Adobe has recently released their “Campaign Guide To Email Marketing: The Next Frontier” and it provides ample and valuable information to online marketers on how to transform an email campaign strategy into one that maximizes both metrics and return on investment. The Adobe guide starts out by stating that modern consumers respond in a very different way from their counterparts just a few years ago, as they prefer to read their marketing emails on their smartphones and then switch over to a tablet or laptop to actually consummate the purchase. Of course they demand that the readability and overall display of the emails be equally good on any device they choose. By taking into consideration the subscriber’s device, location, and behavior you can craft a campaign which truly resonates.

Follow the subscriber through the entire lifecycle

The guide delves into a very important factor which has long been known to online marketers everywhere and that is that it is critical to follow your subscriber through the entire consumer lifecycle. Has your prospect previously converted and has thus become a customer? If so, have they shown through their behavior to be repeat customers at a frequency which would classify them as being active? Have they taken the further step to not only be customers which are loyal to your brand but have actually been satisfied with your offerings that they have become online advocates and evangelists?

Triggered emails can resuscitate moribund relationships

On the flip side, some customers will have essentially ceased interacting with your brand and gone dormant or worse. Each of these customer lifestyle stages demands a varying approach with content which is specifically suited to your customer’s lifecycle. The guide goes on to explain that strategies such as triggered emails and various forms of remarketing can launch, empower, or even resuscitate moribund customer relationships as long as the most relevant offer is sent out at the most opportune time!

Are you right on time with triggered emails or are you lazy?

Exactly when a triggered email message is received will differentiate it between being a highly powerful and relevant missive or one that is purely irrelevant. If you are sending out your welcome emails once your customer has joined your loyalty program within minutes, then you are satisfying the customer’s requirements for this type of message. However, if it’s received two weeks later, your customer will automatically take on the position that your brand is lazy and disorganized. Similarly, if your customer can’t remember what was in the cart that they abandoned by the time they receive your cart abandonment email, you are effectively dynamiting your entire triggered email marketing program.

Your checkout process should be designed by your grandma

When your customers place an SKU into their online cart, there are literally endless reasons why they will not continue on to complete the checkout process. In many cases it is because your process has confused or stymied them and they are unable or unwilling to continue any further. It is absolutely imperative that your checkout process not be determined or designed by your IT department but by your grandma! Even in the age of nearly universal mobile devices, there are still many millions of people who are extremely challenged by all forms of technology and are therefore unable to perform actions that are present on your checkout process which most other more technologically capable individuals would be able to complete with barely a thought.

The Adobe guide stated that customers abandon over $4 trillion of merchandise each year in online etailing shopping carts, and if online brand marketers were to take the right steps to facilitate these checkouts in ways that resonate with the consumer directly while facilitating them in their task, then 63% or a totally staggering $2.65 trillion of that abandoned merchandise could actually be sold. That is more than the GDP of many countries. The great thing about making your checkout simple is that your tech savvy customers will appreciate the elegance of it, while your tech illiterate ones will still be able to complete a purchase. This way everyone wins!