How agencies can automatically add value to their client’s email strategy Published February 20, 2017 When you’re an agency it’s tempting to always be thinking about the bigger picture – the rebranding, website and big product launches. But sometimes big changes don’t get the biggest results. Sometimes it’s a case of looking at the detail – making small tweaks to your client’s marketing strategy that will go on to make a big impact. A case in point is your client’s email marketing strategy. Our agency team are seeing agencies and clients gain more revenue from automated email marketing. In fact according to some studies, automated campaigns result in 152% higher click-through rate (Epsilon) than broadcast emails. And there’s a knock-on effect on sales with marketers reporting they generate a staggering 18 times more revenue than mass email campaigns (Jupiter Research). We take a look at how agencies can integrate automated campaigns into their client’s communications strategy. How they can introduce small changes in the email activity that will generate big results for the agency and the client. Drip campaigns Sometimes it takes a while for people to warm up – time for them to engage, consider and buy. Drip campaigns are a series of automated email that lead-up to an event. They’re designed to nurture the relationship until the customer is ready to commit. You can start a drip campaign for any event that requires a degree of commitment from the end customer – a subscription, renewal or big purchase. Reactivation campaigns It’s far easier to retain a customer than try and find a new one which is why your clients should always have automated campaigns set-up to re-engage customers they haven’t heard from in a while. Look at when you’d expect to normally hear from a customer and when you don’t, trigger an automated email designed to prompt a response. Reach out to them – show them what’s new, make recommendations or even give them a discount or free gift to re-engage them and prevent them from becoming a lapsed customer. Recommendations If a customer has made a purchase then look at what’s they’re likely to purchase next. Use tools such a PureTargeting to look at their online behaviour – browsing patterns and interests and then send recommendations for future purchases. These automated emails are designed to prompt future behaviour and you can use technology such as PureIntelligence to spot opportunities and trends on what the best recommendations would be. Cart or form abandonment campaigns If you’ve got an ecommerce client or a client with any type of online enquiry process then you need to have an automated abandonment campaign in place. They’re automated emails that trigger when a customer abandons a purchase or form and that tempt the customer back to complete the process. Typically clients report a high success rate for abandonment campaigns with an average of 28% of emails clicked leading to a recovered sale (Salescycle, 2016). Lifecycle programmes Lifecycle emails are a series of emails that span the customer’s entire journey with a brand – from the first welcome email to referral emails for loyal brand advocates. They are automated emails designed to nudge customers along their journey – nurturing the relationship and encouraging the customer to become a lifelong fan. Customer satisfaction surveys Customer satisfaction emails can be sent after consultations, customer service calls, visits or purchases – they check that the customer was happy and that everything went as they expected. They prevent nasty surprises and mean you can contact your customer before the relationship deteriorates. It’s always good to trigger automated customer satisfaction emails after most interactions from basic customer service surveys to detailed customer feedback forms. It’s easy to set-up and automate all of these emails for clients using our PureTargeting technology, triggering them using pre-defined interactions or changes in data. Automations represent an exciting opportunity for agencies – the ability to deliver emails that improve the client’s customer experience bit by bit, until their email strategy is built on the most personalised and relevant one-to-one emails possible. And because the emails are automated there’s little management required once they’re set-up, making it an easy thing for an agency to implement without the need for long term hassle. If you’d like to find out how you can build and develop your client’s email strategy using automated emails then contact one of our specialist agency team members.