Mobile phone service provider Sparhandy with effective email marketing

More sales and new customers thanks to optivo® broadmail

Sparhandy is one of the leading mobile phone service providers in Germany. The independent reseller offers mobile phones and contracts at particularly good prices. Wilke Stroman, who founded the company in 2000, now leads a team of 30 people. More than 152,000 consumers have already taken advantage of a Sparhandy offer. Since 2005 the company's turnover has constantly remained above 10 million euro.

The challenge
The company's business model is based on developing existing customer relations as well as continuing to acquire new customers. Besides optimising the online shop and revising sales and invoicing procedures, in 2005 the company faced the challenge of making its communication more effective. The main reason for this was the significant increase in the number of customers, which at the time encountered extremely dynamic growth. This meant communication had to be developed and made suitable for several hundred thousand contacts.

A professional solution was needed to inform the various target groups on a regular and individual basis. Sparhandy's offers also required a communication solution that was quick and easy to manage. The company therefore identified email marketing as the best way to achieve effective communication with existing and potential new customers.

The solution
Sparhandy chose the tried and tested email broadcasting solution
optivo® broadmail. optivo's ASP (Application Service Provider) software supports
the company in communicating continuously its offers and expanding its customer
base. For example, this allowed increase the number of clients from 65,000 in
2005 to 152,000 two years later. In the same period, the number of new mobile
phone contracts taken out each year also increased by approx. 20% to around
50,000 in 2007. This is precisely why Sparhandy sends several million emails
per month.

Commenting on the partnership, Wilke Stroman, Founder and CEO of Sparhandy
says: "optivo® broadmail has greatly supported our dynamic growth over the last
few years. Thanks to professional email communication, we were able to expand
our business effectively. In the future, we will continue to make email marketing
the key component of our marketing mix."

Split testing for tailor-made newsletters
In optivo® broadmail, Sparhandy relies in particular on the split testing feature. Different email versions or "splits" are first broadcast to a small number of recipients. Staff can then assess all key data for successful email marketing and make adjustments according to the results. In terms of measured values, the split testing function provides among others opening and click rates for the different email versions.

The company mainly uses this innovative feature to test different designs and offers in advance. In the past, small changes have produced differences in performance of several percent. After broadcasting to a specially chosen few or to a randomly generated test groups, the main mailing is sent. Those recipients who have already received a test email are automatically not contacted again.

Effective integration with web analytics
Another special feature is the connection between optivo® broadmail and the etracker web analytics software. Integration takes place automatically when tracking links are generated from optivo® broadmail. Sparhandy can therefore save resources, time and money. At the same time, the company can collect detailed information regarding user activities and apply it to its email communication.

Consistent design and simple workflow thanks to templates
Sparhandy also benefits from predefined content templates for a consistent design. These design templates were set up in 2005 and have been carefully adapted since. The entire content creation is based on these templates. Both graphical and textual elements always comply with the corporate design. Any changes such as those made during split testing, are always only possible within the specified framework. This is very practical as it can be applied to branded mobile phones, special offers and promotions that need to be design-compliant on short notice. Overall, the company benefits from a simple and effective workflow.

Customer feedback
"optivo® broadmail offers us all functions that we need for professional email marketing. The numerous test opportunities for the optimal mailing as well as the user-friendly workflow are particularly convincing. We also value the prompt and competent support provided by optivo staff."
Wilke Stroman, Founder and CEO of Sparhandy