Email may not be as exciting or as novel as many of the new customer engagement channels hyped through social media, but it’s surely in no danger of going away. Many digital marketers have been predicting the demise of email for years. The reality is that email continues to be the workhorse of many customer engagement professionals.
That is not to say, however, that email has remained static. The email and the marketing technologies used to connect with customers have evolved dramatically. Today, the most effective digital marketers are harnessing the power of personalization to provide tailored 1:1 email communications that can increase customer engagement, conversion ratios, and customer satisfaction.
During the recent Ad Tech Conference in San Francisco, Jerry Jao, CEO of Retention Science, spoke with Colin Comp, Director of Marketing for Soma Water, about the various email strategies that can engage consumers across their entire customer journey. The session titled, “The Death of Email Blasts,” also offered a number of takeaways for email marketers looking to leverage the power of personalization.
“It is not simply just sending an email or explaining the same products to every single person,” said Jao. “It is really about understanding the customer and who will have a stronger interest in one aspect of the product versus another. Then we need to market to those customers in a very specific way, and speak to them in the right type of language.”
For Soma Water, this means considering why customers come to use its products, and there are a myriad of reasons to do so. At its heart, Soma is a water filtration company, but it has built its brand around an image that encompasses so much more. Through a variety of sustainable plant-based filters, elegantly functional hydration designs, and a dedication to philanthropic environmental sustainability, Soma is actually on a mission to improve the quality of life itself.
Consumers can patronize the brand for one or all of these reasons, and it Soma’s intent to understand the level of every individual’s engagement. This process is notably reflected in its email campaigns, which begin by directing a welcoming series towards first time consumers.
This makes sure new customers are introduced to the story of the brand and have a positive customer experience in the process. As the consumers increase their levels of engagement, Soma continues to build segmentation lists that distribute different content to different customers at different times. Further emails are then crafted to target and promote reaffirming behaviors and increase emotional connections.
Some customers come to Soma for the environmental sustainability aspect of it products. Others come for the product design itself. Regardless, Soma works hard to engage each segment, and then it works equally hard at customer retention.
“For our anniversary customers, those that have been with us for a year, we reward them with a gift,” said Comp. “This has been key for us. Understating and rewarding those power users has enabled us to generate 50% to 60% higher overall revenue through just our email campaigns alone. Based on the aggregated data, we make sure that not everybody gets the same promotion to show them that we really care about them in particular.”
Other emails are directed at customers that purchase products as gifts, and Soma even uses emails to target specific regions. These campaigns connect with communities and build customer engagement databases by hosting activities close to where they live. San Francisco is a prime example. By leveraging data acquired through a Kickstarter campaign, Soma targets its large Bay area following by inviting them to a host of local events.
“Soma does an amazing job with this,” said Jao. “If you just Google ‘Soma Water’, you will find a larger number of bloggers that are just huge fans.”
These loyal customers often latch onto the brand because of its key philosophy, which is no longer just about hydration. And by understanding what customers care about and then taking the time craft messaging that resonates in a meaningful way, Soma is making sure that its mission of sustainability is loud and clear.
“It is really about building a community versus just sending an email to every single person,” Jao continued. “That is the biggest way to drive revenue.”
Soma serves as a simple and straightforward example of what a customer journey should be like.
“The opportunity to create a unique customer journey tailored to every single one of us is here,” said Jao. “It is based on browsing behavior, personal interest, and data in order to create a much more relevant customer experience.”
To be smarter about customer engagement, this is how email marketing must evolve. And this is exactly how brands like Soma Water are taking it to the next level.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.