Automated emails are a serious time saver in your
E-commerce business.
And they’re also a great way of staying in touch with the email list you’ve worked so hard to build up. But, automation doesn’t mean impersonal. In fact your relationship with the people on your list should be the exact opposite of impersonal. Which means, even when you’re automating your email marketing, you continue to strive for a personal, human touch. This human touch helps you to build on the like, know and trust factor with your customers. And there are also some very tangible benefits of email personalisation including:
- Higher open rates
- Higher transaction rates
- Increased revenue
There are a number of different ways you can bring a more personal touch to your email marketing campaigns. Simply using your customer/subscriber’s name in the email is one of the simplest, yet most effective. But what also works is sending emails that your customer may not be expecting, but will delight them. Such as the Happy Anniversary email. We love this email at Keetrax and our customers have discovered that it’s a great way to ‘win back’ a customer who may have drifted away over the year.
I mean who doesn’t love celebrating an anniversary with a shopping spree?
So let’s take a closer look at the Happy Anniversary email so you can start using this one in your business.
What is an Anniversary Email and why should I send one?
As the name suggests, an anniversary email is one that you send to commemorate a special event, milestone or occasion like a birthday, purchase anniversary, subscription anniversary, etc. The anniversary can either be personal to the customer or a business related milestone such as your open for business date.
What’s so great about this style of email is that receiving it makes your customer feel special. And, importantly, because you’re going to include a great offer within it, it gives them a reason to celebrate this special anniversary by making a purchase with you – just like your emails at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc. are designed to do.
There are some great benefits of sending an anniversary email, here’s just a few:
- Your customers will feel special and appreciated.
- The experience of being your customer will feel more personal (enhances the customer journey).
- Increases revenue by creating a new sales opportunity.
- Reminds your customer about what you have to offer.
- Gives you another way to show up in your customer’s inbox – but in a unique and fun way.
When do you send an Anniversary Email?
The timing of your anniversary email depends on what the anniversary is. For example a happy birthday email would normally be sent on the day of someone’s birthday or a week or so before – but not after. If you’re celebrating a milestone such as your business anniversary you might send this email during the month of the anniversary and offer a special discount that lasts all month.
To get the timing of your anniversary email right, give thought to what you’re celebrating with your customer and what you’re offering them to encourage them to celebrate by making a purchase.
Once you’ve determined these two things when to send the email should be obvious.
What makes a good Anniversary Email?
Personalisation
The anniversary email is a super personal email which makes personalisation important. We always recommend including someone’s name in the emails you send them, but it’s extra important with an email that’s celebrating a special occasion, event or milestone in your relationship with each other.
You can also get personal by considering what information you have about your customer and including that in the email. Are they a loyal customer to a particular product of yours? Or have they been a customer for more than just one year – how many? Get creative with how you personalise your email.
A great offer
Anniversary emails are all about celebrating something special. They should excite the person receiving the email and entice them to shop with you. Which means you should include an exciting and special discount or other offer for them, preferably something you don’t normally offer so they understand that this offer is all about celebrating with them.
TIP: Collect dates! Anniversary emails rely on ‘date data’. Which means you need to collect specific dates that are relevant to your customer. For example: If you like the idea of sending your customer a Happy Birthday email each year, you need to collect their birth date. We recommend doing this in an email during the Welcome Series, or via a competition.
Styles of Anniversary Email
Below we’ve given you some ideas for the types of anniversaries you could be celebrating with your customers. Remember though, whatever milestone or occasion you’re acknowledging with your email, the aim is to get your customer or subscriber to shop with you and you can do that by offering them something special – that great offer we talked about earlier in this article.
1. Happy Birthday!
Make your customers feel special by sending them birthday wishes. We recommend sending the Happy Birthday email during the month of your customer’s birthday (and before their birthdate).
2. Subscriber Anniversary
This email celebrates the date someone subscribed to your list; for example your newsletter. It’s a way of helping your subscribers to feel valued and giving them an incentive to make a purchase.
3. Purchase Anniversary
Celebrate the date someone became your customer – this is the date of their first purchase. Give thought to what you can offer your customer to entice them to make another purchase. This style of email is a great retargeting strategy and can help to ‘wake up’ a purchaser who may not have bought from you for some time.
4. Company or Founder Birthday
This email is personal to your business and celebrates your launch date or Founder’s Birthday. A fun twist is to create a campaign around the birthday of someone significant in your business who most of your customers may know – your Customer Service Representative or a pet if they feature in your marketing.
5. Milestones and Special Events
This email is all about celebrating the dates that are significant to your customers and will be unique to your type of business.
For example
If your store has a Wedding Registry service you might collect wedding dates from the customers that registered with you and send them a Happy Anniversary email and discount to buy their spouse an anniversary gift from you this year.
Once you’ve determined the significant milestone event you want to celebrate with your customers, give thought to how you capture the date information you need so you can send your Anniversary email at the right time.
The Happy Anniversary email is a very handy email marketing strategy to have in your automation toolbox and just another way you can continue to connect with your customers and show them how important they are to your business.
If you need help automating your emails or coming up with a marketing strategy for your E-commerce business, we can help. Contact Keetrax to discover all of the ways you can turn subscribers into customers and customers into repeat shoppers.
