How To Use Email To Grow Your Shopify Business From Nothing

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

Source

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

Source

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

Source

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!

James Patterson’s storytelling advice to hook readers

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Storytelling advice from James Patterson

James Patterson, according to this Forbes article, has sold more than 400 copies of his books.

Consequently, he knows a thing or two about storytelling.

Storytelling isn’t just important in books and stories, even marketing and advertising copiously use storytelling to hook the audience.

What is storytelling in content writing and copywriting?

Storytelling in content writing and copywriting means using a narrative to communicate a message instead of simply explaining the features and advantages of your products and services.

Storytelling helps your consumers understand why they should care about your proposition.

It is the story of customers and clients who have used your product and benefited from it.

It is a case study, but more conversational and interactive.

Something like,

Peter was quite frustrated with his current accounting software.

The situation was so bad that he was thinking of shutting down the business itself.

He was in a financial crunch.

Then he came across our cloud-based accounting software.

The benefit of storytelling is that people can immediately relate.

Reading stories is always more engaging than reading simple product descriptions and sales pitches.

How to hook your readers with storytelling

James Patterson, just like many other copywriters and storytellers, stresses on the importance of the first sentence.

The first sentence of your narrative is very important.

When you tell your story, it is your first sentence that hooks your reader.

He claims in one of the interviews that once he wrote his first sentence more than 40 times before finalizing on a sentence.

According to Stephen King,

An opening line (first sentence) should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.

Even in the context of copywriting, the job of your headline is to encourage people to read your first sentence, and the job of the first sentence is to encourage people to read your second sentence

This goes on.

Hence, you can say that every sentence is important because every sentence prompts your reader to read the next sentence.

Don’t start your article or blog post with a long narrative.

In the first sentence itself, hook the reader.

A good approach is, immediately begin the story.

Make something happen.

Something like,

As Peter logged into our dashboard for the first time, a plethora of opportunities suddenly opened to him.

What were those opportunities?

What dashboard are we talking about?

Readers will be intrigued, and they will want to read further.

This isn’t meant to be a long post.

I just came across an interesting insight from James Patterson and felt like sharing it with my readers.

5 ways quality content affects your content marketing

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5 ways quality content affects your content marketing

There is no denying the fact that quality content is the core building block of a well-established digital marketing strategy.

A compelling and well-structured content shares your brand story and ultimately helps in viewer conversion.

Besides imparting the necessary information, quality content is engaging that helps to grasp and retain the viewer’s attention.

It also triggers their inquisitiveness which makes them want to learn more about the topic.

Every digital marketer, as well as business experts, know the value of high-quality content.

Simply speaking, if you don’t put enough emphasis on generating quality content, no marketing strategies, no matter how good they are, will work.

What is high quality content?

Before divulging further into the ways quality content affects marketing, let us first understand what it exactly is.

Its common characteristics include informative, and helpful.

Quality content also helps to answer all the probable questions regarding the topic.

Moreover, it is unique and original and targets human readers and not search engines.

However, sometimes even the most talented writers commit errors that degrade the content quality.

For example, they make it complicated and therefore hard to understand.

Poor content is also unoriginal, irrelevant, monotonous and tries to manipulate the readers by sharing false information.

Thus, these need to be avoided at all costs.

5 ways quality content impacts marketing

Better conversions

The content you post on your page is one of the primary factors that influence conversions.

The information educates the reader about your brand and its services, a crucial step that determines their purchasing decision.

Besides this, the content also helps to establish a connection between the customer and the company.

This is especially important in the case of blogs as they have immense potential to attract traffic.

I recommend you use original graphics instead of stock photos in your content as the former is more effective due to its uniqueness.

Moreover, please make sure to guide readers on the next step they should take and always include a Call To Action (CTA) button.

Earn customer trust

As already stated above, one of the most common characteristics of quality content is its value and helpfulness.

If readers derive both of these things from your content, they are more likely to put their trust in your brand.

In recent times, buyers have become more cautious, and they do not like to read pretentious content that tries to oversell.

They want to make their own decisions.

Informational and quality content allows them to take their own time to make educated decisions and purchase your company’s services or products.

There is no point in trying to bamboozle or manipulate a modern customer.

They would want to stay loyal to a brand that is successful in delivering all the promises that had been mentioned in the content.

Stand out in the market

High-quality content enables you to stand out from the rest of your competitors in the industry.

Simply speaking, it puts you in a position of authority.

If your website content is credible and informational, there is a good chance of gaining a higher search engine rank, which in turn attracts a higher number of customers.

Quality content also showcases your expertise in the particular field and answers the readers’ inquiries.

Thus, you appear as an industry expert which increases your brand’s trustworthiness.

New business opportunities

Besides gaining more customers, quality content might also attract new investors and business partners.

There is no need to hard sell your business products and services when high-quality content already exists on your website.

If your blog post or some other content featuring yourself or your company succeeds in creating a favorable impression, several profitable investment or partnership opportunities might arise which will help in your business growth.

Save money

There is no denying the fact that marketing is a costly process.

Besides, the money charged by freelancers or in-office full-time writers, you might have to spend way more money on digital marketing strategies such as paid searches if the content is not up to mark.

If you compare marketing methods such as traditional marketing, display advertising and content marketing, there is no better process than content marketing if you wish to garner a greater audience on a limited budget.

How to write quality content?

Now that we have a brief idea of what quality content is and the role it plays in marketing, it is important to know how to write it.

Please remember that you are writing content for the audience and not for yourself or the search engines.

You must consider what your audience would like to read about and make sure to answer and solve all their probable questions and problems regarding the topic.

Research is extremely important.

You need to devote ample amounts of time to proper research.

This not only helps in making the content informational and accurate but also builds language proficiency.

Please make sure that your content is not just informational in a bland way.

People would not prefer reading the entire article if it’s not engaging and captivating enough.

The content structure is also included in this.

There need to be proper headings and subheadings and original images.

Readability also plays a significant role.

People would not like to spend their time deciphering or decoding hard words and complicated sentences.

Moreover, quality content is credible and trustworthy.

As already mentioned before, modern buyers do not prefer hard sales that do not live up to their expectations.

Wrapping up

Thus, we can conclude that high-quality content is a principal factor that determines the success of a digital marketing campaign to a large extent.

It establishes a level of trustworthiness with your target audience and provides them with interesting and valuable information that cannot be found elsewhere.

Track the traffic and leads generated by specific content such as a blog post to ensure if it is doing well.

Lastly, please remember that in the long run, content quality overtakes quantity.

5 SEO copywriting tips to improve your rankings and conversion rate

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SEO copywriting tips to improve your rankings and conversion rate

Effective copywriting follows a multipronged approach.

It aims to improve your search engine rankings organically.

It also aims to improve your conversion rate in addition to meaningfully engaging your visitors.

Many clients these days prefer to hire SEO copywriting services instead of content writing services because then they can get the best of both worlds.

What exactly is SEO copywriting?

Is it same as SEO content writing?

Not necessarily.

Remember that the end goal of copywriting is to convert leads.

The end goal of content writing is to generate organic traffic.

Therefore, in the conventional sense, you use content writing to generate organic traffic and then you use copywriting to convert that traffic into paying customers and clients.

Another big difference between copywriting and content writing is that when you write copy for a web page or even a blog post, there is a clearly defined CTA (call-to-action).

The purpose of general content is to provide information and generate awareness whereas the purpose of copywriting is to prompt people to take action.

SEO copywriting means writing the copy in such a manner that it also helps you improve your search engine rankings.

Just because you are writing copy to generate leads it doesn’t mean search engine rankings are irrelevant.

Just as search engine rankings are important for your average blog post, they are also important for your business web pages, for which, copywriting is required.

What type of content requires SEO copywriting?

Frankly, anything.

It is often said that copywriting is mostly required for promotional material but even when you are writing for your blog posts and articles, you can wear the hat of a copywriter and write a convincing copy to make people take an action.

This is especially important when you are writing a business blog.

Nonetheless, you may require SEO copywriting for following types of content:

Main website copy
Landing pages
Product descriptions
Blog posts and articles.

One of the biggest benefits of SEO copywriting is that it forces a writer to write both for the search engines and the users.

Listed below are 5 SEO copywriting tips that can help you improve your search engine rankings as well as conversion rate.

Make a list of questions that people ask

Google loves questions so much that it ranks web pages and blog posts providing answers to query-based questions higher than other web pages and blog posts.

Therefore, a query like, “How can I improve my SEO copywriting?” brings better and targeted results than “best SEO copywriting services”.

You can prepare a list of frequently asked questions.

You can use websites like AnswerThePublic, Quora, and Reddit to find out what questions people are asking pertaining to a certain field.

Why prepare copy based on questions?

People type complete questions – complete queries – when they ask precise questions.

If Google thinks that your answer precisely matches the question being asked, it features your content as a snippet, increasing your click-through-rate by almost 35%.

Additionally, you express yourself better when you are providing answers to straightforward questions.

It makes your copy easy flowing.

Use your main keyword in the title

The title of a web page is different from the main headline.

The title appears as a hyperlink in your search engine listings, just above the description.

In HTML parlance, it is also called “meta title”.

The headline on the other hand is the big font message that you see at the top of a blog post or web page.

They can be same, and they can be different depending on your preference and SEO needs.

People tend to click more on the links that contain the words they have just used in the query.

Your click-through-rate is important for better search engine rankings.

The more people click your search listings, the higher they begin to appear.

This is because when more people click your link Google thinks that it contains the relevant information for the query just used.

Use the language your target audience uses

This is one of the most important SEO copywriting tips.

Why is it important to use the language your target audience uses?

People normally use search queries in the language they are comfortable in.

Since a big portion of searches are voice searches these days, people search the way they speak.

They use conversational language.

Visit forums.

Spend some time on social media websites.

Directly interact with your customers and clients.

Carefully observe the way they talk to you.

The way they talk about your product or service may be completely different than how you talk about your product or service

For example, as a mobile phone manufacturer you may talk about the AMOLED display as a great feature but for a user, the benefit is that he or she can watch videos clearer than an average flat screen TV.

As a SaaS provider, you may find the feature that your software can be used on every device but for the user, the more important aspect might be that he or she can subscribe for a lesser fee instead of paying a hefty one-time fee for a bulky software.

Write for the search intent

Your SEO copywriting becomes more effective if you write your copy based on search intent.

Search intent is the intention with which an individual uses Google or any other search engine.

People have distinct intentions and when you are writing copy you should be able to recognize that distinction.

Some people are simply looking for information.

They have no intention of doing business with you right now.

They don’t need to be convinced.

They simply need to be engaged with useful, relevant information so that by the time they are ready to do business with you, they recognize you and respect your opinion.

Their search intent is informational.

Some people, although ready to do business, haven’t made up their minds yet.

They need more information.

They need comparisons

They are ready to be sold to.

They are interested in reading FAQs, product comparisons, testimonials, and reviews.

They may be searching for something like, “pros and cons of Google Workspace and Windows 365”.

Their search intent is commercial.

Then some people are ready to buy.

They are searching for something like, “the best copywriting services for my accounting website”, or, “looking for SEO copywriter”.

Their search intent is transactional.

Write your copy targeting different searcher intents for better search engine rankings and conversion.

Don’t cram multiple keywords in a single document

Sometimes to save cost client send me a long list of keywords that need to be incorporated into a single document.

This is bad both for SEO and conversion rate.

I prefer to use only three keywords when I’m writing a blog post or web page.

One primary keyword and two related keywords.

When you are given a list of 10 or 15 keywords, unnecessarily you have to write extra words to incorporate all the keywords.

This dilutes the effectiveness of your entire copywriting process.

Whether you are doing SEO copywriting for your own website or working for a client, make sure that per page or per blog post you cover just 2-3 keywords.

Write in-depth blog posts and web pages

Both Google and your human readers prefer long form content – 1300-1500 words.

My average length is 1000-1200 words.

But, writing too many words doesn’t mean you fill up your blog posts and web pages with useless information.

Write long form content only when you have highly useful information to share with your readers.

Assuming you are delivering useful information, long form content makes readers spend more time on your website.

This reduces your bounce rate.

It increases engagement rate.

It helps you build your authority.

Long form content attracts backlinks from other websites and blogs.

Since lots of information is present on a single source, and since your bounce rate is low, Google begins to improve your search engine rankings for those pieces of content.

For improving your search engine rankings as well as engagement rate, have a long-term target for your SEO copywriting projects.

This is applicable to your own website and the websites of your clients.

Don’t overcommit.

Don’t promise results within a month or so.

No matter how excellent your blog posts and articles are, you cannot deliver tangible results in one or two months.

At the minimum, make a commitment of 6 months

It takes around 6-8 months of sustained SEO copywriting to experience some observable results in terms of better rankings and higher conversion rate.

What is thought leadership content and how it helps you grow your business?

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Writing thought leadership content

Thought leadership enables you to demonstrate your expertise in a particular field, profession, or topic.

Many professionals and marketers these days strive to promote thought leadership through strategic content.

They write the content to show their command over their subject area and demonstrate to their audience how passionate and deeply involved they are in the subject matter.

Thought leadership content can include

Infographics
E-books
White papers
Blog posts
Newspaper and magazine articles
Podcasts
Webinars
Original research-based articles and blog posts
Social media updates

The main stress through thought leadership is original thinking, research, independent opinions, and an ability to predict future.

Thought leaders can evaluate industry trends.

They participate in ongoing debates.

They keep a tab on the current events and have something valuable to add to them.

When it pays to publish thought leadership content?

Thought leadership takes time to nurture.

You cannot suddenly start publishing authoritative content without making a name for yourself for being there in the hub of activities.

This Search Engine Journal article suggests that before starting on publishing your thought leadership content, increase your visibility.

Building thought leadership through content takes prolonged reputation management.

You need to manage public relations and social media.

You need to remain active and interact with your followers.

Participate in ongoing conversations.

Begin to be recognized as an expert in your field, or at least someone who always has something valuable to say.

Once people begin to recognize you, you can start publishing smaller pieces of leadership content, gradually moving towards comprehensive work that people will trust and pay attention to.

Why should you publish thought leadership content?

It earns you respect among the peers.

It makes people trust you.

People pay more attention to what you have to say.

They take your words seriously.

When it comes to doing business, people prefer to work with leaders rather than someone they don’t know.

Thought leadership content is good for your SEO.

In most of the cases, thought leadership content is written in long form – that is, you may write anywhere between 3000-5000 words.

Google prefers long form content because it provides comprehensive information at a single spot, to its visitors.

More people link to thought leadership content than average content.

This further improves your search engine rankings.

Thought leadership content improves your domain authority and your overall ranking potential.

It gets shared more on social media, further improving your visibility.

It can be repurposed into smaller content pieces.

How to develop a thought leadership content strategy?

Developing your thought leadership content requires planning and strategy.

You need to clearly identify your area of expertise.

What original research have you done?

How is your solution different from the solutions being provided by other businesses or thought leaders?

Why is your take different?

How have you overtaken challenges and tackled problems within your business?

What have you learned from your mistakes?

How will you publish your thought leadership content?

You may like to read the entire blog post in the above-mentioned link.