Why is it essential for cross-border e-commerce to engage in email marketing?

Recently, those involved in cross-border e-commerce probably know that Amazon suddenly suspended several major sellers' accounts. On May 20th, Amazon responded, clearly stating that the suspensions were due to review manipulation (fake reviews).

Given this situation, many sellers are lamenting that after painstakingly accumulating users, they have to start over again with the account suspension.

Clearly, for cross-border e-commerce, it's crucial to accumulate a user base that won't be lost. Therefore, we suggest to anyone starting in cross-border e-commerce to thoroughly consider this issue and determine where to channel your users from the e-commerce platform.

Based on our years of experience, cross-border enterprises are best served by using email marketing to retain users in an email list.

Below, Webpower will use B2C enterprises as a scenario to illustrate, based on experience, why cross-border brands must engage in email marketing and how to execute cross-border email marketing.

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Why is email marketing essential for cross-border enterprises?

After all, in the domestic market, email marketing isn't usually the first method that comes to mind.

First, people in foreign countries use email more frequently and have well-established habits around its use.

In the domestic market, people might not check their email inbox for an entire year unless necessary. However, abroad, emails have become as integrated into daily life as text messages.

Wherever people's attention goes, that's where the traffic and opportunities are. Therefore, while email marketing might be relatively unknown domestically, it is one of the most common marketing methods abroad.

Second, irreplaceability.

In fact, besides email marketing, there are other digital marketing methods abroad, such as collaborating with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), who already have their own followers. However, this approach is expensive! The most critical downside is that when the KOL moves on, so do their followers. This one-time conversion doesn't substantially benefit a company's long-term expansion overseas.

Additionally, unlike in the domestic market where you can directly add customers to your WeChat groups or personal accounts, foreign users don't have this habit. Therefore, from a certain perspective, email is the best channel for brands to reach users abroad, especially in Western countries, because it is stable.

Many large enterprises abroad, such as the well-known Amazon, use email marketing to establish and maintain their membership systems.

Third, email marketing is cost-effective!

Do you know how affordable email marketing is? For instance, sending 300,000 emails might cost only 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. On average, that's less than a tenth of a yuan per email. Despite this minimal cost, email marketing plays an irreplaceable role in driving foreign customers to place orders, repurchase, and maintain customer relationships. It can be considered an extremely high-return investment. So, it's definitely worth implementing!

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At this point, some might argue, "What's the use of sending so many emails? Most of them will just be ignored as spam."

That's not accurate. Email marketing operates on a permission-based model, which means users have explicitly agreed to receive emails from you.

Foreign email platforms and channels are highly regulated. If you randomly purchase user data from external sources and start mass emailing, you'll likely end up getting your account banned.

So, the question arises: how do you gain user permission?

Purchasing user data is clearly not a viable option. Instead, the focus should be on initial marketing and promotional efforts that encourage users to voluntarily provide their email addresses.

For example, you can ask users to provide their email addresses during the registration process on your website or through incentive-based surveys. Don't worry about the number of users who voluntarily leave their email addresses; those who do are likely genuinely interested in your brand and have a positive perception of it. Consequently, maintaining relationships with these users will be more effective than adopting a scattergun approach. This is also why email marketing is valuable for cross-border brands.

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Finally, how should B2C enterprises approach cross-border email marketing?

1. Understand Foreign Email Sending Regulations and User Habits

Many foreign email service providers can identify and block emails sent from non-fixed IP servers. Overseas ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have stricter rules on spam, blacklists, complaint reports, and data requirements for sending emails. Crossing these red lines could risk getting your platform banned, so don't take any chances.

Additionally, users from different regions have varying consumption habits, which affects their preferences for marketing messages.

For example, Japanese users prefer paying with credit cards; many Europeans don't celebrate Thanksgiving; and the French love to go on a shopping spree during Christmas. We need to design appropriate email marketing strategies and content based on the consumption habits of different regional audiences. After all, you wouldn't send Thanksgiving greetings to a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving!

2. Acquire Email Lists

As mentioned earlier, acquiring an email list means obtaining user permission. There's no shortcut here; don't even think about buying data because it simply won't work.

3. Choose an Appropriate Email Marketing Platform

Webpower suggests that cross-border enterprises choose an email marketing service provider that has an international presence but is not strictly local to any single country. Why is this important?

Because local service providers, while well-versed in their own country's email marketing environment, may face communication and time zone challenges. On the other hand, purely domestic providers might struggle due to differences in email marketing environments, systems, and channels between domestic and international markets, making it difficult to execute effectively.

You can certainly choose Webpower's own iEmail platform. Without exaggeration, we've been in the Dutch market for many years and have a comprehensive understanding of the foreign email marketing landscape.

4. Crafting Emails

Studies have shown that an email has only a 2-second window to capture a user's attention. If you can't grab their interest within this time frame, the email will likely be ignored. Therefore, your email needs a clear and compelling subject line—short, powerful, and focused on key benefits to immediately engage the reader.

Additionally, email creation isn't just about designing a single email; it's about planning emails for the entire user lifecycle. This approach is known as "lifecycle email marketing."

In simple terms, it means sending different emails tailored to the various stages of the user's journey.

5. Sending Emails

Emails shouldn't be sent all at once; they should be sent in batches and tested repeatedly. Based on the test results, adjustments can be made to achieve optimal email marketing performance.

A good email marketing service platform can automatically filter out invalid addresses, precisely send emails through automated user segmentation, and conduct A/B testing. For example, Webpower's iEmail platform offers these capabilities.

6. Data Review and Analysis

Once the emails have been sent, how do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing? You need to understand a few key metrics for email marketing:

• Delivery Rate: The number of emails successfully delivered to users' inboxes divided by the total number of emails sent. This metric evaluates the quality of the email sending platform.

• Open Rate: The number of users who open the email divided by the number of users who received the email.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The number of users who clicked on links within the email divided by the number of users who received the email.

• CTO (Click-To-Open Rate): The number of users who clicked on links within the email divided by the number of users who opened the email. This is an important metric for evaluating the quality of the email's content.

By generally considering these three metrics together, you can analyze the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign. Based on the results, you can then make strategic adjustments to improve future campaigns.

That concludes today's discussion on cross-border e-commerce email marketing. I hope you found it useful. For more insights, please follow the WeChat official account "Webpower"!

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