Everything You Need to Know About Shopify Email App

In this episode of the Product Powerhouse Podcast, Erin discusses the Shopify Email app and its potential benefits for business owners. She shares her own experience with email service providers and highlights why she decided to create a course on using the Shopify Email app. 

Here are the key takeaways from this episode: 

• The Shopify Email app is an email service provider available to all Shopify users.
• It allows users to create email marketing campaigns, automation, and send various types of emails such as newsletters, welcome sequences, thank you messages, and abandoned cart reminders.
• Having both an inbox and an email service provider is essential for effective email marketing.
• The Shopify Email app is a cost-effective option for those on a tight budget, as it offers up to 10,000 free emails per month.
• While the app may not have all the advanced features of other platforms, it is a great choice for beginners or those who find other platforms overwhelming.
• Users can customize email templates and integrate the app with other tools on their Shopify store.
• Erin announces her new course on using the Shopify Email app, which covers setup, branding, creating campaigns and automations, managing audiences, and more.

Links Mentioned:
Shopify Email App
Shopify Help Center

Erin's new Shopify Email Course 

Transcript

0:00

Hello friends. Welcome to another episode of the product powerhouse podcast. I am so excited to be here, chatting with you today. Before we dive in to the meat of the episode, I wanted to ask a quick favor. If you have been enjoying the podcast and you haven't left a rating and review on apple podcasts. I would be so grateful if you took a second to hop over and do that. So right now we're sitting at 41 reviews and I would love to hit 50 reviews. I just think that is incredible. I can't even believe that 50 people listened to this podcast. So having 50 reviews would be a really cool milestone. And I appreciate your time. I'm so grateful for each and every one of you. What are we talking about today? I actually like completely throughout the schedule that I already had. Because I impulsively decided to create a new course this week. I decided to create it last week. Based on some feedback. During my open office hours in the Facebook community. So once a month, I have been doing free office hours. That's the second Thursday of the month. Usually at nine o'clock. Pacific, unless I have something come up like this week, I accidentally double booked myself. But in last week's office hours, I was telling everyone how I really want to teach people how to use the Shopify email app. Which is an email service provider. App. That is available to all Shopify users. And included in the price of your plan have to a certain amount of emails. Which we're going to talk all about. And the overwhelming response was like, create this course now. So I was able to block off some time this week to really focus on creating that course. I threw out my scheduled episode for this, and I'm just winging it, not winging it. I planned out this episode, but I'm coming at you to talk to you about the Shopify. Email app, because I know that. This could help some of you if you're on the fence. Let's just get right to it. Okay. So let's talk about what the Shopify email app is, and that is the name of it. Shopify email, it's really annoying. I wish there was a better name, but basically it is an app that you can add to your Shopify store to create email marketing campaigns and automation, so you can use it to send newsletters. You can use it to send automated emails, like a welcome sequence after someone signs up for. Your newsletter. You can use it to send thank you, message emails. After someone makes a purchase, you can use it to send a band and cart emails. You can use it to send any kind of email. Okay. This is not the same as your inbox. Okay. So businesses need two things. They need an inbox where you receive emails and Respond to customer questions and things like that. And then you have an email service provider, which is what allows you to send bulk emails to a lot of people. Business owners need both of those. In order to do email marketing. And I know a lot of times, if you're new, you might not realize that you can't just send a lot of emails. Like to your customers from your Gmail account, it doesn't work that way. You have to have what is called an email service provider, some of the most popular email service providers you might have. Heard of in the past our Klayvio flow desk. Drip. Active campaign, constant contact MailChimp, mailer light. There's hundreds of them. There's so many. Most of them will integrate with whatever website you're using because it uses HTML. So you embed this HTML onto your site, and then it just integrated with your site. In the e-commerce world. A lot of times we recommend Clavio. Because it is. Designed and created specifically for e-commerce. They have a lot of tools in their platform for selling products. So the email app is going to be an option of an email service provider. This app shopify email is part of every Shopify store. So it doesn't matter if you're on Shopify, basic Shopify, advanced Shopify or Shopify. Plus you can use a Shopify email it's built in. You do have to install the app, but you can use it no matter what. And the cool thing is that it's part of your Shopify store. Like you don't have to go to a separate website or a separate app to manage or create or send emails. So that's like an overview of the Shopify email app. So I want to talk about some of the key features of the Shopify email app. So I want to talk about who would be a good fit for using the Shopify email app. Before we dive into the features. Because I think that this is confusing. I am not teaching people how to use the Shopify email app, because I think it's like the greatest email service provider out there. I would say that the best email service provider is the one that's going to work best for you and your business. And that's really the key is that you have to be willing to use it. You have to understand it, you have to be in there. Writing emails, creating sequences, unless you have a full team who's doing that for you. And then you're going to want to choose one that works really well for the level your business is at. There is no one perfect email service provider for everyone. That being said I think the Shopify email app is a great app for a lot of business owners. And I'll tell you why. And who it's really going to benefit the most. Some of you and I hear this so often feel so overwhelmed by how complicated platforms like Clavio are. That's the number one complaint I hear. It's so complicated. It's overwhelming. It's hard. When you get in there, you don't know what to do. And so you avoid sending emails or you don't have a newsletter because you just don't want to deal with that. If that is how you feel. Shopify email is going to be perfect for you. Okay. So then the second thing that I hear a lot is the cost of an email service provider is just too much. And I totally understand it. I currently pay almost a hundred dollars a month for my email service provider. And then it just keeps going up like every month, I think it's okay, you've reached your limit and now you're going to be paying this much next month. So that can feel like a huge barrier, especially when you're getting started. For me, I know when an email is going to make a sale. So I know that paying for that monthly hundred dollars comes back to me in sales. But a lot of you listening are getting started or you don't have a newsletter. You haven't been collecting email addresses yet. And so spending even a little bit more money on another tool feels it's too much. So you're on a tight budget. Shopify. Email's going to be great for you. So you can send up to 10,000 emails for free every month. So you'll only pay if you go over that limit, you don't have to prepay for a number of cents. Which is a really awesome way of charging for emails because a lot of times you're paying a monthly fee. Even if you send emails. Or not. So with this, you're not paying, unless you go over your 10,000 emails. That month. And then every month it resets. So it's great if you're on a tight budget. It's also good. If you just need something to get started, if the technology and the cost and thought like the big overwhelming thoughts of starting email marketing. Are overwhelming you, you could get started with Shopify email just by setting up a simple, welcome sequence. You don't have to start sending newsletters, although I would recommend you do. Not even newsletters, but just like monthly campaigns. Shopify email is perfect for you. If you're getting started. You recently created a Shopify store or you've been, maybe you've been selling for a while, but you haven't been sending emails shopify email's perfect for you. Now that being said, It cannot do everything. It is not the most robust tool in the world. Okay. Obviously this isn't going to work for you. If you're not on Shopify. It's only a Shopify integration. So if you have an e-commerce platform somewhere else, You can't use Shopify email. Sorry to say. In that case, you should, maybe you should start using Shopify. I know where you can get support around that. It's also not going to be a good fit. If you have advanced email marketing sequences and If you have already built some really awesome. Workflows and things like that in another platform. I don't think it's worth it to switch. I really don't. The number one thing I've been telling people, if you're happy with what you have, do not switch to Shopify email, if it's not broken, don't fix it. That's not the people that this course that I'm creating was designed for. The Shopify email platform is a very simple platform, it does not have tons of bells and whistles. Some of the other platforms do. It can be great. Like I want to say good enough, but it can also be great for those who know what they're doing, who get it set up, who have good systems in place. It can become amazing. But if you're switching from really advanced. Workflows and things, segmentation and things like that. You're not going to be happy with it. It does have the ability to create segments. It does have the ability to Have different triggers based on what customers do. Clavio definitely has a lot more data and analytics built into it. The Shopify email analytics are very basic. But again that's good for a lot of business owners that is more than what you're doing now. And it's gonna really help propel your business forward just to get these systems in place. The other thing I want you to know is you can upgrade to another platform. At any time you can switch, you can migrate. It's not. That difficult. Yes, there is some duplicate work required. I'll tell you what in early last year. I was using flow desk and it really wasn't working for me cause it was just too simple. So I switched to Clavio, which I enjoy and I like, but it didn't have a direct integration with my course platform, which is Thrivecart. And so I had to use so many zaps like using Zapier, which is a tool that connects other tools together. That it was complicated and cumbersome and it felt so much work just to get an email out to the students and one of my courses. So I ended up switching to drip. Which has a direct integration with both Shopify and thrive cart, my course platform. So then I didn't have to use Zapier to hack things together or duct tape men together. Which is what makes it such a good fit for my business. And honestly, I did the migration in a couple of days. So having good systems in place are, is going to help you move over to a more robust platform down the road. When you need something that can provide more data or analytics or provide more advanced workflows. It's not going to be hard to move over. And like technically speaking. Moving from the Shopify email to Clavio, we'll be super, super simple. It's one click of a button. All you'll have to do is recreate your email sequences. And it will not be hard at all. Okay. So there are. There are some limitations to Shopify email. That doesn't mean it's not a good fit. There are limitations to every email platform. There are limitations to everything. Let's be honest. Another thing that is slightly limiting is the design and layout of the emails. It's not super customizable, if you're using flow desk and you're used to those really beautiful layouts and designs. You're not going to be happy with Shopify email. But if that doesn't matter to you. If you just want like a good looking email. That gets your point across then Shopify. Email's a great choice. Plus my course we'll be teaching how to, use different elements to get a better design, to make your emails look nicer. The other thing about the Shopify email app is that it can integrate with other apps you're using on your store. It just depends what you want it to do. If you have a form app, you can integrate it. Email platforms or some kind of automation. You can do that with. The Shopify email app and another app called flow, which is an automation tool that is built into Shopify. So there's a lot of potential for the Shopify email and a lot of things that can do. And I think it's going to be fantastic for so many people, which is why I have decided to create a course about this. Let's talk about how to use the Shopify email app, because it's all fine and dandy for me to tell you that it's awesome. But maybe not as helpful if you don't know how to use it. The first thing you need to do is install the Shopify email app. If it's not already installed on your store they did move like abandoned cart emails to work from the Shopify. Email app. So you might already have it installed if you wanted to customize those. It really depends. Like some stores have it, some don't. So just go ahead and search in the Shopify app store for email. Then you need to set up your account for Cindy emails. So you do need to verify your email address. You absolutely need to have an email address that uses your domain. So Erin at product powerhouse. Hello at product powerhouse, your name at your domain, whatever it is, you have to have one of those for getting your emails to show up in your customers' inboxes. I think right now it says, if you don't have your email address verified, then you. They will send them from Shopify. I highly recommend you don't do that. Make sure you get a domain hosted. Email address you can do that usually with your hosting service, or you can do it with a service like Google workspace, which is why I use and have used the entire time I've been in business. It just makes it so much easier. You need to get a domain email address. If you don't already have one. Okay. And then you're going to want to verify it, which Shopify walks you through. So when you open the email app, if you click on settings, It'll say, send or email. It will tell you if your email address is verified or not. And then you will click manage in store details settings. And that will take you over to your notification tab, where you will see your email address, and it will tell you if you're verified or not. And then it will walk you through the process of getting your email address verified. It's a little different for every domain. So that's why I can't really tell you how to do it. You should also tell you that you need to. At a D mark. Policy to your domain, which is very simple. It's just something you copy and paste. So those directions should be there in when your insider Shopify. So then in you, if you go back to your email settings, you can look at some of your other settings here. The next thing is double opt-in options. I currently do not. Use double opt-in. It's not required in the United States. It is quite required in other countries. If you're in the UK, that's something you're going to have to research for your own area. Some people like to have double opt-in also because they just like people to confirm that they want the email typically it means you have a more engaged list. But it also means that customers will show up that aren't subscribed and you cannot contact them. So it's up to you. And then you have some tracking information. It says to choose whatever option you'd like. I have it set to optimize open tracking in my settings. Honestly, the data is not all that accurate for email because of people's privacy rules. So that's why I have it set to optimize. And then you have template branding. So you can want to go ahead and click on that customize button. And that's going to allow you to customize all the templates that are available to you. So you can put in your logo, you can put it in your store name. You can choose a website font, you can choose some colors that your emails are going to default to when you are using a template that's available in the template section. So once you finish getting your branding, then you can click on templates and you can create your first template. Always start by making a template. You can use one of their Shopify as templates as like a base, and then just change everything. Or you can choose to like, create your own. You can even choose to code your own. But I would say if you don't know code. Don't do that. If you do know code, I don't know why you're listening to this podcast, to be honest. So you can create your template. Get that set up. And then you can start sending emails. So to actually send and create emails, you have to go to up to the marketing tab of Shopify, where you have campaigns and automations. So campaigns are where you would go to send out one time emails. So if you wanted to send him a weekly newsletter or a or a sale. That's happening one time you do that in a campaign. If you are wanting to set up something that happens regularly at different times for different customers, that's called an automation. So that's something like your welcome sequence or a thank you after purchase or anything that's going to happen multiple times. That's what you do under automations. Creating a campaign actually is very easy. You just say, create campaign and then you create the email. Creating an automation is a little different. You do have to understand like the triggers and the different things, but there is an awesome Shopify help section. If you just go to the Shopify help center, which is that help.shopify.com. You can type in using Shopify email for email marketing, and it'll take you to that section. Or you can purchase my new course, which doesn't have a name yet because I'm just like, so ready to create it for you. So in this course, you're really going to learn the ins and outs of the Shopify email app. So you'll learn how to set it up correctly. How to verify your email address, how to get all of the right settings and what settings you need. We'll also go through how to get your brand establish. You'll learn how to create an amazing template. That's on brand. That is creative and fun for your email without sacrificing any accessibility issues. So we won't be breaking any accessibility rules. Which covers best practices for email design and things like that. We'll also talk about the tools that are available inside the email builder. So there's like an AI tool inside of there. We'll talk about how to personalize your emails and really how to create awesome emails. You'll also learn how to manage your audience. So you'll understand how lists and segments work inside of Shopify. Where he even go to manage those, how to create the segments for your audience so that you can target different people. Then we will work on how to create campaigns and how to send one-off emails and understanding everything that's inside of the campaign section. We'll make sure you understand the analytics. Then we'll move into creating automated sequences and how to set those up. Triggers are everything you need to know for the sequencing, because. Everything you need to know for the automations. That's where the power really lies in email marketing. Is those automations that happen when you don't have to do anything. So maybe I'll actually do the. The automations before we do the campaigns, because once you understand automations, the campaigns will be super easy. And then I've also gathered up some other content that gives you like best practices and common mistakes for email. I've done a ton of podcasts on different email things. So I've brought those all together to give you more resources and extra materials to really start utilizing email marketing in your business. We'll also go over integrating Shopify email with other tools like apps you're using, maybe even the flow app, which can do more automations for you. For you to just fully dive into the Shopify email app and get it implemented. If you are listening To this podcast episode, and you're really interested in learning more about the course. Before April 12th, 2024, then the courses available for pre-sale, it's only$99. After the presale is it is going up to. At least. 200 or 1 99. I don't know if I'll raise it above that I haven't planned that far ahead, but I just, in case someone's listened to this, like two years in the future. Hi. I can't guarantee what the price is today, or if this course even still exists. But I did want to put that out there that it's available for pre-sale through April 12th. 2024, it will be published on April 12th, 2024. It's really good. It's going to be really awesome. I'm not finished with it, but I have built so much of it and I am a super excited. And I'm just so excited to show you what's possible using the Shopify email app. In a way that's like less overwhelming and less stressful than some of those other email marketing platforms. Which are fantastic. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm not doing anything like that. I'm just saying. This is a good option. If you were looking for a different option. Okay. All right. This episode has been so fun. I'm just really excited about the potential. For the business owners who haven't been doing any email marketing to get things up and running in Shopify email because email can make a big difference in your business. So I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions about Shopify email, a couple of things you can visit the Facebook group. That's a great place to put questions. Which is product powerhouse community on Facebook. Or you can send me a DM on Instagram. That's a good way to get in touch with me. So you can find me at product dot powerhouse on Instagram. Those are the, probably the two best ways to get in touch with me to ask questions. You can also email me, if you're on my email list, just hit reply on an email and I'm happy to chat with you over there. If you're not on my email list, you can email me@helloatproductpowerhouse.co. It's a.co not up and.com. And as always, I will have, relevant links in the show notes and the blog posts that accompany this episode. So I'll have a link to the Shopify email app in the app store, I can link to the help center docs that talk about the Shopify email app. Even if you never buy, a course from me or anything, I still want you to succeed. So I'm always happy to answer questions. Thanks for listening again. I'll remind you if you haven't left a rating or review. Please head over to apple podcasts and leave a rating or review helped me reach 50 reviews. And thanks for tuning in. I'll see you next week.