Bamidele Famoofo

esearch conducted by Netcore Solutions which focuses on how Nigerians read emails sent out by notable brands in 2019, revealed the growing need by organisations and brands to communicate with customers through emails as opposed to traditional marketing and short message services (sms) in other to grow their businesses and enhance their return on investment (ROI).

Client Success Manager, Netcore Solutions, Chukwudi Nwokike, in his remark on the report, said: “In Nigeria, there is a growing need by organisations and brands to communicate with customers via emails because, unlike traditional marketing and texts, a clearer and more specific message can be disseminated directly to the target audience on their devices. The beauty of emails is that there are integrations and tools put in place to seamlessly track customer engagement through open and click rates.”

The report highlights important metrics that were reviewed and used as a yardstick for monitoring the email behaviour in Nigeria, including, but not limited to exclamation marks, question marks, subject line length, and others. It also points out the two important metrics, which brands should take cognisance of before sending out emails to prospects and customers. It noted that they are open rates and click rates.

According to Nwokike, the most paramount question any brand should ask before engaging its customers through the means of electronic mails should be: Why do people open emails?

“It is an important question of relevance every brand must understand before sending out emails. In this comprehensive report, one billion emails are analysed in various ways which matter to businesses and user behaviors, including the subject line in emails, the category of emails sent, the best day of the week to send out emails and the best time to have emails sent out to the target audience which will, in turn, boost the open and click rates,” he said.

Regional Vice President, Africa, Nisham Chhabra, in his comment on the report, said: “We at Netcore solutions value every business relationship and we are dedicated to help our clients succeed by leveraging data and technology. By helping clients globally create one-on-one customer experience across multiple channels, we are revolutionising customer communication.”

He added: “Netcore Solutions, a leading and global marketing automation, analytics and AI/ML solutions provider in 13 other countries explained this in their 2020 edition of “Banking Report: How Nigeria reads Emails.”

The report showed that over 20 per cent of over one billion emails sent out in 2019 are opened on Saturday, noting that emails sent out by brands have the highest engagement from customers on Wednesday and Saturday. Automated emails are gradually gaining prominence and this is explained in the 2020 Report. The report hinted that the benefit attached to automated email is that it increased the rate of emails opened significantly.

The banking report further revealed that unsubscribe rates were highest for brands who sent 0-4 emails in a week noting that this explains why brands lose their contacts to unsubscribes. The report further highlighted measures brands can put in place to ensure the unsubscribes become as minimal as possible.

“Sending relevant emails is more important than the frequency of emails sent out to subscribers. We want to advise marketers in 2020 that it is important to take Gmail delivery seriously to see improved engagement because 73 per cent of email subscribers who engage in emails sent out are Gmail users. The attention span of the average reader is short, and Nigerians are not left out. Therefore, for brands to get their message across to email subscribers and customers, it is pertinent that they uphold most of the facts written in the 2020 banking report which will serve as a comprehensive guide to engaging their subscribers and making the best out of every campaign Netcore explained.

Nwokike argued that for brands to get their message across to email subscribers and customers, it is pertinent that they uphold most of the facts written in the 2020 banking report which will serve as a comprehensive guide to engaging their subscribers and making the best out of every campaign.

The Client Success Manager said reasons why 50 per cent of Banks in Nigeria trust Netcore Smartech is because it is a leading marketing technology like no-other in the market. “Netcore has 3000+ Global clients and is sending about 8 Billion+ Emails, 5 Billion+ Push notifications and customer connect on the Smartech platform.”

“On the email space we provide both transactional (triggered) and promotional emails ensuring maximum inbox delivery and maximum ROI from conversions. Here are the key differentiators that set us apart from our competitors in multiple markets globally,” he said.

Nwokike explained that Netcore Smartech was an omni-channel marketing platform capable of communicating on 9 channels - Emails, SMS, Voice, Browser Push Notifications, Onsite Messages, App Push Notifications, In-app message, Facebook custom audience and WhatsApp. We own our channels and ensure optimum delivery.

Netcore has a team of delivery engineers that ensure that your emails not only deliver but to your customer’s inbox. “Most of our customers have inbox delivery of over 85 percent Smartech unifies the customer view so that we can holistically view a customer engaging on different channels. This means for each user, I can understand their engagement on the 9 channels of communication. Smartech platform provides both analytics and derived analysis from any platform integrated with it (Website, Email, Mobile App, POS etc.). These analytics show both the activity being done and the user who is performing the activity. You can also get derived analytics such as: Churn, recommendations, cohorts, Recency Frequency.”

Speaking on the relevance of the report to businesses, Nwokike said: “We Hope this report will empower your organisation to get more value from email marketing. Marketers have a lot to do in 2020 to improve the value of email marketing to the Nigerian customer database and create more ROI for brands.”

“If you need an email marketing platform with AI Based Delivery, AI based content suggestions, Automated Triggers for websites, automated email triggers for mobile apps and high Gmail delivery inboxing, easy responsive template generation, choose Smartech today,” he added.

He said Smartech was capable of personalising experiences on emails, app push, website or mobile app. “For example customers can now see banners on your website based on their previous web activity. Or receive pop-up messages that are personalised to them on web and mobile app. The Smartech platform is powered by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence helps in the timing, content and quality of your communication in a predictive and prescriptive way. Our AI engine Raman would provide uplift on your engagement which will improve your ROI.”