During her insightful presentation at Think Summit Europe, Rachael Thornton from Boden delved into the intricacies of the brand’s cutting-edge email strategy. She astutely highlighted the immense potential of personalized content, which has been proven to yield a remarkable 30% surge in conversion rates.
At Movable Ink’s Think Summit in London last month, Rachael Thornton, the Head of CRM for Boden, emphasized that “We don’t just sell clothes; we sell feelings.” That’s precisely the essence of Boden’s digital marketing strategy.
This is precisely the context for Boden’s mission to enhance personalization in its CRM campaigns, as the brand aims to optimize email communication that deeply resonates with its customers while simultaneously maximizing email deliverability.
Thornton engaged in a conversation with Alison Lindland, the Chief Marketing Officer of Movable Ink, to discuss Boden’s internal Customer Relationship Management (CRM) operations. The focus was on Boden’s approach to effectively managing the delicate balance between personalization and maintaining a strong brand identity. Additionally, the discussion delved into the accomplishments Boden has attained thus far through the implementation of this strategic approach.
Maximizing efficiency is a fundamental goal that we prioritize in our digital marketing strategy.
Email marketing plays a pivotal role in Boden’s comprehensive marketing and communications strategy. According to Thornton, the brand efficiently executes approximately 40 distinct digital marketing campaigns on a weekly basis, targeting seven different markets. It is worth noting that customer relationship management (CRM) plays a significant role in driving approximately 15 to 20% of the overall website traffic.
A potential customer in the women’s fashion industry, for instance, can expect to receive a maximum of seven promotional emails per week as part of our digital marketing strategy. However, the success of this strategy relies on factors such as the trading calendar, the promotional calendar, and the level of engagement with the email.
Boden efficiently manages its CRM operations with a compact team of seven dedicated professionals, ensuring all tasks are handled internally. Thornton elaborated, “That includes the comprehensive process of strategizing the email calendar, giving clear instructions for copy and creative elements to our in-house studio, painstakingly crafting artwork for each individual email and tailoring versions for specific markets, followed by the meticulous construction and seamless delivery of these emails directly to customers’ inboxes.
Boden’s trigger programs are a key area of emphasis in our digital marketing strategy, as they require significant investment in terms of time and resources. So, for instance, upon placing your initial order, you will be seamlessly enrolled in Boden’s exclusive nursery journey, comprising of approximately eight strategically timed communications spread across a span of several months. And then leverage the power of digital marketing to exponentially scale our presence across all diverse markets we operate in.
As a forward-thinking digital marketing team, our primary focus is to optimize response rates while streamlining processes to ensure maximum efficiency. We constantly strive to enhance our strategies and minimize complexities, aligning with our core objective of driving impactful results.
Optimizing the potential of trigger emails to maximize your return on investment
Boden’s previous newsletter strategy followed a standardized approach that aimed to cater to a wide audience. According to Thornton’s explanation, this implies that “a unified message would be visible to all customers.” Whether that’s discussing the exciting launch of a new product, highlighting the captivating story behind a specific product – be it luxurious knitwear or trendy denim – or even showcasing the latest sales and promotional events.
Although personalization is lacking, Thornton emphasized that these campaigns compensate for it to some extent through the substantial number of email sends.
However, in the grand scheme of things, she persisted, “The ROI per email campaign is significantly higher for our automated trigger programs compared to our newsletter emails.”
Boden’s cutting-edge trigger programs are strategically designed to align with the customer’s lifecycle, ensuring maximum engagement and personalized experiences. As an illustration, certain email campaigns are strategically crafted to entice dormant customers, while others are strategically tailored to initiate a post-purchase expedition, leveraging insights from their previous category of purchase.
“Because they are so relevant and arrive on time, we expect a much higher revenue percentage from trigger emails than from non-personalized newsletters—over 100%,” Thornton said.
One challenge, however, is that Boden’s trigger campaigns have a limited reach and scale in the realm of digital marketing. According to Thornton, our team’s primary objective was to leverage the potential of personalization and relevance in trigger campaigns, while also capitalizing on the extensive reach of newsletters, in order to drive revenue growth.
Personalized emails have been proven to generate a significant 30% increase in conversion rates (CVR).
According to Thornton, the solution lies in developing templated email newsletters that incorporate dynamic content blocks for enhanced personalization. As an illustration, these email campaigns frequently emphasize top-performing product categories, featuring items curated from the sections of the catalog that have been previously or frequently purchased by customers.
Intriguingly, Thornton emphasized that personalized emails may not consistently outperform in terms of click-through rate in the realm of digital marketing. “[However] the area where we observe a significant increase is in conversion,” she stated. It is crucial to note that this analysis only focuses on the user’s most recent click after they successfully navigate to the website. The data at hand reveals a remarkable conversion uplift of approximately 30% for customers who have clicked through from a personalized email, surpassing the conversion rates of non-personalized emails.
This optimization significantly enhances the efficiency of email campaigns, resulting in improved performance and higher conversion rates. When analyzing the revenue per send metric, we observe a significant 30% increase in generated revenue.
Enabling seamless collaboration between brand, product, and creative teams to embark on an immersive personalization journey.
In addition to perpetuating their CRM personalization endeavors, Thornton emphasized that her team’s objective is to “engage the business in the digital marketing journey.” This entails maintaining personalization as a central priority while also effectively communicating the product or brand narrative, which aligns with the broader company’s strategic objectives.
Moreover, we understand the utmost significance of effectively showcasing personalized content to our valuable customers. It is imperative to avoid making assumptions solely based on our denim-focused campaign this week. Instead, we strive to cater to their specific interests and preferences.
It’s about seamlessly integrating the brand, creative team, and product team into our digital marketing journey, while effectively showcasing the immense potential of personalization.
