I believe that in the last years I have heard more than 100 times the phrase: “The email marketing is dead” and I begin to give him his part of reason but I terse it a little: “The email marketing that we know is dying.” This way of working the emails can be summarized as follows:
- It is a mass email marketing. Do not target only by lists.
- Email messages always go to the whole list, fit well or not.
- The way of obtaining the emails and the previous behavior of the users is not taken into account.
- No other data other than the email is collected to know the user better.
When dealing with a database, something quite illogical and very common happens, as the results are scarce (few openings, low CTR, and new casualties every time an email is sent), the conclusion is almost always the same: “It is A channel that is very saturated, you cannot do more.”
Email marketing In contrast to this, if we draw any study on the ROI obtained by channels in online marketing, we realize that email marketing is precisely the most profitable. So what are we left with? Is he dead just for some? The truth is that yes, for those who use the email in a massive way without providing any value and without taking into account the behavior of users. The key is to introduce this behavioral element into the email strategy and move towards relational email marketing.
User Life Cycle: The First Step To Understand Relationship Marketing Email
The user, when entering into a relationship with a brand passes through 5 phases. Understanding, classifying users in stages and knowing how to customize messages is key to understanding relational email marketing. These 5 phases are:
- Acquisition and activation phase: It is when a user delivers their email to start a relationship. At this stage, emails are focused on starting to interact, visiting the web, in short, to meet the expectations of the user and to strengthen ties with him.
- Phase conversion: Here is one of the big mistakes. Most email strategies skip the previous phase and go straight to try to convert. In this phase, aimed at active prospects, we try to pass users to the next level: purchase of a product, a premium subscription … any business objective valid for the company that is executing this strategy.
- Phase of growth: Here are located users who have had previous experience with the company. The communications strategy will be oriented to the purchase recurrence, improve the shopping experience … Another mistake of the companies is to put these users in those who are active and pending to make their first purchase.
- Retention Phase: This is a stage of loyalty. In any company there are a% of users that are much more valuable than the rest. The challenge is to locate them to receive different communications and keep them active.
- Reactivation phase: This segment belongs to the rest of users who have less value and we are also spending money with them. It makes a lot of sense to generate some email chain to try to activate them again to make them profitable.
This cycle can evolve to reach an automation and hyersegmentation scenario. This well executed is possibly the most profitable scenario for a company in email marketing:
The Keys To Making An Email Marketing Relational Strategy
To take all this into practice, you need to consider the following:
Start working with an email marketing tool that allows you to use these features : Segmentation of mailing lists in groups and subgroups, being able to send with A / B tests (50% of the shipments with some characteristics and the other 50% with others for Measure results) that allows you to create contact forms that are well-designed to win emails, automate email chains, and have a built-in measurement system for opening, clicking …
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Segment your email list based on user behavior: You need to make the following distinctions to customize communications:
– Users according to the sources of acquisition: It is not the same one channel of SEO that another of pay per click for example.
– Users who have already made a purchase.
– The most valuable users for the company. Those that suppose more billing.
– The most inactive or passive users.
Know how to program email chains with a strategic sense: Let’s give an example. Users who have already made a purchase make sense that we start a chain first sending a preliminary information about a service complementary to your purchase and then a special offer for them in that particular service.
A / B Test Strategy continues: This is a very healthy exercise for relational email marketing. This is a test policy that cannot be stopped because every time a test is extracted valuable information applicable to the following email.
Measurement of all results: All conclusions regarding the strategy are taken on the basis of metrics. There must always be a number that corroborates a theory.
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Marketing is advancing according to the rest of online marketing techniques; we are going from the massification, unique and unidirectional message to the personalization, messages according to the behavior of the users and bidirectional in all the channels.
