The green shoots of email marketing...

One of our top highlights from 2018 was working with Tom Raffield, one of the UK's leading luxury lighting and furniture brands, to produce a creative multifaceted email marketing program announcing the launch of their new innovative steam bent indoor planters - the Green Range - and celebrate the brand's attendance at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Framed around the question "Can you guess where we are going?" we created a series of emails that saw engagement rates double and were described by industry commentator Really Good Emails as having "hit gold in terms of boundary pushing design and functionality."

Strategy

We approached the brief with a three tiered strategy: Brand Engagement via a stunningly visual email programme reflecting the brand's innovation; Data Collection & Marketing Automation via live data capture on-site and subsequent user journey; and Post-Product Launch Sales Comms via segmented post-event campaigns to drive sales.

We drew inspiration from Tom Raffield's innovative design and replicated this with our email campaign. We wanted to surprise and delight the brand's advocates and give them reasons to re-engage. We used this creative platform to spread key brand messages across a range of emails. And, as part of the campaign Tom Raffield received an updated custom HTML template to bring the emails completely on-brand and in line with the website, further strengthening the consumer journey from email to website.

Solution

As Tom Raffield were looking to do so much over a short period of time, it was important to create a campaign that treated each objective with respect and didn't dilute any messaging, while coming across as an integrated and coherent programme.

With the very first email, Tom Raffield's customers were teased - the question was posed "Can you guess where we're going?" and an innovative and interactive technique was used to allow people to 'scratch off' areas of the email to get clues. With this email, the scene was set: there was something very special coming up - and recipients were urged to solve the puzzle.

We were able to align the Chelsea messaging into a teaser of the Green Range, by offering tickets to Chelsea as part of the launch.

The event itself utilised on-stand data capture through the method of a prize draw, by using iPads on the stand for people to enter their details. There was a series of three automated emails spaced two days apart, welcoming these new sign ups to the brand and more specifically, the Green Range. The live data capture mechanism used on-site had technological fall-back in case internet connectivity was lost, and was secure in the event of a data breach.

Post event, there were two different consumer journeys: one with a campaign to those who were unsuccessful in the Green Range prize draw with links to products. The second was a Chelsea roundup email with a strong focus on the Green Range and links to purchase.

Results

Open Rates for the automated email journey increased to an average of 56.09% (min 47.4%, max 63.46%), up from 20.69% before the event.

The CTR for the email marketing programme increased to an average of 19.29%.

As the overall campaign objective was to raise brand awareness about the new product range in line with attendance at Chelsea Flower Show, direct ROI figures were not expected, however the client was extremely satisfied with the engagement and contribution the email marketing channel contributed to the overall success.

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If you're looking to take your email marketing to the next level in 2019 then we're here to help. We create market-leading intelligent email marketing campaigns designed to deliver the right content at the right time to the right audience.

You might want to use our expertise for specialist help, like setting up marketing automation programmes or carrying out a data audit, you might need us to look after the deployment of your emails or you might just want us to help you with everything from list management to the design and content of your emails.

Whatever your email marketing needs, we've got them covered. And with 15 years of experience under our belts, we're proud to be one of the leading independent email marketing agencies in the UK. If you'd like to find out more, we'd love to talk to you.