Use cases and examples:: Email Recommender - Best practices and examples – Emarsys

Before you start to design and implement your recommendation widgets, you should read these pages to get a better understanding of what Predict can do for you and your business.

Introduction

In this article we describe what we regard as the absolute minimum best practices that you should follow to take proper advantage of the automated revenue generation Predict can provide.

The Email Recommender widgets can be used in virtually any email. However, this product can be highly effective when used in conjunction with the Automation Center, since you can then control when and how to send the message, as well as what content to send.

How many recommendations to show

Our recommendation models try to collect a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 100 product recommendations.

The maximum number of recommendations that can be displayed in an email widget is 20.

However, the final number will depend on the design of your web shop and remember that the products are listed in order of relevance.

The recommended products in the email remain unchanged for 24 hours for a more consistent user experience. After this cache period, Predict will generate fresh recommendations when the email is opened again.

Where to place the widgets

Our experience has shown us that where and how you place your widgets can have a major impact on their efficacy, so we want to you get it right first time. The use cases are based around a typical buying process where the visitor browses items, decides whether to add them to the shopping cart, and ends the session either by purchasing them or abandoning them in the cart.

The image below illustrates how these examples can be followed in order to optimize and automate revenue generation along the buying process.

1. Using Recommendations In Abandoned Cart Campaigns

When a cart is abandoned, this widget displays the products that were left behind. Depending on the number of products the widget can show, any remaining placeholders show complementary recommendations.

The abandoned cart campaign is an Automation Center campaign that uses the “predict last abandoned date” behavior field to send an email campaign following a cart abandonment. In the email campaign we use Predict’s Abandoned Cart email widget, which is created either directly in the campaign editor (for block-based emails) or using Predict’s Email Widget Designer (for the HTML editor) .

This Abandoned Cart widget will list:

The products left in the cart.
Other relevant product recommendations to help the up- and cross-sales.

Typical use cases:

Revenue recovery by bringing the customer back to complete the purchase.
Fully automated – no need to think about it once it is active.
Offer dynamic incentives based on the value of the cart.

Please note that Emarsys offers an improved, more tailored solution for sending abandoned cart recommendations, called Cart Recovery. Contact Emarsys Support for further details.

In this example we use the Abandoned Cart widget to include two sets of three items in a standard cart abandonment email. You could also use this campaign to offer further incentives such as discounts or free shipping. Suggested subject line: “Your LifestyleLabels Cart was left behind. Don’t miss out on these items.”

How to create this program

In Automation > Tactics, select the Acquisition and conversion > Abandoned cart tactic. Tactics are pre-built Automation Center programs designed to achieve a specific marketing goal.

Then add the segments and filters described in the documentation, and of course the email you want to send.

To avoid sending too many emails to serial browsers, we would suggest limiting participation to once every 30 days for this program; if incentives are included, you might even want to make this a one-time only campaign, or increase the participation period to 180 days.

2. Using Recommendations In Post-Purchase Campaigns

Similar to the Also_bought website recommendation widget, this is based on the last product the customer purchased and displays complementary products or products that are likely to be purchased as next purchase.

Typical use cases:

Help convert first-time buyers into active buyers.
Increase customer lifetime value.
Re-purchase reminders (i.e. when the customer is likely to run out and need a refill).

In this example we have followed up on a purchase with a thank you message and some additional recommendations. For this we have used the Post-Purchase widget to display two sets of three recommendations that might also interest the customer.

Suggested subject line: "Based on what you bought, you’re going to love this."

2.1. How to create this program

In Automation > Tactics, select the Customer Lifecycle > Post Purchase upsell tactic.

Then add the segments and filters described in the documentation, and of course the email you want to send out.

This campaign also uses a recurring filter, and again includes an A/B to measure its efficacy. The follow-up email is sent four days after the purchase.

3. Using Recommendations in Abandoned Browse Campaigns

The classic ‘recommended specially for you’ widget, based on browse history and the wisdom of the crowd. First-time visitors receive the best-selling products instead.

Typical use cases:

Drive website traffic and conversions by dramatically improving click-through-rates from emails.
Enhance the experience by letting customers discover new products they never knew they wanted.
Reduce clicks to purchase: from email straight to product page and then to check-out.

For use in:

Newsletters
Browse abandonment follow-ups: ‘personally selected for you’
Welcome emails
Re-engagement

In this example we use the Mail Personal widget to include two sets of three recommendations in an email sent after a visitor has browsed your web shop without adding any items to the cart or making a purchase.

Suggested subject line: “You will love what LifestyleLabels has to offer you. Don’t miss out on these items.”