SportsUnlimited.com
Overview
Sports Unlimited has always had a very engaged customer base - people who play and follow sports tend to be passionate consumers. But the problem was that they couldn't access and act upon their customers' interests. Before moving to Bronto Software, their email software didn't give them the ability to do much in the way of segmentation, or what capabilities it did have were too complex for them to figure out. So, they didn't segment them. They mainly sent blast emails to their entire mailing list. For example, if they wanted to send an email to promote lacrosse gear, they had no choice but to email it to their entire list, knowing that only 6-8% of the recipients had purchased lacrosse items in the past. The result of this untargeted emailing was low click-through rates and low conversion rates resulting from email sends.
Sports Unlimited started to look at the data they had access to in Stone Edge, the order management system they had used since 2004. "Stone Edge has been a great program for us and we were getting a lot of benefit out of it. But we also knew there was a lot of data in Stone Edge, such as purchase history, that we were not leveraging to improve our email marketing program," said Mike Neff, Sports Unlimited E-Commerce Director. Mike continued, "We found out that by using Bronto Software, we could directly integrate Stone Edge data on interest, recency, frequency, and other purchase history information into our email program."
By segmenting customers based on information in the Stone Edge database, ecommerce companies can drive more conversions by sending targeted, relevant emails. Bronto Software is the only email service provider that integrates with Stone Edge. Sports Unlimited made the switch to Bronto Software's email marketing platform in 2009 in order to better utilize the purchase data they had access to. In addition, according to Neff, "What stood out about Bronto for Sports Unlimited was the simplicity of the user interface and the client services team that together ensure that we get the most value from our investment."
A great example of how Sports Unlimited has put the Bronto + Stone Edge integration to work is with its big end-of-season sales, which they run in both fall and spring. For these campaigns, they used to just send one email to their entire list. Now, they design 4 or 5 different emails with similar overall messages, but each one caters to a particular sports interest. The recipient lists are then segmented according to Stone Edge data on past purchases.
The Results
- Average open rates for these end-of-season emails used to be 17%. It is now 30% - an increase of 76%
- Click-though rate doubled from 10% to 20% - A 100% increase in response.
Conversions
- In the first year they used the Bronto + Stone Edge integration, Sports Unlimited experienced a 500% increase in sales from email. In the second year, email-driven sales increased by another 150%.
As Sports Unlimited looks ahead to even more growth in email-driven sales, they are starting to look at how they can take the Bronto - Stone Edge connection even further. For example, they would like to start sending triggered emails based on prior purchases, such as an email promoting accessories to go to people who purchased a particular jacket. This additional level of relevance and timeliness will certainly do even more to drive transactions from email marketing.
Success Stories
