Sports Retailer Case Study. Sales Growth From Email Due to Segmentation

About the Project

A large sports retailer approached us because the email channel did not bring sales.

The contact base was ~36,000. Users were collected online and offline via:

• subscription form on the website,
• offline registration in the loyalty program (a person fills out the form at the cash register and gives it to the seller),
• an order form with consent to mailings.

The email campaigns were conducted irregularly. There was no segmentation or personalization, although the contact profiles were sufficiently enriched with data for this purpose, including gender, age, and first and last name.

Even without systematic promo campaigns, performance rates were quite high. On average, the campaign had about a 25% open rate and a 7% website click-through rate.

Tasks

Achieve sales from the email channel by using personalization and gender segmentation in promotional campaigns. Teach the audience to buy from email newsletters.

Solution

Personalization in the Subject Line

Two-thirds of the contacts in the database had names. We decided to substitute the name in the subject line to test whether it would really improve the conversion rate.

To test this, we identified three segments with roughly comparable numbers of contacts:

• "No Name"
• "With Names (Part 1)"
• "With Names (Part 2)"

We received ~8% more email opens with personalized subject lines than without it.

However, when we looked back at previous campaigns where no contacts were addressed by name, the "No Name" segment had always had a 6% lower open rate than contacts with names.

Conclusion: the benefit of using the name in the subject line is minimal (+2% to opens) and did not bring sales.

Dynamic Blocks

Yespo has the ability to display certain blocks in an email depending on the data in the contact card. Almost half of the subscriber base had information about gender, so we decided to use dynamic blocks. This is also a convenient way to avoid creating unnecessary templates and segments in the account.

For the banners we want to display automatically, we need to specify a gender check with Velocity variables. This is done when preparing the letter for mailing after layout. The block substitution to the necessary contact is performed when the recipient opens the email. This is how we implemented showing banners based on the contact gender. Women were shown blocks of products for women, and men were shown blocks of products for men.

For the campaign with dynamic blocks, a segment of contacts with the specified gender and at least 1 email view in 3 months was prepared.

We got a boost in click-throughs and opens due to personalization and segmentation, but sales were still zero.

When we started searching more deeply, we found that male customers with rewards cards were opening newsletters but still buying offline. Women didn't buy from emails at all. That is, the letters worked for information and recognition but had no positive effect on the purchase. People didn't see email as a convenient way to buy, and we needed to entice the audience to buy another way.

Letters Segmented by Gender

We decided to extend the segments of men and women as automatically as possible. You can do this in one click by using the "Add Gender" function in "Settings" → "Lab." If there is a complete form of names in the database (e.g., Carry, Fiona), Yespo determines the gender automatically and stores it in an additional field.

A certain percentage of contacts were still without gender, and we assigned them to women. We prepared letters to the selected segments in the following structure:

Thus, the letter for men was dominated by men-only products, while women and "gender not specified" included generalized content.

With this campaign, the ice was broken: we received 17 sales from the female audience.

But the men didn't respond with a purchase — the analytics still showed a zero.

Email Campaign Before March 8

March 8 was coming, and we wanted to get as many sales as possible through this date. Since men mostly buy gifts for women on holiday's eve, attracting men's attention with something in the campaign was essential to stimulate them to buy. We tried to find a human approach to men’s pain.

A week before March 8, women were sent the usual promotional email:

And in the letter for men, we emphasized 3 points:

• We have a stunning promotion for women;
• Home delivery certificates are available;
• Have you already prepared your gifts? Then, buy something for yourself from the comfort of your home. If it doesn't fit, return it to the courier right away. Pay only for what fits.

It was the last 2 points bet on, as it wasn't obvious and hadn't been used in letters before.

As a result, more than 40% of men clicked on the "-40% off on men's products" banner.

16.7% of males were converted into 8 purchases and 35.3% of females — into 16 purchases.

Although the letter was about gifts for women, men were open to buying something for themselves at a bargain price. Thanks to the loyal return conditions, they began to trust online shopping more.

Results

We did not achieve sales by creating a campaign with personalization in the subject line and dynamic blocks. Emails started to sell after we began sending emails with developed content for each segment: women and men. Out of four campaigns done this way, we achieved 41 sales. Women received 2 emails from which they made 33 purchases, and men — 8.

Conclusion

Don't be afraid to try and test hypotheses in practice. If you have a large base, send segmented campaigns to control groups and find an approach to your audience. Read our case study on how to increase the number of active customers by 20% through segmentation.

You can start with the simplest segmentation, which will already generate revenue. For more complex ones, please contact us by requesting Yespo agency services.

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