How 6sicuro Uses Emails To Attract New Blog Readers

There are two prerogatives for a truly effective Content Marketing program: the first, of course, is the value and usefulness of the content; the second is related to how it is communicated, and to the ability to bring that content to people’s attention and broaden the pool of readers.

We thought it would be useful to shed some light on this tricky aspect of ​​digital marketing. To do so, we asked 6sicuro to tell us about their experience.

As Italy’s first online car and motorcycle insurance comparison site, 6sicuro has helped millions of people to find the cheapest option that suits their needs since 2000.

In addition to its services, 6sicuro has also become well-known for providing information about insurance. For many years, thanks to its blog, the brand has been offering users and visitors articles, news and insights about savings, finance, tax and technology.

For the third quarter of the year, 6sicuro set out to broaden its pool of blog readers, to get the most out of its investments (aimed at improving the quality of the company’s content), and to develop its editorial plan by publishing more frequently.

This is where email comes into play. More than any other tool, email facilitates the transition from content that is published (blog posts in the case of 6sicuro) to content that is used.

Specifically, 6sicuro’s goal was to increase the open rate of its emails and the click-through rates of the blog posts included in the messages: two indicators that could drive increased traffic to the site and allow the company to attract ads from other brands (to be featured in the newsletter).

A brief note regarding Email Advertising: this is an aspect of digital that is still not being fully exploited by brands, but it can provide a significant revenue stream. In this e-book, you can find methods, tools and best practices.

MailUp helped 6sicuro to redefine its Email Marketing strategy, starting with the design of the newsletter, whose dated and impractical layout was replaced with a more modern and lightweight look allowing the reader to make use of the content.

In the case study, we will also tell you which publishing style we were inspired by when creating 6sicuro’s newsletter, with the aim of striking the right balance between readability, thoroughness and a hierarchy of content.

Three major changes had to be made to the layout:

• An increase in the number of posts featured, from 6 to about 20, divided into categories and topics
• An increase in the number of banners, from 1 to 4, thus allowing for a consistent Email Advertising strategy
• The hierarchy of posts: previously, they were all equally prominent, but now certain articles are highlighted in order to focus the recipient’s attention on specific content

Another useful aside. How does 6sicuro choose the topics to study in more depth? Based on information obtained by cross-referencing Analytics data, news, and seasonal search peaks for a given topic.

Email marketing isn’t a simple matter of creating and sending a message. Between these two phases comes another, one which is no less important: the A/B test, a feature provided by the MailUp platform that allows a brand to compare two versions of the same component of an email (the text, the images, the call to action or the subject) in order to find out which one generates a better response from the recipient and therefore a better overall performance.

Thanks to the A/B test, 6sicuro was able to identify the type of subject line that encourages recipients to open the newsletter. These are details – often very small ones – but they can make all the difference. In the case study, we explain what the A/B test taught 6sicuro about catching the eye of recipients.

The analysis and solutions provided by MailUp helped the company to increase its newsletter open rate from 15.8% in 2015 to 17.6% in 2016, with the average click-through rate soaring from 15.9% to 29.9%.

After consolidating the positive trends of the previous year, 2017 saw the company experimenting with new sending solutions whose results will be analyzed in the coming months.

Considering the data and information available to us, we can say that, while the open rate rose by 2% in a year (not an insignificant amount when it comes to Email Marketing), the total click rate jumped +47%, a sign that readers became loyal to the blog.

An even more important statistic, however, relates to organic visits: up by 15%, “simply” by optimizing how blog posts are publicized. A sign that content alone cannot be enough: to get the most out of it, we need a channel that is as immediate and efficient as possible.

1. Find out what your users like to read

If you already have or are developing a Content Marketing plan, start researching the topics that are of most interest to your recipients, cross-referencing Analytics data, news and seasonal search peaks.

2. Create email templates for different goals

Define email templates that can adapt to your different communication requirements: the important thing is that they have a modular and totally responsive structure. Then harness the power of animated content to give your emails a dynamic boost.

3. Choose the email components that convert best

Develop A/B testing to understand which topics receive the most interest, which type of subject line encourages people to open emails, and which call to action (text, button color and shape) generates the most clicks.

4. Request final approval or feedback from the team

Share messages with Collaboration, the platform tool that allows your chosen contributors (your manager or other team members) to provide their input to the campaign.