7 Strategies to Personalize Automatic emails based on subscriber actions

In an age of personalized marketing, a standard-fits-all method of marketing via email doesn't make sense today. Email marketers and businesses that are e-commerce typically have lots of customer data, but they mostly fail to use that data to their full benefit. With an increasing number of businesses utilizing email marketing, it is necessary that as an email marketer you come up with new strategies to maintain your customers' interest.

The days of making use of the first name of subscribers in the emails was believed to be among the most successful strategies used to increase conversions. Sending subscribers timely, behavioral emails that are relevant to their interests is necessary to keep them interested in your business.

Personalization and automation, when used together, work wonders. The study compilation indicates that according to Experian, brands who personalize their marketing messages have 27% higher unique click rates and one-percent more open rates than those that are not personalized. The report also states that trigger emails generate more results in conversion for the same number of emails as opposed to "batch and blast" blast and batch emails.

When it comes to creating customized campaigns for your e-commerce emails, you need to follow few simple and sophisticated methods to run the effectiveness of your emails.

  Answer the right questions  

For sending automated triggered email messages, you must get customer data. The most effective method to collect this is by asking your customers to choose certain preference choices to assist in segmenting the data. When customers opt-in to your emails, inquire about the reason for opting for your emails. Your responses will provide insights that will lead you to send relevant and better-targeted email messages.

Here is an example of an email message from Marisa Murgatroyd, founder of Live Your Message. In this email, the emailer is asked to fill out a brief survey, which will allow her to segment the people based on their interests and to send only messages that are most relevant to them.

  Create Customer Personas  

After you have received feedback from your customers, create the personas of your customers using the information you've gathered. If you can understand your customers and your subscribers' email preferences better and gaining more personalized experiences for them. This helps give the email recipients greater focus and an experience that is more customized.

  Think Location and Time  

Test your emails with respect to time and location in order for a better idea of what works for you. Certain hours of the day are proven to be better for email delivery . Your clients could be spread around the world, in different time zones and hence it's essential to provide all customers with the same service. Some customers will respond better to your emails when they're delivered at certain times of the day. Make sure you do A/B testing for your emails and find out the best time when the customers reach out to your emails and then set the send time to match.

  7 types of automated emails triggered by subscriber behavior  

After you've gathered enough information for you to correctly classify your email recipients, it's time to set up automatized trigger emails for certain segments or actions.

  There are seven types of trigger emails can be sent to your clients:  

  1. Welcome Emails

These welcome emails help create a connection with your newly joining subscriber. The first email you send to confirm the signup. This will help you sort your list by asking your customers about their preferences. The best approach is to run the series of welcome emails that include the initial one is a welcome note and introducing your offerings, followed by a second one asking for the subscriber preference, and then subsequent emails with special offers and discounts on the future purchases they make.

Check out this example of Welcome Email from Hootsuite. The email guides the subscriber to begin using their online tool. This is the first email in their triggered series and will be sent out as soon as the customer opts in.

  2. Absent Cart Emails

Abandoned cart emails are emails which are sent out to clients who have added items in their shopping carts but failed to make it to the checkout. By highlighting the items that have been abandoned, with a coupon or free shipping to proceed through checkout is a fantastic method to get them to complete the purchase.

Check out the email sent by the company Asics. They have highlighted one of the items that were not sold by putting it up on the main banner. They also show the rest of the products in the cart below. They have also displayed items for cross-selling, which increases customers' chances returning to the site to purchase.

3. In Stock Emails

Back in stock emails are those emails that are sent out to clients who wish to purchase a certain item that is out of availability and have decided to get notified when the product is available in inventory. Sending an email that notifies customers of availability of the product is an excellent way to get customers back on your site to make the purchase.

This message from Kauffmann the Mercantile is a good example. This is an excellent tool and service to make your clients feel appreciated.

4. Price Drop Reminders

The price drop emails go to clients who have abandoned the store most likely because of the price of specific products for which there's no discount. If the items you previously looked at are offered at a reduced price, you should to notify the customers about the discount. It's a great chance to convince customers that might have been interested in purchasing from your.

Look at this sample of the retailer Target and Target informs customers about the reduced price on the items they have in their cart, along with other recommended products. The message will convince customers to purchase the product.

5. Order Confirmation

When customers have completed their checkout and placed an order, you must immediately notify them via email of their order confirmation to them, confirming as well as thanking them for having completed the purchase. It will allow them to recheck their purchase and adjust it should they need to. Also, include a receipt for payment and an details of your order to keep your transaction in the public domain. Also, give them options to keep track of their purchase and to provide feedback. You can also consider , selling similar products or cross-selling.

This is an illustration of an order confirmation email sent by Amazon. The particular purchase was an ebook. Notice the way Amazon suggests similar books at the bottom of the email.

  6. Order Follow-up E-mails

After your client has made an order on your site When a customer places an order on your website, you must email follow-up messages to the customer. Set up automatic follow-up emails which include product-related recommendations along with related suggestions about products. The emails also contain order tracking details, order summary and payment details.

Take a look at this email sent by Etsy to inform the buyer about the progress of the delivered order.

7. Re-engagement Emails

Re-engagement emails are designed to renew the relationship between your clients and subscribers that haven't read your email or didn't purchase from you in a specific timeframe. Re-engagement emails can be effective in bringing customers to revisit your website. Send a sequence of emails to win back those customers who aren't interested and encourage customers to purchase from your site. It is also possible to include deals and promotions to encourage users to visit your site and place an purchase.

Here's an example the reengagement emails sent by Pinkberry that offers its customers complimentary yogurt when they go to a Pinkberry location within 7 days:

  Automated emails work best when they're personalized  

Hyper-personalization is what will keep your email subscribers interested in your business. If you are planning for your email campaigns ensure that you not just add their names to the emails. Creating personalized emails that are based on the subscribers' preferences and habits is essential to ensure that the automation of your email marketing campaigns works effectively.

Kevin George is the Head of Marketing at EmailMonks, one of the fastest-growing email design and coding companies that specializes in crafting stunning email templates, conversion of PSD files to HTML email conversion, and the free HTML template for email. He enjoys sharing his insights and opinions regarding email marketing techniques and top practices in his blog on email marketing.