The Klarna Summer Small Business Accelerator Programme continues, bringing experts to our small and medium-size business partners with clear, actionable advice on ways to improve their businesses and attract new customers. The second session in the series was titled “5 Steps to Smarter Email Marketing” and featured Gavin Laugenie, Head of Strategy & Insight at dotdigital, dotdigital uses automation to help online retailers work smarter not harder to reach their goals faster.
You can view the entire session here, but below are some quick, important takeaways from the session on the best ways to automate your email campaigns and deliver the strategic plays that encourage repeat sales and drive up your ROI.
Why it’s important.
Email remains one of the most successful CRM tools for retailers. Get it right and you can bridge the ‘personalisation’ gap, overcome buyer stress and paralysis, and remove roadblocks that stifle conversion. Get it wrong and you waste resources and energy.
In a world of serial overtimers, you need to work smarter not harder.
We are all working harder, have too much choice and not enough time. It may seem an easy option just to focus your CRM outreach on sending email messages as things happen. Not so smart if prospects start ignoring or bouncing back your emails because they’re irrelevant.
Don’t spray and pray. Use automation to hone in. Here’s how:
- Data: It’s vital. Get ready to start gathering it from your first connection.
Build data gathering into every customer touchpoint and at every stage in the lifetime cycle. But don’t aim to get too much at once as it can create friction. Make it easy – and fun – for customers to give you little bits of information at a time using games, incentives, and rewards in exchange for key information. And don’t forget to explain why you’re collecting it! - Inspiration: Customers don’t always know what they’re looking for – help them decide.
Studies show that 67% of consumers purchase with the brands that provide the best value during the inspiration phase. Make sure emails inspire them with great headlines and relevant and personalised content. Be even more dynamic by adding fun-interactive functions, reducing barriers to purchase. - Conversion: Build a great UX, adding value to nudge them on.
Make life super easy for customers. Whether it’s providing alternative payments from Klarna or including curated product ideas and recommendations based on their search and buying history. If it’s a repeatable purchase, use automation to calculate refresh rates and send them email reminders when they could be running low. Did they ditch their basket? Find out why? Use emails to nudge them to reconsider. - Post purchase: Keep the good vibes going and start a 2-way conversation.
You’ve hooked the customer and made them buy. Now you need to make them come back. Use automated emails to request feedback, let them rank your service, or add a post on social. Or why not showcase other recommendations based on their purchase. - Re-engagement: Determine your most profitable customers and treat them well.
80% of future revenue comes from just 20% of your existing customer base. Make sure you give loyal customers a unified and seamless service and can recognise and connect with them in the channels they love – whether via SMS, an app or in store.
Want to discover more about automating your email campaigns? Check out our Accelerator Programme session with dotdigital here.