Marketing Communications

MEASURING DIRECT MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS 447

The beads and jewellery-making supply retailer Artbeads.com sends marketing e-mails each week. It used to send

one single version for everyone on its list, often including discounts. To prevent customers from getting hooked on

the discounts, the marketing team identified valuable segments. This allowed the team to send targeted e-mails

and increase results, all on a small budget.

1. Target a high-value segment

Using the RFM-model is a good way to detect a valuable segment. E-mail subscribers are looked at according to

one of three factors:

Recency. How recently has the subscriber made a purchase? For example, subscribers who have purchased in the

last 72 hours may be more willing to respond to a targeted e-mail campaign than others.

Frequency. How often does the subscriber purchase? For example, subscribers who purchased three or more times

in the last six months might be more willing to respond than others.

Monetary. How much does the subscriber spend? For example, subscribers who spent 50% more than the average

lifetime customer value last year might be more willing to respond than others.

Target one-time big spenders

For these, Artbeads.com looked to the ‘monetary’ factor. The campaign targeted people who had all the following

characteristics:

   current e-mail subscriber;

   made only one purchase in the last 18 months;

   purchase amount ranked in the top 25% of all orders placed in that period.

This amounted to less than 10% of the database but still to more than 6000 subscribers.

2. Craft e-mail design and copy

Artbeads.com planned to send a one-time promotion with a personal touch to this audience in order to generate

revenue and at the same time test the viability of the audience as an e-mail segment.

The key design and copy features of the e-mail for this campaign were:

Personal tone. The e-mail was written as a letter from the CEO, thanking the customer for his or her latest purchase.

The only image was a large picture of the CEO smiling.

Make the customer feel special. The first name of the subscriber was used in the e-mail subject line and greeting.

Then Artbeads.com went a step further in the personalisation of the e-mail by adding that the placed order was

among the larger orders placed in the last 18 months.

Give an exclusive discount. The e-mail had only one single call to action embodied in a large button that linked to the

homepage, which included a coupon code for an exclusive 20% discount.

Add urgency to offer. The receiver had only three days to take advantage of the offer.

business insight

A 208% higher conversion rate for targeted e-mails over general e-mails to entire

database using the RFM-model

M13_PELS3221_05_SE_C13.indd 447 6/5/13 2:56 PM