Last month I was given an exciting opportunity to work with Ross, our resident Technical Director, and run a workshop on email marketing at Adido’s own Let’s Do Digital Southern Summit.
The workshop gave me a chance to get attendees thinking about how they could improve their use of email and allow them to share experiences about which techniques are successful and what perhaps isn’t working so well for them.
You can download the slides from my session here.
While initially daunted by the task I took to the job trying to think how to make this as informative as possible and what marketing professionals could take away that would give them real value.
I knew that the majority of people would be sending newsletters, product offers and promotions out to their customers – but what additional value would they be offering by sending out emails to their data?
In my opinion, using email isn’t about selling, instead it has to be used as a tool to build relationships and nurture customers, so that everyone who receives an email feels like it was written just for them.
I wanted to take them back to basics and help them think about what untapped potential was out there and how easy it could be to make a few small changes to their strategies to get more out of this channel.
So, how do I think this can be achieved? The answer…Lifecycle emails
The use of lifecycle emails presents a massive opportunity to:
- Increase engagement with prospects and customers
- Assist with sales
- Get more users on board
- Build trust in your brand
what are lifecycle emails?
Lifecycle emails help marketers deliver the right message to the right person at the right time, allowing them to communicate effectively at relevant times to nurture relationships by making the recipient feel special. There several types of lifecycle emails such as onboarding emails, subscriber emails, promotional emails and behavioural emails.
onboarding emails: helping you care for your customers after sign-up
Welcome Emails
Deliver more than the standard “Thanks for signing up” email – introduce prospects to your company, product or service. Give them an idea of what to expect and make their first experience with you a positive one.
Getting Started Emails
Give customers the opportunity to get going right way without necessarily the need for a sales person to speak them directly. The sooner they get up and running, the sooner you can get value.
Upsell Emails
Provide existing clients with information and incentives based on their initial buying behaviour – however ensure that you are offering them something of value.
Subscriber emails: keeping your customers and prospects engaged, inspired and informed
Newsletters
Deliver product/service information in a timely manner to keep your brand front of mind to leave a long lasting impression – it’s imperative that all the content that you deliver is of a high quality.
Educational Emails
Solve a problem or answer a question for your audience that focuses on the advantages of your product or service – here you can focus on your prospects’ pain points and the benefits for the user in overcoming these.
Thank You Emails
Grab the attention of customers and go onto make them aware of all your offerings and services or related infromation. Make the recipient feel cared for and show them that their actions have been recognised.
promotional emails: luring potential buyers with offers and exclusives
Special Offers
Stimulate interest through valued incentives and discounts – but remember to segment your data – unless you’re rewarding them, do you want to be sending out a discount code to a customer who has just paid full price?
Sales Emails
Persuade customers to buy through short-term sales, which can assist with generating revenue and building brand awareness.
Invitation Emails
Make your customers feel valued and important by inviting them to something a little bit special. This can also help with building anticipation of any new offerings.
Behavioural emails: using customer behaviours to help encourage them to buy
Abandoned Cart Emails
These can be used effectively to persuade basket abandoners to purchase products.
Milestone Emails
Reward customers for positive buying behaviours in order to develop relationships further.
Retention Emails
Get customers to buy and buy again by coming back to use services time after time.
Lead nurturing through a customer’s full lifecycle is one of the most powerful ways to carry out email marketing.
By sending targeted messages you can enhance the relationships with your prospects and customers. If you want to improve communication and trust with your audience and leverage some of that untapped potential then it’s time to consider implementing these lifecycle emails.
