Client: Beadaholique
Vendor: Bronto Software Inc.
OBJECTIVE: Beadaholique, an e-commerce site that sells beads and jewelry making supplies, wanted to take advantage of its recently launched social media pages to acquire the email addresses of new and existing customers.
The objective was to help the company grow its email list by integrating email with social media. “Social is the face of our company, and email is one of the strongest ways for us to drive weekly sales,” says Beadaholique CEO Chris Bellomo. “We wanted to use social to help drive new customer acquisition and sales through the email channel.”
The e-tailer also aimed to increase the effectiveness of its emails by using data to send more personally targeted messaging.
STRATEGY: Beadaholique enlisted North Carolina-based digital marketing service provider Bronto Software to help revamp its email program. The two companies worked to optimize the retailer’s welcome messages, test subject lines, create retargeting campaigns, and integrate email with social media.
To help grow its email list, Beadaholique created a customized email sign-up form on its Facebook page asking fans to opt in to receive emails featuring messages about sales, how-to videos, details about special contests, and more, in exchange for a $5-off coupon. At the same time the company used email to help build up its social network awareness with a message that encouraged subscribers to “Share and Win! $500 in Prizes,” with links to share the message on Facebook and Twitter or via email.
“These things really do work together once you have all the pieces in place,” Bellomo says. “There is a synergy that happens. When you start to get traction in one, it helps promote the other. You get that flow happening between social and email, and you begin to see that one helps the other to build momentum.”
The social sharing serves as an endorsement of sorts, as well. “A friend telling someone that you should love their business is drastically more effective than a business telling you that you should love a business,” adds Kestrel Lemen, marketing strategist at Bronto Software. “Social can really validate your brand.”
RESULTS: The social channel integration proved to be a successful way to grow Beadaholique’s email list. Email acquisition through Facebook more than doubled after the e-commerce retailer began the effort. Additionally, email recipients frequently shared the social email content using forward-to-a-friend, Facebook, and Twitter; the social sharing increased by more than 150%, with social views reaching more than 10,000 people.
“[The channels] begin to work together to keep a flow going,” Bellomo says. “Integration is a useful way to keep customers engaged and involved with your brand.”
The success was due in part to its customers’ enthusiasm for social interaction. “[Beadaholique’s] audience is very active on social channels and customers get together offline, so we thought that it would feed into a natural behavior that the audience was already participating in and that turned out to be correct,” Lemen explains. “It is important to evaluate your audience and make sure a social channel makes sense.”
The email revamp worked, too. The new welcome messages helped the company increase click rates by 40% and conversions increased five times compared to Beadaholique’s prior welcome message. By optimizing subject lines, the e-tailer saw a 17% increase in open rates and a 5% increase in conversions. After revamping its email program, Beadaholique’s revenues from email re-mailing increased to 15% of its total email marketing efforts.
