Research Shows Lifecycle Email Campaigns Work
July 6, 2011
New research from StrongMail (as reported by eMarketer) provides proof that automated lifecycle email campaigns really do work. Currently, 46% of companies around the world use lifecycle email marketing. Does your brand?
In case the term “lifecycle email campaign” is new to you, let me explain. These are the email messages that consumers automatically receive from a company after they submit an inquiry, make a purchase, or perform another action. For example, if you’ve ever registered a technical product online, you may have received a series of automated messages afterwards welcoming you as a customer, offering other products, and so on. Those automated messages are intended to keep the brand in the consumer’s mind and generate brand loyalty and additional sales.
StrongMail’s research provides the following breakdown of how companies are currently using lifecycle email campaigns:
- Welcome program = 76%
- Post-purchase program such as product reviews, customer service survey, etc. = 45%
- Cross-sell or up-sell program = 44%
- Win back program = 33%
- Website action program (browsed items, visits, etc.) = 28%
- Cart abandonment program = 24%
- Event countdown program (message series leading up to an event) = 24%
- Price-drop alerts = 9%
- In-stock notifications = 6%
- Other = 9%
- Don’t know = 2%
Of the surveyed companies, 57% claimed that automating lifecycle email campaigns increases open rates, clicks, purchases, and registrations, and 3 out of 4 companies believed that automated email campaigns perform better than email blasts and other outbound marketing initiatives.
Specifically, respondents reported that automated lifecycle email campaigns improve the overall customer experience which leads to better brand perception and loyalty. 67% claimed these programs increase subscriber engagement and 54% believe they increase customer satisfaction and retention. 46% of companies cite increased revenue, and 45% cite higher ROI from automated lifecycle email campaigns.
If you ever wondered if automated email campaigns work, let this survey provide your answer. There is no doubt that these campaigns can drive positive results for brands. However, the emails must be useful and meaningful to recipients and the timing has to be right. This is about real-time (or as close to real-time as possible) engagement with customers based on actions they performed. Sending irrelevant information or delayed information won’t help customers or your brand.
What do you think? Are you using lifecycle email campaigns to market your brand? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Image: stock.xchng
Google Rebrands Blogger and Picasa
July 6, 2011
Two well-known online brands are living their last days. According to a post on Mashable today, Google is rebranding both its blogging tool, Blogger, and its photo uploading and sharing site, Picasa. The rebranding is expected to launch in approximately six weeks.
It’s always troublesome for loyal customers to accept a rebranding, but Google’s business plan in recent years (particularly with the new Google+ social efforts) demonstrates that the Google brand is set to take over the world.
Okay, I’m exaggerating, but I do have a point. Google is about brand centralization. Sub-brands will be assimilated into the brand family, and that’s an intelligent move by the Google leadership team. Google is no longer just a search company, and it’s time the sub-brands joined the family. I’m actually surprised this type of rebranding didn’t happen earlier.
However, are there sub-brands in the Google family that are strong enough to hang onto their own brand names? What about YouTube? Only time will tell.
Google has rolled out a number of products in recent years that failed while products like Blogger and Picasa (that until now didn’t have the Google brand name attached to them openly) stayed on the periphery. Google’s new focus on social initiatives is changing things and social destinations like Blogger and Picasa need to come into the fold.
What do you think of Google’s expected rebranding of Blogger and Picasa? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Social Games Put Brands in Front of Consumers Who Welcome Them
July 1, 2011
A lot has changed since the days when Second Life was the cool online game. Today, social games are integrated into top social networking sites and have created a new avenue for brands to connect with consumers. In fact, according to eMarketer, 1 out of 2 U.S. Internet users between the ages of 18-44 play social games every day, and U.S. social gaming revenues will pass $1 billion in 2011.
Research from Saatchi & Saatchi and Ipsos OTX MediaCT tells us some more about the people who play online social games daily:
- 54% of men play social games daily.
- 46% of women play social games daily.
- 66% of tablet owners play social games daily.
- 53% of smartphone owners play social games daily.
- 14% of people who play social games do so at work for at least one hour each day.
- 2 out of 5 social game players prefer to receive new product information via social games (that’s lower than e-mail but much higher than traditional advertising).
One of the most important takeaways from the research is this — players like “social challenges features of the games they play.” In order to get the best results from brand integration into social games, consider how you can integrate your brand as part of a social challenge. The research offers the following statistics:
- 57% of respondents believe that product discounts are a “very compelling” incentive to complete a social challenge.
- 37% of respondents believe that product discounts are a “somewhat compelling” incentive to complete a social challenge.
- 88% of respondents believe that loyalty programs are at least “somewhat compelling” incentives to complete a social challenge.
- Challenges that can result directly in social action were also found to be compelling incentives for many social game players.
- 33% of respondents believe that challenges which result in changes to a player’s status in the community were not compelling incentives.
The important thing to understand is that people are using social games and they are open to receiving brand messages and experiences on social games as long as those brands add value to the overall gaming experience. The worst thing you can do is interrupt players with your branded messages. Instead, enhance the user experience. Of course, that means you need to spend a significant amount of time actually playing the game and learning about the community of players before you can truly integrate your brand in an effective manner. That’s a big step that is too often skipped.
Image: Flickr
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