Add a “email me when in-stock” feature

This feature is a no-brainer for sites that frequently sell out of their inventory. However, it’s amazing how few websites actually do it. Here’s how it works: Anytime a customer visits a product detail page that displays an “out of stock” notice, give them the option to be emailed if the item becomes available again. This serves two purposes.  

First, it gives you an opportunity to capture their email address (opt in, of course). And second, it gives you the opportunity to save the sale if you re-stock the item. Now wait a minute, you think, most websites don’t allow people to visit pages of items that are out of stock. That’s true, but keep in mind that search engines will keep these pages indexed for some time. In addition, people frequently bookmark pages of products they would like to purchase in the future. This feature is even more useful if you sell a product that comes in multiple sizes or colors. For example, if you sell widgets that are available in both green and blue, and the green widgets are out of stock, your customer’s can be emailed when that color is re-stocked. Just like that, another lost sale is captured! We implemented this program at C28 (checkout the “Email Me When My Size Is Re-Stocked” link under the options section), and it was very successful at bringing back customers who otherwise would have not ordered.

#1 Email Customers Who Abandon Their Shopping Carts 

An extremely smart tactic to bring back lost sales is to checkup on those people who never complete the checkout process. If you have already captured the customers’ email address, you can easily send them a friendly message informing them that you’re currently trying to improve your checkout process, and you apologize if they found anything confusing. In addition, you might want to give them a coupon code as an additional incentive for bringing them back.

In my experience with one client, customers were completely blown away that the company cared enough to check up with them. The program was extremely successful, and brought in thousands in sales.

The keyword here is mass.

The pandemic of declining open rates and increasing opt out rates with bulk Email Marketing today is a serious problem. These days, a full inbox is about as overwhelming as the ad section of the Sunday newspaper or a mailbox full junk mail. There’s simply too much, and subscribers can’t take it all in. Because email marketing is no longer a novelty, subscribers won’t simply open an email because in comes from a name they recognize.  So what’s the solution?

Personalized Subject lines with the recipient’s name? This might help the open rates slightly, but if there isn’t personalized content, the user will again grow tired of the irrelevancy.

One of the greatest examples of customized email marketing today is I-Tunes. With a few clicks, I can select which artists I’m interested in, and request to be notified everytime a new album or single is available. The result? At least for me, I open the email every single time. Why, because they have trained me to. I know that the content I’m getting is personalized and customized for me and me alone.

Fortunately, it seems many long time email marketers are finally realizing that mass email marketing is on it’s last breath. Marketers must consider that the shot-gun approach to email marketing is doing more damage than good. Sure, if you email your whole list every week with generic messages, some people will always respond. However, the burnout factor must be considered.