounts, loyalty rewards

You do not have to include discount codes in the browse abandonment emails – it is better to save them for email campaigns that target subscribers, who already show more interest in completing a purchase.

The browse abandonment email from clothing store Iloveugly.com is a great example of showcasing the most popular products to those who were browsing between different categories:

While Silver Street Jewellers knows how to remind the subscriber of the last viewed product, and add their best-selling items to the same email campaign.

3. Cart abandonment emails

Cart abandonment email campaigns are follow-up emails to subscribers that added items into the shopping cart but for some reason did not complete the purchase.

In general, cart abandonment emails are more effective than browse abandonment email campaigns, because they target people who are closest to buying.

The good news is that 45% of cart abandonment emails are opened, and 21% of receivers click through to the website.

Furthermore, 50% of the clicks lead to a recovered purchase! Cart abandonment emails can increase your sales by 63%.

To win back your prospective customers, the cart abandonment email should include the following:

An eye-catching subject line
“[NAME], we’ve saved your cart”; “Where’d you go?!” and “Did you forget about me, [NAME]?” are just some of the best performing email subject lines.

Get creative, and remember that 64% of people decide whether they are going to open an email by its subject line.

Short but engaging copy
A strong call to action button
The checkout button should be as clear and strong as possible. The most frequently used are “Buy now” and “Return to your cart”.
A showcase of the items in the cart
While presenting to the subscribers what they left behind is a necessity, you have to put strong attention to how you show the items.
Placing them in the middle of the email with a strong call to action underneath like ThredUp does makes the message clear and efficient.

Timing is essential when sending cart abandonment emails.

The message should reach your subscriber before he leaves the computer or mobile phone, ideally within the first hour after cart abandonment.

A follow-up email can be sent in the next 24 hours. You can increase the chance of recovering the purchase by adding an extra discount, creating a sense of urgency, or adding social proof of your online business.

While ThredUp encourages the subscriber to buy the item with innovative copy, a strong call to action button, and a discount code, Urban Outfitters impresses the receiver with innovative design and a sense of urgency:

Cart abandonment email from Urban Outfitters

4. Back in stock emails

Back in stock emails drive the attention of your subscribers to the most popular items that are again available on your website.

Mistakenly, some online retailers think that these email campaigns should target just customers, who opted to be informed about the restocking of a selected item.

Statistics show that online businesses lose over $1.7 trillion dollars a year because of out of stock products.

While a back in stock email alert is unquestionable for customers interested in buying a specific product, this email campaign can be used to engage subscribers that were just browsing too!

These email campaigns should focus on visually representing the product with simple text and a call to action button. Creating urgency is key.

Kylie Cosmetics has a tendency to run out of stock due to the popularity of the products. Their back in stock email campaign showcases the most popular products and creates a sense of urgency with the “Shop Now” call to action button:

Back in stock email from Kylie Cosmetics

5. Cross-sell and Up-sell emails

Cross-sell or up-sell emails target customers who have already completed a purchase on your website, intending to increase the average order value.

These emails campaigns have a nearly 7% click to conversion rate.

A cross-sell email presents the product that can complement what your customer already bought.

While an up-selling email advertises the opportunity to buy a more valuable product or service.

Both email campaigns need to be personalized with an attractive design and call to action button.

Clinique creates cross-selling emails with a friendly tone and subtle call to action:

Conclusion

Knowing your customers’ shopping and content preferences is one of the crucial assets for an e-commerce’s email marketing strategy.

From a welcome email that greets your new subscriber to the up-sell email after purchase – these 5 email campaigns are not only a must but stepping stones in increasing your email revenue.