The home improvement giant hopes to boost customer engagement on emails through more immersive mobile user experiences
A new ‘kinetic’ email campaign, available on smartphones and tablets, is being launched by UK home improvement retailer B&Q to enable subscribers to access and interact with more in-depth content without moving away from the initial email in their inbox.
First of its kind
Using Oracle Marketing Cloud software services, the interactive campaign ‘kinetic email’ is described as an industry first as the pilot is currently unique to B&Q. The more immersive, content-centric service aims to improve the overall user experience and ultimately boost customer engagement and click-through rates for B&Q.
“We are offering our customers something they have not been able to do before – access this level of information within the email template, without being directed away to the website,” commented Christina Heaver, email planner at B&Q.
This pilot is the first of three seasonal campaigns to be rolled out across the year. Mobile devices currently account for over 50% of the open rate for B&Q’s email campaigns, which is a key factor driving the retailer to focus on producing optimised and visual content which encourages the user to click through to the website.
No more scrolling
The interactive email will allow smartphone and tablet users to view sliding panels with inspirational imagery, products and advice without having to scroll down the email.
The campaign will be measured by an increase in open durations and click-throughs to the website, comparing the static desktop view to the kinetic smartphone and tablet views.
By condensing the email content into one screen for tablet and smartphone users, B&Q hopes to simplify the customer journey to product information.
“We already see high open rates for our emails, but we are looking to increase the click-through rate for our growing mobile audience, and to increase email engagement,” continued Heaver. “The benefit of this would be twofold: we can understand much more what information our customer base wants by testing the engagement levels, and in return we can send our customers relevant content in a design which is more visually creative and compelling.”
Keeping eyeballs on the website
The 5-click panel module will allow customers to scroll between images and explore information and advice within the email, without being directed away to the website.
The module has been designed as a responsive solution, with a different view for desktop, tablet and smartphone devices. The interactivity engages when the email is opened in iOS or Android mobile devices, allowing the user to touch the screen to navigate through the panels. On desktop computers, the email will not be interactive but customers view the same visually led email content in their email.
