How To Use Up-To-The-Minute Weather Data To Capitalize On FOMO

One of the best tactics any marketer can deploy is FOMO; fear of missing out. It’s the term coined for when you feel anxious or actual fear that you’re missing some cool or fun activity or event. 

Fear of missing out is a powerful psychological trigger; you’ve probably felt it yourself. 

Spend any time scrolling through Instagram and seeing your friends at a concert or event together that you were invited to but passed up. 

What do you feel?

If you’re like a lot of other people, you probably like you missed out, even if you had a really good reason not to go. Sometimes the fear of FOMO is so intense that people will say yes to doing something they aren’t even all that into merely because they are afraid they might potentially miss out on something down the line.

We’ve all been there. 

But what makes it so powerful?

Why FOMO works

We consider FOMO to be one of the primary psychological triggers that cause people to take action. It’s one reason why reveal marketing is so popular. When a consumer is faced with something like a scratch it or smash it to reveal the ‘prize’ behind it, they are more likely to engage. 

That’s because they don’t want to miss out on the surprise. Even a small trigger like that can get the fear of missing out flowing and translate into the consumer taking action. 

It’s one of the reasons why the fear of missing out can be so powerful to many people. It’s also why FOMO is becoming an increasingly important behavioral and psychological tool for marketers. 

And that certainly applies to email, especially when you start to use the fear of missing out in conjunction with personalized information. It’s the perfect way to create more opportunities for customer acquisition.

Here’s how to approach it.

FOMO and the weather

One of the coolest trends in email marketing today is getting super personalized in the content you send out. With geolocation tagging, that means you can target people in specific locations. 

Sounds good, right?

Now, take that a step further and add in real-time weather data to your emails that are bang on for the local forecast. 

For hospitality chains, especially, this can be an excellent way to reach out and tap into the FOMO of people on your list who don’t live near you. 

Take a look at this example email:

This is a perfect way to start tapping into FOMO via email. 

Let’s imagine Karen lives someplace where it’s cold and snowy. Maybe she’s been thinking of taking a trip but hasn’t quite decided where she wants to go. 

Now, getting an email in the middle of a snowstorm that showcases how nice and warm and sunny the weather is in Los Angeles can start triggering some serious FOMO.

By just staying home, bundled up with the fireplace on, she’s missing out on the chance to run on the beach or go for a swim. Something as simple as that can be the deciding factor for Karen to plan her escape to Southern California.

Without that push that focuses on her potential fear of missing out, it might be much more difficult to sell. 

Benefits of real-time weather updates

This email is doing a lot of interesting stuff. 

It’s got real-time weather updates. Every time Karen opens this email, even if it’s a week from now, the weather is going to be the correct forecast.

When you’re making decisions on sending out strategic campaigns that need to be both personalized and segmented, having the ability to plan around weather and geolocation is a great tool. 

You can use this in reverse too. Maybe your subscribers in Southern California want a ski vacation. So using the weather to show that there’s plenty of power on the slopes can make a compelling case for them to take action. 

FOMO and the weather can work for events as well. If you’re running a festival or an outdoor sale event, for example, you can highlight how great the weather is going to be while selling your last minute tickets too. 

There’s plenty of creative options for marketers who want to start incorporating real-time weather updates into an email campaign. Are you ready to give it a shot?

Liz Froment

Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.

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Shipping Confirmation Email Best Practices

As marketers, we all hear about the importance of fine-tuning our email marketing strategies. Often, though, these are focused more on a welcome series or other types of nurtures designed to convert leads into customers.

What if we told you that there is actually a more effective email series to focus on? Order/shipping confirmations are often overlooked as an engagement tool. However, they have the highest open rates of any emails. On average, the open rate for a confirmation email is 70%. Additionally, because these emails contain information in them that people truly want to find, they spend almost double the amount of time reading them than other emails.

However, there are some drawbacks to this type of series, primarily the fact that, until recently, it had to be a series, containing at least the following: order confirmation, shipping confirmation and delivery confirmation. This means that the pertinent information that a consumer wants and needs is contained in at least 3 different emails.

However, with the introduction of Zembula’s live images, all of the emails in an order confirmation series can be simplified into one email, which benefits both the marketer and the consumer. Now that all of the confirmation and tracking information is dynamically updated within one email, the marketer saves time and money by not having to design and send several emails. And for the consumer, they only have to refer to one email for all of their order information needs.

We want to make sure you get the maximum engagement from your email, so we have put together a few best practices for creating a live image to use in your shipping email.

Make it clear to the customer that they will only need to refer to one email

Because, as consumers, we’ve all been conditioned to expect at least 2 emails upon making a purchase – an order confirmation and a shipping confirmation – it may take a little bit of educating the recipient that all of their order information will be in one email. It’s as simple as including a phrase informing them to refer back to the email regularly since it will be updated with new information dynamically.

Keep it simple and clear

A mistake that marketers often make is making things too complicated. In an order confirmation email, there is no need to be wordy. Recipients really want to know a few key things:

• Order number
• Order information – including delivery address, items ordered, etc.
• Tracking number
• Delivery status

Organizing this information in a clear, simple design will only serve to increase the value of the email to the consumer.

Include tracking information

This seems like a no-brainer, but many of us here at Zembula have received order confirmation and shipment confirmation emails that don’t actually include a tracking number. Many of them refer us back to our own accounts on the website we purchased from, adding in a time-consuming and annoying step. So, we are here to impress upon you the importance of including shipping and tracking information within the email itself.

While the shipping information will dynamically update each time the user opens their email, it is also always a good idea to include a link to the carrier site (passing through the tracking number) and a link to the order on your own site.

Include visuals

Yes, you want to make sure you keep the information presented in a clean and organized way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it more enticing by incorporating some fun imagery. What’s more, with live images, you can make those images and design elements dynamic. For example, you can include an image of a delivery truck that progresses along a route each time the package status changes within the email.

In addition to design elements, you might find it beneficial to also include images of the products in the order. Seeing the image of the item they just bought has a greater chance of spurring inspiration to purchase something else than words alone. Which brings us to our final best practice:

Take advantage of the upsell opportunity

Knowing that your customer is already spending almost double the amount of time on this email, why not capitalize on that by showing them other products they may be interested in?

With Zembula’s live images, you can easily populate products based on the customer’s purchasing history. Whenever your customer refers back to the email to see the updated status of their order, they’ll see the items and hopefully get inspired to make another purchase!

Want to learn more about how you can use Live Images in your order/shipping notification emails? Chat with an expert now!

Tori Johnson

Tori is the marketing manager at Zembula. A graduate of Portland State University with a BA in Marketing, she enjoys good food, international travel, baby animals, and the occasional video game.

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Why loyalty matters: how to reward your VIPs with personalized loyalty updates

If there’s one real goal for marketers, it’s building a loyal customer base. 

In fact, for many brands, customer loyalty is the whole ball game. A loyal customer base is one that loves your product or service and will buy from you again and again. 

Study after study has shown just how vital building customer loyalty is to overall business success. 

Here are a few stats to keep in mind:

• “43% of customers spend more money on brands they’re loyal to.”
• “Lowering your customer churn rate by 5% can increase your profitability by 25 to 125%.”
• “68% of customers leave because they feel the company doesn’t care about their business.”
• “69% of consumers say the choice of retailer is influenced by where they can earn customer loyalty/rewards program points.”

All of those stats point to one major thing, customer loyalty matters. 

Unfortunately, a lot of brands take customer loyalty for granted. They think that once the customer buys, the journey stops there. 

But the truth of the matter is the more time you spend engaging and nurturing your current customers and making them feel like VIPs the more likely they will stay with you for life. 

So how do you do that?

Building loyalty through email

One way is through email. 

Lots of brands have customer loyalty programs. Think Starbucks, Sephora, and Jet Blue as common examples. Maybe your local coffee shop has one of those little buy 10 get one free loyalty cards, or your gym has a monthly give away. 

These are all examples of programs geared toward rewarding customers and encouraging them to buy again.

If you’re worried that your small business can’t compete with these big-name brands, think again. There are ways you can use your email marketing strategy to really move the needle with your VIPs and required them in fun and creative ways. 

The secret weapon?

Real-time personalized updates 

Everyone loves getting emails that are all about them. After all, for most of us, we’re our favorite topics!

But when it comes to email, the more personal, the better. So if you’re able to send a personalized email that shows real-time updated information about a persons account and loyalty status, they’ll love it. 

Here’s a fun example:

Airline miles are really common loyalty programs. But, who knows the number of miles they have off the top of their heads? Probably not many people.

However, an email like this serves two purposes. First, it’s a personalized reminder of how many miles they have earned. And second, it encourages the reader that they can book a trip using those miles right now.

So that vacation they’ve been thinking about? Right now would be a perfect time to book a flight.

There are other ways to use personalized emails for loyalty programs too — including some out of the box options.

You can also personalize based on geolocation.

Let’s say you’ve got a particular product going on sale next week, but only in a handful of stores. You can send out an email that only contacts those VIP customers in the immediate area and offer them first dibs on setting up an appointment.

Personalized emails can also be used to feature particular products. If you run a points program and track what your customers buy, then you can tailor specific products or services that you know your customer loves. Find those products that qualify for special discounts or coupons that align with their points and send an email highlighting them.

These are all ways to help build customer loyalty that caters to their interests and doesn’t take them for granted. You’re showcasing that you care about them and what they are interested in and you’re also making it really easy to take the next step and buy.

That’s a nice win-win for both of you.

Start building loyalty now

At the end of the day, personalization matters now more than ever. So you have to find ways where you can tap into personalization and engage your customers.

Using loyalty rewards coupled with personalization based on location, purchase history, and interests is a great way to get started.

If you haven’t already, it’s critical to start developing a strategy for those customers who have already demonstrated their loyalty to your brand. Take care of them, make them feel loved, and they’ll do the same in return.

Liz Froment

Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.

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Real time package tracking is a retailer’s best friend – here’s why

Online shopping is pretty much cemented as a way of life today. Over the last few years, it’s exploded, and the trends are only going to continue to go up.

According to Statista, in 2016, just over 200 million Americans had bought something online at least once. By 2021, that number is projected to top 230 million.

One of the groups driving that trend is millennials. Big surprise there, right? 

Data shows millennials love to shop online. As a generation that grew up tech-savvy and cares a lot about convenience, it makes sense. But retailers might not realize just how big that number is.

Recent surveys have highlighted the following:

• In 2019, millennials made 60% of their purchases online
• This group also makes 36% of purchases via mobile devices
• 97% of this group rely on Amazon as part of their shopping

So the numbers don’t lie; online shopping is huge and is going to continue growing. 

Retailers need to start paying attention to what they can do to stand out from the crowd when it comes to gaining a vital chunk of this customer base. 

One way to do that?

Email. 

Shipping woes

So we’ve established that there’s a good chance you’ve ordered something online from a retailer. 

What happens next?

You’ll get your order confirmation. And then maybe the same day or a few days later, you’ll get another email telling you that your package has shipped. 

Depending on how you paid for shipping, the package will arrive anywhere from the next day to weeks down the road. 

The big problem is you generally don’t know where your package is at any given time. And to track it, the process is typically kind of annoying. 

It probably looks something like this:

You have to go back to the site, enter your tracking number or your order number, and then you’ll get a somewhat generic timeline letting you know when your package hits major distribution centers. 

For some people, that’s fine. But the reality is, you’ve probably had to schedule some part of your life based on when your package is expected to arrive. 

We’ve all had that moment of waiting and waiting for a very important package to arrive. And then, if it doesn’t, the frustration of trying to track it down and figure out where it is. 

Sometimes, that can lead to missed birthday presents. Maybe you end up having to leave for the airport before your new swimsuit arrives. Or you’ve just headed out for the weekend, and now you’re nervous your package is sitting on the front stoop for a few days.

All of that is common and frustrating. 

But there is a better way. 

Real time tracking

This is where savvy retailers can really stand out when it comes to email. 

Using real time tracking means that when your customer opens up their shipping email, they get the the most up to date information available for where their package is. 

They don’t have to go back to the website and try to find out where to enter all that shipping and tracking information. The answers are right at their finger tips.

Your customers are going to love this because they can find out the information they need from you just by opening up that shipping email. It makes it really easy to get the information they need right away.

There’s another interesting thing to think about when it comes to shipping emails too. And it’s the fact that they have some of the highest open rates out there.

These kinds of transactional emails are opened more often simply because they are providing the information that customers want. So retailers can jump on that and add fun stuff to these emails too.

Some examples include:

Upselling opportunities

Use your shipping email to highlight the products that are related to what your customer bought. This makes it really easy for them to click to buy something else. Since so many people open shipping emails, doing something like this can help increase your conversion rates.

Support information

Customer support is really important to today’s consumers, so make it easy. Include ways for your customers to reach support in just a click or two right from your shipping email.

Add order details

Rather than just having shipping information, you can include all of the order details too. This gives customers an easy to see receipt of their transaction so they can track spending too.

Now that you see the potential of real time shipping tracking, it might be something you want to explore for your email marketing strategy.

Liz Froment

Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.

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