As with all data-driven marketing, your customer insight has to sit at the very heart of your email. This is particularly the case if you wish to move away from ‘batch and blast’ – or ‘spray and pray’ as I like to call it – to sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

An extension to this mantra is also “on the right channel”. With the acquisition of COMAPI, Dotdigital customers now have more choice over the digital channels on which to convey marketing messages – but that’s a blog for another day.

Automation is a method that enables time-poor marketers to deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time. BUT, the triggers to enrol a subscriber onto an automation program (or the logic behind it) is all based on… Well you guessed it – data.

Hooking up your ecommerce platform with Dotdigital ensures you get valuable transactional data into your email platform, empowering you to tailor the experience around the actions of subscribers.

So, I’ve collated the must-have automations that – regardless of what product you’re selling – should be at the top of your list. And once implemented, you can scope programs as per the industry or sector you’re operating in.

1. Welcome program

The welcome journey would be the first email contact you have with subscribers after they’ve signed up. As with the real world, you’ve only one shot to make a good impression, so make it count!

Your welcome program should set the tone of what subscribers will receive moving forward. A good starting place is a three-part series:

• In the first email, thank your subscribers for signing up and reinforce the reasons why they did so in the first place – this is the prime time to shout about your USPs and the exclusive benefits of being opted-in.
• As a follow up to the initial email, you should begin building your relationship with customers by telling them your brand story. Make sure subscribers understand your USPs and make your proposition as compelling as possible, recommending the most-viewed or most-purchased products on your site for instance.
• Email three is the perfect opportunity to prompt subscribers to act. If they haven’t made their first purchase yet, encourage them to do so. If they have made their first purchase, ask them instead to fill in your preference center so you can further tailor their digital experience.

2. Post-purchase program

Now that subscribers have made their first purchase, it’s time to enrol them onto an aftersales program that communicates thanks and rewards them for their business with you over that of a competitor. It doesn’t have to be a discount (although research we’ve conducted with the Direct Marketing Association indicates that discounts and money offs are most effective); you can reinforce their decision was the right one by highlighting relevant customer testimonials and awarding loyalty points. Remember, reassurance (especially of an impulsive buy) goes a long way.

With every purchase that follows, customers can be automatically enrolled onto an aftersales program that collects product reviews and drives value-added content; both are likely to bolster UGC for other email programs and enrich your brand’s credibility.

3. Abandoned cart

In my experience, this is the automation of automations. Abandoned cart is without a doubt the highest revenue-generating program I’ve come across. Subscribers – whether intentionally or unintentionally – leave their carts full and unattended; sending them a prompt reminder so that they ‘don’t miss out’ or even a cheeky discount (if it’s been a slow month) is guaranteed to produce great results.

I would experiment between a one- and three-stage abandoned cart program to see what works best for you. But be warned, some of the more savvier consumers will abandon their purchase intentionally to seek out a discount code, as they recognize that many brands will use it as incentive to recover lost carts.

4. Loyalty program

Loyalty programs can be straightforward and help you generate the advocacy enjoyed by the likes of ASOS, winner of our 2017 benchmark report – Hitting the Mark.

The logic behind a loyalty program could be as simple as having the enrollment criteria set to customers’ average order value (AOV) or a minimum number of orders made in the last 6 months. Conditions to enroll might be an AOV that’s equal to or greater than £100, for instance.

An automation can be triggered when the rules you’ve set up have been met, informing loyal customers that they’ve qualified for membership in a special VIP club, and of their exclusive access to additional benefits or gifts.

Triggering this automation will update the relative ‘data-field’ within Dotdigital, marking customers that have enrolled as ‘VIPs’. You can then leverage this insight to enrich the relevancy of your business-as-usual newsletters, using dynamic content to display extra information that’s exclusive to your more loyal customers.

Conversely, another automation could be built and triggered if customers’ AOV or number of orders (made over a certain period) are below the prerequisites of entering the VIP club; they’d be either encouraged to make a purchase or enrolled onto a winback program.

5. Re-engagement program

A re-engagement (or winback) program could be based on a period of subscriber inactivity – i.e. the last time subscribers have opened or clicked in an email. Pro:Direct, for example, prompts unengaged subscribers to remain in the loop or connect on other channels.

But in an ecommerce scenario, I’d base the criterion on when they last made a purchase.

If a number of days or months has elapsed and a subscriber hasn’t made a purchase, sending a ‘we miss you’ campaign is sure to rouse their engagement and compel them to act. Things to potentially include are some inspirational UGC, USPs, freebies or a discretionary discount.

Ready, set, go!

Once you’ve got these five automations in place, you’re well on the road to delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time. If you’d like more advice on tailoring automations to your business, please feel free to contact your account manager.

And for more automation inspiration, check out our best practice guide on growing your ecommerce business with email.

Great quality data can act as rocket fuel to your email campaigns, which is no surprise when data sits at the core of all one-to-one marketing. But equally, bad data can severely affect your deliverability, particularly in light of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which is just around the corner.

Now would be the best time to review your data hygiene. Here are three dotmailer tools and tips to put you on the road to data best practice:

Watchdog

The Watchdog acts as the trusted guardian for your data when importing into dotmailer. Although the responsibility for the data very much remains with you (the data owner), the Watchdog screens all data imported into the platform and flags any questionable or risky content in order to protect your sender reputation.

It protects you on two levels:

1. The Watchdog protects you from sending emails to any questionable data that’s been uploaded, ensuring high inbox placement and deliverability nurture.
2. It also protects you from being affected by any other users sending to questionable data.

In summary, he’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A Dark Knight A Data Watchdog.

GSL

Data can and will decay if it’s not properly monitored, soiling your once pristine database; the recipient could have moved companies; perhaps they’re a B2B organisation and have changed name; it could even be that the recipient has abandoned their email addresses, due to the sheer volume of emails they receive.

Continuing to send to these email addresses is dangerous for your business. At best, you’re delivering emails that go unopened, or that are hard-bouncing. At worst, the email address is reclaimed and turned into a spam trap – and you could quite easily be blacklisted.

This is where the dotmailer’s Global Suppression List (GSL) comes into play. It scans your existing database against a list of known bad email addresses and can suppress these before they do any damage to your sending reputation. You can regularly use the GSL to clean up your data – find out how to do so by clicking here.

Sun Setting Policies

The last item on the agenda is implementing sun-setting policies for long-term un-engaged customers. In essence, what you are doing is filtering your database of all the contacts that have not opened your emails for a set period to answer the question: ‘Does the recipient still want to receive my emails?’

You could reach out and ask them the following:

• If they want to continue being a subscriber
• Ask them to manage their email preferences
• Show them some love with a discount or special incentive

If they still don’t open or respond the next question should be: ‘Are they really receiving any value from me?’ Your communications aren’t improving your relationship with this customer and, if anything, are probably having a negative impact. Maybe it is time to send a ‘We’ll miss you, but good bye for now’ email. This communication informs the customer that you’ll be removing them from your marketing communications to avoid any potential annoyance, which in turn, saves you sending any more emails that don’t add value to the customer (also a great way to avoid sending to a recycled spam trap). Be sure to include a link to your preference center and, perhaps, a direct newsletter signup box, so that the customer can reengage at any time.

Adopting these tools and tips demonstrates you take data hygiene seriously by keeping your data as clean as possible within dotmailer. Being pro-active and giving your recipients a choice demonstrates responsibility and builds trust. However, as laws and legislation concerning data evolve, so will the road to data best practice. It’s important to keep up to date with new rules and regulations.

Ultimately, keeping your customer at the heart of everything you do will ensure you stay above board and can continue to provide extraordinary brand experiences.

To find out more on deliverability best practice, take a look at our 5 minute cheatsheet!