Brief
My role in this project was as a consultant. My responsibility was to evaluate an existing email marketing strategy, recommend improvements, and measure the results of the next campaign we sent out together. The goal would be to generate more revenue on the next campaign than the previous.
Client
The client manufactures and sells their own prescription eyewear. Products consist of eyeglasses, safety glasses, sun glasses, etc. The client is a family-owned and operated business that was founded in 1915. The production process is done on-site (manufacturing, packaging, marketing, and sales). Products are sold wholesale and through various retail e-commerce websites.
Benchmark
I would need to know how much revenue the client generated over the course of the last few campaigns. I would also need to see what the email marketing campaigns looked like. I reviewed the
- subject lines
- visual design
- date and time
- click-through rates (CTR)
- open rates (OR)
- conversion rates
- sales (# of products, total revenue)
I analyzed the email marketing tactics and juxtaposed them with the revenue earned from the previous campaigns.
Solution
I made the following recommendations:
- Subject lines: the previous subject lines included phrases that may have sounded like spam such as “30% off!” and “Get your discount code now!”. Instead, I used subject lines like “Get a new pair of shades for summer…” and “You’re a valued customer. Here’s a gift…”
- Text-based email: the previous emails included large HTML graphics that were difficult to read and hard to understand how to take action. Instead, I wrote the email in plain-text. The purpose of this is to give the impression that the email was sent personally from my client to their customer. Plain-text emails seem less threatening and more human.
- “From” name: the previous emails would arrive to a customer’s inbox so that the email said it was from the name of the company. Instead, I changed the “From” name to be the first and last name of the Vice President. This encourages a person to open their email because they think it is from a real person rather than an automated email marketing platform.
- Call-to-action: the previous emails included several calls-to-action which makes it difficult for a customer to decide what to click on. Instead, I removed all options for the customer and gave them one call-to-action.
- Personalized signature: the previous emails did not include a signature from anyone in the client’s company. Instead, I included a personalized email signature that stated the email was being sent from the Vice President. Being that the email was written in plain-text as a message directly from the VP to the customer it helps convince the recipient that this message was just for them.
Outcome
After making a few tweaks, we sent out the next campaign and achieved the following results:
| METRICS | Previous Campaign | My Campaign | Total Increase |
| Unique Opens | 1281 | 2348 | +83% |
| Unique Clicks | 162 | 452 | +179% |
| # of Sales | 31 | 48 | +55% |
| Total Revenue | $3,524 | $6,019 | +71% |
Simply changing the subject line of the email along with a few other minor tweaks, and the next email we sent generated nearly twice as much revenue as the previous. Mission: Accomplished.
This ten day project paved the way for a 2-month on-site engagement.
Building the Marketing Department
Within a few days following the success of the email improvements, I was offered an exciting role to build out their new in-house marketing department from the ground-up. I haven’t unpacked this larger case study yet. Until I do, here’s a quick rundown of what we did next:
I worked with the CEO and VP on strategy, developed the infrastructure needed for the department to run on its own without outsourcing a consultant to manage it, cross-trained existing employees, hired and developed new employees to take on emerging responsibilities, setup a microsite builder for the marketing team to launch niche sites and landing pages as needed, and more. I had a lot of fun on this engagement.