Australian-based Howards Storage World, a specialist storage and home organization retail business, has an award-winning loyalty program that currently has about 320,000 members. But Howards Storage World sought to engage its membership base with tailored and compelling email and SMS communications to drive foot traffic and in-store purchases.
According to a case study from Experian Marketing Services, Howards Storage World (assisted by Experian) implemented a national marketing communications campaign aimed to engage its membership base by drawing on behavioral insights and customer data.
The campaign has resulted in more than $250,000 in revenue and up to 48% redemption rate in vouchers.
“The results are compelling and show that online and offline engagement remains an effective approach for retailers,” the case study says. “The business now plans to roll this program out across all of its stores. Additionally, an ongoing database cleanse was performed which yielded over 450 sales and enabled Howards Storage World to ensure members are not overwhelmed with irrelevant marketing campaigns.”
Before the campaign, Howards Storage World had a large database made up of a range of customers with diverse purchasing behaviors, many of who had not fully activated their memberships, the case study says. The first challenge was to re-engage customers with varied customer profiles including members that had not shopped for 12 months or more.
What’s more, nearly one third of members had not fully activated their memberships. The challenge was to incentivize customers to activate.
The campaign used CheetahMail and Experian’s expertise of creating tailored content to engage diverse customer profiles. The campaign aimed to increase revenue, incentivize further sales from active members and increase awareness of the benefits of the loyalty program among non-activated members.
Simon Wickson, CRM Manager of Howards Storage World, said in the case study that the company wanted to draw on the data in its member database and use this to improve marketing efficiency, identify which campaigns were the most effective, and drive in store sales.
“We strive to only send content to people who are engaged with the brand,” Wickson said. “We are very mindful of bombarding our members with irrelevant marketing communications. From a business perspective, we believe it is wasteful to send emails and SMS messages to certain members groups who have not responded for 18 months or more.”
Subsequently, Howards Storage World segmented its members into five categories, based on behavioral insights and levels of engagement. These categories ranged from ‘super members,’ who regularly shopped in store to ‘non-active’ members, which included those who had not activated their membership.
Targeted and personalized communications were developed for each segment based on customer behavior and data. These automated marketing communications were tailored across existing channels that are already used by Howards Storage World and were sent via CheetahMail.
The results?
To effectively engage the different segments, 35,000 vouchers of $10 and $20 were sent through the CheetahMail platform. Howards ‘super members’ received a $20 voucher. Here are the results:
• 34% voucher redemption
• Average spend was 16% higher than non-members
• Increase in revenue of over $105,000
• Positive customer interactions with store owners
• Members who were ‘surprised and delighted’ to receive their vouchers
According to the case study, the best results were seen within the ‘semi dormant’ membership group, as the majority of additional sales are considered incremental:
• Over 1,500 vouchers redeemed in this group
• Average spend was 37% higher than non-members
• 16% more than super members
• Increase in revenue of $108,000
What’s more, a database cleanse was performed to ensure members were not overwhelmed by irrelevant marketing campaigns and adhere to data protection regulations.
The campaign resulted in more than 450 incremental sales for the business. It has also resulted in cost savings of about $8,000, which would have been used for SMS/email marketing communications over the next six months.
“We are delighted with the results of the trial campaign driven through our partnership with Experian Marketing Services,” Wickson added. “We have generated incremental revenue, created positive in-store interactions, and now have an ultra-healthy database which will lead to further cost savings for the business. We now plan to roll out the campaign nationally in all of our franchisee and company-owned stores.”