As we prepare for a cookieless digital era and Apple Mail’s privacy updates, it’s clearer than ever marketers need to keep up with the ever-changing data security landscape.
While all these changes have had marketers questioning the future of email marketing and our retargeting capabilities, it continues to be a key part of an effective retargeting strategy. In fact, abandoned cart emails can generate conversion rates as high as 41%.
Sending out email blasts might have worked from time to time, but it’s becoming harder to stand out in inboxes (let alone track accurate open rates). So here’s a few best practices to ensure your email retargeting continues to be effective and optimised for your audience.
Use advanced segmentation for your lists
You’re likely retargeting people for a reason, so let that specific reason be the driving force behind your retargeting campaign. Have they downloaded some of your content and then become inactive? Did they sign up for a discount on their first order but then never end up using it? These are great opportunities to re-engage people and speak directly to the reasons (and solutions) for them losing interest.
Advanced segmentation lets you quickly and easily segment your lists using this kind of data. You’ll also be able to gain a better understanding of why and how to retarget them. The more segmented you get, the more relevant and targeted your email campaigns can be.
Our advanced search feature helps you find and segment certain contact types, then create your ideal retargeting lists from there. If you need a little help, check out our how-to guide for advanced search and contact segmentation.
Top tip: If you have any retargeting based on subscribers open date, this may not be useful for Apple Mail users (following iOS 15 updates). Instead, focus on things like their last click-through or engagement action.
Any retargeting automations may no longer be useful based
Get your frequency right
Choosing when and how often to retarget your lists can be a fine art. Unfortunately, there’s no magic number, but hitting the right frequency is important for getting the most out of your retargeting.
If you don’t communicate regularly it can lead to missed revenue opportunities, inconsistency, and lack of inbox presence. On the other hand, sending too many emails can lead to increased unsubscribes, decreased engagement, and generally irritate your contacts. So, where’s the happy medium? A great place to start is by looking at email marketing benchmarks to guide your decision making.
Our email metrics show you the best (and worst) days on average for opens and click through rates. This will help you choose the best time to reach the most people, and avoid sending emails on days that generally see lower engagement.
If you don’t want to test and analyse your email frequency, you can also ask your subscribers how often they want to hear from you. By using an email preference centre, subscribers can set their own frequency and take the guesswork out of your retargeting schedule.
Top tip: It’s easy to track and control how often you manually email your lists, but it can be harder to see how many triggered emails are sent. Always keep your automations in mind when looking at email frequency.
Hyper-personalise your communications
Email personalisation isn’t new. You’ve probably seen the benefits being spouted for years. With greater competition online and changing retargeting conditions (goodbye cookies!), being hyper-personalised is more important than ever.
Hyper-personalisation helps to connect with customers in the micro-moments. At every level and across channels, the aim is to have a one-to-one conversation with customers, speaking directly to their needs, and most importantly, to them personally.
Your communication should address the specifics and on a personal level. Subscriber data is your greatest email lead generation tool. The broader the view you have on their entire customer journey, the more pinpointed you can get.
Top tip: Conditional content allows you to display different content blocks to different audience segments all from the one email. For example, if you’re an international clothing retailer, you can display the right seasonal clothing relevant to your subscribers’ location.
Make sure your emails are optimised for deliverability
There’s nothing worse than putting time and effort into perfecting your emails, only to find out it’s riddled with glitches as soon as it lands in your subscribers’ inbox. That’s why it’s important to always test and optimise your emails before every send.
Deliverability best practices, like optimising headings, creating plain-text versions, choosing images and videos carefully, will make sure your emails get delivered and don’t arrive riddled with blocked images or broken layouts. If you want to increase engagement, focus on creating responsive, mobile-friendly emails that are easily skimmable.
Top tip: Use white space liberally between content blocks, CTAs, headlines, and footers to clearly define each element. White (or negative) space allows subscribers to break down and interpret content quickly.
Email retargeting isn’t going away, in fact it’s still one of your best opportunities for lead generation and boosting sales. Abandoned cart emails for example can result in purchases that are 14.2% higher in value than a typical purchase, and about one third of the email click-throughs result in a purchase back on site.
Want to include these email retargeting best practices in your next campaign? Get started with a free Vision6 account today.
