Email Retargeting: Content that Converts

You’ve worked to gather a high quality email database, nailed your subject line and now you need to wow your audience with your content.

Your email will have to cut through the dozens of others your customers receive every day. If you’ve managed to get a shopper to open it, you’re halfway there – don’t let unimaginative content put them off.

Let’s take a look at some of the different types of content you could include in your emails to engage your audience, re-engage lapsed customers and persuade them to act.

Go back to basics approach our best practices for email retargeting.

8 Email Retargeting Content Ideas to Engage Your Audience

1. Boost confidence with social proof

Everyone likes to be reassured that they’re making the right choice.

In email retargeting, social proof takes the form of reviews, ratings and awards.

Including a sample of reviews in a product focused email will highlight an item’s popularity to increase a shopper’s confidence and persuade them to make a purchase.

Alternatively, featuring your star rating or accolades in the footer of your emails is an effective way to add an element of social proof to all of your communications.

Learn more about social proof in eCommerce.

2. Capture attention with graphics and gifs

Don’t bombard your customers with too much text – it’s a sure-fire way for your email to end up straight in their trash.

Instead, pick out the key messages you want to communicate and create a graphic or gif to capture your audience’s attention.

This will also help you narrow down exactly what you want your email to be about, creating a much more focused and cohesive message that will resonate with users.

If you’re targeting lapsed users, graphics and gifs increase the chance they will engage with your email and draw them back to your site.

3. Instil urgency

Nothing is more effective at persuading a shopper to act now than the fear of missing out.

And there’s no better way to instil a sense of urgency than by pushing your Limited time offers.

Maybe your free next day delivery offer is only available on a particular day, or your seasonal offer of 20% off is only available on Cyber Monday.

By making it clear in your email banners or main content that an offer is available for only a short time encourages instant purchases and makes users more likely to engage with what you’re offering.

4. Showcase your product range

If your retargeting email is attempting to entice abandoning users back to your site, offer them product recommendations based on their browsing history.

Perhaps they didn’t quite find what they were looking for the first time around. Showcasing products that are similar to what they have looked at in the past will inspire them to return and may just help them to find the perfect product.

5. Use incentives to entice

Everyone likes to feel a part of something exclusive – it makes your customers feel valued and that they are getting something extra.

Send exclusive looks of new products and early access to sales or special offers to existing customers. Make it clear in your email and subject line that they’re receiving something exclusive to entice them to engage with your content and read on.

6. Solve the customer’s problem

A lot of your visitors will have similar reasons for not returning to your site or not purchasing any products.

If you know what your customer pain points are, you can create targeted retargeting emails that address these issues and reassure customers.

Openly addressing issues and offering solutions for your users makes your communications appear transparent and instills confidence in your products and site.

7. Be smart with discount codes

If a customer hasn’t visited your site for a number of months, offer a coupon to entice them to return.

You don’t want to offer discount codes too early in the email retargeting sequence or you’ll be selling yourself short. But if a customer hasn’t responded to previous messaging, a discount offer might be just what is needed to get them back on your site and placing an order.

Testing out different discount codes will make sure you’re offering the right amount for your business, a higher discount doesn’t necessarily result in more conversions, so don’t over offer.

8. Take a product-centric approach

Finally – and most importantly – don’t get too caught up in all of the above. When it comes down to it, the customer is buying your product, not your messaging or graphics.

Be sure to keep your products front and center in every email retargeting campaign – this is what your users are buying into.

Email marketing generates an average ROI of 38:1. Can you afford not to implement an effective email retargeting strategy?