MailLibs: Fill-in-the-Blank Email Automation
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Even with the best technology, automated email programs still need humans to design the emails, craft the messages, and figure out the logistics. A lot of decisions go into creating a personalized automation program, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun! In this session, Holly will break down the top automated email marketing series into fun and easy, fill-in-the-blank programs (get it? Mail!Libs?!). Attendees will leave with a better understanding of the components needed make their automations successful. BONUS: Download Holly's digital MailLibs game, so you can play (ahem, plan) all the way home on your flight. "I need a noun! Will someone please shout out a noun!?!" I presented this session at Litmus' Email Design Conference in Boston in August 2016. Enjoy! -Holly
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MailLibs: Fill-in-the-Blank Email Automation
- 1. @Hollygow
- 3. @Hollygow
- 4. @Hollygow
- 5. @Hollygow
- 6. @Hollygow
- 7. @Hollygow Email marketers Cat owners 📧 📧 📧 📧 📧 📧📧📧 📧 😻 😻😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻😻
- 8. @Hollygow
- 9. @Hollygow THE ROBOTS ARE COMING FOR OUR JOBS!
- 10. @Hollygow
- 11. @Hollygow
- 12. @Hollygow
- 13. @Hollygow data
- 16. @Hollygow THE ROBOTS ARE COMING FOR OUR JOBS! We got this!
- 17. @Hollygow strategy targeting triggers photograph copygraphics romotions subject lin alls-to-actionlanding pagb testing iming personaliza n
- 18. @Hollygow strategy targeting triggers photograph copygraphics romotions subject lin alls-to-actionlanding pag personaliza nb testing iming
- 19. @Hollygow strategy targeting triggers photograph copygraphics romotions subject lin alls-to-actionlanding pag personaliza nb testing iming
- 20. @Hollygow And now... Some email stats!
- 21. @Hollygow automated emails are 5x – 30x more valuable than bulk
- 22. @Hollygow sent 10.2% of all opens 15.4% of all clicks 45.0% of all email orders 44.7% off all email
- 23. @Hollygow 25% average open rate 44% average open rate
- 24. @Hollygow 16% average click rate 25% average click rate
- 25. @Hollygow 6% average conversion rate 27% average conversion rate
- 26. @Hollygow $0.33 average revenue per email $4.00 average revenue per email
- 27. @Hollygow Top Programs Welcome Bounce- back Abandone d cart Birthday VIP gift Retargetin g
- 28. @Hollygow
- 30. @Hollygow When someone ___________ for your email program, it is nice and polite to send a __________ ____________. To put your new subscriber at ease, it’s best to include a personal touch, such as their __________ and a special gift. “________!” they’ll say. “What a great deal!” But unfortunately, not everyone will immediately ______________. After ___________, go ahead and send a ________ to those folks. If they still haven’t ______________ after ____________, send a ____________. Those who order should How to Give a Warm Welcome!signs upTRIGGER MESSAGE TIME INTERVAL DYNAMIC TEXT quick hello right away first name PROMO 10% off QUALIFYING ACTION place an order TIME INTERVAL 48 hours MESSAGE remind er QUALIFYING ACTION placed an order TIME INTERVAL 3 more days MESSAGE final reminde r main progra m OTHER PROGRAM early engagement OTHER PROGRAM
- 32. @Hollygow Possible Triggers • Submitting an email signup form or popup • Opening or not opening your first campaign • Clicking on a specific link or email • Not clicking a specific email or group of emails • Not opening any emails from you over an extended period of time • Requesting a lower frequency of emails • Requesting only a specific type of emails
- 33. @Hollygow More Triggers • Placing their first order or any order • Placing an order over a certain amount • Placing an order for a specific item or category of items • Putting something in their cart without checking out • Looking at something without putting in in their cart • Spending a total of $XXX or more on your site • Making a total of XX purchases in a period of time • Purchasing once and not again for a period of time
- 34. @Hollygow Even More Triggers • Downloading a whitepaper, ebook, case study or video • Signing up for a webinar • Participating or not participating in a webinar • Filling out a form to request a demo • Requesting pricing or more information • Viewing certain pages on your site (pricing, client list, etc.) • Becoming a customer or client • Registering for a conference
- 35. @Hollygow Still More Triggers • Interacting on social media • Having a birthday • Opting into a sweepstakes • Referring a friend • Requesting help • Resetting their password • Reaching the anniversary of their first purchase, first event, first download, registration, etc.
- 37. @Hollygow Messages • Creative – photography, graphics, copy and CTA’s • Offers and incentives • From name, subject line and preheader text • Alt text, background colors and bullet-proof buttons
- 38. @Hollygow Messages • Start with the customer. • What will the subscriber be expecting? • What’s your goal? • Do your tone and copy bridge the gap?
- 39. @Hollygow Proper Nouns who to include
- 40. @Hollygow Adjectiveshow to describe the recipients
- 41. @Hollygow Adverbs (word ending in -ly)how and when to send messages
- 43. @Hollygow Personalization • Customer’s name • The customer’s spend total or progress toward a goal • Membership or VIP status • Dynamic product recommendations • Content recommendations • Custom offers and promotions • Recently purchased items for reordering • Items a customer has hearted or liked
- 45. @Hollygow Promotions • Welcome • Birthday gift • VIP status • Re-engagement • Lapsed buyers • Bounce-back • Post-purchase • New subscriber conversion • Cart abandonment • Browse abandonment • Product reviews • Product recommendations • Update preferences
- 47. @Hollygow
- 57. @Hollygow think about your customers first.
- 60. @Hollygow QA
- 61. @Hollygow refine
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to MailLibs
- Fill in the blank email automation. I’m Holly Wright and I work for Phoenix Direct, an ecommerce agency in Atlanta, GA.
- So, who am I?
- Well, first of all, I’m a true native born Texan! I was born on Texas soil down in Atlanta, GA. Tell birth story here.
- I have two cats – Elizabeth and Cleopatra
- I have two cats – Elizabeth and Cleopatra
- Let’s take a little crowd survey.
- What else… I love swimming, running, hiking and pilates, and my other hobbies include cooking, gardening, crocheting, reading, bird watching, and basically anything else your grandma likes. I also love email marketing metrics and strategy. So now that we have the introductions out of the way, I want to cover one very important point today.
- THE ROBOTS ARE COMING FOR OUR JOBS!!!
- Okay, not really… But we do have all these incredible email platforms and some pretty amazing technology at our disposal. Everyone keeps talking about machine learning and artificial intelligence. People have asked me what role email marketers will have when software takes over everything, but my answer is that we’re a long, long way from that happening. The truth is, there’s really never been a cooler, more exciting time to be in marketing. Sorry, Mad Men fans!
- Okay, I stand corrected. Damnit, they look so cool with their suits and martinis and silk scarves and cigarettes!
- I guess I should say there’s never been a cooler time for GEEKS to be in marketing.
- We have more data than we know what to do with – Anybody remember MEGA-REPORT for TEDC15?!
- We have incredibly powerful software packages with more functionality than most of us have time to use.
- And there’s no shortage of third party apps for popups, coupons, a/b testing, preview rendering, competitive analysis, social media integration and even weather triggers for emails!
- But behind all the fantastic tools are still mere mortals. What I’m trying to say is that despite the amazing technological advances in the field of email marketing, there’s still no substitute for clever, creative, compassionate human marketers.
- The most successful automated email programs have humans behind them deciding on the strategy, choosing who to target, setting the triggers, taking photos, writing copy, creating graphics, setting up promotions, crafting subject lines, deliberating over calls to action, making landing pages, adding in personalization, devising timing schemes and a/b testing the heck out of it all!
- When it comes down to it, our tiny little human brains make pretty much all of the decisions, and technology just supports our vision.
- Is your head exploding yet? No? okay, good. Because automated email planning doesn’t have to be scary or exhausting. If you do it right, it can be fun!
- I know I don’t have to convince you of the value of sending timely, personalized, automated emails, but I couldn’t possibly give a presentation about email automation without sharing some of the data from our programs.
- At Phoenix Direct, we currently work with eleven different brands on their email marketing programs. Each one has a different mix of automated emails and bulk deployments and different strategies. Overall, we’ve seen that, depending on the program, automated programs generate 5 to 30x more value than bulk emails.
- Here are some really intriguing stats about our clients’ emails. Automated email campaigns accounted for jus 6.1% off all emails sent, 10.2% of all opens and 15.4% of all clicks. However, these emails accounted for 45% of all email-driven orders, and 44.7% off all email-driven revenue. Two years ago, we have 0 automated campaigns, and now almost half of our email revenue is driven by automated programs. At this pace, I’m hoping that we’ll reach the 80/20 rule sometime next year, with 80% of our revenue coming from 20% of our email volume.
- For a little side by side comparison… Bulk deployments – average open rate of 25% Automated deployments – average open rate of 44%
- Bulk deployments – average click rate of 16% Automated deployments – average click rate of 25%
- Bulk deployments – average click to conversion rate of 6% Automated deployments – average click to conversion rate of 27%
- Bulk deployments – average of $0.33 per email sent Automated deployments – average of $4.00 per email sent (12x, that a full order of magnitude better in terms of revenue generation)
- By revenue per email and just about every metric, these are our top automated programs. The Welcome series is far and away the strongest performer (generating over $9 per email sent) Bounce-back: $7 DPE – this is a delayed post-purchase program in which we send a thank-you message three weeks after an order is placed, along with a discount offer to try and incentivize a repeat purchase very quickly after the first purchase. Cart Recovery: $4 DPE, Birthday: $4 DPE VIP: $2 DPE, Retargeting/Browse recovery: $1.50 DPE (again, bulk deployed emails generate about $0.33 per email sent, which is honestly on the high side for a mature email marketing program) So what’s the key to designing successful automated email programs?
- It’s MAIL LIBS, the classic game where email marketers design sophisticated email marketing programs by filling in the blanks (usually completed on long road trips, preferably in a minivan or school bus)! Somewhere along the way, after mapping out my 4th or 5th abandoned cart email series, I started to see the pattern. It dawned on me that planning any automated email program is a lot like filling in a MadLib. If you’re not following along right now, that’s okay!
- Here’s an example.
- I went ahead and filled this one out in advance for the sake of time. Okay, so that was a little bit simplified, but it does have a lot of the elements I want to talk about. With regular mad libs, you fill in parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) to create a silly and usually hilarious story. With Mail Libs, you do the same thing, except that the story you’re creating isn’t a mystery. It’s a relevant, timely story that your subscribers are a pivotal part of. Here are the elements.
- First and foremost, in an automated email program, you have your verbs or triggers. These are, at their core, actions that a subscriber takes that kick off the whole chain of events. This is the most critical piece of an automated campaign because the user-activated component is the single most important thing that makes your campaign timely, relevant and personal to them. They have taken an action of some kind and they usually recognize that your email is in response to their action, which makes them much more likely to engage with it in a positive way.
- Triggers can actually be any action or inaction that a subscriber takes (or doesn’t take). It could be strictly email-focused, ecommerce-focused, more B2B-focused or something else
- Triggers can actually be any action or inaction that a subscriber takes (or doesn’t take). It could be strictly email-focused, ecommerce-focused, more B2B-focused or something else
- Triggers can actually be any action or inaction that a subscriber takes (or doesn’t take). It could be strictly email-focused, ecommerce-focused, more B2B-focused or something else
- Triggers can actually be any action or inaction that a subscriber takes (or doesn’t take). It could be strictly email-focused, ecommerce-focused, more B2B-focused or something else These can all be potential lifecycle events that can trigger an email message or series of messages
- Nouns are your messages whatever the trigger or program, the message is the thing people are going to see and remember, and it’s hopefully what will spur people to action, so you have to put a lot of thought into this piece.
- I won’t talk too much about the components of an email message, but I will talk about the strategy behind them.
- When you plan and design your messages, you should start with the consumer. Put yourself in their shoes. After taking whatever action they took, ask yourself what they will be expecting. Then consider your goal with the message. Are you looking for them to update their preferences, make a purchase, let you know that they still wish to receive emails from you? Make sure your tone and copy help bridge the gap between your goals and your customers’ expectations. Getting the logic behind your program squared away is fun and challenging, but I would argue that crafting just the right message is probably the hardest part of any campaign because it is such a fine balance between accomplishing your goals and aligning with subscriber expectations for where they are in the lifecycle.
- Proper nouns are the groups of people who will be included in a particular campaign. Usually this will boil down to a group of people who all took a similar action to kick off a series, but in some cases, you may start a series based on something else, such as High Value Customers as of November 1st, in which case, membership in that group on that particular day would be the trigger for your series.
- Adjectives describe or clarify a noun. In Mail Libs, adjectives modify the Proper Nouns or groups of people who will receive a message. This is a way to further filter the participants in a workflow. Here’s an example. I spoke with someone yesterday from a very popular ride-for-hire company. She said they were creating an extended automated series for new drivers. When a new driver signs up, a welcome series is triggered which encourages them to give their first ride. Once they complete their first ride, they are moved into another series designed to get them to drive more frequently. In this scenario, the initial audience is first-time drivers. The filter then becomes whether or not they’ve given their first ride.
- Adverbs are all about how a verb is carried out. Slowly, quickly, enthusiastically, aggressively, obnoxiously, slowly, deliberately, coolly… in the case of email automation, adverbs mainly relate to the timing scheme you choose for a program. I’ve tested abandoned cart schemes that range from one day to several weeks long. It certainly can vary by industry. People buying furniture tend to consider their purchases longer than those buying a new plaid button-down shirt, for example. The other thing to consider here is the number of times you will reach out in a given series. Is one cart email enough, or is there increased value in sending up to 4 or 5 additional reminders?
- This grammatical analogy might be a bit of a stretch, but I like to think of my pronouns as opportunities for personalization. Just as you would use the word “She” in place of “Sally”, a first name token in your code may be used in place of someone’s first name.
- For a few of our clients, we use a third-party app to pull personal product recommendations into our emails. For companies in ecommerce this is an amazing way to send more personalized, automated emails. I know there are some content recommendation engines out there as well that work more with B2B email marketers. One of the more complex programs we’ve set up is a retargeting email series that aligns with some ads we were running for an entry level deal for a single product. Different promos for different ad partners, had to insert those promo codes into the url’s dynamically to personalize the on-site experience based on where the subscriber initially saw the ad.
- Speaking of promo codes… Just like in the welcome series example, promotions can be used as part of automated campaigns sort of like interjections. They don’t have to be followed by an exclamation mark, per se, but they do often add a little oomph to your email program (unless habitual discounting is part of your brand). Ultimately, promotions are often part of what drives the amazing return on our automated campaigns.
- Promotions are often expected and a very healthy part of some automated emails; but they’re not necessary in every automated email. For several of our clients, we have a three-part cart abandonment series. The first two emails are just a reminder of what they left behind and the third email has two options. If it’s their first time running through the series or it’s been at least three months, they receive an offer for free shipping. Otherwise, they just get a reminder about their cart with no promo. For one client, it’s interesting to note that the first message generates about $10 per email sent. The two non-promo reminders generate about $4 per email, and the final reminder with the promotion, generates $5 per email. We find it worthwhile to include the promo, but we like mixing it up and branching the series so people don’t get it every time and start to expect it. You can also think creatively about promotions. A birthday series of VIP email doesn’t necessarily need to offer a straight discount. You can give a gift or incentivize them to try shopping a different categories or brand on your site than they normally do.
- Conjunction junction, what’s your function!
- When you think about it, branching and joining programs is all about these little words: For and nor but or yet so…? Remember FANBOYS!!?
- A branch in an automated program is a place where either a test is given or people are randomly split up and some go one way while others go another way. In the previous abandoned cart example that I gave, people branch off right before they get their third email in the series. The test is whether or not the received the promo in the last 90 days. If they have they go one way; if they haven’t they do a different way.
- I would argue that most automated programs should have one or more termination checkpoints at every node before a message is sent to confirm that the person in the program is still qualified to receive the next message. If someone is in a lapsed purchaser campaign that has say 5 emails and a discount ladder than ramps up over time, you would definitely want to check before you send email #3 whether or not they redeemed the offer in email #2. If email number has an offer for $15 off any purchase and they spend that $15, you wouldn’t want to send them a $25 offer the next week. Not only would you be discounting way too much, but they may call your customer service line and ask for an extra $10 off their last order. That’s not good for anyone! Build into your programs terminating checkpoints to pull people out of a series when they no longer qualify.
- Joining programs is an interesting concept. In an ideal world, when one automated program ends, it would naturally flow right into another one. If you are running a program for re-engagement and a subscriber checks YES, please continue to email me, you may want to feed those individuals into a re-engaged subscriber program. As Aric Zion pointed out yesterday, recently re-engaged subscribers are some of the most engaged people on your list due to the principle of commitment and consistency. During this time, you have a unique opportunity to present your most important ideas, products, or other offerings to a more receptive reader. Don’t waste this opportunity by batching and blasting them with the usual stuff. Give them your best stuff.
- This is one of the toughest things to consider with automated programs. Once you set up a handful of different automated programs, you will find at some point that some people are eligible for multiple programs at the same time. What do you do if someone is both a lapsed buyer and they have something in their cart? Exclusions are about ranking your programs in order of importance (for us, that is measured in average conversion rates), and excluding subscribers from the less impactful program while they are part of a different, more impactful program. I like to think about it as setting up a hierarchy of automation and only letting people live in one level at a time.
- People have been asking me what they should start with if they haven’t done any automation to date. One thing I like to recommend as part of a good welcome series is the concept of progressive disclosure. This is when you get the most bare bones data you need to start emailing them (email address and consent are a good place to start). Then you progressively get more and more data about them so you can segment and automate appropriately. You don’t have to use an expensive database appending service. You just need to ask your subscriber the right questions in the right way at the right time. For example, as part of you your welcome series, you will likely inform new subscribers of your different offerings. That is a great time to ask them what they’re most interested in seeing from you. This could be resources on a specific topic or interest in a particular category of merchandise that you carry. You can ask directly, give them a manage preferences page, or you can present multiple multiple items in an email and then segment based on what they click on. This works particularly well if you are trying to determine whether they are shopping for mens or womens apparel. Another thing you might build into your welcome series is asking people to sign up for your birthday club and giving you their birthday. You obviously wouldn’t want to ask all of these questions at the signup point, since that would deter a lot of people from signing up at all, but if you build it into your welcome series, you can get a lot more subscribers and a lot more information about them. Win-win!
- Because I work in ecommerce with a lot of merchants and retailers, we still do a ton of batch and blast campaigns. Many of them do contain dynamic content, so they’re not entirely old school. But we’ve found that since our bulk messages make somewhere from ten to fifty cents per email, and our automated programs make $1 to $10 per email sent, we suppress anyone who is in an automated program from the batch and blast campaigns that are going out that week. We do this by adding anyone in an automated program to what we call a “general suppression list” – GENERAL suppression list (SALUTE)! This helps us ensure that we are not sending too many emails to each person each day and prioritizes the automated emails over the non-automated ones. I actually had someone as recently as last week question why we wouldn’t just send everything to everyone, but I stand by this strategy and think it serves the customer and the long-term health of my clients’ email programs best.
- As pants so eloquently put it in her opening keynote, all design should start with a conversation about intent.
- Test everything. Test your messages, test your timing schemes, and most importantly test your logic.
- Automated programs are very susceptible to leaks and mismatched logic. You think everyone fits into a set of neat little buckets and you find out months after setting up a program that people are getting emails they shouldn’t get and missing emails they should get.
- Never set it and forget it. In addition to any problems you discover in your logic, and any insights you gain from tests, you also need to refresh your programs. At a minimum, audit them once a year. If you sell something seasonal or your offering changes frequently I would consider updating your messages at least quarterly if not more often.
- And lastly, measure everything, and then use your data to close the loop. Constantly evaluate what’s working and look for new opportunities or places where you can improve.
- Automation is fun, and I’ve always thought that designing a new program is like solving a puzzle where all the pieces are hidden at first. I challenge you to push the limits of your own creativity, not just visually or in code, but also in strategy and logic.
- Automation is fun, and I’ve always thought that designing a new program is like solving a puzzle where all the pieces are hidden at first.