As today’s consumers continue to be bombarded with promotional messages from multiple channels, savvy businesses are stepping up with messages that cut through the clutter.
Email has become a powerful conduit for such methodology. As the average email user worldwide sends and receives 225 messages each day, the smartest marketers are using all the data-gathering tools at their disposal to offer email communications targeted to individuals.
However, such strategies are still underutilized in many respects; recent research shows only 68 percent of U.S. and Canadian retailers capture purchase order history, only 64 percent track web engagement and clicks, and only 26 percent gather information about shopping affinities. In the same study, just 47 percent of consumers say they’re receiving email from retailers that’s relevant to their wants and needs.
“Companies that have not evolved past batch-and-blast email strategy are slowly eroding their customer base, as a blanket approach leads to high unsubscribe rates,” advises James Green on Marketingland.com. “Conversely, emails personalized from triggers see conversion rates five times higher than non-personalized batch emails.”
How is that relevant to firms focusing on inbound marketing by phone? The highly strategic emails sent in such campaigns can incite recipients to call you for a purchase or more information. Or, they can simply supplement your phone-based marketing by offering up another conversion channel.
Interested in getting started with personalized emails? Here are a few tips:
- Learn about your customers by optimizing data-gathering tools that capture purchase order histories, website engagement and shopping affinities associated with your website visitors. But don’t overlook outside sources with data about other internet users/potential clients.
- Personalization might be based on the customer’s name; his demographics; his stage in the buying cycle; his shopping and purchase behavior; whether he’s already opted to receive your email, etc.
- Your campaign may include placement of your ads in other companies’ emails.
- Types of email that work well with personalization might notify or remind customers of an abandoned cart; an abandoned website; a price drop; an inventory drop; a new product arrival or a product that’s back in stock. You can also announce the availability of new content, send a newsletter, send an invitation, etc.
- Don’t go overboard with high-pressure sales language or a slew of irrelevant emails that can turn a recipient off (and/or cause him to unsubscribe) before you can gain his trust. Start with a soft sell in which you try to offer information of value — e.g., tips, guide sheets, white papers, e-books, coupons, special deals, etc. — as you try to learn his pain points.
- After establishing trust, consider surveying recipients to gather even more helpful information about their wants, needs and preferences so you can further expand your marketing strategy.
- Plan to optimize cross-selling or upselling strategies. Real-time personalization tools allow for specific product pitches based on what the user has already looked at or purchased online.
- Many CRMs allow sales reps to send and track individual messages to customers for an even more personal touch.
- Whichever format you employ for your emails, include a plain-text version to avoid being waylaid by spam traps.
- Avoid embarrassing information gaps by double checking your default setting for personalization fields.
- Coordinate your email campaigns with your digital advertising campaign — preferably via a single platform — so unreached customers can be targeted via other forms of advertising.
Ready to get started? Talk to RingSquared about how a personalized email campaign can work beautifully in conjunction with your inbound call marketing.
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