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Last week the Windsor Circle team exhibited and spoke at Silverpop Amplify 2013 in Atlanta GA.  There was a heavy emphasis on marketing automation, particularly around linking buyer personas to digital automation strategies. It was widely agreed that purchase history data is a key element of creating buyer personas and customer segments.

Joe Fivash of CafePress Services joined Windsor Circle CEO Matt Williamson for our workshop, "9 Pillars of Retention Automation".  They first highlighted a recent report by Forrester which virtually screams out for better retention marketing automation:

• Only 8% of eCommerce website visitors on average are returning purchasers (2 total purchases) or repeat purchasers (3+ purchases).
• Those 8% of visitors create 41% of revenue.
• 15% of US retail marketing budget is spent on email marketing, which is one of the best ways to create repeat purchasers.
• We estimate that retailers can get 2.5 x the ROI from email marketing with full retention automation.

While IR100 retailers are seeing 94% inbox placement, most other retailers are seeing worsening deliverability - only 82% of emails on average are getting to the inbox - meaning 1 of 5 go straight to spam.  With Windsor Circle's help, CafePress was able to see 10-40% higher open rates on a test series of both segmented single-sends, and automated retention emails.  This lift, made possible by data-driven personalization, segmentation, and automation, is a key part of keeping retail emails out of the spam folder.

Key metrics for retailers in the early stage of an eCommerce business are often # of Subscribers, Open Rates, Conversions, and Revenue, but as individual retailers, and the industry as a whole, evolve, the key metrics must also evolve to include Share of Wallet, Customer Lifetime Value, and Retention Rates.

Unveiling the 9 Pillars:

We unveiled our new framework for helping retailers of all types understand and execute on retention marketing automation to keep more of their customers.  Starting with "Know Your Customers" and "Get Permission to Retain", the 9 Pillars describe the key phases of the customer lifecycle while pinpointing the tactics and strategies best suited to increase CLV and share of wallet through personalization, segmentation, and automation.  If you're intrigued, sign up for our "9 Pillars of Retention Automation" Webinar on June 19th!

 A Note About Green Pants...

When 4 guys exhibit at an email marketing conference wearing the brightest green pants you can find, people take notice.  We decided to amplify our brand at Silverpop Amplify by all wearing "Green Pantakeets", ordered from Windsor Circle client Bonobos.com, and the feedback was fantastic.  Everyone at this 600 person conference knew who we were, and it was a great conversation starter.  You'll likely see our team in the green pants again at IRCE and beyond.  Thanks Bonobos for proving that its pays to stand out!

We're having a blast as we claim the mantle of "Center of the Retention Automation Universe!"  Part of that journey is committing to a fun team culture.  In the past two weeks, we've had the team showing up at partner conferences proudly sporting client Bonobos' green pants! 

We also volunteer once a quarter with local non-profits to make the community we work in better.  Our most recent was with Habitat for Humanity of Downtown Durham... Read More

We're excited to launch our new website today.  Many thanks to Knurture and NewMedia Campaigns and our dedicated marketing team for this timely upgrade.  We hope you enjoy the new look, and have an easy time finding what you're looking!  We'd love to hear your comments, feedback, and suggestions.  Simply contact us through the site and share away!

For comparison and posterity's sake, we've captured a screenshot of our old site below. 

On March 19, 2013, Windsor Circle co-hosted a webinar with Silverpop, a market leader in email marketing and marketing automation, to walk through the 10 Most Effective Retention Marketing Strategies for Digital Marketers.  Andrew Pearson presented with Loren McDonald, Silverpop's Vice President of Industry Relations, and Nathan Decker, Ecommerce Manager at Evolucion Innovations (Evo.com), a joint-client of Silverpop and Windsor Circle.  Nathan, by the way, just gave a great talk at eTail West on how Evo is automating more of their email marketing by leveraging the purchase history data provided by Windsor Circle's platform, and the email capabilities of Silverpop.

What You Can Learn From Tostitos and Ping Pong Balls

I was shopping with my son this weekend, and in between attempts to keep him from putting every sugary item in the store into our cart, I came across a great example of Market Basket Analysis.

Market Basket Analysis is a powerful, but simple concept.  A marketer analyzes what shoppers are putting in their carts to see what items go together based on consumer behavior.  They then use this analysis to optimize merchandizing and marketing decisions. 

Here's a quick example from this weekend's shopping trip showing Market Basket Analysis and cross-merchandizing in full effect.  Note the ping pong balls in this picture.  Not in the sports section...  not in the toys section....   but in the chips and dips aisle.

For those of you who have enjoyed a nice game of Beer Pong on occasion (Beirut, anyone?), this correlation makes absolute sense.... especially given the proximity of this store in Durham, NC to Duke University, which likely has several thousand eager Beirut players on any given weekend!  It turns out that people who are up for a fun party often buy chips and dips, and, in a college town, often play beer pong as well.

Online retailers who are serious about keeping their customers should use this form of retention analysis and retention automation to drive customers back to their sites.  When someone on your site buys a top seller, what are the 3 most correlated things that they are likely to buy next?  Have you set up an automated message to make sure they see those great cross merchandizing messages?

We have a customer that had done this for an entire series of product categories and has seen their email ROI jump from $20 ROI on batch and blasts to $65 on product specific emails, triggered at the right time.  This stuff works, and it helps drive repeat buying behavior, so that you can keep your customers.

We've reviewed hundreds of emails sent by online retailers between Jan 15 and Feb 14th in prior years (plus recent emails from 2013) to find examples of great Valentine's Day themed email campaigns, excellent Valentine's promotions and offers, and well-executed Retention Marketing strategies that leverage Valentine's Day.  Check out some of our finds:

Simple, Cute Imagery

Seriously, this one is just too cute.  Moonstruck Chocolate happens to be a Windsor Circle customer, but that didn't give them a special pass to get picked for this blog post - their imagery, color scheme, and message is just too cute.  You don't have to sell chocolates to pull this one off - you could do something similar with two socks, two spatulas, two of anything - just add googly eyes!

Cheeky-yet-Loving Customer Appreciation

Here's a nice example of a Valentine's email from an online retailer that doesn't sell traditional Valentine's gifts - a sporting good company, Arcadia Sports.  These guys had me at their subject line: "Because Chocolates Melt & Flowers Die".  The baseball themed, hand-drawn heart is a nice touch too.  It's a cheeky-yet-lovable way to share their love with customers.

Get Customers to Share Preferences, Write Reviews

I really like Zulily's strategy above.  Their subject line read "Be a Not-so-secret Admirer", sent on Feb 13th, 2012. The colors are spot-on (notice the matching of the little girl's outfit to the image), the little girl shines through with personality, and the strategy is adroit:  The three brands featured have clickable hearts, and Zulily is using this to determine customer-brand preferences and affinity.   A retailer could take a similar approach, or instead leverage Valentine's Day to solicit reviews.

Use Magic to Convert One-Time Holiday Shoppers

The above example from eBags last year used the subject line "Open your Mystery Valentine ♥ You may find 50% off inside".  I like the use of the "heart" symbol in the subject line.  It made it stand out in our inbox. Just don't go overboard. The box was actually an animated graphic, where the lid comes off when you view the email.  The use of a "mystery" coupon is nice - just beware deflating people's expectations if it truly is variable.  This campaign aims to motivate immediate action, being a one-day-only sale.  This would be a great promotion to motivate a second purchase from One-Time Holiday Shoppers.

Reward your Customers

This email campaign from ShoeMall leads with a nice slogan: "Get Something Naughty, take 20% off your entire order".  It also includes a prize opportunity at the bottom (win 2 pairs of shoes).  The color scheme is nice, the font is romantic, and shoes in the spotlight are bold and good complements to the message.  This is a nice example of a "reward" style campaign that works well with Best Customers.

Last Minute Gifts for Procrastinators

Smiley Cookie did a good job with this email, subject line of "Last Minute Valentine's Gifts!", to motivate last-minute gift giving.  The product display is nice, and I like how there is a heart floating in front of the "Order Now!" button.  I'm not a big fan of the font, but the "It's Not Too Late" message is a great bold reminder.  This kind of campaign can be sent specifically to Procrastinators, people who ordered from you between Feb 1 and Feb 13 in the past.  Smiley Cookie sent this email out on Feb 9th.

Show Inventory in a Romantic Way

I think onecall did a nice job making hearts out of cameras.  It makes an electronic item feel a bit more romantic!  I think they could have done a much better job with their text message, but the font and colors are nice. 

Be Clever, Highlight Brands, Recommend Products, & Leverage your Data!

Bed Bath & Beyond did a great job with this email, sent on Feb 3rd, with the subject line "Make dinner, not reservations".  It was timed very well - with 11 days before Valentine's, the email invites customers to consider making dinner at home instead of making dinner reservations - using a brand-spanking new set of knives, of course!

I love the use of chopped vegetables in the "Fall in Love" text.  It should make any retailer wonder what inventory items you can use to spell out messages in your emails.  I also like the double entendre - you could visualize a romantic dinner for yourself or your sweetie, or a nice set of new kitchenware as a gift for yourself or your partner.

This email is a great example of effective brand-focused marketing, perhaps leveraging co-op marketing dollars.  If you're going to promote a specific brand through a campaign like this, see if you can get some marketing dollars or discounted inventory from the manufacturer or distributor.

What we at Windsor Circle really love about this email is the use of individual product images, descriptions, and order buttons.  With our software, any retailer can send personalized product recommendations:  Windsor Circle's retention marketing automation platform imports product, customer, and purchase history data from a merchant's eCommerce platform directly into their email marketing software. 

A retailer could go a step further than Bed Bath & Beyond and personalize product recommendations using merge tags to pull in image-links, descriptions, pricing, and order-links directly from custom fields in their email account.  You could suggest Valentine's gifts based on related items or brands a customer has purchased in the past.

We hope that the above examples, ideas, and reflections help you make Valentine's Day at the heart of your retention marketing strategy, and win even more of your customers hearts, opens, clicks, and dollars.  And, don't forget about our Valentine's Retail Webinar on Thursday, Jan 24th, 2013, at 1:00 pm EST, or check out the recap if you miss it. 

For a growing number of online retailers, Valentine's Day is a key revenue driver.  And a wider range of products are being purchased by consumers as Valentine's gifts.  The standard gift selection of chocolates, roses and fine dining has expanded to include e-readers, online gift cards, and yoga-wear as perfectly acceptable (and in some cases, more desirable) for Valentine's Day. (Check out our other blog article on "Great Valentine's Email Promotions & Campaign Examples" for more inspiration) 

And for any retailer, even those whose product line isn't traditionally "romantic", the lead up to Valentine's Day offers an important post-holiday opportunity to share the heart of your business with customers. You don't have to sell Viagra to have a compelling offer on Valentine's!

Valentine's Day represents the heart of retention marketing, offering a perfectly timed opportunity to reward and retain more of your best customers and biggest spenders, convert your one-time holiday shoppers into more valuable repeat buyers, and win back your churning customers.

This year, make Valentine's Day at the Heart of your Retention Marketing Strategy.

With 4 weeks to go before V-Day, retailers are already starting the heart-themed marketing machine.  Google Offers is leading with the subject line "Wow 'em this Valentine's Day".  Offers.com states "get sweet deals for your sweetheart".  We at Windsor Circle suggest a strong focus on retention marketing over the next 4 weeks, particularly to key segments like your best customers, biggest spenders, churning customers, and new holiday customers. 

Rewarding your Best Customers

Windsor Circle defines a Best Customer segment (the "WC_Best_Customers" list in your email platform if you're using our software) by those in the top quartile of purchase recency, frequency, and monetary value.  Basically, those customers who shop the most, have shopped most recently, and are among the highest average order values.  In RFM Analysis terms, your Best Customers are R1, F1, M1.  (learn about RFM by downloading our RFM Analysis Whitepaper)

A strong Valentine's retention marketing strategy includes a hearty special offer to your best customers, or, if you don't do discounts, an extra personalized thank you e-card from the CEO. Discounts or specials should reflect the monetary value that these customers represent, and encourage them to keep spending at the highest range.  For example, get $50 off when you spend $150 - tie the cash or percentage discount to a minimum order value.  And, consider messaging like "We deeply appreciate your business", or "We're offering the sweetest deals to select customer sweethearts - like you!" 

Most importantly, build a series of email creative which communicates a truly heartfelt message that connects the customer to the story of your business.  This is the time to share a great moment in your company's history, a personal message of appreciation, or an aspiration for 2013.

And, like ShoeMall did in this landing page below, don't forget to highlight your most Valentine's-appropriate gifts, and theme up your emails and landing pages with evocative colors, "IHEARTYOU" coupon codes, and spicy language.

Converting your New Holiday Shoppers into Repeat Buyers

"Our holiday elves were thrilled to fulfill your order.  Now, our {company name} cupid has a special gift for you." 

At its essence, Valentine's Day is the first culturally-validated shopping event after the holiday season when consumers are ready to treat themselves or their loved ones.  If they shopped with you for the first time during holidays 2012, then through Valentine's Day (Feb 14th), they will likely be in the 30-90 day window during which most retailers must convert a one-time shopper to a repeat buyers, or risk losing them for good.  (ps, you can use Windsor Circle's eCommerce Analytics software to determine the optimal number of days in which to make this conversion)

You'll want to build a custom segment using purchase history, where the number of total orders = 1, and the date of purchase was between Oct 31 and Dec 31. (I include the days after Christmas because some first-time shoppers have come to you after receiving a gift card.  Hopefully you captured their contact info!).  

If you want to do advance targeting, you may want to exclude shoppers who spent less than a certain amount, or came from a source which typically produces customers with low lifetime value or margins - particularly if you choose to offer a discount to induce conversion among these one-time holiday shoppers.

We'll be sharing a lot lot more about these and other segments, strategies, and messages on our upcoming webinar:

Valentine's Day Retail Webinar

Together with WhatCounts, one of our integration partners and email marketing service provider, we're hosting a Valentine's Day Retail Webinar on Thursday January 24th at 1 pm EST to demonstrate great examples of Valentine's email campaigns, along with the strategies and techniques to identify key customer cohorts so you can segment your messaging, all within a strong Valentine's theme that emphasizes the heart of your business.

We're limiting this webinar to 50 participants, but we'll notify anyone who doesn't make the cut-off of a repeat webinar at another date.

Sign up today, and spread the love!

I've been crunching numbers in our analysis of full-year transaction data from 2012 compared to 2011 in preparation for our first Annual Retention Marketing Report, and discovered some really interesting data on revenue by day of the week.  Consider this a sneak peek into the type of insights we'll be sharing in our Report, to be released later this month. (Click here to sign up to receive the Report)

We've aggregated the transaction data from across our client base, which represents in total over half a billion in revenue in 2011 and 2012, and tallied up revenue by day of the week.  While there are many reports about when online retailers are sending their emails, less data exists about when online retailers see actual revenue by segment... so we're excited to identify and share some retention marketing trends emerging among our eCommerce clients:

The chart above shows the percent of 2012 revenue from One-Time buyers (in blue) and Repeat buyers (in red) by day of the week.  You'll notice that all revenue skews towards the beginning of the week, with Mondays and Tuesdays performing best, followed by Wednesdays through Friday, with Saturday and Sunday taking up the rear.

• Mondays led in both share of 2012 One-Time revenue, at 17.8%, and share of Repeat revenue, at 19.6%. 
• Saturday and Sunday both fell at around a 10.5% share of 2012 One-Time revenue, and about 8.5% of Repeat revenue.

The difference in purchasing habits of repeat customers is more pronounced that in one-time shoppers:  Repeat buyers - i.e., more loyal, returning customers - tended to spend more earlier in the week, and spent more than twice as much on Mondays and Tuesdays as they did on Saturdays and Sundays.

The spending habits of one-time buyers - people who have only ever made one purchase from a given eCommerce website - was less skewed.  One-Time buyers spent 1.6 times more on Mondays and Tuesdays as they did on Saturdays and Sundays.

You might wonder whether particular days of the year skew the data - for example Cyber Monday and Black Friday.  To check for the impact of any outliers on the trends above, I looked through the revenue numbers for each day of the year, and identified specific dates where the revenue from One-Time or Repeat buyers was about 3 or more times the median revenue of that day of the week. 

For example, Cyber Monday and Monday, Dec 17th were both exceptional revenue generators from One-Time buyers in 2012, with the revenue on each of those days more than 3 times the median revenue generated across all Mondays in 2012. Cyber Tuesday and Black Friday were two other dates that skewed the revenue data for both One-Time and Repeat buyers on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The chart below shows the Share of Revenue by Day excluding 11 such "Outlier" dates:

There were a total of 7 outlier dates for One-Time buyers, and 4 for Repeat Buyers, which skew the data - but only slightly. Revenue from Repeat buyers on Mondays and Tuesdays, excluding the outlier dates, was still nearly doubled that of Saturdays and Sundays.  For One-Time revenue, the gap closed to 1.4 times when comparing these same days.  The exclusion of the outlier data made Wednesdays and Thursdays a closer third and forth place in terms of share of 2012 Repeat buyer revenue.

Why the differences in revenue by day?  My assessment is that loyal, returning, repeat customers tend to act faster on email offers received early in the week (and on Thursdays for offers they receive on Wednesdays), and tend to "catch up" faster on shopping goals they may have set over the weekend.  I think there is a slight dip on Wednesday when people experience the mid-week "hump-day" effect.  

One-Time buyers are more likely to be web browsing or bargain hunting over the weekend, or searching online for items they've just looked at in their brick-and-mortar weekend shopping excursion.  My hunch is that when we look at revenue by source (search, PPC, email marketing, etc...), we'll uncover some other insights about where that weekday vs. weekend revenue is coming from.

Shameless Plug: If you're interested in learning which dates of the year tended to perform particularly well - or poorly - for One-Time and Repeat buyers, sign up to be the first to receive the full Annual Retention Marketing Report.  We'll also aim to correlate email send data to this revenue data.

For those of you who like to see the data spreadsheet-style, I've included the percentages by day and segment below, with the full set of data, plus the data excluding the 11 outliers.

Windsor Circle's eCommerce Analytics software helps our clients see the trends in their business, including when revenue lands by day of the week, by hour of the day, by traffic source and by segment.  And once you see the trends, you can quickly implement strategic, segmented email campaigns by leveraging the purchase history data from your eCommerce platform that our Connect & Automate software imports into your email marketing software.  If you'd love to get access to this kind of analysis of your own eCommerce / online retail business, feel free to get in touch!

Our recent Twitter Chat, hosted by ExactTarget, saw a frenzy of Twitter activity as retailers, email marketing professionals, and eCommerce service providers added their answers to the questions, "How do you Retain your Holiday Customers?"

All year long, retailers have been building their subscriber list, their followers and fans, and working to convert 2011 holiday shoppers into repeat buyers.  And since September or earlier, online retailers have spent a lot of time, money, and effort to drive traffic to their websites during the 2012 holiday season. Hopefully a decent portion of this traffic has converted into a first time buyer, or at the very least, a subscriber.  The results from the first major holiday period, Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, are in, and the numbers are exciting.  Checkout questions and answers from our #ETCafe in this article.