Featured Post: My Reading & Podcast List
Here are recent books I’ve read and podcasts I enjoy. If you’re looking for something interesting to listen to or read, these are a few that have stood out to me. Let me know if you have a recommendations.
Anniversaries Aren’t Just for Couples: Build Lifetime Value with Automated Offers
Retailers are constantly looking for simple, automated lifecycle messages that not only contribute to their bottom line, but also re-engage subscribers. The usual suspects – birthday and re-engagement messages – are common.
The anniversary message, though, is often underused, especially since the kinds of anniversaries celebrated are as varied as the products and customers you have.
Here are three very simple date-based automated messages that can drive revenue and successfully re-engage your email subscribers.
Retailers are constantly looking for simple, automated lifecycle messages that not only contribute to their bottom line, but also re-engage subscribers. The usual suspects – birthday and re-engagement messages – are common.
The anniversary message, though, is often underused, especially since the kinds of anniversaries celebrated are as varied as the products and customers you have.
Here are three very simple date-based automated messages that can drive revenue and successfully re-engage your email subscribers.
Purchase Anniversary
Send a message one year from a customer’s first order date explaining the significance of the anniversary, thanking them, and inviting them to come back and shop (with or without an incentive). These customers remain active email subscribers, so this can also be a great opportunity to ask them to update their preferences with you. After all, a lot can change in one year.
To keep the goodwill going, consider sending this message in subsequent years with increasing benefits as a means of rewarding them for their subscription loyalty.
The email from men’s clothing provider Paul Fredrick specifically highlights the first year anniversary.
Wedding Anniversary
For a more traditional occasion, a wedding anniversary email is a great, yet seldom used, message for many retailers. If your company sells traditional anniversary gifts (e.g. leather, paper), or relationship-related gifts, such as lingerie, gift baskets, flowers or jewelry, you have a perfect opportunity to collect and use this data. If a customer does provide this information, they are showing you they trust your brand. Provide value to them in return.
Of course, don’t wait until the last minute as many of us do in real life. Be sure to send this message before the actual date, so the customer has time to shop, compare items and have the gift delivered. And be sure to tout your value-adds. Do you offer white glove service, gift wrapping or other valet-type upgrades? If so, advertise these as add-ons or include them as part of the incentive in the message.
But this message doesn’t have to be about driving conversions. Send a goodwill anniversary message on the actual day without a call to action to shop. Link directly to your site or to an unrelated social callout, or simply omit any call to action altogether. This day-of message should be about fostering a relationship between your brand and the subscriber.
Sign-Up Anniversary
While these first two are more personal in nature, you may not have the data available to execute them. Don’t worry. You can still send an anniversary message based on the date they joined your email program. Show them how much you appreciate that they are still subscribers.
If the subscriber has made a purchase in the past, take their purchase behavior into consideration when determining the incentive. Based on the number of purchases, lifetime spend or average order value (AOV), you can include an appropriate incentive to reward customer loyalty, attempt to increase their AOV by setting a minimum spend, or drive a first purchase by reinforcing your brand’s value.
One cautionary note: Default to the purchase anniversary message if the sign-up occurred near the purchase date. People are likely to remember their purchase rather than the date they signed up to receive your emails.
There you have it. Three incredibly simple automated messages that can help drive revenue and/or re-engage subscribers with your email program. Have fun, be creative and give your valued email subscribers a nice virtual hug.
This was originally published on Multichannel Merchant
The Adventures of a Choose-Your-Own Welcome Series
I remember as a child reading “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, where the story and ending ultimately depended on the choices I made throughout the story. Why not be adventurous and take this same approach with your welcome series? After all, a welcome series is designed to introduce, engage and build consumer confidence with your brand. What better way to do that than by delivering content based on the actions and preferences of your newly acquired customers?
I remember as a child reading “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, where the story and ending ultimately depended on the choices I made throughout the story. Why not be adventurous and take this same approach with your welcome series? After all, a welcome series is designed to introduce, engage and build consumer confidence with your brand. What better way to do that than by delivering content based on the actions and preferences of your newly acquired customers?
Consider the possibilities for a shoe retailer who could send welcome series messages with a loafer theme to contacts who showed an interest in loafers at a very early stage. Or a clothing company that can send maternity-specific messaging to those who click links for maternity products. The ability to make these messages as relevant as possible ultimately helps set your series up for even greater success.
To execute a “choose your own”-style welcome series, follow these four steps:
Step 1: Collect Subscriber Data
A successful welcome series requires reliable data. Think about how you can optimize your acquisition points to collect more relevant information. There are four primary places where you can collect new subscriber data:
Ask for it During Sign-up : Are you asking for preference data you can segment upon at sign-up? Your subscribers are more likely to provide you with information during those initial interactions when they are most engaged with your brand. If your sign-up process allows, you should attempt to collect gender, category of interest, or any other targeted information that pertains to your products.
Identify the Sign-up Location: Add a hidden field or list assignment based on the page the user is viewing when they choose to sign up. For example, if you’re a shoe retailer, your hidden field value could capture whether the contact used the form from the men’s page or the women’s page. You can take this a step further by having a more detailed field, such as men’s loafer, tennis shoes, etc. Read more on using this tactic here.
Capture Click Activity: The welcome message should be the most-read message in your email program. Use a contact’s click behavior within this message to determine which message they will receive next. Not only are they interested in your products (they just signed up), but their actions immediately tell you what they are focused on. The navigation bar makes the obvious choice here, as these are commonly your overarching links of importance.
Request Additional Preference Data via Dedicated Messaging: A manage preferences message is a common part of a welcome series. If you send it early in the series, you can use the data provided to dictate future messages.
Step 2: Create Your Segments
What information do you need in order to segment your list? Gender, product category, price point, something else, or all of the above? Your criteria for segmentation will be based on how you’ve been collecting your data up to this point, but that doesn’t mean you can’t update your plans and incorporate some of the strategies from step one going forward. For example, if you only collect email addresses at sign-up and have no other means of gathering info, identify contacts who clicked on particular links in the welcome message, and build new segments from there.
Note: Be mindful that a person may enter multiple segments, so creating a priority list will be important for you. For example, if someone clicks on both the women’s and maternity links in your welcome message, you need to determine which of these two segments takes precedence over the other. You may decide maternity has a more immediate need and send the maternity-focused series to this contact.
Step 3: Create a New Stream of Messages
Now that you know what specific audience you want to target, you can begin creating your new welcome series messages. You can customize the imagery, highlight specific value-adds, include secondary CTAs, and even feature specific product recommendations based on the segment. You may also have a better idea of crossover categories that would be most likely to convert. If you’re tight on resources, using product recommendations and related crossover categories within your existing emails may be easier to execute until new messages can be created.
Take this Everlast email, for example. I could easily use the three CTAs in the email to determine what the focus of the subsequent messages should be. I could even combine that with gender to really differentiate product types within the category.
Step 4: Analyze and Adapt
As with other automated messages, never set it and forget it. Be sure to analyze the performance of these messages to determine not only if they convert better in general, but also which segments and which messages in the series convert better. With this information, you can begin to apply a profitable segmentation strategy to your standard promotional messages as well. It could also be the first step in customizing a similar strategy for other series, such as those for post-purchase or lapsed purchase.
There you have it. Have fun experimenting with a more unique subscriber onboarding adventure, while really focusing on your overall segmentation strategy. So how will your story end? To try this strategy, return to Step 1. To try a more basic optimization strategy, click here. The choice is yours.
What Will They Buy Next? Using Product Recommendations in Email
Creating relevant emails is not a new concept, but due to resource limitations, it can often be difficult to execute. If you can’t be as targeted and relevant as you’d like at the individual email level, using product recommendations in your messages can fill the gap.
Creating relevant emails is not a new concept, but due to resource limitations, it can often be difficult to execute. If you can’t be as targeted and relevant as you’d like at the individual email level, using product recommendations in your messages can fill the gap.
For those who can create targeted promotional emails, product recommendations can help you take those messages to the next level. When using product recommendations, however, there are things to be mindful of, such as what your recommendations are based on. Is it purchase behavior, click behavior, website browse behavior, or a combination of these? It’s important to determine upfront so you can audit the results for accuracy and identify opportunities to potentially collect additional subscriber info. Doing so will help create more accurate recommendations.
Let’s look at some messages where recommendations would be most effective and some pitfalls to be wary of when doing so.
Lifecycle Messages
Inserting product recommendations in lifecycle messages, such as a post-purchase, anniversary, or birthday messages, is a natural fit. These messages are already relevant by nature, and including specific suggestions based on customer history can make them even more powerful. If you’re using a lifecycle message where you don’t have purchase info but may have click and preference details, such as a welcome series message, use whatever data you have to be as relevant as possible.
However, be careful not to refer to your recommendations as being “just for you.” Instead, consider using something more diplomatic, such as “items we think you may like” or “customer favorites.” You’re still learning what they may be interested in, so don’t make it sound as though you’re already certain of their preferences.. Doing so might give a negative impression.
Cart Abandonment Messages
As consumers get closer to making a purchase, recommendations may be the deciding factor in not only getting the contact to buy but also increase their cart total. Maybe the contact sees a dress in the recommendations that they missed while browsing your site. Or it could it be that pair of shoes that complement the outfit in the cart. Don’t underestimate the power of recommendations, even at a point so close to purchase.
The examples below show three slightly different approaches to recommending products. Pottery Barn Kids showed “also viewed” products, while NewEgg labeled their section “Trending Now.” Do I really believe that all four things trending on NewEgg are TV-related items? No, I don’t. And Adore Me may actually be showing their most popular sets, but they may not be as relevant to the shopper with this message because they tried to cross-sell their primary products rather than recommending products similar to the abandoned pajamas.
All three examples were well-constructed, but I would avoid using labels along the lines of “Products Recommended for You” in an abandoned cart message. The subscriber already identified specific items they’re interested in, so your goal should be to either complement the abandoned product or provide a similar solution to the problem the abandoned product solves.
Transactional Messages
Don’t forget about your transactional messages, such as order and shipping confirmations. These messages can be substantial revenue drivers, and considering recipients have just made a purchase, it might be the perfect opportunity to showcase some upsell or cross-sell items here. In this Williams-Sonoma example, the “also purchased” products are mostly relevant. Why wouldn’t I need a new spatula along with my new griddle? What I like about this is they are also relatively low-cost items, so making an impulse purchase decision is more likely.
If you can easily edit the message layout, I prefer to have this recommended content along the right rail as opposed to below the primary content. This allows you to keep your promotional content above the fold while remaining CAN-SPAM compliant.
Be Wary of Automated Promotional Messages
If you plan to send recurring recommendation emails to your audience, don’t automate the exact same message. Change the subject line from send to send. You could still automate your message, but be sure to keep your message fresh. All it takes is one not-so-relevant email before a contact decides to never open your messages again. Using the same subject line allows the subscriber to identify this message in the inbox before even opening it.
For instance, I once received an email from a company with the subject line “Gregory, Recommendations Just for You.” Upon opening, not a single product was indeed relevant to me. Now, every time this company sends me that message with the identical subject line, I immediately hit delete. Sending a message with an identical layout is fine. Just be sure to freshen the subject line with each repeated send to a contact.
In this example from KarmaLoop, I am a non-purchaser. They continue to send me recommendation messages like this. As you can see, these products don’t have much in common, yet the creative says these are just for me! The products are for both genders and from a variety of price points. This may be an attempt to determine what I click on to further their segmentation, but they could do that with standard promotional messages. They could also collect gender at sign-up, and even with no other info, make these recommendations more relevant.
Subject Line: Just for you. Really. (this week)
With Overstock.com, I have purchased in the past. I once bought a couple of iPhone accessories for my wife. What I don’t necessarily like about this message is the primary recommendation for stylus pens with a sub-recommendation for an iPhone accessory. Based on my purchase history, the iPhone accessory is more targeted to my potential needs, and the other two jewelry recommendations miss the mark.
I have no issue with trying to determine whether I might be in the market for some jewelry, but two recommendations for jewelry seem like a stretch to me. Why not include one jewelry item and maybe one other female fashion accessory?
Subject Line: Gregory, recommendations Just for You…
I do like the price points of the suggestions. They are all in line with the price of the original items purchased, so they are not making drastic recommendations. But the subject line used for this message is identical to the one I mentioned from another retailer above, so I know this is an automated message. Again, if these recommendations completely missed the mark, I would be very hesitant to open in the future. In this case, it was relevant enough to open again.
Always check that your recommendations are indeed hitting the mark. Remember, results will vary based on what you segment on (browse, purchase or click behavior). However, if they don’t appear to be delivering the results you’d expect, edit your settings and keep tweaking until you get the best possible results.
Final Thoughts
People have different needs and shopping behaviors, so recommendations don’t always have to be exact. They should simply estimate what people may like. But with that being said, they should still be in the ballpark in order to engage the subscriber. Test and monitor the results of your recommendations for relevance and accuracy. And finally, don’t force these recommendations into all of your messages. Look for the opportunities where it makes sense to do so and gives you the greatest likelihood of success.
SMS Marketing: Keys to Success and Pitfalls to Avoid
Let's face it, nearly everyone texts. In fact, I bet your phone is within eyesight right now. Is it? Because so many of us keep our phones close by, the time between when text messages are received and read is probably seconds! This alone makes SMS marketing a potentially powerful tool. However, many companies are missing a huge opportunity with their SMS marketing programs.
Let's face it, nearly everyone texts. In fact, I bet your phone is within eyesight right now. Is it? Because so many of us keep our phones close by, the time between when text messages are received and read is probably seconds! This alone makes SMS marketing a potentially powerful tool. However, many companies are missing a huge opportunity with their SMS marketing programs.
The problem is that many marketers don’t think of SMS the same way they think of other promotional channels. That is to say, they assume batch and blast, unoriginal messages will convert subscribers. You wouldn’t send the same email to your subscribers every single week, would you? Yet this is exactly what many companies do when sending SMS messages. Today I am going to show you just a few a few examples of the SMS good, bad, and somewhere in between.
The Bad
This first set is from Macy’s.
Notice anything here? One of the problems with Macy’s program is the promotion is almost always identical. In almost every message I am offered 20% off my purchase. I know it is coming, so there is no reason for me to check the message. Where is the urgency to purchase? Why would I shop now when I can simply wait for the next one? Here is a prime example where I may see the text within seconds or minutes after receiving it, but the CTA is lacking.
Here is an opportunity to test different incentives to see if a discount threshold can be found, or simply to give the appearance that a specific discount is not standard.
The In-Between
Here is an example from buybuy Baby.
You can see this follows the same concept as Macy’s SMS. The incentive is for 20% off, which we all know is the standard coupon for Bed Bath & Beyond stores. I have stockpiles of BBB coupons. What sets this apart from that piece of direct mail I have? These two examples are the SMS version of batch and blast emails. Although I don’t see the value in these messages, I can give BBB a small pass, as I don’t think anyone buys from BBB without one of their 20% coupons. This just provides an on-the-go coupon for people.
Also, the use of the word "Ur" seems a bit loose to me. I don't see why they couldn't just write out "Your". I know it is "text speak" but it doesn't seem natural from this specific brand. If length was a problem, then they could have shortened the URL, similar to how Macy's shortens them in their example.
The Good
So how can SMS be used in a manner that sparks action? Here is an example.
OK, I have a confession. I drive an Altima (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Just like a re-order email or SMS message would function, this message reminds me when I am due for an oil change. What this message has that the previous two examples don’t is it provides value and has a clear CTA. While it is not a typical retailer, it does demand action from the subscriber. Typical retailers could learn from implementing these principles into their messages.
Using SMS for a product reorders can be very valuable. Making it possible for one-click reordering while on the go can also drive more conversions than a random batch and blast text message like the BuyBuyBaby or Macy’s messages.
One final example to look at is from Target.
Target does exactly what Macy’s doesn’t, they change it up. The links in these messages drive me to a Target page that shows all of the different coupons they offer. The product coupons change from message to message so they force me to look at them when I receive the SMS. I don’t often make a trip to Target, but I have found two independent offers via these messages that drove me in-store to purchase. Success!
I would bet that if people were signed up for both the Target and Macy’s SMS programs they would be more engaged with the Target program.
Keys to Success & Pitfalls to Avoid
Types of campaigns where SMS can be effective:
Reorder reminders
Informational alerts, like flight delays or event reminders
Transactional messages, such as order confirmations or shipping confirmations
Special deals or campaigns, such as 12 days of deals for Christmas
SMS can also be a great way to grow your email subscriber list with text-to-sign-up
SMS Tips & Tricks:
Don’t send the same message time after time – (you wouldn’t do it with an email, why do it with SMS?)
Send messages that provide the subscriber with value
Have a clear CTA
Make the CTA easy to redeem
Make the offers unique – if I get the same offer via every channel, why should I subscribe?
Treat your SMS program like an independent marketing channel – after all, it is!
Test incentives and promos to determine what converts best
Whether you are thinking of, or currently are using, SMS as a marketing channel, be sure to think through your program and how it connects with your subscribers. Otherwise, it will be like getting texts from a stranger. Want proof? Give me your cell number and I’ll text you my weekly grocery list. Let me know how long it takes you to stop reading my texts, LOL.