7 Strategies to Personalize Automatic Emails Based on Subscriber Actions

In an age of personalization, a universal method of marketing via email doesn't make sense any more. Email marketers and businesses that are e-commerce often have a lot of information about customers but they don't always use this data to the fullest benefit. With an increasing number of businesses utilizing email marketing, it's imperative that as an email marketer, you find new methods to keep your customers engaged.

The days of including the "first name" of subscribers in the emails was considered to be among the most successful strategies used to increase conversions. Making sure that subscribers receive timely, relevant emails which are appropriate to their preferences is necessary to keep them interested about your brand.

Automating and personalization, combined, can be a boon to businesses. An analysis shows that, according to Experian, companies who tailor their promotional emails have 27% higher specific click rates as well as 11percent higher open rates than those that don't personalize. Additionally, it states that triggered emails result in more response rates to conversion for the same number of sends as compared to "batch blast" blast and batch emails.

If you are looking to design personalized campaigns for your e-commerce emails, you must use a couple of simple but sophisticated techniques to manage the effectiveness of your emails.

  Answer the Questions You Should Ask  

In order to send out automated email messages, you must collect data from your customers. An effective way to do this is by asking customers to select certain preferences choices that will help you to segment the information. When customers opt-in to your email newsletter, you should ask them their purpose of opting for your emails. The responses will give you information that can guide to sending more targeted and relevant messages.

This is an example of an email sent by 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 categorize according to their preference and then send only emails that are relevant for them.

  Build Customer Personas  

Once you get feedback from your customers, build personal profiles of customers out of the data you have collected. By understanding your customers and your subscribers' email preferences better it will allow you to create better experiences that are more tailored to the users. This can help provide the email recipients more targeting and customized experience.

  Think Location and Time  

Examine your email accounts by location and time to find out what is most effective for you. Certain times of the day tend more effective when it comes to . Your customers may be scattered all over the globe in various time zones. Therefore, it is necessary that you cater to all of them. Customers might respond better to emails if they're sent out at a particular time during the day. Make sure you do A/B tests for your emails to determine the most effective moment when customers contact you and adjust your sending time accordingly.

  7 types of automated emails triggered by subscriber behavior  

After you've gathered enough information for you to correctly segment your email subscribers and then create automatized trigger emails for particular segments and specific actions.

  Here are 7 kinds of triggered emails that you could send out to your customers:  

  1. Welcome Emails

These welcome emails help connect you with your newly joining subscriber. It is the initial message you send to confirm your sign-up. It will allow you to filter the list of subscribers by asking customers about their preferences. The best approach is to run an series of welcome emails; the first one should be a simple greeting note, introducing your offerings, followed by a second one asking for the subscriber' preferences, and subsequent emails with special offers and discounts on your future purchases.

Take a look at this sample Welcome Email from Hootsuite. It guides subscribers to start using the online service. This email is the first in their triggered series and it is delivered after the user opts in.

  2. Absent Cart Emails

Emails about abandoned carts are those which are sent out to clients who have added items in their shopping carts but failed to go through with their purchase. Highlighting the abandoned products with a coupon or a free shipping option to go to checkout is a great method to get them to complete the purchase.

Check out this email from Asics. They've highlighted one the items that were not sold by putting it up on the main banner, and displaying the remainder of the items in the cart below. The site has also highlighted items to encourage cross-selling, increasing the likelihood of a customer returning to the website in order to purchase.

3. Return to 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 inventory and who have chosen to receive an email notification when the product is available in stock. Notifying that the buyer of the availability of the item/s is a great way to get customers back on your site to make the purchase.

This email from Kauffmann The Mercantile is an excellent example. This email is a fantastic tool and service to make your customers feel loved.

4. Price Drop Reminders

Emails about price drop are sent to clients who have abandoned your store online or abandoned their cart likely due to the cost of some products that there is no discount. When the previously browsed products are offered at a reduced price, you should to notify the customers about the discount. This is an excellent opportunity to attract customers who might have been interested in purchasing from you.

Take a look at this sample from The Target, which informs customers about the discounted new price of the items they have in their basket, in addition to other products that are recommended. The customer will be convinced to buy the item.

5. Order Confirmation

When customers have completed their checkout and placed an order, you must immediately send an order confirmation email to them, confirming the order and thanking them for making the purchase. It will allow them to recheck their purchase and adjust it if necessary. Include a payment receipt and order summary to keep the transaction transparent. Give them the option to track their order and to provide feedback. Also, you can think about selling similar products or cross-selling.

This is an example of a confirmation email sent from Amazon. This particular purchase was for an ebook. Note the way Amazon suggests similar books at the end of the email.

  6. Order Following-up E-mails

Once your customer places an order through your website When a customer places an order on your website, you must send order follow-up emails. Create follow-up emails that are automatically sent which include product-related recommendations along with related suggestions about products. These emails will also include information about tracking orders, an the order's summary, and details about payment.

Take a look at this email sent by Etsy that informs the customer regarding the status of their shipment of the order.

7. Re-engagement Emails

Re-engagement emails are designed to renew the relationship between your users and clients that haven't read your email or haven't purchased from you within a certain timeframe. Re-engagement emails that are effective can encourage customers to revisit your website. It is possible to send a string of emails in order to woo your disinterested customers and draw customers to purchase from your website. Additionally, you can include deals and promotions to encourage your subscribers to revisit your website and make a purchase.

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

  Automated email is most effective when they're personalized  

Hyper-personalization is what will keep your email subscribers interested in your business. When you next plan for your email marketing campaigns ensure that you do more than just include their names to the email messages. The creation of personalized email messages based on your subscribers' preferences and habits is essential to ensure that the automated emails you send out work efficiently.

Kevin George is the Head of Marketing for EmailMonks one of the fastest growing businesses for email design and programming that is a specialist in the creation of elegant email templates including PSD to HTML email conversion, and Free HTML email templates. Kevin loves sharing his experiences and ideas on email marketing tips and top practices in his blog about email marketing.