A Stripo case research — Stripo.e-mail

As we speak, we need to share a case research of how we doubled the open price (OR) and reached a median OR of 30% for all sorts of emails that we ship out to our subscribers. Learn how real looking that is and what steps assist a SaaS product obtain such outcomes by studying the case research.

I’m Oleksandr. I’ve been an e-mail and digital marketer at Stripo for two.5 years. As all emails from our model are created by me, I wish to take this chance to thank everybody who reads them and gives suggestions. You’re the finest.

Scenario: Every part is ok, however may very well be even higher

Stripo is an e-mail design platform. In our e-mail newsletters, we replace subscribers about new product releases, share e-mail advertising information, and compile digests of useful weblog posts.

Now, now we have greater than 130,000 subscribers in whole. Our database consists of contacts—customers of our product (the paid or free plans)—and people who subscribed to the e-newsletter to obtain precious info by way of our weblog and firm information.

In 2021, our e-newsletter’s common OR was 12–15%. It is a typical indicator for our area of interest, however we would have liked extra. So, initially of 2022, we determined to take steps to enhance the scenario and improve the OR to twenty–25%.

Initially, the indications have been as follows:

7 steps we took to make prospects need to open our emails

The OR is an e-mail advertising metric that exhibits the share price of emails opened amongst all delivered messages. Curiosity within the e-mail topic and confidence within the sender have an effect on the worth of the OR typically. 

Listed here are the steps we determined to take to enhance our OR:

Step 1. Completely different codecs 

Sending content material of the identical kind is a direct path to oblivion. You danger changing into uninteresting to subscribers. 

Due to this fact, we determined so as to add new content material classes to make our e-mail newsletters extra numerous. Beforehand, we solely despatched emails sharing our new templates, new releases, product modifications, and typically new articles. Now, now we have launched a brand new content material rubric.

Certainly one of these is the weekly thematic digest, through which we compile precious supplies on a single subject. For instance, suggestions for making ready emails for the New 12 months holidays—from topic traces to e-mail content material.

Topic line: Ho-ho-ho, it’s the Christmas Digest 🎄

(Supply: Stripo e-mail e-newsletter)

Along with distributing weblog content material, we started creating further content material for newsletters, which we had not performed earlier than. To know what subjects are of curiosity to our subscribers, we performed a survey through which we requested recipients to reply a number of questions on the kind of content material they wish to obtain in these emails. We added new concepts to the content material plan thanks to those responses.

Emails have thus develop into numerous in format and size. We now create quick emails, with just one button and CTA, in addition to fairly lengthy informative emails.

Step 2. Identification by sender names 

It’s higher for the OR to make use of totally different sender names for various e-mail teams. Due to this fact, we divided the e-mail addresses into conditional teams and created a sender title for every group. 

For instance, emails about new product releases, promotions, and particular provides come from the Stripo Staff, whereas advertising digests come from Stripo Weekly. For emails from help, we created private addresses, corresponding to Kyril from Stripo. On this means, subscribers instantly see the model title, however on the identical time, they perceive who precisely the e-mail is from and what to anticipate from it.

Some emails are despatched from the CEO, whereas others might be despatched from somebody from the group. In these instances, we use that individual’s signature. On this means, we personalize not solely our emails but additionally the sender.

Step 3. Focused work with segments

I create e-mail templates in Stripo, export them to Yespo, and ship them to totally different segments of contacts. For segmentation, Yespo has an unimaginable RFM device that analyzes subscriber exercise: segments are created by the variety of emails opened and the final time they have been opened.

We’ve created segments of contacts who didn’t open any emails, who opened emails a very long time in the past, and who open the emails usually.

That is how I exploit these segments:

• to essentially the most energetic readers, I ship all our emails;
• to those that learn them sooner or later however stopped studying them, I ship them emails about improvements, such because the creation of a signature generator in Stripo;
• to those that don’t learn our emails usually, I ship fewer emails—largely digests—to arouse curiosity within the subject;
• e-mail addresses which have an error are misplaced contacts, so I take away them from the database in order that they don’t have a unfavorable impact on the metrics and the stats develop into clearer;
• those that haven’t opened our emails for the final 3 months (dynamic phase), I exclude them from the overall database and ship them solely particular emails.

Step 4. Up to date e-mail design

In 2022, we redesigned the Stripo web site, and it was logical to replace the design of our e-mail e-newsletter. As well as, our e-mail editor is creating on a regular basis, so we determined to get essentially the most out of its new options.

Under, you’ll be able to see some examples of previous and new variations of our emails.

We modified the fonts, the form of the buttons and labored on the construction. Emails have additionally develop into extra accessible and readable. And, as now we have already talked about, we made new templates for brand spanking new e-mail codecs: digests.

When redesigning the emails, the designers made essentially the most continuously used components, which I saved as modules in my private Module library within the Stripo editor. Due to this fact, I don’t must contact the designer to create every e-mail now. I make all the next emails simply and rapidly utilizing Stripo’s modular structure.

Altering the design impacts the OR in the long term. In fact, customers can’t see the modifications in e-mail design earlier than they open the e-mail, however as soon as they do and see that the e-mail is structured and formatted, they’ll need to open your subsequent emails.

Step 5. Private e-mail signature

In digests and promotional emails, we started to make use of a private signature. This enables me to speak with subscribers like a fellow e-mail marketer who shares thrilling advertising information and precious instruments and assets.

The tone of voice of our emails has modified, too: it has develop into friendlier. For instance, as a substitute of “we suggest,” I say, “I discovered some cool stuff for you.”

For vacation digests, the identical signature is used, though it’s barely personalized to the theme. For instance, a witch’s hat was added for Halloween and a Santa’s hat for Christmas. So even with one signature, you’ll be able to create totally different variations by making minimal modifications.

Step 6. A/B testing of the very best ship time and topic line

The topic line and e-mail ship time are key parameters that straight have an effect on the OR. Due to this fact, I made a decision to do A/B testing for them.

Our subscribers reside in numerous international locations and time zones, so the very best ship time for the US and Europe will differ. The simplest for the American viewers was the morning hours earlier than the beginning of the working day and the center of the day—most definitely, the lunch break.

Due to this fact, when you have an viewers that’s unfold over many international locations as we do, ideally, you’ll use the Sensible Ship choice, which is offered in some ESPs.

Within the topic line, I examined totally different codecs:

• query;
• affirmative sentence;
• using emojis.

The simplest for us have been topics that intrigued, have been phrased as open questions or humorous headlines, and promised a solution to a query that the readers have been positively concerned about. For instance, “suggestions and methods on easy methods to improve the open price” will work higher as a topic line than simply “open price in e-mail advertising.”

By the best way, to make A/B testing straightforward, you’ll be able to rapidly export emails from Stripo to greater than 75 ESPs.

Step 7. The resend trick

After sending an vital or thrilling e-mail, I group all of the subscribers who’ve but to open it in a separate checklist, and after 2 days, I ship them the identical e-mail with a special topic line. This may develop your OR. Nonetheless, it’s best to not overuse this technique in order that your emails don’t go to spam.

Outcomes

Stripo’s performance helped me scale back the time I spent creating emails and allowed me to spend extra time on advertising experiments.

Since June 2022, now we have achieved and are sustaining the next leads to e-mail advertising:

1. The OR has doubled and now averages 27–34%. On the identical time, the OR is 29% for digests, 33.6% for promo emails, and 60–70% for webinars.
2. Visitors to the positioning from e-mail newsletters additionally elevated by 10% when evaluating the previous e-mail advertising technique with the brand new one. As well as, we acquired 225 registrations for the paid model of our product from new e-mail subscribers.

Essential conclusions

Our experiment proves that e-mail advertising works in a fancy method and that one ought to take a long-term method to rising the OR. When subscribers open our emails and see that they include numerous fascinating info that’s precious to them, they’ll open future newsletters extra usually.

E-mail advertising is a protracted sport, so don’t anticipate instantaneous outcomes. You’ll need to ship no less than 4–5 emails earlier than you see any enhancements in your campaigns’ efficiency, and it takes round 6 months for these enhancements to develop into evident and noticeable.

Pay attention to finest practices, implement them, and see the outcomes.

This use case was coauthored with Alina Samulska-Kholina, a copywriter at Stripo.