Email has been said to be the cornerstone of a great eCommerce store. It is one of the most personal and useful marketing tools that a drop shipping business can use.

By using automated email funnels, also called sales funnels, you can help boost your monthly revenue by 30%. Doing it correctly can be challenging for someone new to email marketing. However, once this technique is mastered and implemented in your drop shipping business, the return on investment will be thrilling!

I will be the first to admit that writing proper email campaigns can be tricky. That’s why I’m providing you with some vital information that features five of our most successful email campaigns.

5 Types of Email Marketing Campaigns for eCommerce Stores

Today we will outline the different kinds of marketing campaigns that can be used for your Shopify store.

Let’s be clear. There are no magic tricks or brand secrets that haven’t been figured out already. These are standard business practices that work for almost any drop shipping store. Once they are implemented correctly, they will work for yours as well!

Understanding The Sales Funnel’s Place In Your Drop Shipping Business

A sales funnel refers to the steps that help lead potential customers to buy. When we are talking about sales funnels for your Shopify drop shipping store, there are multiple steps and phases that we will explain in detail below.

For your Shopify store, we will be using Triggers that automatically send emails pertaining to what step a customer is on in the buyer's journey. Triggers include: 

• Post Purchase
• Abandoned Cart
• Opt-In
• Engagement
• Promotional

With automated email campaigns, once someone buys (or they may not have...yet!), the real marketing begins. You’ll put together a series of emails that are automatically sent after certain triggers are activated. An example of a trigger is when a customer buys something from your store or they left something in their cart and never made the purchase. By using these different triggers, we can market to the potential customer in the perfect way to make them a buyer.

If you are part of Drop Ship Lifestyle, you already have your traffic sources set. These sources bring the traffic to your Shopify drop shipping store. They may include:

• Google PLAs
• Bing Ads
• Blog banners
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• YouTube
• Organic Searches

We know that some people who arrive at your store will buy right away. That’s the best scenario! However, often times they won’t buy. This is okay because they are still a valuable lead that we can convert into a customer!

How do we convert them into a buyer? Triggers and good email campaigns! By using sales funnels, which we will cover below, you can turn that lead into a valuable customer for your drop shipping business.

Shopify Email Marketing: Sales Funnels Basics

With automated email campaigns, even if someone doesn’t buy, that is when the real marketing begins! After putting together a series of emails, these will be automatically sent once a trigger is activated (see how important these are?!).

When using Shopify, I highly suggest using the email service Klaviyo. They refer to their email sequences as ‘Flows’. Below is a screenshot of the first step when setting up a flow.

First, you will want to set up flows that are triggered by Shopify actions. This part is vital for your sales funnels and email campaigns, and is a step closer to the fun part!

Shopify Email Marketing Triggers

Post Purchase

If someone goes to your Shopify store and places an order, that customer and all of their information are transferred from Shopify into your Klaviyo account. The Klaviyo system will already know that they are a new customer, and kick off the automated email sequence.

Abandoned Cart

When someone puts an item in their cart and starts the checkout process, but doesn’t complete their purchase, they are considered an ‘abandoned cart’ lead. This is a very common trigger for email campaigns.

When this happens, Klaviyo will be triggered and start an automated email sequence with the goal to get the potential buyer to finish their purchase.

There are different strategies for how to turn an abandoned cart lead into a buyer. One technique frequently used is to provide a discount or coupon to make them more inclined to purchase.

Opt-In

A common interaction with your drop shipping store visitors is when they opt-in for a promo or discount. This is a great way to turn these leads into customers. Some promotional ideas to get potential customers to opt-in is offering a 10% coupon on their first order, free shipping on their next order, or free content (typically a PDF or eBook).

After they give their name and email, an email sequence will begin that first includes their promo or freebie. This is an excellent way to build a great list of leads, and give them offers for promotions and incentives that will turn them into buyers!

Since opt-in leads have not purchased or left an item abandoned in their cart, you will want to have a few different sequences to turn them into buyers.

We will quickly give an overview of the difference between the Initiation and Engagement sequence for Opt-In Leads.

Opt-In Leads: The Initiation Sequence

This email is vital. It is sent and is an introduction to the customer. You will want to introduce yourself, and begin building trust with the customer. By building trust, you are setting yourself up for these leads to become buyers, and return customers.  

Opt-In Leads: The Engagement Sequence

The engagement sequence is when you will introduce your store and brand. It is set to build value for your store, and get customers acquainted with your brand.

Although it could be tempting to have these sequences combined into one, it isn’t suggested.

First, we don’t want to bombard the customer with too much information, or it can have the opposite effect we want.

Second, this gives us a great opportunity to send another email to the customer with more information, but not too much!

Now I am going to give you five different email campaigns that you can use for any drop shipping store.

Email Campaign 1: Initiation & Engagement

The first email sequence that will be sent is the initiation and engagement email campaign. As we explained above, this campaign is meant to introduce yourself, and your brand. The goal is to build value with potential customers, and this campaign is crucial for doing just that!

If someone becomes a lead on your website, they could have come from a number of sources including:

• Being a new customer.
• They abandoned their cart.
• They opted in to receive your newsletter.
• They opted in to receive a coupon or promotion.
• And many more!

Let’s face it. It doesn’t matter how they became a lead, but since their email is in your system they can be engaged with using these triggers, sequences, and emails.

What The Initiation Email Campaign Looks Like

The campaign will be three separate emails sent in a specific sequence.

Email #1: This email goes out instantly. Either from becoming a new customer, an abandoned cart, or opt-ins for your newsletter or freebie. This email is sent right away and will reflect the appropriate message to the customer (“Here is your freebie!”, “You left an item in your cart, here is 15% off”, “Thank you for your purchase!”, etc.).

Email #2: This email will be delayed another 24-hours. Remember, using Klaviyo this is all automated. Again, this email will reflect the appropriate message depending on the trigger.

Email #3: After another delay from when Email #2 was sent, the third email in the sequence will be sent to the customer or potential buyer.

This email campaign isn’t going to make you money directly. People aren’t going to click links inside the email to instantly buy.

But here’s the deal…

This is guaranteed to be your biggest long-term money maker. It has been used time, and time again, and for a good reason. It works!

Email Campaign 2: Abandoned Cart

What if I told you that this email campaign is going to be your biggest money maker? You may not believe it, but it’s true.

Why? Because this audience who will receive this email campaign has already shown you buying intention. They’ve already added an item to their cart, and you know exactly what they want. You just have to finish the sale.

Why would someone abandon their cart? A few reasons could be:

• They became busy or distracted before they could finish the purchase.
• They want to do some research before buying.
• Something technical came up on their end.
• They are debating if they want to buy the item or not.

Whatever the reason, they are only a few clicks away from making a purchase.

What The Abandoned Cart Campaign Looks Like

Now, it is your job to get them to come back and buy. We can do that by correctly using an email campaign to re-engage with the potential buyer.

The Abandoned Cart email campaign is six different emails sent over 10 days. Although this may seem like a long time, it is optimal for turning abandoned cart leads into buyers.

We don’t just want to email people the same thing in all six emails. That is a big NO. Instead, we can offer some of the following:

• Offer a coupon for their purchase. 
• Ask people for feedback.
• Attempt to have them re-engage with us.

Our goal is to start a conversation to get them to buy from our store.

Using Klaviyo, the first email is sent within four hours and the second within twenty-four hours. These first two emails are critical, and are going to make you the most money!

Email Campaign 3: Post Purchase

The third email campaign will be sent after a customer has made a purchase. This is triggered after someone buys from your Shopify drop shipping store.

What are the different goals of this email marketing campaign?

Reduce Buyers Remorse

The first few emails will include information about when their order is going to ship, and any tracking information. While you keep them informed about the progress of their purchase, you will want to mix in some messaging to help reduce buyers remorse. 

One important goal of this campaign is to reduce any buyers remorse. Buyers remorse is a real thing and can push people to return products they have purchased. We will use this email campaign to reduce that chance.

If you are doing high-ticket drop shipping that I teach in Drop Ship Lifestyle, most customers are going to be first-time customers. By utilizing this email campaign, we will help reduce buyers remorse by reinforcing their decision of making the purchase.

Increasing The Lifetime Value of Each Customer

Another purpose of the post-purchase email campaign is to increase the lifetime value of the customer. What is ‘Lifetime Value’? This means how much money a customer is worth over an extended period of time. 

This can come in many forms including upselling, cross-sells, and referrals. 

During the middle of the post-purchase campaign, you will want to offer things such as discount codes, complementary products, referral codes for friends, and many other options that can benefit the customer.

Gathering Testimonials and Reviews

The final goal of this email campaign is to capture reviews and testimonials.

It is no secret that having great reviews from customers on your website will increase your conversions. There is no better time to ask the customer to give a review than within the first couple of weeks after they purchase.

Towards the end of the 14 days, you will attempt to get a review or testimonial. You can offer for customers to send photos of the product in their home, fill out surveys, or write a review to feature on your website.

The Post-Purchase email campaign will consist of nine emails sent over the next 14 days.

Email Campaign 4: Engagement

The fourth campaign that you are going to set up is what we call the engagement email campaign.

Up until now we have had leads coming in from a few specific triggers, but what happens after they finish those email sequences? This email campaign is focused on keeping your brand in front of your leads and customers. You want them to think about your business as often as you do.

These emails are typically content-based. I'm not going to get into exactly kind of content you should create for your business, because there are so many options and techniques.

Some information that you can feature in these emails are…

• Announcing a new supplier.
• Introducing a new product.
• Talking about what’s going on with your business.

The Engagement email campaign could either be sent weekly or bi-weekly.

Email Campaign 5: Promotional

The fifth email campaign will be your second biggest money maker, after the abandoned cart email sequence.

These campaigns are promotional and event-based email sequences that are targeted to your entire email list. It won’t matter if they are a previous customer, or have never bought from your store. Everyone on your email list will receive this email.

Promotional email campaigns will be sent depending on what event is happening.

What does “Event-Based” mean? These events could include:

• Black Friday
• 4th of July
• Easter
• Christmas
• Memorial Day
• Labor Day

Every time you have a chance to run a promotional campaign that aligns with one of these days or events, you should run one!

It could even be the same promotions or discounts you have offered before. A certain percent off, free shipping, or offering a free bonus gift are some possible incentives to offer.

Grab Their Attention!

Whatever you use to grab your customers’ attention one, you can do again!

We will not dive into all of the many details of what these emails should look like right now.

Check out the Drop Ship Blueprint course that is more information than a simple article could hold.

(FYI - The course includes email templates that you can plug-and-play into your store!)

An Important Thing to Remember About Shopify Email Marketing

Once someone's email is on your list, they are in your drop shipping stores ‘ecosystem’. They could have opted-in for a promotion, joined your newsletter, abandoned their shopping cart, or made a purchase from you.

Now, it is vital to stay engaged with your previous and potential customers by sending them content emails weekly or bi-weekly. Along with events throughout the year, the engagement emails will transition to promotional emails, and move you closer to making a sale!

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to start building your email campaigns and make more revenue with your business!

Are you currently using automated emails sales funnels for your business? Do you have any questions about these sequences? Let me know in the comments, and we’ll have a conversation.