Rodial Email Case Study

1. ClientStudy Story
Case Success
Rodial significantly improves its e-commerce
effectiveness by embracing email deliverability
best practices
Inbox placement increased by over 25% and
GET MORE INFO
revenues more than tripled with Return Path +44 (0) 845 002 0006
Certification rpinfo-europe@returnpath.net
Product: Return Path Certification
Industry: Cosmetics
Renowned skincare product specialist Rodial combines scientific and clinical expertise with a unique knowledge of natural
skin treatments, bringing to market innovative skin and body products that provide a glamorous alternative to cosmetic
surgery.
Its products are sold through its rodial.co.uk online store as well as through a number of highly specialist retail stores
and up-market department stores in 35 countries worldwide. These include Europe, the US and Canada, Singapore, Hong
Kong, Malaysia, Australia, and select countries in the Middle East.
Challenge
Through its online marketing solutions provider dotMailer, Rodial sends out close to one million emails a month
to generate website traffic, promote its products, and inform customers of its latest offers. Rodial relies on email
marketing, PR and celebrity endorsements rather than traditional advertising to promote its products, with well-
known brand advocates including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss.
With email playing such hugely successful and pivotal role in Rodial’s marketing activity, it is vital they maximize
the number of messages delivered to the inbox for each campaign.
The key challenge for the Rodial marketing team is that many of their key product names – including ‘tummy tuck’
and ‘crash diet’ – are also terms typically associated with spam and liable to cause reputational issues and trigger
spam filters.
Solution
Rodial’s email service provider, dotMailer, was focused on optimising Rodial’s inbox placement, regardless of
potential spam filter issues with their product names. To this end, dotMailer recommended they apply to join the
Return Path Certification Program.
As the largest and broadest whitelist programme in the market, Return Path Certification covers more than 2.1 bil-
lion mailboxes worldwide. ISPs use the list to help them identify the best senders of email and filter out unwanted
mail. This allows the good emails to go through to the inbox, making it a list brands want to be on.
Return Path Certification’s other significant benefits for commercial senders mean images are automatically
enabled at Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo!, while because Certified senders are recognised as trusted send-
ers, links are automatically enabled. Members also receive a beneficial initial score with SpamAssasin filtering,
If you have questions or would like to hear how Return Path’s services can improve your email
delivery and performance, please call +44 (0) 845 002 0006, or email rpinfo-europe@returnpath.net
© 2011 Return Path, Inc. www.returnpath.net | v110311

2. ClientStudy Story
Case Success
which enables them to use words and phrases that may traditionally
have caused their emails to be filtered: a feature of particular benefit to Being accredited and accepted
Rodial.
on to the Return Path Certifica-
However, to be accepted onto the programme, businesses have to prove
tion Program which is widely
they adhere to Return Path’s stringent standards, and once certified, must
continue to meet a rigorous set of performance-based metrics that include used by many leading ISPs and
very low complaint and unknown user rates. dotMailer worked closely with filtering companies resulted in
Rodial to build a strong foundation that would enable it to progress seam-
lessly through the certification process and be in the best possible position more of Rodial’s emails reaching
once certified. the inbox, significantly reducing
Over several months, Return Path and dotMailer measured a variety of the percentage filtered out as
key performance indicators, including inbox placement rate, using Return spam.
Path‘s email monitoring tool, Mailbox Monitor. For each ISP, Mailbox
Monitors measures how many emails get delivered into the inbox, as
well as into the bulk and missing folders. It can also reveal the Sender Score, complaint rate, unknown user rate, and
whether the campaign and IP passed key infrastructure and authentication checks. Throughout this process, the
companies kept track of click-through rates as well as e-commerce revenue to measure the ROI of email marketing
programmes.
Rodial passed all the checks, and as a responsible email sender, was successfully accepted onto the Certification
Program.
Results
Comparing KPIs before certification and immediately after, Rodial saw more Rodial boosted its inbox
than a 25% increase in emails delivered straight to the inbox, with 98.7% of placement by 25% following
its emails now reaching their target. Return Path whitelist
Certification has also had a significant positive impact on email marketing certification. This resulted in
campaign responses with click-through rates increasing by more than 55%.
Running a comparison on weekly revenues before Return Path Certification
55% more email click throughs
and after, Rodial saw revenues increase by over 200%. which in turn lead to a
revenue increase of over 200%
Customer Feedback
“Our marketplace is extremely competitive which makes share of mind critically important. This is why
we focus a lot on celebrity endorsements and this is also why our email campaigns fulfill a vital role in our
marketing programmes. If our emails don’t reach our customers, they don’t get the information they need
and want, making strong and consistent inbox placement a top priority for us. Being a Return Path Certified
sender and part of its leading whitelist program has had a tremendous effect and positively impacted our
overall e-commerce effectiveness. We are now achieving higher response from our programmes as well as
increased ROI.”
― Eliza Wells, PR, E-Commerce & Marketing Manager, Rodial
Would you like help increasing your email response rates? Find out how Return Path
can improve your overall email performance. Email rpinfo-europe@returnpath.net or
call +44 (0) 845 002 0006 for more information.
If you have questions or would like to hear how Return Path’s services can improve your email
delivery and performance, please call +44 (0) 845 002 0006, or email rpinfo-europe@returnpath.net
© 2011 Return Path, Inc. www.returnpath.net | v110311