Personalisation: Let the Data Do the Work

1. Build a Better Email List and Manage It

Before you can segment customers for successful campaigns, you need to look at how you are building your email lists and managing the data coming from those lists. Complicated opt-in forms, cluttered data fields and out-of-date web forms can all defeat your efforts.

You already know there are multiple ways to gather email addresses – at the point of sale, on your website and via social media sites. To create effective, personalised email campaigns, you will need more than just an address. But if you ask for too much information too soon, you risk having potential subscribers abandon the opt-in form. Ask for too little, and you will have few options for personalising email marketing messages.

You need to customise your forms to match the way the customer is connecting with you and then gather additional information as they become more engaged with your products and services.

2. Create Highly Personalised Campaigns

Now that you’ve done the basics, it’s time to start looking at more advanced techniques to ensure your offers are relevant, you aren’t spending too much creating them and you are keeping valuable subscribers engaged.

Relevance

Has the customer expressed a preference for athletic gear? Purchased only during the Christmas period? Browsed the sales site repeatedly? Using order, browsing and expressed preference data is critical to creating personalised emails. If product-level data is not available, sorting by something as simple as gender can be used to produce an email that more specifically targets a subscriber’s interest.

Automation

Setting up emails that are automatically triggered by certain subscriber data is a great way to generate revenue with minimal ongoing work beyond the initial set-up. Do you have a customer’s birthday? Send a birthday email with an offer. Set up a re-engagement programme that automatically emails customers who haven’t purchased or browsed on your site.

Engagement

You need a clear view of your engaged and disengaged subscribers to better target communications that speak to their level of interest and behaviour. Create segments based on engagement levels, and develop programmes to keep your best customers shopping while reactivating those who are non-responsive.

3. Tie It All Together

By blending customer-provided data and behavioural data, you can deploy effective email campaigns that far surpass the batch-and-blast approach. Welcome series, birthday promotions and abandoned basket messages are all highly effective ways to generate revenue. They are also simple to execute. And automating those campaigns can boost return on investment by reducing staff involvement.

Whether you’re just building an initial email list or are an established ecommerce retailer with a large number of subscribers, customer data needs to be at the centre of your marketing efforts. Download Bronto’s data-driven personalisation guide to learn more.