I never get tired of hearing from my favorite retailers, especially if they are sending me coupons or alerting me to new products. My inbox is flooded with emails from different companies telling about additions to their bestseller list, reminding me about Mother’s Day, or letting me know that the dress I’ve had my eye on for over a month is finally on sale.
According to Shop.org’s latest State of Retailing Online, conducted by Forrester Research, there’s a reason why my in-box is overflowing with things I care about: 88% of retailers say email marketing is at the top of their priority list. But that doesn’t mean sending more emails – it means retailers are being smarter about emails they’re already sending. That’s everything from notices on free shipping and what’s new in stores to emails that simply say hi, we miss you, here’s a coupon.
One way retailers are being smarter about emails is through segmenting, ie: sending specific notes to customers in certain areas (that means promoting snow blowers to customers in Maine while featuring lawnmowers for shoppers in Texas). In some instances, retailers are drilling down by states, counties, or even zip codes. It’s a smart strategy that brings us back to the good old days, when the person behind the counter remembered what you had purchased and made recommendations based on what you liked. It’s just a little more advanced now, and on a much broader scale.
For example, a colleague recently sent me an email he received from Papa John’s celebrating the Washington Capitals recent success (GO CAPS!) and offering free toppings for each Capitals goal, having known he lived in fan territory. (By the way, the promotion worked—he ordered six pizzas the night he had friends over!)
Online retailers are also using email to convert browsers into buyers when they abandon their shopping cart. Even when customers go MIA, retailers have found a great way to remind us that at some point, we really did have every intention of buying that skirt that we put in our “shopping cart” but then suddenly abandoned.
One friend mentioned that she had gotten distracted while shopping online at Victoria’s Secret and, two days later, got an email from VS with an oh-so-subtle reminder. “This is a reminder that the items we are holding in your shopping bag will expire in a few days,” the email says. “To complete your order, click here to view your shopping bag. You can review your selections, make changes, add more items and proceed to checkout.”
I’m the first one to admit that online retailers have their hands full with customer demands. But when companies realized there were better, more personal, easily customizable ways to reach customers, the rules changed. Now, with marketing budgets stretched thin, and some retailers pulling back on spending, the time is right for companies to start focusing on how to make a great customer retention tool even better by sending smarter emails.