There are lots of ways you can keep your users and audience engaged. One that has proved to be very successful and an opportunity not to be missed is email marketing. With the number of email users set to rise to 4.3 billion in 2023, there is the potential to reach millions of people almost effortlessly.
Email marketing is a well-rounded strategy. With a well-crafted email campaign, you can connect with your audience, promote your brand, and increase sales. In addition, you can also share news, tell a story, sell products, or improve cart abandonment rates.
What gives any email marketing strategy an edge is the ability to automate the process. Utilizing email marketing software means you can create efficiencies in your process, so your strategy maintains momentum while you’re busy doing other things. Automation doesn’t just happen, however. It needs email triggers and notifications in order to work properly.
What Are Email Notifications?
An email notification is a type of triggered email. The email is sent out automatically in response to a specific event or user action. For websites and SaaS applications, some of the most common include:
- Welcome messages
- Activation messages
- Account and security alerts
- Activity notifications
- Passwords resets
For the consumer, these notifications are handy because they alert you that a post has been shared on social media, remind you that action needs to be taken, or ask for approval when paying for services and goods.
For businesses, they are also a valuable tool. They draw more attention than an email newsletter, and they can help with customer retention by keeping subscribers engaged and informed.
Types of Email Notifications to Keep an Eye On
There’s a variety of different kinds of emails you can be sending. You can take advantage of a range of email notifications, but the key is choosing the right ones for each touchpoint of the customer journey.
Welcome Notifications
A welcome or onboarding notification can be sent to a user when the account activation process is complete.
There are several purposes behind this type of notification. Firstly, it reinforces your core promise. Secondly, it sets the tone for any interactions in the future. Finally, you’re sending the user a big thank you for joining.
If you want to take your welcome notification to another level, consider offering a service or product, introducing them to premium features, or giving them a discount to spur them on to make their first purchase.
A good addition is to mention whether you’ll be reading replies, just in case the user wants to write to you.
Activation Notifications
The first email a new customer will receive is the activation notification. It will include instructions for activating the account plus a brief message to welcome the new customer.
Activation notifications play a crucial role, and the user won’t be able to go any further until their account has been activated. This is typically done by clicking a link in the email.
You might choose to send an activation notification for several reasons:
- Verify a users address is valid and working
- Remind the user that they’ve signed up for a product
- Determine whether you’ve got a genuine user or simply “drive-by” signup.
Subscription Notifications
Growing your email list is a big must for every business. When users visit your website, they might just want to receive newsletters or some other kind of email content rather than making an account.
A subscription notification confirms you’ve received their subscription and can also double up as a welcome email.
The first couple of emails you send to a user are the most important. Subscribing to an email list is a good indication of the user’s interest.
What could you use in a subscription notification to make the most impact? Try the following:
- Information that relates to your company and website
- Relevant links which you can use to determine the subscriber’s interests
- A special offer or discount to say thanks that they took the time to subscribe
Re-engagement Notification
You send a re-engagement notification to customers who have stopped interacting with your business. It is a way of reaching out to them.
Did you realize that if you can increase retention rates by as little as 5%, it could improve your profits by up to 95%?
Before sending out re-engagement notifications, you first have to define an appropriate period of inactivity for your users.
It could be that the customer has just forgotten about your company. In which case, this notification is just a gentle reminder of your existence.
A good way of attracting the user’s attention is to include repurchase reminders, discounts, or product promotions.
Basic personalization increases open rates by 9.06%. In addition, 61% of users are more receptive to email notifications if they are related to their preferences.
Activity Notifications
You use activity notifications when you want to alert users of a change in workflow. They can also be helpful when you want to notify them of activity in an email inbox, social media news feed, or app.
If you need to reengage passive users, they can also be very effective. You have the option of sending this type of notification according to a schedule or following a specific event.
Examples of this type of notification include a list of missed social media notifications or reminders that the user needs to complete a task.
Support Notifications
There are going to be times when your customers need some assistance. A support notification is a way of letting them know that their inquiry is being dealt with.
You could also use it as an opportunity to push sales, but be careful because it’s a fine line between enough and too many notifications. Send too many notifications, and the user could unsubscribe.
Utilitarian Notifications (Password Resets and Two-Factor Authentication)
You must implement utilitarian emails reliably as they are one type of notification that can seriously affect how your customers use a particular service.
These are important as they can determine whether or not your users are successful when utilizing your product or services.
Security Notifications
To help your customers keep their accounts safe and secure, you use security notifications. They provide vital protection against misuse, theft of personal information, and fraud.
Why is Email Monitoring Important?
As with any strategy, it’s important to monitor results and then make adjustments accordingly. When you’ve adopted an email marketing strategy, you make these adjustments based on reports and feedback that you’ve gathered.
Email metrics provide valuable data to direct email campaigns in the future. They also provide insight into user activity to keep your business focused.
It’s possible to track metrics such as:
- Email open rates give you an insight into how engaged your subscribers are.
- Unsubscribe rates tell you how many people unsubscribed after receiving your email.
- Click-through rates determine how well a campaign is performing.
- Conversion rates measure how many people clicked on a link and went on to complete a specific action.
- Spam complaints are important to monitor because if the rate gets too high, your email service provider could block your account.
- Email bounces measure how many email addresses didn’t receive your email.
- Forwarding or sharing rate is a helpful metric because it gives you an indication of how many advocates your brand has.
- Engagement over time lets you know the best time of day to send your messages.
- Overall, ROI tells you the overall return on investment of any email campaigns you might be running.
- Mobile open rate applies specifically to mobile phones and tablets and works in the same way as the regular open rate metric.
- Mobiel click rate is also the same as a desktop alternative but is related to mobile devices.
- Domain open rate lets you see what percentage of people open your emails on a specific email provider.
- Domain click rate lets you see how many clicks on your email in a particular email provider.
This is a custom image made by the author.
Email notifications are an in-the-moment communication channel that is best used when you want to send a reminder, share a time-sensitive offer, welcome a customer, or guide them through various stages of the customer journey. Their aim is to deliver information that the user likely finds useful.
Email notifications have a high open-rate, help keep the customer up to date, and help with customer retention. These are three very valid reasons for adopting such an approach for your business.
Author Bio
Georgi Todorov is the founder of ThriveMyWay, a website dedicated to teaching successful digital marketing strategies. Georgi is regularly called upon by companies seeking to develop and enhance their SEO and link-building strategies in order to achieve hockey stick growth. When Georgi isn’t working, you can find him getting close to nature, learning online, or traveling.
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