Email Marketing Strategies For Supply Chain and Logistics
We live in a digital world, and this has changed the way we do business. Gone are the days when you printed out brochures, passed them around to all of your customers, and hoped that people would call your company to find out more about what you offer.
Instead, we’ve seen a massive shift towards email marketing strategies for supply chain and logistics companies. Let’s take a look at why this is happening now—and how you can use clear subject lines, tie your offer to an urgent deadline, be contextual (with mobile users especially), personalize your content, and get straight to the point while keeping things simple!
Is Email Marketing Old-school?
Come on, I bet your first thought about email marketing in 2022 wasn’t too positive! You probably assumed it was outdated and didn’t do the job anymore. How utterly wrong you are! While you’re wallowing in doubt, someone is optimizing their supply chain and logistics company’s processes with the latest trends by using email newsletters.
Why? Here are some facts that will lead you to surprising conclusions:
- While you can use any of the communication channels available, none of them (including the super popular social networks and custom solutions) can boast that many users. One in two people in the world and virtually all Internet users use email. This means that you have an immense field for reaching potential customers;
- Email is the most personal form of contact, especially when dealing with partners around the world. For this reason, 81% of small businesses rely on email marketing to attract new customers. Moreover, billions of email users are constantly checking their emails, making it easy for your company to stay in touch with clients. For many businesses, like Evisa Express, email can be the main way to reach customers. Most logistics companies don’t use digital marketing to the fullest. They are missing out on a large potential client base;
- The use of email marketing as a communication tool can be extremely beneficial to supply chain and logistics companies. For example, it can provide information about supply disruptions. After products leave the factory, they travel to distribution centers and stores. Email can help ease the process by sending timely notifications regarding purchase order status, compliance, and rate changes;
- Communication with suppliers and customers can be simplified. For example, messages can be promptly and effortlessly forwarded to those in charge. You can also make use of SOP templates to provide direction so that everyone in your workplace adheres to procedures;
- The holiday shopping season is when consumers purchase across various retail channels, from online to big-box retailers. Managing a supply chain during holiday demand is challenging, but email can help alleviate the pressure.
In short, to make the product’s journey from manufacturer and retailer to consumer as seamless and swift as possible, email marketing helps fine-tune the process. Fast communication is a key element of successful operations.
Wonder how to set up an email marketing campaign to reap the rewards of your efforts? Keep reading this article!
Segment Your Users
There are many ready-made solutions and services for optimizing and segmenting your marketing campaigns because doing it manually is extremely difficult and frankly ineffective. It helps in the successful personalization of emails, which we’ll talk about later in the article.
Depending on the nature of your business, you can divide your customers into different segments:
- Country;
- City;
- Religion;
- Gender;
- Age;
- Profession, etc.
If you’re dealing with the B2B sector, the segments will be different.
This is probably the most important and difficult aspect of building a successful email marketing campaign. And it’s definitely worth giving your full attention to.
Personalize Your Content
Personalization can help you increase your open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. For example, personalizing the subject line of an email can help you increase your open rate by as much as 30 percent. In addition to customizing the subject line, try personalizing the conversation in your messages based on the recipient’s past behavior:
- A recent study shows that 55% of consumers open personalized emails;
- 65% of respondents say that they are more likely to purchase from a brand that knows their buying history.
However, personalization is not a magical solution.
It takes a strategic approach to reach your target audience. In order to make your marketing campaign more effective, you have to first define your objectives and identify your metrics. Measurements such as click-through rates, engagement rates, and conversion rates will help you determine if your content is effective.
We recommend seeking help from services that professionally segment your audience and help you personalize your emails. You can even go a step further and consider email translation services to reach multilingual audience.Unfortunately, we have to emphasize this frustrating fact: non-personalized emails don’t work anymore.
If you send the same email to thousands of your customers around the world (different genders, ages, and time zones), you’ll get poor open rates.
Be Contextual
Contextual email marketing is about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. It’s using data to create a personalized experience for your customers and it can have a huge impact on your bottom line. If your team isn’t already leveraging contextual email marketing, you’re missing out on something big.
With contextual email marketing, you get an insider view into what people want based on their behaviors and preferences. This allows you to tailor certain emails based on things like past purchase history, location, and even time of day!
For example, if your client has not turned to your services for a long time, it is worth reminding them of the existence of your worthwhile and reliable company. Moreover, you will be able to do it at the most opportune moment of the day and in such a way that the client will definitely be unable to refrain from opening your letter.
This kind of personalization helps make sure that only relevant content gets through – and better yet – that relevant content is actually opened by readers since it’s customized specifically for them!
Get Straight to the Point
You’ve got their attention, now you need to keep them reading!
This is where things get tricky because, with so much content out there, it can be hard to get someone’s interest off the bat. But once you do have their attention, you shouldn’t waste it by going off on tangents or getting distracted by details.
Make your email short and sweet—no one likes long emails! Get straight to the point of what you want from them and don’t let yourself wander too far off track. If they like what they see in the first few lines of your copy (or “subject line”), chances are pretty good that they will read all the way through it without skipping ahead or closing down their browser immediately afterward.
Choose the tone of your narrative so that it stands out from the competition. For example, start using a humorous tone if other companies in your sector do not.
If your competitors write a welcome letter like this:
“Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter!
Find out more about our services on our website.”
Perhaps, you should change the rhetoric completely:
“Hello, Pete! We’re happy to welcome you to our mailing list. We won’t bombard you with tens of emails per day for no reason. But sometimes, we will share some important info.
Here’s your promo code for 10% off your first order.
Check out our site, we’ve got a lot of great deals right now!”
Keep It Simple
In your email marketing strategy, it’s important to keep things simple.
Use short sentences and readable paragraphs. The average adult reads approximately 250 words per minute. So, if the average email is around 1,000 words long (and most of them are longer), then readers may have trouble keeping up with what you’re saying by the time they reach the bottom of your message. If possible, break up long content into shorter segments so that readers can digest each section separately before moving on to another one.
You should also consider including images or icons in your messages because these content elements will help give them some structure which makes them easier for people to read and understand as well as providing an opportunity for interaction between you and recipients who might want more information about something mentioned in one of these sections.
Use Interactive Content
Supply chain and logistics companies can leverage interactive content to increase conversions and generate leads. Interactive content can be the following:
- Quizzes,
- Polls,
- Calendars,
- Giveaways, etc.
In contrast, static content is an ineffective way to engage your audience. Consider adding lead generation forms to your interactive content to ensure it is engaging.
An interactive email can help lower bounce rates and keep your readers’ attention longer. Add slideshows, quizzes, and surveys to keep users interested. You can use various quiz maker or survey maker tools that let you create interactive content with ease. Email automation software and marketing platforms can help you embed multimedia content in your emails. Interactive emails are more effective than plain-text ones because the reader has to act to engage with them.
One effective interactive marketing strategy for supply chain and logistics companies is user-generated content. These companies can also leverage content marketing to educate their customers about new technologies and innovations in the logistics industry.
Optimize for Mobile
With the rise of mobile, it’s important to optimize your email campaigns for viewing on a phone or tablet. Make sure the font is large enough to read, use nice images for the email, and try making your call-to-action button (CTA) bigger than usual so that it can be tapped easily on smaller screens.
Having a CTA that links directly back into your website could make all the difference between someone clicking through or hitting delete!
You should also consider using responsive design when designing emails so that they look good across all devices, but if you have time constraints, this may not be an option for you at this point.
Finally, remember to include a catchy subject line! A recent study revealed that 42% of emails opened on mobile devices were read because the subject line was compelling enough.
What Are Email Marketing Strategies for Supply Chain and Logistics Companies?
Email marketing is a powerful tool for supply chain and logistics companies. Not only do emails get maximum attention, but they can be forwarded to the right person or clicked on for more information. When done properly, email marketing can help your supply chain and logistics company become a leader in its industry. Here are some strategies to help your supply chain and logistics business achieve higher email open and click-through rates.
- Be aware of how the Internet has changed the nature of business. More people are using email today than ever before. As a result, supply chain and logistics companies should keep up with current email marketing trends;
- Create a personalized email experience. Remember that each customer is different, so each one may have different preferences. It can help you make better customer recommendations and send them helpful resources. It can lead to more sales. And last but not least, make sure your emails are attractive;
- Set clear expectations for your customers. Although some people may buy things last minute or in panic mode, they still expect great service and fast delivery. If your supply chain can meet their expectations, email marketing can make all the difference. You can send customers holiday messages with simple solutions to help them navigate the supply chain and improve their shopping experience;
- Timing is everything. Consumers expect to receive emails right away after making a purchase online or registering for an e-newsletter. However, consumers have different time zones, so the frequency of email messages may vary significantly. For example, a workaholic may check his or her email only on weekdays, while a self-employed parent may not check it until Friday evening. Therefore, the best way to send emails is to plan ahead and send them out at different times of the day.
Conclusion
Once you’ve implemented these strategies in your own email marketing, you should see a significant increase in the number of clicks that you get. And as always, don’t forget to test out different approaches until you find what works best for your audience.