How To Boost Your Avon Online Sales Through Email

Hello Online Beauty Bosses!As an Avon Rep. who sells exclusively through my Avon eStore one of the methods I use to help build my online sales is through email. In addition to Avon’s automated emails that go out on our behalf I also send customers my own personal emails.

In this “How To” we’re going to talk about “How To Boost Your Avon eStore Sales Through Email”

I’ve been sending personal emails out to my customers right from the start when I first became an Avon Rep in 2010. So they know they can count on hearing from me every campaign when the new catalog comes out, whenever there’s a Free Shipping offer and also to remind them when the campaign sales will be ending. I’ve also noticed whenever I send an email out I see a boost in sales for that day! So I make sure to be consistent.

Here’s an Example How Sending out a Personal Email Can Help Boost Your Avon eStore Sales.

Recently Avon offered Free Shipping and usually they’ll give us a heads-up a couple days in advance so we can promote the offer to our customers. But in this case we weren’t notified, so a lot of us Reps were caught off guard! I didn’t realize Avon had Free Shipping until the afternoon Pacific Time and it was even later on the East Coast.

I also noticed when I checked my Avon eStore, sales were a little slower than usual. Usually on a Free Shipping day my eStore sales are better.

Typically I’ll send my emails out in the early morning but even though it was late in the afternoon I knew the promo code wouldn’t end until midnight and customers still had time to take advantage of the offer, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to send out the email.

So I sent out an email to all my customers letting them know Avon was offering Free Shipping and though they got it late in the day, by the end of the evening it went from a slow day to having over $600 in eStore sales!Needless to say, even though Avon sent out a Free Shipping email on my behalf to my customers in the morning, I still got a much better response when I sent out my own email letting them know I had Free Shipping for them!

Now you may have noticed Avon focuses a lot on Social Media and for good reason as this is one way to build your online presence. But in addition to social media, sending your customers a personal email can give you a much better response. Email is still relevant so don’t discount the power of the inbox!

Whether you’re a new Avon Representative who has a few customers or a Seasoned Rep who has hundreds, making it a habit to collect current and potential customer emails and adding them to your customer list is going to make a big difference so you’ll want to continue building that list!

Over the years as you grow your business so will your email list and managing that list may get harder to manage. When that time comes you may consider using an Email Service that will help you create and send out personalized emails in one batch. An email service also allows you to address each customer by name so it looks like you’re sending the email out individually to each customer.

There are all sorts of email services out there. The one that I use is AWEBER, it’s a paid monthly subscription for larger lists. I also use MailChimp for my smaller miscellaneous lists because their basic plan is FREE!

With MailChimp you can have a contact list up to 2000 customers and send out 12000 emails a month! You can schedule and personalize each email with your customer’s name and send the email to everyone on your list all at the same time!

MailChimp is a great service, it’s fairly easy to use once you get familiar with it and will make emailing your customers much easier! Here’s quick overview on how to get started with MailChimp and for more details you can watch the video at the top of the page.

How To Get Started With Mail Chimp

1) Create A MailChimp Account

2) Create Your First Email List / Audience

Once you activate your account you can log in and create your first email contact list!  To do this just click the buttons in the order as shown in the image above.

Each button click will take you to a new page.  Once you click the third “Create List” button you’ll be asked to enter your list information.

UPDATE: Since this "how-to" was created MailChimp renamed their "LIST" tab to now "AUDIENCE"  so look for the AUDIENCE tab instead.

The info you need to enter is basic information to describe your new list. For more details on how to complete this form just watch the video at the top of this page.

3. Adding Contacts To Your List/Audience

Now that you have your new list created you’ll need to add your customer contacts. You can either add contacts manually one by one or you can import them. One thing to keep in mind when adding contacts to your list is to make sure you have your customer’s approval to contact them. Not everyone welcomes email so just make sure it’s ok.

If you have a large customer list selecting the “Import Contacts” option might be best as it will save you time.

To do this you can export your customer list from your Avon Web Office and then upload that list to MailChimp. For more details on how to do this just watch the video at the top of the page.

Once you add contacts you can manage your list right from MailChimp and can also re-import updated Avon files or add new contacts manually as you acquire new customers.

4. Creating A MailChimp Campaign (a.k.a Sending out an email)

Mail chimp calls sending out an email “a Campaign” and every time you want to send out an email you’ll need to “Create A Campaign” this is also covered in the video at the top of the page.

Once you create and set up a campaign, MailChimp has a great “drag & drop” email editor where you can design a very nice email. You can add images & links as well as address each individual customer by name.

To personalize the subject line and greeting just click the “Merge Tag” option and select the *|FNAME|* code (also shown in the video). Doing this will insert the first name of your contact into each email.

Email Tips For Better Engagement

Taking advantage of a free MailChimp account will make it easier to communicate with your customers and the more you communicate with your customers the better. To make the most out of your emailing efforts here are some email tips to keep in mind.

1. Give Some Thought Into Your Subject Line
   This is important because a good subject line could determine how many will open the email and take advantage of whatever you have to offer. The subject line should be relevant to what the email is about and also enticing enough to open.
   
   Every so often you can add your customers name to the subject line or an emoji to get their attention just try to keep the subject from sounding too spamy or “hypee”
   
   
2. Use an Image at the top of the email
   The MailChimp email editor allows you to add a clickable image at the top of the email. It’s important to use your own image and not copy it from the email Avon sent out earlier. You want your emails to look like ‘YOU” sent it and not Avon.
   
   
3. Link Directly to the page.
   Depending on what your email is about you’ll want to add links directly to a product page or your Avon brochure page and not to your Avon eStore homepage. This will make it easier for customers to find what your talking about and to take action. The less steps your customer has to take the better.
   
   
4. Keep emails Simple & Focused
   Try to keep your email clean and simple. If the goal of your email is to introduce a special offer then only talk about that special offer. If it’s to visit your online brochure then just talk about the online brochure. Doing this will make your email easier to read.
   
   If you have several topics you want to share with your customers consider sending each topic in it’s own email.
   
   
5. Have 1 Call To Action
   This is also in line with keeping the email simple & focused. If your goal is to have your customer view the current Avon Catalog then just have that call to action. You can have more than one link or button, just so those links all go to the same location.
   
   You want to make it easy for customers to know exactly what you want them to do otherwise the email may get to confusing and your customer will just close it without taking action.
   
   
6. Include an Image of Yourself
   Adding your image at the bottom of the email along with your contact info will help make a better connection with your customers.
   
   
7. Send out at Calculated Times
   It’s up to you when you want to send out your emails but typically the morning is best. But you can be flexible depending on the circumstance. Sending an email at the beginning of each campaign and at the end can often boost sales as well as sending out whenever Avon has a special offer like Free Shipping.
   
   You can also send out an email on holidays. Holiday emails are great way to just say hello without any call to action. This helps build a better customer relationship and shows customers you’re not just emailing them because you want something from them (a sale).
   
   
8. Be Consistent
   And lastly if anything else, BE CONSISTENT. If you get into the habit of emailing your customers on a regular basis they will start expecting to hear from you and will more likely open your emails. It also opens the door for better communication so they know your available whenever they need you. They will also start to identify you as their Avon Rep and feel like they know you!

Ok, Online Beauty Bosses I hope you have found this helpful enough to look into the possibilities of using email as a strategy to boost your online sales. If you have questions feel free to leave your question over at the Online Beauty Bosses Group for more in depth discussion.