How Namecheap Started Their Multi-Million Dollar Email Marketing Program With Iterable

Namecheap, a leading domain registrar—second only to GoDaddy in size—faced considerable challenges with scaling their email marketing program. With over 10 million customers and more than 17 million domains under management, Namecheap’s mission is centered around helping small businesses build their online presence.

After scaling to a user base in over 18 countries, they realized their email marketing program was remarkably underdeveloped. As described by Clinton Wilmott, the Senior Email Marketing Manager at Namecheap, their strategy involved sending a single, generic newsletter every month, using an outdated platform that lacked segmentation, personalization, and performance tracking capabilities.

As Namecheap sought to revamp its email marketing program, a modern platform that could drive more personalized experiences at scale was crucial. Clinton explained their rationale for choosing Iterable: “As a technical marketer, I found Iterable to be very flexible with getting multi-source data into the platform. Being able to then easily activate this data to personalize our communications in an efficient way made it an attractive option.”

Iterable revolutionized Namecheap’s approach to email marketing by evolving from batch- and-blast newsletters to a more curated approach. A critical aspect in this transformation was Iterable’s Catalog feature, which allows Namecheap to quickly create targeted campaigns at scale with minimal resources, starting with their weekly domain auction newsletter sent to their VIP domain investors, a segment identified by customer RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) scoring. This RFM model gives a higher monetary score to users based on recency of a purchase and the quantity of domains purchased. Users with a higher monetary score are considered champions.

The goal of the newsletter is to drive engagement and sales within the auctions by getting their champions to bid on domain names and complete a purchase. Clinton estimates it would take them up to seven days to create and launch this initiative without Catalog. Now they can do it in less than 24 hours. Here’s how:

• They’ve created a database of image assets in a library on their server, representing specific products or domains.
• These image assets and associated data, including what the domain is, the market time, and price are then uploaded into a Catalog.
• Catalog’s collection builder allows them to rank the position of the domains within the newsletter, based on the dates the auctions are ending or the value of the domain bids.

In the next phase of their Catalog usage, Namecheap plans to identify user segments based on the domain extension purchased (a URL ending such as .com or .net) and then personalize their campaigns based on these segments.

Clinton highlighted the Catalog impact, stating, “We grew our email marketing from zero to a multi-million dollar program using Iterable, which is really incredible.”

Namecheap also saw impressive results using Iterable AI. “By integrating Send Time Optimization (STO) in combination with more curated campaigns using Catalog, our year-over-year engagement lifted by up to 20%, despite sending emails to fewer customers,” said Clinton.

• The ‘product cards’ in their Summer Sale launch are powered by Iterable Catalog and are personalized based on product ownership.
• The reminder email is sent to create urgency and is typically deployed within the 24 hour period before the sale ends.
• Both these emails are sent using Send Time Optimization (STO).

One of the most exciting prospects for Namecheap using Iterable lies in their upcoming initiative involving the integration of customer RFM scoring with Iterable’s Catalog.

Additional RFM segments include potential high value customers and those who are a churn risk. These segments will receive different promotional deals, powered by Catalog, to entice them to make more purchases.

They will test the impact of delivering personalized promotions based on RFM score versus generic batch-and-blast. Clinton shared, “Our upcoming project will showcase how Iterable’s Catalog not only works in a monetary sense but also speeds up building and testing processes, allowing us to rapidly generate revenue and conduct A/B testing with a small team.”

Namecheap’s journey with Iterable illustrates a dramatic transformation from rudimentary email communications to a sophisticated, data-driven strategy. By harnessing the capabilities of Iterable, Namecheap has not only amplified its customer engagement but also positioned itself at the forefront of personalized communications.

With a broad spectrum of potential use cases and ongoing testing of personalization tactics, Namecheap’s partnership with Iterable stands as a testament to the power of modern marketing technology.