How InnovaDerma Increased its Revenue by 436 Percent in the First Half of 2020

Headquartered in the UK and with a strong presence in Australasia, beauty and personal care product retailer, InnovaDerma was stuck in a never-ending cycle of ‘batch and blast’ emails, eventually resulting in a steady decline of engagement rates over a period of time. 

Why Did This Happen? 

While traditional email marketing strategies worked for some time, InnovaDerma understood it required a more sophisticated reporting tool, with dedicated strategic support to help interpret a quick path to value. Furthermore, the retailer’s limited customer segmentation and the absence of sophisticated marketing automation made it hard for them to stand out, thus missing out on further revenue. 

This is not an uncommon issue that retailers face. As a result of the pandemic, there are more retailers trying to cut through and reach new customers and further engage them to keep them coming back for more. 

Much like other retailers, InnovaDerma used well-known and popular email marketing platforms, which businesses often grow out of over time. With further customer expansion, the retailer needed to maximise its growth to support the demand of the brand. 

“We were on Mailchimp but were growing out of it,” explained Paddy Kennedy, the E-Commerce Marketing Manager at InnovaDerma. “We needed to maximise our revenue from email but were limited by its features. We needed a platform that the team could use easily and create customer journey automations with. We met Rohan and the team at dotdigital, clicked right away, and knew they were the right fit for our evolution.” 

So, What Next?

InnovaDerma’s flagship product, Skinny Tan UK, is the highest driving revenue item within its brand umbrella, and was the perfect starting point for a new automated campaign strategy. With the help from dotdigital, InnovaDerma launched campaigns with a focus on its Welcome series, Product Replenishment and Birthday series. 

Following the success from the Skinny Tan UK campaigns, InnovaDerma introduced the automated campaigns to its other products, including Charles & Lee, Roots and Nu-Thing. Using these automated campaigns, the retailer experienced a 436 percent growth in revenue in the first half of 2020, compared to 2019 in its entirety. 

“Before dotdigital one of the key challenges we faced was the overall decline in our open rates,” said Lucius Lim, the E-Commerce and Data Analyst at InnovaDerma. 

“Therefore, we were looking for a platform that would help us with in-depth knowledge of email best practice and deliverability, to help us refine the quality, relevancy, and frequency of our emails, their content, and the data we were sending to.” 

It’s Not Just About the Emails

While automated campaigns are a tool that can help develop a stronger sense of loyalty between brand and customers, it’s important to understand and utilise the data collected from these points to maximise growth and secure a robust business strategy for the future. 

InnovaDerma used the data collected from the campaigns to trigger re-engagement campaigns, allowing the retailer to capitalise on the lapsed customer base using incentives. Furthermore, the customers that remained inactive for an extended period were flagged and removed from the database. This further engaged data hygiene, which in turn, improved retailer reputation and created a more robust database. 

“dotdigital has not only helped us overcome the deliverability challenges we initially faced, through its Deliverability team and dedicated Deliverability consulting – which resulted in our improved sender reputation – but we’ve also significantly increased our engagement rates through the sophisticated targeting and automation we can now do within the platform,” Lim said. 

As part of the newly developed segmentation approach, InnovaDerma implemented product recommendations using dotdigital, throughout their email campaigns. Best-selling products from the brand Roots highlighted the highest selling items that would appeal to the customer base, further generating revenue for the brand directly. 

As e-commerce continues its upward trajectory and expands further, the harder it can be for retailers to penetrate the customer base and cut through. As brands grow and broaden their reach, professionals must understand when is the right time to accelerate further growth and find the platform that best suits their expansion plans, to help them reach untapped potential. 

Download dotdigital’s post-purchase marketing guide to unlock all the tips and tricks you need to drive customer engagement across the entire lifecycle. Learn to marry your transactional and marketing messages and offer customers an undisrupted experience – one that leaves a lasting impression and sows the seeds of loyalty.

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