Email List Growth & Re-Engagement Campaign

Client: Railey Mountain Lake Vacations

RMLV provides lake vacation lodging with over 390 premier vacation rental properties located in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.

In going through user-activity in Railey Mountain Lake Vacation’s email list, we discovered that 20,000 had been inactive by either not opening or only opening a one email in the past year. In May of 2010, RMLV’s total list consisted of 52,000 emails. In the last week of May we ran a re-engagement campaign to improve overall health of the email program.

Approach

We sent the 20,000 inactive users an email attempting to re-engage them in the companies monthly sends.

• Incentive: In order to show value in the companies emails, inactive’s were offered an incentive of up to $600 off their next vacation.

• Clear Options: The email clearly detailed two options, either opt-in or be removed. Both options redirected to a confirmation landing page.

• Last Chance: A week later, we sent another email out to those who did not respond to the first, stating they were being were being removed unless they acted now.

Results

After the re-engagement email went out, a total of 1,233 opted-in to continue to be a part of the email program. After removing the deadwood, the list was trimmed to 34k (Originally 52K). In the past 6 months we have seen many strong indications of a healthier email campaign.

• Improved Statistics: From December 2009 – May 31st 2010 RMLV emails averaged a 20% unique open rate and a 7.1% unique click-through rate. After removing the deadwood, emails from June 2010 through December 1st, 2010 have averaged a 27% unique open rate and an 11.4% unique click-through rate. Unique open rates have increased 35% and unique click-through rates have raised 60%!

• Revenue: Google Analytics eCommerce has tracked over $50,000 in revenue since removal.

• Cost-Effective: By removing almost 19,000 in in-active emails, RMLV is saving $160 per month just by reducing their list size.

• Re-Engaged: The campaign re-engaged 6% of the inactive subscribers.

• Still Engaged: of the 1,233 who were re-engaged, all except 1 are still actively participating in emails in the last 6 months.