A few months have gone by since our 6-part series of blogs highlighting the launch of our TriggerMail feature and our recent case study  about the benefits available, I thought that we should maybe take a look at the usefulness of autoresponders (AKA TriggerMails).
If you’re unsure what TriggerMails are, checkout our video or the blog series.

The benefits of sending automated emails are very clear; timesaving, strengthening customer relationships with such things as an annual ‘Happy Birthday’, but there is something else which was shared with you in our segmentation blog article ; Triggered (or Prompted) emails provide a way to target your readers – much the same as segmentation.

So, where do I start ?

If you’ve decided to give it a try, and I strongly recommend that you do, begin by setting up a couple of triggers; if you’ve captured the dates of birth for your subscribers, simply setup an email to be sent to them say, 3 or 4 days beforehand giving a list of items that you will happily discount during the week in which their birthday falls. It is a fact that Birthday email messages generate a very good response and conversion-to-sales ratio.

Basically you are able to integrate your segmentation and TriggerMails, allowing you to monitor a customer’s past purchases, their account anniversary, any reviews that they may have posted on your site, payment reminders, even their wedding anniversaries and then set TriggerMail to automatically send them an email relevant to that occasion.  It can be anything from congratulations and best wishes, to product information or discounts on something they might find of interest.

If the response from your subscribers is positive you can always find more ways of integrating evermore TriggerMails into your campaigns.

What reason would I have to set these TriggerMails? 

Think of this as just another way for contacting your customers and develop the relationship between them and your brand, it tells them that you understand them and their interests. The result is that you email them more often and, because your emails have more relevance, they respond in a more relevant manner.

Isn’t this likely to result in my readers thinking that I’m bombarding them?

No, although you will be keeping in touch with more frequency, it’s a more relevant contact and these contacts are prompted by your subscriber’s response to a date or product specifically relating to them. Not all the contacts in your list will have received the email, as you only sent the emails to small proportions of your list.  Also, because these emails are more targeted, the result will be a greater ROI than your untargeted bulk email sends.

But doesn’t this mean that I should stop sending out mass emails and newsletters?

Of course not!  Bulk sending your newsletter is the way to spread your message and to gather more subscribers.  After all, it is the one that all your subscribers initially signed up to receive.  Using TriggerMail is your way of refining those relationships more and pushing potential customers into becoming actual purchasing customers, or existing customers to make further purchases.  Autoresponders are there to complement your email campaigns by balancing your bulk broadcast emails with relevant, targeted emails sent to a specific, small portion of your subscribers and, because they’re automated it releases you to focus on other things – be it a reviving cup of tea or an in-depth promotional strategy.

Put simply, TriggerMails added to your campaigns help you to send the right message at the right time to spur your subscribers to action.

The way to a man's heart may be through his stomach - but sometimes, all you need are the right keywords.

Not only do we need the right choice of words to woo the opposite sex - we also need them for our clients. Most of us wouldn't refer to the relationship with our clients as a love affair,  but it is nonetheless an affair .
 
It is important that we choose the right words to entice our clients to visit our site. We need to apply an element of psychology - what words would they use to get through to you? Not unlike how we would encourage our loved ones. But unlike our real life romantic advances, the words we choose for our blogs and websites are not enhanced by poetical license. In fact, quite the opposite - they need to be clear and as precise as possible.
So... you don't consider yourself much of a wordsmith - maybe you already struggle with the communication channels in your personal/work relationship/s. You're accused of not hearing what she says and he doesn't react as expected to the words you say. So how to proceed to get the right keywords in order to promote your site with search engines?

We can recommend  two free keyword tools to help you.

1 - At the end of September, Google launched their new Beta Keyword Tool. Vertical Leap Search Engine Marketing's Paul Broomfield points out that the new tool can be found by clicking the ‘Tools’ (or ‘Opportunities’) tab and clicking on the keyword tool. You will then see the following beta link at the top of the page ‘Check out the new Keyword Tool (beta)’, that will direct you through to the new beta keyword tool. Thanks, Paul! In order for you to use the new Beta Google Keyword Tool, you will need to set up an Adwords Account. This is free of charge... until you decide to link a PPC campaign to your site (paid Google ads). Why not try it out?
 

NB: If you just want to do a general keyword search, for instance to get the right set of keywords for your content writing, use the seasoned Google Keyword Tool. You would still have to sign into your Google Adwords Account to see a full list of keyword ideas customized to your website (typically excluding those already in your account).

 
2 - WordStream have now launched their free new keyword tool. Similar to Google, you can just search for a keyword such as "email marketing" and wait for the return of related keywords that are relevant to your preferred search query. You can have the selected keywords emailed to you or just export them.  This keyword tool is recommended by Vertical Leap for use alongside the Google keyword tool, as it will be a great help in maximising your ROI by ensuring that you have all long tail keyword areas and permutations covered within your SEO and PPC campaigns.