Relevance is measurable
A retail chain with stores in Belgium and the Netherlands routinely emailed out the full list. The question: Do personalized messages based on what someone buys really get higher open rates? 49 campaigns over a single season provided a clear answer.
Objective
Determine whether tailoring email communications to purchasing behavior—which brand someone buys, which store someone visits—results in a measurably higher level of relevance than sending a generic message to the entire list. Not as an assumption, but demonstrably based on the company’s own campaign data from a single season.
Challenge
Customers received largely the same message, regardless of what they had purchased previously or which store they visited. A generic email sent to the entire list was the standard practice.
More targeted approaches—focused on a brand or a store—existed alongside them as separate, smaller-scale campaigns. What was missing was a clear answer to the question of whether that difference in approach also resulted in a difference in impact.
The Stratics Approach
All email campaigns for the season (BE + NL) were consolidated at the campaign level and categorized into three types: Full (generic send to the entire list), Store (store- or location-specific), and Brand (focused on a single brand). Resends and internal or one-time communications were filtered out, leaving only comparable campaigns.
For each campaign, the open rate was calculated based on the ratio of emails sent to emails opened. Such a comparison is only possible when customer, purchase, and campaign data are consolidated into a single customer view—the foundation provided by MIP. The analysis and the data structure reinforce each other: without one, the other is not reliable.
Result
A clear, ascending ranking emerges across 49 campaigns. Brand-focused communications achieve 10 to 15 percentage points higher open rates than a generic email sent to the entire list.
| Type | n | Median | Average | Min – Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full — complete list | 26 | 44,9% | 45,3% | 40.5% – 50.2% |
| Store — store/location | 17 | 49,0% | 48,5% | 38.5% – 54.7% |
| Brand — one brand | 6 | 59,9% | 59,4% | 52.9% – 64.6% |
Analysis of 49 real-world email campaigns (BE + NL), open rate for emails sent versus opened, one season. Source: Stratics' own analysis, validated by Yann Cadoret.
Disclaimer: This is the first season in which targeted, brand-based communication was implemented on a systematic basis, so the Brand group is still small (6 campaigns). The direction is clear and consistent; the exact size will become more defined as more campaigns are added. The figures refer to open rate—engagement when opening emails—not to revenue.
"Targeted communication really reaches customers, and a targeted approach is more likely to hit the mark. This leads to more loyal customers in the long run and greater interest in your communications. People listen to those who communicate effectively. This is in contrast to general communication, which tries to reach everyone but risks missing everyone."
Open Rate by Campaign for Full, Store, and Brand Communications
We bring your customer, purchase, and campaign data together in a single view—and show you, in black and white, the benefits of more targeted communication.
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