Want to increase response? Introduce more triggered messages
 
If you are looking for ways to maximize your email program response and increase conversions, consider introducing more triggered messages to your marketing strategy.
 
Triggered messages are typically automated campaigns based on consumer behavior or key events, like a purchase, website visit, or a special date. Since these events are relevant to consumers, they generally produce the highest response and conversion rates of all email campaigns. And since they are automated, they require limited resources and are easy to maintain.
 
While you are planning for 2010, ask yourself if you are communicating with consumers at all relevant touch points. If you don't have one already, I recommend creating a visual roadmap of your email marketing program to identify opportunities to add new messages triggered from consumer behavior.
 
Here are some campaign ideas to consider while you build your plan:
 
Transaction Messages
Transaction messages are an important part of a consumer's online shopping experience. As long as marketers ensure the transaction information is top priority (and get approval from their legal counsel), there is a great opportunity to introduce engaging marketing content to transactional messages following purchases or product registration. Some tactics to consider include:

• Add a website navigation bar in your transaction message template
• Cross-sell in purchase and shipping confirmations
• Invite consumers to join your email program
• Thank consumers for their purchase and provide an incentive to buy again
• Invite consumers to review their purchase

Stay tuned next week for Part 2: utilizing web analytics triggers and key events to increase your email program's response rate.