Stylus.ua is one of the leading online retailers in the Ukrainian market, offering a wide range of mobile phones and accessories, as well as home appliances.
The client wasn’t satisfied with the performance of their email marketing channel since it did not generate the expected revenue and ensure an appropriate level of subscriber loyalty.
We conducted an audit of the existing email marketing channel and revealed the following issues:
• To enforce email subscriber engagement;
• To increase revenue from the email marketing channel;
• To introduce email-marketing automation and a multi-channel approach.
The design of emails was based on the core audience analysis.
1st email Contained an introduction message and suggestion to check customer reviews or submit their own.
2nd email Invited to join Stylus on social media.
3rd email Suggested visiting the website page with the most attractive Stylus offers and novelties
The email list segmentation, which is a must-have for effective email marketing, helped us sort out the active subscribers. According to their preferences, age and gender, this group would become a target for promotional emails.
By reducing the emails’ frequency, the additional funds in the email marketing budget was released to introduce pre-sales and cross-sales trigger emails. Dynamic cards with related products were added to order confirmation emails. We also launched additional emails with product recommendations.
Sent emails
Revenue
To re-engage inactive subscribers we introduced a series of emails, offering to return to the website, view new items and use a discount code for a purchase.
The final series email contained a questionnaire with a link to a hidden page with a unique discount code. Inactive subscribers did not receive emails anymore.
With the same budget, the number of promotional emails increased to 12 per month by sending them solely to the active audience. The bright design and content-plan, developed in comparison with the Stylus team campaign, allowed to increase the revenue from promotional emails by 90%.
The “Abandoned cart” and “Abandoned view” triggered emails were sent only one time. That’s why we decided to add the second and third emails with intervals in 2 and 5 days.
There were no active campaigns aimed at collecting subscribers on the website, except orders and registrations. We added callback widgets with flexible settings for display conditions, including based on viewed pages and geolocation.
Simultaneously, in test mode, we launched the lead magnet ‘Roulette’. A user received an email with an offer to win a discount after three attempts on a particular landing page. If they won, they received a discount code.By engagement from discounts, the potential of the customer base and as well as its size increased. Subscribers made decisions and engaged consciously.
To determine the best time to send email marketing campaigns, we ran A/B tests for identical emails. Subscribers, as this turned out, preferred to receive emails in the evening, and we decided to send further emails between 5 PM and 8 PM.
To retain subscribers, we created a form where, instead of unsubscribing, a user could go to a secret page and get a discount.
Note: The GDPR principles do not apply in Ukraine where Stylus is located.
Over an extended period, Stylus has been selling online. This allowed accumulating a large phone number base. However, its potential wasn’t used in its full extent. That’s why we recommended to add up to 3 per month Viber* messages to standard SMS marketing campaign.For regular website visitors, we introduced Push-notifications (2+ per month).
*Viber is a popular instant messenger in Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and some Asian markets.
Push Notifications
Through collaborative filtering of products, we implemented a new recommender system trigger. The system assorted products by factors of customer interaction with the online store and other key parameters.
After the successful launch of the ‘Roulette’ lead magnet we decided to perform similar activities regularly to gather contacts and improve engagement.
Before the holidays, we developed a content plan for emails which would be sent at specific days: Defender of Ukraine Day, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year. We included games and discount codes for interaction in email marketing series. Subscribers who have opened all emails during the year received a discount code.
Especially to the annual sale on Black Friday, we developed a roulette widget for email series. This type of lead magnet positively affected customer base growth earlier, which inspired us to improve it. Subscribers who already wasted their attempts could get a new one in exchange for an invited email friend.
To increase audience engagement after the high holiday activity, we ran thematic emails with game elements. Thus, the series ‘Rebus’ was launched as a lead magnet. Users could collect keys in several emails and enter them on a specific website page. If the code was correct, the user received a discount code, if not — an invitation to a website section with deals as a consolation prize.