Commerce Connections Chapter One
Content
Ac k n o w l e d g e m e n t
This e-book was a collective effort by Bronto Software. The primary contributors
to the book were Jim Davidson, Bronto’s Manager of Marketing Research, and
Bronto’s Strategic Services team who is on the front lines every day, helping
clients of all sizes to build and improve their marketing programs and drive
revenue throughout the customer lifecycle. These thought leaders are regular
contributors to the Bronto Strategy Blog, featuring program recommendations
and best practice advice for commerce marketers.
Kellie Boggs
Marketing Strategist
Kellie Boggs helps clients improve their email, mobile and social marketing
campaigns through detailed analysis. Previously, Kellie was an email marketing
account manager responsible for optimizing email campaigns through industry
knowledge and best practices, resulting in improved return on investment. With
many years of marketing experience, Kellie works closely with clients to build
stronger relationships with their customer base.
Jim Davidson
Manager of Marketing Research
As an expert in email, mobile and social strategies, Jim Davidson brings over
13 years of experience in online marketing, managing email and cross-channel
programs for top retail clients. From strategic vision to implementation, Jim
has led clients to successfully meet aggressive revenue and performance goals.
As Bronto’s Manager of Marketing Research, he regularly publishes industryfocused white papers, research reports and contributes to the Bronto Strategy
Blog. His articles can be found in publications such as DMNews, ClickZ and
Multi-Channel Merchant.
Steve Dubois
Marketing Strategist
Steven DuBois helps guide the email, mobile and social marketing campaigns
of his clients. With over eight years of experience in Digital Marketing, Steve
joined Bronto in 2011 as a Marketing Strategist. In previous positions he advised
clients where to direct their marketing budgets by analyzing attribution models
and cross channel analytics. He has also worked to drive revenue from email
using optimized acquisition methods, re-engagement strategies, automated and
triggered messages, segmentation, and more.
Kristen Gregory
Director of Marketing Services
Kristen Gregory helps clients build relationships and boost revenue via detailed,
business-specific strategic advice on all facets of their email marketing programs.
She is a regular contributor to the Bronto Strategy Blog, speaks at industry
conferences and has been featured in Chief Marketer, The Retail Email Blog,
Email Marketing Reports, Shop.org and Marketing Profs’ “Get to the Point Email
Marketing.” Kristen has multi-channel marketing experience within the health
care and publishing industries, with more than 5 years concentrating on
email alone.
Emily Keye
Marketing Strategist
With over 5 years of experience in online retail marketing, Emily Keye joined
Bronto in 2010 as a Marketing Strategist. Emily has worked with nearly 100
retail clients delivering strategic consulting services including education on
email and cross-channel marketing best practices, industry standards, campaign
optimization and tactics for success. Emily’s goal is to help clients fully maximize
the revenue potential of their campaigns and includes assisting clients from
planning and testing campaigns to implementation of lifecycle programs.
Kestrel Lemen
Marketing Strategist
As a client-facing Marketing Strategist and experienced speaker at industry
conferences, Kestrel Lemen has a range of experience from management,
development and deployment of marketing projects, enhancing customer
engagement while driving revenue. She uses this expertise on a daily basis as
a consultant for her clients. Kestrel is fluent in cross-channel marketing efforts,
custom email marketing campaign design and reviewing analytics and results.
Anna Pfeiffer
Marketing Strategist
Anna Pfeiffer brings 13 years of experience in internet marketing and has worked
with companies that range from brick-and-mortar locations to online hard goods
sales, as well as digital goods and software-as-a-service providers. At Bronto,
Anna creates innovative strategies for clients to assist in their email marketing
initiatives and educate them on best practices with a strong focus on
driving revenue.
Fawn Young
Marketing Strategist
Fawn Young brings a broad background in online marketing and expertise in
online promotions, landing page optimization, A/B testing, multivariate testing
and segmentation. Prior to joining Bronto, Fawn was an online product manager
for a major financial institution. She has also worked with numerous online
retailers, lead generation companies and financial services to optimize their
online marketing.
Greg Zakowicz
Marketing Strategist
Greg Zakowicz works with retail and commerce clients offering strategic advice
and tactics for improving all aspects of their email programs. With over ten years
of experience managing marketing programs, Greg brings a wealth of experience
in email and online marketing in the e-commerce space. As a results-driven
marketer, Greg is especially attuned to metrics-based analysis that he uses to help
improve the marketing programs and performance for his clients.
Introduction
Commerce
Connections
A Lifecycle Marketing
Guidebook
Attention digital marketers, we are no longer in control.
Whether they realize the true strength of their powers or not, consumers now
have the upper hand of the digital marketing experience.
This shift should not be a cause for alarm but a motivator to evolve your digital
marketing programs to meet the needs of the connected consumer who may
be struggling (or thriving) in the digital deluge of multiple mobile devices,
traditional computers and increasingly connected in-store experiences.
Focusing marketing messages to specific devices or channels will not be enough
to drive sales and engagement with your customer. Broad-stroke segmentation
or a single list structure will not be enough to keep your customers interested
and buying.
It’s no longer about mere contact… it’s about connection.
The US Online Retail Forecast: 2012 – 2017 report, projects that e-commerce
sales will grow to $370 billion by 2017 representing 10% of total retail sales.
Consumers are incorporating new methods of shopping and marketers must
find ways to reach them. A majority of consumers (85%*) will start shopping
on one device and complete an order on another. Marketers can connect with
the channel-hopping, location-swapping consumer by understanding how
to navigate complex yet powerful data landscapes, harness segmentation
opportunities, create action from analysis to better target shopping trends and
build automated programs.
Many marketers will find this to be an overwhelming assignment but this book is
here to help you develop a plan of attack to identify and fill gaps in your current
programs and launch new, power-packed revenue-driving initiatives.
This book will explore each phase of the customer lifecycle and detail programs
to reach your customers across channels, devices and levels of engagement. The
role of the commerce marketer is more demanding than ever and this book will
introduce opportunities to streamline current processes and automate messages
based on key data points and users’ interactions with your marketing messages.
Our hope is that by following the guidance in this book, you will find that
successful marketing in this changing landscape is well within your reach.
*Google / Ipsos OTX: “Pre-Holiday 2012 Consumer Intentions”
C H A P T E R ON E
Acquiring and
Welcoming New
Subscribers
Ways to Organically Grow
Your List
Whether you’re starting a new email marketing program or you’re a seasoned
pro, growing your list organically is key to maintaining an active database of
interested prospects and customers. Every year, e-commerce marketers may
expect to lose up to 30% of the subscribers on their lists to attrition, whether
that’s unsubscribes, spam complaints, bounce backs or bad addresses. With this
anticipated loss, marketers need to always have list growth as a strategic priority.
Tips to Grow Your List Organically
For email and cross-channel marketers, list growth is a constant exercise in
evaluating current tactics and finding ways to improve. The benefits of organic
growth versus list acquisition are clear, so the best recommendations are based
on permission-based acquisition. While purchasing lists provides a “quick fix” in
growing your list to meet goals, experience has shown that these addresses are
harmful in the long run. From issues with deliverability to lower engagement
metrics to a tarnished IP reputation, it is strongly advised that you grow your list
through organic means. Organic list growth is not always easy, but it’s worth it in
the long run. Here are 22 tips on how to grow your list organically.
1. Be visible!
Don’t make visitors look for the sign-up. Give the sign-up prominent
placement and use tactics like bolding, different color font, graphic buttons
with a stand-out background color, nearby animation and/or white space
around the call-to-action to help give the sign-up prompt more visual
punch and draw the eye to it. Consider moving the sign-up to the header
and footer of every page; do not make visitors search for your sign-up. If
you want to grow your list, make your sign-up obvious and visible.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Koyal Wholesale offers a dedicated email sign-up in the top left of their site. They used a different
color to visually make it pop, and they also have another sign-up form at the bottom of their site.
2. Multiple locations
Place your sign-up to on every page of your site so it can be seen no
matter where people enter. Don’t limit locations to just the home page.
Place the sign-up form in as many spots as possible.
3. Pop-ups and Pop-overs
Love them or hate them, they work! Many companies have experienced
huge list growth since implementing a pop-up or a pop-over. If you use
this technique, wait a few seconds before presenting the pop-up, rather
than displaying it immediately after the person arrives at your site.
Example: Samsonite
Visitors immediately noticed their email sign-up through a pop-up box.
This box took over the page offering $20 off a shopper’s next order. Now
that’s attention grabbing! They also have an email sign-up box at the
bottom of the site as well and on multiple pages of their site. This is a great
idea because no matter where you look you will find a sign-up.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Samsonite uses an attention grabbing light box to increase email sign ups
4. Sell the sign up
Potential subscribers may ask: “What’s in it for me?” Set expectations on
frequency, content and entice them to join by providing an incentive such
as a dollar of percent off coupon. Simple request requests like “Sign up for
email updates,” or “sign up for our newsletter,” don’t explain much to visitors
about what they will get in return for opting in, why they should care and
how often they will receive mail. Try a one-sentence intro into the signup explaining what you will be sending and how often. Consider using
a shortened version of your sign-up promotion, such as “Sign up for our
exclusive monthly promotions and get an instant 10% off coupon!” You can also
offer a more detailed explanation if you are asking for more than just
email address.
Mention frequency, explain what will be sent, link to an example
newsletter or email and consider offering an incentive with sign up. By
setting clear expectations you will have a better relationship with your
subscribers, but remember you need to actually deliver on the promises
that you set forth in the sign up.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
5. Friends & Family and Forward to a Friend
People tend to purchase based on friends’ recommendations. Use your
existing subscribers as a recommendation tool by running Friends &
Family offers that encourage share the savings. Include an email sign-up
option within those emails so friends can easily subscribe.
6. Incorporate Social Media
Don’t assume that just because someone likes you on Facebook that they
are already on your email list or that they’re even aware that you have an
email program. Use social networks to grow your list by creating sign-up
web forms for these sites, posting calls-to-action to sign-up for your emails
and running contests. All Volleyball does a great job of asking for the signup on their Facebook landing page.
All Volleyball increase email sign ups via a sign-up form on Facebook
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer different content in your emails and social media sites to keep things
fresh and give people a reason to want to connect with you on all your
different levels. Growing your email list from Facebook is a great way to
convert your brand’s fans to subscribers. Multi-channel communication is
a key to keeping your fans and subscribers engaged by messaging them in
different channels and with different offers.
Create an email opt-in form to use on Facebook. The information you ask
for on this web form can mirror your email sign up web form that you
have on your website. Limit the number of fields required to sign up.
Social site visitors may abandon forms if they are too long.
Create a list for the contacts that sign up through this web form. You can
have these contacts go onto your master list as well, but you’ll want to
be sure you’ve got the Facebook sign ups list created and that they’re
going to that in order to track the sign up performance through the social
networking site.
One Bronto client found that their opt-in list from Facebook had much
higher engagement rates than their web sign-up opt-in list. Those
subscribers from Facebook had a 125% higher open rate, 25% higher click
rate and 26% higher conversion rate over the website sign-up opt-ins.
These higher engagement rates prove that gaining sign-ups from Facebook
is valuable.
Try tweeting a preview or teaser with a link to your opt-in page before
your email newsletter or special promotion goes out the door. This tactic
not only helps build your email list, but also alerts existing subscribers
to look for your upcoming message, hopefully boosting anticipation and
therefore open rates.
7. Don’t forget the check-out!
Include an option for customers to opt-in to emails during the check-out
process. Best practice is to provide an unchecked box. If you pre-check
the opt-in box during check-out you may find the new subscribers are
not engaged and could flag your messages as spam. Also evaluate other
forms like contest entry form, free downloads, registrations for webinars,
accounts, or wishlists for inclusion of an opt-in.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
8. Transactional messages
Dedicate space in your transactional emails for a sign-up call-to-action.
Remember the 80/20 rule maintains that at least 80% of the content of a
transactional message should be transactional in nature. The remaining
20% of content can be promotional. The key with the 80/20 rule is that
you clearly convey transactional details and do not lead customers astray
by being overly promotional. The benefit of the rule is that you have 20%
of the email’s content to use for promotional purposes like cross-sells and
sign-ups. Here’s a great example from philosophy that promotes the signup clearly in the right side of the message, and offers buyers a free gift for
signing up.
Utilize your transactional messages to gain email signups like in this example from philosophy
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
9. Cross promote
Utilize sister brands and have them send an email to their lists on your
behalf asking people to opt-in.
10. Don’t forget offline!
Include inserts in all packages you ship directing people to your email
sign-up page, educate call center employees to get that email address and
ask for email address at time of purchase in your retail locations.
Other helpful tips to increase your email sign-up:
• Include a sign-up request on your blog.
• Make Share-With-Your-Network links part of your email template.
• Develop a Refer-a-Friend Program.
• Conduct Friends-and-Family campaigns.
• Enable people to text-to-join.
• Add a sign-up option during mobile app downloads.
• Create QR codes and put on print pieces that link to sign-up forms in
checkout lane or on shipping boxes
• Partner with non-competing businesses and run ads on their site and in their
newsletters.
• Go viral. Create a compelling video.
• Motivate call center or store employees with some kind of incentive program
for asking customer to opt-in to email messages
• Use catalog or fulfillment inserts.
• Gather names during special in-person events using iPad apps or traditional
raffles.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Optimizing Your Email and
Mobile Sign Up Forms
A poorly designed or poorly executed form could dissuade potential subscribers
from signing up for your email list. Sign-up forms need to be clear, concise and
compelling. We have evaluated hundreds of sign-up forms of leading retail
clients to optimize them in order to increase list growth.
One of the first steps in optimizing your sign-up forms is to evaluate your
current process. This is an easy step and one that can be accomplished in less
than 10 minutes. For a busy marketer, this exercise should rank high on your
priority list since it’s easy to accomplish and yields great information.
Sign-up Form Evaluation in 10 Minutes or Less
Visit your website and imagine being a first-time visitor. Simply click from the
home page to a product page. In the less than 5 seconds it took you to do that,
did you see an email sign-up? Step through the checkout process; was there an
email opt-in form? Do a web search for your company name and one of your top
products. When you click through to the landing page do you see an email signup anywhere?
View the highest ranking pages on your website. Do they all have an email signup form? Are there other pages that could include an email sign-up? Would a
user be able to quickly locate the sign-up forms and feel compelled to opt-in?
Do your sign-up forms stand out and entice? Either use fresh eyes or ask a
colleague or friend to find the sign-up. Is it clear and visible?
What’s the Value?
Sometimes we see retail marketers offer no email sign-up, a sign-up that’s hidden
or one that is only found on the home page. Sign-up forms should be visible and
appear often. The more opportunities visitors have to see a sign-up form, the
greater your chances of not gaining them as a subscriber.
By completing this exercise, you may find that your sign-up is visible but not
above the fold. Test this out and you may see similar results as one Bronto client
who saw a 100% increase in monthly sign-ups. Another client moved the sign-up
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
above the fold and added the sign-up to every page on their site and saw a 516%
increase in weekly sign-ups.
Sure, implementing these changes may take some time, but by taking the first
step in evaluating where you need to add your sign-up and any adjustments you
need to make, you’re setting the stage to improve your sign-up and start seeing
great rewards.
Popover or Lightbox Sign-Up Forms
While the thought of a pop-up may seem a bit intrusive at first, consider this –
Bronto clients have seen anywhere from a 332% to 860% increase in sign ups after
implementing a pop-up. Interested now?
Improvements to browser security have largely killed the pop-up window and
many email marketers remain reluctant to use pop-over sign-up forms that in
any way resemble those pop-ups of the past. But times and technology have
changed and online retailers are seeing some great successes when it comes to
pop-over sign up forms. First of all, these sign-up forms are not popping up
as new windows or browser tabs. They appear as a box that fades into view
or slides in from one side of the screen, usually overlaying a central part of the
current web page. This format is commonly known as the “popover.” If the page
being viewed is darkened to highlight the popover box even more, then people
often talk about a “lightbox.”
You’ll want to apply best practices to the popover or lightbox that you are using
on your website, so consider these recommendations:
• When should the popover or lightbox appear? Immediately, after 5 seconds,
30 seconds, after a click, etc? The challenge is to find the point of time when a
popover is most valuable and least disruptive. You’ll need to do some testing,
as it can be different for different websites.
• We highly recommend tracking site traffic through cookies and only show
the popover or lightbox once per site visitor. Having a popover appear every
time you visit a site can be frustrating for those that are not interested or for
those that may already be on your email list. You may want to show the pop
up again after enough time has elapsed from the initial visit. The definition of
“enough time” depends on the average frequency and regularity of visits.
• As with any email collection method, explain the benefits of joining, setting
proper expectations and “selling” the sign up. If you offer an incentive in your
welcome message, tout that here too. Have a clear call-to-action button and
provide your privacy policy.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
• Make it very clear what a visitor needs to do in order to close the popover or
lightbox. You’ll want to include the standard “X” close window option and
include a “No Thanks” button next to your main call-to-action.
Check out these examples:
Urban Outfitters makes it clear to visitors how to sign up for newsletters and connect on Facebook
Philosophy has a popover that slides down from their header, pushing the content on the page down.
So is a popover or lightbox right for your site? Normal inline subscription forms
and links are easily over looked. The purpose behind the popover is that its
unexpected appearance draws attention to the benefits of your email program. If
relevant and timed right, it can become a useful and successful interruption.
One Bronto client who implemented a simple popover that used an incentive
saw a 2,671% increase in the average number of new subscribers being added per
month from the popover. Needless to say, the popover is still on their website.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Mobile Webform Sign-Up
Many of your customers will view your website on a mobile device. It’s more
important than ever to optimize your web forms for your mobile users.
One of the main goals of optimizing your web form layout is to give your
subscribers the ability to find your form quickly and fill it out effortlessly. Make
it easy and quick for your visitors to sign up and you will gain more subscribers,
difficult forms will result in a negative experience and lost subscribers.
Tips to improve your mobile
webforms
Create a separate web form for mobile users. This will allow your users to view
a mobile friendly version of your site on their desired mobile device. A mobile
web form will also load more quickly, making this simpler for the subscriber,
so they are less likely to abandon the form. Also, test your mobile web form on
various mobile devices.
Keep your form short and easy to read. You can do this by reducing the number
of form fields. This will reduce the scrolling and sign up time for required. It is
also helpful to highlight the required fields or mark fields as optional. Get rid of
any additional elements that do not serve a primary purpose, for example “See
More”, or “Learn More” links.
Locate form above the fold and keep any text above the form to a minimum.
This will eliminate unnecessary scrolling so that the form is not missed. A shorter
web form is ideal, so you want to keep the submit button above the fold as well.
Express does a great job of eliminating any scrolling on a mobile device and
has all of their information including the submit button above the fold. They
also entice the subscriber by offering an incentive in one short sentence. In this
example they do not ask for any segment information, which is not a bad thing
because you can get this information at another time.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Express offers a mobile version of a complete sign-up form. This reduces scrolling for the user and
makes it easier to sign up.
Field labels should be top-aligned (i.e. the label is above the input field).
Horizontally-aligned labels will be difficult to read when a user clicks to input
in the field because the browser will automatically zoom in on the field. This
zoomed-in effect will require the user to side scroll to read the field label. For
multiple labels, this could become a hassle; so use shorter labels due to the small
screen of mobile devices. The Limited example below uses shorter labels while
choosing a simple layout, however there is room for improvement here. They
should consider shortening the verbiage above the form as this makes it hard to
read for the subscriber and the call-to-action is now pushed below the fold. You
don’t want your subscriber to have to scroll down to find the call-to-action. The
point here to avoid additional scrolling.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Limited has also implemented a short and quick email sign up form
To simplify the input process, make use of drop down menus for multi-option
input. Avoid using radio buttons as they create a more cluttered, long form
making it difficult for the mobile user to navigate. Radio buttons can also be
difficult to click when using a mobile device. Keep in mind a longer drop down
list can also be hard to navigate for a mobile user, so it’s important that you keep
the list short. In the North Face example below, they have a lengthy web form,
however they use drop down lists, making this process easier for a mobile user.
The copy could be shortened; stating that this is coming from North Face is not
necessary. By taking this out would allow for the call-to-action to be moved
higher up.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
NorthFace has a lengthier web form, however they use drop down lists, making this process easier for
a mobile user
Remember, the purpose of this form is for it to be clean and easy so that the signup process is as effortless as possible for your potential subscriber.
QR Code Sign-Up
From QR codes on fruit to billboards to business cards, QR codes have been used
to convey information, enter contests and sign up for more information.
Many retail marketers have used QR codes to connect the in-store and online
experience. These codes can be an easy way for in-store shoppers (or even those
peering into your store windows after hours) to connect for more information.
First and foremost, determine the purpose of implementing a QR code. While
they can be used for a variety of activities, for the purpose of this chapter let’s
focus on how you can use QR codes to increase sign ups.
It’s imperative that you ensure your QR code does what you want it to
before you make it public. This might seem obvious but testing should have
successfully been completed before implementing a new QR code. Test the
QR code using multiple devices and applications. Not all QR code generators
produce codes that can be read by every device and reader. This is something
that’s important to take into consideration when selecting your provider for QR
service as well.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Tips for Effective Use of QR Codes
1. Placement
Place the QR code on things like banners, menus, window signs, flyers
and stickers. Get creative and place the QR code on a sign next to the cash
register, in the dressing room, in the waiting room, on a napkin, takeout
box or even your packing slip. Think of what you are already doing for
direct mail, printed receipts, basically anything you can see or touch.
The size you use really depends on where you intend to post your code. It
shouldn’t be too much smaller than a postage stamp and can be as big as
needed for a billboard, truck or even the side of a building. The common
rule of thumb is that for print, it should be about the size of a checkerboard
square. The most important thing to consider is where the vantage point is
for the user compared to where the QR code is located. If the user will most
likely be viewing the code from close up, it should be smaller than if they
will be viewing from very far away. Basically you want to confirm that the
QR code will fit into the viewfinder of their smartphone from where the
person will scan.
Ask yourself, “Does this make sense for my business?” You don’t need to
go QR code crazy. It does not make sense to push QR codes on anything
digital because you can just as easily use a hyperlink.
2. CTA
Use a strong call-to-action to the QR code and list the instructions on how
to scan. Example: “Sign up to receive the latest products from BrontoGear.com.
It is as easy as 1. Snap the QR code, 2. Enter your email address 3. Click Submit.”
Remember that asking people to read a QR code can sometimes be an
extra step – it’s not quite as simple as just clicking on a link. So ensure that
you’re providing content that’s interesting and engaging enough to inspire
people to act. Make it fun! Make it worthwhile and most importantly, make
the process as seamless as possible. Think about how you’re promoting
the code in relation to the campaign. Does it make sense? However you go
about it, the content should be intriguing enough to drive someone to pull
out that smartphone and read it! Once you have everything in place, you’re
ready to publicize your code.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
3. Destination
Be sure the QR code leads to the sign up web form and not your home
page. You do not want the user navigating your site looking for your email
signup on their mobile phone. Remember website sites are slower on
mobile devices, and phones in general are slow. You want to have the best
possible user experience.
4. Ease of Use
On the email sign-up web form, be sure this is optimized for a mobile
devise. Keep it simple.
Example of a basic email sign-up web form linked from a QR code
On this web form, provide a brief line of instruction. Example: “To subscribe, enter
your email address and click submit.”
Ask the user to enter necessary information only. This should not be as complex
as your website signup. You should only be asking for the email address and a
few additional items that are truly essential.
5. Confirm
After the user submits the form, you should direct the user to a fastloading thank you page and send a welcome email.
If you are going to offer an incentive for subscribing then tell the user
how and when they should expect the incentive. This is very important if
you are promoting the incentive. The user is expecting an instant reward.
Example of a thank you message: “Thank you for subscribing to BrontoGear.
com. Check your email now as we just sent you a welcome email with your
coupon code.”
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
You can also display the coupon code on the thank you page.
If you are not offering an incentive you should still load the thank you
page and inform the user that they will receive a welcome email from you.
Then reload the page and redirect the user to your home page.
Need to change your QR code?
If you do not maintain the target content, then you should always use a vanity
code, especially if you intend to use the QR code for a long period of time. This
will allow you to redirect the QR code to new target content on the fly. This is
especially helpful when the link can change or for when you intend to change the
content on a regular basis. If you maintain the link where your content lives, then
you should ideally use the full URL for the QR code redirection. There’s no need
to use redirects when you can simply change out the content yourself whenever
necessary. This will improve the load time of the QR code destination. When
you decide to change content for that URL, always test the content in a staging
environment first to confirm that everything looks okay. If the content type must
change and you can no longer use the URL, a redirect would be necessary. One
thing you won’t be able to change after the fact is the size you selected for all
of your printed material. So consider what makes the most sense based on how
you’re carrying out this campaign.
Tracking is just as important as testing.
Track the source of the signup. Assign a source to the user that signs up on your
email list using the QR code. This will provide insight on the quality and value
of the acquisition method over time. Confirm you can track how many users are
actually using the QR code. You want to see engagement metrics, including how
many users are using your QR code.
Many QR code generators will allow you to track clicks. But be careful – some
don’t! You need to understand QR code tracking limitations before settling on a
provider. Even if you can’t get the metrics from the QR creator, you can do a lot
on your own end to get the statistics you need. You can use Google Analytics to
count the number of times the code has been scanned by looking at the referring
site. You can add campaign parameters to the URL itself using Google Analytics
to zero in on how it’s performing. And if you have to redirect your target URL for
any reason, include that link in Google Analytics as well. If you have ecommerce
tracking enabled within Google Analytics, you may even be able to
track revenue.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Tactics to Gain New Fans
and Followers
Email marketing and social media marketing can go hand in hand. When an
email subscriber becomes a fan on Facebook, follows your brand on Twitter
or your pins on Pinterest, the relationship becomes stickier and they’re more
likely to buy. They see your brand, your products and your deals more often, in
different formats and have more opportunities to purchase. That’s why it’s key
for commerce marketers embrace social media as a channel to continue to grow
their fan base. So, let’s explore a few ways to grow your social follower base.
Link to your social media pages in your email
Your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages as well as your YouTube library
should all be considered. Don’t just throw a Facebook or Twitter icon into your
design; include a call-to-action and explain why they should join: “Become a fan
on Facebook for exclusive discounts” or “Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news
and specials” or “Check out user videos at our YouTube channel.” Also, don’t link to
if you don’t have quality content on these sites. If your YouTube library consists
of a couple of PR pieces and a CEO interview from several years ago, maybe you
should wait to promote this until you’ve had a chance to beef up the content better yet, start a contest and call for subscribers to submit videos!
Dedicated Campaigns
By expanding beyond your “Like Us on Facebook” button, you can dedicate an
email to communicating the value of becoming a fan. Remind subscribers that
they will have access to exclusive content, sneak peeks and the ability to speak
with other customers or an expert from your brand. Orvis achieves this by
including a short bulleted list of benefits of becoming a fan.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Orvis encourages subscribers to “like” them with a list of compelling bullet points
In addition to communicating the value of exclusive deals, The Sharper Image
reinforces the community aspect by showing the favorite products of Facebook
Fans. You can try sending a dedicated email to your existing subscriber base or
include this message as part of a Welcome Series.
The Sharper Images uses fan-favorite products to increase Facebook fans
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Strong Subject Lines
Seventh Generation sent a dedicated email campaign to subscribers to encourage them to like them
on Facebook. The campaign generated over 9,000 new Facebook fans.
This dedicated campaign generated 7,000 new fans. That’s right, 7,000 new
Facebook fans acquired through one email. After the first send, Seventh
Generation scheduled a remail to non-openers and gained more than 2,000
additional fans. That’s a total of more than 9,000 fans through two email sends.
The power of a direct subject line combined with compelling messaging led to an
outstanding result of a wave of new Facebook fans.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer Incentives
Ann Taylor uses an incentive in this email campaign to drive subscribers to like them on Facebook
Hinting at future access to exclusive deals and content sounds exciting, but there
is no immediate benefit to the subscriber. Incentivizing the subscriber to become
a Facebook fan with an offer is the most common approach to asking subscribers
to take action. Both the Ann Taylor and Blue Nile examples feature the incentive
prominently and include no other promotional messages.
Blue Nile also features an incentive to encourage subscribers to like them on Facebook
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Do not confuse the subscriber with multiple promotional messages and it’s a
good idea to limit the amount of copy used. You should expect that many fans
converted by an incentive may not be the most engaged and might unlike the
page after they have received the coupon. This is similar to what you would
expect after a sweepstakes ends.
Include content elements that are traditionally seen in your emails but also
include colors and language that match a Facebook experience. You can focus
on one major benefit if you have one or include an easy-to-read bulleted list that
details what the subscriber can expect if he or she becomes a fan.
Add SWYN (“Share With Your Network”) links in your messages This function
allows your subscribers to broadcast that message to their friends and followers
on those networks. If your email marketing platform includes a SWYN feature,
you can not only see how many people share your message, but also how many
of their friends click to check it out. This is a great way to measure the viral
impact of your email marketing, as well as to discern whether it’s worth it to
invest marketing resources in a brand presence on specific social media sites.
Create content that is worth sharing. An email should evoke some kind of
emotion. Whether it is something funny, cute, shocking, or controversial, a good
email sparks something. With that spark, we’re driven to gain information, shop,
stand up for something or take action. It also gives us the opportunity to share
with others all the good and bad associated with the message. Think about what
is going to excite the reader and make them pass along your email.
SWYN is a powerful tool that can be used to build awareness, grow your
subscriber list and help your campaign go viral. Tweak your template to include
these links in a prominent position at the top or in the body of the message,
and include a sign-up call-to-action in your templates for those recipients of the
forwarded messages.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offline and In-Store Tactics for
Subscriber Acquisition
Do you have brick-and-mortar stores? Send packages to people in the mail that
contain their purchases? Give people receipts? If you sell anything at all, chances
are that this applies to you.
While customers are in your store, they typically have access to a mobile device,
which presents an opportune time to ask them to text a simple keyword to a
shortcode to sign up for your communications.
Sign-up via mobile device can reduce acquisition of bad addresses because the
shopper is taking the initiative to sign-up, so there is less likelihood that they will
incorrectly input their address. It’s also a convenient process for both shopper
and marketer. Enabling SMS sign-up for your email program reduces any delay
in getting your contacts directly into your marketing platform. With handwritten
sign-up at the register, on the other hand, there is sometimes a significant delay
between the time they opt-in and when that information is entered into
your system.
SMS sign-up also encourages shoppers to sign-up sooner rather than later, often
motivating shoppers with an incentive of an instant coupon they can use at
the register.
Encourage your customers and prospects to text and sign-up for email on signs
by the checkout lane, on doors going in and out of your stores, in catalogs,
inserts, back of receipts, merchandise tags, shipping boxes and more.
Also, highly consider having people who signed up via SMS in a separate list
or tagged in a certain way in your marketing platform to track the growth and
overall performance of this list acquisition channel.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Welcome Aboard!
You’ve gained new subscribers who have shown interest in learning more about
your brand or receiving offers from you. Start off this new email relationship on
the right foot with a stellar welcome series. The upfront investment and effort
will provide relevant touch points throughout the first year of a subscriber’s
lifecycle with your company. Start by outlining all the possible “big wins”
your company can offer a subscriber. Brainstorm with multiple departments to
uncover all the benefits and programs available to customers. Spend time with
your customer service team to understand your customers’ continuing needs or
desires. Often this type of research will expose unique opportunities to feature
within your welcome series campaign.
Next cherry-pick the top programs and benefits to be showcased throughout the
series. Build a campaign plan that maps out each email message.
Here’s an example of a five message welcome series. Make this series your own,
showing off your brand and setting expectations for the relationship.
Initial Welcome Message
Introduce yourself, confirm their subscription and highlight (and link to) all you
have to offer. If they don’t know now, they may not ever know. Promote the “big
wins” of subscribing and setting proper expectation around cadence, offers and
sneak peeks.
Customer Service Team Message
Ensure subscribers know how to access your top-notch customer service team.
Educate subscribers on their in-depth product knowledge, constant availability
and true desire to meet your customers’ needs.
Connect via Social. Provide examples of how other subscribers are engaging with
your company via social sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Showcase the
unique content available through each social channel.
VIP Program Message. Entice your potential VIP customers by offering an
exclusive program to customers who order X number of times in the first year.
Reward these vital customers with special perks like discounted or free 2-day
shipping for life or a 100% satisfaction guarantee on any order without question.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer Incentive. Remind new subscribers to shop! If you can offer an incentive,
this is a great time to entice subscribers. If not, entice them with new products or
offerings.
Reinforce your brand
This is your first chance to say hello. It’s important to make a good impression
with these critical messages. Use a standard from name and from address that
you also use for your standard promotional emails. Include images and copy
that reflect your brand and your site experience. This is even more important if
your welcome messages are not instantly triggered since a subscriber may not
remember signing up for your email program. Helping them to recall the sign-up
experience could lead to fewer spam complaints.
Set expectations
At this stage, you’re still introducing yourself to the subscriber. So it’s key that
you let the subscriber know what they can expect to receive. Staples’ welcome
email tells the subscriber what to expect, such as:
• Frequency: Weekly deals
• Value Proposition: Exclusive coupons or discounts
• Email Expectations: Show them a sample of a typical newsletter (a visual
reference for future communications).
This email from Staples helps create a sense of anticipation about future messages, which can work to
drive longer-term engagement.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer an incentive for first purchase
Your welcome email is the first opportunity to convert a new subscriber into
a first time buyer! Offer an incentive for making their first purchase and test a
limited time offer to couple the high engagement level with a sense of urgency.
Other brands & store locations
Do you have other brands? Brick and mortar locations? Give subscribers the
option to sign up for your sister brands and find their preferred store. Old Navy,
for example, uses a comprehensive approach:
Old Navy uses their email footer to cross-promote their sister brands
First purchase coupon offer reminder
Bookend the first email in the series by reinforcing urgency and the expiration of
the first purchase coupon if it has not been redeemed. Exclude anyone who has
already purchased from this send.
Preference center and complete you profile
Do you only collect email address during the opt-in process? Encourage the new
subscribers to complete their profiles on your site so they receive emails that
feature the best offers and products for them.
For many who switch from a single welcome message to a series, the process
may seem daunting. But by following the steps outlined above, you can easily
create a unique series for your brand. You should have most, if not all, of
this information readily accessible; it’s just a matter of assembling it and
scheduling appropriately.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
With your campaign plan intact, begin the effort of developing each email
template within the series. Allocate time to the creative process, giving thought
to each template, in an effort not to simply re-purpose the same layout and
format month over month. Thoroughly test each template to ensure it renders
properly and is triggered in accordance with your touch strategy timeline. This
upfront investment will continue to give back and move your company forward
by building a strong and healthy relationship with each new subscriber.
Outdoor Retailer’s “Welcome” Emails Provide a
Welcome Revenue Pop
Gander Mountain may only have launched their e-commerce site a few
years ago, but they are proving to be a quick study in online marketing. They
implemented a number of best practices for email marketing which have helped
drive a significant upswing in revenue, and their use of welcome series emails
stands out as a shining example of one of their most effective tactics to date.
Gander Mountain instituted automated welcome emails to all new subscribers.
Whether they registered at gandermountain.com, in-store, through the call
center or via sweepstakes, they were added to the email list, which triggered
and sent a welcome email within 24 hours. Welcome emails were one of the first
strategies Gander Mountain employed with Bronto and they had an immediate
impact. Knowing that people are typically at a high point of interest in the brand
when they subscribe, they concluded (correctly) that this was an ideal starting
point. The initial email was simply a “thank you for subscribing” email, which
included links to several categories for browsing, and a coupon code active for
a week. Over time, their welcome emails have evolved, and now represent 30%
of all email marketing revenue for the company. With the Bronto Marketing
Platform, the welcome series are easy to set up and they run automatically.
Gander Mountain uses Bronto’s automation functionality to easily test different
options - on pricing or special offers - and employs Bronto’s analytics to see what
is providing the best results.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Results
The overall impact of Gander Mountain’s email marketing program, especially
the welcome emails, has been impressive. Looking at sales-per-delivered as a
measure of email success, Gander’s typical email marketing is at $0.03, but the
welcome email is at $1.85. The average order value (AOV) from their welcome
email is $20 more than their overall AOV of $106. Gander Mountain expects even
higher conversions and revenue lift as they work to evolve their email programs,
and they’ve already mapped out the next step in their plan - to use Bronto’s
segmentation capabilities to deliver highly targeted campaigns.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
This e-book was a collective effort by Bronto Software. The primary contributors
to the book were Jim Davidson, Bronto’s Manager of Marketing Research, and
Bronto’s Strategic Services team who is on the front lines every day, helping
clients of all sizes to build and improve their marketing programs and drive
revenue throughout the customer lifecycle. These thought leaders are regular
contributors to the Bronto Strategy Blog, featuring program recommendations
and best practice advice for commerce marketers.
Kellie Boggs
Marketing Strategist
Kellie Boggs helps clients improve their email, mobile and social marketing
campaigns through detailed analysis. Previously, Kellie was an email marketing
account manager responsible for optimizing email campaigns through industry
knowledge and best practices, resulting in improved return on investment. With
many years of marketing experience, Kellie works closely with clients to build
stronger relationships with their customer base.
Jim Davidson
Manager of Marketing Research
As an expert in email, mobile and social strategies, Jim Davidson brings over
13 years of experience in online marketing, managing email and cross-channel
programs for top retail clients. From strategic vision to implementation, Jim
has led clients to successfully meet aggressive revenue and performance goals.
As Bronto’s Manager of Marketing Research, he regularly publishes industryfocused white papers, research reports and contributes to the Bronto Strategy
Blog. His articles can be found in publications such as DMNews, ClickZ and
Multi-Channel Merchant.
Steve Dubois
Marketing Strategist
Steven DuBois helps guide the email, mobile and social marketing campaigns
of his clients. With over eight years of experience in Digital Marketing, Steve
joined Bronto in 2011 as a Marketing Strategist. In previous positions he advised
clients where to direct their marketing budgets by analyzing attribution models
and cross channel analytics. He has also worked to drive revenue from email
using optimized acquisition methods, re-engagement strategies, automated and
triggered messages, segmentation, and more.
Kristen Gregory
Director of Marketing Services
Kristen Gregory helps clients build relationships and boost revenue via detailed,
business-specific strategic advice on all facets of their email marketing programs.
She is a regular contributor to the Bronto Strategy Blog, speaks at industry
conferences and has been featured in Chief Marketer, The Retail Email Blog,
Email Marketing Reports, Shop.org and Marketing Profs’ “Get to the Point Email
Marketing.” Kristen has multi-channel marketing experience within the health
care and publishing industries, with more than 5 years concentrating on
email alone.
Emily Keye
Marketing Strategist
With over 5 years of experience in online retail marketing, Emily Keye joined
Bronto in 2010 as a Marketing Strategist. Emily has worked with nearly 100
retail clients delivering strategic consulting services including education on
email and cross-channel marketing best practices, industry standards, campaign
optimization and tactics for success. Emily’s goal is to help clients fully maximize
the revenue potential of their campaigns and includes assisting clients from
planning and testing campaigns to implementation of lifecycle programs.
Kestrel Lemen
Marketing Strategist
As a client-facing Marketing Strategist and experienced speaker at industry
conferences, Kestrel Lemen has a range of experience from management,
development and deployment of marketing projects, enhancing customer
engagement while driving revenue. She uses this expertise on a daily basis as
a consultant for her clients. Kestrel is fluent in cross-channel marketing efforts,
custom email marketing campaign design and reviewing analytics and results.
Anna Pfeiffer
Marketing Strategist
Anna Pfeiffer brings 13 years of experience in internet marketing and has worked
with companies that range from brick-and-mortar locations to online hard goods
sales, as well as digital goods and software-as-a-service providers. At Bronto,
Anna creates innovative strategies for clients to assist in their email marketing
initiatives and educate them on best practices with a strong focus on
driving revenue.
Fawn Young
Marketing Strategist
Fawn Young brings a broad background in online marketing and expertise in
online promotions, landing page optimization, A/B testing, multivariate testing
and segmentation. Prior to joining Bronto, Fawn was an online product manager
for a major financial institution. She has also worked with numerous online
retailers, lead generation companies and financial services to optimize their
online marketing.
Greg Zakowicz
Marketing Strategist
Greg Zakowicz works with retail and commerce clients offering strategic advice
and tactics for improving all aspects of their email programs. With over ten years
of experience managing marketing programs, Greg brings a wealth of experience
in email and online marketing in the e-commerce space. As a results-driven
marketer, Greg is especially attuned to metrics-based analysis that he uses to help
improve the marketing programs and performance for his clients.
Introduction
Commerce
Connections
A Lifecycle Marketing
Guidebook
Attention digital marketers, we are no longer in control.
Whether they realize the true strength of their powers or not, consumers now
have the upper hand of the digital marketing experience.
This shift should not be a cause for alarm but a motivator to evolve your digital
marketing programs to meet the needs of the connected consumer who may
be struggling (or thriving) in the digital deluge of multiple mobile devices,
traditional computers and increasingly connected in-store experiences.
Focusing marketing messages to specific devices or channels will not be enough
to drive sales and engagement with your customer. Broad-stroke segmentation
or a single list structure will not be enough to keep your customers interested
and buying.
It’s no longer about mere contact… it’s about connection.
The US Online Retail Forecast: 2012 – 2017 report, projects that e-commerce
sales will grow to $370 billion by 2017 representing 10% of total retail sales.
Consumers are incorporating new methods of shopping and marketers must
find ways to reach them. A majority of consumers (85%*) will start shopping
on one device and complete an order on another. Marketers can connect with
the channel-hopping, location-swapping consumer by understanding how
to navigate complex yet powerful data landscapes, harness segmentation
opportunities, create action from analysis to better target shopping trends and
build automated programs.
Many marketers will find this to be an overwhelming assignment but this book is
here to help you develop a plan of attack to identify and fill gaps in your current
programs and launch new, power-packed revenue-driving initiatives.
This book will explore each phase of the customer lifecycle and detail programs
to reach your customers across channels, devices and levels of engagement. The
role of the commerce marketer is more demanding than ever and this book will
introduce opportunities to streamline current processes and automate messages
based on key data points and users’ interactions with your marketing messages.
Our hope is that by following the guidance in this book, you will find that
successful marketing in this changing landscape is well within your reach.
*Google / Ipsos OTX: “Pre-Holiday 2012 Consumer Intentions”
C H A P T E R ON E
Acquiring and
Welcoming New
Subscribers
Ways to Organically Grow
Your List
Whether you’re starting a new email marketing program or you’re a seasoned
pro, growing your list organically is key to maintaining an active database of
interested prospects and customers. Every year, e-commerce marketers may
expect to lose up to 30% of the subscribers on their lists to attrition, whether
that’s unsubscribes, spam complaints, bounce backs or bad addresses. With this
anticipated loss, marketers need to always have list growth as a strategic priority.
Tips to Grow Your List Organically
For email and cross-channel marketers, list growth is a constant exercise in
evaluating current tactics and finding ways to improve. The benefits of organic
growth versus list acquisition are clear, so the best recommendations are based
on permission-based acquisition. While purchasing lists provides a “quick fix” in
growing your list to meet goals, experience has shown that these addresses are
harmful in the long run. From issues with deliverability to lower engagement
metrics to a tarnished IP reputation, it is strongly advised that you grow your list
through organic means. Organic list growth is not always easy, but it’s worth it in
the long run. Here are 22 tips on how to grow your list organically.
1. Be visible!
Don’t make visitors look for the sign-up. Give the sign-up prominent
placement and use tactics like bolding, different color font, graphic buttons
with a stand-out background color, nearby animation and/or white space
around the call-to-action to help give the sign-up prompt more visual
punch and draw the eye to it. Consider moving the sign-up to the header
and footer of every page; do not make visitors search for your sign-up. If
you want to grow your list, make your sign-up obvious and visible.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Koyal Wholesale offers a dedicated email sign-up in the top left of their site. They used a different
color to visually make it pop, and they also have another sign-up form at the bottom of their site.
2. Multiple locations
Place your sign-up to on every page of your site so it can be seen no
matter where people enter. Don’t limit locations to just the home page.
Place the sign-up form in as many spots as possible.
3. Pop-ups and Pop-overs
Love them or hate them, they work! Many companies have experienced
huge list growth since implementing a pop-up or a pop-over. If you use
this technique, wait a few seconds before presenting the pop-up, rather
than displaying it immediately after the person arrives at your site.
Example: Samsonite
Visitors immediately noticed their email sign-up through a pop-up box.
This box took over the page offering $20 off a shopper’s next order. Now
that’s attention grabbing! They also have an email sign-up box at the
bottom of the site as well and on multiple pages of their site. This is a great
idea because no matter where you look you will find a sign-up.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Samsonite uses an attention grabbing light box to increase email sign ups
4. Sell the sign up
Potential subscribers may ask: “What’s in it for me?” Set expectations on
frequency, content and entice them to join by providing an incentive such
as a dollar of percent off coupon. Simple request requests like “Sign up for
email updates,” or “sign up for our newsletter,” don’t explain much to visitors
about what they will get in return for opting in, why they should care and
how often they will receive mail. Try a one-sentence intro into the signup explaining what you will be sending and how often. Consider using
a shortened version of your sign-up promotion, such as “Sign up for our
exclusive monthly promotions and get an instant 10% off coupon!” You can also
offer a more detailed explanation if you are asking for more than just
email address.
Mention frequency, explain what will be sent, link to an example
newsletter or email and consider offering an incentive with sign up. By
setting clear expectations you will have a better relationship with your
subscribers, but remember you need to actually deliver on the promises
that you set forth in the sign up.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
5. Friends & Family and Forward to a Friend
People tend to purchase based on friends’ recommendations. Use your
existing subscribers as a recommendation tool by running Friends &
Family offers that encourage share the savings. Include an email sign-up
option within those emails so friends can easily subscribe.
6. Incorporate Social Media
Don’t assume that just because someone likes you on Facebook that they
are already on your email list or that they’re even aware that you have an
email program. Use social networks to grow your list by creating sign-up
web forms for these sites, posting calls-to-action to sign-up for your emails
and running contests. All Volleyball does a great job of asking for the signup on their Facebook landing page.
All Volleyball increase email sign ups via a sign-up form on Facebook
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer different content in your emails and social media sites to keep things
fresh and give people a reason to want to connect with you on all your
different levels. Growing your email list from Facebook is a great way to
convert your brand’s fans to subscribers. Multi-channel communication is
a key to keeping your fans and subscribers engaged by messaging them in
different channels and with different offers.
Create an email opt-in form to use on Facebook. The information you ask
for on this web form can mirror your email sign up web form that you
have on your website. Limit the number of fields required to sign up.
Social site visitors may abandon forms if they are too long.
Create a list for the contacts that sign up through this web form. You can
have these contacts go onto your master list as well, but you’ll want to
be sure you’ve got the Facebook sign ups list created and that they’re
going to that in order to track the sign up performance through the social
networking site.
One Bronto client found that their opt-in list from Facebook had much
higher engagement rates than their web sign-up opt-in list. Those
subscribers from Facebook had a 125% higher open rate, 25% higher click
rate and 26% higher conversion rate over the website sign-up opt-ins.
These higher engagement rates prove that gaining sign-ups from Facebook
is valuable.
Try tweeting a preview or teaser with a link to your opt-in page before
your email newsletter or special promotion goes out the door. This tactic
not only helps build your email list, but also alerts existing subscribers
to look for your upcoming message, hopefully boosting anticipation and
therefore open rates.
7. Don’t forget the check-out!
Include an option for customers to opt-in to emails during the check-out
process. Best practice is to provide an unchecked box. If you pre-check
the opt-in box during check-out you may find the new subscribers are
not engaged and could flag your messages as spam. Also evaluate other
forms like contest entry form, free downloads, registrations for webinars,
accounts, or wishlists for inclusion of an opt-in.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
8. Transactional messages
Dedicate space in your transactional emails for a sign-up call-to-action.
Remember the 80/20 rule maintains that at least 80% of the content of a
transactional message should be transactional in nature. The remaining
20% of content can be promotional. The key with the 80/20 rule is that
you clearly convey transactional details and do not lead customers astray
by being overly promotional. The benefit of the rule is that you have 20%
of the email’s content to use for promotional purposes like cross-sells and
sign-ups. Here’s a great example from philosophy that promotes the signup clearly in the right side of the message, and offers buyers a free gift for
signing up.
Utilize your transactional messages to gain email signups like in this example from philosophy
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
9. Cross promote
Utilize sister brands and have them send an email to their lists on your
behalf asking people to opt-in.
10. Don’t forget offline!
Include inserts in all packages you ship directing people to your email
sign-up page, educate call center employees to get that email address and
ask for email address at time of purchase in your retail locations.
Other helpful tips to increase your email sign-up:
• Include a sign-up request on your blog.
• Make Share-With-Your-Network links part of your email template.
• Develop a Refer-a-Friend Program.
• Conduct Friends-and-Family campaigns.
• Enable people to text-to-join.
• Add a sign-up option during mobile app downloads.
• Create QR codes and put on print pieces that link to sign-up forms in
checkout lane or on shipping boxes
• Partner with non-competing businesses and run ads on their site and in their
newsletters.
• Go viral. Create a compelling video.
• Motivate call center or store employees with some kind of incentive program
for asking customer to opt-in to email messages
• Use catalog or fulfillment inserts.
• Gather names during special in-person events using iPad apps or traditional
raffles.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Optimizing Your Email and
Mobile Sign Up Forms
A poorly designed or poorly executed form could dissuade potential subscribers
from signing up for your email list. Sign-up forms need to be clear, concise and
compelling. We have evaluated hundreds of sign-up forms of leading retail
clients to optimize them in order to increase list growth.
One of the first steps in optimizing your sign-up forms is to evaluate your
current process. This is an easy step and one that can be accomplished in less
than 10 minutes. For a busy marketer, this exercise should rank high on your
priority list since it’s easy to accomplish and yields great information.
Sign-up Form Evaluation in 10 Minutes or Less
Visit your website and imagine being a first-time visitor. Simply click from the
home page to a product page. In the less than 5 seconds it took you to do that,
did you see an email sign-up? Step through the checkout process; was there an
email opt-in form? Do a web search for your company name and one of your top
products. When you click through to the landing page do you see an email signup anywhere?
View the highest ranking pages on your website. Do they all have an email signup form? Are there other pages that could include an email sign-up? Would a
user be able to quickly locate the sign-up forms and feel compelled to opt-in?
Do your sign-up forms stand out and entice? Either use fresh eyes or ask a
colleague or friend to find the sign-up. Is it clear and visible?
What’s the Value?
Sometimes we see retail marketers offer no email sign-up, a sign-up that’s hidden
or one that is only found on the home page. Sign-up forms should be visible and
appear often. The more opportunities visitors have to see a sign-up form, the
greater your chances of not gaining them as a subscriber.
By completing this exercise, you may find that your sign-up is visible but not
above the fold. Test this out and you may see similar results as one Bronto client
who saw a 100% increase in monthly sign-ups. Another client moved the sign-up
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
above the fold and added the sign-up to every page on their site and saw a 516%
increase in weekly sign-ups.
Sure, implementing these changes may take some time, but by taking the first
step in evaluating where you need to add your sign-up and any adjustments you
need to make, you’re setting the stage to improve your sign-up and start seeing
great rewards.
Popover or Lightbox Sign-Up Forms
While the thought of a pop-up may seem a bit intrusive at first, consider this –
Bronto clients have seen anywhere from a 332% to 860% increase in sign ups after
implementing a pop-up. Interested now?
Improvements to browser security have largely killed the pop-up window and
many email marketers remain reluctant to use pop-over sign-up forms that in
any way resemble those pop-ups of the past. But times and technology have
changed and online retailers are seeing some great successes when it comes to
pop-over sign up forms. First of all, these sign-up forms are not popping up
as new windows or browser tabs. They appear as a box that fades into view
or slides in from one side of the screen, usually overlaying a central part of the
current web page. This format is commonly known as the “popover.” If the page
being viewed is darkened to highlight the popover box even more, then people
often talk about a “lightbox.”
You’ll want to apply best practices to the popover or lightbox that you are using
on your website, so consider these recommendations:
• When should the popover or lightbox appear? Immediately, after 5 seconds,
30 seconds, after a click, etc? The challenge is to find the point of time when a
popover is most valuable and least disruptive. You’ll need to do some testing,
as it can be different for different websites.
• We highly recommend tracking site traffic through cookies and only show
the popover or lightbox once per site visitor. Having a popover appear every
time you visit a site can be frustrating for those that are not interested or for
those that may already be on your email list. You may want to show the pop
up again after enough time has elapsed from the initial visit. The definition of
“enough time” depends on the average frequency and regularity of visits.
• As with any email collection method, explain the benefits of joining, setting
proper expectations and “selling” the sign up. If you offer an incentive in your
welcome message, tout that here too. Have a clear call-to-action button and
provide your privacy policy.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
• Make it very clear what a visitor needs to do in order to close the popover or
lightbox. You’ll want to include the standard “X” close window option and
include a “No Thanks” button next to your main call-to-action.
Check out these examples:
Urban Outfitters makes it clear to visitors how to sign up for newsletters and connect on Facebook
Philosophy has a popover that slides down from their header, pushing the content on the page down.
So is a popover or lightbox right for your site? Normal inline subscription forms
and links are easily over looked. The purpose behind the popover is that its
unexpected appearance draws attention to the benefits of your email program. If
relevant and timed right, it can become a useful and successful interruption.
One Bronto client who implemented a simple popover that used an incentive
saw a 2,671% increase in the average number of new subscribers being added per
month from the popover. Needless to say, the popover is still on their website.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Mobile Webform Sign-Up
Many of your customers will view your website on a mobile device. It’s more
important than ever to optimize your web forms for your mobile users.
One of the main goals of optimizing your web form layout is to give your
subscribers the ability to find your form quickly and fill it out effortlessly. Make
it easy and quick for your visitors to sign up and you will gain more subscribers,
difficult forms will result in a negative experience and lost subscribers.
Tips to improve your mobile
webforms
Create a separate web form for mobile users. This will allow your users to view
a mobile friendly version of your site on their desired mobile device. A mobile
web form will also load more quickly, making this simpler for the subscriber,
so they are less likely to abandon the form. Also, test your mobile web form on
various mobile devices.
Keep your form short and easy to read. You can do this by reducing the number
of form fields. This will reduce the scrolling and sign up time for required. It is
also helpful to highlight the required fields or mark fields as optional. Get rid of
any additional elements that do not serve a primary purpose, for example “See
More”, or “Learn More” links.
Locate form above the fold and keep any text above the form to a minimum.
This will eliminate unnecessary scrolling so that the form is not missed. A shorter
web form is ideal, so you want to keep the submit button above the fold as well.
Express does a great job of eliminating any scrolling on a mobile device and
has all of their information including the submit button above the fold. They
also entice the subscriber by offering an incentive in one short sentence. In this
example they do not ask for any segment information, which is not a bad thing
because you can get this information at another time.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Express offers a mobile version of a complete sign-up form. This reduces scrolling for the user and
makes it easier to sign up.
Field labels should be top-aligned (i.e. the label is above the input field).
Horizontally-aligned labels will be difficult to read when a user clicks to input
in the field because the browser will automatically zoom in on the field. This
zoomed-in effect will require the user to side scroll to read the field label. For
multiple labels, this could become a hassle; so use shorter labels due to the small
screen of mobile devices. The Limited example below uses shorter labels while
choosing a simple layout, however there is room for improvement here. They
should consider shortening the verbiage above the form as this makes it hard to
read for the subscriber and the call-to-action is now pushed below the fold. You
don’t want your subscriber to have to scroll down to find the call-to-action. The
point here to avoid additional scrolling.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Limited has also implemented a short and quick email sign up form
To simplify the input process, make use of drop down menus for multi-option
input. Avoid using radio buttons as they create a more cluttered, long form
making it difficult for the mobile user to navigate. Radio buttons can also be
difficult to click when using a mobile device. Keep in mind a longer drop down
list can also be hard to navigate for a mobile user, so it’s important that you keep
the list short. In the North Face example below, they have a lengthy web form,
however they use drop down lists, making this process easier for a mobile user.
The copy could be shortened; stating that this is coming from North Face is not
necessary. By taking this out would allow for the call-to-action to be moved
higher up.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
NorthFace has a lengthier web form, however they use drop down lists, making this process easier for
a mobile user
Remember, the purpose of this form is for it to be clean and easy so that the signup process is as effortless as possible for your potential subscriber.
QR Code Sign-Up
From QR codes on fruit to billboards to business cards, QR codes have been used
to convey information, enter contests and sign up for more information.
Many retail marketers have used QR codes to connect the in-store and online
experience. These codes can be an easy way for in-store shoppers (or even those
peering into your store windows after hours) to connect for more information.
First and foremost, determine the purpose of implementing a QR code. While
they can be used for a variety of activities, for the purpose of this chapter let’s
focus on how you can use QR codes to increase sign ups.
It’s imperative that you ensure your QR code does what you want it to
before you make it public. This might seem obvious but testing should have
successfully been completed before implementing a new QR code. Test the
QR code using multiple devices and applications. Not all QR code generators
produce codes that can be read by every device and reader. This is something
that’s important to take into consideration when selecting your provider for QR
service as well.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Tips for Effective Use of QR Codes
1. Placement
Place the QR code on things like banners, menus, window signs, flyers
and stickers. Get creative and place the QR code on a sign next to the cash
register, in the dressing room, in the waiting room, on a napkin, takeout
box or even your packing slip. Think of what you are already doing for
direct mail, printed receipts, basically anything you can see or touch.
The size you use really depends on where you intend to post your code. It
shouldn’t be too much smaller than a postage stamp and can be as big as
needed for a billboard, truck or even the side of a building. The common
rule of thumb is that for print, it should be about the size of a checkerboard
square. The most important thing to consider is where the vantage point is
for the user compared to where the QR code is located. If the user will most
likely be viewing the code from close up, it should be smaller than if they
will be viewing from very far away. Basically you want to confirm that the
QR code will fit into the viewfinder of their smartphone from where the
person will scan.
Ask yourself, “Does this make sense for my business?” You don’t need to
go QR code crazy. It does not make sense to push QR codes on anything
digital because you can just as easily use a hyperlink.
2. CTA
Use a strong call-to-action to the QR code and list the instructions on how
to scan. Example: “Sign up to receive the latest products from BrontoGear.com.
It is as easy as 1. Snap the QR code, 2. Enter your email address 3. Click Submit.”
Remember that asking people to read a QR code can sometimes be an
extra step – it’s not quite as simple as just clicking on a link. So ensure that
you’re providing content that’s interesting and engaging enough to inspire
people to act. Make it fun! Make it worthwhile and most importantly, make
the process as seamless as possible. Think about how you’re promoting
the code in relation to the campaign. Does it make sense? However you go
about it, the content should be intriguing enough to drive someone to pull
out that smartphone and read it! Once you have everything in place, you’re
ready to publicize your code.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
3. Destination
Be sure the QR code leads to the sign up web form and not your home
page. You do not want the user navigating your site looking for your email
signup on their mobile phone. Remember website sites are slower on
mobile devices, and phones in general are slow. You want to have the best
possible user experience.
4. Ease of Use
On the email sign-up web form, be sure this is optimized for a mobile
devise. Keep it simple.
Example of a basic email sign-up web form linked from a QR code
On this web form, provide a brief line of instruction. Example: “To subscribe, enter
your email address and click submit.”
Ask the user to enter necessary information only. This should not be as complex
as your website signup. You should only be asking for the email address and a
few additional items that are truly essential.
5. Confirm
After the user submits the form, you should direct the user to a fastloading thank you page and send a welcome email.
If you are going to offer an incentive for subscribing then tell the user
how and when they should expect the incentive. This is very important if
you are promoting the incentive. The user is expecting an instant reward.
Example of a thank you message: “Thank you for subscribing to BrontoGear.
com. Check your email now as we just sent you a welcome email with your
coupon code.”
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
You can also display the coupon code on the thank you page.
If you are not offering an incentive you should still load the thank you
page and inform the user that they will receive a welcome email from you.
Then reload the page and redirect the user to your home page.
Need to change your QR code?
If you do not maintain the target content, then you should always use a vanity
code, especially if you intend to use the QR code for a long period of time. This
will allow you to redirect the QR code to new target content on the fly. This is
especially helpful when the link can change or for when you intend to change the
content on a regular basis. If you maintain the link where your content lives, then
you should ideally use the full URL for the QR code redirection. There’s no need
to use redirects when you can simply change out the content yourself whenever
necessary. This will improve the load time of the QR code destination. When
you decide to change content for that URL, always test the content in a staging
environment first to confirm that everything looks okay. If the content type must
change and you can no longer use the URL, a redirect would be necessary. One
thing you won’t be able to change after the fact is the size you selected for all
of your printed material. So consider what makes the most sense based on how
you’re carrying out this campaign.
Tracking is just as important as testing.
Track the source of the signup. Assign a source to the user that signs up on your
email list using the QR code. This will provide insight on the quality and value
of the acquisition method over time. Confirm you can track how many users are
actually using the QR code. You want to see engagement metrics, including how
many users are using your QR code.
Many QR code generators will allow you to track clicks. But be careful – some
don’t! You need to understand QR code tracking limitations before settling on a
provider. Even if you can’t get the metrics from the QR creator, you can do a lot
on your own end to get the statistics you need. You can use Google Analytics to
count the number of times the code has been scanned by looking at the referring
site. You can add campaign parameters to the URL itself using Google Analytics
to zero in on how it’s performing. And if you have to redirect your target URL for
any reason, include that link in Google Analytics as well. If you have ecommerce
tracking enabled within Google Analytics, you may even be able to
track revenue.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Tactics to Gain New Fans
and Followers
Email marketing and social media marketing can go hand in hand. When an
email subscriber becomes a fan on Facebook, follows your brand on Twitter
or your pins on Pinterest, the relationship becomes stickier and they’re more
likely to buy. They see your brand, your products and your deals more often, in
different formats and have more opportunities to purchase. That’s why it’s key
for commerce marketers embrace social media as a channel to continue to grow
their fan base. So, let’s explore a few ways to grow your social follower base.
Link to your social media pages in your email
Your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages as well as your YouTube library
should all be considered. Don’t just throw a Facebook or Twitter icon into your
design; include a call-to-action and explain why they should join: “Become a fan
on Facebook for exclusive discounts” or “Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news
and specials” or “Check out user videos at our YouTube channel.” Also, don’t link to
if you don’t have quality content on these sites. If your YouTube library consists
of a couple of PR pieces and a CEO interview from several years ago, maybe you
should wait to promote this until you’ve had a chance to beef up the content better yet, start a contest and call for subscribers to submit videos!
Dedicated Campaigns
By expanding beyond your “Like Us on Facebook” button, you can dedicate an
email to communicating the value of becoming a fan. Remind subscribers that
they will have access to exclusive content, sneak peeks and the ability to speak
with other customers or an expert from your brand. Orvis achieves this by
including a short bulleted list of benefits of becoming a fan.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Orvis encourages subscribers to “like” them with a list of compelling bullet points
In addition to communicating the value of exclusive deals, The Sharper Image
reinforces the community aspect by showing the favorite products of Facebook
Fans. You can try sending a dedicated email to your existing subscriber base or
include this message as part of a Welcome Series.
The Sharper Images uses fan-favorite products to increase Facebook fans
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Strong Subject Lines
Seventh Generation sent a dedicated email campaign to subscribers to encourage them to like them
on Facebook. The campaign generated over 9,000 new Facebook fans.
This dedicated campaign generated 7,000 new fans. That’s right, 7,000 new
Facebook fans acquired through one email. After the first send, Seventh
Generation scheduled a remail to non-openers and gained more than 2,000
additional fans. That’s a total of more than 9,000 fans through two email sends.
The power of a direct subject line combined with compelling messaging led to an
outstanding result of a wave of new Facebook fans.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer Incentives
Ann Taylor uses an incentive in this email campaign to drive subscribers to like them on Facebook
Hinting at future access to exclusive deals and content sounds exciting, but there
is no immediate benefit to the subscriber. Incentivizing the subscriber to become
a Facebook fan with an offer is the most common approach to asking subscribers
to take action. Both the Ann Taylor and Blue Nile examples feature the incentive
prominently and include no other promotional messages.
Blue Nile also features an incentive to encourage subscribers to like them on Facebook
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Do not confuse the subscriber with multiple promotional messages and it’s a
good idea to limit the amount of copy used. You should expect that many fans
converted by an incentive may not be the most engaged and might unlike the
page after they have received the coupon. This is similar to what you would
expect after a sweepstakes ends.
Include content elements that are traditionally seen in your emails but also
include colors and language that match a Facebook experience. You can focus
on one major benefit if you have one or include an easy-to-read bulleted list that
details what the subscriber can expect if he or she becomes a fan.
Add SWYN (“Share With Your Network”) links in your messages This function
allows your subscribers to broadcast that message to their friends and followers
on those networks. If your email marketing platform includes a SWYN feature,
you can not only see how many people share your message, but also how many
of their friends click to check it out. This is a great way to measure the viral
impact of your email marketing, as well as to discern whether it’s worth it to
invest marketing resources in a brand presence on specific social media sites.
Create content that is worth sharing. An email should evoke some kind of
emotion. Whether it is something funny, cute, shocking, or controversial, a good
email sparks something. With that spark, we’re driven to gain information, shop,
stand up for something or take action. It also gives us the opportunity to share
with others all the good and bad associated with the message. Think about what
is going to excite the reader and make them pass along your email.
SWYN is a powerful tool that can be used to build awareness, grow your
subscriber list and help your campaign go viral. Tweak your template to include
these links in a prominent position at the top or in the body of the message,
and include a sign-up call-to-action in your templates for those recipients of the
forwarded messages.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offline and In-Store Tactics for
Subscriber Acquisition
Do you have brick-and-mortar stores? Send packages to people in the mail that
contain their purchases? Give people receipts? If you sell anything at all, chances
are that this applies to you.
While customers are in your store, they typically have access to a mobile device,
which presents an opportune time to ask them to text a simple keyword to a
shortcode to sign up for your communications.
Sign-up via mobile device can reduce acquisition of bad addresses because the
shopper is taking the initiative to sign-up, so there is less likelihood that they will
incorrectly input their address. It’s also a convenient process for both shopper
and marketer. Enabling SMS sign-up for your email program reduces any delay
in getting your contacts directly into your marketing platform. With handwritten
sign-up at the register, on the other hand, there is sometimes a significant delay
between the time they opt-in and when that information is entered into
your system.
SMS sign-up also encourages shoppers to sign-up sooner rather than later, often
motivating shoppers with an incentive of an instant coupon they can use at
the register.
Encourage your customers and prospects to text and sign-up for email on signs
by the checkout lane, on doors going in and out of your stores, in catalogs,
inserts, back of receipts, merchandise tags, shipping boxes and more.
Also, highly consider having people who signed up via SMS in a separate list
or tagged in a certain way in your marketing platform to track the growth and
overall performance of this list acquisition channel.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Welcome Aboard!
You’ve gained new subscribers who have shown interest in learning more about
your brand or receiving offers from you. Start off this new email relationship on
the right foot with a stellar welcome series. The upfront investment and effort
will provide relevant touch points throughout the first year of a subscriber’s
lifecycle with your company. Start by outlining all the possible “big wins”
your company can offer a subscriber. Brainstorm with multiple departments to
uncover all the benefits and programs available to customers. Spend time with
your customer service team to understand your customers’ continuing needs or
desires. Often this type of research will expose unique opportunities to feature
within your welcome series campaign.
Next cherry-pick the top programs and benefits to be showcased throughout the
series. Build a campaign plan that maps out each email message.
Here’s an example of a five message welcome series. Make this series your own,
showing off your brand and setting expectations for the relationship.
Initial Welcome Message
Introduce yourself, confirm their subscription and highlight (and link to) all you
have to offer. If they don’t know now, they may not ever know. Promote the “big
wins” of subscribing and setting proper expectation around cadence, offers and
sneak peeks.
Customer Service Team Message
Ensure subscribers know how to access your top-notch customer service team.
Educate subscribers on their in-depth product knowledge, constant availability
and true desire to meet your customers’ needs.
Connect via Social. Provide examples of how other subscribers are engaging with
your company via social sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Showcase the
unique content available through each social channel.
VIP Program Message. Entice your potential VIP customers by offering an
exclusive program to customers who order X number of times in the first year.
Reward these vital customers with special perks like discounted or free 2-day
shipping for life or a 100% satisfaction guarantee on any order without question.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer Incentive. Remind new subscribers to shop! If you can offer an incentive,
this is a great time to entice subscribers. If not, entice them with new products or
offerings.
Reinforce your brand
This is your first chance to say hello. It’s important to make a good impression
with these critical messages. Use a standard from name and from address that
you also use for your standard promotional emails. Include images and copy
that reflect your brand and your site experience. This is even more important if
your welcome messages are not instantly triggered since a subscriber may not
remember signing up for your email program. Helping them to recall the sign-up
experience could lead to fewer spam complaints.
Set expectations
At this stage, you’re still introducing yourself to the subscriber. So it’s key that
you let the subscriber know what they can expect to receive. Staples’ welcome
email tells the subscriber what to expect, such as:
• Frequency: Weekly deals
• Value Proposition: Exclusive coupons or discounts
• Email Expectations: Show them a sample of a typical newsletter (a visual
reference for future communications).
This email from Staples helps create a sense of anticipation about future messages, which can work to
drive longer-term engagement.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Offer an incentive for first purchase
Your welcome email is the first opportunity to convert a new subscriber into
a first time buyer! Offer an incentive for making their first purchase and test a
limited time offer to couple the high engagement level with a sense of urgency.
Other brands & store locations
Do you have other brands? Brick and mortar locations? Give subscribers the
option to sign up for your sister brands and find their preferred store. Old Navy,
for example, uses a comprehensive approach:
Old Navy uses their email footer to cross-promote their sister brands
First purchase coupon offer reminder
Bookend the first email in the series by reinforcing urgency and the expiration of
the first purchase coupon if it has not been redeemed. Exclude anyone who has
already purchased from this send.
Preference center and complete you profile
Do you only collect email address during the opt-in process? Encourage the new
subscribers to complete their profiles on your site so they receive emails that
feature the best offers and products for them.
For many who switch from a single welcome message to a series, the process
may seem daunting. But by following the steps outlined above, you can easily
create a unique series for your brand. You should have most, if not all, of
this information readily accessible; it’s just a matter of assembling it and
scheduling appropriately.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
With your campaign plan intact, begin the effort of developing each email
template within the series. Allocate time to the creative process, giving thought
to each template, in an effort not to simply re-purpose the same layout and
format month over month. Thoroughly test each template to ensure it renders
properly and is triggered in accordance with your touch strategy timeline. This
upfront investment will continue to give back and move your company forward
by building a strong and healthy relationship with each new subscriber.
Outdoor Retailer’s “Welcome” Emails Provide a
Welcome Revenue Pop
Gander Mountain may only have launched their e-commerce site a few
years ago, but they are proving to be a quick study in online marketing. They
implemented a number of best practices for email marketing which have helped
drive a significant upswing in revenue, and their use of welcome series emails
stands out as a shining example of one of their most effective tactics to date.
Gander Mountain instituted automated welcome emails to all new subscribers.
Whether they registered at gandermountain.com, in-store, through the call
center or via sweepstakes, they were added to the email list, which triggered
and sent a welcome email within 24 hours. Welcome emails were one of the first
strategies Gander Mountain employed with Bronto and they had an immediate
impact. Knowing that people are typically at a high point of interest in the brand
when they subscribe, they concluded (correctly) that this was an ideal starting
point. The initial email was simply a “thank you for subscribing” email, which
included links to several categories for browsing, and a coupon code active for
a week. Over time, their welcome emails have evolved, and now represent 30%
of all email marketing revenue for the company. With the Bronto Marketing
Platform, the welcome series are easy to set up and they run automatically.
Gander Mountain uses Bronto’s automation functionality to easily test different
options - on pricing or special offers - and employs Bronto’s analytics to see what
is providing the best results.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
Results
The overall impact of Gander Mountain’s email marketing program, especially
the welcome emails, has been impressive. Looking at sales-per-delivered as a
measure of email success, Gander’s typical email marketing is at $0.03, but the
welcome email is at $1.85. The average order value (AOV) from their welcome
email is $20 more than their overall AOV of $106. Gander Mountain expects even
higher conversions and revenue lift as they work to evolve their email programs,
and they’ve already mapped out the next step in their plan - to use Bronto’s
segmentation capabilities to deliver highly targeted campaigns.
CHAPTER ONE: Acquiring and Welcoming New Subscribers
