Learn the Automated Email Marketing Terms That Matter
With marketing automation increasing, you’ve heard plenty about automated email, I’m sure. But that term tends to group together what are in reality very specific and different ways of doing automated email marketing. And knowing about those different ways means knowing more about automated email marketing best practices. To help get you up to speed so you can make better use of automated email in 2011, here’s a brief primer on the terms and what they mean.
Automated emails come in three types: recurring, transactional and threshold.
- A recurring email is an email that’s based on a date, like an anniversary, or a reminder that it’s time to renew or buy more supplies.
- A transactional email can be one email and is typically relative to a transaction. It can be a welcome email after signup, a confirmation email after purchase, a shipping confirmation email, or even a drip campaign following a purchase with tips on how to care for the product
- A threshold email occurs when a customer’s behavior reached a certain point. For example, the customer has purchased three songs from one album so you offer a discount on the entire album
In addition, there are three more terms you should know if implementing automated email marketing best practices: triggered, targeted and drip.
- Triggered means triggered by an event, usually in response to a certain action within an email or on a web page.
- Targeted means segmented with dynamic content, so different recipients get different email content and even email design.
- Drip marketing is a series of messages triggered by an event, such as a purchase or whitepaper download. This is sometimes called lifecycle messaging. Drip emails can be particularly useful in B2B email marketing best practices, because you typically have a longer sales cycle.
If automated email marketing is on your wish list for 2011, but you could use a little help, we’re here for you!
About the Author: Jared LaRock
