Campaign of the Month

The National Garden Scheme activates 15,215 subscribers with a re-engagement campaign

They created a re-engagement campaign which prompted their subscribers re-sign up to their email communications.

Brand: The National Garden Scheme

Campaign creation by: Jo McGowan

Website: https://www.ngs.org.uk/

Campaign details

Subject line: We might need to do some pruning

Opens: 59% open rate

Context

Founded in 1927, the National Garden Scheme is a UK-based charity that opens over 3,600 private gardens in England and Wales to the public, while raising millions of pounds for nursing and health charities. The National Garden Scheme had a large database which had been built over a long period of time, but there were a number of non-engaged contacts sat within it – and the National Garden Scheme were reaching out to them through one-size-fits-all emails.

What data was used?

The email was sent to the National Garden Scheme’s current subscribers

Objectives

  • Remove inactive contacts from the database
  • Re-engage inactive contacts
  • Support GDPR compliance
  • Improve content relevancy and personalization

What makes this a performing campaign?

Using a clever play on words in line with their brand voice, the National Garden Scheme turned what could have been a bland legal message into an email full of personality and fun. They created a re-engagement campaign which prompted their subscribers not only to re-sign up to their email communications but also provide more personal information such as first name, postcode and communication preferences.

The results

Reconnecting with an engaged, consenting database has been a huge success for the National Garden Scheme. At the start of this re-engagement campaign, they had two lists: a newsletter list of 41,530 subscribers and a “ticketed gardens and events” list with just 229 contacts. After cleansing this list of inactive data and re-engaging the right contact, they have achieved the following:

  • 15,215 active subscribers in their newsletter list
  • 13,304 contacts in their ‘ticketed gardens and events’ list (an increase of 13,075 subscribers)
  • 8,038 active subscribers to their ‘gardens and health’ list
  • 4,638 contacts subscribed to their ‘family friendly’ list

What’s more, they now have the first and last names, postcodes and communication preferences of their contacts.