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How to Build a Customer Email List Using Your Shopify Store

You already know how crucial customer relationships are in the retail world. So it only makes sense that email marketing (especially as an online retailer) is absolutely essential! Having a constant connection to your customers through email means you can inform them about new products, company updates, upcoming sales, or order information, and ultimately keep driving your business forward!

When your business is consistent with sending out fabulous and impactful emails that are adding value to an inbox, you’re not only driving sales, but you’re building customer loyalty. As a store owner, you probably know and have heard all this before. The tricky part is often building your email list so that it can really enhance your business. We’ll show you the steps to collecting customers emails through your Shopify store website, but first…

 



  • Using email marketing is great for attracting new customers and keeping your existing ones. Focusing on customer retention should be a top priority and a long-term solution for increased revenue and sustainable growth - we want to make sure you keep moving forward! It’s not always easy to cultivate customer loyalty, so spend some time and focus on this aspect of your business. 
  • Creating customer loyalty is best done with valuable content! You want to make a brand advocate out of your customers, so they’ll promote your business to their friends and family. To do this, they need to really believe in and love what your brand sells and does - make sure to highlight the best of your business in every email you send out.
  • Create a personalized CTA (call to action) to include in every email. Give your customers a next step - If you offer content directly related to your visitor’s needs, your email won’t feel like an overly sales-y advertisement. Instead, it will feel valuable (a key principle for a long-term customer retention!) 

 



Like with all SheCom Tutorials, we like to provide you with what you should expect so you can help budget your time and money in the best way possible. You should expect to spend the following resources completing this tutorial:

TIME:

Building your customer email list will take some time, varying from business to business. However, the more you put into it, the more you will get back!

MONEY:

There are no real expenses to prepare for with this tutorial.  



How to Collect Customer Emails

The first step for collecting email is to ensure you’re doing it the right (& legal) way! For privacy reasons, make sure that you only send promotional emails to customers who have accepted to receive marketing from your business. Customers can accept by adding their email address to a newsletter sign-up on your website, or by checking the checkbox on the checkout page (steps below). 

 

Once a customer accepts marketing, their email address will show up on the Customers page of your Shopify admin. Click Accepts Marketing to display the customers who have agreed to receive promotional emails:

There are two simple ways to collect customer email from your Shopify store -- collecting at checkout or on your homepage.

Option 1: Collecting at Checkout

This is a sure and simple way to collect emails of shoppers who are clearly loving your brand - they’re buying something! If they are already hooked, they’re more likely to want emails to keep them updated on your new products and sales.

Step 1 - From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout.

Step 2 - In the Email marketing section, check Show a sign-up option at checkout. This adds a sign-up checkbox to your checkout.

Step 3 - *Optional* Check Preselect the sign-up option. This preselects the email marketing sign-up box at the checkout for customers without an account. It also preselects the box for customers with accounts who are already in the Accepts Marketing customer list. The box isn't preselected at the checkout for customers with accounts who have opted out of email marketing and aren't on the Accepts Marketing customer list, so there is nothing to worry about there. 

Step 4 - Click Save.

 

Option 2: Collecting on Your Homepage

To collect customer emails from your home page, you will need to add a newsletter signup section to your online store. With a newsletter signup, email addresses are collected from your customers and then stored on the Accepts Marketing tab on the Customers page in the Shopify admin. For help with adding a newsletter section to your online store, see your theme documentation.

 

Setting Up a Marketing Campaign

Yay! Your email list is really starting to pick up the pace now! What to do, what to do…

Creating a marketing campaign around a specific product, huge sale, or new line is one of the best (and fun!) ways to re-engage customers or boost the hype for something new. Let’s get them excited and get them shopping!

Step 1 - Install an email marketing app from the Shopify App Store.

Step 2 - Follow the email marketing app's instructions to sync it with your list of customers who add their emails to your newsletter signup section. If your theme doesn't have an email signup form, then use an email marketing app that can add one to your store.

Step 3 - Use the email marketing app to create and send newsletters to your customers.

Voila!

 

Don't Miss Our FREE Email Marketing Guides:


Plus! Take Your Emails to the Next Level
With Our Drag & Drop Email Templates

 

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