6 Trigger Point Tips or What are Triggers and Why You Can't Do Without Them
Our first article was devoted to ( email marketing for startups ) - how to build a base of first subscribers and what to do with them then. This is the second article in the “Email Marketing for a Startup” cycle, and in it we’ll tell you about triggers and share tips on how to set up and improve your trigger email list.
A trigger (or transactional letter ) is a letter that is automatically sent by the system to a user on an event in its user history (or if there is no such event — an abandoned basket / did not order a month). In English, trigger means "trigger", and this bright image fits the subject in the best way possible - the correct "hook" is pressed automatically, "firing" exactly at the target.
We made a lot of letters-triggers for clients of our email-marketing agency, but when they began to build a system for their own project Email-Competitors.ru, they looked at some things differently. And now, on the basis of accumulated extensive practical experience, we want to offer you 6 tips on setting up a trigger mailing.
Trigger letters are much better for spam filters than any mass mailing, recipients open them more actively (on average, the Open Rate is 80% for triggers versus 30% for marketing letters), and you can track the goals of the letter on the website. Often, these factors serve as an excuse for sending letters to your own mail server.
')
Yes, it is easier to integrate with your own mailer, but it is unlikely that your admin will regularly monitor his reputation, and the ability of email programs to collect statistics, track delivery errors and complain about spam is usually not encouraging. Given the cost of a penny modern automation services triggers mailings - do not use them just silly.
We at email-Competitors for trigger emails use the mandrill.com service. Why them? First, it was done by the same team as Mailchimp, which we use for mailings, and these two services can be easily linked with each other, transferring templates, etc. Secondly, Mandrill’s free functionality is enough for you for a long time - we, despite our rapid growth, still use the free version. In addition, we are confident in the reputation of their servers, and therefore for us it will be good from the beginning, not zero.
Do not try to think of everything initially. An elephant needs to be eaten piece by piece, and the system of trigger mailings is one more monster. In our opinion, it is much more efficient to start small, adding triggers as your understanding of what is needed by you and your users deepens, and as your business grows and changes.
If the speech does not concern real-time-interaction (a la “money came to the account”), then we proceed as follows. Select the user segment, for example, those who have never used the search in our system. We create for them a letter with the desired call-to-action in the same Mailchimp, send, look at the result. If everything is good and the result suits us, then the letter is embedded in the trigger system - the user is registered, and if he doesn’t use the search for a week, then he receives the already created letter. If you implement a new trigger right into the system, then you can judge its effectiveness or inefficiency when it works well at least 400 times. You can wait for weeks. Our approach allows you to get the effect in 2-3 days.
At the start of the project through Mandrill, we made 2 of the most simple trigger letters - account registration and password recovery. This is a minimum necessary for everyone, since both these actions can and should be carried out automatically and instantly. This is what our password recovery trigger looks like:
When registering it is worth making double-opt-in, that is, confirmation of the email. After the user is registered on the site, he receives an email with a link, clicking on which confirms the registration. Only after the second (double) confirmation (opt in) his address is entered into the database, which allows you to create a list of really interested and loyal customers.
Let first you have 2-3 most essential triggers, it is better not to spend extra money and precious development hours: an idea emerged - test, if the test is successful - only then implement.
Triggers should make life easier and more convenient. Both you and your client. Think: what is important to you, what information, how often? What is important to your client, to what extent? The more precisely you answer these questions, the better you will be able to build a system of triggers.
Few triggers can be “inconvenient” - you do not get enough information about user behavior, you can not influence it in time; At the same time, the user does not receive the usual confirmation of his actions on the site. For example, it is customary to receive a notification about the payment of the order, and without receiving it, we are worried - the money was written off, but did you get it?
A lot of triggers are also “inconvenient” - you have too much data to process, and the user is flunked by trigger letters, and he sent it all to spam or unsubscribed at all.
Speaking personally about our experience, Email-Competitors currently uses 11 triggers, and we already know which ones will be next.
The number and interval of reminder letters depends, again, on your business and on the cost of the proposed service / product. For example, RU-CENTER sends customers 2-3 warning letters and 2 reminder letters (after the expiration date). Modern people are very busy, and may forget to pay even what they need; reminders will allow you not to lose a client due to the fact that he forgot / did not have time, and the client will be grateful - a reminder removes from him the task of tracking payment deadlines.
People like it when you contact them personally, and we respect our customers. Moreover, the inability to address the subscriber personally is already a moveton. For those who do not care about ethical issues (we hope there are very few), add that users rarely send personalized letters to spam.
If you send emails from a “noreply” mailbox, the ability to communicate with users is lost. E-mail is a communication space - do not break the public names of the boxes. This time.
When sending letters from “site name / Vasya Pupkin” @ gmail.com (mail.ru, ...), the spam filter thinks that you are sending letters from someone else's domain, no matter what it is to mail - you do not control it and no digital signatures you will not be able to confirm ownership, which will lead to the fact that all your important notifications will sooner or later get into spam.
Many specially complicate this process, but it is not only ugly, but also harmful for business - the user, when he can not unsubscribe easily, gets angry, and sends you to spam, considerably spoiling your karma. Users in the system are not “for show”. If you are not interested in a person - it makes no sense to keep him in the newsletter, annoying him and causing a negative. Meanwhile, the number of formal replies is also an important parameter of analytics. What happened if suddenly the number of formal replies increased? What have you done wrong and how can you fix it?
Of course, triggers are not the only means of communicating with your favorite clients, however, they have undeniable advantages. So, properly configured triggers do not fall into spam databases and are not delayed by spam filters, besides - they have a very high percentage of discoverability - depending on the field of activity it can be up to 90%. Why is that? Because users are waiting and wanting to see these letters!
I wish you success - and let your letters hit the mark!
A trigger (or transactional letter ) is a letter that is automatically sent by the system to a user on an event in its user history (or if there is no such event — an abandoned basket / did not order a month). In English, trigger means "trigger", and this bright image fits the subject in the best way possible - the correct "hook" is pressed automatically, "firing" exactly at the target.
We made a lot of letters-triggers for clients of our email-marketing agency, but when they began to build a system for their own project Email-Competitors.ru, they looked at some things differently. And now, on the basis of accumulated extensive practical experience, we want to offer you 6 tips on setting up a trigger mailing.
Tip 1. Use specially designed tools / services to send triggers.
Trigger letters are much better for spam filters than any mass mailing, recipients open them more actively (on average, the Open Rate is 80% for triggers versus 30% for marketing letters), and you can track the goals of the letter on the website. Often, these factors serve as an excuse for sending letters to your own mail server.
')
Yes, it is easier to integrate with your own mailer, but it is unlikely that your admin will regularly monitor his reputation, and the ability of email programs to collect statistics, track delivery errors and complain about spam is usually not encouraging. Given the cost of a penny modern automation services triggers mailings - do not use them just silly.
We at email-Competitors for trigger emails use the mandrill.com service. Why them? First, it was done by the same team as Mailchimp, which we use for mailings, and these two services can be easily linked with each other, transferring templates, etc. Secondly, Mandrill’s free functionality is enough for you for a long time - we, despite our rapid growth, still use the free version. In addition, we are confident in the reputation of their servers, and therefore for us it will be good from the beginning, not zero.
Note: We have a case in which simply transferring triggered mailings from our own server to a professional platform resulted in a two-fold increase in sales of a small online store. The reason is simple, as everything is ingenious - more accounts created by the system began to reach the customers.
Tip 2. Do not try to think everything at once, start doing
Do not try to think of everything initially. An elephant needs to be eaten piece by piece, and the system of trigger mailings is one more monster. In our opinion, it is much more efficient to start small, adding triggers as your understanding of what is needed by you and your users deepens, and as your business grows and changes.
If the speech does not concern real-time-interaction (a la “money came to the account”), then we proceed as follows. Select the user segment, for example, those who have never used the search in our system. We create for them a letter with the desired call-to-action in the same Mailchimp, send, look at the result. If everything is good and the result suits us, then the letter is embedded in the trigger system - the user is registered, and if he doesn’t use the search for a week, then he receives the already created letter. If you implement a new trigger right into the system, then you can judge its effectiveness or inefficiency when it works well at least 400 times. You can wait for weeks. Our approach allows you to get the effect in 2-3 days.
At the start of the project through Mandrill, we made 2 of the most simple trigger letters - account registration and password recovery. This is a minimum necessary for everyone, since both these actions can and should be carried out automatically and instantly. This is what our password recovery trigger looks like:
When registering it is worth making double-opt-in, that is, confirmation of the email. After the user is registered on the site, he receives an email with a link, clicking on which confirms the registration. Only after the second (double) confirmation (opt in) his address is entered into the database, which allows you to create a list of really interested and loyal customers.
Let first you have 2-3 most essential triggers, it is better not to spend extra money and precious development hours: an idea emerged - test, if the test is successful - only then implement.
Council Z. Build your own system of triggers.
Triggers should make life easier and more convenient. Both you and your client. Think: what is important to you, what information, how often? What is important to your client, to what extent? The more precisely you answer these questions, the better you will be able to build a system of triggers.
How many triggers are needed?
Few triggers can be “inconvenient” - you do not get enough information about user behavior, you can not influence it in time; At the same time, the user does not receive the usual confirmation of his actions on the site. For example, it is customary to receive a notification about the payment of the order, and without receiving it, we are worried - the money was written off, but did you get it?
A lot of triggers are also “inconvenient” - you have too much data to process, and the user is flunked by trigger letters, and he sent it all to spam or unsubscribed at all.
Speaking personally about our experience, Email-Competitors currently uses 11 triggers, and we already know which ones will be next.
The minimum that almost everyone needs:
- registration confirmation (double-opt-in),
- password recovery.
If your site has paid services, it can be useful:
- order confirmation and payment reminder,
- the payment was successful (the trigger for payment is double - one letter is sent to the user, the other is sent to the administrator),
- letter of warning about the end of the free subscription or trial period,
- a warning letter a few days before the end of the paid tariff / service (we have 4 days, work fine, the user begins to actively use the service, even if he hasn’t logged in before, and is already meaningful about extending the tariff),
- Reminder letter to pay for the renewal on the day after the expiration of the tariff / service (if it has not been paid).
The number and interval of reminder letters depends, again, on your business and on the cost of the proposed service / product. For example, RU-CENTER sends customers 2-3 warning letters and 2 reminder letters (after the expiration date). Modern people are very busy, and may forget to pay even what they need; reminders will allow you not to lose a client due to the fact that he forgot / did not have time, and the client will be grateful - a reminder removes from him the task of tracking payment deadlines.
What else could be useful?
- letter-activator (we told about this little trick last time ),
- a letter to those who have not visited your site for a long time (the so-called “reanimation”; we do not know what happened and you can try to return the user),
- congratulation letters (happy birthday, 100th order, etc.),
- welcome letters
Tip 4. Even trigger letters must be personalized.
People like it when you contact them personally, and we respect our customers. Moreover, the inability to address the subscriber personally is already a moveton. For those who do not care about ethical issues (we hope there are very few), add that users rarely send personalized letters to spam.
Tip 5. Do not use to send a box like noreply @, robots @ or “site name” @ gmail.com (mail.ru, ...)
If you send emails from a “noreply” mailbox, the ability to communicate with users is lost. E-mail is a communication space - do not break the public names of the boxes. This time.
When sending letters from “site name / Vasya Pupkin” @ gmail.com (mail.ru, ...), the spam filter thinks that you are sending letters from someone else's domain, no matter what it is to mail - you do not control it and no digital signatures you will not be able to confirm ownership, which will lead to the fact that all your important notifications will sooner or later get into spam.
Note: Make sure that the mailbox, on behalf of which it is being sent, exists, and there is a person receiving mail on it. This will help avoid some rake punches.
Tip 6. Always give the opportunity to quickly unsubscribe
Many specially complicate this process, but it is not only ugly, but also harmful for business - the user, when he can not unsubscribe easily, gets angry, and sends you to spam, considerably spoiling your karma. Users in the system are not “for show”. If you are not interested in a person - it makes no sense to keep him in the newsletter, annoying him and causing a negative. Meanwhile, the number of formal replies is also an important parameter of analytics. What happened if suddenly the number of formal replies increased? What have you done wrong and how can you fix it?
Of course, triggers are not the only means of communicating with your favorite clients, however, they have undeniable advantages. So, properly configured triggers do not fall into spam databases and are not delayed by spam filters, besides - they have a very high percentage of discoverability - depending on the field of activity it can be up to 90%. Why is that? Because users are waiting and wanting to see these letters!
I wish you success - and let your letters hit the mark!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291776/
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