We’ve recently launched the User Engagement Top 100 Subscription Retailers report as the latest addition to our growing collection of industry reports. We give you an insider’s look at the omni-channel marketing tactics of the 100 biggest players in the subscription box game, showing you what works and what doesn’t when it comes to captivating your customers’ attention.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing our insights on how subscription retailers communicate with users across email and mobile channels. Each week we focus on one unique part of the customer experience (below) and share some of our most meaningful findings.
- Welcome campaigns
- Blast campaigns
- Re-engagement campaigns
- Mobile messaging
This week, we look at the onboarding of new users by evaluating the welcome emails that companies send to create a good first impression. Our featured findings are found in the infographic below.
We were surprised to see that only 68 percent of these companies sent welcome emails to their newest members.
Even more eye-opening was the observation that only 19 percent of those emails were installments of a longer running welcome series.
Looking deeper into the data, 72 percent of companies sent a single email, and 21 percent sent out a second follow-up email. Only 7 percent delivered a welcome series of three or more emails to their new subscribers.
When it comes to industry, the Lifestyle brands were the most frequent adopters of welcome emails at an 88 percent sent rate.
Food & Drink companies followed closely behind at 76 percent, trailed by Fashion brands at 68 percent. Beauty & Grooming subscription retailers were the least frequent at 40 percent adoption.
Dive into the full report if you’re interested in more subscription retail trends.
From our findings, we’ve identified five great tips that you can implement today to begin elevating your customer experience!
Address to Impress
- Create a multi-touch welcome series — Even if you don’t get past this tip, you will have made an impact!
- Personalize the outreach — And that means going beyond, “Hi [First Name]” Use real-time behavioral data to customize campaigns.
- A/B test early and often — Experiment with subject lines, CTAs and creative.
- Get sophisticated with segmentation — Target by age, gender, location and more.
- Respond to engagement in real-time — Then iterate on your results. Don’t waste hours or days waiting for legacy technology to update.
Remember, you’ve just sealed the deal and are communicating with your newest brand advocate — think past the point of sale and leverage this opportunity to start the relationship off on the right foot. Early engagement will quickly help build brand advocacy and increase retention rates down the line.
Tune in next week: we’ll dive into how subscription box retailers are using blast emails to keep their customers coming back for more.