Building a successful email marketing campaign requires that marketers achieve relevancy in their marketing communications. I’d argue that successful email marketing programs in the future will leverage data to create relevant email marketing campaigns. The success will lie in leveraging data to create meaningful campaigns. My hypothesis is that data-driven campaigns are less likely to result in marketing fatigue if messages are considered relevant and valuable by audience.
Adobe recently validated this finding in its Fighting Marketing Fatigue white paper. The white paper noted that marketing fatigue is not measured by actual communication frequency, but “perceived frequency.” This led to a revolutionary finding: that marketers can safely increase the number of communications without fatiguing a target audience if communications are uniquely personalized at an individual level.
Issues of marketing fatigue and user opt-outs.
Marketing fatigue can occur if users receive too many irrelevant communications. However, a user will be more accepting of a larger volume of communications if they feel the communications are relevant and speak to them and their needs.
Slightly more than half of users state that the reason they have opted out is because of message frequency.1 Delivering successful email marketing campaigns may become dependent on leveraging marketing data to deliver relevant communications that are sent in a higher volume than was once believed would be tolerated. The key, however, is using and applying data to create communications that are relevant—things the user wants to engage with and values.
36% increase in performance by applying marketing data.
We have conducted a number of email tests leveraging personalized information with specific customer information versus a more general email. Personalized information drove a 36% higher click-through rate than a general email. It turns out that tailoring and applying data helps improve the chances of delivering a successful email marketing program.
Rather than just sending out a blanket email that proclaims a “50% off sale,” promote products based on past buying behavior. Key buying behavior trigger points include purchase history, abandonment of page or shopping cart, and defecting or lapsing—all proven behaviorally driven actions for generating successful email marketing campaigns. Consider what you know about the target and enhance the communications based on individual buying behavior.
An analysis of marketing data can be used to ensure that messaging is relevant to the user. Users will often determine whether a message is relevant to them simply by reading the subject line. Once the subject line has been read, any emails that are deemed not relevant will often be discarded, demonstrating that marketers only have a small amount of time to hook the user.
To increase relevancy, the email must be targeted to a specific user and designed to provide value to this target. The communication must also be personalized; personalized communications have been shown to greatly increase user responsiveness.
Collecting and analyzing data to increase personalization and relevancy.
Creating personalized and relevant data requires the ability to analyze and apply data. Data relevancy can include a multitude of factors: purchase or transactional information, self-reported information, appended data or even behavioral data.
When used together, this data can paint an extremely complex and detailed portrait of a user that can be used to tailor offers, promotions and messaging. The key is to determine which data attributes make sense to incorporate into the communications, not to utilize every possible variable.
Where to start in using data analysis and data mining techniques.
Most marketers collect a large amount of data. Many use this data to inform decision making. Many marketers use this data to do front-end segmentation. But many marketers are not effectively using data to enhance the relevancy of their communications.
It seems many marketers may not be convinced of the value of the data they have in-house. Or possibly they aren’t confident their processes can handle applying this data to their communications. Marketers need to learn how to analyze these data sets if they are to increase the personalization and relevancy of their communications and messaging.
To accomplish true behavioral marketing, ongoing marketing campaigns should be continually monitored and adjusted based on response to email messaging. Marketers must focus both on campaign-specific data and data tailored to each individual user. If you’re not applying data to improve the relevancy of your communications, then you’re probably shortchanging your email marketing programs. Relevancy and tailoring can lead to more successful email marketing programs.
Sources:
1. BlueHornet
Topics: Email Marketing
