Every marketer knows the frustration of watching potential customers show interest and then leave without taking action. It’s the inevitable cycle and challenge of turning interest into action.
But, considering 92% of first-time website visitors are typically not ready to make a purchase, what matters is not that a potential customer came, saw, and left. It is what you do next. How do you gently nudge, show, or remind them what they’re missing, or even offer incentives to bring them back? That’s where email retargeting comes in.
In this article, we’ll show you how you can use email retargeting to drive higher conversions, boost revenue, and grow your business. Let’s dive in!
Email retargeting is a marketing strategy that helps you reconnect with people who interacted with your brand but didn’t complete a desired action. The action could range from making a purchase to downloading an eBook.
The strategy allows you to send targeted, personalized emails to these individuals, encouraging them to take the next step in their customer journey.
Say your customer browsed specific products or categories but didn’t make a purchase. With email retargeting, you can remind them of the product they were checking, as shown below, and share personalized product recommendations to reignite their interest.
Source: Really Good Emails
The ultimate goal of email retargeting is to bridge the gap between interest and action. Whether someone recently abandoned their cart or hasn’t engaged with your brand in a while, email retargeting keeps you on their radar, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Email retargeting revolves around one crucial element: customer data. Without data, you cannot track who interacted with your brand, what they did, or what actions they will most likely take next.
However, by leveraging user behavior and engagement data, email retargeting ensures that every email you send is relevant to where your audience is in their customer journey. This will make your retargeting campaigns more relevant than an average marketing email, raising your chances of effectively re-engaging potential customers.
There are two key email retargeting methods you can use:
The data collected is then used to share relevant emails and targeted display ads.
As a result, it is easy to identify where each segment is in the customer journey, which segments need to be re-engaged, and which retargeting emails to send.
Implementing either or both email retargeting methods can boost your revenue and conversion rates. But why exactly? The answer is in the personalization they enable.
When a targeted lead sees a personalized re-engagement email or display ad that aligns with their interest or needs from your brand, they are more likely to notice and click on it. In fact, research shows that retargeted customers are three times more likely to click on your ad than people who haven’t interacted with your business before.
Email retargeting is most effective when it aligns with specific user behaviors or stages in your potential customer’s journey with your brand. Here are three common scenarios when you should consider using it:
Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges in eCommerce. The average global online shopping cart abandonment rate was 74.61% in 2024.
Thanks to email retargeting, customers who add items to their cart but don’t complete the purchase will get a well-timed email reminding them to take action.
Here’s a great cart abandonment email example.
Source: Really Good Emails
You can also include discounts, free shipping, or limited-time offers to encourage them to complete their purchase.
However, remember that customers abandon their carts for various reasons, including distractions, unexpected shipping costs, or simply lack of urgency. So ensure your incentive matches the customers' reasons as much as possible.
For instance, if they abandoned the cart during the checkout process, your shipping fees may have been slightly higher than they expected. A free shipping offer may entice them to complete their purchase.
Not every customer will convert on their first interaction with your brand. Email retargeting can help you nurture and guide these leads further down the sales funnel, from cold leads to warm prospects and, eventually, to loyal customers.
You can nurture these leads in various ways, including sending them relevant content, personalized messages, or reminders about the value of your offerings.
Check out how the brand in the email example below explains the products’ value and offers readers recommendations.
Source: Really Good Emails
The entire point of nurturing leads is to educate them, address their concerns, and keep your business top-of-mind. As a result, when they are ready to make a purchase, you will be their first choice by far.
So, you must make it easy for your warm leads to reach out to you anytime they have concerns or questions until they take action. You can make a digital business card and use it in your email signature. Unlike traditional business cards, digital ones make it easy to save your contact details in a digital wallet or contact management app. They are also very easy to update.
The customer journey doesn’t end after a purchase. Post-purchase retargeting is a great way to upsell, cross-sell, or build loyalty by recommending related products, requesting reviews, or sharing exclusive offers for repeat buyers.
See how the email remarketing example below does this.
Source: Really Good Emails
Such post-purchase retargeting is meant to maximize customer lifetime value and increase customer retention. However, thoughtful post-purchase service can also leave a lasting positive impression, making customers more likely to recommend your brand to their connections.
Launching successful email retargeting campaigns that effectively re-engage your target audience and drive conversions requires strategic execution.
Here’s a step-by-step guide.
A strong subscriber list is the foundation of any successful email retargeting campaign. It gives you a pool of engaged individuals who have already interacted with your brand at some level, so they’re more likely to convert when retargeted.
But how do you build your subscriber list?
One of the most effective ways to attract subscribers is through lead magnets, i.e., valuable offers designed to encourage sign-ups. These can include discounts, exclusive content like eBooks or white papers, access to free trials, or invitations to webinars and events. The key is to offer something relevant and useful to your audience.
For instance, a clothing store could offer a 10% discount on a first purchase to people who subscribe to their newsletter. See how Zappos does this.
Source: Zappos
Your website is another powerful tool for collecting email addresses. You can have pop-up forms that appear strategically, like after a visitor spends time on a page. Embedded forms on high-traffic pages like your homepage or blog, as shown below, also work well.
Source: GetResponse
Don’t forget to leverage social media. You can promote your email list by sharing links to your sign-up page or running ads highlighting your lead magnets.
Social platforms are also ideal for running contests or giveaways, which is a great way to attract new subscribers quickly. For instance, you can offer users a chance to win a great prize in exchange for their email address.
While it’s tempting to focus on growing your email list as much as possible, ensure you prioritize quality over quantity. Stick to using opt-in methods that attract genuinely interested subscribers.
Additionally, clean your email list regularly to remove inactive or unengaged subscribers. This will keep your list healthy and improve campaign performance.
Audience segmentation will ensure you send the right message to the right people at the right time, maximizing conversions and engagement rates. Here are some of the key criteria you can use to segment your audience:
Use tools like Google Analytics, CRM platforms, and behavioral tracking software to provide valuable insights that you can use to create accurate segments. However, most email marketing services offer built-in segmentation tools that simplify the entire process.
Once your audience is segmented, it’s time to craft targeted email sequences that align with their behavior and preferences.
To create these personalized email sequences, define the specific actions (or lack of action) that will trigger retargeting emails designed to move the recipient closer to taking your desired action.
For example, a cart abandonment sequence might include a gentle reminder email followed by an offer email with a discount or free shipping to encourage the purchase. You can then end with an email that evokes urgency and leverages FOMO to encourage immediate action.
Here’s a simple demonstration of a cart abandonment sequence.
Source: GetResponse
Next, leverage dynamic content to personalize your email sequences. Dynamic content lets you customize parts of an email based on each subscriber’s data. For example, you can include the recipient's first name, include the specific products they viewed, or suggest complementary products based on their purchase history.
Your email recipients can also see different images. For instance, if you sell hiking gear, different email subscribers will see different product images that match their demographics.
Timing is another crucial element of email sequences. Therefore, embrace the automation tools that come with most email marketing platforms. These tools allow you to set up triggers for specific actions, such as opening an email, clicking on a link, or making a purchase.
The email platforms will ensure that your emails are timely, relevant, and automatically delivered based on subscriber behavior.
While personalized content is crucial, how that content is presented plays a huge role in whether your intended recipients will ignore or open and engage with your emails.
The email subject line is the first opportunity you will get to grab your subscribers' attention. Therefore, ensure your subject line is concise, enticing, and related to your email content.
You can pair it with engaging preheader text, which serves as an extension of the subject line and appears in the inbox preview. Together, they should spark curiosity and give the recipient a reason to open the email.
Your emails should also have a clean and organized design that guides the reader’s eye toward the most important element: your CTA. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, high-quality visuals, and white spaces to break up your email body and make the content more digestible.
See the example below.
Source: Really Good Emails
Additionally, avoid overwhelming the reader with too much information and stick to one key message or goal per email.
Speaking of keeping it simple, stick to one main CTA that stands out and clearly communicates what you want the recipient to do.
For example, if the goal is to encourage a purchase, place the CTA button prominently and use clear language like “Shop Now.” Make sure there’s enough whitespace around your CTA to make it easily stand out to readers.
To continuously improve your campaigns, it’s crucial to test and refine different elements of your emails. This will help you understand what engages your target audience and make data-driven decisions that improve your campaign’s performance.
You can even A/B test email elements such as subject lines, CTAs, images, visuals, offers, and even email send times and frequency.
Whether you’re using it to lower cart abandonment rates, nurture leads, or re-engage previous customers, email retargeting gives you another chance to capture the attention of potential customers who “got away.”
So, how do you run effective and successful email retargeting campaigns? We’ve broken the process down into five key steps.
Build your subscriber list, segment your audience, personalize your emails, design impactful messages, and continuously A/B test your email elements. With these strategies in place, you'll be well on your way to maximizing your email marketing efforts and driving higher revenue for your business.