Refinery29 Sees 21% Increase in Email Subscribers with Wunderkind Partnership
How a scaled email footprint built long-term engagement for the media company
Refinery29, a leading global media company, scaled its email newsletter footprint by over 20% and increased engagement through a strategic collaboration with Wunderkind.
Challenge
With a global audience footprint of 249 million individuals across various platforms, Refinery29 sought to leverage email as a pivotal channel for sustained engagement and growth. Recognizing the reliability and significance of email as a traffic source, the media company knew that most engagement came within the first 30 days of sign up, and dropped after 90 days. Refinery29 aimed to overcome challenges associated with maintaining audience engagement beyond the initial sign-up phase.
Solution:
By leveraging tailored messaging triggered by onsite and historical behavior, Refinery29 enhanced audience segmentation and personalized email capture techniques. Through this partnership, Refinery29 achieved:
1. Significantly increased email collection.
2. Addition of higher-quality emails to their database.
3. Preservation of user experience by implementing less disruptive email capture methods.
Results:
The partnership resulted in a 21% year-over-year increase in average new monthly subscribers for Refinery29. Wunderkind opt-ins generated a 33% higher open rate during the initial 0-30 days compared to other sources. And, during days 91-120, Wunderkind opt-ins had a 64% higher average open rate, indicating sustained engagement over time.
Building on this success, Refinery29 expanded the scope of its partnership with Wunderkind. This extension involved the implementation of geo-targeted experiences promoting Refinery29’s “29Rooms” events, which drove affiliate revenue and increased podcast downloads. Refinery29 also extended the collaboration internationally to include its UK and Canada editions.
In the words of Jennifer Levin, VP of Marketing at Refinery29, “There’s value because there are results. It’s beyond just the email acquisition; it’s the full-service nature and the ability to do other things in an agile way. That stuff matters, and the ROI is invaluable.”
Read the full story about Refinery29 and Wunderkind’s collaboration here.
