Personalize or die: the secret to increasing email open rates, clicks — and revenue (webinar)

Email marketing is the undisputed marketing ROI leader and the preferred channel for your customers — so why are you losing money? Join our live webinar to find out from the experts how personalization can dramatically increase open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and revenue. 

Register here for free.

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A huge chunk of data-driven marketing relies on basic psychology — what do customers really want, and how can we make them happy?

“Every customer has different habits and preferences — we can’t ignore that,” says Matt Olsen, senior manager of digital marketing at Firehouse Subs, the rapidly-growing QSR encroaching on Subway’s market share. “It’s much harder to change behavior or create new behaviors from scratch than it is to encourage existing behaviors, so we want to work with our customers’ habits to achieve success.”

That’s why personalization has to be more than just plugging a customer’s name into an email. Olsen calls that a “really small baby step.”

“It’s more about the overall marketing strategy and content, he notes. “Those little baby steps are good, but we need to give them the content that’s right for them. Let’s just give them the content and the messaging that’s theirs, that’s going to encourage their repeat behavior.”

Most of Firehouse Subs’ customer data is harvested from the customer loyalty program. Integrated with the retail point of sale, the loyalty program offers data about purchase habits and visit frequency that offer real results. The company regularly sees conversion of lapsed customers back into regular customers with simple customization based on recency and frequency.

Data is important, Olsen emphasizes, but every company needs to look carefully at their marketing strategy to determine exactly what specific profile fields will drive results. If you start to delve into third parties that can help with demographics and psychographics, he warns, “you start to run the risk of almost having too much data.”

That’s a serious budgetary issue. Getting useful data beyond those basics, Olsen warns, can be difficult and expensive. From point of sale to analytics tools to data integration and a solid communication platform, it can cost a lot of money. But for Firehouse Subs, it’s worth the investment to get exactly the information they need.

Brands like these are succeeding because personalization works. As VB Insight’s recent email report shows, personalization dramatically increases open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and revenue — as much as 2.5x CTR and 6x increase in transactions.

Tune in to the upcoming webinar as VB Analyst Andrew Jones shares the top takeaways from the report and is joined by Olsen and other pros who will share the strategies behind their success.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:

• Boost sales and cement customer relationships


• Avoid key challenges to implementation


• Learn best practices for adopting high tier personalization


• Get independent vendor ratings for personalization solution


• Partner with the right companies


• Avoids the gotchas of personalization

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Don’t miss out!

Register here for free.

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Speakers:

Andrew Jones, Analyst, VB Insight
Monica Zent, CEO, Foxwordy
Kevin Michael Gray, Founder, ApproveMe

Matt Olsen, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Firehouse Subs

Moderator:

Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat

Personalize or die: the secret to increasing email open rates, clicks — and revenue (webinar)

5 Tips For Increasing Your Promotional Emails' ROI

Despite the rising popularity of such communication channels as texting, social media, and even video conferencing, emails continue to be an important and effective way to reach other people, especially prospective customers for the products and services your Internet marketing business promotes.

But the format of emails requires you to work a little harder to gain somebody’s trust. It’s very easy for your prospects to either delete your email without opening it or ignore it altogether.

Today we are going to look at some techniques you can use within the body of your promotional emails to make them connect better with your customers so that it’s easier to get them to follow your call to action, whatever it may be.

Body of the Email

The body of your promotional emails needs to be as concise and to the point as possible. Remember, the average person gets dozens of emails in their inbox every day. If they open yours at all, they will probably junk it if it is packed with dense copy and long, drawn out sentences.

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Most people scan – rather than read – emails. So you want to use short sentences or even brief phrases or bullet points whenever possible. This makes it easier for your reader to capture the essence of your message as quickly as possible. 

Using Attachments and Links

The biggest selling point of email over most other communication methods – such as texting or instant messaging – is its ability to attach documents such as Word files, audio files, videos, slideshows and others.

These can be attached to the email using the “Attach Files” function. When the recipient gets the email, attachments will be listed both under the header and beneath the text copy when the email is opened by your reader. Clicking on either will open the attachment on a separate screen. 

Including Links within Email Content

Within the body of your email, you also can include links to web pages, addresses and other locations.

When the reader clicks on these links, they bring the reader to your intended destination.

A word of warning: It’s very important to double check to make sure your attachments and links work properly. Test them before sending out your emails to make sure they work. There is no faster way to lose a prospective customer than to forget an attachment or include a broken link.

Emoticons and Their Uses

Emoticons are those little smiley faces that can be inserted into the body of your email. Examples include  and :D.

Depending on your intended audience, emoticons can be either light-hearted and entertaining or unprofessional and distracting.

When you talk to somebody face-to-face, you can use gestures and body language to provide non-verbal meanings. Sometimes emoticons can be helpful substitutes for these non-verbal cues. 

Should You Use Emoticons?

A good rule of thumb is to avoid be cautions when using emoticons in business communications. In some cases, they can distract your reader from your central message.

Plus, they and can strain the operating system of older computers, causing them to run slower and potentially causing ill feelings towards the email’s sender.

If you’d like to learn more about email marketing, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month.

This article was originally published here. 

Author: Troy Hollenbeck

Troy Hollenbeck is President/CEO of Evolve Journal a digital media company in St.Albert, Alberta,Canada. Hockey writer, blogger, author, former hockey player and marketing strategist. “Lives life with zest and authenticity to help others achieve their dreams and pursue passions”… View full profile ›

5 Tips For Increasing Your Promotional Emails" ROI