StubHub sees dramatic 2,500% revenue lift in e-mail test

For online ticket retailer StubHub combining recommendations with its personalized e-mail program had a dramatic effect on a test mailing.

In fact, the test mailing, that sent follow up e-mails to people who had visited the StubHub site, saw a 2,500% lift on revenue per e-mail sent compared with an average StubHub e-mail campaign.

“We contacted users who were already in the purchase cycle, and are ready to buy, and sent them highly targeted e-mails,” said Elizabeth Nakamoto, lead business architect at StubHub. “It's the right time, it's the right message and it's the right audience.”

The test was done after StubHub's e-mail service provider Responsys integrated its Interact(r) e-mail tool with Omniture Recommendations. The way it works is that within StubHub's e-mail program, they can dynamically insert product recommendations into their e-mail marketing campaigns.

“With this integration, we are able to have a whole new class of campaigns,” said John Berkley, VP, product marketing and new business, at Responsys. “We are driving very relevant content and sending it to a very specific group of people.”

Due to the success of this test e-mail, StubHub plans to do more with the Responsys/Omniture integration.

“We're going to blow it out,” added Nakamoto. “This was one small test to see how the implementation works, and we had amazing results. Now we are going to roll it out to the rest of our users.”