Best Practices for Responsive Email Campaigns

The best way to ruin email marketing is to do without putting any thought or effort into it. This means that you get a massive database of email addresses, whether there's data to prove an interest in a specific category, and blast them. This is also known as the "spray and pray" strategy. How about, this Ramadan, we hold hands and promise to raise our game? Say hello to responsive email campaigns.

This is a tactic we use to grow the customer lifetime value. Nothing worth having happens overnight. And this tactic is predicated on that rule. Responsive email campaigns comprise of a series of well thought out messages that occur in a conversation like a manner, following a specific action by the target audience that implies interest or at the very least, consideration.

To recognise what counts as interest or consideration, we conduct A/B tests and then analyse the conversions, reverse engineering the data on Google Analytics to understand the actions that implicate which stage of the customer journey. The spray and pray methodology of email marketing revolves around the Johny Bravo approach of dating. Think of it this way. You walk into a bar and scream "I love you" at everyone like a creep. Or you build a relationship that proving your worth. One approach will be more successful than the other.

Responsive email campaigns contain content that are delivered to prospects, audiences, and customers over a planned period of time, bearing in mind the customer journey and also the buyer decision journey along with the buyer purchase utility. By segmenting email lists, and personalising the message based on the audience, email marketing conversion rates go up. The content of the email correspond the interests of the audience. In doing so, they are up to five times more effective than spray and pray tactics.

1. Paths

As mentioned above, establish early on what behaviour constitutes interest or consideration, and create content paths within the email campaigns that correspond to those rules. A visitor on a dental clinic site doesn't need to be converted because the behaviour implies her child is the final user. She is the influencer, so activate content that builds credibility in her eyes for the orthodontists and in customer service. Set up a campaign in C2 with rules in place that inform the system to trigger an informative response to a show of interest. For instance, a click on an email link means that a follow-up will be sent the next day to continue the conversation. Or your pixels on the email could follow the target audience on Facebook and remarket to her within the context of what was read last. Create multiple if/then scenarios, keep testing.

2. Segmentation

Split your customers between treated, about to be treated, and untreated. Allow for the creation of subsegments based on micro behaviours on site, whether it be in navigation or in the consumption of content. If content A is consumed along with content B, then we infer this visitor is the son of the intended patient and is more likely the financier of the operation. Therefore we will email them content that assures the credibility of our practitioners and our linkage to various renowned insurance providers.

3. Track

After conducting multiple split tests over the course of at least three months, mapping scenarios based on rules, track the results. Creative is subject. Data is objective. Let the people with data backed good ideas take the lead. When planned well, responsive email campaigns slice costs of customer acquisition by nearly 30% and raise the customers' average order value four-fold, directly and via personal recommendations.

Conclusion

Following this approach means that marketers will improve their knowledge on the motivators and RTB across segments and those influencing decision making. Keep customising messages as they appeal to the journey customers are on, and implement the best practices for campaign optimisation.

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