Engaging and automated e-mail marketing flows using aspects of classic marketing theories in a digital marketing context to increase interaction and sales. A practise-oriented study.

Abstract

Due to low costs, the possibility to create brand awareness and sales opportunities e-mail marketing has become one of the most important marketing tools for B2B companies. The automated dispatch of mailings should not only save the marketing department time, but also increase sales.

The thesis was written as part of the professional activity as a marketing specialist. Since the company did not want to be named, it is referred to as a "case company". However, all variables, results and case examples correspond to the actual results. Since the case company used a newsletter tool but did not exploit its potential to automate mailing flows, the task was to investigate to what extent automated mailing flows can influence the interaction with mailings as well as sales. The goal was to create an automated mailing flow that encourages the segmented group of recipients to interact more with mailings and thus positively influences core variables such as open rate, CTR, CTOR and unsubscribe rate, as well as increasing sales of the advertised products. For this purpose, four classic marketing theories were combined in a meaningful way and formed the basis on which the mailing flow was built. To investigate the effectiveness, an experiment was conducted with a experiment group and a control group in which the core variables were compared before and after the start of the automated mailing flow by means of a gap analysis. It turned out that the core variables regarding the interaction with the mailings were positively influenced and the values could be improved compared to the previous period. Hypothesis 1 is therefore supported. No improvement was seen in the number of products sold, which means in fact that hypothesis 2 is not supported. In a significance analysis, it was determined that both results were not statistically significant. The results might be affected by the economic situation. Because of e.g., Ukraine war, high interest rates and high raw material prices people only buy cautiously and no longer stock up. Further research is needed to test different time horizons of sending mailings, different numbers of mailings and products in combination with sales promotions.

Summarized, the automatized mailing flow was only a partial success, but that does not mean this is a bad outcome for the case company. The instrument "mailing" serves the purpose of customer retention and building a stronger customer relationship. It can show the customer that they are understood and strengthen the company's position as an expert. When performing other automated mailing flows, it is possible to get positive results regarding sales figures. Online marketing is characterized by constant experimentation and trying to find out what customers really want and what their needs are.