This is part three of the series, 4 Ways to Increase ROI During Economic Uncertainty: Using Low-Cost Channels. Chief Growth Officer, Josh Francia, writes from the perspective of a business leader who’s achieved success throughout myriad economic struggles, including 2008’s recession, 2010’s volcanic eruption which halted air travel, and 2016’s Zika virus outbreak. For more on Josh’s experience, read part one, here.
As the global situation continues to develop rapidly and our lives are changed more and more by the day, professionals are still searching for answers to some of their most pressing questions. From my experience with the economic ups and downs of the past 15 years, I feel confident in a few key steps B2C brands can take to increase ROI and move forward positively at this time. In part one we talked about unifying data, in part two we examined AI’s benefits, and here in part three we’ll discuss how you can turn to low-cost channels and still see amazing results.
Take advantage of your most cost-effective channels
Marketing teams in almost every sector and vertical have been tasked with “tightening their belts” in the last month and additionally shifting to a primarily digital model. This has meant most acquisition efforts and the channels associated with those efforts have been put on the back burner or paused completely.
While businesses won’t see the same amount of new customers and growth they’re accustomed to with a halt of paid media and offline marketing efforts, you shouldn’t completely abandon goals. Rather, shift your approach and make the most out of existing customers across high-value channels.
Marketers can take this time to shift to a marketing strategy that relies on email, mobile, and in-app marketing. These channels have great ROI and cost less to run on average. But, to avoid list burn out and increase the longevity of this strategy, you need to get creative with how, when, and where you’re messaging customers.
The best way to increase the life-span of your lists during times of uncertainty is to utilize event-triggered campaigns for better engagement and improved ROI.
How to use event-triggered campaigns
Triggered campaigns are most commonly based on behavioral user data and catalog data. And your behavioral data is linked with catalog data from browsing sessions, so it’s simple to create triggers that utilize data simultaneously across channels. Anything that is tied to a real-time event, a price-drop alert, abandoned cart, or post-sale cross-sell can be used as long as the message is timely and relevant to the event that has occurred.
And for those marketers worried that their data might not be in the best place for this, or that they don’t have the right AI tools to execute — don’t fret. This strategy can be put into place without those first two strategies and work because event-triggered campaigns are self-contained. Data unification and AI can be added later to increase the benefits of your triggered campaigns.
After Blueshift analyzed over 11 million messages, we found that triggered messages across both email and mobile perform significantly better than non-triggered messages. Triggered messages account for a 466% higher conversion rate in email and a 940% increase in mobile messages. Multi-channel campaigns that utilized triggered messaging see conversion rates increased by 176% altogether. That’s quite a bit of impact for something that can take your team a few days to set up across channels.
Ready to see how to create an immediate impact on your business with 4 key strategies? Watch my full webinar and download the complete Marketer vs. Martech report for insights into how top brands are exceeding their goals. Then, reach out to our team to see how the Blueshift platform can help you succeed in these uncertain times.
Also, stay tuned for the fourth and final installment of this four-part series coming later this week to learn about how your business can increase ROI and thrive during uncertain times.
