Run an Ecommerce Site? A Must-Read Guest Post.

I met Greg Jarrow from Cross Country Computer at a recent New England Direct Marketing Association event. Greg politely explained that, no, his company does not sell computers to track nerds. In simple(ish) terms, they help companies acquire, retain and develop valuable customers (valuable = the ones who spend more money on the company’s site).

I found the following article about the power of “trigged emails” in their recent newsletter and thought it would be helpful for anyone who has ever tried to sell anything online. (Like their soul.)

If you’re not sure what a trigged email is, here’s an easy way to think of it: Unlike all those emails you get because your name happens to be on a list someone bought, a “triggered email” is sent to you based on a specific interaction you’ve had with the sender — e.g. a product purchase.

Ten Ideas for Triggered Emails That Will Increase Your Order Rates

By Elisa Berger, SVP, Cross Country Computer

I recently attended the Spring NEMOA conference in Boston. One hot topic of discussion was leveraging triggered email communication based upon recent behavior for higher order rates.

Today, 20% of emails sent are triggered and the majority is “thrust” or “batch and blast.” The message at NEMOA was to flip that statistic such that 80% are triggered. Why? Triggered emails perform 4-6x better! The following are a few ideas I picked up:

1. Surprisingly, abandoned cart email volume has been declining! Every marketer should send a series of abandoned cart emails for those who selected items online but did not go through the entire transactional process.

2. Send a triggered email promoting a category that someone just browsed on your site.

3. Send a triggered email promoting the same item that someone just browsed on your site.

4. Send triggered emails when sold out items are back in stock.

5. Send a series of “welcome” emails to new buyers or subscribers.

6. Send triggered emails for registry customers to correspond with milestone dates of their event (wedding or birth of child).

7. Create a “new mover” series of emails. Send discounts and offers for a particular product category for those who have just moved.

8. Send “people who like this also like this” triggered emails based upon last product purchase and product-affinity models.

9. Try “now on sale” emails for items that people were browsing but did not buy and that are now on sale.

10. Send “replenishment” emails reminding customers to re-order their favorite consumable item (e.g. perfume) at a specific time since last purchase.

Elisa Berger, Ph.D., is senior vice president at Cross Country Computer, a database marketing service bureau on Long Island. Learn more about CCC’s strategic marketing services and connect with Elisa on LinkedIn.


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