Case study: 450% upgrade of a ctr 450% thanks to a welcome program

When a user decides to sign up to our email marketing programme, we must focus on fulfilling their expectations, start bonding with them and take advantage of their increased willingness to interact with our brand.
The development of a good welcome programme is one of the best tools we have at our disposal in the initial phase of the user lifecycle.
In this post we present the case of SavvyMom.com to illustrate the advantages of this type of programme.

BACKGROUND
SavvyMom is the leading content website for mothers in Canada. As an information medium, its economic model is based on advertising. As such, it is essential to maintain an active subscriber base that opens, reads and interacts with the emails and other digital content. In fact, 95% of its revenue comes from advertising through the newsletter.
SavvyMom had a base of 55,000 mothers in Canada in 2012. Once registered, subscribers receive a weekly newsletter and 3 monthly emailings of different types.
After analysing the behaviour of their users, they realised that a high percentage of them were not aware of all the services and alternatives offered by the site, such as the possibility of signing up for one of the 5 special editions in 5 different cities, or the existence of specific contents (Family Life, Wellness and Health and Natural Lifestyle).
 
ACTION
Since its inception in 2005, SavvyMom had not updated its welcome email, so it did not reflect the evolution of the portal since then.
In the following four steps, the process of changing the welcome email to a more comprehensive welcome programme is outlined.
 
Step 1
The first decision taken was to replace the welcome email with a series of 3 emails. Aware of the oversaturation of emails received by their users, the programme managers established a cadence in which the first email is received in real time, the second 10 days later and the third 10 days after the second.
The first email aims to thank the user for subscribing and to let them know about the other digital channels where they can interact with the community (Facebook and Twitter).
 
The second email seeks to amplify the level of user experience of SavvyMom's content. This includes access to three basic site tools: the internal search engine, the choice of a specific city and how to find recent articles.
The third message explains to the user the three types of Newsletter she will receive for being part of the SavvyMom community: EatSavvy (suggestions and leisure and restaurant plans), ShopSavvy (with offers and promotions) and PartySavvy (with information on birthday celebrations and children's parties).
Step 2
There are two ways to register on SavvyMom: the registration form on the site or by participating in a competition in which the user becomes part of the community by taking part. The personalisation in the welcome email takes into account the origin of the registration, including the name of the users who have registered via the website, or by including a reference to the competition through which the user became part of the SavvyMom list.
 
Step 3
The design of the initial Welcome Email was revised, including images that users could identify with. In addition, a zigzag distribution of the cal to actions was made throughout the body of the message, thus facilitating rapid user interaction.
 
Step 4
Creation of an area at the end of the email with links to the main areas of the site. The idea is that users who have not interacted with the contents of the newsletter will have the opportunity to do so with the website. Intentionally, these links have been left in text so as not to distract the user from the main content.
 
RESULTS
The new welcome programme meant 450% increase the number of unique clickers by 450%. compared to the original welcome email. While only the first email in the series outperformed the original in terms of open rate, all three improved the click-through rate of the original by more than 2%.
In addition, 11,04% of the users who read the second or third email in the series did not read the first, thus increasing the number of users who interacted.
Comparing the behaviour of clients who were discharged 6 months before the new welcome programme was introduced with those who were discharged 6 months later, it was found that those in the second group had an overall open rate (including all newsletters) 63% higher than the first, and a click-through rate 117% higher.
 
Source: MarketingSherpa