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Our latest controlled marketing experiment reveals the results of a recent holiday campaign for one of our restaurant clients. We decided to test the impact of a thank-you email to customers on dining behavior. Our test showed that this simple gesture led to a whopping 24.73% increase in net sales within just 24 hours for those who received the email, double that of the control group who didn’t receive the email.
The Background
As we mapped out a major winter holiday campaign for a restaurant client, we strategized a single thank-you message to customers for engaging throughout a month-long campaign. Although this client has run many similar campaigns, this was the first time we executed a straightforward thank-you email without a discount or additional promotion, so we seized the opportunity to run a controlled marketing experiment.
The Test
We were curious as to what impact, if any, this single email would have on dining and purchasing behavior. To measure impact, we suppressed 10% of the audience (Control Group) from receiving the thank-you email sent on Jan. 5. We then compared the day-over-day (Jan. 4 – Jan. 5) increase in net sales generated by 90% Test Group against the 10% Control Group.
This finding was statistically significant with 100% confidence. Bottom line: the thank-you email did increase net sales for recipients within 24 hours of receiving the email.
The Result
The percent increase in attributed net sales day-over-day from Jan. 4 – Jan. 5 was significantly higher for the Test Group that received the thank-you email, as compared to the Control Group. Specifically, the Test Group in our controlled marketing experiment saw a 24.73% increase in Net Sales between Jan. 4 – Jan. 5, while the Control Group only saw a 12.57% increase.
The Takeaway
Building mutually beneficial relationships with your customers — by doing something as simple as saying thank you — can have a tangible business impact.
Want to see more examples of the work we’ve done for our clients? Check out additional case studies on our website.
