We are very excited to share this mini case study, currently an EIS Awards 2023 finalist in the Multiple Messages category. Marketers can learn a lot from this Dr. Scholl’s campaign that doubled orders and revenue while reducing opt-out rates by a third.
Dr. Scholl’s wanted to maximize revenue for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. They discussed approaches with Alchemy Worx and agreed that this big cultural event isn’t just about the sales that day, it’s about the anticipation and build up leading to the days-long event.
In order to increase cadence the way they felt the holiday deserved, the team also agreed to look at segmentation based on engagement. While there were multiple segments considered, ultimately the team summarized them by “wide” – going to most of the database, and “engaged” – going to buyers/openers/clickers within a specific timeframe.
Together they built a calendar that created opportunities for more mailings through smart segmentation and messaging, while never suggesting that customers should wait for better deals.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| Thanksgiving Sale Wide send | Thanksgiving Sale Wide send | Get Ready for Black Friday Wide send, PM only | Black Friday Deals AM – Wide send PM – engaged | Deals got better! Wide send | ||
| Early Cyber Monday Deals Wide send | Cyber Monday Deals AM – Wide send PM – engaged | Last Chance! AM – wide send PM – engaged |
The holiday event in 2022 had 10 mailings compared to 5 during 2021. Five of the 2022 mailings pulled in record-breaking revenue, compared to only three in 2021. Part of this was a result of significant work to increase list size during 2022. However, the extra campaigns gave 2022 a clear advantage on revenue that outpaced the changes to the list.
While revenue and orders were up, the team did need to accept a lower click rate. This was a deliberate choice. They realized that by opening up the sends to the wider audience, they were trading off clickthrough rates in order to get more orders. It is a balancing act to try to reach engaged customers while also reminding less-engaged customers that you have valuable offers they might want. Holidays are definitely a good time to broaden your reach, since more people are in the market for goods during that season. The team took advantage of that in their planning and it paid off.
Dr. Scholl’s and Alchemy Worx are planning to use these learnings in planning their 2023 holiday season. We look forward to another record-breaking year for Dr. Scholl’s!
