Earlier this year, our South African team went into a blogging frenzy with a 6-part series to celebrate the launch of our TriggerMail feature.  From experience I know that it sometimes takes you a while to adjust to a new feature, hey?  But given my recent articles (and that case study!) on the conversions you can reap simply through segmentation, I thought it might be a good to look into what you can do with autoresponders, or TriggerMails.

If you’re not sure what TriggerMail is, have a look at our video or the blog series.

I know you’re aware of the obvious benefits of sending automated emails (saving time, building customer relationships through saying ‘Happy Birthday’ – things like that), but if you’d paid attention to the segmentation blog article, you might have picked up on something else.  Triggered or prompted emails are a way of targeting your subscribers – much like with segmentation.

How do I go about it?

You don’t have to jump in the deep end!  If you’re not sure if this approach is entirely for you (although I do strongly recommend it), simply start off by setting one or two TriggerMails. Say for instance you’ve captured your subscribers’ birthdays on your subscription form – why not set an email to be sent to them a week before their birthday with a ‘birthday wishlist’ containing a few items they can get a discount on in the week of their birthday?  Or simply send them a birthday discount voucher?  Quick tip: Birthday email messages have proven to generate a very good response and revenue!

Basically you can integrate your segmentation and TriggerMails to monitor a customer’s past purchases, the anniversary of their account, if they posted reviews or comments on your site, payment reminders, even their wedding anniversaries and then set TriggerMail to automatically send them a relevant email related to the occasion.  Anything from congratulations and best wishes, to discounts or product information on something they might find interesting.

If you find that your subscribers respond well to these emails you can always find ways of integrating more TriggerMails into your campaign.

Why would I want to set these TriggerMails? 

It’s just an added excuse to contact your customers and develop their relationship with your brand – except instead of blasting off emails that might not be relevant to them, you pique their interest by showing them that you do keep track of their interests.  You’re emailing them more frequently, but with more relevant emails.  Surely a customer is more likely to read and respond to an email that benefits them personally, like offering them a birthday discount or telling them more about a product they’re particularly interested in? 

Won’t I be bombarding my readers?

Yes, you’ll be in touch with them more frequently, but remember that because these emails are prompted by an action the subscriber took or by a date or product specifically related to them, not all the contacts on your list will be receiving the email.  You’ll only be sending out emails to small portions of your list.  However, because these emails are more targeted, they should give you a greater ROI than your bulk email sends.

But should I then still be sending out mass emails and newsletters?

Of course!  Your newsletter or you bulk sends is how you gather more subscribers.  After all, it is the one all your subscribers sign up to initially.  Using TriggerMail just helps you refine those relationships more and push potential customers to become actual customers, or existing customers to new purchases.  Autoresponders merely complement your email campaigns by balancing your bulk broadcast emails with relevant, targeted emails sent to small portions of your subscribers.  And because they’re automated it frees up time to focus on other things – be it a cup of tea or a promotional strategy.

Simply put, adding TriggerMails to your campaign helps you send the right message at the right time to spur your subscribers to action.

About two weeks ago I posted a blog article on subscriber segmentation and why it can benefit your email campaigns.  Then, to illustrate the point, I came across this brilliant case study on Marketing Sherpa yesterday:  TicketsNow.com, the online ticket vendor, increased the revenue made from their email marketing by 322% -simply through segmentation!

The case study details the changes implemented in the company’s email marketing strategy to engage consumers in the brand more fully.  The aim was to optimize the spending patterns of those subscribers who had a purchase history, particularly that of their biggest spending customers.

In order to target these customers, they segmented them according to their spending habits and interests, so that they could target their newsletters more effectively.  They also created customer loyalty programs:  They established three “preferred customer” clubs that customers were automatically allocated to if they spent $1,000+ per year, $3,000+ per year or $8,000+ per year.  Once customers belonged to one of these three reward clubs they received notifications of consumer incentive offers, like free shipping or access to an exclusive customer care line.  The number and value of the incentives increased the more a customer spent.  Basically, their customers received targeted emails with personalized offerings that catered to their individual interests based on which club they belonged to, their past purchases and even their past click-throughs. 

To top it off, they sent customers more personalized email communications: Reminders of events they’d purchased tickets for and additional offers (like dinner deals at restaurants related or close to the event).  After an event a customer had attended, they followed up with an email containing reviews by other customers who had attended and giving the recipient a chance to submit their own personalized review.  It gave their clients a chance not only to engage with the brand more socially, but also for a community of loyal customers to develop – by interacting with each other through reviews and recommendations.

What started as simple mailing list segmentation evolved into heightened consumer relationships, loyal and engaged customers, and, as I said, a 322% increase in sales conversions – simply through their email marketing campaign!  Not only that, but their subscriber list grew by 87%, opening up communications with new potential customers, and unsubscribe and complaint rates dropped.

Mark Hodes, Senior Vice President of Customer Marketing for TicketsNow.com, said of the campaign: "I think it proves that more [targeted] email can only help keep people engaged and keep them more active as repeat customers.”

I’ve written quite a few articles about segmentation and targeted email marketing, but I think this campaign is a perfect example of how it can work in practice.  It sounds intricate, but you have access to all the tools you need in your GraphicMail account.  The first step, subscriber segmentation, is obviously easy to as per my previous article (simply customize your subscription form and set the automated subscriber segmentation tool), but even the targeted communication emails are easy to set up with TriggerMail.  For instance the event reminders they sent out – that can easily be set up with a scheduled email.  With a little bit of imagination, you can combine segmentation and TriggerMail to engage your customers in a communication campaign that they feel is relevant to them – which means they are more likely to respond positively to it!

Not sure how to set up Subscriber segmentation?  We now offer webinars on that!  Sign up for a free online training session with one of our dedicated support team members and they’ll show you exactly how to go about segmenting your mailing list.
Sign up for a subscriber segmentation webinar.

The original Marketing Sherpa article will be available here until 31 May 2010.

When you first start tackling email marketing, one of the first steps you take are most likely to set up a mailing list – and you’ll watch it grow over time as you steadily gather more subscribers.  Soon you’ll ask yourself…

Why do people subscribe to your newsletter?  Because they’re interested in the content.

Do they always read your newsletter?  To be honest, no.
Why not?  Because they’re… not interested in the content?

Confused?  Let me explain.

Upon first reading one of your newsletters, a recipient may have liked the content in that particular newsletter and so he remains subscribed to it.  Or perhaps a customer liked a product she bought from you and decided to subscribe to your newsletter.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be interested in every newsletter you send out!  After all, your content changes every time, doesn’t it?  Say, for instance, you run an online gift store and last month Mary bought a personalized coffee mug from you.  She’s not going to be interested in this week’s newsletter, which promotes 50% off coffee mugs – but she might be interested in next week’s newsletter promoting specials on Snugglesox.
“I can’t force subscribers to take an interest in my newsletter content!”, I hear you thinking, and you’re right.  However, you can try to send out newsletters that are relevant to them – with our subscriber segmentation tool.

Subscriber segmentation is a way to target subscribers based on certain characteristics, like their preferences or location.  Recipients are more likely to respond to messages that they find relevant and so the most effective email campaign is one that uses segmentation to connect with subscribers on a more personal level. So there is definitely something about Mary liking warm, snuggly things – as opposed to maybe customer Luke who’s into office gadgets such as printed pencil holders. And anyway, why would you want to waste send credits emailing customers like Luke about home comfort items if you know that they’re most likely not even going to open your newsletter?

Segmentation is easy with our subscriber segmentation tool, but first you need to gather information about your customers/clients:

A subscription form is an easy choice. By simply adding the appropriate questions to the form, you can find out the right information.  Request basic information like age, gender or location – it could prevent you from sending information on a store in Chicago to someone who lives in San Francisco; or sending an invitation to your Ladies’ Night to all your male patrons!  Make sure that you request only relevant information, as most people probably won’t spend more than a few seconds filling out a subscription form.

Similarly, you can add a field where customers can select their mailing preferences: weekly updates, events, promotions, etc. What type of information are subscribers interested in and how often would they like to receive it?  It’s also a good idea to enable an “Update profile” section in your subscription, so subscribers can update their information themselves, ensuring the information you have is always relevant.

Or collect info through your email marketing reports and Goole Analytics. Customers often inadvertently give you more information – without you even asking for it!  Simply look at their past actions:  Which links they clicked on in your previous emails (i.e. what products or services in particular drew their attention) and what products they’ve purchased from you in the past and even what that loaded into their shopping carts on your site – and whether they went through with the purchase or not.  Let’s stick to Mary as an example:  Her last abandoned shopping cart may have contained a printed toy giraffe, so you sent her a follow-up email with further information on soft toys, as well as information on other similar products like slippers and fun socks.  It was this email that led her to click on the link to buy the Snugglesox!

Subscriber segmentation enables you to personalize your emails and tailor them to individual interests and needs - making subscribers feel special, which deepens your client relationship and creates customer loyalty.

PS. Watch the subscriber segmentation video!

True to our game of constantly improving our product we’ve made another tweak!
 
We’ve added two new options to our Subscriber Segmentation feature.  When managing your segments you can now also select either the “greater than” or “less than” options – as you can probably guess these would only apply to numerical values. 
So what does it do?  Well, it lets you capture, say for instance, all your subscribers who are older than 21 (or 90, or 3, or 33, or 52 – you get the idea).

It may not be a brand new, full-blown power feature, but we reckon you’ll find it'll come in handy.

Video 7


Subscriber segmentation - you know what this is.  Or you think…  Well, it’s when you - okay, you take a segment and…  No, no that’s not it, wait…
Still not quite sure yet, hey?  That’s okay, we find many of our clients, particularly novice email marketers, think they understand all our features, but when it comes to it they’re not sure how to implement them.  They loose out on all the amazing power tools we offer!

The videos you’ve been watching this past week were all produced with the aim of making our services even more accessible to you.  And so, as you’ve probably guessed, the latest of our GraphicMail videos is about Subscriber Segmentation.  Segmenting your mailing list means you group various contacts together according to specific criteria.  The video gives you a more detailed explanation of how to do it and what it means for your marketing campaign.  It’s targeted email marketing at its best.

This may be the last in our series of video blogs, but don’t for a moment think the fun stops here!  The six videos we’ve blogged about this past week are but the first - we’ll have more for you in April.  Happy viewing!