Behavioral email marketing is a strategy that involves sending emails to users based on their behavior on the website and their interactions with the brand. It is therefore a form of segmentation and personalization of email marketing .
Instead of sending generic emails or relying on other aspects of the consumer, behavioral email marketing takes into account aspects such as who has visited the website, what purchases they have made, what content they have downloaded or who has clicked on previously sent emails.
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This practice has become increasingly relevant as customers are becoming more demanding and competition is constantly increasing. In this sense, developing an email marketing strategy of this type will help you connect better with customers and get them to move forward in the sales funnel, as well as differentiate yourself from the competition.
If you are interested in knowing how to implement behavioral-based email marketing in your company, in this article we delve into this strategy and tell you everything you need to know about it to implement it successfully.
Types of behavior by which users can be segmented in this type of marketing
Before we get into the subject, we want you to know the wide variety of behaviors that you can use to segment the audience to whom you want to send messages. Of course, the possibilities are immense, but in this section we wanted to select the types of behavior that are most taken into account to generate very good performance in the email marketing strategy.
- Purchasing behavior : You can send different messages to users who make recurring purchases and to those who make more occasional purchases. You can also segment them by the amount they spend on each purchase, the type of product they buy, or the point they are at in the sales funnel.
- Email engagement : Depending on whether or not the customer opens the emails or clicks on the links in the message, different email lines can also be set up to impact each customer with different content. There are even brands that choose to segment customers based on the time at which they are most likely to check their inbox, in order to impact them at the exact moment.
- Website Activity – Another great behavioral email marketing option is to send emails based on the pages the user has visited or the time they have spent on the website. You can even create different lines of messaging for those who have visited certain products.
- Abandoned cart : This is one of the behaviors that companies take into account the most when implementing this type of email marketing strategy. It consists of sending emails to users based on the specific products they have left in the cart, based on the time that has passed since they abandoned the cart or based on the number of products they have left in it.
- Stages of the sales cycle : brands also segment their email marketing strategy recipients according to whether they are a new subscriber, a loyal customer, an inactive customer or a customer at risk of abandoning the brand due to having decreased their interaction with it.
These types of segmentations are not exclusive, and several can be implemented in the same marketing strategy.
And we must not forget that negative segmentation can also be carried out so that messages are triggered when users do not perform a certain action.
Of course, in a behavior-based email marketing strategy it is essential to implement automated message flows through software tools that are activated if the recipient performs a certain action, since doing this manually is unthinkable.
Advantages of implementing a behavioral-based email marketing strategy
- Higher open and click rates : Segmenting customers by behavior primarily means creating much more personalized emails that touch on users’ main pain points. This increases the chances that the customer will be attracted to the messages and be more interested in opening and clicking on them.
- Increased customer retention : Customers who receive messages tailored to their needs and preferences are more likely to continue purchasing and less likely to turn to competitors, as their attention will be drawn to your brand.
- Boosting conversions : Behavior-targeted emails deliver at the right time and with the right message that the user needs to read to increase their chances of purchasing.
- Better resource allocation : email marketing tailored to customer behavior reduces the sending of unhelpful and ineffective emails, making each email have a purpose.
- Competitive advantage : By appealing to the customer at the right time, you can differentiate yourself from other companies that do not do so and take advantage of unique conversion opportunities.
But… how is behavior-based email marketing different from traditional email marketing?
The main difference between both types of email marketing is segmentation . Traditional marketing, on the other hand, groups users into very broad categories, such as demographics, geographic location, or some general characteristics. It then sends mass emails to each of the segments. Behavior-based email marketing, on the other hand, segments in a much more specific and relevant way , taking into account the performance of users in real time and making the resulting messages much more timely and relevant.
Then, we find that behavioral-based email marketing, unlike traditional strategies, also features a higher level of personalization and uses so-called automatic triggers so that emails are sent when the user performs a specific action.
Best practices for implementing behavioral-based email marketing
Make sure you do accurate segmentation
Segmentation is the foundation of this marketing strategy. Therefore, you need to make sure that you have a good email marketing automation software that can accurately and precisely group your customers based on their behavior. In addition, it is important that the tool you choose also allows you to automate multiple email flows at once.
Don’t overwhelm users
This is one of the dangers of implementing behavioral australia email list marketing. It occurs when a user performs different actions that trigger different email flows at the same time, causing them to receive several emails. This can lead to inaction and saturation , causing the opposite effect.
To avoid this, we recommend that you only allow a user to be in a specific mail flow, allowing them to switch between them based on their actions, but never allowing them to be in two flows at once.
Test and optimize
Many email marketing software programs allow you to perform A/B tests to check which email option is the most effective, so take advantage of it! Add different subject lines, different calls to action, or include content variations to see which one gets the best results and decide on a final version.
We also recommend that you regularly monitor your results by taking into account key performance indicators such as the opening rate, the number of clicks or the number of conversions. And, based on what you find, implement the corresponding improvements to achieve better results.
Put AI to your advantage
We encourage you to use email marketing tools that incorporate Artificial Intelligence technology so that it can better analyze behavioral patterns and make hyper-personalized product recommendations that better meet user needs. This AI can even help you know the most appropriate day and time to send emails and increase their opening rate.
Examples of behavior-based automated workflows
Below are some examples of eomplement between organic and paid flows that you could build in your email marketing tool. We encourage you to use them as inspiration to create your own and adapt them to the needs of your business.
Flows for active users
Automated flow for new subscribers
- The first action can be to send a welcome email to everyone who has visited the website and subscribed by leaving their email address. In this message, you can take the opportunity to introduce them to the brand, its values, and you can even accompany the email with a discount code for the first purchase.
- If the user opens the email but doesn’t use the code in the first week, you can take advantage and send an email with the best-selling products , indicating their good prices and benefits. In the event that they do use the code and make their first purchase, you can have the automated flow automatically redirect them to another flow, such as the frequent buyers flow (which we will talk about in the next section).
- If, after a week, the user has opened the last email but still has not made a purchase, it is time to send them a third follow-up email in which you offer product recommendations based on the pages they have visited on your website.
- If they still don’t make a purchase, the last option may be to send them a message with real testimonials from people who have trusted your brand. If they still aren’t active on your website, it may be time to refer them to an automated flow of inactive users.
Automated flow for frequent buyers
- For those users who have made a purchase (whether it is the first time or not) you can start this flow of emails with a thank you email in which you convey how much you value their trust and in which you also take the opportunity to recommend complementary products, for example.
- After a while, you can activate the sending of another message in which you make more personalized recommendations based on those products that they visited a few days or hours earlier on the website.
- Whether they buy or not, you can take advantage and send them exclusive discounts for their loyalty or give them exclusive access to new products.
- You can also include in this message flow the sending of a reminder about your points program in which you explain its benefits.
Flows for recently inactive users
Automated reactivation flow
- You can start this flow of messages with a subtle reminder email , letting them know in a friendly way that you miss them and that there are plenty of products waiting for them.
- If they still haven’t made a purchase after a while, it may be time to send them another message, but this time showing them the latest news.
- Finally, you can offer a small incentive in the form of a discount if they still don’t convert.
- If they remain inactive, you can wait a few weeks or months and create another automated flow for permanently inactive users that includes them.
How to measure the success of your automated behavior-based email marketing flows
There are many key performance indicators that you can use to measure the performance of your automated message flows based on user behavior. But we believe that the most important ones, and those that will help you the most to know if your strategy is really working, are the following:
- Click-through rate.
- Conversion rate.
- Unsubscribe rate.
- Return on Investment (ROI)
What are you waiting for to implement behavior-based email marketing in your company?
Implementing this type of strategy will make you notice how your email marketing actions have a higher performance and how you achieve your objectives with much more success. However, it is very important that, for everything to go well and for behavior-based email marketing to be able to deploy all its benefits, you carry out very good segmentation and personalization . And this is achieved by relying on a very good email marketing tool and writing emails that contain valuable information and clear calls to action.