Here’s how Michaels, the largest arts & crafts retailer in North America, activated more than eighty-thousand lapsed email addresses by utilizing 3radical’s audience engagement solutions, with the use of a survey and holiday themed Advent calendar. Through this approach they obtained valuable, previously uncapturable, earned data needed to create personalized and highly relevant marketing communications.
Email subscribers that have not opened an email from a brand in 9-12 months have a high likelihood of becoming inactive users, and having their emails removed from lists to prevent deliverability issues of marketing communications. Re-engaging with these customers is key, and an email reactivation campaign is an ideal way to retain these users. But how do you manage this so it’s not just another email?
This was the dilemma Michaels faced, affecting 4.8 million email addresses at risk of becoming inactive due to not opening an email from the brand in 9-12 months. This group very likely had brand fatigue due to an excessive communication cadence and would need an enticing reason to re-engage. There was also a desire by the retailer to learn more about this group of customers, including their hobbies, why they shopped with the brand, and how they preferred to be communicated with in case email was not their primary choice of communication.
Powered by 3radical’s audience engagement platform, Michaels deployed a holiday-themed “Advent calendar” promoted within a reactivation email. The calendar included a combination of unique events, including incentives to purchase, as well as a progressive data capture mechanism.
Customers received two emails a day for seven days promoting the Advent calendar and inviting customers to take a survey and subsequently receive rewards.
Customers were presented with an initial five question survey related to their shopping habits, hobbies, and communication preferences with the retailer. Once completed, they were able to access the 7-day holiday “Advent calendar”. They could engage with the calendar repeatedly over the course of the next seven days, opening doors to reveal rewards and additional survey question, both of which could be claimed or ignored.
80,000+ unique emails were reactivated with an estimated $400K value to the brand.
41% of those that clicked the email engaged with the experience.
53% of those who engaged with the intro survey continued to engage with more than one day of the advent calendar.
Customers that visited on 11/13 provided 33% more data than those that visited on 11/7 demonstrating how customers were more receptive to providing data when more doors of the advent calendar were presented.
2,500 previously uncapturable unique data points were provided by the respondents to the intro survey and the consequent single question surveys, including who they are, what they’re looking for from the major arts and crafts retailer, and their communication preferences.