Case Study: Boosting ROI with Fewer Email Addresses

An ever-expanding email list doesn’t always mean you’re reaching more people. About 30 percent of people change their email addresses every year, and some reports estimate more than 70 percent of email marketing lists are comprised of inactive subscribers.

Just as pruning a grapevine allows the most viable branches to grow stronger, trimming your email database allows you to cultivate better relationships with more responsive customers. For the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA), this translated into a 738 percent return on investment in email alone.

As the second-largest performing arts center in the country, the DCPA entertains more than 750,000 patrons with Broadway hits, cabaret shows and local plays. Its customer database had grown to 550,000 email subscribers, but it knew very little about them, Chief Marketing Officer Jennifer Nealson said in a Marketing Sherpa article. As a result, the DCPA blasted its subscribers with a one-size-fits-all approach.

To target its customers with more relevant messages, the DCPA turned to Email Intelligence. It first cleaned out more than 220,000 email addresses that turned out to be duplicates, cutting its list by 30 percent. The DCPA created unique customer lifestyle segments based on the demographic and purchase data it had received. It then turned its focus to customers who had not visited the center in the last two years, pinpointing those most likely to return based on transaction history, seasonality, ticket price classes and length of stay in residence.

Using this data, the DCPA targeted its 40,000 most viable lapsed subscribers with a three-part campaign that offered them a discount to come back. By the end of the year, the DCPA experienced some remarkable results:

• A 738% ROI from email alone
• A 210% increase in clickthrough rates
• A 95% decrease in opt-outs
• A 90% decrease in spam complaints

At a time when crowded inboxes are causing more and more customers to opt out, the DCPA used the insight it gained from customer data to target patrons who were most likely to respond. This is only the beginning of a strategy that yields significantly better results.

“We are very, very dedicated to looking at data as the core information source to guide us in the way in which we market,” she said. “That idea of relevance, it isn’t just a buzzword- it’s a minimum requirement if you want people to communicate with you.”

TowerData’s three major services allow you to automate email processes while still speaking to your individual subscribers. With Email Intelligence, learn more about what matters most to your customers so you can reach them in a more personal way.

Improve your delivery with Email Validation by fine-tuning your list, removing up to 95 percent of bad email addresses. And grow your list by attaching email addresses to postal codes with Email Append.

TowerData’s tools allow you to target your marketing efforts to transform bounced emails into big results. For more information on how TowerData’s services can improve your email marketing, contact us today.

Photo Credit: LendingMemo