bmibaby Email Marketing Case Study

Email Marketing Best Practices Send Results Soaring

How Are you Engaging with Customers?

Or this?

The real result.

Agenda

• The email marketing landscape• Strategic solutions• Best practices that work• The bmibaby story

The Email Marketing Landscape

Background

• Silverpop Survey of email marketers

– 4 out of 10 marketers reported their email budgets for 2010 would increase

• Biggest challenges included “inbox clutter” and “providing timely and relevant content”

• Irrelevant messaging is the #1 reason for email opt-outs

Inboxes are Crowded

• More marketers embracing email’s effectiveness and high ROI (twice the ROI of any other digital channel)

• Consumers will receive more than 9,000 email marketing messages a year by 2014

Spam accounts for 29% of the inbox

Messages from friends represents 34%

Opt in messages accounts for 25%

Messages from school/work is 8%

Other messages represent 5%

Source: JupiterResearch/NPD Consumer Survey (4/08), n = 2,427; JupiterResearch/Ipsos Insight Consumer Survey (9/07), n = 2,454; (9/06), n = 2,147; JupiterResearch/Ipsos Insight Individual User Survey (6/05), n = 3,944 (e-mail users)

Anatomy of the Inbox

The Consumer is King

Consumers are: • More informed than ever • Taking brands into their own hands• Seeking out relationships• Asserting more control over brands• Expecting companies to participate in

dialogues

Relevancy is Key

• Lack of relevancy the No. 1 reason people unsubscribe

• 20% email marketers cited "providing timely and relevant content" as a challenge

Dolla

rs G

enera

ted p

er

Month

(in t

housa

nds)

NB: Metrics and salary costs are based on a Forrester executive survey. Based on 2.8 million pieces of email per month, CPM ranges grow with program complexity, assuming $39 AOV and 40% product margin.

No TargetingWebsite Analytics Targeted Social Targeting0

200

400

600

800

1000

$159

$540

$664

$840

$40

$185$239

$306

Monthly Revenue

Source: Q1 2009 Global Email Marketing And On-Site Targeting Online Survey

Relevancy Delivers

Strategic Solutions

• Understand individuals

• Achieve anticipation instead of interruption

• Seek consumer feedback

Listen as Much as You Speak

Keep Them Tuned In

• Consumers are indifferent to brands that are indifferent to them

• Creative content alone is no longer enough

• Marketers must participate and nurture an interactive relationship

Keep Them Engaged

Targeting A one-way conversation

Engagement A two-way interaction

Why Engage?

• To increase customer lifetime value (38%)?

• To increase the value the company delivers to the customer (34%)?

• Correct answer: Both

Best Practices that Work

• What types of content do users want?

• And how do they want to receive it?

Let Customers Shape Marketing

Offer Choices During Registration

U.K. North America0

10

20

30

40

50

46%33%

Series 1

• Email address update/password update • Current email subscriptions

– Newsletters, solo offers, company news, third-party offers

• Content or interest preferences– Skiing versus snowboarding, cycling versus running

• Message format– Text, HTML, mobile-optimised HTML

• Frequency (higher and lower)• Update communication channels

– Email, RSS feeds, direct mail, SMS)

• Unsubscribe options (for individual mailings or for all)

• Demographics: gender, locale, birthday, position

Types of Choices

Unsubscribe -> Preference Centre

U.K. North America0

10

20

30

40

50

28%40%

Series 1

• Email subscriber interest begins to disintegrate as soon as two weeks after the opt-in

• Test Frequency– Analyze differences in open and click

rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribes

• Send time optimisation

Send Enough, at the Right Time

Emails Received in 30-Days

>30

21-29

16-20

11-15

5-10

1-4

0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

3%

2%

5%

17%

32%

25%

15%

3%

30%

47%

20%

U.K.North America

Go Social

• Understand your brand advocates Who they are What motivates them How they are different

• Deliver content they are most likely to share (‘Sharability’)

• Share-to-Social

Normal email campaign

Share-to-Social helps expands virally

Remember the Brand

• Re-iterate the brand in your subject line

• Personalize where appropriate

Personalised Subject Lines

U.K. North America0

5

10

15

11%

4%

Series 1

“An offer just for you, %%firstname%%”

Analyse, Analyse, Analyse

• Arm yourself with data

• Review data across multiple channels

• Focus on measurements that impact results

Open Rates

Open Rate (Unique) Average Top

Quartile

     Overall 22.1% 28.4%

US 20.7% 26.8%UK 22.5% 33.3%

Germany 19.5% 30.7%

Click-Through Rates

Click Through Rate (Unique) Average Top

Quartile

Overall 4.3% 5.3%US 4.1% 5.0%UK 4.6% 6.2%

Germany 4.7% 6.5%

Click-to-Open (Effective Rate)

Click-To-Open Rate Average Top

Quartile

Overall 18.5% 26.5%

US 19.0% 27.5%

UK 18.0% 26.1%

Germany 18.0% 28.6%

The bmibaby story

Who are we, baby?

• Low cost airline launched in 2002

• Fly from four U.K. bases to over 30 UK and European destinations

• Aim to put the fun back in flying!

• Highly competitive market

• In-house email program required significant IT involvement

• Deliverability issues

• Desired more sophisticated email program

Challenges

• Clean up data• Build a preference centre• Send targeted emails• Lifecycle programs• Encourage social sharing• Be consistent with personality and

value reminder

The Solution

Data Cleansing

• Remove undeliverable email addresses

• Consider new approaches for inactive subscribers

• Reward engaged subscribers with unique programs and offers

Data Cleansing- bmibaby

• Removed data that was over 1 year old

• Reactivation and invigoration campaign

• Over time refined list to a group of active recipients

Preference Centres

• Move from marketer-centric to customer-centric approach

• What do subscribers want? Ask them

• Fine line between enough choices and too many

Preference Centres- bmibaby

• bmibaby’s welcome message leads to preference centre

• Choices: Preferred departure airport Favorite destinations Weekly offers Latest price alerts

Targeted, Triggered, Transactional

Consumers say:• Transactional messages are the type

most worth reading• 6 out of 10 consumers say they don’t

mind receiving marketing messages included within transactional emails

Transactional Emails- bmibaby

• bmibaby transactional emails are triggered by recipient action:

Flight booked

Confirmation email Travel Reminders

Lifecycle Campaigns

• Personalised messaging• Target specific segments• Groups to Consider:

New customers Engaged customers Lapsed customers

Welcome email

Promotional emails

Transactional messages

Lifecycle Campaigns- bmibaby

Social Sharing

• Changed the way people interact• Shifted relationship between

companies and customers• Tool for gathering product

information• Increase in reach of over 24

percent through social sharing

Social Sharing- bmibaby

Rise Above the Noise

• 35 percent of email subscribers open messages because of what’s in the subject line

• Including company/brand name in subject line can result in over 30% more opened emails (a 7 point jump in open rates!)

• Silverpop has found that only about half of marketers follow this best practice

Be Yourself, Baby

• It’s good to have you on board, baby

• The offer has landed, baby

• bmibaby sale: Up to 40% off Every Route, Every Flight

• An above-average 35 percent newsletter open rate

• 50 percent increase in social sharing

• Strong commercial results and high ROI

The Results

• Email remains a core digital tool for connecting with customers and driving ROI

• Email that’s targeted, relevant and timely uniquely engages customers

• Test subject line branding and personalisation

• Use social media links, opt-out alternatives and sales or discount incentives

• Remain respectful but attentive

Remember

Thank you!

Will Schnabel• Email: wschnabel@silverpop.com• Twitter: @wschnabel

Marie-Clare Dixon• Email: marie-

clare.dixon@bmibaby.com• Find me on LinkedIn