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German Print Company Needed to Stand Out from the Competition

The print business in Germany is a highly competitive industry, once entirely dominated by brick-and-mortar companies. As e-commerce has evolved, the print playing field has opened up to any company who can identify their customer and then accurately target and establish a relationship with them.

That means that smaller print e-commerce companies have to capitalize on the best digital marketing channels at their disposal. It starts with email, but could easily branch out into website, mobile, and push notifications.

Related Content: Owning Email Success in a Mobile-First World

PosterXXL knew it had to win new customers away from the competition. And it would have to do it all online, using email.

Choosing the best email partner was an intimidating task because there were tons of ESPs in the German and European market. A “typical” email consultancy would not suffice for posterXXL; they needed something exceptional and not just a new piece of software that would be pitched as the only solution they’d ever have to buy. PosterXXL needed an edge that would give them a chance to disrupt the print competition.

Better Content at the Right Time for Increased Engagement

Conversions are the endgame of any campaign, but audience engagement is a close second. The more interaction you get from customers, the more likely those customers are to convert and spread the word to family, friends, and coworkers.

PosterXXL could envision how much of an impact adding dynamic and personalized content in its emails would have on the growth of the business, and after only a few months of implementing and testing, the marketing team was able to place images based on segments (for example, one image for men and one for women) and saw increased engagement among thousands of customers.

The Look and Feel of Emails Make a Difference

There’s nothing more boring than an email that looks like it came straight out of 2004 and speaks to you like you’re the same as the other 7 billion people on the planet.

PosterXXL recognized this, and made significant improvements to its email design.

PosterXXL email

Making the Customer Feel Special with Automated Personalization

PosterXXL used to customize emails with the standard “Hello [first name]” salutation, but now, the marketing team can embed names or any other customizable values in their products or image design.

But there’s more to personalization than email content.

The timing of the message is important too, and automation takes the timeliness dilemma off of your plate. When you send customers automated special messages, like for a birthday, they may appreciate the personalized attention enough to buy something. But even if they don’t convert, there’s nothing wrong with letting them know that your brand considers them special enough to send a birthday greeting or message to celebrate how long the customer has been shopping with you.

personalized birthday and anniversary emails
PosterXXL delivers personalized birthday and customer anniversary emails.

Countdown to Conversion

A static email – an email that never changes and only ever displays what was in it at the time of sending – is the standard for most brands. Using tools to support dynamic email (where some parts of the message can be updated every time the customer opens the email), posterXXL drove even further personalization.

Open Time Content is one such tool that allowed posterXXL to embed a countdown timer within emails that will show how much time is left on a particular sale or discount every time the customer opens the email.

Now, posterXXL can better leverage customer data to personalize communications, create a sense of urgency, and significantly improve customer engagement.

Open Time Content
Static emails (left) aren’t as engaging or compelling as emails that render content based on whenever they’re opened (right).

“The general mission is to personalize the dialog for every customer, and this has been made possible for us with Emarsys. The automation programs, the personalization features, the conditional targeting, etc. — this is all very good. What I wish is to continue the implementation of machine learning into the system.”

Martin Berky, CRM Team Manager, posterXXL

Final Thoughts

Email is the foundational channel for most successful e-commerce brands, and as technology has evolved, tools to enhance and overhaul the email experience have come to market.

Related Content: Why Email Has Become our Digital ID, and How Digital Marketers Can Leverage it for Omnichannel [Experts Weigh In]

PosterXXL leverages this kind of technology to increase open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rates.

Using AI marketing technology to execute its email program, poster XXL saw the following:

  • Open rates increased by 20%
  • Customers clicked through email content 40% more
  • Average order values rose 5%

Improvements in email design, greater personalized greetings, automated special event messaging, and dynamic countdown timers have all helped posterXXL revolutionize its email marketing program and its business.