The customer is not interested in your products/ services or brand; without a reason. Give your customer that reason to be driven towards your brand. Routing your customer towards a purchase is the skill of a marketer. To chalk down this route you should observe your customers’ behavior pattern. The prerogative of an email marketer is the same; observing how the audiences respond to emails or on any other platform where the customer engages, based on which they create and send appropriate emails. With this strategy you give customers something that satiates their curiosity and answers their questions so, they are bound to engage. This is exactly what we want; engagement, don’t we? So, how do we do it? Simple, by using behavioral email marketing!
Behavioral email- Know me more
Inherent in its name, is its meaning. Behavioral email marketing is based on the audiences’ response. It’s an automated email targeted to contacts based on the database of customers’ interaction with a brand across varied channels like social media, emails website and more. It’s a customer-focused strategy, which is trigger based guided by consumer’s actions and responses.
Here the customer dictates the kind of emails they receive through their actions. These emails are based on codes that are collected along the customer’s browsing behavior. Thereby sending emails that cohere with customer’s interest. Now, your customer gets better marketing solutions. In fact, according to Direct Marketing Association, over 75% of email revenue is generated by triggered emails. As a marketer you should observe behaviors like, email sign-ups, links clicked in the email, products purchased, website browsing behavior, search options used, bailing out of shopping basket, etc. and communicate with your audiences accordingly.
Behavioral email: “I am important, but why?”
High conversion rates:
Why do some movies get popular? It’s only because the entire package is appealing to the audience and the marketing is based on the liking of the audiences. Similarly, Netflix and Amazon base their marketing on consumer behavior and chalk out personalized marketing strategies. Netflix sends personalized recommendations to customers based on their previously watched movies. Exactly, that is why 60% of Netflix rentals come from messages that are rooted in viewer’s behavior. 35% of Amazon’s sales come from suggestions they send to audiences based on their behavior and purchases. Make a note of slightest consumer behavior and use this information to sell more.
Builds brand loyalty and affinity:
This personalized communication makes the consumers feel special and you witness higher conversion rate. This results in high brand loyalty amongst consumers as you are responding to their desires, expectations, and wants. Based on consumer’s action you send the appropriate triggered email immediately. So, your brand becomes relevant to consumers as you are quickly giving consumers what they desire. So, consumers develop an affinity towards your brand.
Quickly pass through the sales funnel:
Since you reach the prospective customer at the right time with all the products/services they are interested in, prospective customers take no time to ponder a lot and waste time. So, they quickly pass through the sales funnel and become your customers. Post the purchase you are still connected to the consumer through personalized communication – emails.
Now that you are convinced about the importance of behavioral email marketing, let’s dwell into the types of behavioral emails:
“I take many forms”: Behavioral emails.
Here are some commonly used types of behavioral email marketing:
Thank- you: These emails can be sent when the customer has made a purchase.
Offers: Then there are emails that have deals, coupons, and offers for the purpose of re-engagement.
Blog and newsletter subscription: If the customer has visited your website and left, you can send an email asking him to subscribe to your blog or newsletter. Alternatively, you can send some more information about your company and its offerings.
Recommendations: If customers have abandoned the cart ask them to complete the transaction and probe as to why they left abruptly. Send some more product/service suggestions; a kind of cross-selling.
Collecting user behavior data:
Observe customer’s real-time behavior:
Take efforts to understand your customers better by getting an insight into how they actually behave. Find out how long they stay on your site? What motivates them to share your content on social media? What do they upload and download at what times? What links do they click? This helps you identify patterns and predict the behavior of your customer’s needs even before they themselves are aware of it.
Website activity:
Most marketers don’t want to keep a close eye on the website activity of a customer as it doesn’t directly lead to a sale. But, these activities are prime to your business. Observe which pages customers are visiting, how much time they spend on each page they visited? Do they like the pages or do they move away from them?
Consumers might also download case studies, product catalogs or read through your blog. Some of them might read your “about us” page and try to know something more about your company. Observing these activities will help you connect better with your customer and give an enjoyable online experience to them.
Google analytics:
There is a plethora of information when you study Google analytics that analyzes online campaigns and the website too. It sees where the visitors came from- social media, Google or emails. Observe which pages on your website customers spend time, how long they stayed on your website, the geographical position of the consumers, etc.
Social media:
Customers’ behavior on social media is crucial. It gives in-depth information about customers’ views through the likes, shares, comments, the posts that they engage in, the offers that consumers opt for, etc. Observe what content they are clicking on and their response in terms of likes, shares comments, etc. Where does the social media platform lead to- website, landing page, email offers, etc.
Referral source:
While you are closing the sale for the customer you forget to track the referral source from where the lead came. Without this its hard to understand from where the customer reached you and for a better insight into customer behavior you need to have this information.
Contact information
One of the most important marketing tools is being informed about the accurate contact information of the customers. This information is vital to keep sending emails and staying connected with the customer even after the deal is done.
Implementing behavioral email marketing strategy:
1. Track the users’ interaction with your business:
How are your audiences interacting at the varied touch-points – website, online sale, email, stores, social media platforms, etc. Each channel has a distinct way of conveying to the marketer about how customers react and act. You will have to track their behavior at all these touch-points and this will be like a guide which will define your future communication with them.
2. Predict their behavior:
Based on how your audiences interact with your business, you will be able to predict their future behavior. You would know how they will react to different communications and what will lead to a conversion.
3. Start a conversation based on the customer interaction:
Now that you can predict their behavior, communicate with them in the right way at the right time. Start a conversation that will trigger a response and keep the curiosity levels in the audiences high.
4. Further communications:
Once the customer has responded to you, its time to further the communication and develop a connection with them. Now customers trust that you know what they want, so they will keep communicating with you; this will lead to more engagement and conversions too.
5. Always be in touch with customers
Continuous engagement is vital. This is a process and a journey that you walk along with your customers almost each and everyday as you closely observe them. So, no conversation that you have with your consumer is a one-time affair. When a customer engages, think about how you are going to keep the conversation going. There are many ways to keep engaging your consumer. Each consumer is reacting differently so be observant and engage with each consumer differently. Continuous engagement should be the aim of any marketer as we all want to build a loyal customer base and brand evangelists. The key to behavioral email marketing is observation, analysis and apt reaction.
To keep creating engaging email campaigns that fit your brand image, connect with our team at Juvlon.