Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach your present–and potentially future–customers. It leverages a direct line of communication to something that most people check multiple times a day: their inbox.
If you can learn how to make the most out of the email marketing apps that are currently available, you’ll instantly have an edge over your competition. You’ll be able to increase conversions on your online store, build a loyal fan base, and keep shoppers engaged with your brand in a way that results in higher retention and sales.
What’re the best email marketing apps for Shopify? 📧
The Shopify App Store has no shortage of options when it comes to tools that you can use to initiate email conversations. All of them claim to be the best email marketing app and leave the rest in the dust, but in what follows, we’ll help you filter out the noise and take a deep dive into which ones actually make the cut.
1. Klaviyo
Klaviyo provides one of the premier marketing automation platforms in the ecommerce space. It allows you to send email campaigns and automations to your target audience in order to boost engagement and keep your products top of mind. It natively integrates into Shopify and is able to reference 1st party data on your customers, allowing for enhanced personalization.
Through personalized email marketing, you can reach prospective buyers in a way that makes them actually want to stop and click, rather than hit “delete” and throw your content in the trash. You are able to deliver relevant material that is both tailored to the preferences of your customers and is more likely to lead to conversions.
Klaviyo Key Features 🧰
Personalization is at the core of what Klaviyo offers. You are able to segment buyers based on their past shopping behavior, and how they have interacted with your brand before. This means that you can make product recommendations that are influenced by prior purchases, and can even encourage those who have abandoned their carts to follow through with their orders.
This is a crucial asset that can be used as you work to increase average order values and reduce that dreaded abandoned cart rate.
Klaviyo relies on first-party customer data–the intel you are able to gather on your customers directly through their interactions with your Shopify store–to uplift your revenue and put your marketing dollars to use in a smart and effective manner. You can sync all of your Shopify customer data with this email marketing platform in order eliminate the guesswork and develop a deep understanding about what will move your customers to buy.
Arguably the biggest benefit and feature of Klaviyo is its ability to deliver self-sending automated messages. There are numerous email templates built into the tool that you can customize in order to reach the audience of your online store at exactly the right moment. This means you can send everything from welcome emails to price drop alerts without having to lift so much as a finger.
Klaviyo Pricing 💰
Klaviyo is free to install and free for up to 250 email contacts and 50 SMS contacts. For more email outreach capacity, it is $20/month for up to 500 contacts, which you can further upgrade as you grow. It is $5/month for up to 150 SMS contacts, which you can also upgrade.
2. Omnisend
Omnisend is another great option to get your email content in front of the eyes of your consumers and is quickly becoming the leading Klaviyo alternative. It is designed specifically for ecommerce merchants and seamlessly integrates with your Shopify store.
Omnisend Key Features 🧰
Omnisend is a no-code solution for fast and effective email marketing. You can use it to create newsletters, thank you emails, win-back emails, cross-selling emails, and so much more. There are a host of pre-built email templates and automated flows that enable you to increase sales while minimizing your time commitment.
With the drag-and-drop content editor, you can create custom, professional-looking email marketing content without needing to be a master graphic designer. The automated product recommendations and ability to segment recipients by shopping behavior further ensures you are maximizing your outreach.
Another great thing about Omnisend is that there are rich reporting features, from a sales performance page to a live-view dashboard. You can rely on this tool to keep tabs on your analytics and the journey of your buyers.
Omnisend Pricing 💰
Omnisend is free to install and reach up to 250 contacts. The Standard Plan is $16/month and the Pro Plan is $59/month. The Standard Plan is capped at 6,000 emails/month while the Pro Plan is unlimited.
3. Privy
Privy is a dynamic and flexible email marketing tool that you should likewise consider adding to your ecom arsenal. With the ability to launch highly targeted email marketing campaigns right out of the box, Privy can be used to drive repeat sales and get your shoppers coming back for more.
Privy Key Features 🧰
Something that is often not addressed when it comes to email marketing is building out your contact list. How are you actually going to acquire email subscribers? Marketing tools are not worth much if you don’t have a robust list of ready-to-buy customers at your fingertips.
Luckily, Privy helps you solve this problem with a suite of popup templates. With creative games like a spin-to-win wheel that you can add to your website, popups like these incentivize email signups. You can use these to collect contact information for use in follow-up email marketing campaigns.
Like the other email marketing apps we’ve highlighted, Privy excels at delivering slick messaging designed to increase your volume of online orders. You can use it to send things like product announcements, coupon codes, follow-up reminders, and shopping cart add-on suggestions.
This helps you stay in front of customers and keep them in the loop. It is a way to nudge without being too forceful, knowing that what you are delivering is relevant and speaks to your audience on a personal level.
Privy Pricing 💰
Privy is free to install and use for up to 100 email contacts. There are a range of other pricing tiers, from the Starter Plan at $15/month for up to 250 email contacts to the Conversion Only Plan at $70/month, which is based on monthly traffic. The Starter Plan gives you full access to email marketing tools and unlimited email sends, and is therefore a good starting point.
4. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most well-known and successful email marketing platforms, for good reason. With an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that business owners of all experience levels can get value out of, Mailchimp can be leveraged to grow your customer base and operate like a marketing mastermind.
Mailchimp Key Features 🧰
Mailchimp’s bread and butter is delivering automated emails to your shoppers. Think welcome emails, happy birthday emails, and all those things that make your buyers feel like they’re a valued part of your team.
To help elevate engagement and drive sales, Mailchimp additionally offers real-time recommendations about how and when to deliver your content. These AI-powered insights are backed up by customer data from billions of daily emails. Wondering if your email title is too long and not catchy enough? Mailchimp can make an instant recommendation and let you know if what you’ve put down is likely to resonate.
As an all-in-one email marketing platform that’s ecommerce enabled, Mailchimp integrates with your Shopify store, and you can access it directly in Shopify admin.
The rich drag-and-drop email templates within the content studio can store your logos and creative assets, so your branding materials are ready to use at all times.
You can segment recipients based on any number of custom attributes, like transaction details, frequency of purchases, and geographical location. So that you are not kept completely in the dark after all the work you’ve put in, you can switch over to your campaign overview to track open rates and click rates. This enables you to see how your emails are performing and what adjustments you might need to make in the future.
Mailchimp Pricing 💰
Mailchimp is free to install, but to get the most out of the branding and email template features, pricing ranges from $11/month for the Essentials Plan (based on 500 contacts) and $299/month for the Premium Plan (based on 10,000 contacts).
5. Shopify Email
Shopify Email is a native and comfortable solution for ecommerce sellers who run their business through Shopify. You can accomplish most of what other third-party email marketing platforms can do, without having to leave the Shopify ecosystem, but there will be some limitations.
Shopify Email Key Features 🧰
With Shopify Email you can choose and customize templates to fit any email marketing need. The array of templates on the platform come with engaging illustrations and are pre-made for events like product sales, launches, and holidays.
On Shopify Email you can tailor your messages to your specific customer base. You can personalize email openings with the name of your recipients, and select to send to contact lists that fit a predetermined criteria. You can further track email performance, to see how many shoppers are actually opening and interacting with your content. This helps answer the question: how many sales are directly attributable to these emails?
As the cherry on top, Shopify Email is speed tested, meaning its integration has no impact on the speed of your Shopify store. You don’t have to worry that your site will become sluggish and your shoppers will siphon off to your competitors as a result.
All of this is done within one platform–and it’s from a company you’re already relying on to host your ecommerce storefront.
Shopify Email Pricing 💰
Shopify Email is free to install and use up to 10,000 emails/month. After that it is $1 for every 1,000 emails.
What is email marketing for Shopify? 🤔
Email marketing for Shopify is a valuable way to engage with your customers, drive sales, and encourage your audience to interact with your brand. It is a more personalized method of reaching consumers than traditional advertising techniques, which can often be cold and generic.
With any of the tools we have explored here, email marketing can effectively be used to spark a dialogue with your audience and showcase what you have to offer beyond the confines of your Shopify store. In a data-driven way, you can build a relationship with your customers and set yourself firmly apart from your competition.
Should you use email marketing for your Shopify store? 📈
Email marketing and the software tools that make it possible are an investment in your business. And like any sound, worthwhile investment, it can deliver a meaningful return.
Automated workflows with these email marketing platforms can accomplish critical business objectives for your Shopify store, like cross-selling and reducing abandoned cart rates. You can rely on email marketing to make product recommendations and offer discounts that have the potential to take your sales to the next level.
As an online business owner, you are constantly aware that you are building a brand, not just selling products. To further advance this mission, email marketing can be leveraged to facilitate a conversation with a wide range of prospective consumers and visitors to your Shopify store. Even if a customer doesn’t hit buy every time, staying at the top of their inbox allows you to never be too far from mind.
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