March 27, 2015

Freesat

Freesat needed a digital marketing solution that could overcome their inability to collect purchase data. They worked with Silverpop, an IBM company, to develop targeted and tailored experiences for customers and prospects, growing the database by 447 per cent in just 18 months. Silverpop discuss the work

Freesat, a joint venture between ITV and the BBC, is a subscription-free satellite television service offering more than 200 television, radio and interactive channels, including 11 in HD, to people in the United Kingdom.

Freesat’s award-winning Freetime service, available on televisions and set top boxes, includes smart features such as pause, rewind, record, a roll-back television guide for the past seven days of programming, and a range of catch-up players including BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand 5, YouTube, BBC News and various sports apps. The Freesat app is now available on iOS, Android and Kindle Fire.

Working With Little To Nothing

Because Freesat sells its product through retailers, its biggest challenge has been an inability to collect purchase data. Pre Silverpop, this meant that Freesat had little insight into its customers or their expectations.

With no control of the database and a small number of email addresses, Freesat was in need of a digital marketing solution to help build its strategy from the ground up.

Shifting to Quality Over Quantity

The company knew its plan of attack would include automation, but it needed to capture the data first. In addition to collecting customer and prospect information at events, via social media and through web forms, the marketing team introduced ID registration via its Freesat app, which captured each user’s basic profile.

Once it had taken steps to improve its database, Freesat began the next phase of driving stronger engagement, which included launching three automated email campaigns.

Welcome Series

As soon as a Freesat customer or prospect enters the database, it triggers a welcome nurture series, which consists of three emails. The first email acts as a ‘hello’ from the company, a reminder of what the recipient has signed up for and a call-to-action to download the Freesat app (Image A). The second message, sent on day four, uses A/B testing to help confirm which prize would entice readers to visit the preference centre and complete their profiles. The final email, sent on day nine, contains messaging tailored according to whether the recipient is a customer, prospect or even an unknown.

Image A

Image B

Birthday Campaign

In this creative email programme, recipients are promised a special treat in exchange for providing birthdate information (Image B). This encourages customers to submit even deeper information on a landing page. Those that complete the form receive a special message on their birthday, containing a recipe for birthday cake.

Re-engagement Series

Rather than growing its database by pulling in whatever email addresses and information it could, Freesat chose a plan that allowed it to capture more quality data, instead of marketing to a list that wasn’t interested. As part of this goal, it launched a re-engagement campaign in which customers who had been inactive for 90 days were sent an email (Image C), which included the latest Freesat news and an option to unsubscribe or update profile preferences.

Those who didn’t open the first email after another 90 days were sent a ‘Sorry to See You Go’ message and then automatically unsubscribed from the list. The message also included an ‘I’m Not Going Anywhere’ button, in case the communication piqued interest.

Image C

Enhancing the Customer Journey Through Personalised Experiences

Freesat’s increased digital marketing efforts paid off, and it has the numbers and happy customers to prove it. Within 18 months its database grew by 447 per cent. Additional results include:

• An overall open rate of 67 per cent, a 139 per cent increase over manual email sends

• An overall click-through rate of 38.7 per cent, a 1282 per cent increase over manual email sends

• Welcome Series – 50.4 per cent open rate, 24.8 per cent click-through rate and 11 per cent preference centre completion rate

• Birthday Campaign – 27 per cent open rate on email one, 67 per cent completion rate on form and 41 per cent open rate of subsequent birthday message

• Re-engagment Series – 24 per cent open rate and 4.5 per cent click-through rate

“In the last 18 months, working with Silverpop has allowed Freesat to be more sophisticated with our email targeting through brilliant segmentation,” says Jennifer Jacobs, Customer Marketing Manager, Freesat.

“The automated marketing programs let us create tailored and personalised experiences for all our customers and prospects. And the results aren’t bad either, with a 140 per cent uplift in open rates and more than a 1,000 per cent increase in click-through rates.”