Interactive Emails Raise Open Rates

The company sent emails containing a poll to more than 1 million subscribers who’d purchased tickets for artists nominated in the MTV Video Music Awards or favorited a nominated artist on the TM website.

Mitch Rotter, Sr. VP of brand marketing for Ticketmaster, told tech website Mobile Strategies 360 that recipients could participate in the poll as many times as they liked, and 80 percent of people who voted opted to vote again.

Open rates for the email exceeded TM’s average open rate by 182 percent, he continued, and no one unsubscribed with the campaign. “Frankly we were shocked,” Rotter said. “I don’t think we thought it would be worse (than other marketing emails).

It was like, ‘Hey, guess what? When you give people value and context, they are more than willing to engage.’”

A small percentage of fans opted to share how they voted on social media and a follow-up email after the awards also performed well in terms of open rates, results from the campaign found.

Rotter said the company can now retarget those fans with personalized marketing about upcoming shows for their favorite artists. “Historically, Ticketmaster has been transactional-focused. Over the past few years, we really want to be part of conversation,” he said.