Invite Health
Invite Health, a leader in the nutriceutical industry has forged a strong business relationship with Active Web Group. Our goal has been to assist the firm to realize their comprehensive online business plans. The first joint project, an extensive website redesign, has enabled Invite to market their health and wellness products and to provide consumers with advice, education and guidance. A Digital Agency with a full roster of supportive online business services, AWG’s customized SEO campaign reinforces Invite’s stated goals. In addition, AWG’s Email Services and Social Media initiatives ensure that Invite will continue to reach and respond to new demographics well into the future.
“We’ve been working with Active Web Group for a few years now and we’re very pleased with their performance. The marketing strategy they’ve implemented for us keeps us a step ahead of our competition and, more importantly, is generating the exposure we need.”
Project Overview
Invite Health, a leading provider of vitamins and supplements was moving from brick and mortar stores only to E-Commerce and email marketing. At the time of the project inception, they had five stores in the North East. They had been in business many years and had a loyal customer following. Their products are considered more elite or high end than commodity items often found at the local vitamin shop and supplement franchises around the country. They felt they were missing out on the opportunity to gain national recognition for their products and communicate with their customers more frequently. Their customers enjoyed coming in to their retail locations, but often they couldn’t because of time limitations, weather, etc. The management team at Invite Health also realized that with times changing, customers expected to be able to get specials, fast online service and efficient ordering. Invite Health hired Active Web Group (AWG) to get their online marketing going. They had a simple order form website, but they realized it was dated and difficult to use. They also had no email program to reach out to their buyers, to cost effectively communicate with them and maximize value. AWG replaced their old E-Commerce site with a new modern scalable platform and increased the purchase conversion rate of online visitors by nearly 100%! Once the site was upgraded, AWG went to work to develop their email program.
Challenges
The start up email program for Invite Health had several challenges. The first challenge was to get their email list cleaned up and in good standing. Invite Health had been collecting emails for several years, both online and in stores and had approximately 30k names to start with. The list had not been used much for marketing and needed to be cleaned. An email list degrades rapidly with time. People often change their email addresses or they add new ones and keep old ones but don’t use them. These discarded emails can become spam traps and ruin your reputation as an online marketer. AWG is aware of and exceeds industry standards and practices on using email lists. We have a proprietary process to clean a list and bring it up to current standards. We removed all the bad email addresses so Invite Health had a nice clean list for marketing and communication and we protected the brand. Another challenge we faced was to determine the frequency of the email campaigns for effectiveness. The management team really didn’t know how often to contact their customers via email. AWG has methods of measurement and testing to tell them just that, with statistical data rather than opinion or guess work. Our experience having dealt with hundreds of clients and literally billions of emails sent has gained us great industry knowledge and proficiency.
Goals
The goal of the email program was to drive cost effective sales, increase the buying patterns of customers and effectively communicate offers, events and new products. AWG categorized the Invite Health list based on different data points to maximize the effectiveness of all the programs. Invite Health wanted a flexible platform that could be customized quickly to the results of ongoing testing to take advantage of the fast pace of today’s world. They wanted emails to promote their national radio shows, their store specials, their web specials and their unique approach to nutrition. AWG needed to create a user experience for the email recipient that was engaging and appreciated by the end user. The program also needed to have a measurable ROI that more than paid for itself. Marketing to customers must be profitable. This was not primarily a customer acquisition tool but a profit center.
Solution
AWG cleaned the Invite Health list from 30,000 names to 15,000 quality usable names and categorized them by data points such as type of purchases, life time value, gender and age. We designed several custom templates for each of their marketing efforts such as radios shows, specials, newsletters, new product releases and in store and web offers. We began an aggressive A/B testing program to determine frequency of emails to be sent as well as best subject lines, types of offers etc. AWG even tests the best time of day to send an email for maximum return. The program was created to scale properly and is in service today for Invite Health’s nine stores and their email list has grown immensely.
Success
The management team at Invite Health is extremely pleased with success of their growing email program. It now accounts for a significant portion of revenue and customers have come to love the emails! Invite will often get requests for their latest email specials when a customer does not have access. The program is so successful there is now a category on the site to display the latest email specials and all of their radio programs promote their email offers as well. The online email category helps grow the prospect list of people wanting to receive marketing offers. The program has an amazing ROI now that it is developed. AWG is continuing to A/B test the list for all attributes to increase the open rates and sales. The frequency of customer purchases has increased as a result of the email program and the client has reduced their print advertisements by 50%, while their sales have increase by over 100% in 18 months. The numbers are still climbing!
