For small to midsize businesses (SMBs), email remains among the simplest and most cost-effective ways to reach consumers, delivering ROI of up to 3,800 percent, according to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA).1 And, personalized emails can increase conversion rates, basket sizes, and repeat business.

Yet, a recent survey of 140 retailers found 120 of them would receive a failing grade for their email marketing campaigns, as they do not understand the power of using digital marketing to reach consumers.

The Power of Email

“For too many SMBs, the inclination is to just continue with the norm. Typically, you have to show them statistics and make them jealous by showing them how well their competition is doing with its email marketing campaign,” says Emerson Scherer, digital marketing manager at Celerant Technology.

Scherer says he has changed potential clients’ minds when they see the benefit of segmented email marketing software and services. With direct integration to point of sale data, companies can define segments based on live customer relationship management/sales data, allowing them to send personalized email campaigns to the right users at the right times. The goal is to increase open and click-through rates, ultimately generating additional revenue.

Merz Apothecary, the oldest pharmacy in Chicago and one of the oldest pharmacies in the United States at 142 years old, experienced the benefit of segmented emails firsthand. According to Anthony Qaiyum, president of Merz, the natural and specialty personal care products company maintains customer purchasing data in the Celerant retail management system, making it easy to send emails to specific customers based on their past purchasing behavior. “Segmented email is one that you tailor to a specific segment of people,” he says. “For instance, if we have people who primarily buy fragrance from us, we don’t want to send emails focused heavily on herbal teas and supplements, and vice versa.”

“Unfortunately, many SMBs don’t understand the power of their data and how it can be used in an email marketing campaign,” says Scherer. “Some send bulk emails, and some may not have the resources to dedicate to an email strategy at all. In both cases, these companies don’t realize how much revenue can be generated.”

To help clients reach this realization, Celerant has an extensive onboarding process for new clients. Companies are given a questionnaire that addresses their current business situation, identifies which items are selling, and homes in on their core specialty. “We guide our clients and tell them the best practices to ensure good open and click-through rates,” Scherer says.

Right Message, Right Person, Right Time

One best practice to ensure high rates is segmenting. This requires SMBs to become more adept at using their customer data to enhance the customer’s experience with the brand. With Celerant’s fully integrated email marketing platform, the system integrates the data in the point of sale and populates that data into the email marketing platform so the client can define segments. Using those segments enables clients to send more relevant email marketing campaigns to the right person at the right time.

For example, D&D Texas Outfitters uses Celerant’s marketing automation tools to segment customers based on their shopping behaviors…Read the entire article By Michele Salerno, Director of Marketing, Asst. VP at Celerant Technology
Published by www.retailitinsights.com
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