We’ve all had it happen. You meticulously craft an ecommerce email campaign that’s gonna help you sell a ton of products. You build a beautiful HTML template, write engaging copy, and A/B test your subject line. You implement an obvious and compelling call to action.
And after all that work, the landing page that your email directs folks to has a high bounce rate—or worse, a low conversion rate.
What gives?
It could be that your emails are writing checks your click-through destination can’t cash. If you send out a 15% off promotion for dog treats and link your audience to someplace with no mention of the discount, visitors are gonna be confused—and they’ll lose interest in a hurry.
Bottom line: Failing to match the messaging in your email with the copy and visuals on your landing page will hurt your conversion rate.
Maybe you already know it’s a problem, but you feel like you don’t have the resources to pair all of your offers with campaign-specific pages. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Here’s why you need to match your emails to your landing pages in your next ecommerce campaign, and how you can do it really, really well.
- Why email recipients aren’t buying what you’re selling
- Why every ecommerce email should have its own landing page
- How to match your emails and landing pages to maximize conversions
- Examples of effective email and landing page pairs
- How *not* to message match your ecommerce emails
The Real Reasons Your Email Subscribers Aren’t Buying
Let’s be honest. Sometimes in marketing, you can get away with doing less—and that’s a problem.
Email marketing offers some of the best ROI in the business. When you’ve already got someone’s email address, you can expect them to open 14% of the emails you send, with click-through rates just under 7% overall. Estimates suggest that there’s $44 of revenue generated for every dollar spent on email marketing.
With stats like these, you can just half-butt your ecomm email promotions and still do pretty good, right?
Not exactly. If your emails are paired with landing pages that have high bounce rates or low conversion rates, you’re not just leaving money on the table—you’re also bombarding your potential customers with marketing that just doesn’t resonate.
Here are some of the common reasons email promos underperform:
1. Your storefront product page isn’t enough
Data indicates the average bounce rate is 9%, even with load times of less than two seconds. If you’ve seen higher bounce rates on the destination page of your email promos, it might be that you’re not linking to a relevant enough page in the first place.
Your online store’s product pages are specific no-no’s for this purpose. They’re often short, lack details mentioned in your email, and don’t create a consistent experience from click to click.
2. You’ve got too many escape routes
Another problem with your online store’s product pages is that it’s too easy for customers to get distracted and leave. Think about all of the escape routes: website menus, product navigation, highlighted deals that have nothing to do with your email.
Your ecommerce landing page needs to be built as a distraction-free, conversion-optimized funnel. Always encourage your customers to go forward, not sideways.
3. You’re a victim of the paradox of choice
Even if you cut down on the escape routes, too many options can lead to fewer conversions. As Barry Schwartz explains in his book, The Paradox of Choice: “What we don’t realize is that the very option of being allowed to change our minds seems to increase the chances that we will change our minds.”
The same is true for your visitors. Landing pages with just one call to action have been shown to have 2% higher conversion rates than those with five or more.
4. Your landing page is trying to do too much
When your landing pages are more specific, you can get away with using fewer words. You may also find that it’s better for your conversion rates: landing pages with less copy tend to outperform pages with too much copy at a rate of 14% to 11%. – Read more
