March 2011: Chemistry e-catalogue launch campaign
This campaign is a great example of a simple campaign winning customers over. It achieved a 30% open rate and 13% click through rate. Overall the campaign boosted conversions for the e-catalogue proving email is a good channel to drive online sales.
Company Details
Name: Oxford University Press
Designed and developed by: Rosalind Pacey
Website: www.oup.com
Campaign details
Subject line: 2011 Chemistry Textbooks Catalogue
Open rate: 30%
Click rate: 13%
Context
This email campaign marked the launch for the 2011 chemistry textbooks e-catalogue. It was sent to academics teaching chemistry in universities across the UK and Europe. The call to action on the email was introducing an e-catalogue showcasing the new and bestselling chemistry textbooks. The campaign had to be straightforward and provide the clear message that the e-catalogue was now available.
Objectives
- Make lecturers aware that the 2011 e-catalogue was available to view.
- Drive recipients to the e-catalogue by giving them a reason to view it.
- Provide recipients with an easy route to view the e-catalogue.
What makes this a performing campaign?
Relevance:
The reason this email was so effective was due to its relevance to the recipient. When choosing the data for this campaign, the marketer had specific selection criteria to ensure the campaign would be of interest to the recipient. By selecting chemistry lecturers the content only went to relevant contacts. Therefore the segmentation behind this campaign is what has made it so successful.
Look and Feel:
- Simple letter style and formal salutation creates the correct tone of voice for lecturers. E.g. Dear Doctor Name Surname.
- Functional design and minimal imagery well suited for academic publication and readers.
Call to action:
- These are consistent, for example, the subject line and main header are the same and set good expectations about what theemail contains.
- The recipient has been provided with numerous opportunities to click through to the e-catalogue (5 in total).
- All content the recipient would expect to be hyper-linked is a link. E.g. Main header, sub header, copy and image.
Technical aspects:
- Good use of plain text above the fold and especially within the preview pane. This means the call to action would have been immediately visible to the recipient before they downloaded images.
- A link to a simplified version for mobile devices has been included.
- A forward to a friend function has been included to broaden reach.
The Results
This campaign is a great example of a simple campaign winning customers over. It achieved a 30% open rate and 13% click through rate. Overall the campaign boosted conversions for the e-catalogue proving email is a good channel to drive online sales.
Click here to email us for advice on how you can create highly responsive campaigns.