The client:

Ding is a top-up network for mobile phones, delivering a top-up every second of every day and helping families and friends around the world stay connected. Top-ups can be sent via their app, online at Ding.com and in-store at over 600,000 retail outlets worldwide.

Ding has been keeping people connected since 2006, when it launched the first-ever service of its kind to help people send top-ups to their loved ones back home and today connect more than four billion phones through 400+ operators in more than 130 countries. Ding is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and has regional offices in Miami, Dubai, Barcelona, San Salvador, Bucharest, Dhaka and France.

Email is the company’s largest communication channel for returning customers, with nearly 500,000 emails sent on a weekly basis. These include promotional emails from third parties, welcome emails for new subscribers, and incentive emails to retain subscribers that are in danger of lapsing.

The challenge:

The company wanted to increase the number of returning customers each month and migrate existing customers from the Ding website to the app, both of which relied heavily on the success of its email campaigns. However, the marketing team was struggling to gain visibility into email performance. With access to basic metrics, the company was aware that it had low inbox placement and high spam scores—specifically with Gmail inboxes – but had no further insight into email deliverability .

“Email amounts to nearly five percent of our total revenue, so it’s crucial that our campaigns are fresh, communicative, and engaging,” said Ellouise Hogan, customer retention manager at Ding. “Prior to using Return Path we were aware that we had some issues with deliverability but we didn’t know why. In particular, we were becoming very concerned about the high Gmail spam placement we were getting. We needed a solution that would provide us with full insight into our email campaigns so that we could identify what was working and what wasn’t. This would enable us to take action to maximize our inbox placement with Gmail and every other key mailbox provider.”

The solution:

Ding selected Return Path’s products and services, including Inbox Monitor, to improve the company’s reputation with mailbox providers and provide visibility into email performance.

Additionally, with Return Path’s Inbox Monitor solution, Ding was able to gain more visibility into their deliverability at mailbox providers across the globe, including Gmail.

The result:

Return Path’s tools and services have given Ding full and immediate visibility into inbox placement, helping them determine what type of content and segmentation generates the highest engagement levels. Ding noticed an increase in their email engagement after a couple of months with Return Path – from a baseline of 23% to 37% in open rate, and from 25% to 48% in click rates. Additionally, Gmail spam has reduced to 2.3% from 64%.

Hogan continued: “Return Path has given us the insights we needed to optimize our email strategy. We have been able to rectify our segmentation and understand the importance of maintaining list hygiene with best practices, which has seen the performance of our email campaign improve significantly.

“We are particularly impressed with the Gmail spam placement being reduced. In fact, in terms of email revenue, this has had the biggest impact on our bottom line. Since using Return Path, we have had the insight we desperately needed to ensure our campaigns were doing what we wanted them to – attract, win and keep customers.”