When it comes to lifecycle marketing, inactive customers are often a mystery. Marketers think, “Why would a specific group of customers go through a complex signup process and never actually use the service for which they enrolled?” Often times the reasons why aren’t self-evident.
This blog aims to address inactive customers and provide successful email marketing techniques for breaking through. We’ll uncover and explore:
Lastly, we’ll examine the power of testing. We’ll take a look at how simple refinements can make a significant difference. This includes how one successful email marketing campaign increased inactive conversions by over 12%.
Uncovering the reasons why inactive customers haven’t engaged
Virtually all businesses place a premium on acquiring new customers. Many businesses think getting customers on board is the hard part and getting them to use a service is relatively easy. But the fact is, getting customers to engage can be fairly tricky and often requires additional effort.
We recently tackled the challenge of getting dormant subscribers to engage with and start using a service. Uncovering why these customers weren’t engaging required examining the enrollment process. The findings were revealing, but not necessarily simple to overcome.
First, we discovered a number of customers weren’t aware they were enrolled in the service. This came to light after analyzing customer data and finding that some customers were auto-enrolled outside of the current enrollment process. As a result, these customers didn’t necessarily know they had or could begin using the service. The second biggest issue was that some inactive customers were having technical difficulties and struggled to engage with the service for the first time. Once these challenges were identified, it became clear that there were distinct communication barriers that required timely and relevant information to break through.
Using trigger-based emails to break through
Many successful email marketers recognize the significant impact trigger-based emails can have on the customer lifecycle. These marketers understand that trigger-based emails are extremely effective for influencing customers based on their behavior or, in the case of inactive customers, their lack of behavior.
When it comes to getting inactive subscribers to take action, business logic needs to be developed based on timeliness and relevancy. In defining the inactive segment, determining when a customer technically becomes dormant is also critical. It’s important to examine data that distinguishes late starters from customers who aren’t truly engaged.
Once this is defined, marketers can focus on developing inactive emails to address and overcome adoption hurdles. Trigger-based inactive emails can be extremely effective when properly executed. Some of our more focused segments see conversions as high as 10%.
Employing multichannel resources to overcome adoption barriers
Trigger-based email campaigns can’t do it alone. That’s why successful email marketing campaigns employ multichannel resources to address and overcome complex questions. As such, overview videos, demos and FAQ landing pages can be extremely valuable for breaking through to inactive customers.
For example, we recently addressed the challenge of activating dormant online bill pay customers who were unfamiliar with how to make their first payment. As part of the campaign, we featured a video within the email series that provided step-by-step payment instructions. Because the video was seamlessly integrated within the email, recipients weren’t overwhelmed with copy. Customers could easily click to find answers to their questions. In keeping with successful email marketing campaign best practices, we ensured complex information was only a click away and delivered in a format that was easy to consume.
Check out Is email marketing worth doing if you aren’t doing email right? to learn more on successful email marketing campaigns.
Testing email campaigns to optimize performance
Testing is the lifeblood of successful email marketing campaigns. It’s also an opportunity for marketers to roll up their sleeves and find ways to improve upon learnings from past campaigns.
In the case of inactive online bill pay subscribers, the original email featured a complete set of 10 steps to make a payment. Recognizing that the number of steps could be daunting, the communication was streamlined to 3 easy steps – grab, add and enter.
In making a simple copy refinement, the campaign saw a significant increase in conversions. The streamlined email increased inactive conversions by over 12%.
Lifecycle marketing, triggered email opportunities and successful email marketing best practices continue to evolve.
Topics: Email Marketing
