Feelingz & Kotak Marketing: partner and client case

“Previously, we used MailChimp for everything at Feelingz. Now, with the help of Kotak Marketing, we use Maileon. We send out different types of emails—sales emails, newsletters, and various concepts. We’re big on personalised communication. Our account managers send personalised emails. We use our CRM system for data, ensuring a seamless process. We can track when emails go out, and it’s fantastic to see the positive responses, quote requests, and demo inquiries.

One thing we do is create custom gift boxes, standard or tailored. For companies from 100 employees onwards, we personalise the webpage where employees can pick their gifts. We offer customised gift boxes for free if the company orders around 20,000 boxes at once, it’s more cost-effective that way, and a rather unique gift. The challenge of customisation involves printing, and deadlines are always tight.

All those boxes need to be made, filled, and shipped or delivered, we usually only have 3 to 4 weeks. Everyone wants it on the same day. The busiest week is December 7 to 14. Companies that have sent out their personalised web shops start redeeming codes. More than half are redeemed in those three weeks. It’s a hectic time in our Warehouse. Customer service handles inquiries about orders, while sales answers phones. It’s a really fun, busy week.

Our goal for this campaign was to expand our reach to companies with 50–100 employees.

The number of employees was a key factor in this campaign. The more employees, the earlier the decision. For smaller companies, the focus shifts to the web shop, encouraging online orders for a hassle-free experience. ” – Arjan, Feelingz.

“We crafted a journey with various touchpoints to separate new and returning customers with personalised messages. For returning customers, we emphasised Feelingz’s benefits and product selection and showed the different gift box looks. Prospects received a tailored message, all leading to a customisation deadline. The last email had a countdown timer to emphasise the urgency for customisation jobs on the gift boxes. We personalise everything, even the reply address, creating a more direct connection. We used each customer’s account manager as a reply address since they played a significant role in the customer’s journey.” – Niels, Kotak Marketing.

“Yep, and we get responses. Some decline but promise to reconsider next year. The decision on when to arrange these gifts varies. Larger companies decide even before the summer vacations, often going through tenders. Smaller ones start thinking about it from mid-August or after the summer break. When the temperatures start dropping, we start to feel the buzz.

Kotak Marketing handles most of the campaign’s inner workings, extracting data and occasionally providing creative texts. Our cooperation is smooth, especially with Maileon. It makes creating and personalising emails quick and easy.” – Arjan, Feelingz

“Yes indeed. The last email for customisation was sent out in early November. While they can still order, free customisation isn’t included. So, there will be continued contact moments in the weeks that follow. These will carry slightly different messages, mapped out on our calendar until year-end for various target groups. It’s mostly about the assortment, letting employees choose, guiding them through the steps, and showcasing the benefits. Very effective.” – Niels

“As I mentioned, the ability to personalise emails in Maileon is excellent. These options don’t exist in MailChimp. I’ve observed improvements in bounce rates and opening rates because of this. Back when we managed campaigns ourselves, we used Outlook, throwing everything into BCC. Not much came out of that. But now, with Maileon, we’re seeing significantly better results.” – Arjan, Feelingz.

“Indeed, we’ve recently added a new target group to our email campaigns this week. Maileon has a handy feature for this—the address check. It allows us to check new addresses before mailing through Maileon. We can quickly see if the email address exists and if we can send to it. This has helped clean up the list, and we’ve noticed super low bounce rates in our recent sends. It’s a great feature.” – Niels, Kotak Marketing.

“Something that has surprisingly helped us out in tenders is having a whitelisting for our email addresses. A question that often comes up for us in tenders is how can we prevent bounces, especially when emailing staff since we are sending them personalised codes for the web shop to their business email addresses. This is where whitelisting the sender’s email address comes in as a solution. We even make it a unique selling proposition, mentioning in tenders that with tools like Maileon, you can efficiently handle mass mailings to companies.

We also plan to send a service mail to all our customers in early January, seeking feedback and providing a progress update on orders. While we currently handle this manually, Maileon could potentially streamline this process with its capabilities. We want to offer customers a login to a service portal where they can track the progress of their orders, view open items, and get an overview of the top 10 gifts chosen. We aim to send this out in January.” – Arjan, Feelingz.

“We’ve laid an excellent foundation for current campaigns and a great basis to build on next year. As we’re approaching the end of the year, busy with Christmas campaigns, we see great opportunities to stay connected with Feelingz. We have a calendar with various events throughout the year, and with personalised monthly newsletters, we aim to maintain engagement. This will make it easier to reconnect during Christmas and continue the relationship.” – Niels, Kotak Marketing.