Background

	“Jim Kelly did a great job of creating and executing SelfCare's email initiatives. He got me to think strategically about what our customers would want and how we could deliver it. In terms of the technical aspects of the program Jim was definitely "the man." But perhaps best of all, Jim kept us all on track concerning the schedule, deliverables, etc. All the bases were covered!” Becky Conzett Senior Manager of Relationship Marketing SelfCare

SelfCare is a provider of health and wellness products. The customer base is 80% female. They are a successful catalog retailer that was founded in 1979. They began developing their online channel in 1998. SelfCare was acquired by Gaiam in 2001.

Problem to be Solved

Build and grow SelfCare's online channel. Drive revenue and promote selfcare.com as a premier site for health and wellness information.

Program Goals

• Increase overall revenue.
• Transition customer base from catalog based sales to online sales.
• Minimize the time that SelfCare's IT team needed to spend on ongoing technology and data management.
• Provide tracking and reporting on email deliveries and results and assess the ROI for the email program.

• Use email marketing to deliver product recommendations that are based on each customer's self reported interests and behaviors as well as to business considerations such as product inventory and margins.
• Deliver email content that is tightly linked to SelfCare's health and wellness site content and community features (such as online chats).

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Solution

• Created My SelfCare program, including registration pages, personalized email communications, and response measurement and analysis. Message types include monthly newsletter, special offers and discounts, and advance notice of online chats and other site features.
• Performed customer segmentation analysis to enable email communications to be created and optimized with respect to increasing response and revenue.
• Monthly newsletter is highly personalized for each recipient with product and articles/information related to her specific self-reported registration information.
• Created automated reminder messages such as the breast self check reminder. Using detailed information shared by registrants, reminder messages are sent at the optimal time for each subscriber based on her cycle.
• Coordinated efforts with direct mail. For example, direct mail solicitation of off-line catalog recipients was coordinated with the appropriate registration pages, web site content, and follow-up email messages.
• Created multi-step registration page for the email program. Registration process allows for new registrations as well as for existing subscribers to view and modify their registration information. Ability to view and modify one's information is password protected.
• Registration pages were integrated with main SelfCare web site such that navigation between the registration pages and main SelfCare site was seamless, not only in terms of look and feel but also in terms of authentication (e.g., users are required to login in only once to view and modify their registration or make a purchase) and session management (e.g., timeout after a specified amount of time.)
• Developed automated real time data transfer between SelfCare databases and email marketing application, hosted by an email technology services provider, which generated, delivered, and tracked messages. With automated transfer in place, messages could be delivered without the need for ongoing manual data management.
• Additional data was collected over time by first establishing trust and then promoting benefits to customer of additional data exchange. For example, in exchange for sharing additional information about themselves, customers were given a one time discount as well as more personalized - and thus relevant - email content.

Results

• Detailed ROI analysis, which considered email program costs, revenue, cost of goods sold and other relevant factors, showed monthly ROIs of greater than 100%. Some specific email campaigns had ROIs of over 1000%.
• Increased registrations, increased click-throughs, increased participation in web chats, increased repeat purchases. Overall program click-through rate for all recipients -- catalog recipients and other prospects as well as new and existing online customers -- is close to 6%.
• Messages drove online sales: close to 15% of all click-throughs resulted in a purchase.
• Program management processes were created to streamline email campaign development and efficiently coordinate email and web site content.
• Initial setup of automated data transfer obviated the need for all but minimal ongoing involvement by SelfCare's IT staff.

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