A case study of re-activation of lapsed customers with Marketing Automation and Gamification: An email marketing case study from CarDelMar
The well-known marketing rule that investing in acquisition of new customers is six to seven times costlier than re-activating past customers suggests the value of investing in reactivation campaigns. In the omnichannel world we live in, a wide range of possible methods are available to re-engage those who have lapsed, or if you prefer, are 'churned' buyers. Among the most effective methods is surely re-activation by email marketing. In this case study we present how optivo helped the German online car hire broker CarDelMar with an automated reactivation campaign, which was designed and carried out using the software of email marketing service provider optivo.
The challenge of inactivity
Previously, CarDelMar had been sending out fortnightly newsletters with information on exclusive discount campaigns, useful tips on booking reservations and introductions of new rental agencies. As is usually the case with new…
Research showing how using event-triggered emails boosts open, clicks and retail sales
As customers of retailers, we have all seen triggered messages based on a response to an action we have taken, for example welcome emails on subscribing, onboarding emails after purchasing, and shipping reminders. More generally, they can be used by all types of businesses to welcome and engage prospects and customers where they're known as behavioural emails and are one of the key functions of Marketing Automation.
As marketers, we know they can be extremely effective, but research shows, fewer than half of business are using them. This post explains:
Why triggered messages are effective,
Typical results retailers can expect from triggered messaging
Good scenarios for using them,
Most importantly when they do or don't work.
In a follow-up post, I explain the technical options to send behavioural emails for retailers.
Why are Triggered Messages Effective?
Econsultancy reports that triggered email open rates are four…
A recent court case could set a legal precedent to limit behavioural email marketing
Importance (to retail email marketers): [rating=5]
Recommended link: Sky News: Spammer To Pay Damages After Court Victory
There has recently been an interesting, useful and somewhat scary discussion on the Smart Insights LinkedIn discussion group about the risks of email marketers being seen as spammers and action take against them. Worth checking out if you’re involved in email marketing.
It alerted me to this recent case where John Lewis has had to pay damages because of their email marketing and data privacy opt-in approach on their site. I’ve created an alert on it since the finding seems to suggest the common practice of pre-ticking a box during purchase and following that up with an “Abandoned Shopping cart email”
The case was brought against the retailer by Roddy Mansfield, a Sky news producer. It was a private action and the finding…
Which factors are the main reasons for shopping cart abandonment?
Cart Abandonment specialists, Cloud.IQ have released a new infographic with some fascinating findings regarding how and why our customers are abandoning their purchases and how we can leverage this opportunity to generate more sales.
Some stats of interest:
88% of online shoppers who abandon online purchases before completion are open to being emailed by retailers afterwards..
35% actually say they will actively welcome these emails
For every £100 spent on driving customers to the site, only £1 goes into converting them
To see all the stats and the full infographic, view it here.
…
Lessons on using the right e-retail incentives at the right time
'Should we use discount codes in a our abandonment emails?' is a question we’re often asked by retailers at Triggered Messaging. On the surface, incentives look like a great idea because you can recover more carts and gain more sales you wouldn't have otherwise. Most of our data supports that point.
HOWEVER, when considering profitability, cart abandonment programs can be dangerous. You can give discounts when you didn’t need to.
In this article we share this case study of one retailer we worked with who discovered that they were needlessly giving away discounts costing over $3,000 a month.
What’s more, we’ll show how it appeared to be a success, even though it damaged profitability. Then we’ll tell you how you can make your abandonment incentive programs more intelligent and strategic to increase customer acquisition and lifetime value.
Here is the analysis we…
Triggered email campaigns vs traditional email
We regularly feature advice on behavioural email marketing on our hub page since we think they are often an under-used or under-developed technique to cost-efficiently engage prospects and customers.
"Triggered emails" is an alternative way of described them which EmailMonks uses on this infographic on 'triggered email marketing campaigns'. It clearly shows the value of this technique and how, with access to the right CRM system or email service provider, campaigns can be set-up; whether it's based on an action, event, demographics or other criteria.
Companies now have more information available to personally react in 'real time' or at timely relevant touchpoints, to engage/convert and at times 'save a sale'. Relevance helps lift open rates for trigger emails such that they can often be the most important emails you send, so ripe for optimisation:
'Autoresponder open rates are 4x higher than generic emails, and triggered emails have…
An example of Holistic Email Marketing
Here’s a taster of what you can look forward to on October 8th at the free International Digital Marketing Summit from Plan To Engage. It’s a free summit held At Your Desk, so why not register? If you can’t make it on the day, register anyhow and view the sessions on-demand. In my session: 'From Search to Conversion: 3 keys to a successful customer journey' we will be addressing the below tactic.
When we think of the words ‘personalise’ and ‘email’ we more often than not think of including the subscribers name and possibly their Company name within the email. But this is the most basic of ways of personalizing the experience within email and quite frankly, impresses very few. Personalisation can be achieved numerous ways by utilising the following types of data:
Explicit data such as filling in a form
Implicit data…
A presentation explaining how to plan and optimise automated emails
Created for the International Email Marketing Summit, this free webcast explained the options for creating more relevant automated emails - one of the biggest missed opportunities in Email marketing.
I covered:
How Automated, Event-triggered or Behavioural emails are surprisingly rare.
The 10 options for automated email campaigns.
Recommendations to optimise these emails using the CRITICAL framework we use in the Smart Insights 7 Step Guide to Email Marketing.
Here is the Slideshare which gives a lot of examples across the different types, but especially Welcome Emails. You can view the talk via the link.
Creating more relevant, more responsive more value Event-triggered Emails from Dave Chaffey …
How intelligent segmentation helped Homebase drive instore bookings and increased revenue
eCircle worked with their client Homebase to support them in increasing their Ecommerce revenue through planning and executing a highly targeted personalised triggered email campaign, to sell their high value kitchens.
This blog post takes you through the campaign goals, planning and execution and to show the approach Homebase used.
Recommended Guide:
Just updated for 2013, our 80 page email guide will help you review all aspects of email marketing from communications strategy to creative and copy.
Download our 7 Steps to Email marketing guide.
Email Campaign Goals
The business goal of Homebase was primarily to increase their sales revenue of their high value products (kitchens) by drawing in customers instore to meet their Kitchen Designers,…
Ideas for improving Basket Abandonment Emails that are relevant to other types of email follow-up
On a recent webinar, a question was posed that I thought was worth a second look:
'On an abandonment programme, sending a discount to encourage a purchase may not necessarily be a good idea, so what would be a good hook to get their interest peeked again?'.
This touches on another subject; the inevitable decline in response rates for basket abandonment emails. Some argue against this, but it is inevitable. I consider basket abandonment emails as just another product and therefore they will inevitably follow the same path as any other product, as illustrated in the classic graph below.
So, what can you do to ensure that your results do not decline?
5 Tips to improve email response rates for basket abandonment
Tip 1 The Basics
Please excuse me…
