Case Study: Increasing Customer Engagement Through Email

Published On: June 30, 2016 | Categories: Advertising and Marketing, Digital |

In an effort to educate and create more engagement with past customers and leads, we created a nurture email designed to promote a 64-page product catalog. The email had a simple creative design, and the call to action was the button “Get Your FREE Catalog!” Once the consumer clicked that button, they would be taken to a landing page with the catalog PDF to download. The cover of the catalog was shown in the email to create congruence between the email and the landing page.

This email creative was developed by applying insights from research and test results. The subject line used in this email included the word “Free.” “Free” has a long history of success and failure in email subject lines. From 2002- 2006, “Free” was the top-performing word used in subject lines. But a turn of events sent “Free” to spam filters from 2007- 2011. As spam filtering became more sophisticated “Free” emerged again as the top subject-line performer starting in 2012 and it holds that position still today. The subject line also incorporated “your” into it – using “you” or “your” in a subject line has shown a lift in opens in subject-line testing.

We also used research to plan the day of deployment for this email. Worldata’s research division measures results from over 3 billion transmitted messages. We used those results to plan the day of deployment for this campaign: Tuesday, March 29, 2016.

The email followed all the rules of simplicity: providing a single message with paragraphs under 70 words, an image that supports that message and a single call to action. The call to action was also chosen with care. Recent research and testing has shown that “Submit” on a call to action button does not perform as well as using verbs in an active tense that communicate value. Who wakes up in the morning wanting to submit? Practically no one. But testing shows that most people are interested in “free” and “exclusive” offers.

While most of our emails include a sense of urgency and a promotional offer for a purchase, this touch to our nurture audience was focused on educating and engaging. By providing the 2016 product catalog, customers could be inspired by new window and door products, creating positive sentiment. Later email touches will present timely offers to garner a sale.

The graph shows the results of the catalog email. This email had a 5 percent increase in open rate and a 146 percent increase in click rate over the average email sent in 2015. The dramatic increase in click rate proves success in customer engagement and the importance of providing value to consumers. That added value will also enhance your brand equity over time.

Pella Catalog Results

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