Fashion Email Marketing Guide to Achieve Instant Impact on Conversions

It will come as no surprise that online shopping is on an all-time high. After spending months in our homes during the pandemic, the majority of us turned to online shopping, whether that was to order essentials or to treat ourselves while we were at home with a lot of time on our hands.

Email marketing for eCommerce websites has become crucial for fashion businesses to succeed – particularly as we have seen a sharp increase in the profit of online-only brands such as ASOS, pulling in £3.2bn in 2020 and Boohoo following up with £1.7bn.

Overall, in 2021, consumers are expected to spend £1,372.78 per user shopping online. These are not small figures and so cash in on these growing trends fashion businesses need to be advertising in the right place – that means straight into a consumers’ inbox. Clothing brand email marketing is central to businesses now more than ever, don’t believe us? Read on to find out more.

Ten email marketing stats you need to know

1. By 2025, eCommerce in the fashion industry is set to grow by $1 trillion
2. Customers trust brands they already know – 49% of recipients would open an email if it is sent from a brand they recognise
3. The global email marketing market was worth $7.5 billion in 2020. By 2027 it is expected to increase to $71.9 billion
4. On average, the open rate for a fashion-based email is 41%
5. The Friday feeling makes people want to buy, with the highest open rate of the week at 19%
6. Out of all marketing messages, over half of conversions (66%) come from email.
7. Fashion is set to account for 31% of the entire eCommerce market in the UK
8. Looking to get in front of fashion-savvy millennials and Gen Z? Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly. 59% of millennials check email on their smartphone, followed by 67% of Gen Z
9. Personalising an email can have a big impact; in fact, the average median ROI from a personalised email campaign is a whopping 122%
10. By 2025, eCommerce in the fashion industry is set to grow by $1 trillion

Your guide to fashion email marketing strategies

So, what do you need to think about before hitting send on that first bunch of emails? Here are some must-haves:

Know who your ideal customer is

The key to conversion optimisation for luxury brands is knowing who you’re speaking to. What’s important to them? What’s their age? How do they earn money? What do they like to spend it on? What’s their style? Creating a customer profile will enable you to answer these questions and get your emails right.

Get personal

Getting an email with your name on it is much nicer than a simple generic one, right? This is just the first step. Can you use your customer’s buying habits to send them tailored emails? Or perhaps you give them options about what they’d like to hear about. The more you can personalise the experience, the more likely you are to get a conversion – often as much as 19% more!

Take time to test

A/B testing is crucial to getting emails right for a brand, in particular fashion brands who rely on visual elements to entice customers to click through to further look at and order: test different subject lines, layouts, types of images etc.

Give people a reason to open

Emails shouldn’t just be about selling – create content that they want to read. Perhaps you can write listicles based on current trends that relate to your brand, perhaps team up with an influencer to collaborate, and, of course, make it clear when there are offers, deals or sales in the subject line – who doesn’t love a bargain?

Fashion Brands That Got It Right

Need some inspiration? Here are some fashion email marketing examples from brands that created excellent campaigns.

Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger plays into their nautical theme in all their branding, and their emails are no exception. Here we see some great examples to follow, sticking to their colour palette, bright imagery, welcoming language and an introductory code for signing up to their mailing list.

Stylestalk

Stylestalk have really cracked the content that people will find useful and want to open in this email. Not only is there excellent product photography and a more interesting layout to make the email look like a magazine, but there are also styling tips that can be used in everyday life, as well as a discount code based on their new launch.

Nike

Within their campaign, Nike has combined two elements that are essential – they have responded to the needs of their intended audience by talking about sustainability while not losing their unique identity and sense of style. Using the different tones of green is a clever way to double down on this message; they also give fashion tips that their subscribers can use.

While there are things to consider before you start with your own fashion email marketing campaign, the benefits of a successful campaign cannot be denied. As we rely on online shopping more and more, we will continue to see growth in this area, meaning that brands need to ensure that they are fully engaged with this way of marketing to have an immediate impact on conversions.