Author: Ivan Lai

The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on business and consumer behaviour, many people shifting their shopping habits from in-store to online. As a result, email marketing has become a crucial channel for brands to reach and engage with their customers. However, the pandemic also led to many customers becoming inactive or disengaged with brands. Since the world begins to reopen and recover, brands are looking for ways to re-engage their inactive customers and encourage them to return to their brands. Email marketing is a powerful tool for re-engagement, and in this article, we’ll explore some of the common mistakes and strategies that brands can use to effectively re-engage their inactive customers to improve brand loyalty and business.

1. What are the common mistakes to avoid when targeting inactive customers?
2. What are some of the best practices for targeting inactive customers?
3. How to segment inactive subscribers for more effective targeting?
4. What are the common incentive strategies used to re-engage inactive customers?

1. What are the common mistakes to avoid when targeting inactive customers

• Not segmenting your inactive subscribers: Sending the same email to all inactive subscribers is a mistake. Not all inactive subscribers are the same, and segmenting them allows you to target them more effectively. You can segment by factors such as how long they’ve been inactive, their previous purchase history, or their location.
• Not personalizing your emails: Personalization is key to engaging with customers, and it’s especially important when targeting inactive customers. Use their name in the subject line and throughout the email, and include personalized product recommendations based on their previous purchase history. You can also use personalized offers to incentivize them to make a purchase.
• Failing to provide value: Offering the same discounts or promotions to all inactive subscribers may not be effective. Make sure you’re providing value to each segment of inactive subscribers based on their interests and needs. Offer relevant product recommendations, exclusive content, or other incentives that will encourage them to engage with your brand again.
• Sending too many emails: Bombarding inactive subscribers with too many emails is a mistake. This can result in them unsubscribing or marking your emails as spam. Instead, create a re-engagement campaign with a few well-timed emails spaced out over a few weeks.
• Not analyzing your results: It’s important to track your results and analyze what’s working and what’s not. Analyze your open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to see if your campaigns are effective. Use this data to refine and improve your campaigns over time.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can create effective re-engagement campaigns that will help you turn inactive subscribers into active and engaged customers. More importantly, different countries apply laws to protect consumer data privacy and when customers complain about receiving unsolicited emails, companies may face penalties for non-compliance.

In the United States, for example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for enforcing the CAN-SPAM Act, which sets rules for commercial emails and provides penalties for violations. According to the FTC’s annual reports to Congress, they have brought numerous cases against companies for violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, resulting in millions of dollars in fines and penalties.

In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets rules for the collection, processing, and use of personal data, including email addresses. The GDPR also includes provisions for email marketing, requiring companies to obtain explicit consent from individuals before sending them marketing emails. Companies that violate the GDPR can face substantial fines, which can be up to 4% of their global annual revenue or €20 million, whichever is greater.

Overall, the number of companies fined for spamming email is difficult to determine as it can vary widely depending on the country, region, and specific laws and regulations in place. However, it’s important for companies to comply with relevant laws and regulations to avoid fines and penalties and to maintain the trust and loyalty of their customers.

2. What are some of the best practices for targeting inactive customers?

Email marketing is an effective way to reach out to customers and build relationships with them. However, sometimes customers become inactive and stop engaging with your emails. This can be frustrating, but it’s important to remember that re-engaging with these inactive customers can be just as valuable as acquiring new ones. Below are some best practices for targeting inactive customers with email marketing.

• Segment your inactive subscribers: Before you start sending emails to your inactive customers, it’s important to segment them into specific groups. This allows you to tailor your messaging and offers to their specific needs and interests. You may want to segment by factors such as how long they’ve been inactive, their previous purchase history, last engagement with your email or their location. This will help you send more targeted and relevant emails.
• Create a re-engagement campaign: A re-engagement campaign is a series of emails designed to win back inactive subscribers. The first email should be a friendly reminder that you’re still around and value their business. The second email can offer a special promotion or discount to encourage them to return to your website or make a purchase. The third and final email can be a last chance offer or a goodbye message if they still don’t respond. Make sure to space out your emails over a few weeks and monitor your metrics carefully.
• Update customer opt-in status: Design a campaign to update your customers’ opt-in status is a great way to maintain a healthy database for email marketing. Not only can you achieve high response rates for your email marketing, but also reduce cost of marketing by not targeting customers who had ignored your last 10 email messages. What’s more, you can build progressive profiling of your customers in your database with this strategy and that translates to better customer experience when you personalised your email communications.
• Personalize your emails: Personalization is key to engaging with customers, and it’s especially important when targeting inactive customers. Use their name in the subject line and throughout the email, and include personalized product recommendations based on their previous purchase history as well as data from regular profile update. Indeed, create personalized offers to incentivize them to make a purchase.
• Optimize for mobile: Make sure your emails are optimized for mobile devices since most people check their emails on their smartphones. Use a responsive email design that adjusts to different screen sizes, and keep your email copy short and to the point. Use clear call-to-action (CTAs) prompts that are easy to click on mobile devices.
• Test and analyze your results: It’s important to test your re-engagement campaigns and analyze your results to see what’s working and what’s not. Test different subject lines, email copy, and offers to see what resonates with your inactive subscribers. Analyze your open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to see if your campaigns are effective.

3. How to segment your inactive subscribers for more effective targeting?

• Last purchase date: Segment subscribers based on how long it has been since they last made a purchase. For example, you can create segments for those who haven’t made a purchase in the last 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days depending on the sales cycle of your retail business.
• Email engagement: Segment subscribers based on their email engagement, such as those who haven’t opened or clicked on any of your emails in the last 30, 60, or 90 days. Another best practice is to track the number of opened email from your subscribers. Apply a set of rules such as “no open for 5 emails” and/or “no clicks after 10 emails” to monitor the threshold, that way, you know when to stop targeting the subscribers or customers.
• Product interests: Segment subscribers based on their product interests by analyzing their previous purchase history. This allows you to send them targeted emails with product recommendations related to their interests.
• Geographic location: Segment subscribers based on their geographic location to send them emails specific to their region or time zone.
• Demographics: Segment subscribers based on demographics such as age, gender, or income level to send them more personalized and relevant emails.
• Abandoned cart: Segment subscribers who have abandoned their cart without completing a purchase. You can send them an email reminder to complete the purchase with a special offer or incentive.
• Inactive on social media: Segment subscribers who are inactive on your social media channels. You can send them an email with a special offer to encourage them to follow you on social media or engage with your brand.

By segmenting your inactive subscribers effectively, you can send them more targeted and personalized emails that are more likely to engage them and encourage them to become active customers again.

4. What are the common incentive strategies used to re-engage inactive customers?

• Discount codes: Offering a discount code is a popular and effective incentive to encourage inactive subscribers to make a purchase. You can offer a percentage discount, a dollar amount off, or a free gift with purchase.
• Free shipping: Offering free shipping can be a powerful incentive, especially if your subscribers were deterred by shipping costs in the past. You can offer free shipping on their next purchase or for a limited time period.
• Exclusive content: Offering exclusive and valuable content such as a free e-book, guide, or white paper can help to re-engage your inactive subscribers. Make sure the content is relevant to their interests and provides value.
• Early access: Offering early access to new products, sales, or promotions can be a great way to make your inactive subscribers feel special and valued. This can encourage them to make a purchase and become active customers again.
• Loyalty program: Offering rewards for signing up for your loyalty program or for making a certain number of purchases can be a great way to incentivize your inactive subscribers. Make sure the rewards are attractive and provide real value to your subscribers.
• Referral program: Offering rewards for referring friends or family members to your brand can help to expand your customer base and re-engage your inactive subscribers. Make sure the rewards are attractive and incentivize your subscribers to refer others to your brand.
• Personalized recommendations: Offering personalized product recommendations based on your subscribers’ previous purchase history can help to re-engage them and encourage them to make a purchase. This shows that you understand their preferences and are invested in their experience.
• Contest or giveaway: Offering a chance to win a prize or participate in a contest or giveaway can create excitement and encourage your subscribers to engage with your brand. Make sure the prize is attractive and relevant to your subscribers’ interests.

By offering incentives that are relevant and valuable to your inactive subscribers, you can re-engage them and encourage them to become active customers again. Remember to track your results and refine your incentives over time to ensure they are effective.

In conclusion, targeting inactive customers with email marketing can be a powerful way to win back their business and build long-term relationships with them. By overcoming some of the common challenges, following email marketing best practices and incentive strategies, you can create effective re-engagement campaigns that will help you turn inactive subscribers into active and engaged customers. Ultimately, that translates to loyal customers and better business profitability.

Three years into Covid-19 outbreak, the rapid digital technology and ecommerce development has tremendous influence on the daily lives of the Chinese people. From online grocery purchase, live streaming, and social online shopping; ecommerce platforms have experienced huge growth in the last few years. With a population size of 1.4 billion, more and more China consumers are demanding products and services from overseas brands as domestic ecommerce providers and marketplaces can no longer cope with the demand of quality overseas products ranging from luxury bags, cosmetics, fashion apparel, watches and more, The China government has been supportive of cross-border e-commerce. Indeed, the State Council has added more cross-border e-commerce pilot zones to reach 105 in total across China today. This initiative allows overseas ecommerce businesses to enjoy preferential tax policies and streamlined customs procedures. That way, China consumers can buy products from any global ecommerce platforms.

Consequently, for overseas merchants, accessing the China market becomes a key strategy to establish brand presence and business opportunity without the heavy investment in physical retail presence. Cross-border e-commerce allows companies to explore selling into China with the lowest possible costs of doing business and the upside of huge domestic market potential. However, this is not without challenges since China ecommerce policies are constantly changing and the customs compliance regulations are strict and often complex. Hence, overseas merchants are often unable to achieve smooth and efficient operations in cross-border e-commerce when they lack the local understanding and technical capabilities to manage multiple aspects of the cross-border operations – integration of local payment gateway, logistics and customs clearance. Above all, keeping up to date with China cross-border e-commerce regulations and laws.

To help you navigate the unfamiliar grounds of China cross-border e-commerce (CBEC), we will share some China CBEC key points and suggestions to help you understand how you can build your business strategy to enter China based on practical solutions from MyMyPanda CBEC platform.

Why is China’s cross-border e-commerce a potential market for overseas ecommerce brands?
As China economy continues to grow rapidly in the last 10 years, the living standard in the country has improved and Chinese people are experiencing tremendous shift in their lifestyle. With the increase in income level, the size of the middle- and upper-classes have also increased. China consumers from big cities and smaller third and fourth tier cities are gradually looking towards overseas products and brands that are not available in their local markets. However, buying from overseas brands through cross-border e-commerce has many challenges:

1. Purchasing cross-border commodities often requires understanding of the English language and access to those platforms that differ from most, if not all, domestic ecommerce websites.
2. Payment for orders often do not support local payment methods like WeChat Pay or Alipay, while majority of Chinese consumers do not have credit cards or PayPal account that are common overseas payment options.
3. Shipping time is very long, up to four weeks in some remote areas. This experience is bad when you compare to the local delivery that takes less than 3 days from order placement.
4. Cross-border products that are not in compliance with local customs regulations will have to pay higher personal tax or risk package being returned. Ultimately, this becomes a deterrence for consumers to buy from overseas ecommerce merchants.
5. Overseas brands are not familiar with China consumer market – differences in lifestyle across city tiers, local regulations & policies, social media behaviour, competitive business models and more. With the absence of local knowledge for ecommerce operations, many companies adopted personal channel or namely “人肉代购” that is an unofficial business channel for shipping products into China. One of many disadvantages is that the authenticity of the goods cannot be verified. Hence, packages risk being intercepted by customs indefinitely and subject to heavy taxes.

The demand for overseas products continues to grow such as high-end cosmetics, luxury goods, watches, jewelry and handbags. Consequently, the annual turnover through personal shipping (consumer-to-consumer) channel also increases despite poor buying experience and delivery obstacles. The overwhelming logistic pressure on customs & tax department prompted the China government to introduce new cross-border e-commerce regulations. From setting up more bonded warehouses across China to preferential tax policies and customs clearance support.

All these efforts to alleviate the bottleneck with personal shipping mode contributed by cross-border ecommerce trade and bring a better customer experience for Chinese consumers. Ultimately, the new China regulations have created tremendous opportunities for overseas ecommerce brands and companies to expand their footprint into China market via cross-border e-commerce strategy; and enjoy greater business growth with transparency and lower cost of business operations.

What is China cross-border e-commerce?
China cross-border e-commerce refers to overseas ecommerce brand or company selling their products direct to consumers in China. Traditionally, brands enter the China market by opening an account on Chinese e-commerce marketplace or developing an independent online shop in China. However, the company may be required to have a Chinese entity to provide legal qualifications and handle relevant affairs. With the popularity of China’s cross-border e-commerce platforms like Tmall Global, JD International etc., overseas brands have been selling products in China on these platforms. But the cost of using those platforms, marketing and logistics are increasingly more expensive; so overseas brands are desperately looking for alternative solutions.

When the Chinese government introduced new cross-border ecommerce regulations, many overseas brands welcome the idea where they can now sell products directly to China consumers from their overseas ecommerce website. What’s more, Chinese consumers can enjoy great experience with China payment options, fast customs & taxes with bonded warehouse, and next day shipping to customers. This low-cost and fast cross-border e-commerce solution is available through MyMyPanda CBEC platform.

What is MyMyPanda CBEC platform?
MyMyPanda CBEC platform is a simple solution to connect overseas ecommerce to access China market potential. With a simple plugin to your existing ecommerce, you can provision your ecommerce with China payment options, fast customs clearance, low tax and compliance, and fast shipping to customers from bonded warehouse distribution. Importantly, China consumers can experience the same cost-effective, digital payment and real-time logistics services currently provided by local e-commerce platforms. Ultimately, this one-stop solution has made MyMyPanda CBEC platform the most competitive cross-border ecommerce strategy in the market.

Omni-channel marketing approach with MyMyPanda CBEC.
China influencer marketing has been thriving. Over the years, the consumer economy has created a culture of sharing opinions and buying experience across social media like XiaoHongShu, Weibo, WeChat etc. Hence, it is imperative for ecommerce entering into China market to also build brand awareness using multitude of digital marketing strategies. One of the important marketing channels is the use of influencers or key opinion leaders (KOLs). Buying decisions in China are highly influenced by KOLs who spend hours doing live-streaming commerce and consumers sharing products reviews on social media.

The amount of brand awareness and product exposure across a spectrum of digital platforms become a key strategy for many ecommerce businesses. Hence, when you build your China strategy with MyMyPanda CBEC solution, make sure your ecommerce website has a platform for consumer generated content – allowing consumers and influencers to share their reviews of products and shopping experience. Consumer opinions are highly persuasive, and word-of-mouth is a powerful viral marketing strategy to build fast success for ecommerce brands.

Building on our digital marketing, social media, and ecommerce knowledge in China, MyMyPanda has a wealth of experience to help ecommerce brands develop an effective omni-channel digital strategy. When you work with MyMyPanda, we have a team of IT experts, ecommerce and social media professionals that can support your ecommerce business from building brand awareness, driving traffic to ecommerce and converting prospects to buying customers. This is the reason why many companies are choosing MyMyPanda as a strategic partner for a one-stop solution for all their cross-border ecommerce business needs.

The fierce competition in China’s cross-border e-commerce industry is unfolding. The government is progressively introducing preferential tax policy and fast customs clearance to promote cross-border trade. The domestic demand is high and cross-border ecommerce will enable more Chinese consumers to have greater access to buy products globally. MyMyPanda CBEC platform is well positioned to support overseas brands with low-cost, effective logistic and China customs compliance route into China. Ultimately, we bring a better shopping experience to the consumers in China which in turn bringing you more sales for your business.