Lose 1 million for experimenting with email newsletters or We proved it
It would seem quite obvious - if you send a letter to an online store subscriber, take the trouble to make sure that it contains goods that interest him. For example, those that he viewed on the site, or products close to those viewed. And here it is necessary to take into account - if the recipient made a purchase, you can offer related products, and if not - viewed and similar, and related products to remind yourself and return user interest. Mass mailing without taking into account the history of user search is a loss of a part of profit.
Obviously? Yes! Is this happening all over the place? Not!
I have been subscribed to the mailing lists of about 15 stores where I visit periodically, look after goods, and sometimes make purchases. And from all these stores letters come to me - once a week, three times a week and more often. And these are just letters. Almost all of them do not take into account my interests in a particular product group. I looked at the coat, but haven’t bought it yet - on the newsletter they offer shirts, sweaters, shorts ... and not a single coat. I looked at things for the infant - I received a letter with an action for schoolchildren. And the list goes on. Bottom line: none of these stores bothered to send goods relevant to my interests. What should be my reaction? Probably unsubscribe. Of course, I do not unsubscribe, but only because I myself work in this area and treat my colleagues with respect.
The idea of personalizing product offers in the mailing lists of online stores did not leave me for a long time. And so an experiment was conducted to test the idea that letters with relevant products work better than with randomly selected ones, i.e. randomly.
Relevant Products vs Random
I want to be honest and notice - our service, on the basis of which the experiment was conducted, is engaged in trigger and behavioral mailings. What is significantly different from mass mailings. But the parallels and dynamics of changes in values can be traced. (For reference: at the time of this writing, only in 2015 we sent 1,663,379 letters).
To conduct the experiment, four groups of letters were taken, differing in the method of selecting the sentences contained in them:
The experiment was conducted on the basis of subscribers of three sites, letters were sent to 6,000 recipients, 1,500 letters for each group. The letters differed only in product groups, but otherwise were identical. Next, we calculated the percentage of conversion of the letter, that is, how many orders were made from the number of delivered letters.
Results:
Conversion by letter group on the sporting goods website
Group 1. Conversion 17%
Group 2. Conversion 8%
Group 4. Conversion 7%
Group 3. Conversion 3%
As you can see, letters containing goods that are relevant to the interests of users of the online store gave the highest conversion rate, while emails containing no products at all are the lowest.
Conversion by groups of letters on the clothing website
Group 1. Conversion 21%
Group 2. Conversion 11%
Group 3. Conversion 10%
Group 4. Conversion 4%
The situation is repeated - letters without product offers are practically not converted at all, but the conversion from letters with goods relevant to the interests of users exceeded the percentage conversion on the website of sports goods, amounting to 21%.
Conversion by letter group on the furniture sales website
Group 1. Conversion 13%
Group 2. Conversion 5%
Group 3. Conversion 5%
Group 4. Conversion 2, 5%
On this site letters with relevant goods also performed well, while other groups of letters showed an equally low conversion rate.
If we make calculations, we can see that this experiment cost us dearly. With the sending of letters for each group, in addition to relevant products, we lost a large percentage of conversion. But in general, more than 1000 orders were lost - that same million.
From all this we can conclude: no matter what the conversion of the newsletter, it is always about twice as high if it was a newsletter with relevant goods. According to numerous studies and statistics on Runet, the average percentage of conversion of mass mailings is 1% or even less. And our experiment clearly showed that it could have been much larger if the letters contained relevant goods. It may be necessary to work 4 times more for this efficiency, but it's worth it.
We offer the simplest example of a scheme by which you can act. We make a selection on the basis of:
1. The visitor spent some time on the site, but did not complete the purchase.
2. At this time, the site launches the action "Discount on smartphone." We check which visitors viewed smartphones.
3. We do mailing to these addresses with a notification about the action.
4. We consider options for other proposals using the same algorithm.
5. For those who made a purchase - we offer related products in the mailing list.
6. By analogy, we make subsequent selections for other promotions and news.
7. At the remaining addresses we do mass mailing, as usual.
We also offer several recommendations on how to increase the efficiency of mass mailing with the help of relevant products:
1. Example: if a client periodically buys stationery from you, but ignores mailings with souvenir products, this does not necessarily mean that in no case should you send letters with offers on an uninteresting group of goods. There is an alternative - you just need to start the letter with relevant information, and offer the rest below. The bottom line is that the mass mailing should be on the topic to which the subscriber once showed or regularly shows interest.
2. Do not forget that sending offers with relevant goods can further motivate the recipient to purchase. And to do this is quite simple: offer a sitter for the viewed / related products or the next purchase, gift, bonus. There is a likelihood that such an offer will encourage the purchase of a recipient who was on the site but did not complete the target action.
3. Some statistics. According to a study by Marketing Sherpa, mailing for re-orders gives - attention! - 53% conversion. This is a very high rate. We draw conclusions: periodically remind regular customers of the need to replenish stocks of products. This item is more relevant to shops selling products, supplies, stationery, etc., but to one degree or another it can be applied in some other areas.
4. Cross-sell recommendations or related products. The numbers speak for themselves here too - such offers in newsletters increase the transaction rate by 20% compared to mailings without related products. A customer bought a microwave? Offer him a set of fireproof cookware. Bought a mobile phone? You may need a case. The logic works - it’s more convenient to buy in one store, and if you offer a discount or bonus, the likelihood of making a second purchase increases significantly.
5. New items. Example: A visitor bought an IPhone in your online store. Perhaps later he will be interested in the appearance of a new version of this phone. So, you already have two reasons for sending out - first, offering accessories for your first purchase and, after some time, entering the new store. And if you offer a small discount, this will be an additional motivation.
We hope our experience and recommendations will help make your newsletter more effective.
Obviously? Yes! Is this happening all over the place? Not!
I have been subscribed to the mailing lists of about 15 stores where I visit periodically, look after goods, and sometimes make purchases. And from all these stores letters come to me - once a week, three times a week and more often. And these are just letters. Almost all of them do not take into account my interests in a particular product group. I looked at the coat, but haven’t bought it yet - on the newsletter they offer shirts, sweaters, shorts ... and not a single coat. I looked at things for the infant - I received a letter with an action for schoolchildren. And the list goes on. Bottom line: none of these stores bothered to send goods relevant to my interests. What should be my reaction? Probably unsubscribe. Of course, I do not unsubscribe, but only because I myself work in this area and treat my colleagues with respect.
The idea of personalizing product offers in the mailing lists of online stores did not leave me for a long time. And so an experiment was conducted to test the idea that letters with relevant products work better than with randomly selected ones, i.e. randomly.
Relevant Products vs Random
I want to be honest and notice - our service, on the basis of which the experiment was conducted, is engaged in trigger and behavioral mailings. What is significantly different from mass mailings. But the parallels and dynamics of changes in values can be traced. (For reference: at the time of this writing, only in 2015 we sent 1,663,379 letters).
To conduct the experiment, four groups of letters were taken, differing in the method of selecting the sentences contained in them:
- The goods in the letter are relevant, that is, corresponding to the interests of the visitor on the site
- Items in the letter are randomly selected
- The goods in the letter are popular, that is, from the list of the best-selling on the site
- There are no goods in the letter, it contains only a call to return and make a purchase
The experiment was conducted on the basis of subscribers of three sites, letters were sent to 6,000 recipients, 1,500 letters for each group. The letters differed only in product groups, but otherwise were identical. Next, we calculated the percentage of conversion of the letter, that is, how many orders were made from the number of delivered letters.
Results:
Conversion by letter group on the sporting goods website
Group 1. Conversion 17%
Group 2. Conversion 8%
Group 4. Conversion 7%
Group 3. Conversion 3%
As you can see, letters containing goods that are relevant to the interests of users of the online store gave the highest conversion rate, while emails containing no products at all are the lowest.
Conversion by groups of letters on the clothing website
Group 1. Conversion 21%
Group 2. Conversion 11%
Group 3. Conversion 10%
Group 4. Conversion 4%
The situation is repeated - letters without product offers are practically not converted at all, but the conversion from letters with goods relevant to the interests of users exceeded the percentage conversion on the website of sports goods, amounting to 21%.
Conversion by letter group on the furniture sales website
Group 1. Conversion 13%
Group 2. Conversion 5%
Group 3. Conversion 5%
Group 4. Conversion 2, 5%
On this site letters with relevant goods also performed well, while other groups of letters showed an equally low conversion rate.
If we make calculations, we can see that this experiment cost us dearly. With the sending of letters for each group, in addition to relevant products, we lost a large percentage of conversion. But in general, more than 1000 orders were lost - that same million.
From all this we can conclude: no matter what the conversion of the newsletter, it is always about twice as high if it was a newsletter with relevant goods. According to numerous studies and statistics on Runet, the average percentage of conversion of mass mailings is 1% or even less. And our experiment clearly showed that it could have been much larger if the letters contained relevant goods. It may be necessary to work 4 times more for this efficiency, but it's worth it.
We offer the simplest example of a scheme by which you can act. We make a selection on the basis of:
1. The visitor spent some time on the site, but did not complete the purchase.
2. At this time, the site launches the action "Discount on smartphone." We check which visitors viewed smartphones.
3. We do mailing to these addresses with a notification about the action.
4. We consider options for other proposals using the same algorithm.
5. For those who made a purchase - we offer related products in the mailing list.
6. By analogy, we make subsequent selections for other promotions and news.
7. At the remaining addresses we do mass mailing, as usual.
We also offer several recommendations on how to increase the efficiency of mass mailing with the help of relevant products:
1. Example: if a client periodically buys stationery from you, but ignores mailings with souvenir products, this does not necessarily mean that in no case should you send letters with offers on an uninteresting group of goods. There is an alternative - you just need to start the letter with relevant information, and offer the rest below. The bottom line is that the mass mailing should be on the topic to which the subscriber once showed or regularly shows interest.
2. Do not forget that sending offers with relevant goods can further motivate the recipient to purchase. And to do this is quite simple: offer a sitter for the viewed / related products or the next purchase, gift, bonus. There is a likelihood that such an offer will encourage the purchase of a recipient who was on the site but did not complete the target action.
3. Some statistics. According to a study by Marketing Sherpa, mailing for re-orders gives - attention! - 53% conversion. This is a very high rate. We draw conclusions: periodically remind regular customers of the need to replenish stocks of products. This item is more relevant to shops selling products, supplies, stationery, etc., but to one degree or another it can be applied in some other areas.
4. Cross-sell recommendations or related products. The numbers speak for themselves here too - such offers in newsletters increase the transaction rate by 20% compared to mailings without related products. A customer bought a microwave? Offer him a set of fireproof cookware. Bought a mobile phone? You may need a case. The logic works - it’s more convenient to buy in one store, and if you offer a discount or bonus, the likelihood of making a second purchase increases significantly.
5. New items. Example: A visitor bought an IPhone in your online store. Perhaps later he will be interested in the appearance of a new version of this phone. So, you already have two reasons for sending out - first, offering accessories for your first purchase and, after some time, entering the new store. And if you offer a small discount, this will be an additional motivation.
We hope our experience and recommendations will help make your newsletter more effective.