As marketers look for new ways to connect with their audience, behavioral marketing could be the key to more opens, clicks and sales. This type of data is essential for creating rich, contextual experiences for your customers.
Think of behavioral data like a crystal ball—it gives you a glimpse into the future decision-making patterns of your customers and helps predict possible purchase opportunities. But what do you with all of that data once you have it?
Behavioral email campaigns.
Want to learn more about behavioral marketing and get a sneak peek at Movable Ink’s behavioral marketing expansion, Signals? Download our latest eBook, The Behavioral Marketing Playbook.
Why behavioral emails work
This type of email campaign is triggered when a customer has a specific interaction with your brand. Things like web page visits, past purchase behavior, link clicks, social media engagement and email opens can all be an indicator of what your customers are interested in and likely to act on. They can also include more dynamic approaches, like location-based messaging.
The key advantage as to why these emails are so effective? You’re able to deliver content that immediately addresses key moments in the customer journey and create a better experience. Behavioral email can lead to:
-Higher engagement
-Higher click-through rates
-Increased retention
-Increased customer happiness
Behavioral email marketing ranks as the most effective strategy for improving email engagement. It makes sense—73% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands who send them relevant, targeted information.
When to send
The concept of behavioral marketing seems simple enough, right? But the infrastructure and conditions needed to trigger an email can quickly become complex, even for the advanced email marketer.
We’ve put together 6 scenarios where behavioral marketing can come into play, so you can start sending smarter, more effective email campaigns:
Welcome—If you’re looking to optimize any email, make it this one. Your welcome email sets the tone for the rest of your campaigns to come and has an average open rate of over 50%. What sets off the trigger for your welcome campaign is a good thing—a subscriber was interested in learning more and opted in to receive emails from you.
Image via Really Good Emails
We love how this email identifies exactly where the subscriber is in their journey and gives them helpful information and resources that give them exactly what they need and will ultimately build trust.
Reactivation/Abandoned Cart—Abandoned cart emails are one of the most effective emails that retailers can send to re-engage visitors who left their site before completing a purchase. After all, no one is more ready to buy than someone who puts items in their shopping cart. But nearly 68% of online shoppers abandon their cart, according to CPC Strategy, so sending a friendly reminder of the items they’ve left behind can help you capture lost revenue.
Image via Really Good Emails
Not only does this Bonobos email serve as a reminder that items were left in the shopping cart, but it also identifies that they’re a first-time customer (and maybe a bit hesitant to place an order!). It serves them with a 20% off code to help give a gentle nudge.
Lead—Someone who opts in to your list to download a resource or redeem a special welcome offer is likely interested in what you’re selling and wants to get to know you better. By sending targeted messaging to this audience, you’re helping to nurture the relationship as they make their way through the purchasing funnel. Depending on what they downloaded, sending contextual follow ups that can help aid in the decision-making process can have a big impact.
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When you sign up for a course on Skillshare, for example, the content that you opted in to receive gets sent right away.
Onboarding—Help make the new customer transition a little easier with triggered emails that offer helpful resources and information they need to be successful. Effective onboarding emails can be the thing that makes customers “stickier” and improve your retention rate.
Image via Really Good Emails
This onboarding email from Hired is simple, straightforward and lets new users know exactly where they are in the setup process. Try setting up automated campaigns that are triggered when a person does (or doesn’t) complete a step when getting started.
Transactional—These type of messages are sent to give customers information on their purchase, invoices, shipping confirmations and more. But what people don’t realize is that it’s a great opportunity to engage customers while they wait for their order to arrive or return to process.
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This email from Tradesy is a great example of giving the customer the information they need, while also sharing other content that may be of interest (in this instance, a referral program.)
Inactivity—Sometimes customers go dormant—hey, it happens. Using behavioral marketing and data, you can identify when customers haven’t opened your emails or visited your website in a while. Sending emails that remind your subscribers that you’re still around helps keep your brand top of mind.
Image via Really Good Emails
This re-engagement campaign from Typeform does a great job of identifying a common customer pain point and offers a solution to fix it. Try sharing some helpful resources or ideas for using your product that your customers might not have thought of. If you’re a retailer, bonus points for throwing in a little incentive or bonus offer to give motivation to return.
Start sending today
Behavioral email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to take advantage of email automation. You can use them for retaining customers, nurturing leads and increasing your ROI. With this type of messaging, you’ll be able to increase the impact of your efforts all while sending customers information they actually want to receive.
Want to start sending better, smarter email campaigns today?
Want to learn more about behavioral marketing and get a sneak peek at Movable Ink’s behavioral marketing expansion, Signals? Download our latest eBook, The Behavioral Marketing Playbook.