How FulcrumTech Helps Clients Achieve Outstanding Email-Marketing Results with Automation & Real-Time Testing & Optimization
In 2014, FulcrumTech helped numerous clients achieve outstanding email-marketing results. Here are just a few examples of recent email success stories:
- We helped an online education company exceed its previous biggest sales day by over 300%.
- We increased click-to-open rates by 27% and subscription sales by 67% for a client in the news and media sector.
- We saved a publishing industry client more than 40 labor hours weekly.
Looking back at these and other client successes over the past year, two areas of FulcrumTech expertise stand out as having played a significant role in achieving these great email campaign results: automation and real-time testing and optimization. You’ll see this in the following success stories that highlight the steps we typically take to help our clients get the biggest returns for their email-marketing investment.
How We Helped a Company Beat Its Previous Biggest Sales Day by 300%
Prior to contacting FulcrumTech for help in using email to grow online sales, this education client had used the email-marketing channel on a limited basis. That meant we had minimal historical results to use in developing the email strategy and email campaign map for this company. So we began by assessing the customers’ buying journey – how customers interact with the company on the way to conversion – including all of the customer touch points, the connections between touch points, and reasons why customers took an action at each touch point. This gave us a good understanding of customers’ needs, enabling us to identify any gaps in the communication at key steps of the journey.
As a result, FulcrumTech suggested implementing a Cyber Monday promotion – something this company had never done before. We created a list of expired members, as well as website visitors who had started (but hadn’t completed) a purchase. In addition, we developed an “exclusive” invitation email campaign that was sent to the targeted list to help build anticipation leading up to the Cyber Monday promotion.
We also established a solid email-optimization plan to describe the key decisions that would drive changes to the factors affecting campaign performance, such as list selection, design, and copy. This step included:
- Creating benchmark metrics
- Conducting a review of target audience demographic and transaction history
- Identifying messaging and treatment concepts for the optimization, such as subject lines, incentives/offers, design elements, etc.
- Determining email campaign cadence, timing of deployment, messaging, and where tests should be implemented.
For example, we tested the response rates of requiring recipients to use a promotional code in the Cyber Monday “flash sale” versus not requiring a promotional code.
This initial Cyber Monday email campaign that we implemented yielded impressive results, with sales in that one day more than tripling the company’s previous biggest sales day.
How We Increased Click-to-Open Rates by 27% and Subscription Sales by 67%
We began by conducting our proprietary 10-Point Email-Marketing Assessment for this client in the news and media sector, which involved a methodical review of all areas of the company’s current email-marketing program. Through this assessment, we were able to get a comprehensive look at this organization’s major email performance issues and identify the best opportunities for improvement.
One example of a recommendation resulting from our 10-Point Email-Marketing Assessment was to increase the frequency of email campaigns. The company had been sending campaigns to prospects between three and four times yearly, but we increased the frequency to an email campaign sent monthly. We also identified ways to segment the email list, making the content of the emails more relevant to each segment’s target audience.
Additionally, we continue to conduct optimization testing each month that allows us to make improvements in real time. For example, this typically involves setting up an eight-way multivariate test to look at such elements as subject lines, headlines, calls to action, design, copy, as well as day of the week and time sent. We also test keywords to find the ones that resonate best with each target audience.
Thanks to real-time testing and optimization, the creative for this client is constantly evolving. We are able to apply what we learn each month to the next month’s email campaign, which results in continuous improvement of email performance rates. The improvements we make each month have a direct and positive impact on engagement with prospects and customers, ultimately resulting in higher click-to-open rates, increased subscription sales, and an overall higher return on investment (ROI) for this client.
How We Saved a Publishing Industry Client More than 40 Labor Hours Weekly
After completing a 10-Point Email-Marketing Assessment for this publishing industry client, we discovered that a significant amount of the work being done manually by the marketing team could be done much more efficiently. Given the automation technology available today, we assessed that this company’s current technology platform had limitations.
Reviewing a company’s infrastructure is an important part of our 10-Point Email-Marketing Assessment. In addition to analyzing relevant production processes and technical platforms of a company’s email service provider (ESP), we also evaluate the possibility of implementing such capabilities as real-time subject line testing, dynamic content, and new target segments.
Putting to use the FulcrumTech team of email-marketing certified experts’ deep experience with ESP applications and platforms, we moved this client to the premium ESP ExactTarget. Although this company already had some email campaigns automated using their previous ESP, we helped them determine additional emails that could be automated, as well. Then we built out that automation and specifically tailored it to their needs.
Through our analysis, we were able to help this client understand where they could make better use of their time by converting some manual emails over to automated emails. The automation has saved the marketing team 40 hours per week, which gives them time to focus on more important tasks, such as producing effective creative and increasing their ROI.
If your company is looking for ways to increase email-marketing performance, FulcrumTech can help. We have a proven track record in determining what exactly needs to be improved in an email program and implementing it with the technology necessary to achieve optimum results. Email us or give us a call at 215-489-9336 and see how we can help your organization reach, and even exceed, your goals for 2015.
