Are you looking for improved results from your online store? You’ve tried word-of-mouth marketing, you’ve tried social media, you’ve tried ads, and nothing seems to be helping.

LFM customers regularly report that sales spike when they send an email, and this tracks with industry data. For years, email marketing has been considered the most effective type of digital marketing, edging out social media and other types of online marketing.

Given this, it makes sense to focus on email. However, you have to use email correctly to optimize your results.

It’s common for people to treat all emails as marketing emails, but many of the emails you send should actually be transactional emails. Marketing and transactional email have some notable differences that require a different strategy and different tools. Here’s one big distinction between the two: According to experts, marketing emails have an average open rate of 20 to 25%, while the open rate for transactional email is 80 to 85%. That’s why you should use transactional emails whenever possible.

Keep reading to learn the difference between these email categories and get ideas for using both types of email to maximize the value of your online storefront.

Marketing vs. Transactional Emails

A marketing email attempts to sell a product or encourage a customer to take action with your company. Examples include sending a special offer to customers who haven’t ordered in 30 days or more, sharing an early bird signup offer to previous CSA subscribers, or contacting customers who have purchased specific items about a sale on that item. Email providers sometimes put these emails in a promotional or junk folder, making them less visible and less likely to be read.

On the other hand, a transactional email relates to a purchase someone has made or is already planning to make with your company. Transactional emails are more likely to contain some form of customization, such as the specific produce items the shopper will receive this week, a receipt for their purchase, or a reminder about upcoming payments for installment plans. Because these emails relate to an order or planned order, the person’s email provider is significantly more likely to put the message in their primary inbox.

How Can LFM Improve My Email Marketing?

When your communication with a customer or former customer calls for a marketing email, there are several tools within LFM that can make that outreach more effective and easier to implement. One powerful feature of LFM is its ability to integrate with Mailchimp. You can use the data you collect to more successfully target customers.

Here are some examples of email types that typically have the highest open rate when they’re sent as marketing emails. LFM provides a customizable template for each.

✔️ Create Different Audiences: Separate your farmers market, CSA, wholesale, and other customer into different audiences so you can customize emails for each. For example, you can send an email on Friday before the farmers market to customers that usually pre-order for pickup, remind previous CSA subscribers about signup deadlines, and share weekly fresh lists with your wholesale customers.

✔️ Tag Specific Customers: Want to further customize your email? LFM automatically creates dozens of customer fields in Mailchimp that can be converted into tags for automations and more. (Coming soon: We’re adding the ability to add and update Mailchimp tags directly from LFM!)

✔️ Share Custom Shopping Lists: Do you have featured products or shopping items you want to send to only some customers? No problem! LFM allows for the generation of embeddable product lists (with photos and links to your storefront) directly into marketing emails sent from Mailchimp.

Looking to learn how to make the most of email marketing?

Download LFM’s free email marketing toolkit!

Learn More About Email Marketing

How Can LFM Help with Transactional Emails?

If you’re taking online orders, you have dozens to hundreds of transactional emails to create every week. If you have to send all of these customized emails without automation, it can be a real time sink.

That’s where LFM comes in. Our software has dozens of pre-formatted and customizable emails to improve customer service and streamline communication. If you plan to send these transactional emails or other types of transactional emails, we make it easier.

✔️ Send Bulk Emails: Did your spinach freeze, your basil bolt, or your berries get damaged in a hail storm? Did your slaughterhouse fail to deliver your steaks on time or a farmer change the price of fennel due to unforeseen circumstances? You can send a bulk email to all affected customers with just a few clicks (and even simultaneously swap another producer’s spinach, basil, or berries). There’s no need to go through every customer order to communicate with them; LFM does the work for you!

✔️ Remind People to Return to Abandoned Carts: LFM will automatically remind customers who abandoned their shopping cart to return to your website. This is a great customer service and a way to increase sales.

✔️ Generate Final Order Confirmations, Pick-Up Reminders, and Delivery Reminders: Schedule reminders and final order confirmations and LFM will keep customers in the loop on order updates.

✔️ Generate “What’s in the Box” Emails: LFM automates the process of emailing customers to confirm what you have planned for their CSA box for the week (see example at right). If you offer any customization, they can access their order to customize it right from the email!

Improve Your Email Communication Today!

Now that you understand the difference between marketing and transactional emails, give some thought to how you might change your email strategy. Make sure you have all the tools you need to implement both types of emails as easily and effectively as possible.

If you’re interested in learning more about the many ways LFM can streamline your email communications, please reach out! We’d love to demonstrate how we make communicating with your customers easier.

 

Looking for More Email Resources Specific to Farms and Food Hubs?

• • • Don’t forget to download LFM’s email marketing toolkit. It contains five separate guides, including an overall primer on boosting email effectiveness and tips for selling more to retail, wholesale, and CSA customers.
    • Read more about “What’s in the Box” emails and how they can help you increase sales and boost engagement with your CSA program.
    • Are you looking to grow the number of people on your email marketing list? Get our top six tips in this blog post.
    • Want to keep up with all things Local Food Marketplace? Join our email list!