3 steps to making your email marketing fun and engaging

The success of FourSquare and similar location based services is as much due to their innovative social element as their use of game theory to encourage continuous engagement.

The model is simple: Every time you check in at a location, you get points. Do it often enough and you become the Mayor of that location. You can earn badges and even win prizes from merchants in the area. Wouldn't it be amazing if the same idea could be applied to your website? Visitors could earn rewards and spot prizes by spending a certain amount of time on your site, or by visiting certain pages.

Here's another idea: You could reward newsletter subscribers who click on a certain number of links in any given month. Or those who forward your email to a minimum number of people. While the premise remains the same each time, the possibilities are endless. Find a loyal segment of customers and reward them for their action. Make it even more exciting by randomly changing the rules over time.

These concepts are no longer pipe dreams and can now be implemented within a few simple clicks using the Ensight eCRM Suite. If you've never played with segmentation, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.

Step 1: Create a group

Click on the Segmentation icon in the left navigation bar.

While it's not essential to start by creating a segmentation group, we do recommended it. Segmentation groups help you separate out your active and test campaigns.

Click Create New Group, then enter a name for your segmentation group, such as "Rewards". Enter a brief description (not mandatory, but it helps), and then click Save Changes.

Step 2: Add a Segment

Click into the segmentation group you just created. You'll be presented with a blank page, and various buttons across the top. Click Create New Segment to add your first segment.

Let's start with a simple example: newsletter recipients who have clicked on at least 5 links in the past month. We want to send an email to all of our subscribers (across one or more campaigns) who have clicked on at least 5 links in the past month. As loyal and active subscribers, we can reward them with special offers, discounts or vouchers that others don't see.

Where you're prompted to enter a name for the segment, enter a meaningful description and then click Save Changes.

With the segment created, it's time to add rules. There are so many different rule variations you could try, it's easy to get lost in here. Don't worry, it's not that scary.

1. Click Add rules from the links that appear below the segment.

   
   
   
2. A popup window with various rules will appear.
   
   
   
   
3. Under the Activity section, click received, clicked from, or responded to a message
   
   
4. We can now either select any campaign (select -- Any campaign --) or choose a specific campaign from the drop-down list
   
   
   
   
5. From the selection menu on the right, either click -- Any email in this campaign -- to select any email in the campaign, or select a specific message. We advise that it's best to target across the whole campaign to give participants the greatest chance of winning a reward. We want it to be exclusive, but not impossible to qualify.
   
   
6. Choose the radio button called Received this message and clicked from it to at least 5 links
   
   
7. Just below, select Restrict this selection to events that occured: and choose the option In the last month
   
   
8. Click Next >>
   
   
9. Click Next >> again after confirming the rule
   
   
10. Click Finish

At this point it's tempting to assume that this is how many people will receive your reward message - but hang on until the end so you can see it through. We still need to filter out those who we don't have permission to communicate with, along with other possible filters (this would obviously depend on your individual needs).

If you are happy with the segment, click on the Activate link to enable it. This is an essential step if you intend using the segment for campaign targeting. You may need to reload the page in order to see the unique profiles number change on the right.

Step 3: Use your segment

The best part about this particular setup is that the segment we have just created can be used multiple times, across multiple campaigns. Because targeting is restricted to those who clicked at least 5 times in the past month, it will automatically change the people it targets over time.

If you've ever set up an email campaign, the rest of the process will be fairly straightforward. If not, check out our tutorial first and then come back here to continue.

Complete the steps for setup of your campaign as normal. When you get to the page where you select Targeting, choose the option Target to people by segment.

In the popup, select the segmentation group you created in step 1 above. Then select your segment (Newsletter recipients who have clicked on at least 5 links in the past month). Finally, select your mailing list under Data Source. Doing so will cross reference recipients on your list with the segment's profiles and will show you a count of where the two combine.

Awesome!

Now it's simply a case of designing, sampling and sending your campaign. It will only go out to those on your mailing list that have clicked on at least 5 links across all newsletters in the past month.

Next steps

With your first segment in place, it's time to consider a few other options. There are so many rules at your disposal that it may be hard to choose! However some are better than others for rewarding loyalty:

• Under Activity, viewed an item, a range of items, or a certain no. of items
  Use this rule to identify those who visit a certain number or cluster of pages, and reward them for taking the time to read further about your products and services
  
  
• Under Miscellaneous, at last visit had accessed the site a certain number of times
  Enter the minimum number of visits required to qualify for your reward
  
  
• Also under Activity, forwarded a content item or message
  Use this rule to reward those who share your content most frequently with others

You could also consider rewarding conversions such as registrations, purchases or lead forms completed. However in many cases, the act of converting guarantees a reward (such as the product they ordered, or the whitepaper they downloaded). To ensure your website is both fun and engaging, maintain a certain mystery around how you choose to reward subscribers, and change the rules periodically to keep people guessing. 

As always, if you need specific guidelines for implementing a solution that matches your business needs, please get in touch!