The future of e-mail marketing
It is difficult to specify how many times e-mail marketing has been “killed” in recent years. Since the chat IRC appeared and everyone predicted that the world of e-mail had died, until the appearance of social networks that said that this would end communication in this way; Not to mention the mobiles and even the SMS. The reality is that the e-mail has never died, but in fact, today is still a healthy growth and the innovation that has continued to maintain it as the main way of digital communication with users by the companies.
And there are many who wonder if it is possible to improve much the technology that supports the e-mail, and the answer is no other than yes, of course, of course it can be improved. And I do not mean the e-mail itself, its design, to incorporate videos or other attractive issues, but everything that supports the infrastructure that ends up receiving an email in our inbox. In short, I mean the data.
The information that the companies possess of the users is the great trainer so that the e-mail continues evolving, continues being (more) attractive for the users and continues being one of the favorite tools of any department of digital marketing.
Until now it was possible to customize an e-mail according to some criteria and following some established segmentations, but this management was somewhat complicated. It was necessary to perform various creatives according to the segments to which they wanted to address, the calculation of the number of users that would go in each segmentation was slow and more or less manual, the number of attributes on which to segment was limited or static and In addition, especially in large and complex companies, there were real internal wars to see who was the owner of the data and how they could be used.
Nobody with a minimum experience may find this definition of the situation strange and, surely, he will have smiled knowing the complexity of setting up an e-mail marketing program that would follow this way of working.
Despite the fact that technology offered these limitations, it was imperative to find a solution since one of the issues that users – all users – complain about is to receive information by e-mail that is truly relevant and useful. Or are we not disappointed when we receive a message from an online store that offers us information about products that do not interest us at all?
The solution is called: infrastructure in the cloud. And although the term “cloud” sometimes seems more a marketing term than something really effective, the possibilities it offers are truly amazing.
The idea is simple: to lodge in the cloud (that is, in a niche of secure servers) all the information available: customer databases, leads, loyalty cards; and also upload the complete catalogs of products and services, as well as price lists. You can upload decentralized databases from different places, which will make the work even easier. Added to this, all the information can be updated in real time by obtaining data on the behavior of a user on the web, or how it interacts with an e-mail, or on social networks, or with any purchase made, or even by geolocation. All this “connects” to the cloud so that the information is stored in these relational tables that use a unique identifier: the e-mail address of a user.
This information, of course, is accessible in real time and at all times, without having to wait to make complex segmentations and user counts that meet a certain profile, which gives it incredible strength.
But an example is worth a thousand words, so these are some examples of what can be achieved with an infrastructure of this type:
A chain of cinemas would now be able to send an e-mail every week to each user and in a personalized way with the following information: billboard in the cinemas near your home, highlighting the movies that interest you most (action, children, comedy , …), omitting information from those movies that you have already seen (the information is provided by online purchases or your loyalty card) and if you also have the information that you usually buy five tickets, offer a special discount on a voucher. ten entries. If you also buy tickets when you receive the e-mail through the web, you will receive a second email with a promotion for a $2 discount on each popcorn menu, apart from thanking you for your purchase.
Another example could be a hotel chain that establishes a program of several e-mails since a reservation is made. The first e-mail would provide information about the reservation and indicate the days left for a client to enter the hotel. It would be accompanied by several offers that the client can book in the area where they will be staying: Do you want to use the spa services? Would you like to book a tour? Do you want to make a reservation at one of these restaurants? The following e-mails, of course, would indicate these additional services already reserved and would try to sell others … But you can go even further. Suppose that three days before the client is going to stay at the hotel, the weather forecast is already known. Would not it be good to offer the customer the rental of a car or some indoor activity if it’s going to rain? Or maybe it would be good to emphasize the good weather you are going to do and take the opportunity to rent a boat trip? The possibilities of customization in detail, in real time and with virtually any data source contributing their bit, makes the possibilities of customization are enormous. Almost as huge as the possibilities of increasing average sales per customer thanks to this detailed customization. It makes the possibilities of personalization enormous. Almost as huge as the possibilities of increasing average sales per customer thanks to this detailed customization. It makes the possibilities of personalization enormous. Almost as huge as the possibilities of increasing average sales per customer thanks to this detailed customization.
Whatever the objectives that a company wants to pursue with e-mail marketing (brand positioning, sales, information), the customization in detail is what will improve them. And, today, only an infrastructure of high complexity and in the cloud is what allows it to do so.