In a world where communication is imperative, e-marketing systems are a blessing.
Targeting your customers can be tough, especially now that so many people use email and digital marketing as a focal tool.
As marketeers we are always trying to know more about our customers- what do they like? What do they respond well to? The tools to help us with this quest are forever growing. With heat map analysis, A/B testing and click through analysis, amongst others, it is getting easier and easier to monitor trends and get to the bottom of what our customers want.
If you think this is advanced, then check out the power of marketing and email automation systems….
In this day in age, there’s technology to help us with our communication issues, on a level that you could never imagine. Marketing / Email automation systems and technical software offer the ability to track customer interests and likes. Not only can it tell us what they are interested in, but it allows us respond to those interests with relevant content, specific and bespoke to that customer. Clever stuff hey!
So why is this important?
1. Interest
So you’re interested in Gardening and horse riding. 3pm on a Friday afternoon you get an email about fishing. What do you do? Like most people you will find yourself deleting it without even looking at the content of the email. Why? Because it is not relevant to you, it is not of interest, and it’s not something you need to read about.
With the email automated system, content relevant only to a specific customer can be sent. If you’re interested in cooking, you’ll get a cooking related email. If you’re interested in mechanics, you’ll get a mechanics related email. Makes sense!
2. Get through the crowd
So I’ve received my email about Gardening. I like Gardening. Because I’ve received something relevant to me I’ve taken notice. It’s made its way through the sea of other emails. I’ve actually opened it, and I’ve read it, and I’ve clicked something. But you’ll know that from the results.
With email automated email systems you can also time your next email. I’ve opened my Gardening email and instantly received a free voucher to shop online. Great. I’ve had the time to read the email, so I actually have time to now go and have a browse. Clever timing.
3. On time, every time
As with my Gardening email, I’ve received an email instantly. This was automated. I didn’t need someone to send it me. It arrived in reaction to my action. This helps e-marketing to flow nicely while you sit back and check out those results. There’s no forgetting to send the next email, no running out of time and delaying the email by another hour or day, little room for sending the wrong email to the wrong database. From the initial set up, everything is automated, you let the system do it for you. This gives less room for error and means that your e-marketing stays scheduled as you initially planned.
Each of these reasons adds value to the customer experience. And we all know the importance of the customer experience! Without it, we get lost is a sea of other emails, all competition for your customer’s attention!
This next step in e-marketing will tighten, tailor and toughen your e-marketing materials. Providing relevant content is more interesting, and response rates will increase…but you’ll know that from the results…
Emma Dobson is a creative thinker, branding expert and Touch Point guru at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
