Behavioral Email Marketing: The key to going beyond personalization to increase revenue.

Your customers are not engaging with your product. You try to understand the problem, but they don’t reply to your emails.

Do you know why? It’s because of the lack of personalization. 50% of millennials and GenZ ignore messages that don’t have personalized content.

And no, adding a first name or last date of purchase is not personalization. It may have worked a few years ago, but users are aware of little tricks and don’t fall for them.

So, how to reach your users? The answer is behavioral e-mails.

Behavioral e-mails are automated e-mails sent based on customer interaction with your product. They’re highly responsive and triggered by user actions.

Want to implement the behavioral email strategy into your business? This blog will help you understand how to leverage behavioral e-mail marketing for your business.

We’ll cover:

Behavioral Email Marketing: Go Beyond Personalization to Increase Revenue

What is Triggered or Behavioral E-mail?

Why choose behavioral e-mail marketing?

Create a Behavioral E-mail Strategy in 4 easy steps

1. Finding the Right Triggers

2. Collect Data on User Interaction

3. Analyze the behavior and start a conversation.

4. Create Customer Personas

Different Types of Behavioral E-mails

1. Welcome E-mail

2. Milestone E-mail

3. Product Suggestions

Track customers’ every move with Salesmachine

How does the Salesmachine help you track user behavior?

Drawing the curtains

What is Triggered or Behavioral E-mail?

Imagine this: A user gets stuck while using your product. He can’t figure out how to use a feature. He tries hard, then leaves. In this situation, you can wait either wait for him to contact customer support or he receives an email immediately with the exact solution to his problem.

After he reads that email, two things will happen:

1. He reopens your software and continues using it — this time more effectively
2. He gains trust in your customer support

This is how behavioral emails help you.

Behavioral e-mails are auto-generated emails based on how users interact with your product.

For example, someone signed up for your product. Their action triggers an email, and they receive a product starter guide. It would be awesome but don’t believe me; believe the stats.

GetResponse found that triggered e-mails had the highest open rate (38.03%) and highest click-through rate (6.76%) compared to AutoResponder, RSS, and Newsletters.

Convenient, isn’t it?

Why choose behavioral e-mail marketing?

Personalizing your social media posts and blogs for each user is impossible. But you can personalize your e-mails based on triggers and actions users take.

• Did customers make a purchase? Send an e-mail to highlight the benefits.
• Did a customer leave something in the cart? Send an e-mail to provide discounts.

A behavioral e-mail is an immediate response. The user’s action triggers them. They’re automatic.

Benefits of Behavioral email marketing

1. Increased engagement: Behavioral emails increase engagement by delivering highly targeted, personalized messages relevant to customers’ interests and needs.

For example, a SaaS company could send a behavioral email to a customer who has been inactive for a certain period, offering them a discount or free trial to encourage them to use the service again.

2. Improved customer satisfaction: Using behavioral emails lets you proactively address customer needs, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

For instance, a retailer could send a behavioral email to a customer who has recently made a purchase, thanking them for their business and offering helpful tips or recommendations based on their purchase history.

3. Increased sales and revenue: Behavioral emails deliver targeted offers and promotions to customers who are most likely to convert. It leads to more sales and revenue.

For example, an e-commerce company could send a behavioral email to customers who have abandoned their cart, offering them a discount or free shipping to encourage them to complete their purchase.

4. Improved analytics and insights: Finally, behavioral emails can provide valuable insights and analytics to help customer success and support teams optimize their strategies over time.

For example, by tracking how customers respond to different messages and offers, these teams can continuously improve their email campaigns and achieve better results.

Behavioral emails have tremendous benefits. And it’s super easy to get started.

Create a Behavioral E-mail Strategy in 4 easy steps.

Collect Data on User Interaction

Data on user interaction is essential for understanding your customers. Data gives you insights into their behavior. Use it to improve their experience. For instance:

• if customers frequently abandon their shopping carts, you may need to improve the checkout process or offer more payment options to reduce friction and improve conversion rates.
• if customers frequently report issues with a particular feature, you can use that information to prioritize improvements or bug fixes.

Here are some ways to collect data on user interaction:

1. Website analytics: Use website analytics tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar to track user behavior. These tools help you understand how users navigate your site, what pages they visit most frequently, and where they drop off in the conversion funnel. Use this data to send targeted emails to solve customers’ problems and lead them toward purchase.
2. Surveys and feedback: Conduct surveys and gather customer feedback to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. Analyze survey results to identify areas for improvement.
3. Customer success platforms: Utilize customer success platforms like Salesmachine, Intercom, or Gainsight to gather data on user behavior and engagement. These platforms provide real-time insights into customer interactions and help you proactively address customer needs and concerns.
4. Social media monitoring: Monitor social media channels to understand what customers say about your product or service. By doing this, you get valuable insights into customer sentiment and identify areas for improvement.
5. User testing: Conduct user testing to gather data on how users interact with your product or service. It involves conducting focus groups, usability, or A/B testing to determine the most valuable features or design elements driving engagement.

You can automate this process with Userpilot. It lets you analyze various metrics and create surveys to collect data for customer segmentation.

Here’s what you get from Userpilot:

1. Product Usage: Userpilot provides insights into how users engage with our product by tracking events and user behavior. Use this data to create user segments based on their use of our product, which features they use most frequently, and which features they have yet to try. Create these segments using Userpilot’s built-in user segmentation tool.
2. Feature Adoption: Feature adoption allows you to identify users needing additional support or training to get the most out of our product. Userpilot allows you to track which features users have used and how often.
3. NPS Scores: NPS scores measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. Use this data to create segments based on customer sentiments, such as identifying promoters likely to refer our product to others or detractors who may need additional support or attention.

Create Customer Segments

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for customer support. Every user has unique problems. The quickest way to tackle these issues is by creating customer personas.

Different people use your product in different ways. Let’s say you are a SaaS company that offers project management software. Here are three examples of customer personas based on how users interact with your product:

1. The Power Users — They use your project management software extensively. They’re familiar with all its features. They will likely be project managers or team leaders who rely on your product to keep their teams organized and on track.

This persona may benefit from email campaigns that promote advanced features, new integrations, or best practices for using the software more efficiently.

Examples of behavioral triggers for this persona:

• regularly logging in
• frequently using advanced features
• successfully completing complex projects

2. The Struggling Users — This customer persona has purchased your project management software but is struggling to use it effectively. They may have trouble setting up projects or assigning tasks. They may be overwhelmed by the number of features available.

This persona may benefit from email with tips and tutorials for using the software. Your customer success team can go further and offer personalized support to these users.

Examples of behavioral triggers for this persona:

• frequently contacting customer support
• logging in but not completing tasks

3. The Casual User — This customer persona uses your project management software infrequently. They may not be fully engaged with all its features.

They may be using the software as part of a larger project but may not have a dedicated role in managing it. This persona may benefit from email campaigns highlighting the benefits of using the software more frequently, such as improved team collaboration or time savings.

Examples of behavioral triggers for this persona:

• logging in infrequently
• using only basic features.

Steps to create customer personas for behavioral email marketing:

1. Gather User Data — The first step is to gather as much data as possible about how customers interact with your product. It includes data on login frequency, feature usage, task completion rates, and support ticket history. Tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, or Segment can help you collect and analyze this data.
2. Identify Patterns — Once you have collected this data, look for patterns and commonalities among your customers. For example, are they using certain features more frequently than others? Do customers frequently contact support for similar issues? Group people based on these patterns to identify customer personas.
3. Conduct Customer Interviews — Interviews help validate and expand your initial personas. Reach out to customers who fit the patterns you’ve identified. Ask them questions such as how they use the product, what their goals are, and what challenges they’ve faced. You can use tools like Typeform or SurveyMonkey to conduct these interviews.
4. Analyze Feedback — Interviews are done. It’s time to analyze the feedback to identify common themes and pain points. Look for areas where customers struggle and feel they’re not getting the full value. Doing this gives your specific information about your users’ pain points. This information lets you draft hyper-personalized emails that users will open and read.
5. Create Customer Segments- Now that you have everything, it’s time to make groups. Use descriptive names for your users. For example, ‘Bosses’ for power users or “ for users who’re having trouble. Create detailed profiles for them. Include information like goals, challenges, and preferred communication channels. Tools like HubSpot or Userpilot can help you create and manage these personas.

Manually doing all these steps is hard. Kickstart your behavioral email marketing campaign with a customer segmentation template from Userpilot.

Finding the Right Triggers

Not all actions are email-worthy. It means that users visit your product multiple times daily to check a message or an update; you don’t need to send an e-mail each time. You must filter through thousands of user actions to find the right triggers for a behavioral e-mail.

Here’s an example of a good and bad trigger: If a customer leaves your SaaS sign-up form midway, send an e-mail reminder to complete it.

Bad Trigger: Customer changes her account information or password, and you send an email commemorating it. That’s too much.

More Examples of Good Triggers in SaaS:

• Visitor fills out a form to download an e-book or case study: Send an e-mail to recommend other related products or educational materials.
• A visitor checks out the FAQ page: Send an e-mail asking if they have any specific questions.
• Customers’ plan expires or are about to expire: Send them an e-mail reminding them about their plan expiration.

How to find the right triggers?

1. Analyze customer data: Look at your customers’ past purchases, behavior on your website, and other interactions with your brand to identify patterns and trends. This will help you understand their needs and preferences and determine the triggers most likely to lead to engagement.
2. Conduct customer surveys: Ask your customers directly what types of emails they would like to receive. This can provide valuable insights you may not have considered otherwise.
3. Consider timing: Determine the optimal time to send emails based on your customer’s location, time zone, and activity patterns. For instance, sending an email promoting a sale at 3 AM may not be effective if most of your customers are not awake at that time.
4. Test and iterate: Test different triggers and analyze the results to see what works best. Experiment with subject lines, messaging, and timing to determine which triggers generate the highest engagement.
5. Use automation tools: Utilize automation tools like Salesmachine, Hubspot, or ActiveCampaign to set up triggers based on specific customer behaviors, such as abandoned carts or website visits. This can help ensure your emails are personalized and relevant to each customer.

Tailor your messaging and start a conversation.

You will have different customer segments and their pinching pain points by this time. Draft personal e-mails for each trigger to tap into users’ pain points.

According to research by Marketo, interest-based nurturing resulted in a 56.68% increase in open rates and a 147% increase in click-through rates. Create targeted emails with Userpilot:

Here’s a step-by-step process:

1. Set up behavioral triggers: Now you know good and bad triggers. It’s time to set them. We can do this using Userpilot’s behavioral trigger feature:

• Use its intuitive interface to define trigger criteria, such as completing an action and visiting a feature.
• Specify the trigger delay, conditions, and actions that you want to take for that trigger. In this case, sending a personalized email.
• Once you define triggers, UserPilot will automatically monitor the user’s behavior and send the email based on your criteria.

2. Create email templates: To create email templates in Userpilot, use its built-in email editor. It lets you design and personalize your templates with dynamic content blocks and variables. You can customize your email templates according to the specific triggers and user segments. Add images, links, and other elements to make them more engaging and effective.

3. Define target audience: Assign each email template to a customer persona.

4. Personalize content: With the customer persona defined, you can personalize the content of each email using dynamic content blocks and variables. For example, you can use the user’s or company’s name in the email to create a more personalized experience.

5. Set up A/B testing: To optimize the effectiveness of our email campaigns, set up A/B testing using Userpilot’s built-in testing features. Experiment with different subject lines, content, or calls to action to see which email version performs best.

6. Track and analyze results: Finally, use Userpilot’s analytics and reporting features to track the results of your email campaigns. Optimize them over time. You can track open, click-through, and conversion rates to see which campaigns drive the most engagement and revenue.

Examples of Behavioral E-mails:

The best part of behavioral e-mail marketing is the specific types of e-mails for each occasion. Below are different e-mails you can send for each user interaction:

1. Welcome E-mail

Welcome e-mails help you create a great first impression. They are great for introducing your new customers to your business values, product, and benefits to give them a heads up.

More than 8 out of 10 people will open a welcome e-mail, generating 4x as many open and 10x as many clicks as other e-mail types.

Send a welcome e-mail after customers sign up for an account, subscribe to a newsletter or join a community.

This is a welcome e-mail from Submittable. Pay attention to how they’ve used the video to educate the users about their product. Make it easy for the users to learn about your product; no one likes to make an extra effort and go out of the way to use the software.

Pro Tip: Send your welcome e-mail to an authoritative figure in your company, like the CEO or marketing head, to create a personal touch.

2. Milestone E-mail

Milestone e-mails are great for subscription-based businesses such as SaaS. What do you want from your customers? To keep using your product and get the most value out of it.

They will hit many milestones in the journey. Why not celebrate them?

Use milestone e-mails to celebrate your users’ achievements with your software. They can be:

• 100 hours spent on your tool
• Being the first member to subscribe to a new feature
• Achieving success in their work by using your product

3. Product Suggestions

Product suggestions are the most common emails that SaaS companies send.

Data analysis offers predictive recommendations and forecasts what products customers may buy in the future. Use this data to give product recommendations via e-mail.

In SaaS, you can recommend updates and higher subscription models. Present benefits they lack in the freemium plan with case studies and social proofs to nurture the customer.

Drawing the curtains

Behavioral emails let you proactively solve customer problems. This way you retain more customers. And the process is easy. Pick specific triggers and segment customers into groups. Create highly personalized emails for each segment.

Doing this manually may be hard but Userpilot automates the whole process. The segmentation feature creates a user persona based on legit customer behavior. It lets you set the right triggers and automatically send behavioral emails at the right time.

What’s best — it monitors the performance of those emails so you can make more informed decisions. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with Userpilot and start solving your customer queries today. Remember, it’s the best way to retain your customers.