About two weeks ago I posted a blog article on subscriber segmentation and why it can benefit your email campaigns.  Then, to illustrate the point, I came across this brilliant case study on Marketing Sherpa yesterday:  TicketsNow.com, the online ticket vendor, increased the revenue made from their email marketing by 322% -simply through segmentation!

The case study details the changes implemented in the company’s email marketing strategy to engage consumers in the brand more fully.  The aim was to optimize the spending patterns of those subscribers who had a purchase history, particularly that of their biggest spending customers.

In order to target these customers, they segmented them according to their spending habits and interests, so that they could target their newsletters more effectively.  They also created customer loyalty programs:  They established three “preferred customer” clubs that customers were automatically allocated to if they spent $1,000+ per year, $3,000+ per year or $8,000+ per year.  Once customers belonged to one of these three reward clubs they received notifications of consumer incentive offers, like free shipping or access to an exclusive customer care line.  The number and value of the incentives increased the more a customer spent.  Basically, their customers received targeted emails with personalized offerings that catered to their individual interests based on which club they belonged to, their past purchases and even their past click-throughs. 

To top it off, they sent customers more personalized email communications: Reminders of events they’d purchased tickets for and additional offers (like dinner deals at restaurants related or close to the event).  After an event a customer had attended, they followed up with an email containing reviews by other customers who had attended and giving the recipient a chance to submit their own personalized review.  It gave their clients a chance not only to engage with the brand more socially, but also for a community of loyal customers to develop – by interacting with each other through reviews and recommendations.

What started as simple mailing list segmentation evolved into heightened consumer relationships, loyal and engaged customers, and, as I said, a 322% increase in sales conversions – simply through their email marketing campaign!  Not only that, but their subscriber list grew by 87%, opening up communications with new potential customers, and unsubscribe and complaint rates dropped.

Mark Hodes, Senior Vice President of Customer Marketing for TicketsNow.com, said of the campaign: "I think it proves that more [targeted] email can only help keep people engaged and keep them more active as repeat customers.”

I’ve written quite a few articles about segmentation and targeted email marketing, but I think this campaign is a perfect example of how it can work in practice.  It sounds intricate, but you have access to all the tools you need in your GraphicMail account.  The first step, subscriber segmentation, is obviously easy to as per my previous article (simply customize your subscription form and set the automated subscriber segmentation tool), but even the targeted communication emails are easy to set up with TriggerMail.  For instance the event reminders they sent out – that can easily be set up with a scheduled email.  With a little bit of imagination, you can combine segmentation and TriggerMail to engage your customers in a communication campaign that they feel is relevant to them – which means they are more likely to respond positively to it!

Not sure how to set up Subscriber segmentation?  We now offer webinars on that!  Sign up for a free online training session with one of our dedicated support team members and they’ll show you exactly how to go about segmenting your mailing list.
Sign up for a subscriber segmentation webinar.

The original Marketing Sherpa article will be available here until 31 May 2010.

We are well and truly engaged in soccer fever:  All the guys and girls in our South African office talk about is which games they have tickets for – in fact, two of them are deep in conversation about when and where they’re going to pick up their tickets as I write this!

So while the anticipation is building our design team thought it was time to hop on the bandwagon.  For a minute there I was expecting soccer shirts for the whole office, but apparently they’ve been hard at work rustling up some new templates...Guess the theme?

Now even your email campaigns can spread the excitement!  Engage your subscribers in your very own brand of soccer fever.

I don’t know how many of you check out the links I post on Facebook and Twitter to our South African blog, but they posted an interesting blog article yesterday on the online “social revolution” – it’s worth having a look at. (You can also have a look at this video – it contains some interesting social media statistics.)

Why am I pointing this out?  Because, as I’m sure you’re up to speed on the dramatic way in which our online communications and marketing are evolving, it should be pretty clear that as online “word of mouth” social media is a must-have marketing, branding and networking tool. 
Being an email marketer, you’re probably aware that email has long been the top performing direct and online marketing channel – now I don’t know about you, but something tells me that combining these two channels (email and social media) should have quite a powerful effect…

Which is why, as promised, we’ve release a brand new way of complementing your email campaigns with your social media presence:

Social share

This tool enables you to publish your email newsletter straight to your Twitter account.  The newsletter title with a link to your full newsletter will then automatically appear as a tweet – without you having to log into your account to manually tweet about your newsletter.  Our developers have even added an additional gadget: GMtiny, our very own URL abbreviator.  As Twitter limits you to 140 characters per tweet, GMtiny will automatically shorten the link to your newsletter, cutting down that lengthy, unsightly URL to only a few characters.  Handy, isn’t it?

And this is only the beginning - we’re already working on extending this feature to enable you to publish across more social networks.  Next up, Facebook!  Watch this space, I’ll let you know when you can take your social sharing even further.

Enhance your brand presence online, increase your audience and subscribers and boost your sales by engaging more fully with potential clients – all with our new social share tool.

(While you’re at it, don’t forget that GraphicMail is also on Facebook and Twitter, so let’s befriend and follow.  I enjoy seeing what our followers get up to!)

Don’t forget:  GraphicMail also offers the tools to insert social widgets in your footer – for which we also provide social widget statistics in your reports.

When you first start tackling email marketing, one of the first steps you take are most likely to set up a mailing list – and you’ll watch it grow over time as you steadily gather more subscribers.  Soon you’ll ask yourself…

Why do people subscribe to your newsletter?  Because they’re interested in the content.

Do they always read your newsletter?  To be honest, no.
Why not?  Because they’re… not interested in the content?

Confused?  Let me explain.

Upon first reading one of your newsletters, a recipient may have liked the content in that particular newsletter and so he remains subscribed to it.  Or perhaps a customer liked a product she bought from you and decided to subscribe to your newsletter.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be interested in every newsletter you send out!  After all, your content changes every time, doesn’t it?  Say, for instance, you run an online gift store and last month Mary bought a personalized coffee mug from you.  She’s not going to be interested in this week’s newsletter, which promotes 50% off coffee mugs – but she might be interested in next week’s newsletter promoting specials on Snugglesox.
“I can’t force subscribers to take an interest in my newsletter content!”, I hear you thinking, and you’re right.  However, you can try to send out newsletters that are relevant to them – with our subscriber segmentation tool.

Subscriber segmentation is a way to target subscribers based on certain characteristics, like their preferences or location.  Recipients are more likely to respond to messages that they find relevant and so the most effective email campaign is one that uses segmentation to connect with subscribers on a more personal level. So there is definitely something about Mary liking warm, snuggly things – as opposed to maybe customer Luke who’s into office gadgets such as printed pencil holders. And anyway, why would you want to waste send credits emailing customers like Luke about home comfort items if you know that they’re most likely not even going to open your newsletter?

Segmentation is easy with our subscriber segmentation tool, but first you need to gather information about your customers/clients:

A subscription form is an easy choice. By simply adding the appropriate questions to the form, you can find out the right information.  Request basic information like age, gender or location – it could prevent you from sending information on a store in Chicago to someone who lives in San Francisco; or sending an invitation to your Ladies’ Night to all your male patrons!  Make sure that you request only relevant information, as most people probably won’t spend more than a few seconds filling out a subscription form.

Similarly, you can add a field where customers can select their mailing preferences: weekly updates, events, promotions, etc. What type of information are subscribers interested in and how often would they like to receive it?  It’s also a good idea to enable an “Update profile” section in your subscription, so subscribers can update their information themselves, ensuring the information you have is always relevant.

Or collect info through your email marketing reports and Goole Analytics. Customers often inadvertently give you more information – without you even asking for it!  Simply look at their past actions:  Which links they clicked on in your previous emails (i.e. what products or services in particular drew their attention) and what products they’ve purchased from you in the past and even what that loaded into their shopping carts on your site – and whether they went through with the purchase or not.  Let’s stick to Mary as an example:  Her last abandoned shopping cart may have contained a printed toy giraffe, so you sent her a follow-up email with further information on soft toys, as well as information on other similar products like slippers and fun socks.  It was this email that led her to click on the link to buy the Snugglesox!

Subscriber segmentation enables you to personalize your emails and tailor them to individual interests and needs - making subscribers feel special, which deepens your client relationship and creates customer loyalty.

PS. Watch the subscriber segmentation video!

We’ve expanded our reporting tools:  You now have access to reports for your social widgets.

You have added social widgets to your email footer, right?  In case you missed our call-out for the social widget tool, here’s how it works:  These nifty icons appear in your email footer and link to social networks, allowing your subscribers to share your newsletter with their friends and connections through their own social profile – just by clicking on the widget.

But what does the social widget report entail?

These reports show you how many of your subscribers clicked on the widgets to share your newsletter, who it was that shared it and through which network they shared it.  See, when subscriber’s choose to share your newsletter in their profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, or any of the other social networks, all their contacts, friends and followers can view it too – meaning your newsletter and brand are being exposed to an entirely new network of contacts!

The reporting tool offers an easy new way of tracking how much exposure your email campaigns are getting through social media, and with the great focus on social media networking and marketing, this is definitely one to jump on board with.  Let us know what you think!