What consumers do when they receive your email.

Recent DMA Consumer Email Research has found that 19%-29% of recipients click on the link within an email.

But this isn’t their only route to conversion.

In fact, they also found that the most popular collection of actions is to engage with the brand, but not through the email they’ve received from the brand itself.

This got us thinking about what today’s recipients actually do when they receive email.

This type of knowledge and insight is essential to understanding how to create and execute engaging, revenue-generating, successful email. But also essential to understanding the halo effect of email.

Otherwise, brands will blindly be sending out emails based on assumptions, or out-of-date recommendations.

In this blog post, we will explain how brands can understand their recipients’ email behaviour. And what they can do to make the most of it for a seamless buying journey.

How to understand your recipients’ behaviour

At times recipients may seem unpredictable.

But as a marketer you actually have access to data that will offer you invaluable insights into your recipients’ behaviour. And help you to predict their actions moving forward.

Understand your own data

You can start by looking at your own email data.

A simple place to begin is by analysing your click metrics. It’s clear that multiple channels are involved in the conversion process. So don’t assume that the recipient will directly click on your main CTA. Instead, explore the other links in your email.

Are your recipients clicking on your social media buttons? Are they choosing to view a blog post or a testimonial?

This data will help you to begin to understand how your recipients are moving away from your email. And the most common channels they are moving onto.

Identify correlations

Once you have a better understanding of where recipients move to from your emails, the next step is to identify any channel correlations.

For instance, when you send out an email campaign, do you notice any increase in results on other channels?

Did your Facebook likes or YouTube views increase around this time?

And similarly, did you see an increase in website traffic around the same time as sending an email?

Maybe your organic searches peaked? Or you received a boost in social media traffic to your website?

All of the above suggests that your email recipients are engaging with your other channels, and moving through a multi-channel journey to conversion, from your email.  (Otherwise known as email’s halo effect)

That’s why for every campaign it’s important to report on all of your marketing channels. No matter if you are directly promoting your campaign on them, or not. Identify any increase in results, and start connecting the dots.

Attribution models

If email recipients are moving through different channels to your conversion point, this can become complicated for attribution.

And it can result in your carefully crafted email campaigns not receiving the recognition they deserve.

Therefore, it’s important to use your analytics data to gain a fuller understanding of attribution. Where your website visitors and conversions are originally sourced from, and the journey they have made.

Last-click attribution

Many marketers will look at last-click attribution, meaning the very last channel the visitor landed on before converting. While this is one of the easiest metrics to track, it doesn’t take account of channels prior to the last click.

First-click attribution

Marketers should also look at their first-click attribution. This refers to the very first channel your visitor landed on in their journey to converting. However, this metric also doesn’t take into account channels in between first and last click.

Linear attribution

Linear attribution, on the other hand, is ideal for identifying all of the touchpoints and channels that were made prior to the conversion. While it may not be as helpful in determining the most effective channels for converting. It will offer you insight into the journeys your visitors frequently take.

How to improve the email experience

It’s clear from the DMA’s research that email is part of a larger journey to conversion.

And based on your research into your own data, you should be building up a picture of what this journey looks like.

Your next step should be to ensure that this journey is as smooth and consistent as possible.

Messaging and imagery

Whatever you are promoting in your email campaign, ensure that it is prominent on all of your other channels.

This should include the same promotion, copy, and images.

For instance, if you are promoting a competition in your email, don’t hide it at the bottom of your website. Or bury it in social media posts on your social channels.

Instead, feature, pin, and promote the same competition as your email campaign.

This is because many recipients aren’t making a direct journey from email to landing page. If they are going to take a more varied route, you will want your competition to stay in their mind and be easily accessible throughout.

Cox&Cox Email

Cox&Cox Website

Personalisation

Personalised emails deliver 6x higher transactional rates. So it’s no surprise personalisation is an increasingly common tactic for email marketers.

But where possible, email recipients should receive this same personalised experience no matter what channel they are landing on. This will help maintain consistency and makes for a powerful message.

For instance, if you incorporated a personalised banner in your email, then reflect that on your website too. Or if you offered suggested products based on past purchases in your emails, use dynamic content to showcase these on your homepage as well.

Omnichannel support services

With customers interacting with your brand across different channels, it’s important you are wherever they are to offer support.

By offering omnichannel support services, visitors are able to get in touch with you directly, on whatever their preferred channel is.

This could include live web chat, tweets, DMs, or of course simply replying to an email.

Want to better understand your visitors’ behaviour?

Gaining a full and in-depth understanding of customer journeys and campaign attribution can be tricky.

But fortunately, it’s something we have helped many brands throughout various industries to achieve.

Get in touch with our friendly team of experts to find out more.