Silverpop's reporting capabilities help agency prove value

The Company
E-marketing Strategies has been helping its clients take advantage of the Internet since 2003. Based in Dallas, the interactive agency specializes in developing effective email marketing campaigns and Web sites for small- to mid-sized companies. With clients ranging from non-profits to luxury auto dealers, E-marketing Strategies has a solid reputation as email marketing and e-newsletter experts.

The Challenge
Like all marketing agencies, E-marketing Strategies faces the challenge of demonstrating ROI for its clients. "People want to see the numbers," explained President Mona Belcher. "Many clients initially think email is easy. It can take some effort to move them to best practices that can really enhance results."

For example, when working with client Fossil Rim, a non-profit wildlife facility, E-marketing Strategies emphasized the importance of trying tactics proven to improve response. While the non-profit's small base of e-newsletter subscribers gave rave reviews about the content, Fossil Rim needed a way to increase the size of its mailing list and turn subscribers into park visitors.

"We wanted to incorporate dynamic content and event-driven lifecycle marketing to create more sophisticated email marketing programs," she said. "We needed to generate specific metrics and in-depth reports to empirically show campaign results so the client could see the value of these changes."

The Solution
Working with Silverpop, E-marketing Strategies developed a solution for increasing its client's email opt-in rate and driving revenue. As a first step, the agency created a confirmation email program in the form of a welcome message. This personable, highly interactive message is customers' introduction to the email program, and it gives subscribers a taste of what they can expect from the newsletter.

Tapping into the rich mine of data available from Silverpop's reports, Belcher's team tracked link activity over a four-month period, identifying which links were getting the most clicks and which were getting the least clicks. These metrics reports enabled Fossil Rim to reduce the number of links to avoid confusing new subscribers, focusing on links that provide value to recipients and drive conversion to revenue.

The Results
Fossil Rim has seen dramatic results. E-newsletter opt-ins have doubled. Open rates often reach 80 percent, and click-throughs reach 70 percent.

"With the data and analytics we can pull from Silverpop, we can create campaigns that produce huge results and show clients exactly the kind of returns they're getting," Belcher said. "Generating reports from Silverpop is the easiest I've experienced. They are powerful and provide everything I need to show clients what works and what doesn't."

E-marketing Strategies has been so successful in gaining results for its clients that it recently received the Dallas-Fort Worth Interactive Marketing Association's "Outstanding Interactive Marketer of the Year Award," and was also recognized by MarketingSherpa for the Fossil Rim e-newsletter.