For wedding site The Knot, keeping the dialog relevant with consumers online is key, which is why it began adding targeted product recommendations to its abandoned cart e-mail program back in June. Since then, the site has seen a 10% increase in unique click-through rates.
“If you abandon your cart, the next day, you will get a reminder with a discount coupon offer and some product recommendations,” said Jay Defoore, director of consumer marketing at TheKnot. “Delivering a little bit of personalization can really increase the response.”
The Knot has worked with e-mail service provider Responsys since March 2009 to communicate its products and services to its audience of engaged people. To use the site, a consumer must register their e-mail address and, from there, the data collection begins. Adding product recommendations to e-mails comes out of a series of data partnerships that Responsys made with various technology vendors back in June.
In June, Responsys partnered with Aggregate Knowledge, Baynote, Certona, Coremetrics, MyBuys, Omniture, Proclivity Systems, RichRelevance, Strands and Omniture to make various kinds of data and targeting tools available directly within the Responsys e-mail platform.
The Baynote technology is what The Knot used for product recommendations. “The idea is that we wanted to be technology agnostic to our clients,” said John Berkley, VP Product Marketing, Responsys. “It’s almost like a mash-up, you put the e-mail together in Responsys but you can use the technology from Baynote.”
The Knot is continuing to evolve their e-mail programs and has plans to add behavioral targeting to the mix in the fourth quarter.
“It goes back to getting the data nailed down,” added Defoore. “Maybe they have browsed the registry area of our site, and we can send them an informational e-mail about the program. Once you have that data, you have a lot of possibilities that you can play with.”
