Posts by: James Garnier

Building an active and engaged email list should be a top priority of every website owner. But how do you do it?  When it comes to email list building, there are several tools out there that can help you do this. We’ve analyzed the top 12 and how you can use them.

Never underestimate the power of building an engaged email list. This list will be the first to receive special offers, blog posts, webinar invitations, new product launches. They will be loyal fans, brand advocates and therefore highly likely to convert.

If you’re actively sending traffic to your website it could be argued that this is of little value if they aren’t transacting with you or at least giving you their contact information.

From pop-up customizers, to lead magnets and even marketing automation software, it’s never been easier to quickly build an email list.

You just need the right tools to do so. Here are our top picks:

1. Yieldify
2. Mailchimp
3. Klaviyo
4. Rafflecopter
5. Attentive
6. Optinmonster
7. Thrive Leads
8. Hello Bar
9. Typeform
10. Outgrow
11. VoilaNorbert
12. SignUpAnywhere
13. ChatBot
14. Sleeknote
15. Trustmary
16. Mailmunch
17. Leadpages

• Jump to tools comparison table

Why You Need To Build Your Email List

With over 3.9 billion daily email users registered and 47% of marketers stating that email marketing is their most effective marketing channel, it’s obvious that email list building is now an essential requirement for any modern business.

In a study by DMA, they found that 91% of marketers rated email marketing as an important part of their marketing strategy.

By actively building your email list you’re building an audience that wants to find out more about you and stay up to date with your latest offers and news. These are essentially “warm” leads that have a much better chance of converting than a brand new click from a Paid Search ad.

When you build your email list you’ll be able to consistently find new leads, nurture prospects, and eventually convert visitors to customers.  

While building an audience on Facebook or LinkedIn is a quick way to get in front of potential customers you’re essentially “renting” the audience. But by building your email list they are yours and can become one of your greatest fixed assets.

This is because email marketing is one of the best ways to nurture an engaged audience. This engagement is what boosts business revenue through increasing customer lifetime value. 

Research shows that for every $1 spent on email marketing, expect an average return of $42. This is the highest return on investment for any digital marketing channel.

Further research has shown that almost 50% of customers actually want to hear from their favorite brands every week – just make sure you’re writing intriguing email subject lines when you reach out.

To summarize:

1. Building an email list gives you an engaged audience that’s fixed. They will always be there ready to receive product updates and special offers.
2. They do want to hear from you
3. You will likely get a positive ROI on email marketing activity

So the next question is, how do you go about building your email list?

17 Of The Best Email List Building Tools

If you’re a budding entrepreneur or business owner it can be hard to know which list building tool to choose from with so many available. 

We’ve compiled a list of our best-rated list building tools on the market and an overview of their features to help narrow down your selection.

1. Yieldify

Yieldify is a fully managed personalization platform that helps ecommerce businesses generate more revenue by engaging their customers with personalized experiences. Their lead generation functionality is a highly rated feature that will help you build your email and SMS lists.

Top features

Fully managed service

With a fully managed service, Yieldify’s service team will handle your list building strategy for you. You’ll get expert support from a dedicated account manager as well as a team of graphic designers, technical engineers and quality assurance specialists. 

Together they’ll help map out your strategy, set up and monitor campaigns, and optimize performance.

“Even though we have a very complicated funnel, the entire Yieldify team – including product, design, and engineering – have worked with us to help increase conversions. Stellar team!”

Jennifer, G2 Verified User

Custom, on-brand forms

Yieldify’s graphic design team will create forms for you with custom copy and creative to match your brand guidelines – on mobile, desktop and tablet. 

You can also add custom elements to your forms – including free text fields, radio buttons and dropdown menus – to capture visitor data such as gender, preferred products or clothing size.

Audience segmentation

Yieldify’s audience segmentation functionality lets you reach different customer groups by setting custom combinations of targeting and triggering rules. That way you can direct your list building campaigns to the right customers at the right time with the most tailored messaging. 

Their targeting and triggering rules are comprehensive, including segmenting by new vs returning visitors; referral URL; session number and time on page.

A/B and A/B/n testing

Yieldify’s A/B and A/B/n testing engine lets you test up to 5 different list building forms against each other at the same time. That means you can settle on the best performing optin messaging, design, placement or incentive faster and drive the maximum number of sign-ups.

Integrations
Yieldify integrates with all major email service providers (ESPs) and SMS providers so you can be sure your leads get saved in your database. They also have an advanced integration with Klaviyo – which you can read about here.

Pros of Yieldify

• Count on expert service: Yieldify’s service team is second-to-none in the lead capture and personalization industry. Read their G2 reviews to see what their clients say

• Capture 20% more leads: You can generate 20%+ more leads on average with their layered lead capture feature vs a standard lead capture approach

• Run personalized campaigns: Improve your user experience and maximize sign-ups by using segmentation to adapt your optin forms to different stages in your customer journeys

• Gather comprehensive data analytics: Gain deep insights into your customer behavior with Yieldify’s customer journey reports (called Sunburst charts) as well as their in-depth campaign reporting

• No developers needed: With their easy-to-integrate tag and no-code campaigns, you can get your first list building tests live within 14 days – no developers required

• Increase conversion rates: Why stop at list building? Yieldify’s extensive personalization suite helps you drive more leads and converts interest into more sales

“I view Yieldify as a data analytics company as much as a lead generation and personalization platform. It sets them apart.

Ben Bolognini

Head of Marketing and Ecommerce

Cons of Yieldify

• Not an ESP or SMS provider: Yieldify lets you capture emails and phone numbers but you can’t send email or SMS marketing from their platform

Pricing

Speak to Yieldify’s sales team for more information.

2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps you grow your email lists with unlimited free sign-up forms. 

Top features

Customization: The plugin allows you to create targeted landing pages, overlay popups, and embedded sign-up forms within your ecommerce platform – and automatically integrates the designs with the brand theme.

Personalization: All of Mailchimp’s user-created landing pages, popups, and sign-up forms are personalized to maximize conversions.

Segmentation: Users can be categorized into relevant campaigns based on their behavior.

Integrations: Mailchimp integrates with WooCommerce and many other ecommerce platforms.

Pros of Mailchimp

• Highly versatile: Mailchimp’s list building tool is suitable for freelancers, startups, mobile apps, developers and ecommerce brands
• Award-winning support: Mailchimp’s support team is available 24/7 to guide users through platform problems and queries
• Free version: You can trial Mailchimp’s basic features with their cost-free plan

Cons of Mailchimp

• Complicated interface: Mailchimp’s interface is not the most intuitive and can be difficult to navigate 
• Limited reporting: At its price point, Mailchimp’s reporting capabilities are lacking sophistication

Pricing

Mailchimp’s pricing is tailored to the size of your contact list. Pricing for Mailchimp’s premium package starts at $299 per month. They also offer a free version with their most basic features.

3. Klaviyo

Specifically designed for ecommerce, Klaviyo is an email service provider with a focus on marketing automation.

Top features

A/B testing: Optimize your optin forms by running tests to determine the most effective messaging, design and placement for your audience.

Segmentation: Groups users by their behavior, open rates, bounce rates and demographics such as age and location.

Adaptive forms: Set your forms to pop up in the middle of the browser window, sit at the side of the page or open via a small widget.

Social integrations: Seamlessly integrates with Facebook to maximize social media marketing. 

Pros of Klaviyo

• Shopify integration: Shopify customers report a seamless experience integrating with Klaviyo
• Template library: Choose from 50+ ready-to-customize templates that have been optimized to build subscriber lists

Cons of Klaviyo

• Customer service: Some clients have been disappointed by the speed and quality of communication from Klaviyo’s support team  
• Steep learning curve: Klaviyo’s self-service platform is relatively complicated and takes time to learn

Pricing

Klaviyo’s pricing is tailored to the size of your contact list. Prices range between $35 and $1970 per month for Email and SMS packages, but you can trial Klaviyo for free if you have less than 150,000 contacts.

4. Rafflecopter

Rafflecopter is a unique email list building tool that helps customers create contests and giveaways. 

Top features

Giveaways: Rafflecopter enables brands to build lists by running giveaways across websites, social media and blogs.

Custom theme designs: Customize the design of your giveaway to keep it on-brand.

Pros of Rafflecopter

• Speed: Launch your giveaway within minutes using Rafflecopter’s pre-built features 
• No coding required: No IT expertise is needed to use or install Rafflecopter, making it highly accessible to any ecommerce brand

Cons of Rafflecopter

• Limited platform: Rafflecopter only enables you to increase your email lists with giveaways

Pricing

Rafflecopter packages range from $13 to $84 per month.

5. Attentive

Attentive is a leading SMS marketing solution that empowers brands to build strong customer relationships with personalized text messaging. 

Top features

Multiple sign-up units: Attentive can increase your SMS lists on your mobile and desktop websites, through your social media channels, via email remarketing and more.

Design editor: Customize sign-up units to align with your brand.

Deliverability: Message customers in your SMS list at scale and track performance in real time using Attentive’s data dashboard.

Pros of Attentive

• SMS-first: A leading solution for anyone looking to specifically build their SMS list 
• Managed service: Every Attentive customer gets a dedicated account manager from day one

Cons of Attentive

• Analytical discrepancies: Attentive’s reporting suite doesn’t always accurately align with results in Google Analytics and other analytics platforms

Pricing

Speak to Attentive’s sales team for more information on pricing.

6. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a leading self-service lead generation and CRO tool which helps companies grow their email and SMS lists. 

Top features

Templates: 400+ optin form templates to choose from.

Drag and drop builder: Anyone can create sign-up forms from scratch with or without coding experience.

OptinMonster University: Get access to online courses, webinars, downloadable cheat sheets to grow your database.

Pros of OptinMonster

• Variety of strategies: OptinMonster offers everything from geolocation targeting to gamified wheels to help customers increase their email and SMS lists

Cons of OptinMonster

• Learning curve: Clients have reported a steep learning curve to understand how to maximize OptinMonster’s features effectively

Pricing

OptinMonster packages range from $16 to $82 per month.   

7. Thrive Leads

Thrive Leads is a list building tool that is designed primarily for integration with WordPress and WooCommerce.

Top features

Design: Thrive Leads’ drag-and-drop editor enables you to create impactful designs that drive more leads.

Advanced targeting: Show the most relevant messaging to your audience.

A/B testing: Test different lead forms to find the most effective messaging, placement and design.

Actionable insights: Thrive Leads provides analysis on how your optin forms are performing over time.

Pros of Thrive Leads

• Multi-use: You can install The Thrive Leads suite on up to 5 different websites
• 30-day money back guarantee: If you’re unhappy with Thrive Leads, they’ll give you a refund within the first 30 days of signing up

Cons of Thrive Leads

• Platform limitations: Thrive Leads is exclusively a WordPress plugin and isn’t compatible with Shopify or other providers

Pricing

Thrive Leads costs $299 per year or $99 per quarter depending on your billing preferences. 

8. Hello Bar

Hello Bar is a popup tool that creates exit-intent popups, timed popups, and floating signup bars to convert more visitors into leads. 

Top features

Customization: Choose from hundreds of pre-built themes, or customize any element of the sign-up form to align with your brand. Hello Bar’s design assistant tool also matches colors, fonts and styling with your website’s design.

Targeting: Increase your email lists by targeting visitors based on their location, traffic source, time and more. 

Tracking: Create custom reports with the data you need to measure performance effectively.

Pros of Hello Bar

• Seamless integration: Hello Bar’s one-click installation requires no code. It easily integrates with WordPress, Shopify, Mailchimp and other platforms and tools
•  Variety of popups: Every Hello Bar plan gives customers access to five different types of popups

Cons of Hello Bar

• Customer support: Hello Bar have a detailed knowledge base to answer customer queries, but there is no access to telephone support 

Pricing

Hello Bar packages range from $0 to $99 per month.

9. Typeform

Typeform is a web-based platform you can use to create anything from surveys to apps, without needing to write a single line of code.

Top features 

Quizzes and surveys: Typeform collects leads by inviting visitors to answer questions about anything related to your product.

Adaptable questions: Follow-up questions adapt according to previous answers.

Slack integration: Your colleagues are immediately notified when a new lead completes the questionnaire.

Pros of Typeform

• User friendly: The platform is well designed and robust 

Cons of Typeform

• Customer support: Typeform’s support team can be slow to respond 

Pricing

Typeform offers five types of plans, with prices ranging from free to $77 per month. You’ll need to contact their sales team for pricing information on their enterprise plan.

10. Outgrow

Outgrow is a content creation tool that allows you to make contests, surveys, giveaways, and quizzes.

Top features

Chatbots: Outgrow’s chatbots make you available to visitors 24/7, helping to convert potential customers into leads round the clock.  

Quizzes: Access more than 1 million stock images powered by Unsplash to create visually stunning quizzes that encourage participation and build your email lists. 

1000+ integrations: Outgrow integrates with Mailchimp, Hubspot, GetResponse and thousands of other marketing tools.

Pros of Outgrow

• Quality of support: Outgrow give plenty of support and guidance during the onboarding process and have a highly responsive, 24/7 chat system
• Design: The depth and variety of design tools available makes it both easy and enjoyable to use

Cons of Outgrow

• Feature limitations: Many of the best features are not available unless you upgrade to the business plan 

Pricing

Outgrow plans range from $14 to $600 per month. Enterprise businesses will need to speak directly with Outgrow’s sales team for a quote. 

11. VoilaNorbert

VoilaNorbert is an email finding tool – all you need is your prospect’s name and the company URL to find an email address.

Top features

Fewer bounces: VoilaNorbert’s 8-step verification process filters email addresses from your list to ensure you’re targeting the right people.

Better sender score: Improve your sender score by ensuring emails land in the primary inbox.

Increased deliverability: By improving your sender’s reputation, you increase the chances of getting emails to land in the right inbox.

Pros of VoilaNorbert

• Reliability: VoilaNorbert has a 98% deliverability score

Cons of VoilaNorbert

• Free trial: You can only acquire 50 leads for free before you need to sign up to a paid version

Pricing

VoilaNorbert pricing starts at $49 per month for their Valet package and rises to $499 per month for Counselor. 

12. SignUpAnywhere

SignUpAnywhere is the flexible way to increase email and SMS lists and is used by businesses, organizations, restaurants, bars and charities.

Top features

Templates: From satisfaction surveys to product feedback and email sign-ups, SignUpAnywhere has a variety of templates to choose from.

Works without WiFi: SignUpAnywhere forms sync data even when you’re offline.

Pros of SignUpAnywhere

Anytime cancellation: Flexible pricing means you can cancel your subscription at any time

Cons of SignUpAnywhere

No social proof: There are no reviews on G2 to gain insight into how satisfied customers are with the product

Pricing

SignUpAnywhere’s pricing ranges from free to $70 per month for their Corporate package. 

13. ChatBot

ChatBot is an all-in-one platform to create, deploy, and track chatbots across channels. 

Top features

No-code builder: Easily build your chat bot’s response formats and actions using the drag and drop builder.

Testing tool: Preview your chat bot experience before setting it live.

Customizable widget: Align your ChatBot widget with your brand and site design.

Pros of ChatBot

• Easy integrations: ChatBot easily integrates with LiveChat 

• User-friendly: The learning curve is small and users can quickly get up to speed with the platform

Cons of Chatbot

• Sophistication: There are more intelligent chat bot tools on the market, albeit typically for a higher price

Pricing

ChatBot’s Starter package is $52 per month, with prices rising to $424 per month for their Business package. Contact the ChatBot team directly for more information about their Enterprise package.

14. Sleeknote

Made by marketers, for marketers, Sleeknote positions itself as more than your average pop-up builder.

Top features

Reduce cart abandonment: Surface optin forms to customers with items in their basket when they’re about to leave the site.

Gated content: Incentivize sign-ups with forms that give customers access to content in exchange for their email address or SMS.

Integrations: Sleeknote is integrated with 1200+ tools.

Pros of Sleeknote

• Money back guarantee: Trial any of Sleeknote’s plans and receive your money back if you’re not satisfied after 30 days

Cons of Sleeknote

• Tracking: No campaign performance tracking with Sleeknote Lite

Pricing

Sleeknote has five available packages ranging from $49 to $374 per month. 

15. Trustmary

Trustmary leverages the power of social proof and customer testimonials to improve lead generation by embedding reviews into optin forms. 

Top features

A/B testing: Pit different testimonials against each other to determine which quote drives the highest number of leads into your email and SMS lists.

Triggering: Surface lead gen forms to website visitors based on page URLs, acquisition source, UTM tags, devices, timing, new vs returning and more.

Templates: Trustmary’s optin forms have already been tested and optimized to ensure you maximize sign-ups.

Pros of Trustmary

• Multi-purpose: Allows you to collect customer testimonials and subscribers simultaneously

Cons of Trustmary

• Limited forms: Trustmary lacks the variety of optin forms provided by other list building tools 

Pricing

TrustMary’s Solo package is totally free, and they have three more packages ranging from $99 to $499 per month. 

16. Mailmunch

Mailmunch is a lead growth and email marketing service for bloggers, solopreneurs, startups, and enterprises.

Top features

Optin forms and landing pages: With Mailmunch you can drive more subscribers into your lists by customizing optin forms and landing pages.

Template library: Choose from hundreds of free optin forms and landing page templates. 

Imagery: Mailmunch integrates with Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay to provide customers with thousands of royalty-free images.

Pros of Mailmunch

• Versatile: Mailmunch is suitable to all industries and verticals

Cons of Mailmunch

• Customization: The landing page builder is clunkier to use than the optin form builder

Pricing

Access Mailmunch’s Premium marketing solution for $13.99 per month.

17. Leadpages

Leadpages is a landing page and squeeze page builder that doubles up as a comprehensive list builder. 

Top features

Conversion guidance: Leadpages’ performance predictor assesses the effectiveness of your landing page before you publish and gives you recommendations for improvement.

Unlimited lead collection: There are no limits on list growth with Leadpages.

Rapid page load: Leadpages claim their landing pages load 2.4 seconds faster than other leading page builders, which bodes well for your SEO and PPC quality scores.

Pros of Leadpages

• Customer support: Weekly hands-on coaching sessions help customers to quickly get up to speed with the Leadpages platform 
• User-friendly: The Leadpages platform is highly intuitive and features an extensive library of pre-tested and optimized landing page templates

Cons of Leadpages

• Desktop-focused templates: Leadpages have a shortage of templates with a mobile-first design

Pricing

Leadpages standard version is $37 per month and their pro version is $74 per month.

List Building Tools Compared

Choose the Best Email List Building Tool for Your Business

The right list building tool for your business depends on your objectives, budget and bandwidth. If you need a fully-managed platform with market-leading features, Yieldify is a perfect solution to help you drive more email and SMS subscribers. Either way, I hope this blog has helped you find a tool that meets your requirements. 

If you’d like a preview of how you can build your email and SMS lists with Yieldify’s fully-managed, all-in-one personalization platform, feel free to schedule a discovery call here. One of our advisors will be delighted to share more.

Email List Building Tool FAQs

You’ve got your sign-up forms running. Your email and SMS lists are growing. And you’ve set up your core Klaviyo remarketing campaigns.

But when your email and SMS messages land in your subscribers’ inboxes, you’re not getting the engagement you were hoping for.

The issue is this: your audience has grown and you now have multiple subscriber types. That means subscribers with lots of different interests, on different journeys, with different needs. It’s no longer a few subscribers with similar browsing preferences.

The solution? More user data to create better segmentation. Which means you can then send more targeted, relevant Klaviyo campaigns.

The advanced Klaviyo integration

With Yieldify’s advanced Klaviyo integration, you can send substantially more user behavior data to your Klaviyo list than with Klaviyo alone – and could increase your remarketing revenue by as much as 820%.

Save more subscriber data in your Klaviyo profiles

1. Capture custom events

With Klaviyo you’re already capturing a lot of data on your subscribers – demographic data such as their names, email addresses and phone numbers, as well as behavioral data such as emails opened, products added to basket or orders returned.

With Yieldify’s advanced Klaviyo integration you can go one step further: capture custom tracking events. With custom events, you get to capture the subscriber data that’s most valuable for your remarketing campaigns.

A custom event could pass data to a subscriber’s Klaviyo profile when they: 

• Hover over product photos on a category page. They’re probably in the consideration phase. If they exit, you can send a browse abandonment email with the products they hovered over.
  
  
• Exit the page after browsing the page for e.g. more than 60 seconds. They’re most likely developing an interest in a product and would welcome an abandonment email to help them resume their journey.
  
  
• Become inactive on the payments page. They might be hesitant about checking out. They could benefit from an email highlighting your Buy Now Pay Later options, payment encryption and data compliance.
  
  
• Move to a different browser tab. They could be comparing prices on a competitor’s website. A discount email could persuade them to complete their purchase with you.
  
  
• Select an option from a dropdown menu e.g. a travel destination. You can be pretty sure they’re considering traveling to that city. Add them to your city guide email sequence.
  

As long as the data is in your site or sits in your data layer, there are hundreds of custom events you can pass to your subscribers’ profiles with Yieldify’s Klaviyo integration.

The result? You’ll build up your subscribers’ Klaviyo profiles with the most important data and send your customers Klaviyo campaigns that feel like they were made just for them.

2. Capture how your subscribers interact with your Yieldify personalization campaigns

If you sign up for a full package with Yieldify, you’ll get access to the advanced Klaviyo integration and to Yieldify’s complete range of personalization tests. 

That means you’ll get all the benefits of Yieldify personalization, be able to track how your subscribers interact with those personalization tests and send them relevant, segmented emails.

For example: 

• When subscribers share their product interest by tapping one of multiple CTAs on an overlay, you can assume they’re interested in that category. You can then engage that audience with an email or SMS follow-up promoting products from that category.

• A high returns rate can be one of your biggest costs. When subscribers add several sizes of the same item to cart, you can automatically display a “Size Guide” campaign with Yieldify. You can then trigger a Klaviyo flow to send those users a customer service email with size advice.

When you send more responsive messages, you’ll get happier, more loyal customers.

Drive as much as 820% more revenue with personalized remarketing flows

With the advanced Klaviyo integration, capturing the subscriber data that’s most valuable to your brand means you’ll segment your audiences even better, and better segmentation means you’ll send more relevant Klaviyo campaigns. In turn, more engaging messages drive increased revenue. You could lift your remarketing revenue by as much as 820% with more personalized messages.

Ecommerce marketers at brands like yours trust the advanced Klaviyo integration

How to get started with the advanced Klaviyo integration

To start driving more remarketing revenue with the advanced Klaviyo integration, speak to a member of the Yieldify sales team today. 

Find out the key holiday marketing statistics from peak season 2020 and discover our top tips to beat the Q1 slump.

2020 was truly a year for change, especially when it came to the eCommerce sector.

With COVID-19 acting as a strong catalyst for growth, retailers witnessed website traffic and consumer demand reach unparalleled levels. This was amid a monumental shift in shopping behavior as the world’s population became locked down at home in a bid to control the coronavirus.

With this in mind, we felt it fair to assume that peak season was likely to be one for the record books. So, in October Yieldify commissioned a research study, gathering opinions from 400 eCommerce leaders and 2000 consumers* to predict what might happen in the coming holiday season.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how those predictions matched up to reality. Starting with the top 5 holiday marketing statistics and takeaways:

1. Despite an uptick in website traffic to eCommerce stores, conversions decreased by 2% year-on-year. Thus, underlining the crucial need to deploy conversion rate optimization tactics. (Data source: Yieldify)

2. Consumers continued new exploratory shopping habits. 58% of Cyber Weekend purchases were made by new visitors vs the 29% predicted, which presents a retention challenge to retailers post-holiday season. (Data source: Klaviyo)

3. Higher consideration was given to online purchases this year, averaging 6.3 online sessions vs 5 in 2019. With more touchpoints to contend with, customer journey mapping will be more relevant than ever. (Data source: Yieldify)

4. Discounts declined in value and popularity in 2020 with 5% fewer emails featuring discount-related subject lines and 30-39% discounts yielding the most consumer interest. Proving that marginal sacrifice, while effective, is not critical to success. (Data source: Yieldify & Klaviyo)

5. Finally, email marketing proved a crucial channel for Cyber Weekend. Over 165 million emails were sent on Black Friday alone, which were directly responsible for 537,000 orders placed. This adds emphasis to having an effective lead capture strategy all year round. (Data source: Klaviyo)

A season of higher clicks but lower conversions

In line with all expectations, consumers hit eCommerce websites hard over the holiday season and sales skyrocketed.

So yes, opportunities were rife to significantly increase revenue. But this placed retailers under intense pressure to make outstanding first impressions with their new audience or risk abandonment.

Overall, eCommerce websites saw a 2% decrease in conversions, suggesting that not every onsite customer journey was up to the task.

The holiday marketing tactics that did work

While it’s true that overall conversions decreased, there were a whole host of tactics that eCommerce retailers deployed successfully.

In fact, the results for 2020 further highlighted the importance of having the right marketing tactics and conversion rate optimization strategy working together. It’s clear that success simply cannot be guaranteed from sheer acquisition alone.

Back in October, our predictions showed that marketers placed high importance on email and website personalization to drive conversions. Now let’s take a deeper dive into how these tactics worked out for brands during the holiday season.

Email marketing

Over Cyber Weekend, email activity for eCommerce brands was off the charts. Record volumes of emails were sent to consumers and Black Friday proved the most popular. Klaviyo emails hit over 165 million inboxes in a single day.

And the result? Just short of 5 million orders were placed during October and November. All of which can be directly attributed to those emails sent.

Klaviyo’s client, Angel Jackets, echoed this sentiment. They saw great success from their ‘step into the New Year in Style’ email campaign.

“Email marketing worked out great for us. We use Klaviyo for email promotion. We sent a year-end email to our customers and mentioned – step into the New Year in Style. Not only the sales were good, but the click rate was also above expected.”

Syed Ali, Angel Jackets

Top tip for Q1: Make money while you sleep by using marketing automation for welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, and more. Then, hone your approach through A/B testing, experimenting with different content, subject lines, or timing of emails in a series.

Website personalization

On the Yieldify side, we implemented a whole host of holiday eCommerce CRO strategies for our client base. These ranged from list building strategies, wishlist campaigns, social proof, gift guides, and checkout reminders.

One particularly effective way we saw retailers driving urgency and in-session conversions was utilizing countdown timers.

This worked because many holiday visitors were shopping with a date in mind and were mindful of delivery delays as a result of COVID. This made counting down to delivery deadlines an incredibly effective tactic to nudge procrastinating gifters to convert.

By targeting users that had an item in their basket with a campaign visual such as the above, conversions increased by 8.5% on average.

Top tip for Q1: Effective conversion rate optimization (CRO) depends on segmenting and targeting accurately. Use behavioral segmentation to combine dozens of attributes to effectively launch messages that move your user towards conversion.

Getting more juice from the squeeze of each customer interaction

Simply put, the post-purchase experience is arguably just as important as the initial conversion. This is the key opportunity for brands to capitalize on that initial success, encourage repeat purchases, and drive higher customer lifetime value (CLV).

While 42% of Cyber Weekend purchases were made by repeat buyers, a huge 58% were made by first-time visitors. This presents a challenge post-holiday season of turning those visitors into long-term loyal customers who, according to Barilliance, are:

1. 65.2% more likely to add an item to cart than a first-time visitor;
2. 73.7% more likely to convert than first-time visitors;
3. Projected to spend 16.2% more per transaction.

A tactic that we saw used successfully to do this was triggering campaign messaging on the confirmation screen as shown in the below example:

By targeting users at the very last point of the purchase journey, retailers could encourage repeat purchases while still in-session.

The ultimate goal here is to dissuade the customer from leaving your website for as long as possible by capturing their interest at the exact moment where you have the customer’s full attention.

On average, 4% of users converted a second time, while still in-session, when shown a variation of the above message.

But what about AOV?

When you consider that the average order value for eCommerce retailers decreased by $7 across the holiday season 2020 – a boost of 16.2% from returning visitors sounds particularly enticing.

And increasing AOV for both new and returning users can be as simple as featuring a progress bar.

Progress bars are a great way to help shoppers track their acquired offers, and encourage them to continue spending more to get more.

Brands that deployed this tiered tactic not only increased AOV but also saw uplifts in conversions. Thus, making it a perfect tactic to bring through to Q1 strategies.

Top tip for Q1: Lifetime value might center around what a customer does on your website, but making sure that they return is half the challenge. Use email Remarketing to send smart, behaviorally-determined cart abandonment emails to ensure that you’re always front of mind.

Have we witnessed the death of the discount?

Following on from the tactics that worked, next, let’s look at the effectiveness of the messaging used – specifically discounts.

In our peak season analysis, we predicted that approximately 30% fewer brands would be offering discounts.

And for those that did, the discount amount was projected to be less than in previous years. The most popular discount levels for 2020 came in at 11-20% and 21-30% off.

These assumptions were supported by a post-holiday analysis of the email subject lines sent through Klaviyo during peak season.

While discount messaging was still popular, 5% fewer discount-orientated emails were sent. Also, across October and November, the percentage of non-discount focused subject lines came in at 69.8% and 63.8% respectively.

But did this Scrooge-like take on discounts pay off?

According to our latest data insights, yes!

Looking at the average click-through rate and average incremental click sales uplift, it is clear that offering 30-39% was the sweet spot to hit. This was far less than the stereotypical 70-80% off headlines seen in previous years. In fact, interest steeply fell when retailers offered 40% off or more.

As we move into Q1, more and more brands are starting to move away from margin giveaways, and with consumer demand remaining strong for eCommerce it’s hardly a surprise.

But what other incentives can retailers use?

Ultimately the answer to this will vary from brand to brand and the challenge is to experiment until you find the one that works best for your audience.

In the below example of our client, female fashion retailer Petal & Pup, incentivize visitors to share their email address in exchange for email alerts of new arrivals.

With 100’s of new styles being added to the website every week and the nature of fast fashion, where items sell-out exceptionally quickly, this messaging is spot on for their audience.

In just three months, Petal & Pup achieved a 116% increase in leads captured per week. Thus, supercharging new customer acquisition to fuel future email engagement. 

Another solution for avoiding margin sacrifice unless absolutely necessary is switching up the exact time at which discounts are being presented. For example, try running tests across different points of the customer journey such as upon exit intent or upon a certain number of sessions instead of upon entry. The results might just surprise you!

Top tip for Q1: Many eCommerce retailers deploy thresholds on their sites, encouraging users to spend a little more to unlock discounts or perks such as free delivery. The problem is that many users never see them. Use content personalization to bring these messages front-and-center at the ideal moment.

In conclusion

After reviewing our selection of holiday marketing statistics, the tried and tested solution to overcoming the Q1 slump is simple: Effective customer journey optimization that combines both website personalization and email marketing together with one clear goal – revenue.

With visitors spending more sessions on-site before converting, the number of touchpoints has risen. To succeed, you need to optimize these touchpoints to encourage conversions, shorten the purchase cycle, and secure the all-important next sale. Ideally, without the need for a discount.

As the world continues to change throughout 2021, one thing is certain and that is that further change is coming for eCommerce retailers. Ultimately, it will be the retailers that can react to evolving consumer trends the fastest, with proven marketing strategies such as those we referenced, that will see the best results.

Happy 2021 everyone!

* 3 online surveys were conducted with a panel of potential respondents. The recruitment periods were 8th July 2019 to 31st July 2019 and 31st July 2020 to 21st August 2020. A total of 400 respondents completed the first two surveys. 200 respondents residing in the UK and 200 respondents residing in the US. Only senior marketers or eCommerce directors at retailers with an eCommerce presence were eligible to take part and complete the survey. A total of 2000 respondents completed the third survey. 1000 respondents residing in the UK and 200 respondents residing in the US. All questions within the survey were verified to be MRS compliant by a marketing research company specializing in online and mobile polling.

Do you have a robust consumer-focused marketing model? What does your customer journey look like? Can you tell me about re-engagement paths?

Let’s set the jargon aside for a moment and think about jam instead. To make jam, you need fruit and a whole lot of sugar. You boil the sugar and the fruit together for a set amount of time, and then you pour the hot mixture through a funnel into sterilized jars, which you seal to secure your confection.

“I didn’t come here to learn to preserve raspberries!” I hear you, “How does this relate to ecommerce?”

The answer? It’s all in the funnel.

Your business is a Mason jar, and consumers are the jam. You need a sales funnel to bring them in, and we’re going to teach you how to create one. 

In this article, we’ll learn about:

• The buyer’s journey.
• Typical barriers to purchase.
• The four main stages of a sales funnel.
• How to optimize each part of your marketing model.

By the time you reach a conclusion, you’ll be a pipeline marketing maven. 

Let’s get started.

What Is an Ecommerce Sales Funnel?

Simply put, an ecommerce sales funnel is a visual representation of your customer journey. Consumers enter the top of the sales funnel and move down, stage by stage until they (hopefully) become repeat customers.

Some consumers slide through the funnel quickly, going from a lead to a fan in the blink of an eye — they see something they want; they buy that thing; they become a brand advocate. Other consumers navigate sales funnels like three-toed sloths, taking months or years to reach your checkout page.

So, which consumers do you target? The answer: both. If you craft your sales funnel carefully, it’ll act as an effective conduit for quick decision-makers and procrastinators.

Every business has a unique sales funnel — but basic pipeline anatomy stays the same across the board. If you sell low-cost items (for example beauty products, apparel, toys, or pet products), your sales funnel will probably be fairly short. Why? Because the cost won’t be such a barrier to purchase. Using the same logic, if you’re in the luxury market (high-end watches, expensive jewelry, cutting-edge tech, or vehicles), your sales funnel will likely be longer.

Do You Need a Sales Funnel for Your Online Store?

In short, yes — you absolutely need a sales funnel for your online store. 

Winners keep score, and successful businesses invariably think about where their customers come from. A well-planned sales funnel can help you drive traffic to your site, improve your conversion ratio, build your customer base, and grow brand awareness.

You need data to build a funnel. And to acquire that data, you’ll need to collect email addresses with lead generation tactics. Before you begin, think about where your leads usually come from. Do people interact with your company on social media? Can you capture consumers via Facebook or Twitter ads? If you figure out where your potential customers “live,” you can target them appropriately and usher them into the top of your pipeline.

4 Stages of an Ecommerce Sales Funnel

We mentioned the sales funnel structure earlier. Now we’ll look at four main funnel components, and then we’ll talk about tactics you can use for your funnel optimization.

1. Awareness stage.

Consumers in the awareness stage are brand new on the scene. They found out about your company via Google (this is where SEO tactics pay off), or a paid Facebook ad, or an influencer. Are you a legitimate company, or are you running a scam? Do you sell a product they might like? Do they have a problem you can fix? These folks don’t know yet.

You need to make a great first impression — and fast. You need to educate these folks about your business and favourably position your brand. Think of yourself as a gardener: this is the seed-planting phase of your marketing plan.

Tactics to try out:

Use social media: Social media sites aren’t particularly effective e-commerce sales platforms, but they’re fabulous places to find new leads. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer two main marketing tools: paid ads and pages, or profiles. You can use both avenues to grow brand awareness and boost your business success.

In a recent survey by Blue Fountain Media, 90% of respondents said that social media helped them gain considerable exposure for their companies. Search engine rankings, brand reputation, inbound traffic, conversion rate, and brand loyalty all improved after social media marketing campaigns.

“Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.” – Erik Qualman.

Create ranking blog content: Starting a new blog is a fantastic organic marketing strategy. You don’t need a massive advertising budget to create high-quality content — you need to find your unique brand voice. Consumers regularly subscribe to blogs they find interesting, and they share posts they find relatable. If you produce good content and position yourself as a thought leader, you’ll naturally drive traffic to your ecommerce site.

Blog posts make great advertorials, too. In a nutshell, advertorials are advertisements disguised as editorial content. They read like journalistic articles and blend in with host sites — magazines, blogs, online newspapers — where they explain expensive or complicated products. Successful ecommerce companies often use affiliate blogs as advertorial hosts.

Create look-alike audiences for Facebook ads: When it comes to your marketing efforts, big data is your friend. Imagine marketing your product to 100,000 clones of your best current paying customer. Science fiction? Actually, no. Facebook Lookalike Audiences make it easy to find people whose characteristics match your existing consumer base.

You begin with a source audience — a custom group you create with page fan, pixel, or mobile app data. Facebook AI analyzes that source audience and then delivers your Facebook ad to a brand new similar audience. Hello, increased conversion rates.

2. Consideration stage.

By the time they reach this juncture, consumers know who you are and what you sell. 
They’ve identified a need — a “pain point” — and they’re looking for solutions. They begin to think about buying your product. They might decide to subscribe to the RSS feed on your blog or your newsletter. If you offer a paid content upgrade, you’ll see an uptick in interest at the consideration stage.

This is the mid-funnel phase. You have to work a little harder to get results — a call to action won’t cut it here — but you’re one step closer to checkout. You need to show these people customer testimonials, curated product descriptions, and other compelling content.

Tactics to try out:

Utilize social proof: What is social proof? It’s essentially peer pressure wrapped up in a tasteful bow. Tooting your own horn is one thing, but when real consumers praise your product, you gain genuine street cred. Trustpilot or Google reviews, on-site testimonials, and social media comments are all forms of social proof. 

For best results, display as much positive social proof as you can on each product page. Respond to complaints and tackle customer service issues promptly to build a good reputation. The more successful you look, the more successful you’ll become.

“When people feel insecure about something, they look around for validation. Show them that other people trust you.” – Francisco Rosales.

Optimize product pages: Great product pages drive conversions. According to a recent study by ecommerce experience platform Salsify, consumers across the board expect to see at least six good-quality images and two videos per product. Use crisp, clear, professional-looking images, and make sure they’re optimized for online use so that they load quickly.

To bump up your SEO strategy, write unique product descriptions — and make them interesting and relatable. Begin sentences with action words; tell readers how your products will improve their lives. 

If applicable, use drop-down lists and radio buttons to make customization intuitive. Make essential information (dimensions, shipping costs, etc) easy to find, and end with an enticing call to action (CTA

3. Purchase stage.

Consumers in purchase limbo want to buy — but they’re not 100% convinced they want to buy from you. Not yet, anyway. 

Your job at this stage is to make the decision as easy as possible for them. You need to prove that you’re better than the competition: you offer better products, or better shipping options, or better aftercare, or better prices.

Try adding an exit-intent popup to your page. These clever little ads appear when consumers try to leave your site: offer a discount, free shipping, or a time-limited bundle proposal to give your average conversion rate a lift.

Tactics to try out:

Reduce checkout friction: Evaluate your checkout process. Is it frictionless? Are there nasty surprises lurking in the shadows? A 2019 survey by the Baymard Institute found that half of the customers abandoned their shopping carts because of unexpected shipping fees and other unplanned expenses. A further 21% left because they found the checkout process too long and complex.

Nix hidden postage costs, enable an easy-to-navigate payment gateway, and, if you can, offer a variety of alternative payment options — PayPal, Apple Pay, Klarna, and cryptocurrency. Encourage account creation at this stage, too. Eliminate as many form fields as possible, and only ask for essential information. 

If website visitors don’t complete checkout, send them abandoned cart emails enhanced with coupon codes.

4. Retention stage.

Your sales funnel doesn’t end with a customer’s first purchase. Repeat customers are an invaluable part of ecommerce success — after all, it’s much cheaper and easier to retain a customer than to attract a new one. This vital, final part of the marketing pipeline keeps your consumer base coming back time and again.

Points-based loyalty programs, value-driven client accounts, subscriber-only special offers, and periodic customer retention email series all help maintain a healthy connection. If you run a larger company, consider using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to nurture rapport.

“Loyal customers — they don’t just come back, they don’t simply recommend you: they insist that their friends do business with you.” – Chip Bell.

Tactics to try out:

Implement cross-sells and upsells: Don’t be afraid to use personalized email marketing to offer existing customers upsells, cross-sells, and add-ons. You can use your subscribers’ purchase histories to hone product recommendations, reach out, and ask for feedback. Many big-name brands send follow-up emails every 30 days — not too often, but not too infrequently, either.

Many popular SaaS ecommerce platforms support loyalty plugins. To get started, simply install the app, tailor your loyalty program, and promote it as much as possible. Many ecommerce retailers also create referral programs.

Best practices for your ecommerce sales funnel

Let’s end this guide with a sales channel strategy best practice recap. Implementing these tips will help you maximize conversions on your site:

• Make sure your navigation is easy to follow: Create easy-to-use menus that take customers where they want to go. Optimize your site search to help visitors find the products they’re looking for.
• Make it easy to buy: Streamline your checkout, eradicate unexpected shipping expenses, and offer consumers multiple payment options (PayPal, Apple Pay, Klarna, and cards).
• Remove hesitation: Erase as many barriers to purchase as possible. Offer free shipping and free returns, answer presale questions with a chatbot, and display security badges in a prominent location.

ecommerce Funnel FAQs

Wrapping Up

To create an effective sales funnel, you have to understand how each part of the buyer’s journey works — and why. A well-planned marketing pipeline can help you gain new leads, retain existing customers, and build brand awareness for a brighter future in ecommerce.

Business intelligence tools and analytics can help you understand which marketing tactics are the most successful for building a strong sales funnel.