ERIN MILLER - THINK OUTSIDE THE (SUBSCRIPTION) BOX
1. Ryan Brelje
Content Marketing Manager at
Iterable
Erin Miller
VP of Marketing at
Rocksbox
Think Outside the (Subscription) Box
2. 2
Rocksbox is a jewelry
membership service transforming
the way women discover and buy
jewelry.
Iterable is the growth marketing
platform that powers true omni-
channel relevance at scale
3. Iterable, Inc. All Rights Reserved 3
We live in the now
economy.
The only moment that
matters to your customers
is what is relevant to them
right now.
U.S. Subscription Spending
4. Iterable, Inc. All Rights Reserved 4
But customers are
still inundated with
messaging that is
not relevant.
>94%
of consumers have
discontinued a brand
relationship due to
irrelevant messaging.
— Blue Research (2016)
5. The modern growth marketer's task is to
create
Omni-channel relevance.
6. Omni-Channel Relevance in Subscription
RetailCustomers are looking for a better overall experience
Ongoing
Value
Memorable
Experience
Increased
Convenience
Personalized
Service
14. BarkBox
• Offer w/o
subscription
• Adorable photo of
dog
• Fun, casual tone
• Offer w/o
subscription
• Easy reactivation
• Calm and collected
Dollar
Shave Club
15. Rocksbox
• Motivating content to re-engage
the cancelled customer
• Limited time offer
High-Performance Re-Activation
16. Iterable, Inc. All Rights Reserved 16
Customer data is
critical to One-to-One
personalization across
all the channels.
Good morning everyone and thanks for joining our session “Think outside the subscription box”
Today we’ll be discussing how growth marketers can build “relevance” for their customers by looking at the habits of the major players in the explosive industry of subscription retail
I’m Ryan Brelje, Content Manager at Iterable and
I’d like to introduce Erin Miller VP of Marketing at Rocksbox. Erin is our resident expert on today’s subject matter!
[WELCOME ERIN]
[ERIN TO SEGUE FROM CAREER TO ABOUT ROCKSBOX]
Thanks, Erin. Iterable is the growth marketing platform that powers true omni-channel relevance at scale
In short, we’re the solution that helps marketers achieve everything we’re going to be talking about today
(Slide text)
Consumer behaviors have shifted and our expectations are high
People are empowered to consume at their own leisure in the way that best fits their personal needs
This is especially true in retail
Gartner predicts that subscription spending will reach $1.2 TRILLION by the end of this year
The Now Economy has brought forth amazingly convenient services like Rocksbox enabling consumers to get exactly what they want, when they want it
But this experience isn’t always echoed by branded marketing
We’re still subject to marketing that simply isn’t relevant to our personal experience
In fact, a study showed that more than 94% of consumers will leave a brand when the messaging is off
When it comes to consumer relevance, most retailers (subscription and otherwise) still have a lot of work to do
But, our task, as growth marketers, is to create omni-channel relevance and bridge this gap.
We know that inconsistent experiences drive our customers away
We’re successful when we cut through the all the noise, we’re relevant with our customers, and reach them on their preferred devices
And what exactly do we mean by omni-channel? We mean unifying this experience across all the channels; Email, mobile, social, and direct mail
And what does this mean to the world of subscription retail?
Relevance here means producing a better overall experience when it comes to service
[TRANSITION TO ERIN]
Erin, as a successful subscription retailer, we’d love if you could share the Rocksbox perspective on this front
To evaluate how subscription retailers were addressing relevance and the customer experience, we studied the top 100 subscription retail service companies in the U.S.
We actually subscribed to the services of all 100 companies and assessed their marketing efforts from the perspective of a new customer
We documented all outreach and assessed 3 specific campaign strategies:
welcome campaigns, blast campaigns, re-engagement campaigns
Starting first with welcome campaigns
A little more than 2/3 companies incorporated these as their new customer outreach
The majority (72%) sent us a single “welcome” email but often didn’t take advantage of the new customer “honeymoon” stage to engage us further
Our report recognized Rocksbox as a leader here, Erin, can you talk to us about your approach to welcome series?
[TRANSITION TO ERIN]
Not a surprise, but most vendors use “blast campaigns”
The average number of blast emails sent to active subscribers was about 4 per week.
The averages varied by industry with fashion leading the way
Erin, Seeing this number, how does this resonate with you?
[TRANSITION TO ERIN]
Let’s look at a couple of examples.
Blast campaigns don’t have to be limited in creativity!
Campaigns seen here from Geek Fuel and Loot Crate, two gaming and “geeky gear” focused retailers, were very memorable
Highly visual and interactive (animations, polling, scratch offs)
They made us feel like weren’t were being marketed at
(Speak to slides)
Erin, let’s take a look at some Rocksbox examples! We’d love to hear more about your strategy here
[TRANSITION TO ERIN]
[ERIN TO SPEAK TO SLIDE]
Of all the lifecycle campaigns, re-engagement was clearly the strategy that was least utilized
It seemed that once customers like us churned, most of these businesses made little effort to re-target and win us back
13% average is a pretty low number, especially when you consider acquisition costs for new customers are 5 to 25x more than retaining an existing one
But no need to lecture here! Let’s take a look at 2 standout examples
(Slide text)
What both of these companies excelled at was communicating with compromise
Their conversation with us didn’t end upon cancellation, but it did change
These were both excellent examples of finding ways to leave the door open build goodwill stemming from customer churn
To note here, studies show that even a 5% increase in retention can result in a 25-95% increase in profit.
And re-engagement campaigns are an excellent way to pursue that.
Erin, any anecdotes you can share about your company’s re-engagement success?
[TRANSITION TO ERIN]
[ERIN CANCELLATION ANECDOTE]
Let’s wrap up our findings with our biggest takeaway from this report
The thread which was woven through all of the memorable campaigns was personalization
Personalization of our customer experience, of our interests, of the connections we made with each of these brands as their customer
And the way they achieved this is with customer data
…being able to leverage not only our past purchase histories and evolving interaction activity, but who we are as a customer, what we like, how we engage…our entire digital body language in one consistent experience
Now Erin, with our report covered, I’d love to use this time to pick your brain on a couple of topics – how about a few questions?
You’ve been growth hacking over your entire career! How are you driving Rocksbox’s marketing strategy using some of these principles?
Growth hacking is a significant part of growth marketing as a whole, but that’s only one side of the equation – what lessons learned from customer acquisition have you incorporated into retention efforts?
What advice can you share with our audience when it comes to becoming an industry leader in their space, just like Rocksbox?