One of the great features that the onslaught of technology in this industry is that every piece  can be automated, whether from the end user’s vantage point (the email subscriber), or your vantage point (the email marketer). One of the latest features of Online Outbox is Triggers.

Imagine this: It’s Tuesday morning. You send your weekly email campaign, like regular. One of your recipients — let’s call him “Bob” — skims your email that morning, but comes back to it later in the evening. He likes what he sees. He clicks the link to your web site (the link you’ve conveniently placed near the top of the email) for more information. But he doesn’t buy, subscribe, contact you… whatever your conversion goals are. Maybe he left the credit card at the office. Maybe he gets called away to dinner. For whatever reason, he doesn’t convert.

But you’re smart. You’ve created a Trigger, that based upon a recipient’s action (for instance, when someone clicks a specific link contained in this particular email), a specific action is triggered. In this case, Bob now gets (automatically!) bumped into a “clicked the link” Contact List, which triggers an Autoresponder to be sent, 12 hours later, with more targeted info. Reasons for him to buy. Specials or Incentives, or what have you.

Bob receives the email the next morning. Remembers his interaction yesterday, and follows through with the purchase or escalation.

Remember this: The more you direct your marketing to individuals, rather than the masses, and make their experience interactive, the better conversion rate you’ll experience.

Using triggers, you can send automatic birthday reminder emails, add/remove contacts to/from multiple lists based on an email being opened or a link being clicked.

I hope that inspires…