Custom Tailored Timing of Email Marketing Campaigns
You already write emails that contain highly relevant content with tightly worded subject lines. Now you need to send your campaigns out into the world at just the right time for your customers to get them. Given that 68% of senior-level marketers believe that email campaigns are still the backbone of their business,(ExactTarget 2014), the best way to improve your performance is to get your customers relevant and valuable content at just the right time for them to act on it.
Content Relevancy
When a lead opens an email they have been attracted by your subject line. Its the marketer’s job to make sure the content of the email makes a compelling offer that matches that opening. Commerce customers will probably be more inclined to convert if the email they opened contained a discount on their first purchase at your store or on a trending product. Establishing value with your customers should be the main focus of your campaign strategy. This establishes trust between your company and the consumer resulting in higher profits down the road. (Check out this INC. Article) Keep in mind that the value you have to offer may not always be your product or even a sale. “Best-practices” content can give your reader insightful information which can help them succeed and in turn promote your company.
Urgent: Subject Lines
Crafting outstanding subject lines will help you gain attention in your customer’s inbox. Producing clickable subject lines using targeted keywords and inviting wording will ensure you have a high click rate every time. A study conducted by MailChimp tested certain subject-strategies ranging from keyword favorability to text style. For example, MailChimp found that using words that implied time-sensitivity with in your email greatly increased the likelihood of it begin opened. Putting “Urgent” into your subject increased click rates by about 80%. Additionally, using invitations or announcements in order to increase open-rates also proved effective. Curiosity can drive much of the consumer mind, informing your readers of an event or inviting them to a special line preview gives your emails a high open-rate. Creating opportunities for your customers to explore their curiosity can effectively lead to high conversion rates. This also provides an excellent opportunity for you to test your emailing timing for your market.
Good timing means reaching your customers when they can pay attention
It is important to send emails at the right time to increase the chance it grabs your reader’s attention at a moment when she can act on it.
Here at Retention Science we have been analyzing how the time of sending an email correlates with conversion and click-through rates for email campaigns. In a prior blog post, Retention Science analyzed email timing data and found a few trends. Most e-commerce consumers are engaging email content during the afternoon rather than the morning. Sending your emails between 3 p.m and 10 p.m can significantly increase your open-rates and lead to more fruitful leads. Mornings are also fruitful times for e-commerce offers as consumers seek out distractions and offers in the beginning of the work-day.
KissMetrics highlighted a study portrayed in this infographic, which found that the type of offer or email you send during various times within this “Click-Window” will also further lead to higher open-rates. For instance, emails sent during 3-5 p.m were more likely to be opened if they related to financial services or monetary benefit. They also noted that the most active times for e-commerce email is between 7-10 p.m when customers are returning home after a hard-days work. Emails sent after 10 p.m were less likely to ever be opened.
Finding these times is a large task to undertake. The most effective way to produce actionable intelligence from available data is to use automation marketing campaigns. Automated marketing campaigns find the optimal time and message to send to your customers based on their prior behavior and past transactions.
How The Honest Company improved results by focusing on the timing of emails
Retention Science has created and tested algorithms that best predict when your e-commerce consumer will interact with your email campaigns. We recently worked with The Honest Company to increase their customer engagement and conversion rates. The Honest Company deployed our CampaignScience Engine in order to identify an optimal re-engagement campaign for customer retention through individually tailored promotions, presented at the ideal time. We analyzed their customers’ behavior, activity, and demographics to produce targeted promotions and optimal sending windows. In turn, this allowed The Honest Company to save money by eliminating high-price point promotions when the consumer would be swayed by lower discounted deals and delivered their campaigns at times when their customers were paying attention.
The Honest Company increased their conversion rate by 2% using our re-engagement series solution. They also saw a 15% increase in total order value by their consumers. Due to the tailored offers, consumers were finding more products they wanted to buy and retained their interest all the way to check-out. Their Customer Retention Score increased by 10% after implementing our solution.
The payoff from focusing on timing
The timing of your emails is proving more and more important to engage customers effectively. Marketing automation tools, like Retention Science’s CampaignScience engine, can help you leverage your data to get emails to your customers at just the right time.
Retention Science is a leader in Customer Retention Solutions providing automated retention campaigns, dynamic offer optimization and many other retention solutions for your needs. If you want to learn more or request a demo, please contact us.