Whatever stage of email marketing you’re at, you can always improve your results.
In this blog post, we take a look at four email marketing campaigns you should try (if you haven’t already). Each suggestion is based on a varying level of skill and resource, and is designed to improve results whatever your experience.
We’ve matched the suggestions to the various stages of our email maturity model (a framework that helps email marketers understand how advanced their tactics are and improve results).
Broadcasters: The last chance alert
At the broadcast stage of email maturity, you’re likely to be sending one email message to your entire database, rather than in response to interests or activity. You use email as a way to generate traffic, leads and most importantly sales.
A nice addition the broadcaster’s strategy is to add an offer expiry alert or ‘last chance’ email to your normal email schedule.
Marketers typically send last chance emails when there’s only 24 hours left on the clock before an offer expires. They’re a simple way to tell customers a promotion is about to end, creating a sense of urgency that leads to an uplift in traffic and sales.
Here’s an example of a ‘last chance’ email from Boden.
Segmenters: The browsing campaign
At the segmenter stage of email maturity, you will have moved on from creating just one, simple message and are likely to be sending multiple versions of an email.
A segmenter will have created different groups (or segments) of their database which each share similar interests, behaviours, or demographics. They modify the contents of each email to make it as relevant as possible to each different segment.
If you’re a segmenter, we suggest looking beyond what your recipients have done in the past and start looking at what they’re doing now. Behavioural targeting technology lets you monitor exactly what people are doing by tracking their real-time behaviour onsite.
This technology also provides you with enough insight to create reliable segments that allow you to send timely, automated emails featuring items currently being browsed. This is a great way to prompt a purchase.
Ebay sends automated emails based on what people have recently browsed to re-engage them with the purchase.
Recommenders: The personal picks
At the recommender stage of email maturity, marketers are focused on building a relationship with their email subscribers to nurture loyalty, as well as short-term sales.
They might try to re-engage previous buyers and target them with recommendations and suggestions. This helps to cross or upsell new products, encourage customers to make more frequent purchases, or stimulate the interest of lapsed shoppers.
The recommender makes suggestions by making links between customers’ characteristics, behaviours, and interests to create recommendations.
They might recommend a product liked by a similar person, or suggest products that shares similar attributes to the one purchased before.
So long as you’ve got enough data to give you insight, this tactic is a great way of being proactive. It enables you to reach out to your database with relevant content even if they’ve not visited your site in a while.
Netflix has mastered the art of the personal recommendation and suggests shows that are close to programmes viewed previously
Predictors: The replenishment reminder
At the predictor stage of email maturity, email campaigns are focused on lifecycle engagement, pre-empting and prompting behaviour, and increasing scalable revenue.
Marketers at this stage will be focused on promoting long-term custom and retention, and maximising the lifetime value (LTV) of the customer. These marketers know enough about their customers to predict what they’re likely to do next.
A replenishment campaign is a great addition to a predictor’s email activity. These are automated campaigns sent at a time when it’s predicted the customer is likely to want to buy again.
Replenishment campaigns can be sent when the customer runs out of something or simply might have become bored of their existing product.
We like this example of a replenishment message by Lancome. Not only does it trigger another purchase but features a high level of personalisation, including useful updates on loyalty points and recommendations for new purchases.
Takeaway
The email marketing campaign examples we’ve explored offer practical ways to use personalisation, targeting, data, and timing to create more impactful emails, whatever your level of experience.
To stay on top of your game, your email marketing campaigns should be continually reviewed and tested. This ensures they’re generating the right results and staying ahead of the competition.
