If you’re in the business of selling goods in bulk, then you need every tool in your arsenal to ensure your company succeeds. And one of those tools is your wholesale email marketing strategy. Believe it or not, even the humble email, when used strategically, can do wonders for your wholesale business.
After all, it’s a fantastic way to communicate with existing and prospective clients, generate leads, and ultimately boost sales and revenue. This makes it one of the most powerful and versatile marketing tools wholesalers can use in their bid to rise to the top of their industry.
In this article, we’ll provide tips and strategies on how to use wholesale email marketing to improve your sales and boost your revenue. Before we get to that, however, we need to define what wholesale email marketing is. Let’s get into it!
What Is Wholesale Email Marketing?
To determine what wholesale email marketing is, it’s important to first understand the concept of email marketing nowadays.
Simply put, email marketing is a type of marketing wherein you use email communication to inform the customers on your email list about your new products, promotions, and other services. You can also use it to educate your audience about your brand and engage them between purchases.
Also known as B2B email marketing, wholesale email marketing is the same but with one important distinction: because wholesalers sell to retailers or outlet stores, you’ll be sending those email campaigns to professionals or businesses, not individual product end users.
The Importance Of Wholesale Email Marketing
So, why should wholesalers such as yourself treat wholesale email marketing seriously?
According to studies, 91% of wholesale marketers consider email the most important marketing channel when it comes to determining the success of their B2B content marketing efforts. Personalized emails are particularly effective, contributing to a higher open rate of 82% and clickthrough rate (CTR) of 75%.
On the other hand, welcome emails enjoy an average open rate of 68.6%. In addition, the return on investment (ROI) is spectacular, with an average return of $40 for each $1 spent on email marketing.
As for customers who abandon their carts, sending them three follow-up emails can lead to 69% more purchases. These are but a few of the statistics that demonstrate the value wholesale email marketing brings to any business.
10 Wholesale Email Marketing Strategies You Can Use To Maximize Sales And Drive Revenue
So we’ve established that emails are crucial to wholesale enterprises. Now, let’s explore the wholesale email marketing strategies that you can employ to ensure your company’s success.
1. Personalize your emails
Email personalization involves the customization of email content based on its intended recipient’s specific characteristics, behaviors, or preferences. It not only entails greeting a customer using their name and other identifiers but also ensuring that you tailor your message to their interests and values.
You can achieve email personalization by segmenting your email list based on factors such as demographics, past purchases, browsing behavior, and the like. This will allow you to convey targeted messages that resonate with your clients and encourage them to take action.
For example, let’s say that specific retailers order stuffed dinosaurs more than other types of plushies. Every time you have new stuffed dinosaurs in stock, you can send these retailers a message highlighting the features and benefits of these toys. You could even offer them discounts!
2. Promote product launches, seasonal sales, and special offers
Product launches, seasonal sales, and special offers are great opportunities to generate excitement and boost sales.
You can use wholesale email marketing to create awareness about these events and promote special deals such as limited-time offers. This way, you can create a sense of urgency, encouraging clients to act quickly and buy your goods before the offer expires.
Consider sending retailers a series of emails every special occasion. For example, you can send each client an email on December 1 to introduce your Christmas sale, then another on December 15 to remind them of the sale. Lastly, you can email them on December 30 to inform them that they have one day left to avail of your discounts.
3. Use exclusivity
Like the scarcity that we discussed in the previous point, exclusivity is a powerful psychological trigger that can create a sense of urgency in customers, enticing them to take immediate action.
Therefore, consider using the term “exclusive offer” in your wholesale email marketing campaigns. This phrase can make your customers feel like they’re part of a special, select group, thus enhancing any positive feelings they have toward you.
This, in turn, can promote customer loyalty and ultimately lead to more sales.
Similarly, you can offer special deals to your customers as a reward for taking certain actions. For example, let’s say a business has just registered on your online store as a wholesale customer. You can reward them for establishing a working relationship with you by offering them an exclusive discount.
4. Use social proof
Social proof is a powerful psychological concept that can influence customer behavior.
By including customer reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content in your emails, you can build trust and credibility with your audience. Social proof can also help customers make informed purchase decisions and reduce their perceived risk.
Don’t hesitate to ask your existing customers for feedback about your products. For example, you can invite them to write product reviews or leave comments on your blog posts. You can then take the most positive statements and include them in your emails. These will serve as proof to other customers that your goods are indeed worth buying as they provide solutions to their concerns.
5. Provide high-value content
Nothing says excellent customer service quite like offering clients materials that can help boost their business performance.
For this reason, we recommend using wholesale email marketing to send your customers how-to guides, expert advice, industry insights, and the like. Information that your clients will find useful and relevant can keep them engaged, thus increasing the likelihood that they’ll buy your items. In addition, such content can help you establish yourself as a thought leader, helping you build trust with your audience.
WooCommerce boasts a nifty feature that allows its users to receive guidance about how to complete basic store setup and other helpful insights.
6. Use visuals
Visuals are a great way to grab your audience’s attention and communicate your message quickly and effectively. Using images, videos, and infographics in your emails can help you tell your brand story, showcase your products, and create an emotional connection with your audience.
Even something as seemingly insignificant as emojis sprinkled here and there can make your email easier to read and more pleasant to look at. After all, these tiny symbols can break otherwise large bodies of text into smaller, less intimidating ones.
However, don’t overdo your use of visuals, as too many images can give an email a cluttered appearance and perhaps even drown out your message.
7. Cross-sell and upsell your products
Cross-selling and upselling are effective strategies for increasing sales and revenue.
Cross-selling involves offering related products to the customer, while upselling involves promoting higher-priced items. By implementing these strategies in your wholesale email marketing campaigns, you can encourage customers to purchase additional items or upgrade to more expensive products.
For example, after a retailer orders smartphones from your e-commerce store, you can send them a follow-up email that cross-sells accessories such as phone cases, screen protectors, and chargers.
8. Leverage abandoned cart emails
Abandoned cart emails are automated messages that a customer triggers when they add items to their cart but don’t complete the checkout process.
As demonstrated by the statistic we mentioned earlier, these emails can be highly effective in recovering lost sales and increasing revenue. By reminding customers of the items they left behind and offering incentives such as free shipping or a discount, you can encourage them to complete their purchases.
We recommend sending more than one but no more than three abandoned cart emails. You can use the marketing automation software Drip to create email series that will automatically be delivered to customers who fail to complete their checkout.
9. Optimize your emails for mobile devices
An increasing number of individuals check their emails on their mobile devices. Therefore, it’s vital to optimize your emails for smartphones and tablets.
You can achieve this by using responsive design, keeping your emails short and to the point, and using clear and concise language. This can help ensure that your emails are easy to read and navigate on all devices.
The good thing is, making your emails look right on mobile devices doesn’t have to be a painstaking process. For instance, the e-commerce marketing automation software Drip automatically optimizes your emails for mobile devices and even gives you a preview of how the message will appear on a smartphone screen.
10. Test and measure your results
You should always determine how well your wholesale email marketing is doing.
This way, you can find out how effective it is at driving sales, in turn letting you know whether or not your strategy needs improving.
Test your email campaigns’ different elements, including their subject lines, call-to-actions, and visuals. Furthermore, you should track your email metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. These tactics will help you identify areas for enhancement, allowing you to make data-driven decisions for maximum impact.
You can also use A/B testing, which involves sending two variations of an email to a small subset of your email list and measuring which one performs better. This allows you to test different elements such as subject lines, calls-to-action, and visuals, and optimize your campaigns for maximum impact.
There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of your wholesale email marketing. For example, you can use Google Analytics to check web traffic and the bounce rates on the landing pages.
Conclusion
Wholesale email marketing is a powerful tool for maximizing sales and driving revenue.
To recap, you can use the following wholesale email marketing strategies to boost your business performance:
- Personalize your emails
- Promote product launches, seasonal sales, and special offers
- Use exclusivity
- Use social proof
- Provide high-value content
- Use visuals
- Cross-sell and upsell your products
- Leverage abandoned cart emails
- Optimize your emails for mobile devices
- Test and measure your results
Do you have any questions about wholesale email marketing? How about Wholesale Lead Capture, the WooCommerce expansion that automates email communication with your customers? Let us know in the comments section below!
