How to Launch the Perfect Email Campaign With Shopify Email

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Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms in the market for new and existing online businesses alike.

Additionally, email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies for businesses of any size.

This post merges these 2 concepts to teach you everything you need to know to launch a successful email marketing campaign from your Shopify store.

Let’s dive right in!

1. Why do you need email marketing for your online store?

Source:Omnisend.com

There are a few reasons why you should implement email marketing in your Shopify store.

For example:

Everyone has an email — An email is necessary to access almost every website, so every lead is a possible customer
You stand out from the competition — By building and personalizing your emails, you can earn your customer's trust
You own the email list — You build your contact list full of people interested in your Shopify store
It’s cost-effective — No need to spend money on ads that might not reach your target audience
It’s measurable — You can collect data to analyze and improve your email campaigns
You can engage with customers — Send emails directly to your leads to engage with them and form a relationship
It’s algorithm-independent — It’s never affected by changes on an algorithm like with social media or Google

Taking advantage of these qualities will allow you to grow and sustain an online business.

Besides, the number of daily emails sent and received in 2021 was 319.6 billion and it’s only expected to grow to 376.4 billion by 2025.

This is a clear indication that email is far from dead and still a viable marketing option for businesses.

Nevertheless, your Shopify store will only enjoy these benefits if you send the correct type of email. Keep reading to learn more.

2. Types of emails to send

Source: AllFetch.com

Before getting into how to set up email marketing from your Shopify store, you need to know the different kinds of emails online businesses have.

These emails have different purposes and belong to specific email marketing campaigns.

They’re divided into 3 main groups:

1. Transactional emails — Sent during checkout, order confirmations, receipts, order-shipped, etc.

2. Promotional emails — Designed to promote a specific deal

3. Lifecycle emails — Also known as trigger emails, are sent based on what stage the customer is in the customer journey

Let’s examine these groups in more detail.

2.1. Transactional emails

Source: ReallyGoodEmail.com

Postable’s post-purchase emails show the kind of information their customers expect to get.

Transactional emails are automated emails with data relevant to a recipient’s purchase.

They also inform the customer about their purchase’s shipping journey and are an opportunity to upsell other products and ask for product reviews.

In this kind of email, you’ll find:

Confirmation emails — Indicates that an order was successful and has been processed
Email receipts — Gives the expected information about the products/services that were bought
Shipping confirmation emails — Tells the customer when they’ll receive their purchase
Check-in emails — Asks the customers for reviews days after receiving their purchase

Transactional emails aren’t only meant to inform, they can also help to reduce customer remorse.

You can reduce customer remorse by constantly reassuring them that their purchase will arrive safely, otherwise, they’ll get their money back.

If customer experience isn’t taken seriously, customers could return products or cancel orders.

2.2. Promotional emails

Source: ReallyGoodEmail.com

As you see in Farewill’s promotional email, you can send content that’s meant to spread awareness about available offers.

Promotional emails include the following kind of content:

New products/services — Promote new products based on customer behavior
Seasonal promotions — Attract customers with popular holiday promotions
Limited deals — Advertise promotions with limited stock or time frames
Updates — Inform customers every time you upgrade your Terms of Service
Newsletters — Educate customers on your products before launching a promotion

Even though the main purpose of promotional emails is advertising offers, you can also use them to prepare your contact list for a big promotion or a limited deal.

That way, when you launch a promotion your contact list will already know everything about the advertised products.

2.3. Lifecycle emails

Source: ReallyGoodEmail.com

In Riverside’s welcome emails you can see that they’re greeting their new customers, but that’s not all.

With lifecycle emails, you engage with your leads throughout their buying journey by sending emails based on specific triggers.

For example:

Welcome emails — Happens when the customer gives you their email; you greet them, present your brand, tell them about you and what you can do for them
Shopping cart-abandonment emails — Are sent when a customer had the intention to buy but didn’t complete the order; you remind them of the cart and incentivize them to buy without being pushy
Engagement emails — Launch these whether or not the customer has made a purchase, its purpose is to build customer trust; give them free value, and make them know they matter to you
Re-engage emails — Send these when a customer hasn’t purchased for some time to bring them back. Use promotions or discount codes to motivate them

Doing email marketing with Shopify requires you to integrate an email marketing tool into your Shopify website.

However, before we get into the best email marketing services available, we’ll show you how to launch an email marketing campaign with Shopify's native email marketing app: “Shopify Email”.

3. How to launch email marketing campaigns with Shopify Email

Shopify Email logo

Shopify Email is a free email marketing tool that you can install into your Shopify store to launch email marketing campaigns.

With Shopify Email you can:

Duplicate, brand, and customize emails
Schedule and launch email campaigns from your Shopify admin dashboard
Track and measure results to improve campaigns
Segment your contact list
Personalize your subject line
Preview email content before sending it

Shopify Email is an affordable option that offers 10,000 free emails each month — beyond that it costs $1/1,000 emails you send, not a monthly fee.

You’ll also get all features from the start, so you won’t need to upgrade.

To install Shopify Email, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Shopify account.

2. Head to the Shopify app store, and search for “Shopify Email”.

3. Click on “Shopify Email”, and select “Install App”.

To use Shopify Email, you must:

Have a Shopify store with the Online Store Sales Channel installed

Follow these steps to install a Sales Channel:

From the Shopify app, tap “Store”
In the “Sales Channel” section, tap the + button
On the “Add Sales Channel” screen, tap the sales channel that you want to add
Tap “Add Channel”

Be on a paid Shopify plan with a payment provider set up

Otherwise, you might be able to create and send test emails to yourself, but not to your subscribers.

To set an email marketing campaign on Shopify Email you must follow the following steps:

1. Prepare an email marketing activity — Segment email subscribers and send email campaigns

Inside Shopify, go to “Marketing”
Click on “Email Campaign”, then “Shopify Email”
Choose an email template to customize
Click “To”, and then select a customer segment
Enter an email subject

2. Changing your email address — Switch your sender email address or it’ll look like “shopifyemail.com” or “store@shopifyemail.com”

From your “Shopify Admin”, head to “Settings”
Click “Store Details”, go to “Contact Information”, click “Edit”
In the “Sender Email Field”, change your email address
Click “Save”

3. Personalize your emails — Create a more tailored experience for your email subscribers

From “Shopify Admin”, head to “Marketing”
Click “Create Campaign” > “Shopify Email”
Pick a template to customize
Click the pencil icon in each section to personalize them
Select the value that you want the email to show, like name, city, or birthday
Select “Save”

4. Review, send, or schedule — Proofread your email before you send them

To Review:

From the “Email Editor”, click “Review”, then click “Send”
For additional edits, click “Edit Email”
Review the details, then click “Send Now”

To Schedule:

From the “Email Editor”, click “Review”, then click “Schedule”
From the “Send Date” section, pick a date that you want your email to be delivered on
Click “Send Time” and select a time from the list
Review the details, and click “Schedule”

Even though Shopify Email is an affordable option, it’s still pretty basic and won’t easily integrate with the rest of your digital marketing strategy.

It only has plain templates with limited customization, its automation is restricted to abandoned-cart emails and users report several bug problems.

You could use Shopify Email to get started, but you’ll eventually need to get a dedicated email marketing tool or it might impact your growth.

4. Best Shopify email marketing apps

Installing an email marketing software is the best way to do marketing with Shopify.

You can choose to use Shopify Email or another email marketing app from the Shopify app store.

Given how many email marketing apps are on the Shopify app store, we made a list of the best email marketing tools.

4.1. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor’s homepage

Campaign Monitor’s Shopify app is called Email Marketing by CM Commerce and it’s a simplified email marketing app that’s easy to use and free to install.

Email Marketing by CM Commerce has 3 paid plans:

Starter — $9/month, 5,000 emails for up to 500 contacts
Growth — $29/month, unlimited emails for unlimited contacts
Professional — $49/month, unlimited emails for unlimited contacts plus access to more features

If you’re in the Starter plan and your number of active contacts exceeds its limit, you’ll be automatically upgraded to the next tier.

CM Commerce offers features like:

Easy integration — Integrate with other Shopify apps like Privy, OptinMonster, Smile.io, JustUno, and LoyaltyLion
Campaign building — Prepare and send email campaigns that’ll convert
Automation — Use their pre-built email automation templates to have everything up and running in minutes
Segmentation — Divide your contact list into groups based on customer's purchases, demographic, preferences, and engagement data

Email Marketing by CM Commerce has a 30-day free trial where you’ll have access to all features, so you can try them out.

4.2. Omnisend

Omnisend’s homepage

Omnisend’s Shopify app is called Omnisend Email Marketing & SMS and it's a great tool with easy data migration and ready-to-use email templates.

With Omnisend, you can also do SMS marketing, so you’ll get 2 marketing tools for the price of one.

With Omnisend you also get:

A no-code email marketing tool — An intuitively easy-to-use tool that’s also beginner-friendly
Ready-to-use email campaigns — Speed up the automation process with pre-built automation workflows
Lead collectors — Fully customize pop-ups, signup bars, and landing pages to get new customers
Segmentation and personalization — Divide and personalize emails to appeal to specific customer groups

Omnisend has 3 plans:

Free — $0/month, for up to 250 contacts with 500 emails/month
Standard — $16/month, unlimited contacts with 60,000 emails/month
Pro — $59/month, unlimited contacts with unlimited emails/month

The prices change depending on your marketing needs.

4.3. Privy

Privy’s homepage

Privy is another Shopify email marketing app that’s used by big and small businesses alike.

Privy also has integrated SMS marketing and pop-up tools that don’t need any coding.

With Privy you get:

A powerful designer — An easy drag-and-drop editor to make beautiful emails
Spin-to-win wheels — Gamify your emails to increase engagement and open rates
Free chat support — Get in contact with customer service for any questions you might have
Real-time data — Measure the success of your email campaigns with A/B testing
Easy automation — Prepare ready-to-launch email campaigns to increase conversion rates

Privy has a 15-day free trial, after that, you’ll have to pick one of their 4 plans:

1. Free plan — $0/month for 100 emails for up to 100 email contacts

2. Starter plan — $15/month for unlimited emails for up to 250 email contacts

3. Growth plan — $45/month for unlimited emails for up to 3,000 email contacts

4. Conversion only — $70/month for unlimited emails for up to 50,000 monthly pageviews

The Free plan doesn’t have many features available, so upgrading will be necessary at some point.

5. Systeme.io: A powerful alternative email marketing tool

systeme.io logo

Systeme.io is a powerful all-in-one alternative that’s perfect for Shopify store owners because it has integrated email marketing tools.

However, systeme.io isn’t a Shopify email marketing tool but rather a complete platform where you can run your online business in one place and for a single price.

Systeme.io offers advanced email marketing tools to launch successful email marketing campaigns.

Systeme.io’s email marketing features include:

Campaign automation — Set triggers to launch automated campaigns
Advanced segmentation — Segment your contact list to send targeted email campaigns and personalized messages
In-depth statistics — Track campaign performance with real-time data
Easy email design — Create professional emails with our drag-and-drop editor or use our tried and tested templates

Shopify customers can migrate their Shopify store to systeme.io to launch, grow, and monitor their online business from a single place.

Also, because it’s an all-in-one platform, it doesn’t need third-party email marketing apps, so it helps you save money.

Here are our plans:

systeme.io’s pricing plans

You get unlimited emails in every plan, so why not test out our Free plan?

6. Conclusion

Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms and email marketing is one of the best marketing strategies businesses can employ.

By integrating email marketing into your Shopify store you can build a sustainable ecommerce business.

However, to do Shopify email marketing, you need to install an email marketing app from the Shopify app store.

Systeme.io is an all-in-one alternative that has everything you need in one space — without the need for apps or plugins, which means that you only have to pay for our tool.

With our email marketing and automation features, you can launch all kinds of email campaigns to capture potential customers, engage with them, and turn them into brand advocates.

Interested? Sign up with us for free and see your business grow!