There has been a lot of speculation—primarily from social media experts—that email is dead. Reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. Let's not forget, email is still the reigning ROI champ with $42.08 returned for every dollar spent, nearly twice as high as search marketing's $21.85. I'll admit the numbers have slipped slightly from $43.62 in 2009 and $45.06 in 2008. However, last year's numbers are still more than one dollar higher than the Direct Marketing Association projected.
Here's the caveat to maintaining email ROI: You cannot keep sending the same old messages day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Forrester reported that behaviorally triggered email campaigns have a 30% higher open and clickthrough rate and three times as many conversions as broadcast emails, including segmented email blasts.
Behaviorally triggered messaging can be as simple as a welcome email when new subscribers opt-in to your list, or a multi-path, multi-message remarketing campaign based on past purchases, behavior or abandoned shopping carts. The good news is that, with the right solution, even the most complex of campaigns can be relatively easy to implement. Here are five steps to getting triggered email marketing right.
1. Make it a Series: Whether you're sending triggered welcome messages, shopping cart abandonment campaigns, repurchase campaigns, or even restock notifications, you shouldn't rely on a single message. The cost is minimal but the rewards are tremendous. We've seen shopping cart abandonment messages achieve upwards of 13% in the third message. In fact, we've even seen fourth and fifth messages converting at 8%. If only one message was sent, think about all of the unrealized revenue that would have been lost!
2. Be Specific: Triggered messages should be precisely targeted to each individual recipient, so think specifics when creating the content. Whereas broadcast emails must appeal to a large audience, triggered messages must be personally relevant, therefore these messages should be set up with dynamic content to pull in relevant information, such as particular merchandise viewed, product reviews or related items.
3. Set it, Don't Forget it: The beauty of automated email messages is the ability to set them up once and let them run in the background. However, that doesn't mean that the campaigns shouldn't be updated regularly. Once the triggered conversations are set up you can keep them in place, but you should update the messages often—at least quarterly—so the content remains fresh and seasonally-appropriate.
4. Test The Timing: Perhaps the most important aspect of triggered messaging is getting the timing right, especially when sending a series of messages. Triggered messages engage customers in personal conversations, so don't let the customers' interests dwindle by waiting too long to send the messages. The first message in a welcome series should be sent immediately while a shopping cart abandonment message does better when it goes out a few hours later. The second message should go out 24-48 hours later and the third should be sent an additional 24-48 hours later. The key is to test different time frames to determine what works best for your company. Also, consider the other messages recipients will receive from you during the specific time frame to ensure they don't receive too many messages in any given period.
5. Ask For Email Addresses: It's simple – triggered emails rely on email addresses, so don't take away your opportunity to remarket to customers by hiding your opt-in form or request for email addresses late in the checkout process. This should be one of the first steps your customer completes.
Behaviorally triggered email campaigns are one of the greatest engagement tools you have in your marketing arsenal. When done right, these campaigns can become your premier converting tools as well.
Ross Kramer ([email protected]) is a co-founder and CEO of Listrak.
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