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Article by Ernan Roman Featured on CustomerThink.com |
Here are two email stats which reinforce the role of high value email as part of your mix; people who buy products via email spend 138% more than those who didn't receive email offers, and 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email.Based on this good news, here are 3 strategies for improving the performance of your email;
1. Use Consumer Behaviors to Personalize Email
According to Listrack, "If significant attention is given to email content development, companies can begin to see better results":
- 90% of online shoppers find it helpful to be alerted when frequently purchased items go on sale.
- 72% are willing to receive more emails if they feature weekly sales, top sellers and new products.
- 84% of online consumers who signed up to receive promotional emails want emails to contain products relevant to their purchasing history.
- 69% are willing to share personal preference data in order to receive emails more relevant to them.
This is in line with ERDM VoC research findings contained in our ebook "5 Ways to Use Human Data to Drive Deep Engagement", in which we noted that:
- Truly personalized communications motivate customers to provide increasingly deeper levels of information and increases their willingness to engage in interactions.
- If a consumer feels as though a company is making no effort to understand them, or is only using their information to sell them something, they perceive their marketing as being "value-less" and not worthy of their time.
2. Increase Open Rates with Compelling Subject Lines
A recent analysis of five million emails by the email management service Baydin found that a typical email user gets 147 messages a day and deletes 71 of them (48%). So, finding ways to grab attention is essential.
Marketing company Influitive used creative email subject line to develop an emotional tie to a new product launch for a B-to-B campaign that took big risks and netted big rewards. The company decided to take the risk of an attention grabbing subject line because it fit in with the analogy they were making about building relationships. According to Jim Williams, Vice President of Marketing, "If you can relate some arcane B2B pitch to some personal thing,…then I think you've done a good job as a marketer." The quirky campaign, used the subject line "So I'll pick you up at 7?" And, had a headline stating, "Don't make referrals awkward." It then discussed Influitive's recently launched referral automation solution product.
The company received 10 times the number of normal replies. Results of this email campaign include: 25% open rate (Influitive's highest) and 2.3% click through rate.
3. Use Email To Engage With Relevancy
According to the DMA's National Client Email Survey 2014, a 760 percent increase in email revenue came from segmented emails. The trend is now for marketers to move away from generic messaging and meet consumer demands for relevancy by engaging in more targeted and personalized communications.
Jewlery company Alex & Ani engages with customers throughout their journey, from email to onsite, from social to in-store, and beyond. Through the use of abandoned cart emails the company saw a 73% lift in monthly email revenue and 36% lift in monthly revenue. They sent an initial email message and then followed up a few days later with another email, starting to integrate recommended products based on the customer's known interests or products that other customers recently purchased. The company serves messaging to individual consumers based on increased degrees of interest on specific products, leading to increased conversion rates.
Recommendations for Enhancing Email Value
- Develop highly targeted, engaging and relevant messaging that presents recipients with a reason to open and act.
- Use time sensitive offers. They create urgency to act.
- Integrate your email with other media touch points and events.
- Develop email messaging around consumer history, preferences, and purchases. When recipients get emails that truly "speak to them" engagement soars.
Consumers — both BtoC and BtoB — are email weary and wary. To drive engagement, emails must contain value and relevance. Use purchase, behavior and interaction data to craft email messaging that is welcomed.
