Use Behavioral Targeting to Turn Email Subscribers Into Evangelists

2 minute read

Upland Admin

I’ve just purchased a new bed from a well-known national brand. (I won’t use their actual name, but perhaps we can call them “Sleep Integer.”) During the process of this purchase, I’ve been impressed by the company. Their sales process was masterful. Their printed marketing materials were beautifully done.

Their email marketing? Well, it needs some work.

Post-purchase, I continued to receive email offers for the very same discount I’d just taken advantage of. After receiving several of these emails, I realized that offers to buy a bed I already owned would continue indefinitely. I unsubscribed.

This is a huge missed opportunity. Now this company cannot contact me at all, and there’s so much more relationship-building that they could have done! I like these guys, so I’m going to give them (and you and everyone else) some free advice. Here’s what they should have done:

  1. Set up drip campaigns that use behavioral targeting. (Our Drip Planner tool makes this easy.) Once I purchased, I should have been removed from a “Prospect” campaign and moved to a “Customer” campaign.
  2. Once I became a customer, I should have received a “Welcome to the family!” email expressing excitement, explaining what kinds of emails I’ll be getting now (better sleep tips, product announcements, etc), and generally conveying that the purchase is not the end of our relationship.
  3. Once the bed was delivered (which took much longer than expected, ahem), I should’ve received a request for a review or survey after a couple of weeks, another after 90 days, and some minor cross-selling (pillows, sheets, etc). This is in addition to all that great sleep improvement content!
  4. After 6 months, I should receive an upgrade offer; I did not purchase all of the bells and whistles, so this would be a good time to upsell.

With a little behavioral targeting and some campaigns with great content, any business can transform an audience of subscribers into brand evangelists. Isn’t that what you want from every one of your customers?

Reliable products. Real results.

Every day, thousands of companies rely on Upland to get their jobs done simply and effectively. See how brands are putting Upland to work.

View Success Stories