1. Shades of Grey
Incorporating Marketing into
your Transactional Messages
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2. WHO WE ARE
Carly Brantz
carly.brantz@sendgrid.com
@carlybrantz
Brian O’Neill
Brian.oneill@sendgrid.com
@emailpm
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3. CATEGORIES OF EMAIL
Typical Volume
Transactional Marketing
1% of all email 99% of all email
volume volume
2% of all recipients 98% of all recipients
email email
Source: Jupiter Research “US email Marketing Forecast
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4. CATEGORIES OF EMAIL
Success Rates
Transactional Marketing
Open: 41 - 54% Open: 15 - 19%
Click: 18 - 23% Click: 2 - 5%
Unsubscribe: < .4% Unsubscribe Rate:
2x more valuable! 1.2%
Average of ~20% Better Open and 16% Click Rates!
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Source: SendGrid 4
6. 5 WAYS TO INCORPORATE MARKETING
5 Easy Ways to Incorporate Marketing
Follows Proactive
Surveys Referrals Opt-ins
and likes support
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7. SURVEYS
Gain customer
feedback by asking
them to complete a
quick Net Promoter
Score survey
Ask them to answer a
single question. A
click-to-answer
approach works well.
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8. REFERRALS
Ask happy customers
to refer your company
to their friends
Give the opportunity
for them to earn a
reward.
We’ve seen great
success with this
approach at
SendGrid.
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9. OPT-INS
Allow recipients to
subscribe to your
marketing emails
Incorporate a link
inside the
transactional email.
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10. FOLLOWS AND LIKES
Include a few
unobtrusive (and
nowadays, almost
obligatory) social
icons
Facilitate extra
follows and likes on
Facebook, Twitter
and LinkedIn and
Google+.
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11. PROACTIVE SUPPORT
Include a link to
documentation,
forums or support
page to offer help
when the user most
needs it.
Help your users while
avoiding customer
support time.
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12. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Who are you? Who who, who who?
He really wants to know.
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13. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Be Personal
Include personalized content
Dave
Jon Bob
Tina Kate
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14. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Be Gentle
Don’t go overboard, use the space efficiently.
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15. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Be Relevant
Present applicable, targeted offers
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16. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Know Your Interaction Lifecycle
How do your clients react with your
application?
What is the typical path a customer takes
when making a decision to purchase?
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17. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Know Your Customer’s Interaction Lifecycle
Map your app’s transactional work flow:
Example Work Flow
1. Email Validation
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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18. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Complementary Marketing
Example Work Flow Message
- Account Completion
1. Email Validation - Product Walk-Throughs
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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19. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Complementary Marketing
Example Work Flow Message
- Further engagement, push
1. Email Validation next steps
- Product Recommendations
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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20. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Complementary Marketing
Example Work Flow Message
- Recommendations
1. Email Validation - Social Sharing reminders
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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21. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Complementary Marketing
Example Work Flow Message
- “Thank You”
1. Email Validation - Social Sharing reminders
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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22. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Complementary Marketing
Message
Example Work Flow - Surveys
- Proactive Support
1. Email Validation
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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23. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Pro-Tips
Don’t repeat yourself
Aim, then fire
Weekly Summaries:
Consolidate the
transactional
notifications to
increase your ability to
engage your
customers
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24. MEASURING YOUR RESULTS
Metrics To Track
Open Rate
– Unique Opens / Deliveries
– Reflects on the effectiveness of your subject
lines, the timing of your message, and the
strength of the call-to-action implied
Click Rate
– Unique Clicks / Deliveries
– Measures the strength of the call-to-action and
the perceived benefits
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25. MEASURING YOUR RESULTS
Metrics To Track
Email-To-Action
– From Open to Purchase
– Open -> Click -> Landing Page -> Desired
Action
– Find weak-points in your customer interaction
cycles
– Desired Actions: Purchase, Sign-Up,
Engagement
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26. MEASURING YOUR RESULTS
Tools To Use
Multiple-Link Tracking Reports
– Show where in the email recipients are
clicking
– Help you tailor and adjust your messaging to
put the most important links where users are
most likely to click
A/B Testing
– Automatically test out content variations to
send our messages with proven mark-up
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27. MEASURING YOUR RESULTS
Tools To Use
Content Versioning
– Allows you to track changes to similar content
over time
Version • 13% Click
1
Version2 • 14% Click
Live
• 15% Click
Version
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The percentages vary depending on industrySource: SendGrid's data
Warning: You must exercise caution when adding marketing content to transactional emails as you run the risk of spoiling your most valuable emails. Make sure you proceed with changes slowly to minimalize the risk to your critical emails.
One of the most important aspects of successful marketing through transactional email is knowing your audience. You have to know your customers, your product and how they interact.
Remain CAN-SPAM compliant by not taking up too much space. Keep the main focus of the email on the transactional message
Some ConsiderationsWhat state is your customer in?What is the next thing you want them to do?What has changed since their last visit?What are their friends doing?
Expand all examples and call out why they’re successful
Use Dynamic ContentUse place holders in your content and replace with personalized call-to-actions