Personalization. It’s the goal of every marketer: to make each individual in your target audience feel like you are speaking directly to them.

 This attempt at personalization is what lead many event marketers to abandon, or at least place on the back burner, email marketing. For years, there was one approach to email marketing: you wrote an email, maybe used a database and form fields to customize the salutation, and then sent it to everyone in your customer archive.

 This type of email marketing still has its place. However, as recipients became savvier about recognizing promotional mailers and as software became better about sorting out mass mailings, these “broadcast” emails fell out of fashion.

 However, email remains an essential component of everyone’s daily life, at home and at work. According to the research from The Radicati Group, more than 205 billion emails are sent every day (which is more than 26 emails for every single person on Earth). And don’t worry that this is just older generations clinging to a dying technology. According to the Pew Research Center, yes, there is a divide between older and younger generations, but email is essential to both groups. While email is the primary digital communications for older internet users, among young online adults, social media is tied with email.

 The main takeaway is that entirely removing email from your marketing plans is premature. It simply needs to be deployed differently through trigger emails.

 A triggered email is when you set up a set of rules, or triggers, and when one of those milestones is reached, an email is automatically sent out to a specific individual. It is a way of personalizing email delivery. Unlike “broadcast” marketing emails, where the aim is to promote products and services, targeted emails inform the recipient about a particular event or process.

 Types of Triggered Emails

 There are two main types of triggered emails:

 Segment-based emails – These are sent when a consumer conforms to a specific condition or set of circumstances. For example, if you are an apparel retailer hoping to market an upcoming show, you can segment triggered emails based on gender, geographic area, employment, and age where the same action can trigger different emails depending on the above conditions.

 Event-based emails – These emails are triggered by a specific milestone, which can be personal or due to an action taken by the consumer. For example, for every first-time attendee, you could send a special welcome email. Emails sent for special invitations to exclusive events are also popular event-based emails.

 One note: be judicious in the emails you send. Your goal with these triggers is to be a helpful guide through an attendee’s journey, not fil their inboxes with too many notifications. Be sure that your messages are useful and sent with intent.

 Trigger Emails in Action

 Conversation Builders

 Most companies spend a lot of time, effort, and resources nurturing leads and converting them into attendees. Don’t let all that effort turn into neglect once the initial conversion occurs.

 The timespan after registration is a critical period. There are a variety of targeted emails that could be sent during this time. A thank you email triggered by the sign up is always a good idea. Then you could follow that a week later with a series of tips for attending: places to eat, attractions to visit, etc. You could also trigger an information gathering email a month later or one that asks for feedback with a merchandise coupon or another benefit if you receive a response within a certain span of time.

 The point is to ensure that your attendees are engaged and know that you value them and intend to continue the conversation.

 Abandoned Carts

 For whatever reason, it is common for a customer to get all the way to the cart stage, where there is a product or several virtually sitting in a virtual cart just waiting for the purchase button to be clicked. But the click never comes.

 For your event website, your registration page serves as a replacement for the typical ecommerce shopping cart. Anyone who visits that page is undoubtedly interested in your event. However, for some reason, they did not choose to sign up. This is not unusual. Many people who visit a registration page do not register on their first visit. However, the fact that they stopped by that page is reason enough to set up a triggered email and send them a gentle reminder or tow.

 Several significant milestones that can trigger a reason to reach out to undecided potential attendees, including:

•        Early-bird registration

•        Start of registration

•        Exhibitor listings

•      Session topics

•        Speaker announcements

•        Last-chance registration

 Each of these moments is a significant reason to deliver a reminder about your event. Don’t go overboard, though. You don’t want to become a nuisance. Select a few items from the list that are likely to appeal to your demographic.

 Nurture Your Returning Attendees

 With a slight nudge, an attendee can become a brand ambassador. It is up to you to find that motivation. One way to is to identify your most active attendees and reward them for their best behaviors.

 What those behaviors are is entirely up to you, it depends on your industry and specific business. For example, it could be someone encouraging a particular number of their friends to sign up (monitored by a unique coupon code).

 Once your software identifies someone who is likely to engage in these positive behaviors, a triggered email will be sent to motivate these customers.

 Offer a Helping Hand

 Triggered emails can be especially useful for helping your newest attendees become familiar with your event. There may be layers to your event that only seasoned pros may recognize. Well, that doesn’t have to be the case, and triggered emails provide the perfect opportunity for you to deliver some critical event education to your newest attendees.

 Provide Essential Updates

 Your customers may appreciate – and need – updates about their status from time to time, such as an impending payment deadline. Set up triggered emails to keep your consumers informed of every important detail. You are helping to safeguard your business while also helping to ensure that your attendees don’t miss out because they absentmindedly let a payment slip through their fingers. It is a way to give your consumers a sense of security while also showing that your brand cares and will go the extra mile to keep them on track. Plus, the emails are a motivator that can encourage action.

 Triggered emails can serve several purposes. They help you keep in touch with your attendees. They help your brand gather information about how consumers interact with your services. And they keep your attendees on schedule with payments and other important milestones. When appropriately utilized, triggered emails can help to convert average consumers into brand ambassadors through promotions and thank you emails.

 Interested in ideas for an innovative, engaging, and effective triggered email campaign? Give Event Architecture a call at 972.323.9433.