Behavioral Email: For Everyone April 17, 2018, | Posted by Erin

Behavior-triggered emails have long been a staple of e-commerce and retail email marketing efforts, but studies are increasingly showing that they are useful across all niches, including financial services, B2B, healthcare, travel, and more. Site Impact has been keeping an eye on this information; as leaders in the email marketing industry, we’re always interested in learning more about trends and what the data shows regarding a variety of strategies to get the best results for all of our clients. While it may seem counterintuitive for certain industries and companies, behavior-triggered messages can make a huge difference.

First, of course, we need to define what we’re talking about. Within email marketing, there are three basic types of campaign: the standard planned campaign consists of a developed message, often with some form of offer or promotion, with a fairly large volume of recipients--in other words, a broad, general approach. The second essential type is a lifecycle campaign, where a predetermined set of messages are sent to specific users based on where they are in a buying cycle, regardless of behavior. An example of this type of campaign is the usual welcome email after sign-up, followed by automated efforts in the hopes of driving  conversion, and a ramp-up of marketing towards the end of a subscription period. The third type, behavioral triggered marketing, is what we’re addressing today: generally speaking, these emails only deploy if a particular consumer takes a particular action--usually checking something on the main website, or abandoning a cart, or something similar.

Within the niche of ecommerce and retail, behavior-triggered marketing efforts have a long-established reputation for providing great return on investment; but it may take a little bit of thinking to understand why they are also effective for other types of business. However, by broadening the way one looks at conversions, as well as giving some thought to what behaviors should trigger the email messages, it’s easy to see the connection. For example, banks sending an email after each branch visit, or after a certain period of time since a customer last logged into their online account, can trigger deeper engagement with accounts--or even open an opportunity for cross-selling. Within the travel niche, the relevant behaviors might include abandoning itineraries during the trip-planning process, or searches for certain locations.

Looking at these examples, behavior-triggered email messaging makes a lot of sense as a tool to increase engagement, as well as conversions--however it is that looks for your industry. At Site Impact, we know that engagement is an important driver of consumer spending; it helps move potential customers through the sales funnel, and provides valuable opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling other products and services. For almost any industry, there is definitely a place for behavioral-triggered email marketing, as long as a proper strategy is used, and as long as the right behaviors are used to trigger the messages. This can be--of course--a complicated question, so contact us today to find out how we can help you with developing your own behavior-triggered email campaigns, to increase ROI on your email marketing, and drive more conversions.