From newsletter subscription to new customer – fully automated
Initial situation
E-mail marketing has been an important information and sales channel for a South German mail order company for over 5 years now. The existing e-mail marketing solution was replaced by a modern e-mail marketing system at the start of 2012 – an automatic database synchronisation via a SAP-certified CRM connector as well as the impressive statistical analysis were additional deciding factors. Besides making use of it for individualised newsletters and customer segmentation, the company plans to leverage its e-mail marketing for further communication paths to attract new customers.
Implementation
New customers through marketing automation
An initial campaign, building directly on the confirmed newsletter subscription, pursues the objective of enriching the subscribers’ profile data with their respective interests, thanks to a multistage communication concept. A maximum of six e-mails with different themes and priorities are sent over the entire communication path. The marketing automation campaign sends e-mails automatically according to a defined time schedule and depending on the respective user behaviour. The system responds to the recorded interests, meaning that subscribers are provided with tailor-made offers.
Structure of the communication path
The campaign to attract new customers extends from the newsletter subscription to the actual marketing automation campaign through to accompanying communication measures. The campaign concept, the newsletter subscription as well as the accompanying measures were developed on the customer end throughout. The campaign’s technical implementation was carried out by SC-Networks.
Up to six mails are sent automatically within the marketing automation block using Evalanche over a period of 4 weeks:
- Subscribers can store an individual interest profile in the welcome e-mail.
- If profile data has still not been provided after a period of five days, a reminder
e-mail including a link to a compact profile form is sent. - Once recipients have provided an interest profile, they receive an e-mail offer for a
mail order selection that corresponds to their particular interests. If no profile data
is available, they receive a general offer. - Every subscriber receives an exclusive offer that can only be booked as part of the
new customers campaign. - Recipients receive the collected profile information near the end of the campaign
to enable them to adjust their personal interests if necessary. - The last campaign e-mail provides recipients with the option of configuring a gift
giving occasion on a form. The regular newsletter operation then begins
If a recipient places an order within the current campaign, the campaign is terminated right away and the newsletter subscriber will only receive the regular newsletter. The campaign is supported via accompanying measures such as a website, blog posts and social networks. The data obtained is centrally stored in the CRM system and synchronised in real-time via a customised SAP connector. The connection to SAP CRM was successfully implemented within a few weeks thanks to the connector.
Benefits
The campaign to attract new customers gives mail order companies the opportunity to continuously provide their newsletter subscribers with relevant content and create
attractive offers according to the individual interest profiles, which of course also benefits subscribers. The entire communication path is fully automatic including the data synchronisation with SAP CRM, which means that virtually no maintenance is required. Initial tests have yielded very positive results, giving the company reason to expect good acceptance/performance. Although the registration process is to be implemented within EVALANCHE in the future, currently a decoupled registration process is still being used on the customer end. Whether a similar campaign should also be launched for existing customers is an additional option under consideration.