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Five Ways to Ensure E-Mail Provides a Positive Customer Experience

February 2008 By Joe Keenan, senior associate editor, Catalog Success
As e-mail continues to grow as a viable channel for multichannel marketers, its impact on the overall customer experience must continuously be addressed. Just like any other touchpoint the customer has with a company, e-mail creates an experience, says Scott Olrich, chief marketing officer at Responsys. In a recent whitepaper from this on-demand marketing solutions provider entitled “Email Marketing’s New Rules of Engagement: The customer experience moves front and center,” Responsys offers several tips on how to optimize e-mail marketing campaigns, creating a positive experience for customers. Here are some of the whitepaper’s most notable pointers.

1. Have e-mails automated to customer life events. By sending personalized e-mails triggered by events, such as point levels for a loyalty program, anniversaries and last time shopped at the store, among others, you increase customer engagement.

2. Make a good first impression. Since the first e-mail a customer receives is the one most likely to get opened and read, make the most of this opportunity. Avoid irrelevant and untargeted messaging, which can lead customers to turn away from your brand altogether. By including special offers, such as free shipping, percentage off, loyalty program membership and others, you can help engage customers with e-mail.

3. Segment your messages. Your customers should be classified into one of five categories: prospective, new, active, loyal or returning. This, along with other customer information including contact history, purchase history, behavioral data and life stage, should all be factored into your message. An e-mail sent to a new customer should be written differently than one sent to a loyal multibuyer.

4. Cross all channels. E-mail messages should be integrated with marketing messages across all channels, including print, mobile and in-store promotions, the whitepaper says. This allows for a complete profile of customers and helps determine their preferred platforms for being reached. It’s necessary for all employees (sales, support, call center) to have a complete view of customers at each interaction point. From this, marketers can measure and plan programs, including predictive modeling.

5. Learn from testing. Run simple A/B tests, gauging such factors as subject lines, the time of the day the e-mail is sent, the effect rich media has on an e-mail and other factors that can affect open rates.

You can access the entire whitepaper by clicking on this link: http://www.responsys.com/downloads/white_papers/Responsys_eMarketing_Engagement.pdf .
 

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