About two weeks ago I posted a blog article on subscriber segmentation and why it can benefit your email campaigns. Then, to illustrate the point, I came across this brilliant case study on Marketing Sherpa yesterday: TicketsNow.com, the online ticket vendor, increased the revenue made from their email marketing by 322% -simply through segmentation!
The case study details the changes implemented in the company’s email marketing strategy to engage consumers in the brand more fully. The aim was to optimize the spending patterns of those subscribers who had a purchase history, particularly that of their biggest spending customers.
In order to target these customers, they segmented them according to their spending habits and interests, so that they could target their newsletters more effectively. They also created customer loyalty programs: They established three “preferred customer” clubs that customers were automatically allocated to if they spent $1,000+ per year, $3,000+ per year or $8,000+ per year. Once customers belonged to one of these three reward clubs they received notifications of consumer incentive offers, like free shipping or access to an exclusive customer care line. The number and value of the incentives increased the more a customer spent. Basically, their customers received targeted emails with personalized offerings that catered to their individual interests based on which club they belonged to, their past purchases and even their past click-throughs.
To top it off, they sent customers more personalized email communications: Reminders of events they’d purchased tickets for and additional offers (like dinner deals at restaurants related or close to the event). After an event a customer had attended, they followed up with an email containing reviews by other customers who had attended and giving the recipient a chance to submit their own personalized review. It gave their clients a chance not only to engage with the brand more socially, but also for a community of loyal customers to develop – by interacting with each other through reviews and recommendations.
What started as simple mailing list segmentation evolved into heightened consumer relationships, loyal and engaged customers, and, as I said, a 322% increase in sales conversions – simply through their email marketing campaign! Not only that, but their subscriber list grew by 87%, opening up communications with new potential customers, and unsubscribe and complaint rates dropped.
Mark Hodes, Senior Vice President of Customer Marketing for TicketsNow.com, said of the campaign: "I think it proves that more [targeted] email can only help keep people engaged and keep them more active as repeat customers.”
I’ve written quite a few articles about segmentation and targeted email marketing, but I think this campaign is a perfect example of how it can work in practice. It sounds intricate, but you have access to all the tools you need in your GraphicMail account. The first step, subscriber segmentation, is obviously easy to as per my previous article (simply customize your subscription form and set the automated subscriber segmentation tool), but even the targeted communication emails are easy to set up with TriggerMail. For instance the event reminders they sent out – that can easily be set up with a scheduled email. With a little bit of imagination, you can combine segmentation and TriggerMail to engage your customers in a communication campaign that they feel is relevant to them – which means they are more likely to respond positively to it!
Not sure how to set up Subscriber segmentation? We now offer webinars on that! Sign up for a free online training session with one of our dedicated support team members and they’ll show you exactly how to go about segmenting your mailing list.
Sign up for a subscriber segmentation webinar.
The original Marketing Sherpa article will be available here until 31 May 2010.