Silverpop's Email Marketing Technology Powers Retail Revenue

ATLANTA, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Retailers are flocking to Silverpop® in search of easy-to-use marketing technology that can help them improve conversion rates and increase revenue. The company, a leading provider of email marketing and marketing automation solutions, has helped its e-commerce clients achieve up to a 25-fold increase in email generated revenue by sending targeted and relevant messages to the right people at the right time.

Several leading brands have joined Silverpop's client roster in recent months, including:

• Crabtree & Evelyn
• Harrods
• LIDS
• Moosejaw
• Teleflora

"We were looking to build a more comprehensive campaign without adding additional internal resources or time-consuming processes," said Steve Wentzell, director of e-commerce for LIDS.  "Silverpop not only offers some very innovative features that are easy to use, but also provides the level of support and expertise we need while being flexible enough to scale with us as our program grows."

LIDS joins scores of other retailers who have turned to Silverpop to help them improve their bottom line, including CUTCO, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Fabric.com, Gaylord Brothers, Isabella Oliver, Oki-Ni, PUMA AG, Red Letter Days, The Little Tikes Company and many more.

The companies are using Silverpop's Engage 8 platform to power automated, targeted email campaigns that recapture potentially lost sales, improve engagement metrics and, in some cases, drive five to 25 times higher revenue through carefully targeted email programs versus broadcast messages. Two challenges among many that Silverpop is successfully helping retailers to address are: determining the best time to send a message so that it receives the highest response, and reclaiming sales that might otherwise be lost when visitors abandon shopping carts.

Silverpop's proprietary Send Time Optimization feature (STO) analyzes recipient behavior on a rolling basis to predict the ideal email delivery time for each address on a mailing list, and then automatically delivers messages to recipients at the precise day and time each individual is most likely to be in his or her inbox -- and therefore more likely to be engaged and take a desired action. Silverpop clients who have implemented this feature have experienced tremendous results.

During one test of STO, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. sent half its subscribers messages delivered at the same time while the rest received messages utilizing STO. The carefully timed emails generated 40 percent more revenue than those not using the feature.

Another retail challenge in which timing is everything is following up with shoppers who put items in their virtual carts, but never check out. By some reports, cart abandonment rates average 60 percent to 70 percent. Through seamless integrations with partners such as SeeWhy; Adobe's Omniture Business Unit; Webtrends; and Coremetrics®, an IBM Company, Silverpop customers are recapturing these potentially lost sales with automatically triggered reminder messages.

Silverpop client and library supply store Gaylord Brothers distributes its first cart abandonment email within one minute of abandonment. As a result, 50 percent of abandoners return to the site to complete their purchase.  Fabric.com, the world's leading online fabric store, has experienced similar success by creating a sense of urgency through a multi-email cart abandonment program that has increased average order size by 20 percent.

"Getting the timing right, whether sending a special offer at the exact time the customer is engaged and ready to make a purchase or reminding someone that they abandoned their cart, can have a tremendous impact on email-generated revenue," said Loren McDonald, vice president of industry relations for Silverpop.  "By offering retailers both innovative product features and the ability to easily integrate with complementary technologies, Silverpop helps drive additional revenue efficiently and cost effectively."

Understanding and managing data around individual customer attributes and behavior is also key to retail success. For Silverpop customers, the process of gathering data can begin even before a person opts in to their email programs. Using Silverpop's Web tracking feature, companies can capture the activity of visitors on their website. Once a visitor opts in, his or her prior profile information instantly integrates into the email program, allowing marketers to harness this data and send highly relevant email messages right from the start.

"A customer may visit an electronics store's website on numerous occasions, but always looks at computers.  Just think how impressed he will be when he opts into the retailer's email program and the first email he receives is an offer for free shipping on laptops," added McDonald. "Retailers are savvy marketers who understand that relevancy is more important than frequency when it comes to driving email-generated revenue.  We are pleased that our technology helps them increase sales while also building customer loyalty that will reap benefits for years to come."

About Silverpop

Silverpop is a leading provider of email marketing and marketing automation solutions.  It helps marketers turn prospects into customers-and customers into fans-through the creation, automation and delivery of relevant, multichannel digital messaging.  Companies rely on the Silverpop Engage platform to create and manage sophisticated email marketing campaigns that reach millions of individuals-one at a time-engaging prospective customers and enhancing lifetime customer value and brand loyalty. Silverpop's marketing automation capabilities enable B2B marketers to efficiently manage leads and drive qualified sales opportunities through scoring and by nurturing campaigns that move prospects from interest to conversion. Silverpop's industry-leading thought capital, strategic counsel, service and support helps B2C and B2B customers with the precise level of training and advice needed to quickly improve campaign results and ROI. With offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, Silverpop's marketing technologies are used by industry-leading brands around the globe. Best practices and white papers are available at silverpop.com.

SOURCE Silverpop