Every Business Carolyn Nye Marketing Manager S&S Worldwide, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Must-Have Triggered Campaigns for Every Business

Carolyn Nye Marketing Manager S&S Worldwide, Inc. Thursday, January 21, 2010

Triggered Campaigns

What is a triggered campaign?

• An event-driven triggered email is automatically launched based on a

specific business rule criteria. These may be a behavior the customer has taken or as a result of time/date sensitive information.

Why triggered campaigns?

• Triggered campaigns typically have much higher open and response rates

then normal promotional emails.

• Customers are more engaged since the trigger is based off a recently-taken

action.

• Information is highly relevant to what the customer is doing or thinking

about.

• “Set it and forget it” - Triggered campaigns require much less day-to-day

management then traditional thrust campaigns.

Triggered Campaigns

Challenges and Struggles

• Understanding your own customers behavior
• The technical implementation of triggered campaigns
• Evaluating if the effort is worth the results
• Measuring a shift in behavior vs. true incremental

sales on triggered campaigns

Recipe for Success

• Use timely and relevant information
• Engage your customers interests
• Create a sense of urgency. Use great offers when

applicable

Tips to Remember

• A triggered campaign will only be as successful as

your ability to capture the customers email address and present valid, up to date information. There will always be a high percentage of customers who you cannot communicate via triggered strategies.

• Always follow CAN SPAM guidelines when thinking

through any triggered program.

Order Confirmation Series

• Most companies will already have this triggered campaign in
• place. But think about it as not just a customer service and

communication tool, but also a relationship builder and prompt for future orders. Why?

– Order confirmations have very high open rates. In addition, many people tend to keep order confirmations in their inbox for their records and will use that confirmation as a tool to return back to your site. – This is an excellent opportunity to showcase more of what you can offer the customer and reward them for placing additional orders.

Even in a down e economy my, our order confi firmatio rmation emails have brought ht in 35% more demand dollars rs in 2009 over 2008

S&S Shipment Confirmation

Objectives:

• Clear customer service

communication relating to the

• rder
• Mimic the S&S website so

customers could refer back to their confirmations as a navigation tool

• Incentives to place a second
• rder
• Incentives to refer a friend

Results:

• All order related

communications have increased demand dollars by over 30% in 2009 over 2008

Welcome Campaign

• Your customers (or future customers) are at their highest point of
• engagement. They requested information from you, so welcome them!
• Welcome emails have a very high open rate so take advantage of telling

them about things that may not be evident on the website. Engage them and give them reasons to return to your site. Things to include: – What they can expect from your company – newsletters, offers, frequency, etc. – The benefits to being an email subscriber – Highlight what differentiates you from the competition – Your services, products, etc.

2009 open rates s for our we welcome email are at 88%

Welcome Email

Objectives:

• Obvious welcome
• Easy explanation of how to get

started

• Clearly feature the benefits to

customers

• Link to sample newsletters
• Add email address to address

book Did not want to:

• Be too promotional: No offer in

welcome email Trigger: Instantly once someone signs up for emails or newsletter on our site

Abandon Cart Program

• Oct 1, 2009: In a study of 500 online retail shopping websites, just

11 % of Internet merchants sent email responses to shoppers who abandoned carts.* Why you need it: – Your customers are at the closest point of purchase and leave. You should try everything in your power to get them to come back and purchase. – Understand your customer’s buying behavior: Why would they leave? Price comparison shopping, frustrating cart experience,

• utside interruptions, etc. Get them back to convert the sale.
• Effective abandon cart emails: Highly personalized with shopping

cart contents, product name in subject line, call to action, multiple emails in a series, reason for customer to complete the order!

*The abandoned cart study was conducted by, Listrak.

Abandon don Cart programs ams have helped us realize ze 25% conversi ersion n on abandoners.

• ners. Cart programs

ams account nt for almost st 1/3 of TOTAL yearly email sales

S&S Abandon Cart Example

Objectives

• Position as a convenient service

to the customer

• Personalize with name and cart

contents

• Call to action (“return to cart”

button)

• Gives customer reason to return

and complete their order by giving an offer

• Further emails in the series create

a sense of urgency to urge customer to return to purchase Trigger: When a customer abandons his/her shopping cart

Other Abandon Programs (Forms, Search, Browse)

• Depending on your business model and customer

behavior on your site you can apply the same logic from a successful Abandon Cart program to

• ther ‘abandon’ programs.
• Examples include:

– Abandoned a form or registration process. – Abandoned a session when searching or browsing on your website (without adding items to a cart).

S&S Abandon Search/Browse

Objectives:

• Try to address the possible

reasons why a customer may abandon after search or browse event.

• Address any customer service

issue or if the customer may need help finding a certain product

• Encourages customers to return

to site to browse discounted products

• Encourages customers to return

to purchase Email Trigger: Once a customer searches or browses our site at least 3 product views but does not add anything to their cart.

S&S Abandon Search/Browse

Results:

• 30% open rates and a 6%

clickthrough rate.

• Customers have increased the

use of our Instant Chat service to help identify their product needs.

• These emails have generated

a considerable amount of incremental revenue and conversions. Coming in 2010: Personalization based on product type and group customer was browsing.

• Adding recommendations.

Bridging Offline and Online

• Strengthen all your customer communication

touches by using a cross-media campaign wherever possible using triggered email.

• Examples:

– Catalog request triggered email instantly

• nce catalog request is made and a follow-

up around the time the catalog is to be received. – Customer service call follow-up. – Sales call/inquiry follow-up. – Thank you for shopping in our store email follow-up, if data is available. – Trade show notifications.

Catalog Request Email

Objectives:

• Acknowledge the customer

has requested a catalog.

• Provide the customer with
• ther options to shop (online

catalog, browsing site).

• Incentive to place order
• nline immediately.
• Encourage customer to sign

up for newsletter. Trigger: When a customer requests a catalog on our website

Catalog Request Follow-Up

Objectives:

• Serves as a reminder for

customers to browse their catalog.

• Serves as a customer service tool

if the customer did not receive their catalog in a timely fashion. Results:

• Customers are very pleased with

the service and has greatly helped bridge multichannel marketing efforts.

• Anecdotal replies from

customers: “Just got my catalog, thanks! Will browse shortly and place my order.” Trigger: 10 Days after the customer has requested a catalog in the mail.

Product Review Requests and Notifications

• If your site has review functionality: Use

your customers as advocates of your brands. Ask them to review products or services after purchase.

• Notify your customers when their review has been posted (if

not done so automatically) to keep them engaged and active in your site and your products.

S&S Product Reviews Email

Objectives:

• Increase our database
• f products with customer

reviews.

• Keep customers engaged

and coming back to the website. Results:

• Obtained more than

4,500 reviews in first year. Trigger: A set number of days after they have received their shipment notification.

S&S Product Reviews Posted Email Example

Objectives:

• Engage customers to return to

view the review they have just written.

• Personalized with the products

they have reviewed.

• Incentive to return to our site to

complete an additional order. Trigger: Once a product review has been accepted and posted on our site.

Anniversary or Reminder of Last Order

• This technique is especially effective for businesses

where customers return to purchase at specific times

• f year.
• Trigger an email based on their last purchase date to

remind them of the items they had purchased at this time last year.

• Will spark customer to potentially return to place the same or similar order.

Reactivation Campaign

Triggers: On set intervals on the anniversary of a customers last order.

Objectives:

• Time communications to be most relevant to our

customers at certain time increments. Campaign has 10 different versions sent at precise intervals.

• Incentive to come back to complete order.
• Area of personalized product choices based on the

purchase history.

• 11-Month drop-off campaign features the

customer’s complete order from last year. Results:

• Many customers see the past order email as a great

service and simply reorder the same replenishment supplies.

• Successfully reactivated and converted previously

inactive customers.

• Campaign itself has very high ROI in the mix of all

triggered and thrust campaigns.

Birthday, Anniversary and Event Reminders

• Can be very effective if the strategy

fits your business model. Send reminders and offers surrounding the event. – Countdown to events for which a customer may have registered. – Birthday or anniversary reminders; offers to purchase products or service as a gift.

• Encourage the customer to return

to your business vs. your competition.

Surveys and Follow-Up

• Customers love to give their opinion.

Having a customer service follow-up survey serves two needs: Vital marketing research information and another avenue to reach out and communicate with your customer.

• Always add a thank you incentive. Create a

sense of urgency to have your customers return to your site.

S&S Loyalty Survey Example

Triggers: 21 Days after a customer receives a shipment notification.

Objectives:

• Obtain actionable feedback from

customers on the overall ordering experience.

• Address any open customer

service issues.

• Use as a continuous

improvement metric. Results:

• Acquired tens of thousands of

surveys.

• Customer satisfaction rating has

improved more than five percentage points to 93%.

Summary

• Triggered email campaigns can and should be a

large element of every email program.

• Triggered campaigns can be used to meet many
• bjectives; not just increasing sales.
• Develop a program that makes sense for your

business model.

• Evaluate your data. A triggered campaign is only as effective as the accuracy
• f the data you have and your ability to capture a visitors email address.
• Follow CAN SPAM act compliance closely.

Thank You!

Big thanks to:

• S&S Marketing Team

– Rob Holzer, E Marketing Manger – Paul Conderino, Web Marketing Manager – Hy Schwartz, Co-President

Carolyn Nye, Marketing Manager Call or email me at: 1-860-537-3451 cnye@ssww.com