Anatomy of trigger mailings. All tool in 10 minutes

Are you good at trigger ezines? The focus of Internet marketing is shifting rapidly from attracting a mass of new visitors to personal work with everybody involved.

What is the point of attracting many visitors, if most of them go away in a few minutes, and only 1-2% will reach the purchase? First, it is necessary to establish retention, persuasion and return, and only then increase traffic. On this successful projects and build their economies. The main tool to help automate this process is trigger mailings.

We (the Carrot Quest service team) have made some sort of training manual on trigger email marketing, so that it will be easier for you to navigate and use it in your business.
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Trigger mailings are a trigger mechanism that is sufficient to set up once, after which it will launch all emails directly on the target.

The trigger letter will be sent only if it is relevant to the user. This is the complete opposite of mass manual mailing, where one message (letter) is sent to everyone, regardless of the user's life cycle, the context of using your site and the segment the user is in.







Personalization and relevance in the letter can be achieved by knowing the actions of the user on the site.

• went to the site
• pressed the button
• left email
• what channel came from
• registered,
• took advantage of the new feature
• looked through the product page, etc.

By these actions, you can determine at what stage of the purchase the visitor is and at the expense of what it can be converted into a customer, held or re-sold.

There are many options and scenarios for effective trigger email marketing. It is not always clear which mailings should be used and for what purposes. Therefore, we decided to sort everything out.



Let us consider each option in detail:

1. Newsletters

These are the simplest and most popular trigger mailings. They are sent when we report the status of the user. In such letters there is no task to make a sale, return the user or explain to him the possibilities of the product.

For example, a user has registered - he is sent a letter with pleasant words of gratitude.



Here are some more examples of such letters :

• User made a purchase . Your actions: in the letter to say thanks for the purchase, to note the good taste of the client and give advice on the operation of the goods;
• A discount. You gave the client a personal discount and it comes to an end - a letter reminding you that the discount will end in N-days (there may be several letters, for example, the first: “4 days left until the end of the discount action”, the second: “1 day left, hurry ... ");
• The client uses your service during the trial period - to remind you how many days are left until the end of the free subscription and the need to pay (there may also be a chain of several letters here);
• The client paid for the service , for example, a tourist ticket to France - a few days before the trip, remind him of this and give a list of things he might need in France.

Detailed example

Let us give an example of a chain of information letters that we do in our own service. Carrot quest is a service that combines e-CRM, online chat, email distribution (trigger and manual), pop-up windows and analytics. We give the user 14 days of trial. During this period, 4 information letters are automatically sent to him.

a) "Thank you for registering . " We tell you what to do to start using the service. We explain how to put the code on your site. We give instructions.





b) "Trial has passed 7 days . " 7 days after the start of the trial period, an email is sent with information that only a few days of free work are left. We ask if everything is clear to the user and give a list of additional instructions.
c) "Trial has passed 12 days . " Thank you for using the service. We remind you that there are only 2 days left. We show a table with our tariffs, from where the user can immediately go to pay.
d) "The Last Trial Day . " We warn you that tomorrow the service will be disabled, that you must make a payment in order to continue using the tools of the Carrot quest.

Plus, every day we send letters with statistics: that in 1 day the user received in our service, having connected his site.

2. Activation (warming) distribution

We have noticed that the popularity of such trigger letters is growing. Rather, this is due to the fact that marketers began to understand the value of content and user activation in the product.

To turn your user into a regular customer or evangelist (who advises your product to his friends), you need to show the full value of your product and the benefits it will receive from it.

This can be done using trigger letters. As soon as the user began to be active in your product or service (registered, looked through the same product several times, left a request, etc.), you send him letters describing the functions and capabilities of your product: how best to use it and what to pay Attention.



Examples of such letters:

• Activation. After the client began to use the service (for example, SaaS-service) - send a chain of trigger letters. In each of the letters to talk about the individual function and capabilities of your product; We send 9 lessons to Carrot quest to tell the user step by step about the value of the product. So he will find convenient ways to work and learned how to manage the service.

• Heated lead. Often, visitors view the same products, but never buy. At these stages, you need to heat them up with the help of useful content, otherwise they may leave and buy from competitors.

Imagine you are selling GoPro Hero 4 cameras. There is a whole segment of users who come in and view this camera for the 3rd time, but never buy. Set up trigger letters for this segment, in which you will describe the camera, its advantages, differences from similar products, etc. You can show the top best videos shot with GoPro and more. The only caveat, you should receive emails of such users to send emails, because Users when viewing products rarely leave their contacts. The best solution in this case is to show a small pop-up, and already in it offer to leave an email in exchange for useful materials (a little more below about it).

Such letters fuel the user's interest and help him make a choice in favor of you, not your competitors.







It is very important that your content is really useful. The more accurately you define the portrait of the user and his tasks, the more relevant content you offer him. So, attract his interest and be able to bring to the sale.



Detailed example

In the article “ as a web-studio, in 4 steps, I increased the number of applications by 2.5 times and increased the average bill, ” we gave an example of how triggered mailings are used at one of the stages of working with potential clients.

First of all, visitors to the site were divided into segments (this was achieved by tracking the actions of each user). For users from the “online shopping” segment, a trigger was sent a pop-up window with a suggestion to leave an email, instead of 3 useful articles.





After the user left email, the trigger chain from 3 letters was started. The goal of each letter is to stir up the user's interest, show the expert status of the company and persuade the user to purchase.

1st letter: “25 errors when creating an online store” (sent 1 day after the action);

2nd: “Article-case about abandoned baskets” (after 3 days);

3rd: “How usability and design affect sales in the online store” (after 7 days).





The number of such letters for each case and specific areas will vary, so you should experiment.

All the best newsletters do not contain any advertising, give the reader a favor and he will come to you.

3. Trigger Letters for Hold and Return

The main tool for retaining and returning users is just trigger letters. Imagine if a user visited a site, was interested in a product or service, but for some reason left. As a rule, 55-80% go away.

This problem is solved, because With the help of the Carrot quest, we already know what is interesting for each user and can return them. Such a large number of users can not be returned manually, so automation is very useful here.



Here are examples of such letters:

• If the user has bought a product with a short life cycle , then at the end of this cycle, remind him that the time has come for a new purchase (see below for more details);
• Abandoned basket - when a visitor looked through the product, added it to the basket, but did not buy it. A letter is sent with information about the product and an offer to complete the order, sometimes already at a discount;
• Order left - by order here we mean your main target action (what it will be: buying a product, registering, paying for a service, processing an application, etc., depends on you). If the user started this action, but did not finish it so, return it with a trigger letter and let the occasion complete the order.
• Viewed products (pages) - if the user has viewed the same product several times (or a page with a description of the service), then he has a lot of interest. It is better to send such a letter to the user with a discount on this product (service) than to wait until he goes to the competitors.
• Return inactive users. Set up a trigger list for a segment of users who used to buy from you and now are completely inactive or do not come to you. Offer them a discount, special conditions or expert assistance.

Detailed example

Let's take a closer look at the product life cycle example. When we sell a product or service that users never stop buying (clothes, medicines, equipment, hairdresser services, try to travel every vacation, etc.)

Imagine you are selling men's t-shirts online. Your data shows that 10% of users return after 6 months and buy new t-shirts. It is likely that the product life cycle is 6 months.

“5.5 months have passed.” The trigger letter will be sent 5.5 months after the purchase of the T-shirt. In it, we remind that the last time a client bought a t-shirt from us (after all, during this time he could have forgotten). We say that the user has a great taste and ask if he is pleased with the last purchase? After that, we remind you that you have new wonderful T-shirts and offer to look at them. With such a simple scenario, these 10% of repeat purchases will increase to at least 25-30%.







Often there is the question of what to do when the user did not leave an email, we wrote the article “The user did not leave the email? 9 examples of how to hold it and bring it to the purchase ”

4. Trigger letters for additional sales (cross-sell)

Do you have something that can be sold in addition to the product or service already purchased? Then most effectively this will make the trigger letters.

The problem is that companies offer additional products (which are relevant for the purchase of the main product) only at the time of purchase by the client. At this point, the client may not have extra funds to please himself, and he will leave without buying. According to statistics, they immediately buy only about 20%, where are the remaining 80%?

After some time after the purchase, it is worthwhile to send the client letters with offers that are relevant to him. The shipping time depends on the specifics of your market and product features. The setup takes a few minutes.



Here are examples of similar scenarios:

• The client bought a camera , but did not buy additional goods, such as a memory card, case, bag, portrait lens, tripod, etc. It is likely that some of this will not be necessary for him immediately, therefore offer him such goods after a while. But do not forget to offer them at the time of purchase;

• Ordered a book - run the trigger letters that will be sent when you buy one of the most popular books. In these letters, talk about books in similar subjects and offer them to buy;
• I visited the training - in order to sell additional trainings, lessons, books, presentations, set up chains of trigger letters in which you will talk about additional goods and services.
• Bonuses for activity - if a user has been active recently (he bought several times, often visited the site, left his comments), then you can automatically give such a bonus to such a segment. Bonus will push such users to additional purchase.

Detailed example

Let's analyze trigger letters for add. sales in the tourism industry. There is a lot of additional sales in tourism: insurance, car rental, excursions, airport transfer, sale of foreign SIM cards, guidebooks, translator, etc. If some of them are bought at the same time as a voucher, customers can feel the need for the rest just before the trip .

You can run a chain of trigger letters that will be automatically sent a few days after the purchase of a voucher. In the letters to offer to purchase these goods or services before the trip.



For example, 3 letters.

First: a description of the tours with prices and offers to pay.

Second, the offer to purchase guides and use the services of an interpreter.

Third: offer transfer - pick up and pick up from the airport.







It is worth experimenting with such newsletters, to select the best time for you and the message for the client. An important step: to analyze the reaction of users, how the letter influenced its further actions.

PS

We have tried to classify mailings according to goals and types of use, to make it easier for you to use trigger mailings. In reality, it happens that in a single mailing list these goals and types are combined and intersect. To avoid confusion, clearly separate the mailing by type and set goals for each campaign in advance.


With pleasure, the Carrot Quest team is a service for automating Internet marketing .