1. An IBM®
Company
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FREESAT
subscription-free Satellite TV company grows
customer database by 447 percent in 18 months
Freesat, a joint venture between ITV and the BBC, is a subscription-free satellite television
service offering more than 200 television, radio and interactive channels, including 11 in HD, to
people in theUnited Kingdom.
Freesat’s award-winning Freetime service, available on televisions and set top boxes, includes
smart features such as pause, rewind and record, a roll-back television guide for the past seven
days of programming, and a range of catch-up players including BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD,
Demand 5,YouTube, BBC News and various sports apps.The FreesatApp is now available on
iOS,Android and Kindle Fire.
WORKING WITH LITTLE TO NOTHING
Because Freesat sells its product through retailers, its biggest challenge has been an inability to
collect purchase data. Pre-Silverpop, this meant that Freesat had little insight into its custom-
ers or their expectations.
With no control of the database and a small number of email addresses, Freesat was in need of
a digital marketing solution to help build its strategy from the ground up.
SHIFTING TO QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
The company knew its plan of attack would include automation, but it needed to capture the
data first. In addition to collecting customer and prospect information at events, via social
media and throughWeb forms, the marketing team introduced ID registration via its Freesat
app, which captured each user’s basic profile.
Once it had taken steps to improve its database, Freesat began the next phase of driving
stronger engagement, which included launching three automated email campaigns:
In the last 18 months, working with Silverpop has allowed Freesat to be more
sophisticated with our email targeting through brilliant segmentation. The automated
marketing programs let us create tailored and personalised experiences for all our
customers and prospects. And the results aren’t bad either, with a 140% uplift in
open rates and more than a 1,000% increase in click-through rates.
Jennifer Jacobs,
Customer Marketing Manager, Freesat
THE CHALLENGES
• No control of small
customer database
• Little insight into
customers
• Lack of personalized
communication
• No ownership of the
customer lifestyle
THE BENEFITS
• Addedvalue,increased
customer advocacyand
opportunityfor upsell
• Overall open rate of 67%,
a 139% upliftover manual
emailsends
• Grewdatabase 447%
within 18months
WelcomeSeries
As soon as a Freesat customer or prospect enters the
database, it triggers a welcome nurture series, which
consists of three emails.The first email acts as a “hello”
from the company, a reminder of what the recipient
has signed up for and a call to action to download
the Freesat App (right).The second message, sent on
day 4, uses A/B testing to help confirm which prize
would entice readers to visit the preference center and

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An IBM®
Company
complete their profiles.The final email, sent on day 9, contains messaging tailored to
whether the recipient is a customer, prospect or even an unknown.
BirthdayCampaign
In this creative email program, recipients are promised a
special treat in exchange for providing birthdate information,
encouraging customers to submit even deeper information on
a landing page.Those that complete the form receive a special
message on their birthday, containing a recipe for birthday cake.
ReengagementSeries
Rather than growing its database by pulling in whatever email
addresses and information it could, Freesat chose a plan that
allowed it to capture more quality data, instead of marketing
to a list that wasn’t interested.As part of this goal, it launched
a reengagement campaign in which customers who had been
inactive for 90 days were sent an email (right), which included
the latest Freesat news and an option to unsubscribe or update
profile preferences.
Those that didn’t open the first email after another 90 days
were sent a “Sorry to SeeYouGo” message and then automati-
cally unsubscribed from the list.The message also included an
“I’m NotGoingAnywhere” button, in case the communication
piqued interest.
ENHANCING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
THROUGH PERSONALISED EXPERIENCES
Freesat’s increased digital marketing efforts paid off, and it has the numbers and happy
customers to prove it.Within 18 months its database grew by 447 percent. Additional
results include:
• An overall open rate of 67%, a 139% increase over manual email sends
• An overall click-through rate of 38.7%, a 1282% increase over manual email sends
• Welcome Series – 50.4% open rate, 24.8% click-through rate and 11% preference
center completion rate
• Birthday Campaign – 27% open rate on email 1, 67% completion rate on form and
41% open rate of subsequent birthday message
• Reengagment Series – 24% open rate and 4.5% click-through rate
“In the last 18 months, working with Silverpop has allowed Freesat to be more sophisticated
with our email targeting through brilliant segmentation,” says Jennifer Jacobs, customer
marketing manager, Freesat. “The automated marketing programs let us create tailored
and personalised experiences for all our customers and prospects.And the results aren’t
bad either, with a 140 percent uplift in open rates and more than a 1,000 percent increase in
click-through rates.”
To find out more about Silverpop, an IBM company, and how it can benefit your company,
please contact us at 1-866-745-8767 or +44 207 202 5930.
Visit us at www.silverpop.com