Achieve 'Repeatable Relevance' in 4 Steps
The time you invest now to build repeatable relevance the right way will pay off with higher engagement for your future campaigns.
The time you invest now to build repeatable relevance the right way will pay off with higher engagement for your future campaigns.
Sending timely-targeted e-mail will give your e-mail programs the relevance edge. Targeted messages generate higher opens, clicks, and ROI than “batch and blast” e-mails.
Relevant e-mail messaging is more important than ever these days, given the added demand for your recipients’ attention in the inbox.
However, relevance by itself isn’t enough. You need to aim for “repeatable relevance.”
One-Offs Aren’t Enough
I recently received an excellent retail e-mail that was highly timely and relevant. I ended up buying from it. Success, right? Not quite.
It was a one-off success: a one-time message from a brand that usually sends broadcast messages that aren’t always relevant.
Further, the design and coding showed that this kind of message could not be repeated easily and cost-effectively as part of a regular messaging stream.
Challenges Facing Repeatable Relevance
So, although this particular e-mail is on the relevancy path, true ROI growth comes with repeatable relevance. It’s not that easy to achieve, however.
Repeatable relevance is hard to deliver. You must be able to match behavioral data models to products and then execute the proper message, over and over again. For most marketers, this also has to happen with limited marketing-budget resources and time.
How to Get Started
These suggestions will take you down the path to relevance:
Define the link categories based on your main categories, such as your site navigation. Using this information, bucket your customers into those categories based on where they are clicking. This is sometimes called indirect profiling.
Remember: you will need to create a hierarchy of links because customers will click on more than one link at your site.
Create categories for browse behavior, and match them to your link categories. Build a persona for each e-mail address in your database. That way, you can create segment or dynamic-content statements such as “Clicked on link category 1” or “Browsed category 1.”
Another quick and effective method to boost relevance: create different versions of the subject line or preheader (the top line or two of editorial content in the message) using link or browse data.
Tip: don’t try to version every aspect of your e-mail message at one time. Try one module or component in the message first.
Start small. Begin with three to seven data categories, and build from there.
The time you invest now to build repeatable relevance the right way will pay off with higher engagement for your future campaigns.