Why You Should Use Triggered Marketing Communications

Triggered communications, often in the form of email or a text message, are a great tactic for developing deeper relationships with your customers in all stages of the customer life cycle. You can welcome new customers or subscribers with a discount or incentive, celebrate a customer's birthday with a special offer, remind customers of upcoming or missed appointments, and much more. 

How do triggered communications work?

A business defines certain criteria as 'communication triggers' to allow automatic messages to be sent to customers. When the predefined criteria is met, a triggered communication is sent to the audience that met that criteria.

Triggered communications are the most relevant, engaging, and timely messages because they are informed by specific consumer behaviors, milestones, and events within a defined time frame or on a specific date. This type of marketing automation can help motivate your customers to take a specific action, the ultimate goal being a conversion.

There are two common types of triggered communications

• Event-based: These messages are triggered by customer actions performed within a defined timeframe. For example, every time a customer makes a purchase he or she receives an order confirmation email.
• Segment-based: These communications are sent when customers fit into a defined set of conditions. If a customer enrolls in your "Premier Plan" they will only receive emails related to that plan. Marketing is not a ‘one message fits all’ process. Segmenting your subscribers by engagement level, interests, or life cycle stage can help you increase engagement and conversion rates.

Here are some of the most common examples of event-triggered emails:

• Welcome email for a new subscriber to an email list
• Welcome email for a new customer (first time purchase)
• Reengage customers or subscribers who lose engagement
• Abandoned shopping cart follow-up emails
• A follow-up for shoppers who browse or search on a site but don't buy
• Time to repurchase or replenish emails
• Confirmation of purchase or scheduled appointment
• Reminder of upcoming event or appointment

What are the benefits of triggered communications?

In 2017, triggered emails generated more than DOUBLE the open rate of standard messages, more than TRIPLE their unique click rates, and almost double their click-to-open rate. Even reactivation (reengagement) emails, which are sent exclusively to people who have not engaged with a brand for months (even years!), rival the performance of standard messages in terms of click-to-open and conversion rate.

Whats more, triggered emails related to relationship-building enjoy the highest open rates, highest unique click rates, and the highest click-to-open rates.

*Yes Lifecycle Marketing, 2018: Q4 Email Benchmark Report: A Marketer’s Guide to 2018

No matter how you slice it, triggered communications outperform standard or manually sent communications. With a little work up-front, your business can start nurturing more leads and closing more deals without lifting a finger.

All article statistics and data:: Yes Lifecycle Marketing, 2018: Q4 Email Benchmark Report: A Marketer’s Guide to 2018