Product Recommendation Email Marketing Archives - Personalics

The Evolution of Micro-Marketing

Ohad Shperling — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 12:52:58 +0000

Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” This applies to most marketing strategies, whereas much planning is put into keeping messages clear and concise, tailored to the needs and wants of target audiences. But who is your target audience? Who is your brand speaking to? With Micro-Marketing ever more present, how do you analyze and communicate to all of these subgroups?

Traditionally, the market was divided into four categories of geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioural segmentation. Big groups, sharing mutual traits such as gender, age, income level etc. As time went by, and data became more available, a more detailed segmentation approach was developed, especially with B2B companies and customer intimate firms. One of the most popular tools, Google Analytics, gave marketers the ability to granularly their customers. This deep dive into customer’s subgroups allowed marketers to better understand nuances of needs&wants, meet and communicate them across different channels. Take the following messaging matrix as an example

Message	Customer Segment	Channel
Doritos Blaze are Very Cheap	Students	Facebook ads
Doritos Blaze are Rich in Proteins	Male Athletes, aged 22-26	Instagram Fitness Groups
Doritos Blaze Keeps you Up	Truck Drivers	Road Signs

First, during the segmentation process, marketers evaluate the brand’s biggest customer segments. Second, they target their most relevant audience, based on competition, size and expected growth. Third, they position their products, to appeal to their selected segments, and come up with different messages to communicate their offerings. Finally, they communicate them in the most relevant fashion.

Marketing Process

However, this segmentation level simply doesn’t suffice anymore, to keep up with the market’s expectations. Customers are presuming brands should already be able to speak to them “personally”. This is expected even from companies considered “operationally excellent firms”, who put their efforts on low costs, such as Walmart. And why not? after all, every single action the consumers take is monitored. Every click, every purchase, every post, location and like. A small price we’re apparently willing to pay, just as long (amongst other benefits) that the world around us “knows who we are”. They are right of course, to an extent at least. This expectation is asserted as several marketing automation tools such as browsing triggers (those little ads popping up everywhere showing you something you clicked on), reinforce the consumers perspective of “being followed”. Nevermind those are actually very simple marketing tools, the bottom line is – giving away so much information is met with a feeling of a called for relevance. And in the cruel world of e-commerce, there’s no more tolerance for a sub-par experience. After all, unlike a physical store, everything is just a click away.

This micro-marketing evolution is definitely within reach. The two main difficulties, of course, are making sense in all that data and executing upon it. Just because a certain company has access to its consumers’ clickstream, demographics, location etc, doesn’t mean it’s easy for it to develop insights, to give meaning to all these numbers. In addition, the sheer number and types of segments potentially generated would be overwhelming. Just Imagine a marketing agency having to segment, target, position and communicate thousands and thousands of different messages per brand. A few years back, such a task would sound completely impossible. Nowadays, using the help of data science, this is now possible. Because data science is an interdisciplinary field of scientific methods, such as statistics and computer science, it’s far quicker at extracting knowledge from huge amounts of data. The AI, based on statistical algorithms, automatically finds correlations between different elements of the network. For example, a user who looked at a product a few times is more likely to purchase it, given a coupon meeting a price point is sent. The Machine would also constantly A|B test and improve itself, based on selected KPIs.

They say knowledge is power… However, knowing it all doesn’t quite cut it. Because such knowledge needs to be converted into actions, actionable messages sent in real time to your customers. A great example of personalized execution using the most advanced form of micro-segmentation, “1:1” – is the email channel. Traditionally, email marketers would segment their channel based on the above mentioned, or based on “just subscribed”, “didn’t open their mail in the last 6 months” or “recently purchased”. Though still effective for large-scale campaigns, this technique is hardly suitable for ongoing daily newsletter updates. Big e-commerce companies, such as Groupon, are already executing personalized email campaigns, whereas all the user data is applied in order to generate a personalized experience. Such campaigns focus on showing the user, in addition to products left in the cart or looked at, new products from relevant categories. If the user likes consumer electronics – show him\her the latest gadget etc. These campaigns also try and predict upcoming trends, such as holiday purchase patterns.

This personalisation, this micro-marketing evolution, has a tremendous competitive value. Both in (1) customer lifetime value and in (2) market share growth. For existing customers, the better a brand is capable of microsegment, communicate and meet the needs of their individual customer, the more he or she is likely to develop a sustainable relationship with the brand. The process of micro-segmentation also enables the brand to target more groups, previously ignored, and largely increase the company’s reach.

Written by Itai Eshkar, Head of Personalised Marketing @ Personalics

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5 Best-Practices for Boosting your eCommerce Email Open Rates

Ohad Shperling — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 14:50:24 +0000

Hitting that “inbox zero” is a personal goal we can all relate to. But as an eCommerce marketer, it’s a real pain! You send 100,000 emails, and on average, only 16.7% of them get opened.

Forget email open rates; getting your audience to read your content, let alone to click through, and make a purchase, has proven to be more challenging than ever before. Email marketing is a complex process that requires a lot of A/B testing. It’s an art you have to master and perfect over time.

But before you jump three steps too far, let’s focus on getting your readers to open their email in the first place. So without further ado, here are 5 best-practices for writing your eCommerce email headlines and ultimately boosting your open-rates.

Be Relevant.

No matter how affordable or compelling your products are, you’ll never be able to convince someone to purchase an item they don’t want or need. What you CAN do, is tap into their existing buying motivations.

Most users report “scanning” a subject line and “opening” an email only when there’s something “good” in the title. A great tool for keeping your eCommerce email subject lines relevant is Google Trends. Google Trends allows you to compare and visualize the seasonality of products as well as their general popularity according to search trends. It also lets you compare products to each other. For example, you can explore which is a more popular fruit in the UK (and in which season): Apples or Strawberries?

In this manner, you can decide which product name to put in your subject line and when.

However, note that with a static subject line you can never achieve 100% relevancy to all your customers, because you can’t achieve full customer segmentation. The closest you can get to 100% is by creating tailor-made dynamic subject lines, specific to each one of your micro customer segments. These are subject lines that differ from customer to customer, from micro segment to micro segment, within the same campaign. Discover how Personalics can improve the relevancy of your subject lines to boost email open rates by up to 30%.

Add Value.

There’s no real science behind re-marketing – consumers are tired of seeing the same old deals targeting them in every email. In fact, showing the same product more than 3 times instills a sense of antagonism among your audience, which ultimately increases their chances of unsubscribing.

To prevent this from happening, you need a more systematic approach for choosing the right deals to appear in subject lines. The key is to include deals that add value to your customer rather than disappoint them. One approach is showing deals that have a proven history of high conversions. Another approach is sparking curiosity by offering inspiring ideas. Subject lines like “a few home design ideas” tend to be effective and are considered a good practice for improving email open rates. Just remember to follow up with relevant email content \ deals as not to disappoint your customers…!

Keep it Short.

There’s a reason why phone displays limit to the amount of characters your audiences sees – nobody has time to listen to self-promotional messages . Limit your subject lines to about 40-50 characters so that your message is sharp and concise (This is true across all marketing strategies).

Be Human.

Humanising your emails makes the audience feel that there’s a real person at the other end of the line and not a faceless company. One of the most effective ways to humanise your emails is by occasionally using first-person, emotive, and humorous language. Some examples include: “Don’t touch! These deals are too hot” and “Just for You”. This practice may not apply to your everyday “standard” newsletter, but it’s a great way to break your work routine and improve your email open rates.

At Personalics, our machine learning tools are here to augment your human capabilities, giving your emails a competitive edge when communicating with customers.

A Few Don’ts:

When it comes to the subtle nuances of email subject lines, there’s a thin line between “attention grabbing” and “spamming”. So as a general rule: avoid overusing exclamation marks, question marks, emojis, currency symbols, and excessively long text. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to use an emoji or a question mark once in awhile, but overtime this may affect your deliverability and reputation.

This post was written by Itai Eshkar, Marketing Campaign Manager at Personalics

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Three Tips for Cross-Selling and Upselling to Help Your Business Efficiently Maximize Revenue

Ohad Shperling — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 12:53:27 +0000

You may not realize that every consumer engages with cross-selling and upselling on a regular basis. Say you are buying a new TV. The retailer would cross-sell the TV with an add-on, such as a cable box or surround sound audio system. Sometimes it’s necessary to purchase the complimentary items in order to utilize the TV set, other times the add-ons just heighten the TV experience. A retailer may upsell the TV with a package that includes premium HD channels—at an additional rate—beyond the standard channel offering.

Both marketing strategies match customers with recommended products that enhance their experience in multiple ways. From the consumer side, they gain access to additional features and deals that they may not have been aware of. From the brand’s perspective, they increase sales opportunities through educating about business offerings.

Although the two terms—cross-selling and upselling—are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences that are essential to recognize so your business can implement them effectively. Let’s start by breaking down each strategy.

What is Cross-Selling?

Cross-selling is a technique that suggests supplementary products to compliment a customer’s initial purchase. A classic example of cross-selling is the phrase “want some fries with that shake?” The sales representative intends to heighten the consumer’s experience—fulfill their needs—by offering an add-on product that compliments the initial product. Rather than guessing the products that may be of interest to consumers, Personalics digs deeper. Using behavioral data, we detect specific products that are complementary and are likely to end up being purchased together.

What is Upselling?

Alternatively, upselling is less concerned with offering an additional product, and more concerned with generating larger commissions. Instead, you are marketing a premium version of the original product the consumer wants to purchase. For example, many apps will offer free downloads and use of standard features; however, if they want access to higher-end features, they must pay a premium. The strategy here is to give users a taste of the experience, and once they invest attention in the product and understand its perks, they will be more incentivized to upgrade. Personalics uses upselling techniques by curating the recommended higher-priced products to suit consumers’ authentic/actual preferences.

Here’s a trick with upselling

Psychology shows that no matter what your actual opinion is, people tend to pick the middle option when given a scale. We fear standing out by choosing an option on the lowest or highest end, so we conform to the middle because it’s safe. How can we incorporate this into upselling strategies? We simply make the middle option what we most want people to buy. This way, customers feel like they are choosing the most reasonable offer. Practically, the offer must be realistic for the consumer while still inviting increased sale opportunity for the brand.

Knowing the Audience is Everything

In order to effectively market to an audience, you must understand what the customer values and responds to. Customers are more likely to make purchases if the items suggested to them are relevant to them, which will ensure more loyalty and trust in the brand. Personalics algorithms tap into this behavioral data to create an efficient and productive buying experience.

Amazon successfully implements a personalized model of cross-selling in their sections such as “customers who bought this item also bought…” or items “frequently bought together.” Within a large eCommerce retail site, customers feel like they are engaging in a 1:1 experience that is personalized for them. This enables their trust in the brand by satisfying particular needs and willingness to buy premium items that are recommended to them. Increased AOV (average order value) begins a domino effect of more revenue.

Understanding Two-Way Benefits

Cross-selling and upselling are essential because they create immediate benefits for both the business and customer.

Business:

Educates customer about products or services they may not have known are offered
Appeals to new and existing customers
Balances low and high margin products or services
Increases AOV, and thus revenue

Customer:

Expands choice of products and service
Convenience: seeing their options upfront without digging for them
Extra deals through packages or promotions
Encourages better customer service through relationship marketing

Implement Strategy

Include at check out, in receipt, and follow-up

Some great opportunities to include cross-selling and upselling techniques are at check out, in receipt, and through email review. Before you check out on an eCommerce retail site, you may be notified about a deal in purchasing two supplementary items or a discount for buying the premium product. Suggesting more options before completing a purchase always requires A/B testing. Sometimes creating more options during checkout sways the user away from completing the purchase. Or maybe in a personalized email receipt for a new laptop, the brand may recommend extra laptop features, such as a keyboard and a mouse, or upgraded insurance services. Another opportunity exists in a follow up email—usually a few days after purchase—where the brand inquires about the customer’s experience and prompts them to complete a review. The email review may: feature an image of the purchased product, ask the customers how they like the product and if they have feedback, as well as offer additional products of interest.

Be realistic when upselling/cross-selling

Respect your customer’s budget and consider the price of original item. According to research by Forbes, a business shouldn’t upsell or cross-sell items more than 25% of original order. You aren’t manipulating the audience, but rather an advocate for them.

Don’t bombard customers

Keep recommendations filtered and limited. Prefer quality and timeliness over quantity. More options won’t increase sale opportunity. You want to appeal to the audience, not pester them and turn them away.

Follow these tips and your business will be one step ahead of competitors because of increased revenue from proven cross-selling and upselling tactics.

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Getting Conversions From Wishlisted Items Through Personalized Email Marketing Software

Ohad Shperling — Mon, 23 May 2016 09:00:54 +0000

Building a great online storefront and strong web presence is an obvious step for any business looking to thrive in today’s marketplace. But what are you doing to enhance your success even further? One thing that could be improved for many is the wishlist and how you leverage it to increase conversions.

A wishlist is a great tool that plenty of shoppers use to their benefit, but that businesses can use as well. Think about it – you have a tool that allows you a peek into the most desired items your sale, what different shoppers are interested in, and what overall taste they have. That’s a lot of information that you can use to benefit your business and improve your conversions in significant ways.

Ways To Use Your Email

A surprising number of online businesses will provide their customers with a wishlist, but then never take advantage of that wishlist for themselves. Here’s a rundown of some of the key ways you can put a customer’s wishlist to work for you through nothing more than personalized email marketing software.

Review wishlist data and then use personalized email marketing software to remind customers of an item they added to their list – they could have forgotten it. Or they could have added an item so they could purchase it later. These little reminders can tell them that a product has dropped in price and help them decide that the time is right to make their purchase.
Suggest items that are similar to others in the wishlist when new products are released. Customers don’t always have the time to keep up with every release that your company makes or with the new products that are constantly coming out. If you use a wishlist to see that they’re interested in a particular subject, you can suggest new items to them so they’re always informed.
Offer bundle deals that pair similar items with the ones in a wishlist to drive up overall conversions. If shoppers have a shirt in their cart, offer a discount on the shirt and a matching jacket combo. Or offer discounts on multiple like items – buy two shirts from that product line, get one half off, for example.
Use information from wishlists to determine whether or not there are common items that are the most popular among your shoppers. Then you can tailor special offers or sales based on ‘most popular’ items and send out an email to past customers.

Tips For Better Results

Those are a few ideas on how to use personalized email marketing software to drive up conversions from a wishlist, but what about actually making sure those conversions happen? After all, just sending an email telling someone an item has been reduced in price often isn’t enough. You’ll also need to strategize in order to ensure that they open your email and actually click through to buy the item off their wishlist. With that in mind, here are some tips for getting maximum results from your emails related to those wishlists.

Subject lines matter. Don’t tease or hide things – put the information you’re trying to provide right in the subject line. “3 Of Your Wishlist Items Are On Sale Now!” is a perfect example. It lets them know why you’re emailing immediately and encourages them to open the rest of the message.
Give them the info right in the email body. Tell them what’s changed, remind them of the item, tell them the price, and even give them special offers or shipping info. If it’s a price drop or sale, let them know. New item? Tell them so and explain briefly what’s great about it. You don’t want them to feel like you’re trying to lure them into clicking through to the site. Give them the info in the email instead. This ensures that when they click through, they’re ready to commit.
Stay personal, too. Use names in headers and thank them for their loyalty. Customers like feeling like a company values them and their business, and it’s not that hard to craft some personal messages to help them feel like you do. Use their names, send them birthday greetings, and even mention their last purchase and thank them again for it. It can have a tremendous influence on the overall success of your marketing campaign.
Create a sense of urgency about the item. Telling them that an item is reaching a low stock level and that you don’t want them to miss out is a perfect example of how to do this. Another is to offer a 24 hour only sale or coupon code. Knowing that they only have one day to take advantage of a low price can often inspire customers to make the purchase they’ve been waiting on.
Don’t send out too many emails, however. There’s no need to review wishlist information and start sending out an email for every item that is in there. Instead, be selective. This way your emails don’t come across as being a spammy part of your marketing strategy – shoppers feel like they’re actually important. This is a strange piece of consumer psychology, but worth remembering.

You can use a lot of different tools to drive up your monthly sales, and email marketing remains one of the most viable choices out there. The key is to take all of the info you have and put it to work for you. You already know what customers want thanks to their wishlists. It’s how you use that information that determines your overall success.

Of course, it all starts with that initial process of identifying the data you need to review. Our personalized email marketing software can help you take a closer look at the info related to wishlists and then put it to work for you. Contact us today to learn more about how we could boost your bottom line in significant ways.

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5 Tips To Help Improve Customer Lifetime Value With Email Remarketing

Ohad Shperling — Mon, 16 May 2016 09:00:45 +0000

For many businesses and marketing professionals, the primary focus of their efforts is to generate leads and then turn those potential customers into conversions. But what happens after a customer or client has made a purchase? It’s just as important to turn that conversion into a lifetime customer, right?

But a surprising number of online marketers and business leaders don’t focus so much on this aspect of reaching customers, despite the fact that it is repeat business and customer loyalty that usually lead to a business’ success, not those flash in the pan sales that only have a short-term impact.

The Importance of Better Lifetime Value

Finding that lead and creating conversions is certainly important, but that’s just a single sale. When you improve lifetime customer value you end up reaping a wide number of benefits. Think about it – would you rather make a single $100 sale and never see the customer again, or create a relationship with a customer who will likely spend $20 or $40 a month for the next few years? Those sales can add up, and it’s a key reason that improving the lifetime value of your customers is so important. Consider some of the advantages that come from improving customer lifetime value.

Repeated sales to the customer over time.
Word of mouth thanks to referrals from the customers
More information on customer habits and spending that you can use for targeted marketing
The ability to interact and engage with customers in order to draw a greater understanding of their interests and desires.

The basic thing is this – when you build a relationship with your customers that improves lifetime value, you’ll be building your brand and generating loyalty to it. This in turn can mean that you’ll get improved profits and sales and become more visible in the overall online market.

Improving Your Customer Lifetime Value

Boosting customer lifetime value involves two things – giving the customer a reason to stay loyal to your company, and helping them find the various products and services that will be of the most interest to them.
There are a lot of different things that you can do to succeed here, and using ecommerce email remarketing software is one of the secrets you’ll want to remember. With that in mind, we’ve taken a moment to put together a list of 5 tips that can help you improve the overall lifespan of your relationships with customers and improve the chances of generating repeat revenue from them.

Get Personal – This is one that is often overlooked, but something as simple as using a personal greeting can not only help you avoid spam filters, but can help recipients feel more important to your company. As a result, it can help them open up more of the emails they receive. Include their name in the subject line and in the header to help improve this feeling of familiarity, but go further and consider birthday greetings and specific product recommendations.
Targeting Matters – Don’t just send out the same emails to everyone in your mailing lists. Instead, use targeted emails with your ecommerce email remarketing software. Gather data to find out what each customer is into and craft three or four different emails based on the different interests of your users. If your software supports it, send out directly targeted emails that are specific to each person on the mailing list based on their shopping habits, past purchases, and wishlist items.
Don’t Ignore Anyone – Even if someone doesn’t make a purchase, it’s still worth pursuing remarketing efforts. Things like special deals or coupon codes if they give you another chance could push them over the edge from a visitor to a customer. One mistake that marketers make is treating only those who’ve spent money as someone who should be remarketed to. Instead, anyone who has interacted with a company or website should be the focus of your efforts. It will net you better results.
Offer Them More – When you really want to get improved business results, offer customers more for repeat business. Loyalty and rewards programs that make them feel special can have a big impact. Something like a “loyal customer coupon’ or a ‘refer a friend for 10 bucks off’ offer can help customers return to you. The more you offer to a customer, the more valuable they’ll feel. This doesn’t have to be something huge, but regular emails showing them why you’re worth their money can go a long way towards cementing their loyalty.
Show Them Their Value – You’re already aware of how important your customers are. But do they feel the same way? Whether you send out a birthday greeting, a holiday coupon, a special product recommendation, or just a thank you for their order, if you take the time to really show customers what they mean to you it can pay off in a big way. Think up unique ways to constantly improve the overall feeling of value that customers have, and send out messages that drive that point home.

All in all, you should be seeing a pattern here. The goal of remarketing shouldn’t be just to try to hard sale another product or service. Instead, it should be used to forge a bond with a customer and help them learn the various reasons that your company deserves their attention. Instead of the plain old cookie cutter spam messages, getting personal and using hard data combined with good email remarketing software could help drive up your profits in a significant way.

If you’ll keep these simple tips in mind you should be able to boost customer lifetime value through the use of ecommerce email remarketing software. Our program can make it even easier, and includes the various features needed to craft email remarketing campaigns that actually get you results for your business. If you’re ready to start getting better results from your online marketing, don’t hesitate to contact us today.

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Unlocking The Power Of Personalized Product Suggestion Email Marketing

Ohad Shperling — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:00:57 +0000

Online marketing is more than just the future – it’s also the present. In fact, more people are shopping online than ever before, and the numbers keep increasing. But for many online marketers, certain aspects of a marketing plan still aren’t being utilized to their fullest. One area that we’ve found needs a closer look for many is that of personalized product suggestion email marketing.

Personalized product suggestion email marketing is just what it sounds like. You take data gathered from a variety of sources related to customers and then use that information to provide them with targeted suggestions on products that they may find interesting or desirable. Information can come from numerous sources including:

Surveys and questionnaires
Customer activity on your site
Items that a customer purchases
Items a customer adds to a wishlist
And more

In some cases, these email marketing efforts are targeted towards different groups – data is used to create several different target markets and then emails are sent based on the group a customer is in. In other cases, emails may be sent directly to an individual with suggestions that are entirely unique to them. Either way, it’s vital that you pay attention to this type of marketing to get the best results for your business.

The Importance Of Product Suggestion Email Marketing

This is just what it sounds like – using email clients in conjunction with other online tools in order to offer direct product suggestions to users that can drive up business. Consider some of the stats that support the importance of this:

31% of revenues in ecommerce were generated by personalized product recommendations over one quarter at the end of 2014.
Conversion rates for those who click on product recommendations is more than 5 times higher than conversions of non-clicking consumers.

Despite this, most major retailers still aren’t using product suggestion email marketing to offer suggestions to customers based on their browsing history. There are plenty of reasons for this. Most of the time it’s because marketers or business leaders simply feel like the process takes too much of a commitment to time or that it is too complicated. But today, software solutions have made it much easier to offer direct suggestions for products through the use of email. And if you fail to do so, you’re missing out on a huge percentage of potential sales and conversions.

Getting Better Results From Your Efforts

The single best way to go about improving your product suggestions is simply to get a clearer picture of what customers are shopping for. Online tools and analytical metric measurement systems can keep track of what a customer shops for, then provide you with a look at what they ultimately bought as well as what they browed for before the process. But it goes deeper than this. Once you have the data you need, you’ll want to take steps to create email marketing suggestions that actually help people get interested in what you’re offering and give you repeat business. Here are some ideas to help you get more results.

Send out emails letting customers know when an item in their wish list has gone on sale or permanently reduced in price. Often, customers either forget about an item they were interested in or are placing it into the wishlist so they can buy it later when they have the money – or when it drops in price. If they don’t regularly check their wishlist they’ll never know and may forget it. These emails could be all it takes to net another sale.
Emails that create urgency are great as well – using them to alert a shopper that an item they were interested in is low in stock can help them purchase it. They may be on the fence about a purchase or may just be trying to decide when to buy it. An email telling them they’re running out of time could help convince them to buy. Similarly, letting them know that they only have a few days before the sale price ends could inspire them to buy.
Send out email alerts that let customers know when a new product similar to others has been released. New products can often be even more desirable than the one a customer was originally interested in. And if a customer owns a specific product and new accessories have been released, informing them about the new items could help generate additional sales. As such, it makes sense to let them know when something new is available that is related in some way to items they already have or have looked into buying in the past.
A regular newsletter that talks to customers briefly and introduces them to different new products or last-chance items can help generate conversions. These emails should be short but informative, and let customers know all about the various specials, sales, and products that are available. Don’t send them out daily – weekly or even bi-weekly is all it takes to keep customers informed and interested in everything your company has to offer.

You can use one or more of the ideas above to start formulating a better strategy for marketing through email. Start by gathering data on customer interests and then craft emails that will tell them what they’re missing. You could improve your sales in a big way through just a little bit of effort.

The key with these emails is to remain friendly and personal while still conveying a sense that something needs to be purchased. You want to inform customers of various buying options while not seeming like you’re pressuring them or constantly sending out spam emails. The ideas above should help you figure out good strategies for better overall success with your email marketing campaigns including product suggestions. Our software solutions can help you master this part of online marketing. Contact us today to learn more about how our software works and about what we may be able to do for you.

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Using Better Subject Lines For Ecommerce Email Marketing Software

Ohad Shperling — Mon, 02 May 2016 09:00:40 +0000

There’s no question that email has remained one of the most viable and effective types of marketing tools that businesses can utilize online. It’s remained viable throughout decades, even as social media marketing gets more and more attention. But we’ve noticed that many who are using ecommerce email marketing software often don’t understand just how important each aspect of an email really is.

In particular, the subject line is one of the most absolutely vital aspects of any email you send. This is the first thing that any recipient will see, and often it even impacts whether or not the email client they’re using sorts the email into the spam folder where they’ll never see it again. When you consider the sheer volume of emails that are sent each day, it becomes clear that making compelling emails and email subject headings that get noticed is absolutely vital. Consider some of the following numbers pulled from a recent study:

More than 205 billion emails are sent and received every day.
On average, 93 emails are sent and received per person each day.
52% of people report feeling overwhelmed by all the emails they get.

Better Results Through Better Subject Lines

What those numbers translate to is this: It’s simple for your emails to vanish into the slush pile as recipients receive more and more marketing related emails. In fact, some email clients like Gmail now have their own tab dedicated to promotional email. But with good ecommerce email marketing software and an understanding of subject lines, you can often generate some significant results and ensure that your emails are actually being opened and read. Here are some of the key tips to remember.

Stay personal. Using a name in an email often lets the recipient know that they’ve at least had some kind of interaction with your company and that it isn’t just an unsolicited message. When customers see their name in a subject line, they immediately think of your company and what kind of interaction they have had in the past. Without a name, it’s easy to assume they’re getting a spam message – even if they’ve shopped with you before.
Don’t bury the lead. Let them know immediately what the message is about – right there in the subject line. Too many email subject lines include things like “Look Inside For A Special Offer” or something similar. Consumers don’t have the time to click past a teasing headline, and they have a harder time trusting them as well – it immediately comes across like a spam message when you use those terms. Include the info you want to get across in the subject line. For example, something like “Deborah, You Can Get 15% Off Anything In Your Wishlist With This Coupon Code” will let them know what you’re offering immediately and ensure better conversions.
Don’t use scammy, spammy verbiage. Not only can this often lead to an automatic spam sorting by email clients, but users are less likely to open up a message. This also means avoiding using images, colors, and other similar things in a subject line. Most scam emails include flashing emoticons, different colors, and even things like periods between each word. Dive into your own spam folder for a few minutes and take a look at some of the subject lines there. You’ll likely see the same terminology and tricks used over and over again. The key is to stand out from these and actually let them know that you’re a legitimate business offering them a great deal on products they care about having.
Proofread. One thing that makes users quickly distrust an email is grammatical and spelling errors. Not only do mistakes make your emails seem like they’re from a spammer or scammer, but it can also reduce the overall level of professionalism that you exhibit. This means that you aren’t going to be taken as seriously as you should be. Simply put, be sure your subject lines are flawless. It’s worth taking the time to do.
Create a sense of urgency immediately. When you include some terms mentioning a limited time offer or a coupon code that will expire in 24 hours, it can often help them open up the email just to see the specifics of your offer. That sense of urgency can have a big influence on your success at getting emails opened and read instead of discarded.
Use personalized product recommendations. Mention something in their wishlist or an item they looked at on your store. Instead of sending out a blanket email offering everyone a summer dress, doesn’t it make more sense to send people suggestions based on their unique style? This has two effects – one, it lets them know that you really do care about them as an individual since you’re taking the effort to let them know about something they actually care about. Two, it helps remind them of different items they were interested in that they may now be ready to purchase. This can help them check out the email for more information.

All in all, using the right ecommerce email marketing software can have a tremendous impact on your success at email marketing and remarketing. And getting the perfect subject line crafted is vital as well. There’s more to it than many realize, and taking the time to consider each word that you add to the subject line is important. From spam folder sorting to whether or not the recipient opens the email, it has a big impact on your email marketing efforts.

Our solutions can help you improve email conversions easily and make it easier to get each email you send opened instead of tossed into the trash. If you’re ready to start getting better email marketing results and see your bottom line improve as a result, it’s time to look at your emails more closely. Contact our team to find out more about our software and what it can do for you.

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The Big Secrets To Better Email Marketing Conversions

Ohad Shperling — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:00:55 +0000

As social media has increased its dominance in the online landscape, it’s easy for people to write off email as being a dead marketing tool. But as always, the death of email is far, far away. Over half of the world’s population uses it, and on average it still brings back an average of 4,300% Return on Investment for US businesses according to the Direct Marketing Association. That’s a massive number, and it proves that while you can’t ignore things like your website’s overall design or social media marketing efforts, you also need to focus on email.

But one thing that has become common is for email marketing strategies to fail. There are plenty of reasons for this, and taking the time to design the best possible plan is vital. There are some big secrets you can remember if you’re working on better conversion generation, so let’s take a look at some of the best ones.

Fear Shipping

There’s no other way to put it – shipping charges can instantly kill what would have been a sale. This is especially true when the charges aren’t expected, and those surprise charges are linked to 28% of all shopping cart abandonments. So what does that have to do with your email? For one thing, you can go beyond just product recommendation email marketing and focus on your shipping as well. For instance, including a coupon code for free shipping on an order over a certain amount can be enough to get customers to look at your offerings and to convince them that ordering makes sense. In short, free shipping drives sales.

Keep It Simple

There’s an old saying that uses the acronym “KISS” – Keep It Simple, Stupid. That applies to online shopping in a big way. Customers don’t always want to create an account with your company, and studies have found that 23% of shopping cart abandonment occurs because users have to create a new user account before they can process their orders.

Simply put, they want to buy their stuff and don’t want the hassle. You can include this in your emails, telling them no account is needed. Always offer the chance to create an account, or even give them an incentive – something like a 10% discount with a new account creation. It’s worth it – that account info can help you create better product recommendation email marketing strategies. But you have to be willing to let them shop and buy without forcing them into an account.

Use All Of Your Information

You can tell a lot about a customer through reviewing some basic data. Looking at past purchases, for instance, can help you create a better understanding of what they’re interested in. Purchase amounts can help you see what kind of budget they have. Using all of the information you have available to you will help you craft solid email marketing plans. Personalized recommendations on products, for instance, can keep customers coming back to you and finding new products they’ll love.

Understand The Power Of Free…and Its Drawbacks

Free is a powerful word, and one that can drive conversions upwards. But that’s only if you really put it to use. That means offering people things that they actually want for free, and being sure that it will help build your LTV from them. Design your emails so that you highlight free incentives, but be sure that you can make that freebie turn into a conversion, too.

Never Mention Spam

We mean never – not even to say ‘We will never spam you” in your sign up pages. Just including that alone can reduce conversions in a big way. And never use it in emails – especially in the subject line. It doesn’t matter what the phrasing is, the reality is that your customers will simply turn away from the word.

Target With Laser Precision

When you send out an email, are you blanketing everyone on your list? Are you giving them too many options as a result? That’s the problem with those generic email marketing efforts – you’re casting too wide of a net. It’s better to focus on using information about your customers to create personalized targeted emails, and then to keep your initial offers small in terms of options. Less confusion means more leads, so focus each email on a particular product or a specific offer. You’ll get better results.

Follow Up

Always follow up with your customers. This could be a few days after an order just to thank them, it could be a quick ‘repeat customer’ coupon offer, or something else entirely, but getting back in touch with them with a quick email is a great way to let them know that you’re appreciative of their business.

Get Personal

The more that your customers feel like you love them and appreciate them, the better. That’s why getting personal is so important. And while this means sending out product suggestions targeted directly to them, you can go further as well. Simple software programs let you address each email to the individual’s name, and you can also do things like sending out birthday coupons or discounts based on their wish list. There are plenty of different ways to personalize your emails, but the important thing is simply that you do it. This creates a solid connection to your customers that will pay off in a big way.

Assess Yourself Honestly

Finally, just taking a minute to give your past and current email strategies a closer look is important – and something that not enough companies can do honestly. Pay attention to your success rates and see what is working and what isn’t – and make changes when you need to.

Your email marketing strategies will have a huge impact on your bottom line, and getting the right results from them is important. Our software can offer you an easier way to the best results with any email marketing plan including customized, personalized targeted marketing solutions. Contact us to find out more about what we can do for you and your business.

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Top 7 Ways To Boost Customer Lifetime Value Through Email

Ohad Shperling — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 09:00:39 +0000

There are a lot of different numbers out there that business leaders pay attention to – with the most obvious being the bottom line. But let’s be real here: we don’t always look at the data we should. One perfect example is your overall LTV – Customer Lifetime Value. It’s a metric that can impact a lot about your profit levels and your overall strategy, but is somehow frequently overlooked by many business professionals.

Do you know your LTV? If not, this link can help you figure out just how to calculate it effectively using some basic information. But once you have the info, it’s time to actually use it. Increasing your LTV is something that many people don’t fully understand.

Email marketing and remarketing are the keys to boosting your LTV in a significant way, and using personalized email marketing software will help with this. But there are a few more specific ways to go about achieving results with your email remarketing plan. Here are seven excellent options.

Gather The Data

Above all else, you need to know more about your customers. As you’ll see in the rest of the steps below, information will help give you the edge you need to succeed in improving customer lifetime value. Info on everything from names to birthdays to income levels to gender to interests can help you create better email campaigns. Surveys or account creation forms can give you much of this info, and you can also monitor a customer’s spending or shopping habits with your company to identify additional interests. Once you know what they like, suggesting new products or services is much easier. Simply put, knowledge is truly power.

Segment For Success

That mention of knowledge above? Here’s where you start using it. Odds are, not all of your customers are interested in the same things. So why would you send them all the same marketing email? Instead, segment your users based on their activity with you, and send them a more unique, customized email. You’ll get better results.

Make Your Customers Feel Appreciated

This is where remarketing can really add a personal touch. Just making a customer feel like you really appreciate their business is important. Some companies will use rewards programs, but often you just need to set up your personalized email marketing software so that it sends out a simple thank you email after an order, or make them a special offer as their birthday approaches. This personalization helps a customer feel like you really care about them and what they do with your company.

Create Urgency

Have you noticed major online retailers using things like flash deals or daily deals? Those special offers really do work, because of one thing: urgency. Urgency works on the psychology of your customers and makes them feel like they only have a limited time to take advantage of an offer. From daily sales to a coupon code that expires in 24 hours and beyond, there are plenty of different ways to generate a feeling of urgency. Using an email remarketing campaign focused on this can help you get better profits and sales.

Know Your Product or Service Lifecycles

One of the secrets to driving up repeat business is to know when a product or service will be needed again. For example, shorts and tank top shirts will sell more briskly in the spring than in the fall or winter, right? If a customer orders a one-month supply of a product, you know they’ll likely need to replace it within about 30 days, correct?

Using that kind of information to your advantage lets you target marketing campaigns based on your product lifecycles. You can even use analytical data to identify how frequently a particular product is repurchased on average and then capitalize on the pattern. The key is knowing when the right time to send that email is.

Go for The Long Term

It doesn’t make sense when we say ‘ask your customers to pay more’, but the reality is that a lot of companies are able to use that very strategy for success. In particular, this works for recurring purchases and revenue streams. Monthly payments, for example, can be upgraded to an annual plan. Offering a month or two for free is a perfect way to get them to agree to this, but in doing so you’re increasing their overall lifespan with your company. Instead of constantly having to try to land their business for another month, you can sign them up for a year and know that they’ll stay with you.

Then, as the lifecycle end approaches, you can start directing new email remarketing efforts towards them with additional offers to help keep them as part of your team. They’ll pay a higher initial purchase price for the annual plan, but will still save themselves money in the long run – and be your customer for longer as well.

Make Sure They Know Why You Matter To Them

You know that your customers are important to you – but do they really know what you can do for them? No matter the overall type of business you’re operating, there’s a good chance you can provide a reminder every week or month as to what you’re doing for your customers. For instance, an email telling them how much they saved off suggested retail price or compared to a competitor can show them big savings. An email reminding them of why your products are better choices or how much they saved with your low-cost shipping could be enough as well.

The key here is making sure that they know what you do for them beyond just the initial purchase. It can make a big difference in how they see you – and your relationship to them.

All in all, the key is designing solid email remarketing strategies that really appeal to customers and their psychology. If you can do this, you’ll be able to improve the LTV of customers you have, build brand awareness, and keep them coming back for more time and time again. Our personalized email marketing software can help in a big way. Contact us to learn more.

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