PERFICIENT DIGITAL COMMERCE SOLUTIONS THE WINNING RECIPE FOR MARKETING

Transcription

1 THE WINNING RECIPE FOR MARKETING

2 CHRISTIE COOKIE FINDS A SPECIAL INGREDIENT THAT YIELDS DELICIOUS RESULTS Driven by the pursuit of the perfect cookie, The Christie Cookie Company makes premium quality, made-fresh-daily cookies. The main ingredients of its marketing efforts were campaigns, a tried-and-true approach that achieved even better results when Perficient suggested delivering them as a series, targeted to specific audience segments. BATCH AND BLAST Cookies are good in batches; s not so much. s work best when they carry content that s particularly relevant for a segment of potential shoppers and then sent in a way that targets each group. Batch and blast, where all recipients see the same content with the same frequency, will eventually get the attention of a few customers but Christie Cookie wanted to get online sales cooking more quickly. 2

3 Christie Cookie needed a way to connect with their various customer groups personally. Perficient explained that just as their many delicious product flavors appeal to different tastes, Christie Cookie s efforts would be more effective if designed with customer preferences in mind. We explained audience segmentation and conducted a simple test for Christie Cookie s campaigns. Perficient explained that Christie Cookie s efforts would be more effective if designed with customer preferences in mind. TESTING A NEW RECIPE Christie Cookie s customers are a diverse group. Like all online shoppers, they want to learn about different products, services and offers, ideally delivered through s sent at different times in the buying process. They subscribe and will continue to subscribe if the s they get are relevant for them and timed to their readiness to interact. At no time is an entire database of customers at the same place in terms of readiness to buy. And while it s not possible to pinpoint the moment or message that will move every individual customer to purchase, retailers can increase the effectiveness of marketing with simple segmentation tactics. The goal of the segmentation test was to drive purchases by customers who had recently registered on the website without making a purchase or those who had registered in the past but never made a purchase. 3

4 STEP ONE Perficient identified seven distinct segments for all the customers in Christie Cookie s database, ranging from never purchased, to purchased but not within the last 25 months. The two overall segments, under which they defined sub segments, were have purchased, and never purchased. Then, sub segments were defined by the amount of time since last purchase, or time since registration or newsletter signup without a purchase. Data were drawn from Google Analytics as well as Christie Cookie s service provider. STEP TWO Perficient believed that providing an incentive to shop would persuade the never purchased Conversion rates as high as 14% test segment to buy something. A never purchased segment is pure in the sense that other factors such as last time purchased, frequency of purchases, incentives offered at time of purchase, etc., don t complicate the historical data, making it a good group to test. Plus, the Segment New Registrants Registrants 0-12 Months Registrants 13+ Months Open Rate 42.22% 17.12% 11.63% CTR 15.79% 12.64% 2.99% Avg. Time On Site 6:15 2:54 2:03 E-commerce Conversion Rate 14.29% 1.06% 1.75% segment was permission-based; they had signed up to receive s from Christie Cookie. The thinking was, They want to hear from us so let s give them a reason to buy, and that served as the goal for the test. Previous campaign data showed that new registrants people who had signed up within the last 14 days had moderate open and click-through rates (CTRs) (as well as Google Analytics engagement metrics), but had weak conversion rates, indicating there was a lot of room for improvement. Even those customers who had signed up for more than a year earlier opened the messages, clicked through to the site and shopped, to some degree, but were not likely to check out. The chart at right shows the data from an that did result in conversion, sent to three sub segments of the (previously) never purchased group. Overall results are sweet. Revenue is up 26% year-over-year. 4

5 STEP THREE To improve CTRs and conversion in never purchased segments, an was created with a value-added message. A simple note about a company secret was included in s to customers who had never made a purchase, designed to inspire confidence in the product and move them to buy. OUR CHRISTIE COOKIE SECRET We re perfectionists. So when it comes to cookies, we keep it simple by sticking to what we do best. We are firm believers in fresh, homemade taste so we don t use preservatives or any other ingredients you can t pronounce. The result? Hand-measured gourmet treats! 5

6 RESULTS With just that simple our secret content added to s to the never purchased segments, Christie Cookie saw results in these important metrics: Click-through Rates: New Registrant segment increased 107% Registrants 0-12 Months increased 13% Registrants 13+ Months increased 29% Conversion Rates: New Registrant segment decreased 74% Registrants 0-12 Months increased 170% Registrants 13+ Months increased 9% has always been an effective marketing tool for us but it s working even better now, thanks to new designs and some simple customer segmentation tactics. SUE O DONNELL, PRESIDENT, MAIL ORDER DIVISION, THE CHRISTIE COOKIE COMPANY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE While the New Registrant segment produced dramatic results, this segment represented the smallest number of recipients in the database, just 0.18%. Registrants 0-12 Months represented about 5% of Christie Cookie s database. At 95%, the Registrants 13+ Months represented the biggest number of customers and delivered strong CTRs and conversion 29% and 9%, respectively. Overall results are sweet too. Christie Cookies revenue is up 26% year-over-year. 6

7 FIND YOUR SECRET INGREDIENT is one of the most valuable marketing channels used by online retailers today. But to really connect with customers and win their loyalty, you need to send messages that are relevant to them. Messages that are relevant in content, timed right, and delivered with the optimal frequency are a recipe for success. The way to find the mix that s best for your business? Test those elements until you find the sweet spot where your campaigns deliver proven ROI. Campaigns (September - December) YOY Revenue Growth Fall Campaign 109% Halloween Campaign 1 165% ANOTHER HELPING In addition to recommendations for customer segmentation strategies for their marketing efforts, Perficient s creative team gave Christie Cookie s designs an updated look and feel. The new designs better convey the distinctive brand equity the company has built on the traditions of premium quality, the finest ingredients, products that are made-fresh-daily and superior customer service. Mouth-watering photos of cookies, brownies and chocolates, showcased in their signature custom packaging, with seasonal and holiday design elements, whet customers appetites and prove that Christie Cookies leaves nothing to chance in the pursuit of the perfect cookie. The newly designed s outperformed the previous campaigns, delivering program revenue that was up 86% over the previous year! Halloween Campaign 2 226% Thanksgiving Campaign 1 15% Thanksgiving Campaign 2 277% Cyber Monday 630% Holiday eblast 1 263% Holiday eblast 2 14% Holiday eblast 3 11% Holiday eblast 4 31% Holiday eblast 5 73% Holiday eblast 6 42% Overall Improvement 86% Actual year-over-year (YOY) growth by campaign, Fall 2011 vs. Fall

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