E-mail: 5 Tips Toward Relevance
March 2008 By Joe Boland, Copy Editor/assistant Editor, Target Marketing
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In the e-mail marketing world, relevance is key, especially with the amount of spam mail consumers receive every day. This can be challenging for any company, but it is of the utmost importance. In her whitepaper, The Retail Marketer’s Playbook: Your 180-Day Email Marketing Game Plan with Top 5 Plays, Heather Blank, director of strategic services for San Bruno, Calif.-based on-demand marketing and e-mail service provider Responsys, offers five “top plays” to make sure your e-mail marketing campaigns are relevant and effective.
#1. Refine segmentation tactics. Blank points out that segmentation allows for more targeted e-mail messages and offers these tidbits on how to segment:
• Segment based on consumer behavior, not just demographic information.
• Use whatever data you have available, and send more relevant content to subsets of subscribers.
• Create different versions of your messages.
• Perform continual testing.
#2. Improve transactional messaging. Transactional e-mails are highly relevant and very likely to be opened and read. Therefore, they should offer the customer something, furthering his or her relationship with you. Recommend additional products or services the customer might want or need; offer a subscription to your newsletter; and send transactional messages in HTML format to reinforce your brand.
#3. Strengthen welcome messaging. In e-mail, it’s imperative to make a good first impression. According to Blank: “The moment you acquire a consumer’s e-mail address is a key point of engagement—quite possibly the most relevant and defining moment in the relationship.” She suggest you send new subscribers a series of well-timed and well-designed HTML e-mails that grab attention.
#4. Reengage customers with a win-back program. With the cost of attracting new customers so high, it’s important to keep existing customers coming back. Blank says every e-mail marketing team should implement an automated win-back program. Let customers know you’ve noticed that they haven’t made a purchase in a while; send surveys to solicit feedback, and make an exclusive offer that’s too good to pass up. The more you engage your customers in a positive way, the more likely they’ll stick around.
#5. Recover revenue with a cart abandonment program. Shopping carts are great tools for e-mail marketers, but just because people put items in their cart doesn’t mean they’ll buy them. However, the interest is there, and Blanks suggests you help nudge these would-be consumers along with these tips:
#1. Refine segmentation tactics. Blank points out that segmentation allows for more targeted e-mail messages and offers these tidbits on how to segment:
• Segment based on consumer behavior, not just demographic information.
• Use whatever data you have available, and send more relevant content to subsets of subscribers.
• Create different versions of your messages.
• Perform continual testing.
#2. Improve transactional messaging. Transactional e-mails are highly relevant and very likely to be opened and read. Therefore, they should offer the customer something, furthering his or her relationship with you. Recommend additional products or services the customer might want or need; offer a subscription to your newsletter; and send transactional messages in HTML format to reinforce your brand.
#3. Strengthen welcome messaging. In e-mail, it’s imperative to make a good first impression. According to Blank: “The moment you acquire a consumer’s e-mail address is a key point of engagement—quite possibly the most relevant and defining moment in the relationship.” She suggest you send new subscribers a series of well-timed and well-designed HTML e-mails that grab attention.
#4. Reengage customers with a win-back program. With the cost of attracting new customers so high, it’s important to keep existing customers coming back. Blank says every e-mail marketing team should implement an automated win-back program. Let customers know you’ve noticed that they haven’t made a purchase in a while; send surveys to solicit feedback, and make an exclusive offer that’s too good to pass up. The more you engage your customers in a positive way, the more likely they’ll stick around.
#5. Recover revenue with a cart abandonment program. Shopping carts are great tools for e-mail marketers, but just because people put items in their cart doesn’t mean they’ll buy them. However, the interest is there, and Blanks suggests you help nudge these would-be consumers along with these tips:
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