How does 100% e-mail automation actually work at InteliMail?

We decided to write this article at the request of our customers to shed light on how InteliMail can be used to do e-mail marketing in an e-shop with full automation and explain what customers actually get from the service itself. Furthermore, you will also learn how automated e-mails work, what they contain and what they look like. So, let's get to it...!

Service integration

Integration is still completely free of charge for our customers. The entire integration process usually takes between 2 and 5 days, but we are actually pretty quick. The integration consists of linking the XML product feed, deploying the measurement codes and product setup. After filling out the initial setup template (which is done by the customer but only takes a few minutes), everything is in the hands of our dedicated team.

Integration also includes:

• contact database cleansing (free of charge) - we will completely remove incorrect and invalid e-mail addresses as well as addresses to which e-mails cannot be sent for various reasons from your database
• e-mail texts (free of charge) - we will select texts from our "endless" database that will best suit your e-shop and form of communication (these texts will be used by InteliMail in a fully automated way)

Once the integration is complete and the e-mail layouts are agreed, we launch the service.

How does a sent e-mail look like and what does it contain?

The layouts and templates will be prepared for you by our integration team.

• Logo - is the e-shop identifier
• Menu - has a direct click-through to the e-shop's main categories (can speed up the customer journey)
• Promotion banner - promotion banners are automatically downloaded by InteliMail from your e-shop. As soon as you upload a new promotion banner to your e-shop, it will appear in sent e-mails within a few hours.
• Accompanying text with a salutation - in most cases these are universal texts, motivating the customer to make a purchase (InteliMail selects the texts for the e-mail automatically in such a way that they are not repetitive)
• Discount code - in case the customer has been inactive for a longer period of time, we will incentivize them with a discount code (this is just one of several alternatives when a discount code is included in the e-mail)
• Product list - is selected by InteliMail automatically and uniquely for each customer
• Blog articles - highlights from the e-shop. InteliMail itself updates your list of articles and selects the most relevant ones from the latest few (to always promote up-to-date content) for the customer's e-mail.
• Links to social networks
• Footer

What kind of e-mails does InteliMail send and how?

First of all, InteliMail will run through the process of deciding to which customer it will send the e-mail on that particular day. While making this decision, it takes into account a number of parameters, just to mention the most important ones:

• customer's last order
  if the customer has made an order in the previous few days, the sending of the newsletter will be postponed to a later date). However, this does not mean that if the customer makes an order every day, InteliMail will not deliver any newsletters at all.
• customer's activity on the e-shop
  the customer has visited the e-shop but has not completed the purchase, even though they have added some products to their shopping cart (InteliMail will most likely send a remarketing e-mail to such a customer - although this is not the rule). There are many variants of these activities and this is one example of how InteliMail works.
• weather at the customer's location TOP!
  if the weather forecast at the customer's location for tomorrow is significantly worse than the current forecast (e.g., persistent rain with low temperatures and strong winds), the sending of the e-mail will be postponed until tomorrow, when it is more likely that the customer will be at home and not outdoors, and will most likely open the delivered e-mail. E-mails sent according to the weather forecast have open rates higher by an average of 44%.
• time of sending the e-mail
  InteliMail determines the time when the e-mail will be sent to the customer. Some customers tend to visit the e-shop in the morning while sipping their cup of coffee, others while watching the evening news.

The classic newsletter as you know it

Perhaps the most common type of e-mails that e-shops use. InteliMail also sends this type of e-mails, for example, one newsletter per customer every 10 to 14 days (setting the span depends mainly on the e-shop’s product range).

In these e-mails, InteliMail mainly includes the following products (we only list a few criteria):

• discounted products (the discount amount is also decisive)
• newest products
• bestselling products
• most visited products on the e-shop *products with the lowest barrier to purchase (i.e., selling like hot cakes)

When selecting products, InteliMail also takes into account the customer's preferences, their previous behaviour on the e-shop, the customer's made purchases and their gender. As a result, "Matthew" finds products in the newsletter that interest men and that more men buy compared to women. If "Matthew" bought a bike in the e-shop last month, he certainly won't find a bike in the next newsletter (or in the next few months to come), but there is a high probability that he will find a suitable range of products for his bike in it. And in turn: "Susan" will find products designed for women and children.

Remarketing e-mails

If a customer has not made a purchase after visiting the e-shop, for the next few days InteliMail will send that customer remarketing e-mails that are highly personalised and targeted to the products and similar products that the customer was interested in.

These e-mails differ from the classic newsletter in two points:

• the subject line and the text accompanying the e-mail are quite punchy, not overly so, but in a way that motivates the customer to make a purchase
• the products in the e-mail content are personalised, i.e., if Matthew was looking for a 50" TV set on the e-shop page, the products will predominantly include such TV sets (TV sets on sale, new releases, the most popular or best sellers)

Retargeting e-mails

If a customer has made a purchase after visiting the e-shop, InteliMail will shortly be sending them retargeting e-mails, which are also highly personalised and targeted to products related to the customer's purchase.

These e-mails only differ from the classic newsletter in one point:

• the products in the e-mail content are personalised based on the customer's purchase. This means that if "Matthew" has purchased a bike on the e-shop website, the products will mostly include the range of products suitable for his bike, for example: cycling clothing, cycling gloves, protective equipment, accessories such as spare inner tube, pump, etc.

Building a contact database?

Without a contact database, there are no contacts to send newsletters to. Building it is one of the priorities of e-mail marketing.

InteliMail will help you build your contact database:

Subscribing to the newsletter when placing an order.

InteliMail will send a newsletter to every subscribing customer.

Providing a first purchase discount with consent to newsletter subscription.

InteliMail will support building your e-mail database by giving you a first purchase discount.

All in line with GDPR and Cookies Regulations

• InteliMail only sends e-mails to e-shop users who have consented to this when ordering or have subscribed. Unsubscribing is possible at any time, either by using the link directly in the footer of the e-mail or by unsubscribing directly in Gmail.
• InteliMail only collects data from users who have given their consent in the e-shop's cookie bar.
• InteliMail personalises customers according to their behaviour in the e-shop only if they have given their consent in the e-shop's cookie bar.