Optimising your triggered messages - 7 common Mistakes to avoid
Sending triggered email messages or behavioural email marketing is a proven method for improving customer engagement and increasing sales for retailers. However, there is a lot of confusion as to what types of ‘on-site’ behaviours should trigger a message, how it should look and feel, as well as how best to measure the results. There is a big difference between doing the right things and doing things right, so here is a simple yet comprehensive overview that will help you to optimise your triggered messages.
Using the right triggers for your messages
Ask people what constitutes a trigger and the first and often only response will be a shopping cart abandonment. However, these people are missing a trick and limiting their reach by not embracing browse abandonment.
This doesn’t…
Email marketing is still highly effective, but the smartwatch brings with it a new challenge for marketing strategists
I've recently upgraded my watch to a Sony Smartwatch 3, but the Smartwatch 2, depicted below, is often cited by technology bloggers as being one of the devices that kicked off the wearables trend in a big way back in 2013. Life with a smartwatch isn't as difficult to get used to as I thought it might be, instead adding a lot of value to my day in ways I could never have imagined. As a copywriter I've penned many an email for many a marketing campaign, so the way the smartwatch began to change my behaviour as a consumer was of particular interest to me.
The smart watch will impact email marketers
I seldom read full emails or messages on my smartwatch…
How does email compare to other channels in driving customer acquisition and sales?
We can see the importance of email marketing by using the excellent Custora Ecommerce Pulse - which is updated monthly to show the impact of different channels on sales across $40 billion of US retail transactions from retailers who are clients of Custora. Here are three data points showing the importance of email marketing:
1. How many orders does email drive compared to other media?
In 2015 Email remains one of the top three channels driving sales, not far behind organic and PPC. This position is mainly because of sales to existing customers. The latest data from May 2015 shows that email marketing now accounts for 15% of all sales.
All of the top 3 have fallen a little compared to 2014 as Affiliate prompted sales have grown.
For all of our interest and attention on social media this…
5 all-too-common missed opportunities which you can take advantage of to make the most of the power of Email Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation is a powerful Marketing Technology since it promises better response by sending more relevant emails to your audience in the context of the their interactions with a business. Small marketing teams or even a 'team-of-one' in a small business can potentially do the work that previously would have required many marketers. These time savings are possible by using rules to automate the type of emails that are sent and embedding more contextual content in personalised emails and web pages through dynamic content insertion.
Yet, in my experience from training and consulting with email marketers and as shown by the GetResponse-Smart Insights Email Marketing benchmarking report, many businesses are not getting the full value from the Marketing Automation systems they have adopted.
This post takes a look at some of…
A summary of the main changes needed for mobile email best practices
You will know that changes in mobile use have had a big impact on our use of email marketing - with a growth in mobile opens of over 180% over the past three years.
In their latest summary infographic EmailMonks remind us of the need to optimise our email by sharing this research on viewing patterns, and giving 14 tips for better responsive emails and highlighting pitfalls to avoid.
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Explaining the differences and options for AB and multivariate testing for email marketing
It can be difficult to know where to start when working on testing your marketing emails to boost the results of your sequences or campaigns. Which elements should you change? CTA, subject line, colour of your button, the list goes on.
In their latest infographic, our friends at EmailMonks have designed a handy checklist to prompt testing ideas, by revealing which elements to test. Plus they share some examples and best practices from Samantha Iodice of the Email M@ven blog. The text is a little on the small side for us, so if you click we have an enlarged version for you.
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The DMA National Email Client Survey 2015 summary
The DMA's latest research using DBA data shows how email marketing is progressing as respondents expressed an increase in ROI as they are becoming more advanced with their email marketing techniques, through using behavioural and lifestyle triggers. According to the UK DMA Executive Director Chris Combermale,
'Email is the oldest digital medium still in use, growing out of the early internet. Even now, an email address is one of those things that helps define you in the digital world. It has endured because it is so useful. It also works. ROI figures alone show this, rising from £24.93 last year to £38 this year. Email is resurgent.'
Their Infographic shares some of the key findings from their report and explains how Email Marketers top 3 goals are focused on Engagement, Sales and Acquisition.
For more detailed…
Practical tips to optimise your 'welcome emails'
First impressions count, and for new subscribers, the welcome emails you send out after they opt-in are typically their first interaction with your company. And if used correctly, welcome emails can greatly out-perform other promotional emails. In fact, welcome emails have 320% more revenue per email than other promotional emails, in addition to an 86% lift in unique open rate, a 196% lift in unique click rate, and a 336% lift in transaction emails.
As for how to use welcome emails correctly, I'd say you should start out by optimizing your subject line, the time you send it, who it’s 'from,' and the email copy can all increase the success of your welcome email. For example, using the word 'sale' in your subject line has been shown to increase open rates by 23.2%, while 'save' only increases open rates by 3.4%. 'News,'…
Why and how to use hurdle rates to set goals for your digital marketing
The concept of hurdle rates seems to be quite widely used within finance and investment circles, but I rarely hear it discussed in blogs about measuring and improving digital marketing. Perhaps that's because they're most useful when related to customer retention, or the 'Engage' part of the Smart Insights RACE Planning framework.
It's surprising since they offer an excellent way to set goals and track performance against them when you are looking at your effectiveness in communicating with an audience. You can use them to review email marketing, ECRM, customer engagement with social media or repeat purchases. Here's a brief introduction to hurdle rates and some ideas on where you can apply them.
Hurdle rate definition
The hurdle rate for engagement is simply the percentage of customers who perform an…
New DMA research shows the trends in email effectiveness - which these types of emails work for you?
We are excited to share the findings from the DMA's 'National Client Email Report 2015' which has just been published. It reinforces the effectiveness of email as one of the core digital marketing techniques and shows that email marketing is still growing in popularity and its success is derived from an integrated marketing approach, accessibility to Marketing Automation and being impacted by the rise in mobile with an email-mobile relationship, which they refer to as a 'mobile first-medium'.
Companies are seeing return from continuing to use email marketing - according to the report Email has an average return of 38:1!'
Which emails generate the most revenue?
We know intuitively that effective emails are personalised, so it's good to see an improvement in targeting practice with revenue from unsegmented emails to the whole list…
