Author: datacience

Maybe you heard someone speak at a conference recently and you think you may have a great business opportunity with that person, or maybe you just want to try your luck and reach out to potential prospects or leads with a cold email. Whatever the case, there will come a time when you have to cold email a person and do your best to impress them in that one email or risk losing them altogether.

At times like this, etiquette plays a big role. Not only is it a visual turn off when the etiquette is poor but can also convey a lack of professionalism and manners on your part – definitely not a good first impression.

So, here are some email mistakes you should be wary of when sending out cold emails (or even otherwise) to your network of contacts.

Avoid these 6 cold email mistakes:

1. Writing generic and impersonal subject lines

Lisa Marie Dias, an email marketing strategist says that in an age where we are all strapped for time and used to text messages, an email subject line should feel like a text message to the recipient.

So, instead of using something generic, make it clear and specific. In fact, use this space to give a one-line summary of the content of the email. The reader should know what to expect before they open the email.

2. Requesting a read receipt

This is, no doubt, a very annoying thing to do. It usually comes across as rude and unprofessional, maybe even a little stalker-ish! It might also seem to convey a lack of trust from your side.

Especially, when sending cold emails asking for a read receipt can seem quite intrusive and rightly so! It is up to them whether they want to read/trash/respond to your email.

If you are so curious as to know if the person actually had the chance to look at your email, then you should simply send a follow-up email. You can actually use tools with features such as email notes and email reminders to send a follow-up email, if you don’t hear back from someone.

When sending a follow-up email, wait for a week or so. Sending one the very next day is again annoying!

There are other smarter ways to find out if the reader has engaged with your email or not. Email tracking tools will help you find out if they opened your email, clicked on the link you had sent etc. In case you have sent a Google Forms link intending to collect user responses, you can set up email notifications for each time a user submits the form.

3. Sending an attachment that will require the recipient to install an app or software

We all have experienced this at one or the other time – getting a file whose format you have no idea about and had to search on Google to find out how to open it. The sender may have had valid reasons or maybe they were just being inconsiderate.

The bottom line is that an attachment you send is meant to be opened/read. If you use file formats that people don’t use that often, then you are making it extra work for your reader to open the email.

Do you really think when cold emailing someone, if you send a file with a weird format they will bother to Google it and open it? No! It will go straight to the trash. Make sure that your attachment files are in the universally known formats like JPG, PDF, Mp3 etc. Another point to remember is that, if you are sharing a Google Docs link, make sure you have changed the access settings before you send it off.

4. Attaching files without addressing them in the body of the email

If you don’t address the presence of an attachment in the email you sent, there is a high chance that it will get ignored or not be seen by the reader. They may just go through the content of the email and go back to their inbox without scrolling all the way down.

What’s even worse, 53% of all the emails are opened on mobile devices and it is harder to spot attachments on smaller screens of the mobiles. Add to that, reader’s impatience to get done with an email, you can be sure that your attachment will mostly go unseen.

Also, not talking about an attachment in the email body and directly attaching the file, can look spammy too. Your reader may think – what if the file is a spam and has some virus? So, avoid unnecessary complications here and mention it in the email when you attach a file.

5. Acting and writing like a robot

Here are some most commonly used opening lines:

• Hope you are well
• How are you doing today?
• Trust you had a good day.

If that’s how you want to start your email, then why don’t you just get your emails written by a bot? Because that’s what it sounds like! You can do so much better than that. For instance, let’s say the person you are emailing is an expert in the domain, make sure you acknowledge that first. This is a great way to establish a relationship and start off the email on a positive note.

6. Confusing ‘to’ and ‘CC’ fields

Even when we are expecting a reply from more than one person, we add just one name to the ‘To’ field and keep the rest in the ‘CC’ field when sending an email.

This is definitely not the right approach. If you are expecting a reply from someone, then you must add them to the ‘To’ field. Only when you want to keep someone in the loop or informed, that’s when you should use BCC or CC fields.

Warm up your cold emails

A few last pointers to keep in mind as you send off your next round of cold emails:

• After you cold email someone and have engaged in a conversation, don’t keep using the same subject line for every email you send.
• If you send them a document, make sure you have granted access to them to view the document.
• Don’t simply paste URLs in the email body; it looks ugly. Instead, hyperlink them to the relevant text.
• Don’t ever go too informal when sending a cold email like, ‘wassup, man!!’ or ‘dude, you rock!’ are absolute no-nos.
• Finally, always proofread!

Author : Niraj Ranjan Rout

This article originally appeared on The Contactually Blog

Have you ever skimmed your emails and got that “déjà vu” kind of a feeling because most of them look ‘almost’ similar?

Check out these emails:

Don’t they bear striking resemblances and emit a sense of monotony? Sections separated by spacers & stacked in the same ol’ column and row based layout…

A remarkable alternative to reusable template is one-off emails where you design every template from square one and begin with a plain white screen each and every time. Check out the quirky one-off email example below:

These conventional emails that have to be designed from scratch every time are known as one-off email templates.

It is definitely time-consuming. You have to think of unique design ideas days before the campaign is planned. Also, you have to get it designed and coded. Of course, you cannot forget to test the email.

Nonetheless, there are certain benefits of using one-off emails as listed below:

1. Unique look and feel

One-off templates give your emails a unique look and feel unlike reusable email templates that give a similar impression to the subscribers every time.

2. Effective for holiday email campaigns

Holiday email marketing works better if you use customized one-off email templates. You can include GIFs or cinemagraphs and give it a visual appeal to engage subscribers better.

Here’s an example of a delightful Easter email:

3. Work better for event invitations

Event invitations need to be designed in a way that they attract more leads and booth visitors. Sending out one-off email with an embedded video and brief copy would work wonders in this case rather than a reusable template.

Having said that, let’s not forget about the other type of email template – REUSABLE EMAIL TEMPLATE…

Reusable email template like the name suggests is a preset HTML file that can be used multiple times as and when required. It allows you to adjust the elements like pre-header text, images, body content etc. to an email according to the purpose of your campaign.

These email templates are generally saved in your Email Service Provider. They work like a scaffold on which you can create the entire email.

Their benefits over one-off emails are as discussed below:

• Saves Time

While one-off emails take time for design, reusable templates help you to send out emails almost instantly. You only have to load the email template and replace the content or graphics with the elements that you need in the new email.

• Branding Consistency

Reusable templates enable consistent formatting in emails as per the branding guidelines that gives your emails a distinct personality of their own.

• Enhanced Deliverability

As the branding guidelines are invariably adhered to, ISPs recognize your emails and thus ensure a better deliverability for your emails.

Wrapping Up

Weigh the pros and cons of one-off email templates against reusable templates and choose the best that suits your brand.

As an email marketer, you should consider that your subscribers are constantly evolving to filter the clutter of unwanted emails, and it’s up to you to send out unique emails that make them go “WOW”.

You can do this by sending out attractive one-off email templates and make your subscribers look forward to receiving your emails.

Author : Kevin George

This article originally appeared on Email Monks Blog

These days, discounts and free shipping offers are considered par-for-the-course in e-commerce marketing. In order to entice customers and keep them coming back, you have to rely on frequent dollars or percentage-off offers in your marketing.

The same is true for your email list growth tools. In order to maximize conversion rates on email pop-ups, e-commerce businesses need to include a discount offer in the call to action. Or do they?

Monthly Giveaways

Instead of giving away a discount to everyone who signs up for your email list, advertise a monthly contest that website visitors enter by giving up their email address.

Of course you have to make good on the giveaway and manage it each month, but you might find that giving away a single product costs you less than discounting orders across the board.

Free Download

Some e-commerce businesses have decided to forgo product giveaways altogether by offering a free piece of digital content to entice email signup. A word of warning here: your free piece of content, which would be delivered immediately to the list joiner in PDF format, needs to be really enticing in order to come close to the conversion rates of a discount offer, so get creative and think outside the box here. Some ideas:

• Recipe collections
• Calendars
• Worksheets and checklists
• Instructional content and DIY guides

For example, if you sell gardening tools online, you might offer a free seed calendar that illustrates what to plant when. If you sell organic cleaning products, you could offer spring cleaning checklist.

Exclusive Sales

Sometimes the promise of future offers or sales is enough to entice signups. Consider running sales that you advertise only to your email list and use that exclusivity to promote signup.

Early Bird Access

While slightly more nebulous than the “exclusive sale” offer, alluding to early access to special events and sales can be an effective way of communicating the value of joining an email list, especially if you run flash sales or in-person events (such as annual warehouse sales) that your customers want to get in early on.

Free Gift with Purchase

Offering a free gift to people who join your email list can be a great incentive for people to sign up. The key is to giveaway something with a high perceived value to the customer, but that doesn’t cost you much to give away and isn’t expensive to ship. Some good ideas for giveaway products: candles, tote bags, makeup items, lotion, healing masks, one-size-fits-all jewelry, socks, coffee or tea samples, temporary tattoos, greeting cards — you name it! You can really get creative.

Find What Works for your Business

Every business is different, so what works for one business might not work in yours. Always be testing! Use A/B testing tools to pit your calls to action against one another to determine their effectiveness. You might find that discounts are still the highest converting call to action to use on an email pop-up tool, and that’s great information to have. (You also want to keep a close eye on your list sign up discount redemption rates.)

Trying different approaches allows you to make informed business decisions about how many email addresses you’re willing to not capture in exchange for not offering a discount to everyone on the list.

Author : Katherine Raz

This article originally appeared on Justuno Blog

Receiving mail used to be a rare and precious thing…

Nowadays? Not so much!

With the sheer volume of email we collectively send and receive every day, it’s a wonder we find time for real life at all. And for you, that’s a problem…

• As a marketer, you want subscribers to make time for everything you send them.
• Your subscribers want empty inboxes so they can get on with the day!

If you don’t grab and make them need to read your lovingly-crafted newsletter or sales message, their eyes will scan right over your email.

Then guess what? Trash can!

How Many Subscribers Open Your Emails?

If you’re typical, it’s around 35%. In “tougher” niches, it could be much lower…

(Source: Campaign Monitor.)

If you fall short of the average for your industry, you’ll want to do better. (Heck, even if you exceed it, you’ll still want to drive up that open rate!)

How do you do it? You know the well-worn, proven answers – compelling subject lines, benefit-focused body copy, irresistible CTAs.

How about something you don’t know? Something simpler yet really effective…

Re-Send Emails to Those Who Trash Them!

Here’s how…

1) Wait!

Give everyone a reasonable chance to open your original email. The consensus from experts is that it takes 3 days for at least 90% of a mailout to be opened.

So be patient!

2) Identify Your Targets

After 3-4 days, go to your email manager and identify the people who didn’t open the email. Each email platform (AWeber, MailChimp, etc.) has a way to do this.

We can’t cover all the platforms here, so you’ll need to root around (or ask support). To give you the idea of what you’re looking for…

In MailChimp, go to Reports > Subscriber activity > Didn’t open…

3) Re-send to the “Didn’t Opens”

Before you do, write a different subject line.

Many of your “didn’t reads” will have trashed your mail because the subject didn’t grab them. So make the new subject line compelling in a different way (try another benefit, or a better way of delivering the same one).

A second sending also finds some folks who were in too much of a hurry the first time around. So send this at a different time of day.

This is a BIG, SIMPLE hack that works every time!

Bottom Line Takeaway?

Re-sending emails to folks who didn’t read them, using a different subject line, at a different time of day, takes moments.

The payoff? If your open rate is ⅓ , you could get ⅓ of the remaining ⅔ in the evening mailout 3 days later. That amounts to 55% instead of 33%, which is a 40% increase!

A nice boost for less than one minute’s work!

Author :  Cath Andrews

This article originally appeared on The SiteSell Blog

TeroVesalainen / Pixabay

It’s an easy trap to fall into – we’re so busy creating content that we can lose sight of exactly why we are we are doing it.

Sure, it’s rewarding to get clicks and follows, and to stretch our creative muscles, but ultimately the goal of all our effort is to, as the Content Marketing Institute puts it, “attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Is your content doing that? If not, read on for five tips that can help make it happen.

1. Focus on something bigger than yourself

It’s no accident that when you think of brands like Ben and Jerry’s or TOMS, you immediately associate them with social activism – their brands (and the content that promotes them) are carefully crafted to do just that. They are less about the founders and more about what the founders believe in, and how they translate their beliefs into action. As a result, both brands have legions of loyal, like-minded followers.

If you can consistently link your content to something you are passionate about, you may be on your way to becoming the next Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield or Blake Mycoskie, who founded TOMS.

2. Be a storyteller

“Fantastic writing and storytelling will put you ahead of the pack when it comes to your competition,” writes Alex York on the Sprout blog. “By telling better stories, you’re able to engage, entice and spark conversation with your audience. Your content management strategy should absolutely focus on getting readers talking about your brand.”

Use writers who can help your brand find and nurture its own voice, York suggests. “When your content has a unique voice that others in the industry will recognize, you know you have quality writers working for you.”

For more on storytelling, check out our post.

3. Do your research

“The most effective content is never about your company, your products or yourself,” writes Priyanka Desai at YourStory. “Instead, it starts with acknowledging a pain point and the best ways to solve it (including your solution). Putting your customers’ needs above your own builds trust.”

Without research, you risk wasting time and effort creating content that has no meaning to your readers, Desai suggests. “Research includes studying your competitors and understanding the market and your ideal customer’s problems.

Create content your customers demand instead of writing about what you think the readers want. The worst kind of content marketing starts with companies focused on showing how great their product or service is, instead of filling a void or addressing a clearly defined pain point.”

4. Build trust by using data

“In today’s digital media environment, trust can be hard to come by,” writes Dan Shewan on the WordStream blog. “With fact-checking and journalistic due diligence at all-time lows, it’s easy to see why so many readers have become reluctant to accept ‘facts’ as the cold, hard truth. That’s why it’s so important to back up your assertions with data.”

Shewan argues that using data should be as natural and commonplace as spellchecking.

“If you make a point, include statistics and facts to back it up. Similarly, if you cite data to make a point, be sure to cite it appropriately and, if possible, include a link to the original source. After all, you wouldn’t want somebody else using your data in their content without tipping their hat to your research, right?”

5. Always choose quality

“Growth from content marketing comes from quality, not quantity,” says Neil Patel at Outgrow. “Each post should add value. You’re better off publishing one absolutely amazing piece of content per month than publishing 30 mediocre posts. If you can publish more than one great post – fantastic! But always start with quality. Quality will always win.”

Poor content not only won’t help your brand, it can also damage it. Tony Delmercado, writing at ClearVoice, cites a survey in which 93 percent of respondents said high-quality content leads them to view the company producing it favorably — and 94 percent said poor content hurts their opinions of the brand producing it.

“If you want real engagement, your content needs to be stickier than trendy, easily generated listicles and repackaged blog posts,” writes Delmercado. “Critical thinkers are drawn to substantial subject matters written with snappy, compelling language. Write about something important, and make sure it’s well-researched.”

Author : Kristen Dunleavy

This article originally appeared on Movable Ink Blog

Marketing automation is a tricky area for many marketing pros, but it’s important to understand the potential automation has when executed well. Email marketing has been a staple of the marketing world since the dawn of the internet, but many marketers unfortunately overlook its lasting potential, especially when you curate your automation to your readers’ actions.

Many companies rely on very basic forms of automation such as receipt emails after completed transactions, confirmation emails after customers perform specific actions, support ticket information, and other basic automatic messages. A drip campaign takes automation a step further and leverages automation as a more valuable marketing tool.

A drip campaign is named so because it “drips” content to your mailing list based on past interactions. For example, if you send a downloadable attachment to your mailing list, you could send one of two possible follow up emails depending on whether or not the recipient opened your previous attachment. Done well, you narrow your funnel and capture the attention of your best leads while cultivating more.

A drip campaign can be one of your company’s best tools for generating new business, but it takes careful development to succeed. The goal is to offer the right thing at the right time to the right people, so testing is necessary to find successful patterns. Despite its apparent complexity, drip campaigns offer tremendous value.

Cost-Effective Content

Drip campaigns are one of your best opportunities to leverage your content as a lead generator. When you take time to craft different styles of valuable content, you can tailor your drip campaign to feed this content to your readers based on their past actions. The drip campaign channels you create could be tailored to rewarding repeat customers, educating leads, or offering help to customers who need it. Although they may have different patterns of interaction, you can still deliver your content at the most opportune time for each.

Balance is Important

Don’t overdo your drip campaign. Inundating your readers with multiple messages will only frustrate and annoy them. Luckily, you can automate when your emails are actually sent, so use this control advantageously. Drip campaigns are successful in the long run, so don’t expect immediate results. Track your progress and adjust your drip campaign accordingly. The goal should be to nurture your leads over time with valuable content and information.

Creating Your Drip Campaign

How you automate your drip campaign will depend on the type of business you do, what kind of content you publish, and your overall business goals. Every company will have unique variables, so measure your past open rates and see what type of emails seemed to resonate the most with your readers.

Successful drip campaigns also hinge on your knowledge of your customers. Consider survey tools to find out what your customers like and don’t like about your brand to find new ways to reach them. If you know your audience, it’s much easier to curate your communications to them and drive engagement.

Author : Jaime Nacach

This article originally appeared on Bloominari

Email Marketing still remains one of the most popular ways to reach a large set of audience. And a successful email marketing campaign is a result of equal roles played by in-depth conceptualization, strong copywriting and world-class design.

Have you ever been bogged down by various design and development challenges and factors while planning your email marketing campaign? Well, there are few design considerations that are wrongly followed by email designers and marketers.

1. Only standard system fonts should be used

Standard system fonts are the safest option to use in emails. That doesn’t mean you cannot employ non-standard web fonts. A wide range of online fonts that are licensed is available for use in emails. Google provides around 800 free web fonts; this has become the go-to library for email designers. Web fonts are supported by Apple Mail for iPhone, iPad and Mac, Google Android 4.4, OS X and Outlook 2011 and 2016. However, it depends on the email client and how the web font is embedded in the email.

2. Width of the email should be 600 pixels

When email was accessed just on the desktop, the standard width of an email was considered to be 600 pixels. But, today with more devices to cater and varying screen sizes to support, the 600 pixels rule need not be followed. Though this width can be used as a physical width to start your email design, you can make use of media queries to change the width of the email depending on the devices used by your subscribers to access emails.

3. All styles must be inlined

Earlier, Gmail did not support style in the head section and hence all styles were inlined. Also, there was a misconception that Outlook also does not support styles in the header because of which majority of the developers used inline CSS to add styles. Now, Gmail has started supporting style in the header, and hence, if most of your subscribers use Gmail, Outlook, and iOS, there is no need to inline the styles in CSS anymore.

4. Emails must be identical across email clients

Email clients render emails differently. Due to this, email designers and developers create identical emails across a multitude of email clients. With new techniques in email, it does not matter much if there is a difference of a few pixels in various email clients. As a developer, you should experiment with the new techniques and find out better ways to do it.

5. Avoid using background images

Background images lack support in many versions of Outlook and some other email clients. Adding background images to an email using the complicated VML code is actually a struggle for email developers. The fact is, background images do work in emails but it depends on how they are incorporated into your email design. You shouldn’t be using background image as a key element but as a progressive enhancement like you use web fonts.

6. It is not necessary to have a responsive design

Responsive design is not considered as a necessity but, according to BizReport of BlueHornet, 80% of recipients delete emails not optimized for mobile. Also, by 2018, 8 out of 10 email users are expected to access their email accounts on mobile devices, shows The Radicati Group report. Hence, it is necessary that the emails you design run smoothly across all devices and platforms. An email that is not responsive would send your email to the recipient’s spam folder.

7. Short emails are more effective than long ones

It is a myth that people have short attention spans online and that the copy of your email must be short, concise and to the point. The fact is that email attention span is actually increasing. The key to making a mark is to provide only relevant information and not bombarding the viewers with random content. There is no standard length for an email and it all depends on the purpose of your email. You can write as much as you want to make it persuasive. A long email, too, can keep the viewers engaged.

It’s time to get over these common design myths and discover new ways and best practices to make your email marketing campaigns effective. The ideal way is to test what works for your brand. Monks offer free HTML email templates to make your email marketing campaigns effective. Explore them!

Did we miss something here? Get in touch with us and let us know in the comments below.

Author : Kevin George

This article originally appeared on Email Monks Blog

The Sales Funnel is a Lie!

Well, maybe not an out-and-out untruth. But, as a sales model, it oversimplifies the path to purchase as a straight line from intent to purchase to loyalty. That’s why so many marketers have begun working with customer journey mapping – it recognizes that a customer’s relationship with a brand is more like a wander through the woods than a conveyor belt.

Messaging on the Customer Journey

Each of these touchpoints provides a messaging opportunity. It could be a welcome email to someone who signs up for your email program. Or, it could be a retargeting ad for someone who browsed on your website but didn’t buy or sign up. It could be a social-media ad targeted to people who follow your feed.

The graphic below, developed by Kath Pay of Holistic Email Marketing, illustrates the various points along the customer journey where a well-timed email message could move your customers further along the path or bring them back if they have strayed. Note that each message along the two curved lines is color-coded to a specific life-cycle stage.

The 3 Part Email Stress Test

As you can see, email is a key player on the customer journey. Although customer journey mapping can give you endless opportunities for creating email marketing, your database must pass three major stress tests to make sure it’s up to the task of carrying the messaging load for your customers’ journeys.

1. Acquisition

Customers start their brand journeys at many places along the way: signing up for your email program through an overlay on your home page or an interior location, at the cash register, in response to an in-store beacon or a Promoted Tweet in their Twitter feed and many other ways.

The challenge with these access points is making sure that address is valid. You need a real-time email validation service to catch registration errors before they enter your database – to be sure the address is formatted correctly, corresponds to a live account and doesn’t represent some other potential hazards.

2. Retention

Having an up-to-date email database full of current and accurate email addresses is important for any business, whether B2C or B2B, it’s twice as vital for journey mapping, because addresses can decay so quickly.

Customers can fall off the purchase path in many ways, whether through lack of interest, inactivity or transfer to another brand. Repeatedly emailing outdated addresses wastes time and money and increases the chance that your emails will be marked as spam.

3. Win-back

Unsubscribing happens, but it doesn’t have to mean your relationship is over. While you can no longer email your unsubscribed customers (unless they opt in again), you can remain on their radar in other channels, such as social media.

Coming up: The Customer Journey… Beyond Email

We’ll cover more about customer journey mapping in future blog posts, beginning with the process of auditing your customer communications so you know who’s sending what to whom and when in your organization.

In the meantime, let us know if you have questions about journey mapping and the role email, postal and social media can play in the journeys you and your customers take.

Author : Keith Reinhardt

This article originally appeared on FreshPerspectives Blog

As marketers look for new ways to connect with their audience, behavioral marketing could be the key to more opens, clicks and sales. This type of data is essential for creating rich, contextual experiences for your customers.

Think of behavioral data like a crystal ball—it gives you a glimpse into the future decision-making patterns of your customers and helps predict possible purchase opportunities. But what do you with all of that data once you have it?

Behavioral email campaigns.

Why behavioral emails work

This type of email campaign is triggered when a customer has a specific interaction with your brand. Things like web page visits, past purchase behavior, link clicks, social media engagement and email opens can all be an indicator of what your customers are interested in and likely to act on. They can also include more dynamic approaches, like location-based messaging.

The key advantage as to why these emails are so effective? You’re able to deliver content that immediately addresses key moments in the customer journey and create a better experience. Behavioral email can lead to:

Behavioral email marketing ranks as the most effective strategy for improving email engagement. It makes sense—73% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands who send them relevant, targeted information.

When to send

The concept of behavioral marketing seems simple enough, right? But the infrastructure and conditions needed to trigger an email can quickly become complex, even for the advanced email marketer.

We’ve put together 6 scenarios where behavioral marketing can come into play, so you can start sending smarter, more effective email campaigns:

Welcome—If you’re looking to optimize any email, make it this one. Your welcome email sets the tone for the rest of your campaigns to come and has an average open rate of over 50%. What sets off the trigger for your welcome campaign is a good thing—a subscriber was interested in learning more and opted in to receive emails from you.

Image via Really Good Emails

We love how this email identifies exactly where the subscriber is in their journey and gives them helpful information and resources that give them exactly what they need and will ultimately build trust.

Reactivation/Abandoned Cart—Abandoned cart emails are one of the most effective emails that retailers can send to re-engage visitors who left their site before completing a purchase. After all, no one is more ready to buy than someone who puts items in their shopping cart. But nearly 68% of online shoppers abandon their cart, so sending a friendly reminder of the items they’ve left behind can help you capture lost revenue.

Image via Really Good Emails

Not only does this Bonobos email serve as a reminder that items were left in the shopping cart, but it also identifies that they’re a first-time customer (and maybe a bit hesitant to place an order!). It serves them with a 20% off code to help give a gentle nudge.

Lead—Someone who opts into your list to download a resource or redeem a special welcome offer is likely interested in what you’re selling and wants to get to know you better. By sending targeted messaging to this audience, you’re helping to nurture the relationship as they make their way through the purchasing funnel. Depending on what they downloaded, sending contextual follow-ups that can help aid in the decision-making process can have a big impact.

Image via Really Good Emails

When you sign up for a course on Skillshare, for example, the content that you opted in to receive gets sent right away.

Onboarding—Help make the new customer transition a little easier with triggered emails that offer helpful resources and information they need to be successful. Effective onboarding emails can be the thing that makes customers “stickier” and improve your retention rate.

Image via Really Good Emails

This onboarding email from Hired is simple, straightforward and lets new users know exactly where they are in the setup process. Try setting up automated campaigns that are triggered when a person does (or doesn’t) complete a step when getting started.

Transactional—These type of messages are sent to give customers information on their purchase, invoices, shipping confirmations and more. But what people don’t realize is that it’s a great opportunity to engage customers while they wait for their order to arrive or return to process.

Image via Really Good Emails

This email from Tradesy is a great example of giving the customer the information they need, while also sharing other content that may be of interest (in this instance, a referral program.)

Inactivity—Sometimes customers go dormant—hey, it happens. Using behavioral marketing and data, you can identify when customers haven’t opened your emails or visited your website in a while. Sending emails that remind your subscribers that you’re still around helps keep your brand top of mind.

Image via Really Good Emails

This re-engagement campaign from Typeform does a great job of identifying a common customer pain point and offers a solution to fix it. Try sharing some helpful resources or ideas for using your product that your customers might not have thought of. If you’re a retailer, bonus points for throwing in a little incentive or bonus offer to give motivation to return.

Start sending today

Behavioral email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to take advantage of email automation. You can use them for retaining customers, nurturing leads and increasing your ROI. With this type of messaging, you’ll be able to increase the impact of your efforts all while sending customers information they actually want to receive.

Want to start sending better, smarter email campaigns today?

Want to learn more about behavioral marketing and get a sneak peek at Movable Ink’s behavioral marketing expansion, Signals? Download our latest eBook, The Behavioral Marketing Playbook.

Author : Olivia Dello Buono

This article originally appeared on Movable Ink Blog

Everyone makes mistakes every now and then. When it comes to email marketing, everyone’s done it; even the big guys make gaffes sometimes. When this happens, the important thing is to take a breath and not panic. Most people think they need to send out an apology right away, but depending on the error and your audience, you may want to wait. Sending too many emails at once, even for a mistake, can send your unsubscribe rate skyrocketing.

Here are four steps to take if you’ve made a mistake in an email:

• What is the email list size?
• What is the open and click-through rate?

It’s possible that you caught the error early and can send out a follow-up with minimal impact. Then, ask:

• How big is the mistake?
• How will it affect your business?
• Did you make a spelling error or a pricing mistake, or did you promote the wrong date for an event?

A minor typo, misspelling or coding error probably won’t have much impact, other than some embarrassment or people pointing out the mistake. In this case, sending out a follow-up could be an annoyance for your recipients – save the correction for the next email or newsletter that you send out.

A pricing error or the wrong date could have a major impact on your business or organization, so sending out a follow-up email is a must.

2. Respond: Once you’ve assessed the situation, decide how to respond.

Keep these tips in mind if you need to send a follow-up email:

• Be quick – A quick follow-up can catch people before they see the first email
• Be clear – Subject and pre-header should be clear about the purpose
• Apologize – Own up to the mistake and say you’re sorry for any misunderstanding
• Send an offer – If you can’t give what was promised in the email, offer a back-up
• Brand – Stay on brand in the apology, but humor is always good
• Use social media – Consider acknowledging the error on social media to be transparent and help alleviate customer support issues

You can also try to correct the mistake, depending on where it was in your email. If you’ve made an error in the subject line, in a link or in the content, these tips can help you correct the mistake, even if you’ve already sent the email:

• Subject line oops – This impacts your open rate, so one thing you never want to do, no matter how tempting, is to use a placeholder subject line like TBD or “test” while creating your email – just in case you launch the email without remembering to change the subject line. You may not know your subject line right away, but even if you use something like “August Newsletter” for the time being, it’ll support your email if it does get sent, and won’t be as detrimental as “test” might.
  • In follow-ups:
    • Use the words “Correction,” “Oops” or “We Apologize” in the subject line, so your recipients know why they received another email.
    • Consider using the pre-header for the correction information.
• Link oops – Links can be corrected in the reporting area of your account. If you have a URL spelled out incorrectly in the copy, i.e., www.verticalrponse.com, it can’t be changed, but the underlying link can. At least those who click will go to the right page. Since your reporting will tell you how many clicks you have, and which links were clicked, consider mailing only to those who clicked the bad link, rather than your whole list.

• Content oops – Images can be refreshed. If some of your recipients saw the wrong graphic in the email, contact our support team; they can help you refresh an image in your email. If you’ve made a typo, or the mistake is not business-impacting, address it later. If you’ve mailed to the wrong list segment or have the wrong offer in the email, send an apology email with the correct info.

3. Measure the impact: Once you’ve decided what your plan is and you’ve taken action, or not, look at how things went. The reporting from your emails will give you insight into how your recipients responded to the mistake:

• Track your opens and clicks – Do you have a normal open rate for your emails? Did it change due to the error?
• Watch the conversions – Are they where you expected them to be? Or are they higher or lower?
• Check the unsubscribe rate – Hopefully everything you’ve done has kept it low, but keep an eye on it.
• Compare original and follow-up emails and see how the stats compare.

4. How to avoid an “Oops!” in the future: Proofread, proofread, proofread. If you’re the only person looking at your emails, enlist someone else. Just one other set of eyes can prevent a mistake from happening again. Also, always send a test email and look at it! Make sure the copy makes sense, that you see the right images and they’re rendering correctly, and that all your links work.

Try some of these content tactics:

• Use auto-correct and spell check, or use Microsoft Word to discover grammar problems.
• Print out your emails and check for errors.
• Read each word out loud to catch anything wrong.

Everyone makes mistakes; the important thing is to learn from them.

Author : VerticalResponse

This article originally appeared on VerticalResponse Blog