Dive Brief:

• Bonobos uses an algorithm to target up to five emails daily to consumers who are most likely to buy a particular item, the retailer's marketing manager told Internet Retailer. 
• The e-commerce retailer segments and targets previous buyers by color, sizes, location and recency of purchase, among other variables. 
• A campaign targeting likely buyers last year produced four times the revenue of a comparable list of randomly selected recipients. 

Dive Insight:

While email may seem like an archaic technology compared to smartphone apps and other mobile technologies, it very much has a place for apparel retailers catering to a professional crowd. Email is central to Bonobos’ marketing strategy, according to marketing manager Josh Goodman, and the brand is increasing its budget for email marketing based on the successes it has seen.

The retailer sends up to five emails per day to attract, inform and retain customers, using sophisticated targeting techniques to find likely buyers, while providing value to encourage opens. A campaign promoting “Daily Grind Dress Shirts” that the retailer ran last year, for example, found that the algorithm targeting those “most likely” to buy produced four times the revenue of a randomly selected control group.