Trigger messages generate 250% higher click rate than newsletters. Read about factors that determine the success of trigger messages.

1. Professional Email Marketing
Increase email marketing ROI
with Triggered Email Messages
Trigger messages generate 250% higher click rate than newsletters

2. © 2014 All Rights Reserved
1Increase email marketing ROI with Triggered Email Messages
Trigger messages generate 250% higher click rate
than newsletters
In some circumstances we are not given the opportunity to test things out before taking actions. Besides, playing
around with things may be irresponsible, or even hazardous (as with fixing a gas oven on your own). Luckily,
in professional email marketing, testing is more than welcome! You are able to expand the results generated from
a small sample onto a whole group. In this field, there are no restrictions for testing, which you should apply to
continuously improve your results.
We wanted to take a closer look at the emails driven only by opening or clicking on a previously delivered message.
Our research comprised over 3 billion newsletters and 35 million trigger messages.
Introducing trigger messages
Messages deployed in response to subscriber’s particular behavior are called trigger messages. They are among the
most popular automatic messages. Usually, behavior patterns that drive these messages include opening a message,
clicking on a link, or abandoning a sale. Once the action is taken, trigger message is sent, instantly.
You’re always welcome to talk to our Experts about
your plans and challenges. We are eager to show you
our email delivery technology and services, and
discuss how we can add value to your company.
http://www.expertsender.com/demo?utm_source=Triggers_WhitePaper&utm_medium=PR&utm_campaign=demo
Marcin Luks
Phone: +1-646-328-3919
E-mail: marcin.luks@expertsender.com
Request a free demo
Email & Marketing Director

3. © 2014 All Rights Reserved
2Increase email marketing ROI with Triggered Email Messages
Time based trigger messages that are
mailed in an interval before or after
a custom date.
If the customer has signed up for an
appointment, meeting, or show, a reminder
can be sent out x days, hours or minutes
beforehand. Alternatively, you could also
mail out a request for a review x days, hours
or minutes after the show, or hotel stay.
Triggers based on a custom field’s value
being modified.
This may be used for something such as
an upgrade in account status, or a payment
being received. It’s important that the trigger
allows specification based on the custom
field change, and whether the custom field
already existed, or if it was just created by
user’s action. This allows subscribers that
are already in a database, but don’t have the
custom field (perhaps it’s a new feature or
subscription type) to still receive the trigger
email.
Anniversary or monthly recurring date
trigger.
Using such a trigger message, and dynamic
content, you can easily set up a birthday,
or sign-up date based trigger containing
special deals or coupons to the most
valuable subscribers. Having the flexibility
of time is important as well, since it allows
you to specify the time of day the message
is mailed.
Reaching a goal or conversion point
If the system allows goal or conversion
tracking, a trigger message based on
reaching a goal is an easy point to score.
It’s always important to be able to specify
in hours or minutes when the message
should be sent after the consumer purchases
or converts. This is especially useful for
shopping cart abandonment programs
and action confirmation emails.
Opening or clicking a link in a message.
Very fun and useful trigger type which can
be sent to subscribers opening a particular
message, or message type. To be even more
customizable, being able to specify a trigger
based on a click on a specific link gives
marketers even more freedom to creatively
target active subscribers.
The following actions are all potentially valuable
to marketers

4. © 2014 All Rights Reserved
3Increase email marketing ROI with Triggered Email Messages
Advantages of trigger emails
At first glance our analysis proves that trigger
messages have much higher open and click rates
than regular newsletters. On average, the open rates
for trigger emails were 4 times higher than those for
newsletters. The click rates, however, changed in time
and there was no such clear pattern.
The trigger effect
There are 3 factors that determine the success of
trigger messages:
Average click rates for newsletters and trigger messages in Jan-Sep 2013
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
SeptemberAugustJulyJuneMayAprilMarchFebruaryJanuary
NEWSLETTERS TRIGGERS
CLICK RATE
NEWSLETTERS VS TRIGGERS
3.10 3.08
4.17
3.87
3.28
4.57
3.42
3.78
2.71
3.98
2.19
4.47
2.01
4.32 4.30
2.15 2.10
5.26
Availability
It comes directly from the timing. Triggers
are delivered at the very same moment when
a subscriber is browsing the mailbox and
clicks/opens a previous message.
Human curiosity
Sheer curiosity of a newly received message
is the reason why triggers have 4 times higher
open rates than newsletters.
2
3
Timing
Triggers are sent immediately after a relevant
action takes place.
1

5. © 2014 All Rights Reserved
4Increase email marketing ROI with Triggered Email Messages
Open rate's (in)famous offspring
We all realize it's not all about open rates.
What matters more is how many subscribers decide
to interact with our communication by responding
to the CTA and visiting the landing page, which is an
entry gate for conversion. It is the CLICK that initiates
all conversions in email marketing.
So what makes the open rate so different from click
rate? The graphs clearly demonstrate the differences
in the flow of these metrics. The open rates are stable
and much higher for triggers than newsletters.
The click rates, on the other hand, seem to be ruled
by different criteria. What are they? The answer is
fairly simple...
The key for sky-rocketing click rates
Personalization and content relevancy are the
paradigms of email marketing. Growing maturity of
email programs results in the progress of all metrics.
The graph with click rates provides evidence that time
and content relevancy induce higher subscriber
interaction than bulk mailings with content adjusted
to mass audiences. The most important takeaway is
that marketers who mastered content personalization
and messaging automation will generate higher
yields.
With triggers it’s easy to get attention of the user,
because of timing, availability, and human curiosity.
Four times higher open rates are a strong evidence
of that. However, whether the subscriber takes action
relies solely on WHAT CONTENTS will be emailed
to them. Such concepts as geolocation, big data
analyses and responsive design should be leveraged
to make the marketed content most relevant to the
customer, their location, timing and device.
A personalized approach is absolutely essentialto
a successful email campaign today. Yet again, it is the
content that drives the engagement and yields
growing results in trigger messaging.
Average open rates for newsletters and trigger messages in Jan-Sep 2013
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
SeptemberAugustJulyJuneMayAprilMarchFebruaryJanuary
NEWSLETTERS TRIGGERS
OPEN RATE
NEWSLETTERS VS TRIGGERS
11.61
12.49
53.29
49.97
12.86
55.10
13.17
51.30
11.61
46.85
11.00
49.57
10.14
44.37
48.53
10.72 10.77
53.15

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