Trigger emails - how to engage your audience

First off, what is trigger email? If you explain it simply, it’s a reaction to your actions after meeting: they went to a cafe, said hello, looked at the menu and the waiter offers you dishes depending on your preferences. The trigger can be configured for various events: from entering the site to sending an email if the user for some reason has not completed the purchase in the online store.



I am developing the Ratatype project, an online keyboard simulator that helps you learn the ten-finger blind typing. In this article I want to tell our experience in setting up trigger email newsletters, how they help return the user to the site, and how gamification helps us with this .

Foreword

In our company Reactor there is a value of "Good or nothing." Therefore, when we created Ratatype, we made it so good that it was easy enough to promote it. In the first year, nothing changed in the functionality of the site, and with the help of LivePage we were actively promoting under the English market. I must say that it turned out great, since the growth was really impressive.







If you briefly talk about the product itself, then at Ratatype you can:

• take lessons and learn blind ten-finger print;
• pass testing and get a certificate of print speed;
• create groups for joint training or competition;
• compete with other users in the ranking;
• invite friends from facebook and monitor their progress and also compete with each other.

In addition to the functionality of the site itself, we did not have tools that would return the user to the site. Neither letters to you, nor any reminder. Therefore, in 2015, we decided to fix it. I understand that now is 2019, but the story is relevant and still bears fruit.

Choose the frequency of distribution

We decided to set up a trigger that will affect the bulk of registered users - those who started training and for some reason stopped.



We investigated what percentage of users falls off after the start of training and decided that we want to remind about training in 3 days.



Why exactly 3 days? Firstly, it can be a weekend. +1 day on that. Secondly, we are all people and can score a little, but it’s better not to put off your reminder for longer, as the user is already cooling down and it will become more difficult for him to return.



Further, if the user did not respond to this letter, they decided to remind him after 14 days . In order not to part, but at the same time not to let him forget about himself.



The next reminder is after one month and the last after three months . It may seem to some that the gaps are too large or, conversely, small. In this case, we proceeded from personal experience. Plus, it's never too late to change gaps. We decided to try it with such parameters.

Compose the text of the letter

Before writing the text, we determined the structure of the content:

1. Interesting topic.
2. Greeting.
3. Picture.
4. User progress at the moment.
5. A text that will encourage and encourage further progress.

With the structure and theses, it became a little easier to write the letter itself. But the ideas for the design were, in my opinion, very nice.

Think through design

Our idea was that each letter could be sadder than the previous one. The first was supposed to be the most positive, but not in my case. I am by nature inclined to dramatize the surrounding reality. Therefore, my design ideas were slightly pessimistic. Now you will see everything for yourself.



First, I will give a screen from my TK with a description of the ideas:







And now the selected options:









But it’s good that our designer Zhenya was more positive and was able to find a middle ground between my Wishlist and not to depress the user.





First letter





Second letter





The third and fourth letters were made the same.

To program

In terms of programming, everything was quite simple, the main thing was to configure all the conditions:

1. Send a letter only to those users who are subscribed to the newsletter and have begun training, but have not yet completed.
2. Observe the time frame without classes on Ratatype (3 days, 14, 31 and 90 days).
3. Send letters every day at the same time (we chose 17:30 in Kiev or 7:30 in California, since the main audience is the USA).

Summary

• Every day we send about 3000-4000 such letters.
• They are opened by 1100-1700 users.
• And we get 200-300 transitions daily.

The number of emails sent since the launch of the newsletters.



If we talk about the share of traffic from the total for 2019, then it is:

• 0.77% for Ratatype.com;
• 1.12% for Ratatype.ua;
• 1.36% for Ratatype.ru;
• 0% for Ratatype.fr and Ratatype.es (everything is simple here, very young sites that only gain audience + according to GDPR, when registering, a checkmark for a newsletter subscription should not be selected by default).

Ratatype.com





Ratatype.ua





Ratatype.ru (such growth is associated with the transfer of all users from Vse10.ru )

Which of the letters works best

Of course, the letter that is sent in 3 days brings the most users and opens best. And then there is an unexpected moment:







All the same, after three months, users are more likely to open the letter and go from it to the site than after one month.

To do or not?

Of course yes! A +1 traffic channel, although small, will definitely not interfere with your site. A trigger configuration options can be a lot. The main thing is to analyze your audience and know your product well, then there will be no problems with ideas and implementation.