PRINT MONEY TODAY: 7 EMAILS MARKETERS SHOULD AUTOMATE TO DRIVE MASSIVE ROI
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TWEET THIS! Reading Silverpop’s “Print Money Today: 7 Emails Marketers Should Automate to Drive Massive ROI”
CONTENTS I. Introduction................................................................3 II. WELCOME / ONBOARDING EMAILS What/When/Why......................................................................... 4 Starter Tips.................................................................................. 5
Email Example: King Arthur Flour...............................................21 Advanced Tips........................................................................... 22 Success Story: Worldwide.........................................................23
VI. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMAILS
Email Example: Kalmbach Publishing......................................... 6
What/When/Why....................................................................... 24
Advanced Tips..............................................................................7
Starter Tips................................................................................ 25
Success Story: Mint.com............................................................. 8
Video: Happy Birthday Email Tips............................................ 25
III. BROWSE ABANDONMENT EMAILS What/When/Why......................................................................... 9 Starter Tips................................................................................ 10 Video: Browse Abandonment Remarketing............................. 10
Email Example: Top Golf............................................................ 26 Advanced Tips............................................................................27 Success Story: Fabric.com......................................................... 28
VII. REPLENISHMENT / REMINDER / REORDER EMAILS
Email Example: International Rescue Committee..................................................................11
What/When/Why....................................................................... 29
Advanced Tips............................................................................12
Email Example: Driverside..........................................................31
Success Story: SmartPak............................................................13
Advanced Tips........................................................................... 32
IV. CART ABANDONMENT EMAILS What/When/Why....................................................................... 14
Starter Tips................................................................................ 30
Success Story: Mud Pie...............................................................33
VII. REENGAGEMENT EMAILS
Starter Tips.................................................................................15
What/When/Why....................................................................... 34
Video: Cart Abandonment Remarketing...................................15
Starter Tips.................................................................................35
Email Example: Gaylord............................................................ 16
Email Example: milk&more....................................................... 36
Advanced Tips............................................................................17
Advanced Tips............................................................................37
Success Story: DEMCO.............................................................. 18
Success Story: Thomas Cook..................................................... 38
V. PRODUCT REVIEW REQUEST EMAILS What/When/Why....................................................................... 19 Starter Tips................................................................................ 20
VIII. Conclusion............................................................ 39 IX. Footnotes...............................................................40 X. Additional Resources...............................................40
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PRINT MONEY TODAY: 7 EMAILS MARKETERS SHOULD AUTOMATE TO DRIVE MASSIVE ROI As digital marketers, you’re faced with a daunting threefold challenge when it comes to your email program: how to make your emails more relevant to people exposed to as many as 30,000 commercial messages a day1, how to drive more revenue, and how to do so while stretching your precious resources further than ever. Enter automated (“triggered”) email programs, which are typically the highest-performing approach for email marketers — and often the equivalent of printing money, though thankfully without having to actually enter into the illegal counterfeiting business. Unlike traditional broadcast campaigns, in which the marketer decides when to send a message, triggered emails involve setting up business rules that require a criterion (or multiple criteria) be met before a message is sent. In other words, the buyer is the driving force behind the timing of the email, with his or her behaviors, interests or demographics automatically triggering the message send. Incorporating more automated, triggered emails into your messaging mix has multiple benefits: • Increased relevance: Automated emails anticipate, reflect or respond to customer interests and actions, making them inherently relevant – the ultimate in one-to-one communications. Make them fun and personable, and your customers will grow to eagerly anticipate your messages because of the value they provide. • Increased frequency: Given email’s high ROI, many marketers are under pressure to send more. Adding to the communication clutter with generic messages, though, can have a
negative brand impact and lead to unsubscribes. But the same subscriber that would be turned off by several weekly broadcast messages might be delighted to receive two emails on the same day related to the Web page he visited yesterday and his upcoming birthday. • Increased revenue: Some marketers discount triggered emails because of their lower-volume nature. That’s a mistake, because the built-in relevance of these messages can drive some serious bang for your buck. Despite frequently making up 5 percent or less of a company’s email volume, these automated messages often drive 25 percent to 50 percent of a company’s total email revenue. • Increased time: Triggered emails require some additional upfront work to set up business rules and, in some cases, build out technology integrations. But once established, the “set it and forget it” nature of these messages enables you to drive revenue while you’re out of the office, sleeping – even on vacation! In other words, if you want to make this your biggest year yet, adding or expanding the number of behavior-based, triggered email programs you deploy should probably be at the top of your to-do list. In this ebook, we’ll dive into seven key automated emails you can use to drive engagement and revenue, providing an overview of each one and offering starter and advanced tips for implementation. We’ll also serve up related success stories from a range of industries, so you’ll have a wealth of real-life examples from which to gain inspiration. We hope this ebook gives you new ideas for where triggered emails might complement your broadcast email program or upgrade what you’re already sending. Let’s get started!
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WELCOME / ONBOARDING EMAILS WHAT:
Email or series of emails triggered upon opt-in.
WHEN:
Immediately after opt-in. Additional emails may follow over a period of days or weeks.
WHY:
Welcome/onboarding emails provide a controlled initial experience, educate new subscribers on brand and email benefits, can lead to immediate conversion and reduce inactivity.
BY THE NUMBERS
50-60%: Average open rate for welcome emails2, compared to a 20% average open rate for all emails3.
WELCOME / ONBOARDING
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STARTER TIPS • Send your first welcome email within minutes of opt-in. Wait too long, and the subscriber may forget opting in to your program. • Set expectations for what the contact can expect to receive from you in terms of content and frequency. • Answer questions and provide how-to info and FAQs on using your website, buying from you or setting up an account. • Educate users on specific features of your service that they need to know in advance. • Instead of stopping at a single welcome email, create a series of emails (often two to four), each designed with a specific objective.
BY THE NUMBERS
1 in3:
Number of largest retailers who send zero welcome emails4.
WELCOME / ONBOARDING
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EMAIL EXAMPLE: KALMBACH PUBLISHING 1 2
Sets expectations for frequency Summarizes types of content subscriber will receive
3
Incorporates “add to contact list” request to help ensure deliverability
4
Educates reader about additional resources that might be helpful
5
1 2 3
Delivers “thank you” freebie for subscribing, building immediate goodwill and engagement
4 5
WELCOME / ONBOARDING
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ADVANCED TIPS • Instead of sending the same welcome emails to every new subscriber, create an onboarding series that’s unique to each individual. • Include personalized content and offers in the initial welcome email based on pre-opt-in behavior and preferences/profile data. • Educate users who sign up via one mode, such as a mobile app, in order to promote additional features available on your Web interface as well. • Sort email subscribers into tracks and targets with specialized information based on the areas your subscribers visited on the site, or the demographics and interests they provided. • Track potential user abandonment by triggering follow-up emails for subscribers who haven’t completed account registration or taken other actions they need to do to become engaged customers.
MyVoucherCodes.co.uk’s three-part welcome series engages new customers right off the bat and has led to a 121 percent lift in activation.
WELCOME / ONBOARDING
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SUCCESS STORY: MINT.COM Mint.com, the nation’s leading online personal finance service, wanted to implement a welcome program that would reinforce its product benefits and encourage new customers to add banks to its profile. Using Silverpop Engage, it created a multistep welcome program, with the first email sent on the day of registration and content varying depending on whether the opt-in had come from a mobile device or a desktop. Subsequent emails were sent seven and 14 days after registration depending on how the customer had interacted with Mint.com’s initial email and whether the recipient had added banks. As a result of the revamped welcome program, Mint.com increased log-ins 80 percent and bank registrations 50 percent, leading to a significant boost in customer engagement and revenue.
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BROWSE ABANDONMENT EMAILS WHAT:
Emails that are triggered based on a customer or prospect abandoning a Web page(s), form/calculator or process.
WHEN:
Immediately or shortly after abandonment. If part of a series, follow-up messages are sent over subsequent days and weeks.
WHY:
To capture sales over time from a prospect that showed interest, but didn’t convert. Because contacts are higher in the conversion funnel than with cart abandonment, the opportunity is also significantly larger.
BY THE NUMBERS
99%:
Number of first-time visitors who won’t buy on the first visit5.
BROWSE ABANDONMENT
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Browse Abandonment Remarketing Tips
View the video >>>
STARTER TIPS • Incorporate Web tracking code into your site that’s integrated with your e-commerce and email platforms to capture browsing behaviors of site visitors. • Focus your browse abandonment efforts on a few or core Web pages that are drivers of conversion activity or have high conversion rates. • Send your first message within 24 hours after the abandonment. Test timing to see what resonates most strongly with your customers. • Personalize the message with images and details from the product category the shopper visited but ultimately didn’t purchase from. • Since prospects are earlier in the buying process, focus on nurturing and education that leads them closer to purchase. Content might include selection guides, how-to videos, price calculators and employee testimonials.
BY THE NUMBERS
75%:
Number of first-time visitor who abandon site with intent to return again5.
BROWSE ABANDONMENT
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EMAIL EXAMPLE: INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE 1
Strong service tone (“Thank you,” “as a courtesy,” “may we help you”)
2
Direct link to abandoned (order) page
3
Option to continue process via another channel (call center)
1 2 3
BROWSE ABANDONMENT
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ADVANCED TIPS • Test timing and frequency to determine optimum sending schedule. • Include customer reviews and ratings along with recommended products via an integration with a recommendation, ratings and reviews, or personalization platform. • Expand your browse abandonment efforts to a multipart series designed to nurture the contact toward a purchase. • Move to a behavior-driven program in which the content in each subsequent message shifts based on the recipient’s actions. • Use a CMS integration to serve up content on your website based on the visitor’s browsing history, providing a custom Web experience that mirrors your interactions with that person in the email channel.
BROWSE ABANDONMENT
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SUCCESS STORY: SMARTPAK SmartPak, an online provider of horse supplies and equine supplements, wanted to remarket to customers who visited certain key pages on its website that it had learned were indicative of serious buyer interest. So, it set up a browse abandonment email program in which customers who visit any of four key pages on its site are sent follow-up emails that match the pages these customers were on before they left the site. The emails are full of personality (“You’re about to have an ‘Ah-ha!’ Moment!”) and link to educational content such as SmartPak’s Supplement Wizard, an online tool that helps users select the best supplement for their horses. The campaign has been a massive success for SmartPak, with the browse abandonment program tallying a 37.6 percent open rate, 7.4 percent click-through rate and 44 cents revenue per email sent. In addition to its browse abandonment program, SmartPak has implemented more than a dozen triggered emails — including welcome, abandoned cart, order and shipping confirmation, post-purchase review and upsell messages — generating significant sales. “Silverpop has enabled SmartPak to make our vision of marketing automation a reality,” says Carey Marston Kegel, email marketing manager, SmartPak Equine. “As a result, SmartPak is sending millions of behaviorally triggered emails per month, Customers who visit SmartPak’s “Equine Joint Supplements” Web page (left) but don’t make a purchase and email is generating a very significant are sent a follow-up email (right) linking to the company’s Smartflex Finder tool. portion of all online marketing revenue.”
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CART ABANDONMENT EMAILS WHAT:
Email or series of emails triggered after a customer abandons his or her shopping cart.
WHEN:
The sooner the better, but preferably within 24 hours of abandonment. If part of a series, subsequent emails should follow over several days.
WHY:
Abandonment is a huge challenge for many companies. Remarketing can recapture a sizable percentage of these lost sales, with cart remarketing typically having a high conversion rate between 10 percent and 50 percent.
BY THE NUMBERS
87%:
Number of consumers who abandon carts6.
CART ABANDONMENT
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Cart Abandonment Remarketing
View the video >>>
STARTER TIPS • Send initial cart recovery email within 24 hours maximum. • Include a product description and a direct link to the cart. • Incorporate personality and a reassuring service-oriented tone and approach. • Offer multiple channel options for interacting or completing the purchase (e.g. call center, email). • Set up rules to make sure customers aren’t sent a cart abandonment message after completing a purchase.
BY THE NUMBERS
75%:
Number of abandoners who say they will return to complete purchase6.
CART ABANDONMENT
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EMAIL EXAMPLE: GAYLORD 1
Service-oriented message
2
Photo and image of actual employee adds personal touch
3
Option to connect or purchase via other channels
4
Removes purchase barriers with reminder of satisfaction guarantee and “try before you buy” program
5
1 3 4
Links directly to shopping cart
2
5
CART ABANDONMENT
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ADVANCED TIPS • Send initial cart recovery email with an hour or even minutes of abandonment. • Create a series of several emails – e.g. an hour after abandonment, two days after and a week following – to maximize your chances of recovering lost sales. • To capture maximum margin and avoid training customers to expect a promotion, hold off on discounts and incentives until the final email in a series. • Include product reviews and related product suggestions. • Set rules so different customers (e.g. those with larger shopping carts, repeat buyers, etc.) receive different incentives than first-time buyers. • Consider additional triggers based on the product in a customer’s cart getting low on stock, being discontinued or the price going up or down. • Take a similar approach if you offer a “Wish List” option.
YouSendIt set up its cart abandonment campaign in less than 45 days — and netted a 12.7 percent conversion rate as a result of its efforts.
CART ABANDONMENT
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SUCCESS STORY: DEMCO To better reach the 30 percent of customers who were abandoning their shopping carts, education supplier DEMCO initiated a cart recovery program. To enable this campaign, DEMCO integrated Adobe and Silverpop through Adobe Analytics and its Genesis API data connector service, a marketing platform that integrates complementary third-party applications with Adobe products, giving customers a single view into their marketing data. DEMCO utilizes Adobe Analytics online data to identify customers that have abandoned their shopping cart on DEMCO’s website. DEMCO then uses Silverpop Engage to send a series of three cart abandonment emails at one-, three- and five-day intervals encouraging abandoners to return to their cart to finalize their purchase. There are no incentives offered in the first two emails, but in the final message, DEMCO offers abandoners a tote bag when they finalize their purchase. “Integrating our Adobe data with Silverpop Engage allowed us to target those customers that had left an item in a cart and encourage them to return,” says Lisa Moling, eMarketing Planner, DEMCO. “Our results show that our series of cart abandonment emails delivers 97 times the revenue (per thousand) than our promotional emails.”
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PRODUCT REVIEW REQUEST EMAILS WHAT:
Emails sent after a purchase requesting the customer write a review of your product or service.
WHEN:
Varies based on product type/category, but typically a minimum of a few weeks following the customer’s receipt of the product.
WHY:
These requests serve as the main driver and source of product reviews while encouraging follow-on purchases from the reviewer; the reviews that these emails generate drive additional conversions from other buyers.
BY THE NUMBERS
52%:
Number of consumers who cite online ratings and reviews as the most influential factor in purchase decisions7.
PRODUCT REVIEW REQUEST
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STARTER TIPS • Make it as easy as possible to contribute a review or rating. • Test impact of timing of emails on number of review postings. • Include product photos, description and link directly to the review page. • Use personality and speak to the importance and value of reviews. • Consider offering an incentive to help drive more reviews.
BY THE NUMBERS
4-to-1:
Margin by which shoppers prefer online ratings and reviews over advice from store employees.7
SmartPak sends a triggered review request 21 days after the first purchase of an item, and now has more than 50,000 customer reviews in its database as a result.
PRODUCT REVIEW REQUEST
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EMAIL EXAMPLE: KING ARTHUR FLOUR 1
Fun and personable (“Give us a piece of your mind – please!”)
2
Incorporates product photos and names
3
Included links to review page, making it easy for customer to take action
4
Provides added value by offering a recipe from an employee
1
3
2
4
PRODUCT REVIEW REQUEST
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ADVANCED TIPS
communication tracks based on rating; for example, a 5-star reviewer is routed into a cross-sell campaign while a 1-star reviewer is routed to your call center for follow-up.
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PRODUCT REVIEW REQUEST
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SUCCESS STORY: S&S WORLDWIDE S&S Worldwide, a leading, value-priced online destination for arts and crafts, educational supplies, youth sports and physical education equipment, wanted to build its archive of user-generated content. Using Silverpop Engage, it sent a triggered email to customers thanking them for their purchase and asking them to post a review. The email explained the benefit of posting a review – both for the reviewer and for others – and offered entry into a $500 Visa gift card drawing as an added incentive for doing so. A clear call to action reminding the recipient how simple it was to post a review rounded out the message. Not only did this review request email score S&S Worldwide’s second-highest conversion rate (behind its automated cart abandonment messages), but 14 percent of those who clicked on the email placed another order. In addition, S&S Worldwide sent a triggered “product review posted” email to its reviewers thanking them for posting the review. The message contained a link back to the review and also included a “10% off” coupon as thanks to the reviewer. An impressive 12 percent of those clicking on this email go directly to make another purchase.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMAILS WHAT:
Emails distributed to customers on or near their birthdays
WHEN:
Varies from first date of recipient’s birthday month to actual date of birthday ― and everything in between.
WHY:
Everyone loves a birthday! And if you have birthdate data, these are easy to set up and provide high ROI for the level of effort.
BY THE NUMBERS
7of 10: Number of marketers that don’t send birthday emails.8
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
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Birthday Email Tips
STARTER TIPS
View the video >>>
• Capture birthdate data at every key touch point – preference center, welcome emails, call center, in-store cards, etc. • If providing birthday information isn’t part of the registration process your customers would normally expect, provide a brief explanation of how this data will be used. • Have fun and be creative with the copy — while making sure it drives the action you want, is simple and straightforward, and meshes with your brand or corporate image. • Push your designer to create something fun and engaging that’s distinctive from your other messages while still following your graphic standards and email design best practices. • Consider including a birthday incentive to boost goodwill and increase conversions.
BY THE NUMBERS
$91.32:
Typical ROI companies could expect to see in the first year after implementing a birthday program.8
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
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EMAIL EXAMPLE: TOP GOLF 1
Personable, lively copy
2
Offers “free game” incentive
3 4
Caddyshack factoid delivers element of humor and adds to sense of fun
2 1
Expiration date provides urgency
3 4
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
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ADVANCED TIPS • Offer social sign-in on your website. The data you gain when visitors log in via their Facebook accounts will include birthday information. • Test data capture (different form layouts and date-field locations), birthday message incentives (type, amount) and birthday email subject lines (first-name personalization, listing the incentive) and optimize based on the results. • Instead of a single birthday message, create a series of birthday emails that are automated based on whether the recipient opens, clicks or converts off the initial and ensuing emails. • As part of the above series, send reminders before the birthday offer expires. • Include dynamic content blocks in your birthday email(s) featuring products based on the recipient’s stated preferences or past behaviors.
BY THE NUMBERS
77%:
Number of companies that send one birthday email versus a series.8
RedBalloon’s friendly birthday message and $20 coupon builds customer goodwill, while the clearly stated expiration date provides a sense of urgency.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
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SUCCESS STORY: FABRIC.COM Fabric.com, the world’s leading online fabric store selling custom-measured fabric, wanted to add some email touch points to its marketing program with the goal of keeping loyal customers engaged and renewing relationships with inactive customers. As part of this effort, it implemented a “Happy Birthday” email program celebrating the birth dates of its customers. These triggered emails feature birthday-themed graphics, a friendly message from Fabric.com, and a discount offer to be used within 30 days of receiving the email. The program was a strong revenue contributor, with the birthday messages notching a 52 percent open rate, 13.8 percent click-through rate and a 10 percent higher conversion rate than Fabric.com’s broadcast emails. Beyond its birthday program, Fabric.com has implemented several other successful triggered lifecycle messages, including a cart abandonment series and a purchase anniversary email program that celebrates the anniversary of a customer’s first purchase with the company.
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REPLENISHMENT / REMINDER / REORDER WHAT:
Emails distributed to a customer reminding them to make a gift purchase or repurchase of previously ordered item.
WHEN:
Typically on or around the estimated time period of when the product will run out or need replacement, or on a user-determined reminder date.
WHY:
Reminder emails provide a service to customers, make it easy for them to make a repeat purchase of an item they like, and often deliver high conversion rates.
BY THE NUMBERS
5X:
The revenue generated by Silverpop client Driverside’s reminder emails versus the typical broadcast message.
REPLENISHMENT / REMINDER / REORDER
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STARTER TIPS • Adopt a friendly, service-oriented tone. • Include link to product page or shopping cart. • Incorporate product photos and pricing. • Test including last purchase date. • Feature “top sellers” related to the originally ordered item.
This replenishment reminder email from SmartPak tallied a 29.4 percent open rate, 9.6 percent conversion rate and $0.41 revenue per email.
REPLENISHMENT / REMINDER / REORDER
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EMAIL EXAMPLE: DRIVERSIDE 1
Provides timely reminder with customized mileage data for that specific individual
2
Vehicle info in subject line and body copy, along with the vehicle photo, personalized via dynamic content
3
Offers helpful links to update mileage, preferences and other data points
4
Includes special offer to incent customer to action
5
Uses dynamic content to populate email with closest store location
2 1
3
4
5
REPLENISHMENT / REMINDER / REORDER
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ADVANCED TIPS • Test the impact and need for incentives. • Incorporate cross-sell and recommended products in reminder messages. • Offer customers the option of receiving reminders via SMS, in lieu of or in addition to email. • Use a CMS integration to serve up individualized reminders on your website in addition to your emails. • Where applicable, drive traffic to physical locations as well as online, using dynamic content to personalize the email with information on the closest store to the recipient.
REPLENISHMENT / REMINDER / REORDER
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SUCCESS STORY: MUD PIE Pretty much everyone has forgotten a relative or friend’s birthday at some point. With that in mind, award-winning gift manufacturer Mud Pie decided to initiate an automated reminder program with the help of Silverpop partner Whereoware. Four days after customers sign up for the Mud Pie email program, they receive an invite to enter three “special occasions” dates, such as anniversaries and birthdays, for their friends and families. A customer can also enter into the “important occasions” program directly from the Mud Pie website by responding to a call to action to sign up. Customers enter their important occasion information via a Web form in which they’re required to provide their full name, email address, important date(s) and name of each date, such as “Mom’s Birthday.” After signing up for the program, customers receive a personalized email reminder 21 days prior to each important occasion, accompanied by a “10% off” coupon. These reminder messages provide significant value to recipients and make it easy for them to purchase from Mud Pie. The result? Mud Pie’s highest revenueproducing email, boasting a 31 percent click-through rate.
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REENGAGEMENT EMAILS WHAT:
Email program designed to “reactivate� unengaged subscribers.
WHEN:
Best approach is right after a predetermined period of inactivity.
WHY:
Inactives reduce ROI, can cause deliverability issues and are a significant lost revenue opportunity.
BY THE NUMBERS
40%:
Number of inactive customers in the average company database.9
REENGAGEMENT
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STARTER TIPS • Determine time frame of inactivity after which most subscribers never reengage. For many businesses, this is about three months. • Using a database query, place inactives in a reactivation program designed to jolt them into action. • Try sending surveys, different offers, “best of” lists, unusual subject lines, testimonials, and/or invitations to connect in another channel or update preferences • Treat those who don’t reengage after activation program differently, perhaps emailing them less frequently. • In general, remove long-term inactives only if you have deliverability issues.
BY THE NUMBERS
$3.4 million: Amount of potential annual lost revenue for a company mailing to 450,000 subscribers with 40% inactive.9
REENGAGEMENT
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EMAIL EXAMPLE: MILK&MORE 1 2 3 4 5
Link in top banner to key pages on website
1
First-name personalization
2
Use of incentive to jolt recipient to activity Multiple “Shop” call-to-action buttons Option to use another channel (call center) to complete order
3 4 5
REENGAGEMENT
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ADVANCED TIPS • Add more triggered emails to your messaging mix. Since these are initiated by the recipient’s actions or demographics, they’re inherently engaging and will help reduce contact inactivity • When evaluating whether to classify a contact as “inactive,” consider his or her activity across channels – website, mobile app, in-store check-ins and more. • Develop an “inactivity scoring model” to automatically determine when a contact is in danger of becoming inactive. Incorporate negative scoring and recency into the model, reducing a contact’s score if he or she doesn’t open an email, visit your website or make a purchase within a certain time period. • Using marketing automation, create a program that moves subscribers who show signs of becoming inactive early in the relationship – often defined as a period of three months – to a special “early activation” program that engages them before they become inactive. • Head off the 25 percent of mobile app users who only use an app once by setting up a mobile app “early activation program” using the same principals outlined above to encourage repeat engagement with your mobile app. TWEET THIS! Reading Silverpop’s “Print Money Today: 7 Emails Marketers Should Automate to Drive Massive ROI”
REENGAGEMENT
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SUCCESS STORY: THOMAS COOK Thomas Cook Scheduled Business Division operates seven of the UK’s leading travel brands, carrying 750,000 passengers overseas each year. Looking to reconnect with lapsed subscribers, it decided to use Silverpop Engage to put a reengagement strategy into action for inactive subscribers of its Netflights.com brand. Thomas Cook began the implementation process by working with a Silverpop product advisor to identify major segments of customers based on their behaviors. After an analysis of the Netflights.com database, the following groups were identified: • Engaged – Those who regularly open/click Netflights.com emails • Active – Those who regularly open Netflights.com emails • Bookers – Those who have booked with Netflights.com • Dormant – Those who have never opened/clicked Netflights.com emails or booked with the company Netflights.com then put together a strategy to communicate to these segments differently. For example, to better engage its “Dormant” segment, it created a three-step nurture program using Silverpop’s Programs functionality. The program incentivized inactive subscribers to update their preferences by making those customers who did so eligible for 500 Euros’ worth of duty-free vouchers. Thanks to the reengagement campaign, Netflights.com was able to reactivate 7 percent of its inactive subscribers. “Working with Silverpop’s services team allowed us to put together a strategy based upon best practices, and then execute upon that strategy,” says Zara Foxcroft, email marketing executive, Thomas Cook Scheduled Businesses. “As a result, we’re able to better understand the needs of our subscriber base and are now seeing our highest engagement rates to date because we’re sending more relevant communications.”
BY THE NUMBERS
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CONCLUSION Triggered, behavior-driven emails can help you build your business after the sale as well as before it. They can help build a relationship from the moment a new customer indicates interest in your company, boost loyalty by helping deliver an awesome customer experience, and reactivate those who have disengaged from your company. They can also encourage future purchases and invite customers to become extensions of your marketing department. While the seven automated emails outlined in this ebook are among the most common and successful triggered emails sent, there are many others you can use to your benefit, including order confirmation emails, post-purchase cross-sell or upsell messages, and purchase anniversary emails. Be creative and think beyond the usual mediums when considering what actions might trigger an email. With customers communicating with businesses via so many channels, behaviors such as interacting with a mobile app, checking in at a store or Tweeting a piece of content may warrant a real-time, personalized response. And when you’re serving up that real-time, personalized email content, consider how you might also provide a seamless
53%:
Number of “mature practitioners” of behavioral marketing that grew revenue faster than plan, compared to 41 percent of other marketers.10
customer experience on other channels. Reflecting customer behaviors on your website, in your mobile app and via SMS in addition to within your emails may help further enrich your customer interactions. Amongst the lofty aspirations, though, remember that you don’t have to boil the ocean to realize significant benefits. Some marketers are intrigued by the concept of leveraging customer behaviors to drive marketing responses, but get tripped up on the idea that behavioral marketing is difficult to do. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the possibilities or feeling like you’ve got to build the perfect program with multiple messages and a dozen decision diamonds, start small. Add a single automated email program to your marketing program, and then gradually increase the sophistication of that campaign or pepper additional triggered messages into your messaging mix. Before you know it, you may find that the revenue you’re driving makes it feel like you’re printing money – only instead of worrying about pesky legal ramifications, you’ll be trying to figure out what to do with all the free time your automated programs have afforded you.
Silverpop’s digital marketing automation platform was designed to make it simple to build hyperpersonalized campaigns, creating individualized experiences for every relationship. Watch our demo to see our product in action, and contact Silverpop to see how we can help you accomplish your marketing goals for 2013.
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FOOTNOTES 1-Forbes, “Can You Hear Me Now? Web-Enabled Brand Experiences That Cut Through the Clutter,” Nov. ‘11
Cart Abandonment Emails
2-Skyline Technologies, “Automated Email Programs, Part I: The Welcome Series,” Oct. ‘10
2) “Recover Abandoned Shopping Carts with Email” (blog)
3-Silverpop, “2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study: An Analysis of Messages Sent Q1-Q4, 2012,” 2013
3) “Do You Still Have Abandonment Issues?” (article)
1) “How to Turn Cart and Process Abandonment Scenarios into Revenue” (white paper)
4-Silverpop, “2012 Top 500 Retailers Study,” 2012
4) “Everything You Need to Know for Cart Abandonment Email Remarketing Success” (Slideshare)
5-SeeWhy, “Understanding Online Buyer Behavior Part I: First Time vs. Returning Visitors,” April 2013
Product Review Request Emails
6-Amaze/University of Glasgow, “Shop ‘till they drop: An Insight into Shopping Basket Abandonment,” July ‘09 7-Cisco, “Catch and Keep Digital Shoppers: How to Deliver Retail Their Way,” 2013 8-Silverpop, “Birthday Blueprint: How to Build a Top-Tier Birthday Email Program,” 2012 9-Silverpop, “Retailer Emails to Automate,” Dec. 2012 10-Forrester, “Use Behavioral Marketing to Up the Ante in the Age of the Customer,” May 2013
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Welcome & Onboarding Emails 1) “The Welcome Email Is Dead!” (article) 2) “Aloha: Welcome Email & Unsubscribe Best Practices” (Slideshare) 3) “So Just How Important Is a Welcome Campaign, Anyway?” (blog) 4) “Onboarding Programs: Transitioning from a single welcome message to a dynamic multimessage format” (video)
1) “Post-Purchase Emails That Drive Higher Revenue, Engagement” (blog) 2) “How to Attract Customer Reviews” (article) 3) “Post-Purchase Email Helps SmartPak Gain a 6X Increase in Review Volume” (article) Happy Birthday Emails 1) “Your Blueprint for Building a Birthday Email Program” (blog) 2) “Birthday Emails: Analysis and Samples from My Inbox” (blog) 3) “Saying Happy Birthday: How to Build a Top-Tier Birthday Email Program that Delights and Drives Revenue” (Slideshare) Reengagement Emails 1) “Reengage Inactive Subscribers” (Video) 2) “Inactive Email Subscribers: Tips for Taming the Beast” (Slideshare) 3) “Unengaged Subscribers Are Costing You” (Blog) More Email White Papers and Ebooks
Browse Abandonment Emails
1) “Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About Email Marketing”
1) “Browse Abandonment Emails: How You Can Use Them to Bring Browsers Back to Buy” (blog)
2) “20 Ways to Personalize Content and Enhance the Customer Experience”
2) “Browse Abandonment Remarketing: SmartPak Equine” (Slideshare)
4) “Multiscreen Maturation: Email Design Strategies and Tips for Connecting Across Devices”
3) “Beyond the Cart: 5 Process Abandonment Messages to Implement” (blog)
3) “2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study”