Most companies associate Ballantine with direct mail. And while direct mail is our core competency, we also now provide full-service email marketing.
This month’s case study features a successful email campaign we recently produced for DAL Investment Company’s FUNDX Conservative Upgrader Fund (RELAX).
The campaign included:
- Copy & design of both an email and landing page
- Email execution and reporting
- Subject line split-testing
- Deliverability testing and list hygiene
- Google Analytics link tracking
Copy and Design
We wrote and designed both an email and landing page for DAL. First, we started with a creative brainstorming call. And after a few rounds of revisions, the final product was ready.
Click Here to view the email.
Click Here to view the landing page.
Execution and Reporting
We executed the email campaigns from start to finish for DAL including the items below. Three blasts were launched: one in November of 2009, one in December and one in February when RELAX was upgraded from a 4 Star to a 5 Star Morningstar™ Rating. The emails were sent to their customer file. We also provided reporting updates a few times after each blast.
Subject Line
In the beginning, we started with two subject lines and split-tested both to find a winner. We were surprised to find that the longer, more descriptive subject line won significantly by 20.8%.
Deliverability and Hygiene
Our email marketing service includes a program that scans the email for factors that will decrease deliverability so you can fix the issue(s). We also cleansed their file after each blast, moving the bad email addresses to a different file.
Google Analytics
We converted each link in the email to a Google Analytics tracking link so DAL could track what each visitor did once they clicked through from the email to the landing page. Doing this also enabled them to track the visitor if they left the landing page and visited the main FundX Upgrader Funds website.
Email Results
As a result of the emails, DAL had $2.5 million flow into the fund. This is during a difficult period where they had outflows in most funds.
More Information
If you would like to speak to us about your email marketing needs, please contact Ryan Cote.
4 comments ↓
We did not realize you did this.
We use Vertical Response since they appear to have these capabilities well in place and they only charge 1¢/each.
Maybe you do some things they don’t. Could you elaborate on how you differ? I’m sure there are some differences and would appreciate your comments.
Thanks, Ted
Hi Ted – email is something we started offering clients 4th quarter last year and we’re slowly starting to make it more known.
Vertical Response is perfect for the self-serve model. They are a great company and a good choice if you’re looking to do email marketing in-house.
We offer full-service email marketing: copy and design, email execution and reporting. The email software we use also enables us to test for deliverability issues, run subject line A/B tests and integrate with Google Analytics. We’re a good choice for medium size companies looking to outsource their email marketing.
And lastly, we only deal with housefile (customer) email campaigns where you own the email addresses. If one is looking to rent email addresses to market to, the email blast is usually handled by the company you are renting the email addresses from.
Thanks for the added detail. Didn’t realize you got involved on the creative and test recommendation side.
We use Vertical Response for house files only. Vertical Response guards its relationship with ISPs carefully. Any semblance of spamming is controlled.
Our practice does not believe in using email as a customer acquisition tools unless it is a part of a direct mail support program. All email we work with is permission email.
You should do well with this since the demand for email support continues to climb.
I agree with you…the integrated approach of using email with direct mail can be very effective.
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