StrongMail study finds life events engage consumers

Sending email campaigns to consumers who have abandoned shopping carts or purchased products in the past is great, but a new report from StrongMail finds that campaigns triggered by life events - adding a family member, a move, new job or significant birthday - may outperform other types of email marketing.

by Kristina Knight

"Marketers are quickly realizing that batch-and-blast email marketing is no longer effective," said Scott Ollivier, vice president of products at StrongMail. "To stand out in the inbox, marketers must evolve and speed their adoption of lifecycle marketing programs. With the release of StrongMail's new drag-and-drop Lifecycle Marketing solution and corresponding strategic, creative and implementation services, StrongMail is making it easy for companies of all sizes to adopt this powerful technique."

Called the 'lifecycle', these type of email campaigns are targeted to specific events rather than more traditional, transactional campaigns which may target a product in which the consumer may or may not be interested. Marketing diapers to a woman who recently had a baby, for instance, will be much more engaging than a generic 'batch-and-blast' campaign marketing dish detergent.

According to the report:

46% of marketers use automated, event-triggered marketing platforms

Of those not using, 58% plan to integrate within a year

67% believe subscriber engagement is higher with event-triggered campaigns

54% believe these campaigns increase retention and satisfaction

75% say lifecycle outperforms traditional outbound email

Even with the uptick in adoption of these kinds of programs there is some lag, most based on small marketing budgets. StrongMail's new Lifecycle Marketing release may help ease the strain of low budgets or the lack of tools for some brands. The platform offers drag and drop design tools, real time APIs and split testing options to help marketers better control their spend and optimize campaign ROI.

Tags: email marketing, email messages, email targeting, lifecycle marketing, StrongMail