Nearly all interactive marketers use email, and they expect it to increase in
effectiveness over the next two years. But research indicates that most email
campaigns don’t deliver expected results, leaving marketers wondering how
they can increase the strategic value of their email programs to close the gap
between expectations and actual results.
This whitepaper highlights some of the industry research on strategic email
marketing maturity and provides detailed explanations of several advanced
email marketing programs proven to increase email’s effectiveness and drive
specific business objectives.
3. State of the Industry: Email Marketing Maturity
Research indicates that a majority of email programs are not yet sophisticated, and major brands still fail to measure the
long-term benefits of their email programs. Figure 1 from MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark guide
indicates that only 37% of email programs are in the strategic phase of maturity, with half of organizations “stuck” in
between the trial and strategic phases.
It’s important to evaluate your existing email program and determine your current phase of email marketing maturity
in order to find out where to start making improvements to your email programs. Some advanced programs should be
implemented before others, so outline the business objectives you want to achieve using email, and choose the best
programs to fit your current needs based on the results they drive.
Figure 1: Three Phases of Email Marketing Maturity
Strategic
Phase
37%
Trial
Phase
14%
Transition
Phase
49%
We do not have process or
guidelines for performing
email marketing
We have a formal process
with thorough guidelines
we routinely perform
We have an informal process
with a few guidelines we
sporadically perfom
Source: MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
Methodology: Fielded Sep 2010, N=1,115
Three Phases of Email Marketing Maturity
Trial Phase Transition Phase Strategic Phase
Organization does not have
a process or guidelines for
performing email margeting.
Organization has an informal
process with a few guidelines they
sporadically perform.
Organization has a formal process
with thorough guidelines they
routinely perform.
Chart: Half of all organizations stuck between Trial Phase and Strategic Phase of maturity
5. Lifecycle Development
Developing programs that meet the needs of the consumer based on their position in the purchase lifecycle is vital to an
effective email channel. During the lifecycle development process, it’s important to implement programs based on existing
engagement and customer need. From a newly acquired subscriber, to a loyalist or an influencer, each stage must have
programs that speak specifically to each consumer.
So how do you determine the stage in which your subscribers currently sit within the lifecycle? Here, it’s all about data, so
work with your email service provider to integrate your commerce, social media, mobile and web analytics data and build
out complete subscriber profiles. Once you have this data funneling into your email program, you can create segments
based on activity distinctive to each stage of the customer lifecycle.
To identify subscribers in the converter stage, for instance, you’ll want to pull a record of customers whose email opens
and clicks have resulted in them making a purchase on your site.
Taking a phased approach is often beneficial - weighing the impact of each initiative against another to determine priority
and developing programs that contribute to lifetime value and relevancy over time.
Transactional Emails
On average, transactional messages represent about 4% of a company’s email volume, can have 60% open rates, and can
produce 30% of the total revenue for an email program. With these numbers, it’s surprising that many companies don’t
take advantage of this prime revenue source.
While transactional content such as order confirmations and shipping notifications should be the central focus of
transactional emails, companies often include a small portion of up-sell or cross-promotional content – roughly 20% in
accordance with the “80/20 rule.” By incorporating relevant product recommendations, a newsletter opt-in call to action, or
links to your social media profiles, transactional emails can drive incremental revenue and move customers in the converter
stage of the lifecycle toward the loyalist and influencer stages.
It’s important to understand many interconnected components that should be considered when developing a transactional
email program, including CAN-SPAM requirements, third party dynamic content integrations, HTML vs. text, sending times,
etc. This information is available in another BlueHornet whitepaper titled “Best Practices for Transactional Emails”.
Segmentation
If you’re working towards a more sophisticated email channel but don’t know which new program to implement first,
a segmentation program can be a powerful starting point. Relevant email content is integral to higher retention and
conversion of customers as well as deliverability within many ISPs. In order to increase relevancy, marketers must use
available data to segment subscribers and deliver the right message, at the right time, with the right content.
Basic segmentation starts at the acquisition stage when customers fill in their contact information and select their
communication preferences. Each of these data points can be used to message subscribers uniquely, such as state or
zip code to send relevant information about brick-and-mortar locations in their area. Once customers have signed up
to receive emails, engagement metrics like opens and clicks can be used to segment subscribers further based on their
interest level with the brand.
But advanced email marketing moves beyond stated preference and email response data and should incorporate any
information that the marketer can gather about the consumer over the course of the lifecycle. Data integrations with
website activity and e-commerce transactions can be tied into subscriber profiles, and from this information, marketers can
build out more intricate segments and develop content that is more targeted towards specific consumers.
7. Abandoned Cart
Abandoned cart programs are remarketing communications designed to recover lost revenue by online shoppers who add
items to their shopping cart, but do not end up completing the transaction. By integrating online shopping behavioral data
with email marketing customer profiles, retailers are able to send targeted messages to customers who leave their sites
with items left in their carts.
Abandoned cart strategies have changed over time. In the past, marketers avoided the “big brother” mentality by sending
emails 1-3 days after the cart was abandoned. Today, messages are sent instantly and incorporate a more relational tone,
which minimizes the “big brother” feeling and resonates better with consumers, leading to higher conversions.
An abandoned cart program may seem difficult to implement if you, like many other retailers, use separate vendors for
your e-commerce transactions and your email marketing communications. However, leading providers like SeeWhy are able
to integrate commerce data points with your email subscriber base, making it easy to set up and automate abandoned cart
programs.
For example, cart abandonment service provider SeeWhy has seen between 15% - 50% of carts recovered when the
user is contacted within minutes of the abandonment using a relational strategy– answering further product questions,
providing site assistance, offering discounts, etc. This approach should be considered when putting together the strategy
for an abandoned cart program.
Figure 4: Abandoned Cart Program Anatomy
Social Email
Social email combines preference and activity data from both email and social media channels to provide a more
comprehensive view of your customers that can be used to increase relevancy and drive deeper engagement with your
brand’s social influencers.
A social email program can also drive acquisitions on both channels – social media can be used to acquire new email
subscribers, and email marketing can drive social media engagement. Including social media profile links within your email
template or incorporating an email sign-up widget on your Facebook page are two ways to build your audience on each
channel.
By integrating engagement metrics on both channels, social email allows companies to identify their social influencers and
message them uniquely based on their social media preferences and behaviors. What began as “forward to a friend” has
evolved into “share with your network” – a new component of email we’ve seen emerging in the past year that has proved
to be an effective tactic for identifying a brand’s social influencers.
Building segments based on email-driven social media engagement allows you to target subscribers in the Influencer stage
of the customer lifecycle with purchase-driven messages they’ll want to share, allowing you to extend your brand reach
and increase the ROI of both channels.
9. Figure 5: Example Content-based Win-Back Program
Working with the BlueHornet strategy and creative services teams, SnagAJob.com created a win-back campaign
comprising a series of three emails designed to re-engage subscribers who had not opened, clicked, or submitted an
online application in three months. By implementing this program, SnagAJob.com was able to re-capture over 10%
of the initial target population back into their email program.
If subscriber opens or clicks
Day 1 Day 6 Day 9
No activity
(opens or clicks)
for past 9 months
If no
activity
If no
activity
If no
activity
Re-activated Segment
Re-introduced into regular
cadence of SnagAJob.com
emails
In-active Segment
Isolated these subscribers
and only send emails to
them on a limited basis
Win-Back
Attrition is a challenge for many companies. Customers abandon email programs for a variety of reasons, so it’s important
to put programs in place to prevent this attrition and minimize its impact on revenue.
Win-back, or re-engagement programs, provide a cost-effective way for companies to contact both long- and short-term
attrited customers by using targeted messaging to re-engage them. Successful communication with these consumers will
be important to the longevity of the retained customer.
There are two major types of win-back programs to consider: offer-based and content based.
Offer-Based
For e-commerce sites, offer-based win-back programs provide the consumer escalating value offers that are not
normally available to the consumer. The end goal is to make the customer an offer they can’t turn down, with
the most aggressive incentive occurring in the last email. When creating an offer-based win-back program, it’s
important to limit the duration of the promotion to encourage a sense of urgency. Also, make the offer codes
exclusive to the individual to prevent coupon sites from picking up the offer.
Content-Based
For content or non-sales sites that offer articles, loyalty or rewards programs, or free services, these win-back
programs offer email subscribers articles or value propositions to re-activate their interaction with the site or
service. The key to success of the program is relevancy, so speak to topics that may have prompted subscribers to
join in the first place. Additionally, value propositions, like a program or site re-launch, should be done in the first
email of the series. Figure 3 demonstrates an example content-based win-back program from SnagAJob.com, the
nation’s largest job search site and most active community of full-time and part-time hourly workers.
11. Text-to-Join
Consumers, more than ever, are on the move and active in their lifestyle. Because of this, email acquisition is also shifting
from traditional methods like point-of-sale capture, handwritten sign-up forms, and website capture, to more mobile
acquisition tactics.
With the increase in adoption of SMS (text) messaging, marketers have the opportunity to collect information from
consumers on the spot. By texting their email address to a short code provided by a mobile partner, marketers are able
to collect accurate contact information instantly, and send follow up messaging instantly in return. This means of data
collection has various uses -- events, signage, commercials and other mediums where the consumer is on the move and
more apt to subscribe via mobile than through other means. Figure 7 below highlights an example of a text-to-join program
we developed with SmartReply for Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Conclusion
As marketers continue to invest in email marketing, it will be increasingly important for the email channel to deliver higher
response rates. Strategic email marketing programs engage customers at specific points in the lifecycle and move them
toward brand advocacy, but it can be difficult and time-consuming to implement these types of programs. Taking a phased
approach will help you identify the programs that will make the biggest impact on your bottom line, and over time, as
you adopt more advanced messaging tactics, your email program will evolve into a key revenue driver and asset to your
business.
Figure 7: Chuck E. Cheese’s Text-to-Join Program