Inactive Email Subscribers: Tips for Taming the BeastInactive email customers and subscribers are potentially the largest pain in the posterior of many digital marketers today. However your organization defines "inactives," they often can comprise one-third to one-half of your database. These unengaged subscribers are costing you significant resources: money, time, potentially inbox deliverability and, most importantly, revenue.In this Webinar, Carey Marston, email marketing manager with SmartPak, presents a case study on how they've attacked the non-engaged challenge' and Silverpop's vice president of industry relations Loren McDonald covers several aspects and ideas for dealing with the inactivity beast, including:Defining what is an "inactive"Determining root causes of non-engagementSteps to minimize inactivity"Activating" never-engaged subscribers earlier in the processSegmenting types of inactivesReactivation tactics and programsWhen/whether to suppress inactives
Citation preview
1. Inactive Email Subscribers: Tips for Taming the
Beast#SPOPWebinar
3. Agenda Framing the Challenge SmartPak Overview Action Plan
Summary/ Q&A
4. Framing Todays Topic
5. Remove your inactives; Send less email! Dont removeyour
inactives; Send more email!The Inactives Debate
6. Inactives are about human behavior not deliverability.
7. Goal for this Webinar Get you to think a littledifferently
about inactives
8. 1. Reactivate early 2. Automate/Programs3. Focus on
mimimization
9. Why Do You Care About Inactives?
10. Inactives Are a HUGE Issue
11. Typical Actives vs. Inactives Ratio
12. Impact of Inactives Lost potential revenue
Inefficiencies/Reduced ROI Fuzzy metrics Potential reduced
deliverability
13. Retailer X Inactives Challenge450,000 Subscribers 40%-50%
Inactive (no opens + clicks for 12 months) 200K-250K
non-responders
14. Hypothetical Revenue Loss Actives Inactives # Subscribers
250,000 200,000 Average Revenue Per $0.12 Email Delivered 4 X week
X 53 weeks $6.4M ~ 212 emails Potential Lost Revenue $5.1M
15. SmartPak Program Overview
16. About Our Email Program ~1MM emails sent, per month Email
Volume Transactional Email generates 34% of all online Promotional
& Triggered Email, 11% marketing channel revenue Email, 89%
Healthy transactional and triggered email program drives high
return Email team comprised of: Email Marketing Manager Email
Revenue Transactional Email Designer & Triggered and three
businesses to support! Promotional Email, 37% Email, 63% In 2010,
launched 11 automated campaigns with Silverpop, growing revenue 40%
year-over-year 16
17. SmartPaks Email Program Framework Email Channel Promotions
Transactional Lifecycle SmartPaks On-Hold SmartPaks Newsletters
Confirmation Welcome Order Confirmation Order Reminder Offers
Shipment Abandoned Cart Confirmation SmartPaks SmartPaks On-Hold
Confirmation/Welcome Today, 26 transactional Post Purchase and
lifecycle emails per Password Review day, and 10+ promotional
Recovery emails per month Credit Card Failure SmartPaks Up-sell
Notification SmartPaks Cancel Confirmation 17
18. SmartPak: Inactives History Became aware of impact in 2007
Analyzed database = ~50% inactive Tested suppressing inactives =
exact same number of opens/clicks
19. SmartPak: Current View Win-back = Revenue opportunity
Potential deliverability impact Reach through other channels
20. SmartPak: Current Inactive Definition NoNo Opens 6+ Months
Purchases 40%-45% of database
23. Why Recipients Go Inactive Never fully engaged - just
wanted the incentive Interests / needs have changed Content did not
meet expectations Emails are being routed to junk folder You send
too often for their taste You send un-personalized, irrelevant
emails Long sales/purchase cycle Inability to update email address
/ change preferences
24. Determine Root Causes Are certain acquisition sources
producing a higher rate of inactives? Has increased frequency
numbed them? Is your email program stale and boring? Are you
attracting the right audience? Are you delivering against
expectations? Do you have deliverability issues?
25. Analyze By list source Age on file Customer segment/profile
Subscriber survey responses Creative test results Response by
message type/frequency changes
26. Action Plan Define & Segment
27. Defining Inactives Sample Parameters Email activity (opens
& clicks) Time on list Purchase/Conversion activity Web
site/Other channel activity Sales/Purchase cycles/Seasonality
Customer value/Ideal profile
28. All Inactives AreNot Created Equal
29. SmartPak: Analysis/Definition
30. Understand Your Inactive Segments More Potential? Less
Potential? Past customer Never purchased Organic Opt-in Sweepstakes
Recent purchase Long ago purchased High customer value Low customer
value Engaged in other No engagement channels anywhere
31. Are inactives worth keeping? Do we treat segments of
inactives differently?
32. Predicting Subscriber Value Potential Leading online
retailer Suppressing inactive subscribers Hypothesis that high
value potential subscribers existed among inactives Leveraged third
party data (purchase behavior, demographics, etc.) and advanced
modeling to predict Subscriber Value Potential.
33. Approach & Results Segmented inactive Campaign Revenue
per subscribers by Value Subscriber Potential and conducted $0.18
reactivation test 8.4x Results: High vs. Low $0.02 segment 1.8x
higher Open Rate Low Potential High Potential Segment Segment 8.4x
higher Revenue per subscriber
34. Action Plan - Reactivate
35. Typical Reactivation Rate: 1%-2% High Performers: 10%+
36. Re-engagement Series - Incentives
37. Re-engagement Series Results Performs poorly (as expected)
5.8% Open rate 1.8% click through rate 1-2 orders per fiscal
quarter Non-responders are removed
38. Tell us what you want
39. LinkedIn: Reduced Frequency
40. SmartPak: Attempt #1We miss hearing from you!As a valued
customer and subscriber to our e-newsletters, you are the first
tolearn about new products, promotions, sales and
healthcareinformation. Dont miss out on all of this valuable
insight that comes straightto your email inbox. If you prefer to
receive your e-newsletters at a differentemail address, please
click here to update your profile.We hate to see you go! But if you
choose to no longer receive our e-newsletters, please click here to
unsubscribe. We hope to hear from youagain soon.As a thank you for
being our valued customer, please use this code (xxxx) toapply free
shipping to your next order with us.- Your Friends at SmartPak
41. #2
42. #3
43. SmartPak: Reactivation Metrics Metrics Reactivation Other
Emails Bounces 3% - 7% 0.57% Open Rates 3% 18% Reactivated 13,000
so far AOV $111.19 $119.09 Avg Rev/Email $0.06 $0.20
44. Action Plan - Automate
45. Automate: Activate Early Inactives New subscribers dont
open/click first XX messages/X weeks Move these early inactives
into activation track Send survey, different offers; best of, diff
subject lines, testimonials, etc.
46. Sample Month 4 and Month 7 Program Broadcast emails: 3-5
per week No activity for 3 months moved to reactivation track Month
4: 1 email per week UpdateSweepstakes Unique Offer New Brands
Preferences Month 5-6: Normal 3-5/week Month 7: 1 email per week
Promote other What You Are Unique Offer Survey channels
Missing
47. Action Plan Minimize
48. The best reactivation strategy is to minimize inactives to
begin with.
61. Remove, suppress or retain? Send less Treat differently
Retain Monitor reactivation Have resources to deal with
Deliverability Business decisions / low value Remove subscribers
Cost/Resource Savings Make sure they are truly inactive
62. Takeaways / Q & A
63. SmartPak: Some Lessons Learned OK to suppress Most
inactives ARE inactive Right definition/approach is key Be
careful
64. SmartPak: Whats Next? Early activation/automation Testing
Track the life of inactives More behavior-based automation
65. Takeaways Dont ignore inactives be proactive Focus on
minimizing Automate reactivation, rather than one-offs Test and
Analyze
67. Resources Resource Center White papers Webinars Blogs Case
studies Newsletters
http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/index.html Many
presentations on SlideShare www.slideshare.net/Silverpop
68. Thank you! On Twitter:
@Silverpopwww.slideshare.net/silverpop www.silverpop.com