Discover how leading UK men's formalwear retailer Moss Bros reaches and convert more people through referral marketing platform Mention Me.
“In the aftermath of Covid, we had two key goals,” says Natalia Kirby, Digital Marketing Manager at Moss Bros. “To re-engage existing customers and to reach new audiences.”
To help them achieve this, the Mention Me team recommended Smart Experiment: a new innovation within the Optimise package that applies machine-learning to adjust targeting strategies based on customers’ readiness to refer.
We'd already seen really good performance with Mention Me. Smart Experiment felt like the next step.
“We'd already seen really good performance with Mention Me, so Smart Experiment felt like the next step for us,” says Danielle Woodland, Digital Marketing Executive at Moss Bros. “It just meant adding to our existing referral offer, so we could reach more people and drive up conversions. It’d also help us better understand our target consumers, which is something every brand wants to do.”
Getting Smart Experiment set up was simple. “We produced more creative, made a batch of new codes, decided what our offers would be, then before we knew it, we were live,” confirms Danielle.
20% of referrals convert into new customers
AOV for referred customers is 14% higher than non-referred
High propensity to refer customers share 6x more
Low propensity to refer customers who claim a discount offer are 23% more likely to buy again
Once up and running, Propensity to Refer® machine-learning began automatically segmenting Moss Bros customers and serving content they’d be most likely to engage with. High propensity to refer customers were invited to refer friends, while low propensity customers could choose between referring friends or claiming a discount on their next order.
Meanwhile, the team could get on with their day-to-day, knowing that Mention Me was working away in the background.
We set a test live, leave it for a few weeks, then see how it's performing with the click of a button. It's a great addition that doesn't require much additional resource. If only every channel could run like Mention Me.
It wasn’t long before Smart Experiment began delivering results for Moss Bros.
“We started seeing results within a week, but waited until we had a month's worth of data before making changes and planning more A/B tests,” says Natalia.
The ease of monitoring progress is supported by the Mention Me platform, which gives users a customised dashboard of their chosen metrics. Danielle's own dashboard currently includes new customer revenue, share rate and A/B tests among other metrics.
“I don’t have to waste time searching for numbers and creating my own reports when sharing with the wider business,” she says.
Within the first month of Smart Experiment, Moss Bros found that customers with a high propensity to refer were sharing the brand 6x more than those in the low propensity segment. Meanwhile, customers with a low propensity to refer who claimed the discount offer were 23% more likely to buy again.
Put simply, Smart Experiment was driving both new customer acquisition through referral and retention.
Better still, referred customers were spending 14% more than customers acquired through other channels, driving up average order value (AOV) and representing a “big win” for Moss Bros. Meanwhile, it was gaining valuable learnings about customers that could enhance performance across other marketing channels.
“Smart Experiment tests our assumptions and gives us more insight into how customers behave and how we can better engage with them,” says Danielle.
Smart Experiment lets us engage with every customer. Referral brings new customers in, then targeted offers turn shoppers into repeat customers. It’s the best of both worlds.
The success of Smart Experiment is complemented by Moss Bros’ Mention Me and Ometria integration.
Referral data feeds into its CRM in real-time, equipping the team to promote referral to customers in day-to-day and solus emails, as well as through more personalised and targeted communications.
The Mention Me and Ometria integration means we can more accurately target customers likely to refer, remind them to do so, and drive up referrals as a result.
Looking ahead, the Moss Bros team plans to work with Mention Me to run more A/B tests that increase average order value (AOV) and other key metrics. This may include upping the minimum spend required for referral discounts, as well as exploring fixed sum versus percentage discounts and other incentives.
“Every brand wants the data to back up their ideas, and Mention Me provides that,” says Danielle. “The team is so helpful and their recommendations have driven us to run countless A/B tests that have impacted our other marketing channels.”
To further enhance its wider marketing strategy, the team plans to explore leveraging other features within the Optimise package that Smart Experiment is part of. This includes potentially using Smart Audiences to target high-converting referrer lookalikes on paid social.
When asked what she’d say to those considering Smart Experiment, Natalia doesn’t hesitate. “At the risk of sounding cheesy, I’d refer Mention Me to other marketers. Smart Experiment lets you reach new repeat customers without losing anything on referral. It’s completely data-driven, so you can make strategic decisions with confidence. The numbers talk, and they prove it’s working.”
Mention Me is completely data-driven, so you can make strategic decisions with confidence. The numbers talk, and they prove it’s working.
