Trigger mailings for engagement: how to light a spark

Photo by Emilio Küffer (Flickr)

Trigger letters can be compared with the reaction of an experienced seller in the store: a visitor came in - greeted, looked on the shelf with the goods - offered help with a choice, bought something - gave a discount for the next purchase.

Today we will talk about which trigger e-mails to send to engage the audience in the initial stages of the sales funnel, and how to return the interest of subscribers if it is lost. And also about what tactics will help a potential client to make a buyer.

Dating stage

At the subscription stage, a welcome or welcome letter can determine the further development of the relationship.
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According to Experian, welcome emails generate 4 times more discoveries and 5 times more clicks than regular bulk emails. And so it is so important in the first letter to win favor, offering a positive interaction with the brand. Let's see what, besides the greeting itself, can be offered in the first letter.

1. Thank you for subscribing

Express gratitude for the subscription and tell the user what he will learn from your email newsletters. Nike, in its welcome letter, talks about the opportunity to learn about special offers and new products, and also offers new subscribers to register on the site and get additional benefits.



2. Quick Start Guide

At the first stages of involvement, you can send a brief guide on the use of your product. This idea is the best fit technology companies producing the product in which you need to understand.

Here are some tips for writing a guide letter:

• Tell us in a few simple steps what you need to get started.
• Include photos or screenshots in the letter so that the beginner can understand where to start.
• If specific terms are associated with your product, explain them in an accessible language.
• Add support contacts where the user can call for help.

Welcome letter from Piktochart, begins with the words “Dear user, it’s not difficult to create a story using infographics. Here are three steps that will help you. ”



Please note that at the bottom of the letter there is also a section "Educational videos".

3. A letter with an offer to join in social networks

Effective integration of email newsletters with social networks allows you to combine these two channels into one powerful tool to increase the conversion, collection and cultivation of leads.

In social networks you share announcements, arrange contests, post videos - so let your subscribers find out about it. It should also be borne in mind that for some people, interaction in social networks may be more convenient or more familiar. Even by unsubscribing from your newsletter, they will remain in touch in social networks.

The company Mudpie offers the first to learn about updates and discounts from Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.



4. Letter with discount

A welcome letter with a discount on first order increases the chances of persuading a newbie to purchase. You can also offer free delivery of the first order or gift.

PetsPyjamas example.



5. Please fill in the settings room

The more thoroughly the segmentation of the address database is carried out, the more individual your approach to email newsletters.

Offer new subscribers an independent choice of newsletter content, as Ozon.ru does. Depending on the data set in the cabinet, each user will be sent an email with individual content.

Engagement stage

1. Birthday gift

The company True Citrus, of which we don’t get into an excellent list as an example, at the stage when you haven’t acquired anything yet, sends a letter with the following topic: “Happy Birthday! Let's celebrate! ”



But the fact is that today is not your birthday, and the hand still stretches to open the letter and see what the matter is. The letter says in large print: “Oh, this is not your birthday? “Then tell us when it’s time for us to send you a gift.” And who refuses a gift?

This newsletter will not only melt the ice with the subscriber, but also help to gather more information for segmentation.

The letter has one big call to action, “Mark the date in the calendar,” which leads to the mailing personalization office.



In addition to the date of birth, the subscriber’s personal account is asked to fill in the following items:

• First Name Last Name;
• Postcode;
• Paul;
• Age;
• How did you find out about True Citrus products?
• Which grocery store do you most often buy?
• Birthday;
• What do you want to receive in email newsletters?

It is proposed to check the following items:

- news,
- discounts,
- cocktail recipes for diabetics,
- cocktail recipes for vegetarians,
- cocktail recipes for those with gluten intolerance,
- instant recipes.



2. Letter with viewed goods

As the first mailings are received, the user enters your website and starts browsing products, and the automation system records the history of the pages viewed.
And here it is important not to miss the activity of a potential buyer, to interest him and convince the transaction. With this task, an excellent letter with the offer of viewed products.

According to Experian, if you send such a letter again, the percentage of transactions on it will double .

This is how Bestwatch.ru does it.

Stage of resuscitation

It is normal to periodically clean the database from inactive addresses - in this way you will spend energy only on the interested audience. But if the subscriber does not show activity for a long time, this is not a reason to immediately write it off. Try to bring it to your senses first.

The reasons for the transition to "sleep mode" are many: from the irrelevance of content to the loss of interest in your brand. Understand here will help reactivation campaign.

A reactivation campaign performs several tasks at once:

- renew interest in the brand;
- find out the causes of loss of interest;
- select relevant content;
- unsubscribe.

What tactics to apply in the reactivation letter?

1. Selection of the best articles, webinars
Select the best materials of recent times that can be taken out of "sleep mode". This is a suitable option for online publications, blogs, infobusiness.



2. Offer to change the mailing interval.
It is important to provide freedom of choice: once a week / month, more often or less. After all, if you send letters too often, the subscriber may not have time to read them. And if it is too rare, it may completely forget about you.

3. Suggest to choose the content of interest;

4. Discount
Try the word hooks: "discount", "free", "coupon".

And only if all this did not work - feel free to delete the address from the database, or provide an opportunity to unsubscribe in the letter itself.

The company Notonthehighstreet in its reactivation letter offers a 10% discount on the order, choose the relevant content or unsubscribe.



More examples of reactivation emails can be found on our blog .

You can easily send all the trigger mailings that we talked about through SendPulse . And while you are creating your first newsletter, we are already preparing a continuation of the material for you. You will learn how to convince a user to return to an abandoned basket, and which auto-links to send after making a purchase.