Relationship building emails, like this one from Sephora are great ways to engage customers.

This type of relationship-building email goes a long way! I was planning a visit to their Ottawa store anyway as I wanted to pick up a birthday present for one of my good friends, but after I received the email I got a little more excited about going shopping because I was also going to receive a gift – an early one at that! I was allowed to pick up my gift 14 days before or 14 days after my actual birth day.

Sephora made it easy for me to redeem my birthday gift, all I had to do when I went to the store was tell them my email address and they handed me my Lip Gloss Trio. While I was in the store I purchased a few little extra things for myself and since I spent more than $100, I also received some free samples. This small token of appreciation from Sephora enticed me to go spend some money in their store!

But wait! The story doesn’t end there… A few days later I received another email from Sephora asking me to rate my recent in-store purchase. It listed the items that I bought and gave me the option to write a review for each item. When I clicked through, I had the option to write a review, post some images or even a video. What a great way to get people talking about the products that they sell. There is nothing better than actual customer reviews to show people what great products you sell.

Cheers to Sephora for implementing a great relationship building strategy!

Happy emailing,
Alison

Keep it short and sweet. Do your best to keep your subject lines under 50 characters, including spaces. Stick to one concept, eliminate unnecessary words, and use familiar language. You want it to be a teaser to get people to open the email, not a story that risks loosing their attention.

Be specific. “The Green Thumb Newsletter: June 2007″ doesn’t tell the recipient what they’ll find in the email and gives them no reason to open it. Ask yourself “what’s in it for them?” If the subject line doesn’t tell you, it’s missing a benefit. Here is an example of a subject line that shows the benefit of opening: “The Green Thumb: 3 Tips for Summer Gardening”.

Pique their curiosity. Does your subject line make you have to know what the content inside the email will reveal? Use questions, numbers, challenges and statements that compel the reader to open the email and reap the benefits inside.

Make it personal. Personalized subject lines are a simple way to secure the interest and action of your recipients. They can be personalized based on the content preferences, past purchases or web links clicked by the recipient. You can also personalize with the recipients’ first name, just be sure that your database contains a first name for each recipient or at the very least will display a default such as “Dear Customer” if the first name is not there.

Test it. When you have two strong yet different subject lines, split your list in half and use a different subject line for each group. After a number of tests like this, you’ll have a better idea of what works for the people on your list.

Happy emailing,
Alison

Hmm, ok. Well I suppose that’s interesting, but it’s not the sort of Avinash inspired metric that I’d want to tweet about.

The following day I asked our services team, “what is the main value that Sitebrand (personalization) brings to our online luxury customers today?”

It comes down to this: luxury companies typically have a multi-visit shopping cycle, and they look to us to help influence and shorten that cycle.

Depending on which stage of the cycle a visitor is at, we can target personalized messaging to persuade them to the next stage of the cycle. This shortens the process and reduces the chance that they fall out of the cycle.

Why do they have a multi-visit shopping cycle?

If I’m buying a ring, or any high-end product in any vertical, typically I want to research the product, I want to be an informed buyer – I’m not spending $50 here, we’re talking hundreds or thousands of $$$. In some cases it’s a once in a lifetime decision – like how many times in your life will you be buying a wedding ring (once hopefully)?

What can you measure?

So if you’re an online luxury e-tailor, and your visitor opts into your newsletter, it’s a measure of their commitment to you, you’re one of the contenders. So a newsletter is simply one more checkbox to fill along the multiple visit sales cycle. There are many other customer indicators that indicate commitment, willingness, and interest. Have a look, correlations between purchasers and other high-value tasks exist – your analytics will tell you these.

How does personalization help influence and shorten this cycle?

So now you know the business objective and you have the measurements in place.

“So what… so what do you do about it” (Sorry, another Avinash quote)

Some would argue that you can shorten the sales cycle by discounting the product or offering up deals earlier on in the process. I suppose, but isn’t this trying to fit a square peg in a round hole? For one thing, you’re leaving money on the table, and secondly, you’re trying to force something onto a customer that he or she is not ready for. This could result in lower margins on sales and potentially returned sales.

So I say – Focus on the customer!

Make them feel comfortable. Build confidence. Build a relationship. An opt-in newsletter is only one method to build that trust. Customer testimonials through text, imagery, voice and video; product reviews from both vendors and customers; customer support, email and live chat are but a few examples that do this.

If you’re ‘number of visits to purchase’ rate is 4.5, then spend the first 4 visits building that confidence and trust. This is the time to build brand, loyalty, trust, it is the time to focus on the customer and not on the sell. In visits 4, 5 and 6, offer them the incentive, persuade them towards the cart.

With Sitebrand, promoting that newsletter in a timely and effective manner is just one small example of how we can influence and shorten that sales cycle. Remember, not all of your visitors are at the same point in the purchasing cycle, so make sure you speak to each differently and gently help persuade each visitor segment to that next stage and subsequent purchase.

Rely on your analytics to determine your rates and correlations.

However, don’t rely on measurement alone. Rely on optimization and personalization to continuously improve the right message in front of the right person at the right time.

Chapters preference email

A couple of weeks ago, I received this email from Chapters asking me to update my preferences so that they could send me personal product recommendations, special offers and updates that I care about the most. I like the wording they used in the email, it made me feel like they really care about me and don’t just want to send me whatever offer they are sending to everyone else on their list.

Preference centers are good for both you and your recipients, you are basically letting the recipient control the relationship, and that way they won’t feel like you are pushing stuff at them, they are only receiving what they want to receive. This helps you because it means that the email relevance will go way up and in turn, your open, click-through and conversion rates will do the same.

Another bonus that the preference center offers is that you will be able to catch a customer before they opt out of your emails and put an end to your relationship. You can give them the opportunity to lower the frequency or change the type of emails that they receive instead of opting out completely.

Just one last note…we should remember that preference centers are not for everyone. If you are only selling one type of product or don’t have the resources to manage multiple sends, then don’t worry so much about a preference centre but try to take your customer feedback into account by using customer feedback forms and reading your customer reviews.

Happy emailing,
Alison

Sadly, there isn’t one single combination to guarantee results and certainly that’s no revolutionary thought.  Everyone’s trying to figure out what technologies are needed and what’s not.  My needs don’t match your needs, so the bad news is you still have to keep on top of new tools and technology that solve your challenges.  It’s almost a job in itself.  I guess that’s the true challenge for marketers and vendors in any space, especially in the online marketing world.

Think about it.  You probably have a number of the following tools/solutions running in conjunction with your site right now: in-site search, recommendations, live chat/customer support, customer/product reviews, multivariate or A/B testing, affiliate marketing, email marketing, CMS and of course, web personalization.  I know you all have web personalization integrated into your web strategies.

All these technologies plugged into your website no doubt have the ability to raise your conversion rates and enhance the visitor experience.  I’m sure they all do, but when you have 3 or 4 of the above solutions running at once, are they all working in unison or like 3 or 4 separate products?  You probably don’t have the time or bandwidth to properly setup, run, modify and analyze each solution on a weekly basis and I’m guessing the solutions don’t naturally play well together.  Software is great like that, right?

Is it fair to expect a 1-3% conversion lift from each of the solutions listed above; or at least most of them?  Sounds reasonable if used properly and to the maximum capability.  So, if you are running 3 or 4 of these solutions, why isn’t your conversion rate nearing double digits or higher?  Are these different solutions converting the same visitors?  And would your conversion rate suffer without these solutions?

I’m really asking what the impact of these solutions are.  Are they worth the money you pay when they contribute to a conversion rate that’s less than ideal?  You’ve outsourced a good chunk of your website for tools and solutions that do something better than you can, but do the results justify having the solutions?  Especially if they are converting the same visitors.

For example, a visitor goes through an in-site search to a product that’s been delivered via a recommendation engine.  Score one point for both the search and the recommendation tool, but it’s not like your conversion rates show’s it; nor does the ROI.  Would the conversion happen with only one of the solutions?  Or perhaps without either solution?  How do each of these tools show individual value over another?  My boss will probably say I’m arguing a war of attribution, but let’s see what you guys have to say!

I’m looking forward to all different thoughts, insight and opinions on this subject.

Figure 1 - email with no images

Lately a lot of e-marketers have been using the email pre-header space to add a call-to-action and some brand recognition to their emails. This is especially important when you are sending emails that are all images with very little or no text, because a lot of people are viewing your email with images off by default.

Take this email from Forever21.com for example (see figure 1), this is how it looked when it landed in my inbox. Images are turned off by default, I can’t tell who it is from or what the offer is.

When I downloaded the images, I could see a really nice photo with an offer for party dresses starting at $13.50 (see figure 2). Wouldn’t it have been nice if the pre-header said something like “Forever21.com: Party Dresses from $13.50!” or “View online to get party dress from Forever21.com starting from $13.50″? At least I would have been able to tell who the email was from and what the offer was right away without having to download the images.

Figure 2 - after downloading images

On top of not having a pre-header, there is a smaller image below the big one saying “free standard shipping with orders of $75 or more”. If that was written in text, I could see it without having to download images and it might entice me to click through to the site. Who doesn’t love free shipping?

I’m not saying that every email needs a preheader but it is definitely a good idea to use that space to your advantage.

Happy emailing,
Alison

Mobile marketing is changing the face of media; it offers a sense of intimacy and loyalty that other media outlets struggle to achieve.  There are over 200 million cell phone users that live in the United States (that’s 1 out of 4 Americans) and we’re now beginning to see this exploited, from Time Magazine to Barack Obama.  Over 2.9 million cell phone users downloaded Obama’s phone application and received frequent updates about his campaign and whereabouts his next event.  Each cell phone user was specifically geo-targeted, so a Californian didn’t get the invite for the Florida rally, etc…   So yes, even Obama’s optimizing his messages.

Obama optimizes messages, do you?

With 2009’s economic downturn in full effect, businesses struggle to remain relevant in budget friendly ways, while cutting through all other clutter.   Companies have begun to use mobile marketing as a means to do that, distributing coupons, surveys, reminders, links and landing pages to stay connected and boost conversion rates.  Marketers have to create an engaging message to a specific audience if they hope to be successful.  They need to optimize, target and execute properly.

Newspapers and magazine readers are declining and people want a faster way of getting to information.  A mobile marketing campaign can be cheap and inexpensive from the other types of advertising; a company could boost its marketing strategies and send messages more frequently while spending less money.

But do we as cell phone customers have a choice of receiving these advertised messages, optimized or not?  Why should we have to pay for advertisements once they are streamed across our screens?  Marketers have to constantly be out there and in our personal lives to be effective.  Since mobile messaging is so new, is this something we should be concerned with in the long term?  And what might be the ramifications to one’s brand, sales and marketing campaigns?  Only time will tell…

That is great information to know, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the right days for you to send. First of all, if everyone starts to send on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, that means that our inboxes will be overloaded on those days and the chances of your email being overlooked will be greater.

My second point is that even though these reports do have good information that we should all take into account, the data is pretty broad-based and doesn’t always reflect what happens in your business. At the end of the day, the only way you will really know what day is best for you to send is to do some testing. Why not segment your list into 7 parts and send the same email to one segment per day for one week?  After the week has passed, take a look at your reports and see which day had the best results. That is YOUR best day for email marketing.

Of course, if you are one of our clients you can take advantage of SilverPOP’s ability to send to each recipient based on their preferred time. This more personalized approach will send an email to a recipient based on past behaviors (or behavioral targeting). You can send a message to each recipient at a time of day and/or day of week defined within the list as the most popular day or time for that specific recipient.

So don’t forget that while all the industry reports and expert analysis out there is helpful, you really should look and listen to what your own customers are telling you and it’s pretty easy to get this info by doing some testing and segmentation of your email list.

Happy emailing!
Alison

Now I realize the term was coined in the US and kudos for that, but to keep it a US only “thing” seems limiting especially since we’re talking online retail. Last time I looked, “online retail” lives on the “World Wide Web” and as the name implies, there’s world-wide reach. Just looking at North America, the one continent where the US sits, US eTailers seem to be forgetting a whole country called Canada and the whole segment of Canadian consumers that go with it.

On the flip side and to be fair, Canadian eTailers are forgetting they need to be competitive with US websites who always seem to be leap years ahead in terms of innovation. After all, everyone surfs the web looking for the perfect buy, and since we’re bouncing in and out of both CDN and US sites, why isn’t there more Cyber Monday hype here in the north? Why not take advantage of an increasingly well known shopping blitz?

So just why does it make sense to think about Canadians (not to mention other geo-areas) as an additional market segment for Cyber Monday penetration? Let’s consider the following:
 
1. Are Canadians online? Yes, big time.
2. Are Canadians browsing websites for online deals and special offers? Yes, .com’s and .ca’s.
3. Are Canadians feeling angst and urgency around holiday shopping lists right now? Yes. Even though our Thanksgiving was in October, a lot of us are gearing up for the big red guy on Dec. 25.

Given the above, what I’m seeing is a half-baked online marketing strategy that completely ignores the full power of the web and all its glorious technological wonders…with technologies like Segment&Serve – Sitebrand’s web personalization platform – it’s really crazy that Cyber Monday is being so limited to the US.

All this said, I’m seeing US retailers coming up with all kinds of great Cyber Monday deals, rebates and discounts. Just look at these 2 examples: 

Cyber Monday Promo

The deals are endless, but considering holiday sales (both in-store and online) are expected to be crappy this year, is further discounting to US consumers really going to save the day? Considering it gouges an already thin margin that’s typical in the eTail space, it’s a tough one. BTW, this is why Sitebrand encourages our online marketing customers to promote the service side of their business too. 

And this brings me right back to a Cyber Monday strategy that taps into geo-targeting. It’s a strategy that should apply to both US and CDN eTailers…at a minimum. Baby steps I’m suggesting…

As for popular Canadian sites or anyone selling online, why aren’t they piggy-backing Cyber Monday urgency? Not one of the following major .ca Canadian eTail sites say anything about Cyber Monday: Zellers, Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Sears. Considering the rate we pop in and out of sites comparing prices etc, it’s another missed opportunity. 

Online stores are global regardless of where they’re based, so why not market accordingly – geo-targeting being a good start, emphasis on service versus discounts being a second smart move – “we ship to Canada” being an effective message.

I guess this leaves us open to debate the big question – why can’t Cyber Monday become a global kick-off to online shopping? Thinking outside the border. It’s quite a thought.

PS – a big thanks to my fellow Sitebranders for all their forwarded websites and emails = they helped a lot!

Sitebrand and VKI Studios have a very relevant eCommerce webinar planned for Tuesday, Dec 9 at 2 pm ET / 11 am PT - “They Search. They Click. They Convert. Fact or Fantasy?” (Our usual end of month webinar is being pushed so our US friends can enjoy Thanksgiving)

Why do we think this topic is relevant? Quite simply, it all comes down to the fact that marketers are spending more and more money driving traffic to their websites (via search and email) versus spends that influence the experience of each visitor once they arrive (product reviews, livechat, functional in-site search tools, web personalization). Quite simply, there’s a lot of finger-crossing as the visitors land…but sadly, spending more does not always equal converting more. It’s time to think smarter.  

With respect to search, Jupiter Research backs me up predicting marketers will be increasing their paid search budgets by 15% year over year for the next 4 years.  If they’re right, you’re probably going to be part of this growing trend. But what’s happening once searchers click on your natural results, or your AdWords, and arrive at your website or landing page? Do they convert? Do they move through the sales funnel? Join search specialist John Hossack from VKI Studios and Carolyn Gardner, Director of Customer Experience at Sitebrand, as they discuss strategies to help you make 2009 the year you get serious about engaging, persuading and converting search traffic on your website: 

• What’s stopping your search traffic from converting?
• Why should marketing beyond the landing page be a new mandatory?
• Which specific analytics reports really matter when it comes to search strategies?
• Why is it no longer acceptable to treat all your search efforts the same?
• What can you do to better optimize your search ROI in 2009?

Register now…