1. Email Remarketing
How to recapture lost sales and make more money
Mark Patron
June 2011
The Leader in Behavioural Email

2. Email Remarketing
one of the most efficient ways to do this.
Introduction
The average website conversion rate is only 2%
Remarketing via email is one of the best ways to to 3%, so there is clearly a lot of room for
recapture lost sales and improve ROI. This white improvement. With this in mind it is often more
paper will help online marketers understand the cost effective to spend money improving
benefits of using email remarketing and provide conversion than spend the same amount driving
clear information on how email remarketing works. more traffic to the site; and one of the simplest
It includes advice on best practice email triggers ways to improve conversion is email remarketing.
online marketers can use to target new and Digital marketers are often frustrated by the fact
existing customers and provides information on that some 70% of shoppers add something to their
the cost of remarketing and guidance on privacy basket but never complete the purchase. So, how
and security. do you go about clawing back these lost sales?
There are many reasons for basket abandonment.
At the back of the paper we have provided two Assuming you have undertaken usability testing to
case studies of RedEye clients who have achieved streamline your checkout process and made
outstanding results from email remarketing. buying easy and transparent on your website, and
there are no hidden shipping costs or confusing
payment options to put users off, then one of the
best ways to improve conversion is email
remarketing. Your most valuable prospects are
those who nearly bought something and email
remarketing allows you to keep in contact with
those prospects. Sadly, prospects don't come back
to your website frequently enough. To improve
revisits and sales, remarketing is necessary and
extremely effective.
For well qualified prospects email remarketing
We hope you find it useful! speeds up the process of making a sale that may
have otherwise gone to a competitor.
Forrester ResearchII found marketers integrating
Why use email web analytics data to drive remarketing emails can
generate nearly 4 times more revenue and 18
remarketing? times greater net profits compared with marketers
using simple untargeted mailings.
Remarketing uses two of the most important
criteria for producing targeted marketing - recency Research by MarketingSherpaIII (see Fig 1) shows
and frequency. Any direct marketer will tell you triggered emails and emails segmented by users’
the more recent the data the higher the behaviour are the most effective. Historically,
response. Frequency is also important. Studies remarketing emails have been difficult to do.
suggest that a company needs to have seven different However, suppliers have recently started to make
‘contacts’ with a customer (on average) before they the process easier, to the extent that now a
make a purchaseI. To look at this another way, you number of suppliers offer a remarketing email
need to get someone back to your website seven free trial.
times before they buy, and email remarketing is
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3. Email Remarketing
Fig 1
means sending timely emails to people who have
What is email remarketing? been on your site. The message you send them
depends on what they did on the site. If they
There are many types of automated emails, so let’s nearly bought something then maybe a simple
start with some definitions. reminder will get them back to the site to buy. If
they bought something but on the way spent five
Remarketing email refers to the techniques, minutes viewing pages about another product
strategies and often the automated email systems then send them a message about the other
used by marketers and online merchants to follow up product they were viewing.
with website visitors who do not make a desired
action on the websiteIV, for example when they
abandon their shopping basket. Email remarketing
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4. Email Remarketing
Examples of remarketing emails
1. Process drop out (abandoned basket)
2. Quote and viewed another product (cross sell, if the user requested a quote
for car insurance but also viewed life cover plans, send them an email about
the life cover you provide)
3. Initial registration and introduction process drop out
4. Registered not purchased
5. Quote not purchased
6. Single purchase (discount to purchase again)
7. Occasion (birthdays, anniversary of purchase)
8. Reactivation (not booked for 3 months)
9. Cross sell (viewed not purchased)
10. Site error or error registering
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5. Email Remarketing
Trigger emails are emails that are automated to
respond to an event. For instance, someone How does email
completing a registration form can instantly receive
a ‘thank you for signing up’ trigger or if they abandon
remarketing work?
a basket, an email is triggered to that person to
encourage them to complete the purchase. Triggers Email remarketing normally combines web
are relatively straightforward. CMS and e-commerce analytics and email marketing. Take for example a
platforms often have trigger facilities and most web basket abandonment email. This is simply an email
analytics companies provide facilities to link visitor sent out to any customer that abandons their
information to your email service provider.v shopping cart. To be effective, the email has to go
out soon after the abandonment has happened,
Behavioural email is based on an online database and this generally means some form of
that collects all web and email engagement automation.
information and can also be fed by offline
behaviours. Thereby it automates and constructs When you use remarketing, you'll tag pages of
emails based on recent web engagement your site in the sales funnel. You might tag the first
information and indeed any other information page of the sales funnel and the confirmation
available to the database. The key is the fact that page. You might also tag the page where the email
behavioural email marketing is driven by an online address is collected. Emails are then simply sent to
database that integrates web analytics and email those consumers who start the sales funnel, opt in
data. So rather than just delivering a basket to receive email, but do not complete a purchase.
abandonment email about the specific products in
the basket, the incentive to complete the basket By coupling web analytics technology with email
may be to discount a separate product that the marketing in one integrated system, marketers
individual has browsed recently (for instance have the ability to track customer activity on their
‘complete your basket and get this product 15% websites and then deploy messages to those
off’). Behavioural strategies are based on the whole customers in real time.
interaction with the customer or prospect and not
simply the last event. Customer history, together Regardless of the web activity marketers wish to
with current engagement, is used to enable more act upon (shopping basket abandonment,
relevant and timely automated emails. different products viewed, page views, search
keywords, registration forms) email remarketing
Transactional emails are used as a result of a can harness valuable behavioural data to enhance
transaction (for example welcome or confirmation customer interactions.
emails). Transactional email may be generated by
the e-commerce platform which tracks all website Remarketing allows you to communicate with
transactions. Remarketing or behavioural emails people who have previously visited key pages on
on the other hand do not just rely on transactions your website, giving you a powerful new way to
but may be based on a user’s website behaviour match the right people with the right message.
and therefore typically use web analytics data.
Clearly there is some overlap in the definitions
above, but this does not really matter. The
important thing is to understand the differences
between the different types of automated email
and then to use the most appropriate for your
application.
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6. Email Remarketing
reasons. It is impossible to properly synchronise
How to improve your separate web analytics and email marketing
email remarketing databases. Ideally they should be in one database.
Database driven is best. For example, many
Relevancy improves results; it’s as simple as that. suppliers of email remarketing do not recommend
Relevancy can be improved by better targeting incentives in basket abandonment emails. The
and recency. very valid reason for this is there is a danger of
training customers to abandon baskets in
Recency improves response. A basket expectation of a discount or free delivery. However,
abandonment email done manually that goes out if you use a database driven system you can
once a week will drive more sales but nowhere differentiate between first time and multiple time
near the amount of sales timely automated emails abandoners. That way you can send an incentive
will achieve. on the first or first two times when a consumer
abandons a basket but not to someone who
Be careful not to send remarketing emails so abandons multiple times.
quickly that they arrive before the consumer has
finished the session and truly abandoned the Registrations are important because the more
shopping basket. Waiting 30 to 60 minutes is a registrations there are, the more remarketing
safer option. emails can be sent. Incremental revenues from
email remarketing increase in proportion to the
Once remarketing email programmes get going percentage of opt-in emails collected. A common
they can generate hundreds of different emails issue is when the email address is collected at the
targeting users who have not fulfilled any number end of the sales funnel rather than early on.
of key actions on the site. Creating targeted emails Registration should be included early in the buying
using rich web analytics data will drive more process, enabling acquisition of more email
relevant communications. A simple basket addresses for remarketing. However, this must be
abandonment email can turn into several emails handled with a light touch and included within the
targeted and individualised to each step in the buying flow. Positive language in the copy can
sales funnel. Similarly, cross selling emails can be make all the difference. For example, Amazon’s first
targeted at each individual product or product purchase step, which is essentially registration, is
category viewed but not purchased. labelled as ‘Welcome’. When an account needs to
be created the benefits of signing up need to be
Automation is key. It is impossible to develop a rich made clear; let the user know they will be able to
email remarketing programme unless it is track the progress of their order, and remind them
automated. Email remarketing programmes that of the time they will save when placing their next
allow for dynamically driven automated email order.
marketing also minimise costs and human
intervention. Testing improves results. Test recency, frequency,
incentives and where the email address is
Reach is important. Some email remarketing collected. Test everything that could improve
systems can only remarket to consumers who were results, particularly those things that could
driven to the site by previous emails. Clearly this improve results a lot. Best practice is to develop
will miss the majority of consumers who will have your email remarketing programme over time
got to the site via another route. This is often a (see Fig 2). Remarketing emails develop like a tree
problem with combining separate web analytics diagram. Each email is tested for its ROI, and high
and email systems for technical and privacy ROI emails become candidates for further
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7. Email Remarketing
refinement. So, a simple basket abandonment many companies go through so much pain getting
email quickly turns into a programme of different a simple basket abandonment email going they
emails targeted at different products. Not all tests then do no further testing, forfeiting further
will work and certain branches in the tree will run improvements and revenues.
out of juice giving no more uplift. This approach
also highlights the requirement for flexibility. Sadly
Fig 2 - A retail example of how email remarketing programmes can evolve
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8. Email Remarketing
How effective is email Privacy and security
remarketing? There have been many examples of poor internet
security covered in the press. It is obviously
The best time to contact someone is when they important that any supplier meets the highest data
have nearly bought something. So not surprisingly security standards. It is vital that all data is kept
a single cart or basket abandonment email will securely and data transfers are only done via secure
typically generate 2% to 5% extra revenue. Three means such as a secure FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
or four well targeted remarketing emails should
be able to produce around 4% to 8% incremental Clearly you cannot remarket to consumers without
sales. A few dozen good remarketing emails can their email address and as with any email
drive 10% extra sales. marketing, users must opt in to receive emails first.
In addition your website privacy policy should be
According to RedEye’s Behavioural Email clear about how cookies are used for remarketing
Benchmark StudyVI , companies using remarketing purposes.
or behavioural email have achieved conversion
rates as high as 15% and click through rates as
high as 65%. However, the report shows the The future
majority of online companies are failing to use
email remarketing to recapture lost sales by
implementing programmes such as abandoned The outlook for email remarketing over the next
basket and quote not buy. Only 13% of retail few years is bright as more and more suppliers
companies implement abandoned basket email. offer more competitive offers and more
Simple confirmation emails are more commonly sophisticated email remarketing technologies are
used with 81% of retail companies sending a developed.
welcome email and 73% of insurance companies
sending a quote confirmation email. This higher Email remarketing is a great way to re-engage
figure is because, until recently, it has been easier customers in a timely and relevant way. Most
to implement transactional email than important of all it typically gives one of the highest
remarketing or behavioural email. returns on investment of any marketing
communications.
What does email
remarketing cost?
There are now a number of companies, including
RedEye, that offer remarketing free trials. This
enables you to test the validity of doing email
remarketing on a low risk basis. The supplier
should send you daily progress reports on the
number of emails sent, number of orders and
money made. From this you can easily work out
potential return on investment.
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9. Email Remarketing
Case Study: Haven Holidays “We have been working with RedEye for 4 years and
are impressed with the innovation they have helped
Remarketing Campaign: Booking Abandonment us to implement and the subsequent improvement in
results. Using an automated abandoned basket
ROI: 2815% | Open rate: 54% | Click through rate: 53%
campaign has been a great investment. Being able to
convert drop out customers with relevant, timely
behavioural email has really paid off.”
Haven Holidays was finding a proportion of their online Alison Dunn, Head of Ecommerce,
customers began the booking process, but dropped off before Haven
confirming their holiday booking. Haven wanted to find a way
to target these customers and increase ROI. RedEye’s unique
method of data capture enabled Haven to capture where users
were dropping off in the buying cycle. These customers were
then remarketed to via email, segmented by where in the
booking process the customer dropped off and the type of
holiday they were viewing.
All emails were sent within 24 hours of drop off. Reaching
customers in this time scale helped to entice customers back to
Haven.com while the holiday was still fresh in the customer’s
mind. Whenever possible the behavioural emails were
personalised. Personalisation and information specific to the
user helped to entice the customer to read the email and
react to it.
Case Study: Evans Cycles “We are extremely impressed by RedEye’s
determination to continually drive our email
Remarketing Campaign: Booking Abandonment conversion through on-going reviews and testing of
ROI: 2399% | Year on year increase in email revenue: 100% creative, timings and segmentation. Evans Cycles has
experienced significant growth in the last 12 months
| Open rates: 84.9%
towards which RedEye has played an integral role in
our success.”
Evans Cycles, the UK’s largest quality cycle retailer, has achieved
significant business growth despite the economic downturn. Will Lockie, Online Marketing Manager,
Determined to perpetuate success, Evans Cycles wanted to Evans Cycles
find a way of optimising email marketing to improve revenue
further.
To improve campaign targeting and subsequently
performance, RedEye worked with Evans Cycles to formulate
their segmentation to remarket to new and existing customers
via email. Email messaging and creative content was
segmented based on individual email preferences, engagement
and online browsing and purchasing behaviour. This ensured all
email marketing content was relevant to each individual user.
Using RedEye’s email engagement segmentation, Evans Cycles
was able to remarket to consumers based on an individual’s
level of interaction with email. In addition to uplifts in open and
click rates, the percentage of engaged people increased by 29%
and the database also grew by 17% in 3 months.
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10. Email Remarketing
References
(I) Wikipedia, February 2011 (sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_retargeting)
(II) Forrester Research, February 2009, Integrating Web Analytics with Email Marketing to Improve Campaign Performance
(III) MarketingSherpa, Email Marketing Benchmark Survey, 2010
(IV) Webopedia, ecommerce remarketing (sourced from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/ecommerce_remarketing.html)
(V) Matthew Kelleher, October 2009, Econsultancy blog “Defining trigger, remarketing and behavioural emails” (available at
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/4831-defining-trigger-remarketing-and-behavioural-emails)
(VI) RedEye Behavioural Email Benchmark Study, March 2011 (available for download from
http://www.redeye.com/events/whitepapersandreports/behavioural-email-benchmark-study-2/)
For more information on
RedEye's products and services
please visit www.redeye.com
or call 0845 094 1114
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