Email is still one of the most powerful and cost-effective digital channels. It is also one where there is a wealth of powerful data that marketers can use to create targeted experiences. Many companies use email effectively to trigger behaviour such as online purchase, based on an understanding of the behaviour of the individual, either in the website or in the email communications themselves.
Yet most Australian companies still seem to use it as a bulk messaging medium, treating everyone the same and rarely targeting their content.
In our research, we deliberately behave in ways that we hope will show us how companies are using their digital marketing capabilities, so we can understand who’s doing what, and who is using digital channels effectively. We subscribe to lots of email newsletters and almost all that we receive are not targeted in any way. Even those that we receive because we are customers of brands are rarely customised to our activity or profile.
Today I finally received something which used my behaviour as input to the email content I received.
Put simply, Lastminute has recognised that I haven’t opened any emails lately. So a subject line of ‘Was it Something we Said’ was intriguing enough for me to open it. Then the content delivered on this further and told me that they’d noticed I hadn’t opened emails lately and reminded me of the benefits of using LastMinute.
It is the classic re-activation activity and nice to see something that uses the intelligence that is inherent in most email marketing systems to deliver a targeted message.
If I hadn’t opened this email, the next step would probably be to stop messaging me so often or even stop emailing me altogether.
That’s what smart email marketers do, don’t just keep sending the same stuff, hoping for the best. Use data intelligently, customise the message to the individual and react according to whether they are still interested in what you have to say.