There's no denying that the online fashion market is massively on the rise. In the last few years, dozens of fashion websites have appeared and their popularity has skyrocketed. What is it that makes them so successful and how can you mimic this success for your own online boutique?
One of the major keys to success for massive online fashion brands is a water-tight email marketing strategy. Email is proven to be an effective converter. In fact, a study by SaleCycle showed that 50% of respondents claimed to buy from marketing emails at least once a month. Nailing your email marketing strategy is the best way for you to guarantee more website traffic and, in turn, more sales.
However, as a smaller online boutique, it can be challenging to get up and running with an email marketing strategy. Creating an email campaign to rival the big guns is hard; especially when they're so experienced and have been in the game so long.
Creating an email marketing strategy to compete with the likes of huge online retailers such as Boohoo seems impossible.
To help you out, we've done some digging to try and find out more about the techniques used by some of the leading brands in the online fashion industry. Get inspired and adapt your email marketing strategy using example emails from online giants such as Boohoo, ASOS and Missguided.
Here's how you can learn from the best and use email marketing to boost sales for your online boutique...
Get to know your customers
In order to perfectly optimise your emails for your recipients, you first need to know who you are sending to. It's important not to think of your customers as one homogenous group. It's also important that you make email content specific and don't try to create generalised emails to suit multiple readers.
Find out more about your customers during the newsletter sign up process. Asking a few quick and straightforward questions is a useful way to get the information you need from customers to make your emails better for them.
On their website, Zalando asks customers opting in to receive the newsletter whether they are interested in men's or women's fashion. Knowing this information allows Zalando to send them the email content most relevant to their shopping preferences:
Find out more about your customers' interests and preferences during the sign up process.
You should also consider giving subscribers the chance to determine the email content they want to receive from the get go. This increases the likelihood that they will stay subscribed, as the content they're receiving is content they have actively shown an interest in.
During the sign up process, ASOS allows new customers to choose which types of email newsletter they want to receive. They also go the extra mile by including a brief explanation of each newsletter type. This kind of clarity is something readers will definitely appreciate.
Let customers determine the content they will be receiving to help prevent them from unsubscribing in future.
Send welcome offers to new customers
Getting your customer to sign up to your mailing list is just the first step. Entice them to make their first purchase on your online boutique by sending out a tempting welcome offer.
Whether it's a percentage discount, $x off, free shipping, or a special free gift, any kind of special offer will act as an incentive for new customers and encourage them to get shopping.
Moreover, a welcome offer is also a nice way to thank new customers for showing an interest in your site and will hopefully help keep shoppers interested and engaged with your business.
I Saw It First treat subscribers to an impressive 50% off in this great example of a welcome email. This huge discount is bound to get more customers browsing on their site to see what they can save money on:
Tempt new customers into making their first purchase with an exciting welcome offer.
Be active on social media
One common denominator between the most successful online fashion retailers is that they all have a strong presence on social media. Social media is a great platform for brands to interact in a fun way with customers while also gaining more exposure (e.g. through viral posts and ads.)
In particular, Instagram is a great platform for any online boutique, as it gives you the chance to share your best new styles with a huge audience. The Instagram shopping feature also lets your followers directly shop products you feature in your posts, which is a super modern and convenient shopping workflow. Don't forget to also use relevant hashtags for more visibility.
All the big online fashion brands also have a strong social media presence.
Combine your social media marketing with your email campaigns for maximum exposure. Include a link to your Instagram or Twitter page in your email to let your subscribers know of other ways to keep updated.
This welcome email by Nasty Gal has a whole section dedicated to their Instagram page. Here they showcase their latest Instagram posts and include a direct link to follow them. This is much more effective than a simple icon in the footer and really puts the emphasis on online engagement:
Use your emails to also draw attention to your social media pages.
Concentrate on bold visuals
As a fashion brand, optics are everything. This is why your newsletter designs need to be on point.
When it comes to creating email designs, don't be afraid to take a few risks and opt for bright colors and fun styles. All of the major online retailers are well known for their daring designs, as it's what gets them noticed by customers. Here are a few bold examples:
This fun design by Boohoo also adopts a clear cyber theme. The bright pink GIF is great at drawing attention the the message of the campaign and the design as a whole is certainly unique enough to win over customers.
This monochrome design is basically all text but gets straight to the point. Urban Outfitters do a good job here of using contrasting fonts to give their simple design more character.
6. Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune gets super festive with this colorful email design. The fairy lights GIF is a good way to attract attention while also getting readers in the holiday shopping mood.
This email by Jack Wills definitely gets us in the holiday mood. The festive feature image is really effective in recreating the ultimate Christmas morning feeling. The pink striped background also creates a gift wrap effect and fits perfectly with the theme of holiday gift shopping.
Here's a risk that paid off. Although perhaps a little adventurous for some, there's no denying that this loud, colorful email design by 10 Store grabs your attention straight away.
The gold, glittery vibe of this email campaign by Bluefly is super festive and exciting. The combination of black, gold and white works great for a big sales event and the text is big and bold enough to instantly make the message clear.
This campaign by FatFace has a really nice sentiment and makes a change from standard sales emails. Giving back campaigns such as this one are very effective around the holidays. Customers are encouraged to shop in order to put their money towards worthwhile causes.
Mothercare show off their star offers in this stellar email design. The contrast between black and yellow tones make the CTAs (call-to-actions) and eye-catchers really pop in this email. The catalogue layout also makes accessing the deals much easier; which is great on this busy shopping occasion.
As shown here by Odeon, a bold feature font is a nice way of grabbing your readers' attention. The countdown is also a great touch to get customers geared up for your special promotion.
NYX really promote their products with this inventive layout. Hot pink accents make the message hard to miss and the LED effect GIF is both cool and creative. The "today only" tag is also a clever way to generate a sense of urgency.
Aldo keep things pretty simple in this design, but the festive red combined with the cool, textured black background creates a noticeable contrast. Again, they've gone for a mix of font styles to liven up the design even more.
In this campaign, Julep have gone for a slightly different approach. The "early access" sale gets customers shopping before the big day and alluding to surprises at the checkout will certainly boost those click-through rates. We also like the design's balance between images and text to keep things visually interesting yet still informative.
Graze have taken us by storm with this lightning bolt design. This is a great way to stand out from competitors and the color combination also hits the spot.
As shown here by Rent the Runway, sometimes simple does the trick. The bold GIF clearly highlights their 40% off promotion whilst also bringing some fun to the design. The "better hurry" CTA button is also inventive and adds a sense of urgency to the campaign.
Dr. Martens demonstrate yet another drastic color scheme with this vibrant design. The countdown at the top again creates a sense of urgency and big, bold lettering communicates their offer well. It's also smart how they think ahead and include a product preview at the bottom of the email.
Forever 21 sneak an element of mystery into this "Black Friday" themed design. The temptation to click and reveal their discount is too much for many customers to resist. The gold accents also add a festive tone to the design and get customers in the money-spending mood.
In this email, Wolf & Badger proudly showcase their best products to celebrate with their customers. As well as the eye-catching feature graphic, the clear layout also makes the promotion more effective and the deals easier to shop. The Christmas Shop graphic in the bottom of the email also does a good job of getting readers ready for holiday shopping.
This monochrome design by Flannels is super cool. Using only black products in the background of the email is a clever take on the "Black Friday" theme. The font choices are also bold and stylish, and the "Ends Midnight" tagline incorporates that all-important sense of urgency to the campaign.
