What is Behavioral Email Marketing? (Benefits and Tips for eCommerce)
September 30, 2024
While email marketing has firmly established itself as part of the marketing toolbox, the vast majority of businesses aren’t investing in the latest techniques. Huge leaps in machine learning and data manipulation have opened up a world of personalized email marketing tactics – that’s where behavioral email marketing comes in.
It’s all too easy to set up an email campaign, start capturing email addresses, and then consider it a job well done. If we take it a step further and bring the advances in personalization used in other forms of marketing to our email campaigns, we can unlock new paths of engagement to drive conversions.
But what does behavioral email marketing entail? And how can we use it effectively as part of a broader strategy? Let’s dive in.
What is Behavioral Email Marketing?
Behavioral email marketing is a combination of traditional email marketing practices and modern personalization techniques used in social media and on-site content. Many email campaigns will already use some form of personalization, e.g. using the recipient’s personal information to put their name into the email content. But behavioral email marketing takes it several steps further.
The key to behavioral email marketing lies in the name itself – behavior. Instead of scheduled emails that go out once a month with pre-designed content, a behavioral email campaign takes into account an individual’s activity and sends emails in response. Done right, this can become one of your go-to marketing strategies to drive engagement and conversions.
Let’s think about this in practice. If a customer has reached the checkout page and decides to leave, you have a wealth of information at your fingertips. We know their purchase and that they have high intent, and we have their personal information to hand. A behaviorally triggered email would automatically recognize this flag or trigger and email them to push for a checkout completion, typically with a small discount or promotion.
This is just one in a series of examples that we’ll discuss in this guide, but it gives you an idea of how powerful behavioral email marketing can be.
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Why Use Behavioral Email Marketing in eCommerce
Email marketing is a core part of long-term eCommerce success. Any business that can survive the cut-throat eCommerce landscape will foster repeat business from customers and build a loyal following, and your email communications feed directly into that.
Behavioral targeting takes the conversation to a more personal level and can drive huge value for your business and customer base. Powerful data analytics underpins this process, so be sure to have your data capture tools at the ready.
Increases Conversion Rates with Targeted Messaging
It’s a proven fact that personalization drives performance, and customers now expect such an experience. The targeted messaging helps to appeal to customer wants and needs, leading to improved conversion rates and more sales success.
Enhances Customer Retention and Fosters Customer Loyalty
Consistent communication keeps your brand in your audience’s minds and helps retain them long-term. Repeat transactions lead to increased loyalty and a sustainable source of revenue.
Targets High-converting Segments to Optimize Spend
Focus on areas identified as high-value, such as cart abandonment, existing customers ripe for upsell opportunities, or users who engage with high-margin products on-site.
Provides Data-driven Insights into Customer Preferences
Not only do your email campaigns support the end goal of driving sales, but the data you can capture on user behavior is invaluable. Use this to inform your other marketing channels and optimize your wider strategy.
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Types of Behavioral Email Marketing Campaigns for eCommerce
Behavioral email marketing encompasses various tactics that can be used by your business. Some will be more effective than others depending on your specific circumstances and industry, so it’s worth investigating the viability of each and picking a few to focus on if you’ve yet to invest in any behavioral email marketing to date. While email campaigns traditionally focus on B2C interactions, many of these can be used as B2B sales techniques as well. Adapt your approach as necessary.
Abandoned Cart Emails
As discussed earlier, this is a superb and straightforward use case for almost any eCommerce business. All the information is handed to you, so it is simply a case of designing an email that encourages a purchase – such as by providing one-time discounts or incentives – and building a capture list based on that behavior trigger.
Browse Abandonment Emails
This is much the same as an abandoned cart but exists earlier in the buying journey. This could be triggered from time-on-site metrics or from navigating to specific high-value product pages, and you will need to have captured the email elsewhere.
Post-purchase Emails
Post-purchase emails are a shoo-in for any behavioral email marketing campaign. You’ve already secured the conversion and have a (hopefully) happy customer – now let’s take it a step further. Offer repeat custom discounts or recommend-a-friend campaigns to promote further engagement, or upsell accessories or supporting products to their previous purchase with one-time discounts.
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Re-engagement Emails
If a customer or prospect has fallen out of your marketing loop, it could be time to touch base and see how they’re doing. Have a capture list that periodically contacts individuals after a period of time without engagement to lure old customers back to your brand. These communications can focus on updates, news, and changes to your brand, as well as new products or services they might be interested in.
Product Replenishment Emails
Many eCommerce transactions are made for perishable or consumable products and these represent a goldmine for applicable businesses. Simply note the size or expiry of the product – 1 month, 3 months, however long it may be – and have an email ready to go promoting a repeat purchase of that item.
Birthday and Anniversary Emails
Simple yet effective, the birthday and anniversary email. It’s a classic but it sure does work! Send a tasty birthday deal or an anniversary sale bonanza to entice customers to come back and engage with your brand.
Customer Feedback Emails
Flip the script and give your customers a voice with an email prompting feedback or reviews. This can help promote interaction, show your brand cares about the customer, and provide valuable insight into their experience for later optimization.
Behaviorally Triggered Emails
There are several other use cases based on unique behavior triggers and these can stretch as far as your creativity and resources allow. Examples can include time-on-site, specific page navigation, social media engagement, and many more.
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Key Tips for eCommerce Behavioral Email Success
Implementing a behavioral email campaign in an eCommerce business is a must, not a may, in 2024 and is a growing eCommerce trend. Without this form of advanced engagement, you’ll simply be left behind while your competitors proactively seek to talk with your audience.
Part of a modern marketing strategy lies in saturation. Have touchpoints at all stages of the customer journey and make your brand stand out from the rest. From search to social to email, put yourself front and center.
Collect Relevant Data for Personalized Email Content
An email campaign won’t be effective without the right data at your disposal. Identify exactly what data is required for each tactic and how you will acquire it, and put those plans in motion. For example, you might want to collect data on when customers are more likely to open emails to maximize the success of email campaigns.
Segment Audience Based on Behavior and Lifecycle Stage
Segmentation is the difference between a good campaign and a great campaign. Aggressive segmentation allows you to craft more personal messaging as you understand the smaller sample size and their intentions better.
Leverage Marketing Automation Tools for Timely Email Delivery
Automation ensures you can achieve the lofty goals of a multi-faceted campaign in a timely manner. Modern automation tools can create content, design email templates, and schedule email outreach with minor oversight.
Personalize Emails Based on Customer Data
Personalize your emails as much as possible using the data you have. Include names, previous purchase information, and their interests to fill unique product recommendations.
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Optimize Subject Lines and CTAs for Engagement
Part of the journey to a well-oiled emailing machine is the split-testing of your messaging itself. Once you have a rolling campaign, use split-testing to send different subject lines and CTA layouts and measure results. This will help optimize your campaign further and drive better results long term.
Monitor Metrics to Gauge Campaign Effectiveness
As with all forms of marketing, it is not wise to set and forget any campaign. Email is particularly sensitive to this as your messaging is highly personalized and can be tracked in great depth.
Ensure you are tracking relevant metrics – open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate – and make changes as necessary.
Provide Valuable Content, Offers, and Incentives
What’s worse than underusing your email channels? Overusing them. If you haven’t got something of value to offer a customer – fresh products, offers, incentives, or high-value content – then it’s often best to wait.
Low-value communications will simply be ignored and create a relationship where your future emails don’t get opened or, worse, they unsubscribe from your lists.
Maintain Consistent Brand Voice Across Email Communications
You have to remain consistent in your voice and messaging. It should feel like a seamless journey from your social channels through email channels and to the website itself. You can personalize email communications without compromising on your style and tone of voice – this helps with brand recognition and builds trust with your customers.
Key Takeaways
Behavioral email marketing is a powerful tool for any eCommerce business. It’s likely you have infrastructure for email campaigns and for on-site personalization already in place, so it is a surprisingly simple step to get your first behavior-focused email strategy off the ground.
Customers want a close relationship with their chosen brands – they want engagement, and they want to be proud of their purchases. By building strong links to your audience through their behaviors, you’ll foster a strong and loyal consumer base you can use to grow your business.
