Why is lifecycle email marketing such a hot topic these days? For one, it has proven out time and time again that lifecycle email communications can significantly boost subscriber engagement and retention. After all, messaging based on factors that change over time increases relevancy and speaks to customers at much more personal levels.
One example of lifecycle messaging done right is a recently launched campaign from Healthy Pet Magazine. HealthyPet, a veterinary communications and analytics company offering pet owner reminders and education via a comprehensive suite of print and digital communications, leverages dynamic content and offers relevant cross-sell promotions to significantly increase email opens and click rates while deepening customer engagement. Read More »
Congratulations, a new customer has signed up to receive your emails! Now what? It’s obvious that they want to hear from you — this is the opportune time to make an impression that will leave them wanting more.
Welcome emails allow you to engage with your prospective customers when their propensities to open, click and transact in emails are at peak levels. So why do so many businesses still rely on very generic confirmation emails that miss out on the opportunity at hand and are neither engaging nor of any value to the recipient?
Maybe they don’t realize how easy it can be to optimize welcome messages in order to make open rates, clickthroughs and ROI soar.
Give a formal introduction: Include your brand name in the “from” address, and be sure to “welcome” your subscribers in your subject lines. Also include whitelisting instructions so that the subscribers can add the “from” address to their list of accepted senders.
Gain insight on their interests: Use category navigation links or images and other clever calls to action from which you can infer subscriber interests. Leverage the click-through data for segmentation and targeting from the start of the subscriber relationship with your email program to increase engagement and relevancy
Recognize past purchasers: Include dynamic messaging to recognize existing customers who are new to your email program. Using any data you have to drive any communication, even the initial welcome, can make an immense positive impact on the customer relationship.
Verifying email addresses is just one part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. Today, Experian Marketing Services offers a new case study on Bass Pro Shops, showing which tools the renowned outdoor retailer uses to market to their customers more effectively. One of the key elements of Bass Pro Shops’ success is their diligent data capture process.
Capturing and maintaining correct contact information for customers and prospects is an important step in the data collection process. Good contact data allows businesses to ensure that consumers receive important communications, which ultimately translate into sales opportunities. In particular, email addresses have grown in importance as more and more communications shift to a digital form.
While today’s marketers collect large volumes of email addresses through various channels, there is no guarantee that those email addresses are in fact correct. Inaccurate email addresses frequently plague marketing databases, and mean that order confirmations, targeted messaging, and other vital information is never received by the consumer. To combat this problem, businesses are beginning to implement email validation tools.
The most effective email verification tools work at the point of capture, checking different parts of the email address as the consumer enters their information. When a potential error in an email address is identified at the point of capture, the consumer is able to correct potential typos or other careless mistakes. This type of email verification ensures that an accurate email address is captured up front while the consumer is still engaged. Future business communications actually reach the consumer, ultimately improving their overall experience, as well as the business’ future marketing opportunities.
As Jordan noted in his earlier post, there are a lot of things you can do to make your transactional emails better. But as any busy email marketer knows, there are also about a million other things you could be working on instead. The question is, how high of a priority should improving your transactional emails be? After all, only a small sub-set of your entire list receives one of these messages every day.
Let’s be clear: your transactional emails should take an extremely high priority, regardless of your industry or line of business.
In other words, you can get much more bang for your buck by improving your transactional emails rather than, say, your weekly newsletter.
So what are you waiting for? Have a look at The transactional email report to learn more about what makes transactional messages so valuable to email marketers.
As we’ve discussed on this site before, welcome campaigns are a critical tool in jump starting profitable customer relationships. This week, Experian CheetahMail has a new case study that illustrates how incentivized welcome emails can earn higher order values, click rates and revenue per email.
In the case study, we see that Sundance Catalog was able to increase average order sizes by 2x just by adding a basic incentive to multiple types of welcome emails. Even better, Sundance was able to prove the value of incentives by testing two types of welcome emails — those sent to new subscribers who opted-in by completing an email sign-up form on the website, and those who opted-in as part of their eCommerce checkout process. In both instances, the welcome emails with the special offer outperformed the standard, control message with no offer.
Of course, incentives are not a perfect strategy for every brand. Sundance was wise in their methodology, performing a thorough test before they committed to making any final changes to their welcome email program. As a best practice, we typically recommend that most brands do the same before they begin offering discounts.
I mean that literally, of course. Take one look at this report, and you’ll understand what this holiday season is really all about: marketing like a rock star.
Want to know how to win over your adoring fans and go double platinum? Let me to take you on a cinematic, guided tour of the data from the report to find out what it takes to be an email marketing rock star this holiday season.
This year, email volumes will “go to 11″
Every year, email volumes peak during the holiday season, managing to surpass the previous maximum output of the year before. But how is it even possible to exceed what was previously considered the maximum?
By taking your email program “to 11.”
Experian CheetahMail estimates an overall email volume increase of 15 percent to 20 percent for the 2010 holiday season in comparison to Holiday 2009.
This means that email marketers, just like Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap, have figured out a way to ratchet up their volumes “to 11.”
Volumes just keep going up, so email marketers had better be prepared for the barrage of messages coming from their competition and act accordingly.
I love my birthday. I admit it. I look forward to it every year. I like the cards I get from family and friends. I like the coupons I get from my local restaurant. I even like the birthday card I get from my dentist.
There are a number of key findings within the report, including the following:
Total open rates for birthday and anniversary campaigns are 3 times higher than those of mass promotion mailings.
Transaction rates are five times higher for birthday and anniversary emails than they are for bulk campaigns.
Birthday mailings sent to all subscribers with known birthdays pull much higher transaction rates and revenue per email than those sent only to select or loyalty members.
I don’t know about you, but on my birthday, I want to be a bit extravagant and spend some money on myself, on decorating my home, or on a good time with some friends!
Here are a few examples of birthday/anniversary emails that have really caught my interest:
