More traffic in the online shop with automated mailing campaigns

With marketing automation, a modern template in a responsive design and the perfect interplay of personalized content and incentives along the customer journey, the omnichannel retailer HSE attracts its customers to the online shop. The alignment of mailing content with the interests and needs of customers boosts purchasing activity. HSE relies on recurring automated campaigns with little manual effort.

[Translate to English:] HSE Logo

At a glance

  • Marketing automation and leaner internal processes save time and money. This frees up resources for developing new and optimizing existing campaigns.
  • The combination of the Inxmail Template and Content App enables more flexibility in designing mailings and playing out individual content.
  • Optimal readability on mobile devices is a key success factor in e-commerce, especially for B2C home shopping via smartphone and tablet. The Inxmail templates are optimized for all end devices.
  • Transparent and seamless evaluation options provide insights into the behavior of recipients and help to optimize ongoing campaigns.
[Translate to English:] Darstellung einer HSE-Webseite auf einem Tablet mit dem Titel 'TOP-DEALS'. Es werden verschiedene Angebote angezeigt, darunter eine grüne Hose als 'Angebot des Tages' und weitere Top-Deals darunter.

“With Inxmail, we not only have a powerful email marketing system with a sophisticated interface and modules, but also a strong partner at our side with whom we can implement new projects and requirements in constant exchange.”

Christina Düker, CRM Manager, HSE

Requirements

Better usability in email marketing

HSE wanted a significantly simpler process from creating to sending a mailing. The basic requirement was to connect the email marketing tool to the existing campaign management system, SAP Marketing. However, the focus was not only on the interface and usability. The company also needed more flexibility in design and in the implementation of mailings in order to be able to make changes more quickly.

In addition, new template functionalities were required to be able to send mailing formats with dynamic or personalized content in the future. Various test options before sending, such as a quality test, as well as marketing automation, were also on the wish list. HSE wanted to reduce manual work in creating mailings and the associated susceptibility to errors.

The existing system architecture at HSE is complex and the list of technical and content-related requirements was very long. Inxmail was already being used with a connection to SAP Marketing. So, all processes, systems and data flows were rolled out together and solutions were developed for the requirements set in terms of system integration, marketing automation and template.

Implementation

Home shopping on all channels

HSE provides its customers with comprehensive home shopping support through email marketing. This includes not only standard elements such as newsletters and order confirmations, but also automated and personalized mailings for special offers and occasions along the customer journey.

[Translate to English:] Darstellung einer HSE-Webseite auf einem Smartphone mit dem Titel 'TOP-DEALS'. Es werden exklusive Angebote präsentiert, darunter ein Paar blaue Sandalen. Eine persönliche Begrüßung für den Nutzer 'Kevin Rieth' ist ebenfalls sichtbar.
Mobile optimization of the mailings leads to more traffic in the online shop at HSE.

Interested parties can easily register for the daily newsletter via the website and as soon as the double opt-in is confirmed, an automatic welcome route with an incentive for the online shop starts.

Since most orders at HSE are placed by telephone, this channel is used to deliberately ask about interest in the various mailing formats. If they are interested, a double opt-in mailing is triggered. As soon as the confirmation link has been clicked, the subscriber receives daily mailings about various promotions in the online shop (e.g. offers of the day or week, product of the month). New customers automatically go through an eight-step second purchase mailing process: incentives and individual mailing content based on their first purchase at HSE are designed to encourage recipients to place further orders.

Along the customer journey, customers receive automated birthday mailings or a reactivation mailing, for example, each with corresponding incentives such as vouchers. When reactivating, various methods are used to analyze sales frequency and inactivity. Depending on the value determined, reactivation is triggered or not for each customer.

After placing an order, the customer receives confirmation of their purchase. Other transactional emails, such as those notifying customers of their package or informing them that their order is available for collection, are already planned and will be implemented shortly.

“Together with our Inxmail colleagues from various departments, we have been able to implement the entire project for the introduction of Inxmail Professional, from newsletter creation to advanced templates, content app development and interface programming to SAP Marketing, within six months. The automated campaigns went live within a further five months.”  
Christina Düker
CRM Manager, HSE
Solution

New processes, connections and functions simplify daily business

For its marketing campaigns, HSE uses the Inxmail email marketing platform, which is connected via an API interface to the existing infrastructure, in particular SAP Marketing and the ERP system. A content app supports the processes of product data delivery and playout in the mailings. All the necessary product data from various source systems flows together in the application, is processed accordingly, prepared for correct display in the mailing and stored temporarily. Finally, the data is automatically transferred to the mailing. The content app thus enables the automated sending of recurring campaigns (such as offers of the day or product of the month) and highly personalized mailing sequences, thereby providing targeted purchasing incentives for recipients. The only manual effort required is to select the corresponding highlight products in the merchandise management system.

The Inxmail Advanced template, including template design, provides HSE with numerous new options and functionalities in terms of design, application and presentation. It is particularly important to the retailer that products are displayed according to purchase interest: this includes purchased items, assortment or date of purchase. Dynamic content, such as counters, can also be displayed. However, mobile optimization, pre-headers, emojis in the subject line and numerous evaluation options also contribute to the success of the email marketing.

SAP CRM is still the leading system for data storage and there is a constant exchange of response and recipient data from the Inxmail software. Campaign management is carried out in SAP Marketing and the data is transferred from there to Inxmail.

Results

Responsive design is the gateway to the online shop.

“We have achieved a lot together, can look back on a successful start and look forward to continuing our collaboration.”
Christina Düker, CRM Manager, HSE

 

The various adjustments in email marketing have had positive effects at HSE. The practical example shows that in e-commerce, in addition to the important transactional emails, there are other factors that influence success in email marketing, including:

  • Mobile optimization: Newsletters and mailings are displayed correctly on mobile devices and thus reach more recipients, which leads to more traffic in the online store.
  • Emojis in the subject line and a meaningful preheader ensure a higher open rate.
  • Customized content and matching graphics such as GIFs or counters create strong incentives to buy and a higher click rate.

The combination of personalized content and targeted incentives in recurring campaigns delivers consistently successful results. The birthday mailing including a personal voucher is the most popular: the opening rate is 50 percent on average, and the click-to-open rate is 40 percent.

The clean tracking in the Inxmail platform has improved the informative value of the key figures for HSE. The retailer continuously analyzes click behavior (for example, with different content and graphic elements) and achieves a higher click rate in the online shop through small optimizations. The interaction with Google Analytics provides more transparency about the conversions, for example, about the value of a recipient's shopping cart.

Last but not least, deliverability has improved since the introduction of Inxmail: fewer mailings end up in the spam filter. On the one hand, HSE uses a new subdomain with a good reputation. On the other hand, the quality test before sending helps to ensure that spam-critical content can be detected and removed in good time.

“Working with HSE on challenging projects is something we look forward to every time. Whether we're helping to get more complex interface projects around marketing automation processes off the ground, creating scalable solutions for content individualization, or providing data delivery for BI in the shortest possible time, efficient, collaborative work at eye level is guaranteed.”  
[Translate to English:] Porträtfoto von Jens Dittberner, der ein hellblaues Hemd trägt und freundlich in die Kamera lächelt. Der Hintergrund ist weichgezeichnet und neutral.
Jens Dittberner
Senior Consultant, Inxmail GmbH
[Translate to English:] Eine Szene hinter den Kulissen einer Fernsehproduktion, bei der mehrere Kameras auf ein Set gerichtet sind. Auf einem Monitor ist die Live-Aufnahme des Sets zu sehen, auf dem mehrere Personen stehen, während im Hintergrund unscharfe Technik- und Studiomitglieder erkennbar sind.

About HSE

Since its launch in 1995, HSE has been offering an informative and entertaining home shopping experience. Initially focused on teleshopping, the company has developed into an omnichannel retailer that relies on a cross-media presentation of themed and branded worlds with a lifestyle character. More than nine million dedicated TV, online and mobile shopping customers speak for themselves. As a modern omnichannel retailer, HSE is present on all relevant media platforms today – from TV and online to smartphone and tablet to smart TV.

www.hse.de