How to use email to grow your Shopify business from nothing

Have you heard that email is dead? Well, if you say it enough times, perhaps it will become true, but to deny the power of email marketing would be a big mistake. Email can deliver an ROI of 3,800%!

That’s certainly reason enough to put focus on growing your email list. But this will only work if the content you send is engaging and valuable to your customers.

If you’re getting started making money online or have no budget or time for marketing – this post is for you. This post will outline what you need to do to grow your Shopify store from the bottom up by using email marketing.

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a way to deliver messages to your subscribers (people who agreed to receive emails from you). It’s similar to direct mail, allowing companies to send messages directly to their customers.

Many companies use email marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. For example, they might send out an email announcing new products or discounts on existing ones. They’ll also use it to promote events such as upcoming sales or promotions.

Moreover, the email marketing service for Shopify stores helps you build your brand, increase sales, and develop relationships with customers.

8 Benefits Of Email Marketing For Your Shopify Business

8 benefits of email marketing for your Shopify business

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach customers and get them to buy. Email marketing can help you:

1. Easy to Set Up and Maintain

You don’t need any technical expertise to set up an email campaign. You need to create an email template with a few images, text, and links, then send them out when you want them delivered.

2. Increase Sales

Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to generate new sales. You can send targeted newsletters to your database, offer discounts or deals, and promote new products.

3. Build Loyalty

Send regular updates about your business or industry and create an ongoing customer relationship.

4. Generate Leads

Use email marketing to nurture leads and turn potential customers into buyers by sending them timely information about your products and services.

5. Automate Tasks

With automated workflows and email templates, you can save time by sending out canned messages on a schedule without having to write from scratch every time.

6. High ROI

Email marketing has one of the highest ROIs (returns on investment) for online marketing strategies due partly to its low cost per engagement compared to other digital channels such as social media or PPC (paid search).

7. Personal Touch

Email is a personal communication that makes customers feel valued and appreciated because they get something specific from you rather than just seeing ads on social media or websites like Google search results pages.

8. Flexible

Email can be sent anytime, anywhere — at home or on the go — and you can personalize it with text and images that reflect your brand and offer value to the recipient.

Getting Started With Email Marketing

The first step to getting started with email marketing is defining your audience. This includes identifying the demographics and psychographics of your target market and interests and behaviors.

1. Choose An Email Service Provider (ESP)

An ESP is software that allows you to send emails from multiple platforms. Some also offer other services such as analytics, automation tools, etc. There are many free providers as well as paid ones.

2. Create An Email List

The critical step in sending emails has people’s contact information. You can do this through an opt-in form on your website or with pop-ups, retargeting ads, and other forms on social media channels.

3. Design Your Template

After you’ve gathered all the information about who will receive your emails, it’s time to create an email template for each campaign. Your design should be consistent across all communication channels and look professional and polished.

4. Set Up Your Automation Sequences

It’s time to set up automated sequences to help move people through the buying process — or at least keep them engaged until they’re ready to buy. You can set up as many Shopify automated emails as needed based on where they are in the buying cycle and what actions they’ve taken so far.

5. Keep Track Of Your Campaign Performance

It can be tricky to determine if your campaigns have the desired effect. There are many ways to measure performance, including:

• Open rate: The number of people who opened your email.
• Click-through rate (CTR): The number of people who clicked on a link in your email.
• Unsubscribe rate: The number of people who unsubscribed from your list.
• Conversion rate: The number of people who completed the desired action after receiving an email (such as making a purchase).
• Cost per acquisition (CPA): The cost of acquiring a customer through an email campaign divided by the number of new customers acquired through that campaign.

Different Types Of Email Marketing Campaigns

Email is one of the many ways you can use this powerful marketing tool. While it’s true that email is the most popular way to send marketing messages, it’s by no means the only one.

Here are the essential types of email marketing campaigns you should make a note of:

Transactional Emails

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Transactional emails are the “after-sale” emails we send after someone has purchased from us. They include receipts, shipping notifications, and order confirmations. These are necessary for our customers to feel secure about their purchase, but they’re also an opportunity to build trust with your buyers and show them that their satisfaction matters to you.

Promotional Emails

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Promotional emails drive sales by promoting relevant products or services to your audience. They can be sent at any time during the customer lifecycle but are most effective when sent directly after a customer has purchased from you or expressed interest in something specific (e.g., product updates). You can also use promotional emails as part of an event marketing campaign (e.g., Black Friday).

Lifecycle emails

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These are emails designed to move people through a specific sales funnel and encourage them to take action at each stage of the buying process. Some lifecycle emails are sent when someone takes action on your website (for example, adding a product to their cart but not checking out). In contrast, others are triggered manually by you or your customer support team when they see that someone is having trouble completing their purchase.

Final Thoughts!

And that’s it! These are the steps to getting started with email marketing. Follow them, and you’re guaranteed to create a successful email marketing campaign that will bring in new customers and increase sales. Just remember—consistency is key!

How to deal with writer’s block as a content writer?

Content writers are considered more as service providers and less as writers or artists. Hence, when your clients are paying for every assignment, every blog post and every social media update, getting writer’s block seems like a luxury you can ill afford. Your clients are going to demand a refund if you tell them that sorry, I’m going through writer’s block and hence, for the time being I cannot work on the project.

Although I’m writing blog posts for day care centers, blockchain developers, business process automation developers, peanut snack makers, and wall décor retail stores, deep down somewhere, it is a writer who is doing all the job and just like any other writer, this writer to goes through all the travails that other writers go through, such as having writer’s block.

As a content writer who gets paid for every write-up, how do I deal with writer’s block?

What causes writer’s block when you are writing content

Writer’s block is mostly psychological. When a hodgepodge of thoughts invades your brain, it is difficult to think about the topic at hand.

It can be a depressing article you just read. It can be your frustrating social media timeline. It can be heated discussion you had with one of your family members. It can even be some old memory that resurfaces and takes over your thought process. It can be the constant disturbance in your writing environment. Sometimes even physical discomfort throws you off the path. Too much procrastination definitely triggers writer’s block.

As a content writer you are constantly dealing with topics that stump you.

Recently I had to turn down a couple of assignments because the topics were completely out of my league. I could have worked on them, but I knew that the client wouldn’t be paying me for the time I needed to research and educate myself. Hence, if it is a topic for which you need to tax your mind a lot, sometimes it triggers writer’s block.

How to deal with writer’s block when writing content?

I will share my personal experience. You may have your own experience but I’m sharing mine hoping that it may help you. Here are a few things that I do.

Don’t get alarmed by writer’s block

Having a writer’s block doesn’t mean you are a lousy writer, or your imagination has gone for a toss. Even Olympic level athletes don’t feel the same physically every day. They too have their ups and downs. Your brain is after all a muscle. Sometimes it gets tired. Sometimes it gets jolted out of its state of being.

Have confidence in yourself. Tell yourself that this writer’s block is temporary, and it will go away.

Figure out the source of your writer’s block

Sometimes it may not even be a block. Maybe it is a distraction. Maybe, unknowingly, you’re doing something that is stopping you from writing.

Are you hungry? Are you feeling unwell? Is there too much noise around you? Are you having relationship problems? Is there a trigger that sets off your writer’s block?

When you try to analyze your writer’s block dispassionately, it often recedes.

Take distractions seriously

Are you checking Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn repeatedly?

Are you repeatedly checking how many people have liked or responded to your post?

Are you needlessly reading blog posts and articles on other websites?

Are you getting obsessed with repeatedly checking news updates?

People are constantly coming in and going out of your room?

Are you constantly getting notifications on your mobile phone?

Worse, are you constantly responding to those notifications?

Studies have revealed that once you are distracted, on an average it takes you 25 minutes to get your mind focused on the present task.

Eliminate as many distractions as you can. Keep your phone away. Block social media websites using a tool like Cold Turkey. Bolt the door from inside. Keep everything you need – water, coffee, snacks – on your table so that you don’t need to get up.

Go through your previous successful content writing projects

This is to give you a mental boost. When you have writer’s block you begin to doubt your abilities. Going through your previous work reassures you that when push comes to shove, you can do your stuff.

Visit the websites and blogs you have previously written content for. Go through different folders on your computer where you have stored client work. Read your own blog posts and articles. Marvel at your talent.

Recall your previous behavior whenever you have writer’s block

If you have been writing content for some years now, it is not the first time you are having writer’s block. You must have had it multiple times. You came out of it. How?

In my case, I just start working on the project. Often, I know that it is just a matter of writing a few sentences. This is the most difficult thing to do when you are having writer’s block: starting.

Therefore, whenever I’m having writer’s block, I tell myself, look, I just need to start.

Just jot down information without worrying about writing

In many cases writer’s block hits you because you don’t have the needed information with you.

Right now, I am experienced enough to know whether I can work on an assignment or not. Still, sometimes, it is just a matter of collecting my thoughts in front of me. Once I have written the first sentence, once I have jotted down a few facts and figures about the piece of content I need to work on, things begin to flow.

Start writing in monosyllables. Sometimes just a single word. Your sentences don’t need to be grammatically correct. They don’t even need to make sense. Just start writing.

Change the font in your word processor

Sometimes, simply by changing the look of my word processor, my writer’s block goes away.

I love trying out different fonts. Ostentatious fonts can be distracting so I don’t use them, but if a font looks new and elegant, I definitely give it a try. Google Fonts has excellent fonts. There are even websites offering you free fonts.

Although I avoid doing this as much as possible, sometimes I even change my word processor. For example, for a few months I have been working in MS Word (I have been using Word for two decades now, but I keep switching). Before that I was working in Ai Writer without word processing capabilities. In between I have also worked in Sublime Text. I have written complete articles and blog posts on my mobile phone. Occasionally I also work in Google Docs.

Having a writer’s block is quite common. People needlessly attach too much importance to it. Sometimes you don’t feel like getting up in the morning. It is the same thing. Sometimes your brain doesn’t want to use its writing muscle.

Of course, you can’t tell this to your clients. If you have committed a blog post on Wednesday, you must deliver it on Wednesday and you cannot tell your client that you’re going through a writer’s block and hence, you’re going to deliver it on Thursday or Friday. It doesn’t mean there are never delays. But you cannot tell them that the delays are because of writer’s block.