The vast majority of retail brands now use triggered messages, automated emails that brands send in response to a customer’s behavior. These highly personalized emails generate more than three-quarters of retailers’ email ROI, according to the Data & Marketing Association. Although media brands have different objectives than retailers, triggered messages can greatly benefit them as well.

Why Media Brands Should Use Triggered Messages In Their Marketing

One compelling reasons media brands should include triggered messages in their marketing strategy is that they’re inherently personalized. By tailoring content to their audience’s preferences, triggered messages also provide publishers with an excellent opportunity to create positive impressions and increase brand satisfaction.

Adopting a more personalized marketing strategy that utilizes triggered messaging can not only help media companies increase loyalty and engagement, but move beyond the ad revenue model. Although very common, this model comes with some downsides. For example, click-through rates on website ads are extremely low, with an average rate of 0.05%. Since the rates are so low, it can be challenging to earn the kind of revenue your company needs from them.

Using triggered messages effectively can be challenging for media brands. However, there are plenty of best practices for implementing them. Here are five tips for media brands to keep in mind:

Offer Your Audience Some Kind Of Value

It’s essential to let your audience know they’ve made the right choice by subscribing to your website or viewing your content. These actions demonstrate that your audience wants to interact with your brand. As a result, it’s in your best interest to respond with relevant messages. Above all, when sending triggered emails, focus on offering value. For media brands, this might consist of relevant content recommendations based on a subscriber’s viewing history. Centering email newsletters on topical interest data has helped Business Insider increase clickthrough rates by 60%.  

Emphasize What Makes Your Brand Unique

In a welcome email campaign, you need to communicate the differentiators that set your brand apart. For example, for Refinery29, that includes the brand’s enormously popular Money Diaries series. The content, format, and design of these messages should reflect your brand’s voice and values. This raises awareness of your brand, encourages loyalty, and shows your audience you appreciate them.

Segment Triggered Emails By Source

A welcome series should reflect how you acquired the subscriber. Their experiences may differ depending on whether they found you through social media or came directly to your website. To increase the effectiveness of welcome email campaigns, tailor them to different segments, such as purchasers and subscribers. Food52 is one media company that does this well, purposely sending more emails to their customers rather than content consumers.

Collect Data On Your Audience’s Preferences

It’s important to pay attention to how often your audience wants to hear from you. In addition, it helps to know what kinds of content they prefer. Give subscribers the option to let you know what kind of messages they want to receive, and how often. In general, subscribers prefer to receive communications that reflect their interests. Suppressing disengaged users was one tactic that helped National Review increase its email clickthrough rate by 142%.

Develop Re-Engagement Campaigns

It’s important for brands to develop re-engagement email campaigns for inactive subscribers. In these campaigns, brands send triggered messages to people who haven’t engaged with their content in some time. Win back messages let subscribers know what they’ve been missing and welcome them back. Additionally, set up a preference center to let subscribers adjust the frequency and content of the messages they receive. These are some ways to increase your chances of winning back subscribers.

Download The Ultimate Playbook to Triggered Messages to learn more about how make your email marketing more personalized and effective.