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Based on a number of recent email marketing reports, as well as commentary by marketing industry experts, more and more marketers are finding the value in the “no-brainer” emails, which have been overlooked for too long.
41% of US marketers surveyed by MarketingSherpa have stated that they are planning to send emails to customers automatically, based on specific triggers.
These triggers can be transactional (product added to wishlist, product purchased, invoice sent) or activity based (planned dates, events or website behaviour). For brevity, we’ll discuss them all as triggered emails, since they effectively serve the same purpose of informing users about information that is more logistical and operational.
It’s a simple operation (with only 16% of surveyed participants believing it to be “very difficult”) especially considering the return from the payoff. Because the user appreciates the mail and finds it relevant to their particular actions and preferences, the open-rate and click-through-rate on these kinds of mails are through the roof.
Of all the tactics identified to improve relevancy in email marketing campaigns, triggered emails tops the list with over 90% of marketers considering this tactic effective.
Two particular industries were shown to prefer this tactic, namely the Retail (e-Commerce) and Healthcare industries.
Some of the more popular automated emails include:
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Welcome mailers
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Thank you
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Bills, receipts, etc
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Post-purchase (e.g. Product review)
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Up-sell (product recommendations)
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Activation
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Date-based (e.g. renewals, etc)
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Event countdowns
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Website behavior
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Shopping cart abandonment
While some of the above are sent out solely as revenue-generating tactics, the no-brainer mails such as the ‘welcome’, ‘thank you’s’, ‘bills’, ‘receipts’, activation mailers and simple notification mailers are not always leveraged efficiently.
Remembering that these mails have the highest open rates in the channel. Marketers should be planning how to best make use of the interest these mails generate. The ROI potential is huge. Each mail has to afford the recipient an opportunity to engage with your brand.
Be careful not to overdo it though; the recipient is expecting a relevant mail of value, and not a commercial mail. Ensure that the sales message is not overshadowing the transactional message in any way. Various international Acts, such as the CAN-SPAM act specifically makes mention of this - pay attention to your local regulations.
Having said that, all marketers should be looking at these oft-neglected mails and ask themselves:
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Do I have at least one call-to-action in this mail?
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Does this call-to-action align with my business goals?
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Is my call-to-action relevant to the particular message received?
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Is my call-to-action tailored to the particular recipient? (This refers to a much larger tactic, which we will discuss in a future post)
If the checklist above is constantly reviewed and used to judge the efficacy of your company’s automated email campaigns, there is no doubt that both your revenues and return business will increase dramatically.
This information was supplied by Demographica. Demographica is South Africa’s, largest digital email and mobile advertising company. The company uses email and mobile marketing as part of branding, marketing, advertising, customer acquisition and sales strategies for their customers. More information is available at www.demographica.co.za.
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