3 Ways to Provide Behavioral Context in Your Emails

Hello James,

Oh wait, is it Jack? The only thing worse than getting the persons name wrong is when they're trying to personalize the email and instead you get bombarded with filler text (Hello [FIRST NAME]).

That might not be the only reason why your email marketing efforts aren't successful.

If you asked myself and everyone else on this planet that sends an email, adding a persons name is crucial. It's the way that we personalize a message. But think about this; is it actually effective in getting your leads to engage with your company?

Adding the recipients name makes your emails personal but are you adding any context? Probably not. Here's a little tip, just adding their name to the email isn't going to increase the chances of him or her clicking through; especially, if the content in the copy isn't relevant to their interests.

There are a lot of reasons why someone might unsubscribe from your marketing emails, whether they aren't optimized for mobile, sending to many email blasts, email isn't proof read or the subject lines aren't eye catching. The biggest reason could be context. Companies are sending emails that contain irrelevant content.

Are you providing behavioral context in your emails? If not you're in the right place. Here are three ways that you can start adding context to your marketing emails.

List Segmentation

Not every lead and contact is the same. Each lead has his or her own interests, needs and wants. They also have different goals.

I don't know about you, but we don't cater to just one type of customer. There is no one size fits all. You won't be able to market to them the same way you would to another lead. In the age of the customer, your leads are looking for companies that understand their needs and are connecting with them. Therefore, they expect you to know where they’ve been, what they’ve seen, and what they’ve accepted or rejected.

Thankfully, with smart lists you can effectively segment your contacts based on their behaviors on your site. And your lists will automatically update based on the actions you've done.

This gives you the option to segment your contacts based on their behavior or actions to ensure that your content is effectively reaching them. No one wants to send a contact an email that has nothing to do with his or her interests. With a Smart List on HubSpot, you're able to segment your contacts by property value, list membership, form submission, list segmentation, page view or a marketing event.

The options are endless. Giving you the freedom to target your contacts with behavioral context.

Relative Resources

There is nothing worse than receiving an email that's irrelevant to your needs or interests. If they're gathering all of this information about me, how come they cannot seem to send me resources that pertain to the behavior and actions I've taken on their website?

That is a question that may just cannot seem to answer. Context is becoming a huge part of inbound marketing.

Don't leave your contacts hanging, per say. Take what you know about err ...  "James" and what he's done on your website and provide him with the necessary resources that will help push him down the sales funnel.

He isn't going to go anywhere, except maybe to a competitor, if you're sending him content he's already download or offers irrelevant to him.

Here's a hypothetical situation. Ask yourself this question, did he download an ebook (A.) or view your pricing page (B.)?

Based on your answer, you might want to take the following actions. Use what you know to continue educating your leads and pushing them down the sales funnel.

A. He downloaded an ebook. 

What are you going to do next?

Well for starters identify what topic the ebook was about. Was it an ebook about social media, email marketing, or lead generation? Another question you might want to ask yourself is, has he been back to your site since? Whether he has or hasn't, use that information to tailor the content you're going to provide him in your email.

If he revisited your website, what pages did he view? Were they related to the ebook he downloaded?

Now that you've collected all of this information about your lead you can start creating your email. Make your email personalized. Say something like ...

Hi there,

Thanks for stopping by our website to check out some of our resources! I've noticed you've downloaded our ebook, Tune Up Your Social Media Marketing. I hope you're finding it helpful.

Here are some resources I thought you could benefit from.

• Email vs. Social Media: Which is More Effective at Driving Traffic?

• The Power of Customer Service Through Social Media

• 4 Steps to Implementing a Small Business Social Media Strategy

• 3 Ways to Make Social Media Work for Your Business

(Introduce yourself)

Let me know if there's any way I can help you going forward.

B. Viewed your pricing page.

I don't know about you but someone viewing your pricing page is typically a good sign. At this point you want to keep them engaged with your brand. Don't forget about him. It often shows that they're willing to make the commitment.

In your email provide him with resources that educate him on the return on investment.

Some resources we might provide include:

• Proving the ROI from Inbound Marketing

• How Inbound Marketing Can Increase Your Return on Investment

• 5 Inbound Marketing Best Practices to Boost ROI

Triggered Workflow

When I say triggered workflow, I am not talking about automated emails. I'm talking about sending triggered emails that are sent based on ones behavior on a site.

According to a 2012 report from Epsilon and the Direct Marketing Association, “click rates for triggered messages are a whopping 119% higher than “business as usual” messages.”

Let me rephrase that this isn't that automated thank you email you receive after downloading an offer. This email can be sent at anytime based on your behavior.

It's all about providing your leads with relevant content. That's where workflows can make your job easier. Even though you might not be sending different emails to every lead you have, you aren't targeting every lead at once with one. By segmenting your leads you're able to target them based on their behaviors.

You many want to set up workflows that are triggered based on content offer downloads, inactive leads, middle of the funnel form submission, registration, cart abandonment, lifecycle stage, past purchases, net promoter score, visits, clicks and form submissions.