In an article entitled “7 New E-mail Marketing Tactics You Have to Use in 2010,” e-commerce marketing service provider Silverpop offers advice on how marketers’ can make their messages stand out in consumers’ inboxes – an increasingly difficult task thanks to the sheer volume of e-mails competing for attention. According to Silverpop, the following tactics will “help you better engage customers and drive revenue in 2010.” Let’s review and discuss.
Customer Reviews – The first tactic recommended by Silverpop requires a bit of planning well before an actual e-mail campaign begins. Companies are encouraged to collect product reviews from customers that then can be used as “relevant and persuasive” content in future campaigns. Marketers will need to develop and implement a system to capture user-generated reviews as well as important data about potential e-mail recipients to create personalized e-mails.
“To build up your database of user-generated reviews, set up an automated trigger that sends a message requesting a product review one or two weeks after a purchase,” recommends Silverpop. In addition to the obvious benefits this tactic offers marketers when communicating to potential consumers, the review process can be utilized as a tool to increase brand loyalty among current customers, says the marketing firm. By seeking the input of current customers, and even rewarding them for their contributions, “you encourage these customers to generate even more content…you’ll also be creating an army of brand advocates to help spread your message far and wide.”
Social Sharing – The second tactic is more trial than anything else as Silverpop suggests marketers experiment with social media including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to take advantage of information sharing by consumers. The idea is that marketers should develop content for their e-mail campaigns that share the message on their social networking sites of choice. Frankly, this suggested tactic is somewhat of a letdown as it presupposes that a marketer’s e-mails are being opened and read in the first place. Wasn’t that the premise of the article?
“Give your customers a good reason to share your promotional e-mails with their friends. Turn them into a powerful extension of your acquisition and awareness efforts, helping you to reach highly qualified prospective customers who share the same interests as your brand’s most engaged e-mail recipients,” encourages Silverpop.
Web Analytics – The third tactic proposed by Silverpop is the integration of email messaging strategies and Web analytics programs to “enable two-way, action-oriented flow of information that allows you to more efficiently target and trigger campaigns based on Website clickstream data.” In layman’s terms, Web analytics enables marketers to track how visitors navigate a site and then utilize that data to evaluate needs, develop an appropriate message, and then engage the consumer via e-mail.
Silverpop then describes one approach that marketers have taken to effectively harness Web analytics and e-mail – the “abandoned shopping cart” campaign. In short, if visitors add items to the shopping cart but fail to complete the purchase, the integrated system will generate an e-mail reminder that is sent to the consumer’s inbox. Various messages and promotions can also be incorporated to encourage the consumer to return to the site to complete the transaction.
Send When the Recipient Is “In” – The fourth tactic suggests that in many cases marketers can have greater success in having their e-mails opened by anticipating the best delivery times for consumers. Supposedly this tactic, and specialized software, will prevent a marketer’s e-mail from being buried in an inbox. Perhaps this tactic has some validity, but it rings a little hollow. Isn’t emerging media characterized in some small part by being unfettered by time constraints? Messages can be transmitted digitally at anytime and consumers are able to access these messages whenever they wish, right?
SMS and E-mail – The fifth tactic, while interesting and potentially promise for marketing actively engaged in utilizing emerging media in their marketing mix, is really a separate topic involving the use of another form of new media. Silverpop does a good job of offering convincing reasons why marketers might want to consider utilizing SMS in their multichannel marketing mix, the bottom line is that this is test messaging to cell phones – NOT e-mail. The train appears to have jumped the tracks again.
Lifecycle Marketing – After a few disappointing tactic suggestions, Silverpop manages to recover with tactic number six. Instead of blasting out “generic” e-mails to everyone on a distribution list, marketers are encouraged to “strongly engage customers and generate improved return on investment…[by utilizing] personalized messaging that targets specific segments within your customer base.” Silverpop then offers sage advice for marketers who might be concerned about the complexity of segmenting their consumers, suggesting that they try splitting their customers into three groups – new customers, engaged customers, and lapsed customers.
Metrics That Measure Engagement – The seventh and final tactic urges marketers to grow their ability to collect, analyze, and then improve their e-mail campaigns via more sophisticated metrics. Silverpop suggests doing more than merely measuring opens and click-through rates, yet urges caution. “To avoid drowning in a statistical deluge, don’t try to evaluate every possible data point. Select a measurement you believe would have an impact on your program and focus on that.”
One important metric Silverpop mentions among several is conversion rate. “If you find your conversion rates are lagging, make the call to action clearer and more prominent; design attractive, focused landing pages that match your brand and e-mail campaign; and make the process easy by pre-populating forms with the person’s information when possible.”
According to Silverpop, consumers are exposed to around 5,000 advertisements per day. Marketers are indeed challenged to cut through the noise, let alone engage a consumer and compel them to take action or form a positive impression of a brand. Cutting through the hyperbole of the article, marketers can take away three or four promising tactics that could positively impact their e-mail campaigns. However, these tactics likely require some additional investment in infrastructure and resources to integrate and probably aren’t easy adjustments that can be made on the fly.
Would you agree or disagree with that assessment? Marketers, are you currently utilizing any of these tactics? Would you consider utilizing them in future campaigns?
Kind regards,
Chris Daniel
To download a copy of the Silverpop white paper entitled “7 New E-mail Marketing Tactics You Have to Use in 2010, visit the following link: http://www.silverpop.com/landing-engage/Magilla/Tactics.html
I am making my list and checking it twice. With about a month’s worth of shopping days left before Christmas, many of us will be making our naughty and nice lists in preparations for the sometimes fun, usually hectic process of holiday shopping. Of course, some of us will be cruising the Walgreen’s or insert-the-name-of-your-nearest-quickie-mart-here on the Eve – but that is another story.
