With the increasing amount of time people spend on creating, testing, and refining their email marketing approach; triggered emails seem like one more thing that they have to manage and I find many clients questioning the value.  But a triggered email, if done correctly, can position you at the right place at the right time to close a sale.

Take for instance the cart abandonment email – meaning you were logged in to XYZ site with the item you wanted in your shopping cart and then you left without buying the item.  As the retailer, you are left wondering why the item made it so far along the purchase journey without completing the sale.  A triggered email can serve a few purposes in this instance.  You could offer customer service or an alternate order method.  You could also use the opportunity to find out why they didn’t complete their purchase or offer a discount.  Many retailers feel that there is too much of a “big brother” component with these types of emails, but with the correct approach you could create an opportunity to reach a customer you would have otherwise lost.

Like all email marketing (and really all marketing approaches) one size fits all won’t work.  The emails should offer your customers value and be regularly tested, and refined to make sure they are achieving a purpose.  If you meet those targets, you may just find yourself wishing you had embraced the triggered email approach sooner.

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So how can a business-to-business marketer encourage current or potential customers to opt-in? 

The first step is letting the person know why they should opt-in.  Will they receive more targeted communications or content based on their preferences?  People want to know ‘what’s in it for me’ before they part with information.  The second step is delivering on those promises.  I’ve encountered opt-in approaches that promise by signing up you’ll receive targeted information, only to find that the topic I indicated as a preference is not well represented or the updates were inconsistent.  That means content or communications based on user preferences must be something you can sustain over the lifetime of the campaign. 

You want to make it easy for customers to opt-in.  Don’t collect exhaustive or unnecessary information.  One approach is to collect minimal information to start and once you’ve established a trust with the customer, ask for additional preference information to drive communications related to those preferences.  It goes without saying that customers also needs to understand how their data is being used and feel that their information is secure. 

By detailing and then delivering on the value proposition, business-to-business marketers can improve opt-ins and improve preference driven communications for their current and potential customers. 

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The theme you’ve likely caught onto in these stories is that these are all business to consumer sites.  So what purpose does Twitter serve for business to business marketers?

Twitter can be useful in many ways in the business to business arena.  Twitter is a great way to exploit content you are trying to promote.  With the help of re-tweets your assets can spread beyond your follower base.  Twitter can be useful for image or awareness campaigns.  IBM has been Tweeting quite a bit about their Watson computer, for example. Of course, not every business has a Watson, but Tweeting about things like a company’s corporate citizenship can go a long way to improve the perception of your brand.  Twitter is also a great option for recruiting.  Not only will you reach the Millennial Generation but you also have the opportunity to reach recent graduates who are beginning their careers or even students will be entering the work force down the line.

I think it will be some time before I am telling you about a hard dollar return that a business to business campaign generated but Twitter does deserve a place in the business to business marketing plan.

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The campaign is particularly interesting because not only did Ben & Jerry’s receive positive media impressions and excellent social media stats, they also enjoyed a measurable increase in sales in the New York market where the campaign took place.  When you consider that Twitter was the only vehicle used to communicate the location of the truck, the performance is even more impactful.  

Campaigns like these show the impact of social media.  While social media is often seen as a “nice to have” tactic, it can often be a useful way to improve sales, especially for consumer brands.  The Ben & Jerry’s campaign was fun and engaging and allowed followers to feel connected to the brand.  It was also targeted to a specific location, making it easier for Ben & Jerry’s to measure a sales impact based on the effort.

Consider Ben & Jerry’s successes when strategizing your next venture into social media.  You may find your tweets can translate to dollars and sense.

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But what about the people that don’t return?

Let’s dissect some of the reasons users abandoned the cart and figure out how to address the issues.  Service was listed as a reason for abandoning the cart.  Look at your checkout process and ask yourself if all steps are clear.  Is there contact information for customer service at all steps throughout the process?  Do you include all major payment methods?  Then consider your particular product and think about what things a customer might want or need to ensure they complete the process.  A good example – while trying to send a close friend a baby gift last month I attempted to place an order on a site only to find out that the maximum character count for a gift message was 100 characters.  Twitter allows for more content than that!  I ended up leaving the site and purchasing a gift I liked a little less from a site that allowed me to express my full message on the card.

Security concerns are also listed as an issue for many users.  The obvious fixes here are to encrypt data and protect user information at all points throughout the checkout process.  For ecommerce sites I do think that independent certifications make a lot of sense.  Most of the certifications include regular evaluation of your pages in addition to the logo you can add to the checkout pages.  The logo tends to give the buyer confidence while the page checking ensures the confidence is warranted.

Addressing cost concerns can be a more difficult nut to crack.  Some people would argue that any time a user abandons the cart, they should receive a discount incentive to encourage them to buy.  That can be a slippery slope because it encourages users to abandon the cart at every purchase.  You might consider offering discount codes or free shipping to some of your most loyal customers.  With the emergence of sites like Coupon Cabin discount codes are everywhere so make customers can easily find where to enter them. 

Regardless of which concern you set out to fix, make sure you test outcomes.  Obviously, check to see if people abandon the cart less but also monitor customer service inquires, average orders, and recurring orders.  The less people abandon the shopping cart in the first place, the less we have to fear that they are gone for good.

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Companies need take this advice to take personalization to the next level.  This goes beyond using a contacts name and can include things like offers specific to the customers previous behavior or purchase.  Getting data from sales teams can also be useful in this process.  Oftentimes the sales staff knows the most about a particular customer, but the data is never shared with marketing. 

Automatic emails are also a great way to stay in touch with your customers.  Emails can be triggered by specific actions a customer takes or even actions logged by the sales team.  Rules are set up to ensure the emails triggered are timely and relevant to the action taken.

Using email for one to one interactions with your customer is a great way to improve ROI with the study indicating ROI that 5-10 times that of broad email marketing.  By tying the interactions to actions and unifying customer data, it will lead to a more cohesive experience for your customers.

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There are several examples where crowdsourcing has been quite effective.  One of my favorite examples is the MyStarbucksIdea site.  The users of this site give suggestions on ideas on what they would like to see at their local Starbucks.  Ideas are commented and voted on and Starbucks actively participates in the community to evaluate and implement some of the most popular ideas.  The group has been credited with devising the “splash sticks” (which help you from spilling that piping hot coffee on yourself) and the return of free wireless. 

By participating in the discussions on the site and more importantly actually implementing the ideas, Starbucks is nurturing effective crowdsourcing.  It the users of the site felt like their ideas were going into a black hole they wouldn’t be as inclined to participate.  A crowdsourcing site could even have a negative effect if users felt as if the environment was simply a venue for the company to pay them generic corporate lip service. 

While it is tempting to think that crowdsourcing will be an easy endeavor that will run itself, the opposite is actually true.  By participating as part of the “crowd” you can actually garner useful feedback. . .but you have to be part of the conversation!

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So how do you do it correctly?

First of all a corporation has to embrace the basic blog “style”.  This is not the place for lengthy formal content.  Companies also shouldn’t rely on a single individual for blogging duties.  By disseminating the responsibility across many individuals you can reach a broader target audience as some posters may resonate with different readers.  It also helps ensure that readers attribute the content back to the business and don’t heavily associate it to an individual.  Companies can also get the added benefit of improved SEO from the consistent relevant content that is added in a blog. 

Embracing company blogging, when done as part of the overall marketing strategy, can positively affect company visibility and may even lead to more fulfilled employees.

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By creating an online shopping destination P&G can collect and evaluate data on how consumers interact with their products.  The data can be used to negotiate their agreements with retailers, as the article suggests, but there are other insights to be gained as well.  P&G can tie purchase data to advertising in various markets to determine if upticks in purchases can be attributed to a particular ad campaign.  P&G can also better track which referring sites or online ads were most effective in influencing purchase.

The P&G eStore also has an area for customer comments, reviews, and product and site feedback.  P&G employees respond to customer feedback and customers can track which of their ideas are implemented.  In addition to helping improve the site P&G gains access to direct consumer feedback about their products, prices, and company in general.  Popular topics to date have included the shrinking size of Charmin Mega rolls and the difference between regular and High Efficiency (HE) laundry detergent.

The combination of user feedback and product sales data will be a powerful resource for P&G.  I won’t be surprised to see other consumer goods companies following their lead in the near future.

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You don’t arrive at this level of user targeting by doing basic list segmentation.  Predicting future behavior requires extensive tracking and mapping of previous customers actions.  It might cause some to wonder if it is worth all the work.

The answer is “of course it is”! 

I find many marketers focus too much on the idea of metrics and are intimidated by the idea of analytics.  As marketers, we need to embrace and leverage the information we can gain about our customers to design campaigns that are more targeted to our customers wants.  The result is not only immediate impact on purchase, but also improved brand perceptions when you can demonstrate you not only understand, but act on your customer preferences.

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