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The Magic Behind Ulta Beauty's Marketing

How Ulta Beauty Built the Perfect Foundation with Data-Driven Personalization

See Movable Ink in Action

Ulta Beauty's numbers don't lie:

95%

decrease in production time

34.1%

lift in conversion rate

317%

increase in click-through rate

Challenge

Ulta Beauty, one of the United States’ leading beauty retailers, has always recognized the immense potential of data-driven personalization — how it not only enhances customer experiences, but also drives business growth. However, they needed a seamless way to implement it without the taxing manual efforts.

Solution

To unlock this potential, Ulta’s marketers strategically partnered with Movable Ink to ensure their email campaigns were brought to life through automated and one-of-a-kind messaging.

This case study explores how Ulta Beauty's collaboration with Movable Ink allowed their marketers to unlock the endless possibilities of their available data and become industry innovators, resulting in remarkable successes.

Beautify Results with Loyalty Automation

Ulta Beauty's team identified inefficiencies in updating specific product SKUs when items were out of stock. With a manual method that relied on static product data, the team always had a significant amount of work and a sense of urgency whenever the last-minute change occurred.

To address this issue, Ulta Beauty implemented a campaign that utilizes five API data sources: inventory, product recommendations, store information, ratings and reviews, and their loyalty system. Movable Ink was crucial in synchronizing this information and effectively targeting customers based on the time of day and their recent behaviors.

In this particular campaign, the focus is on points accumulation for customers. Movable Ink calculates the number of points each customer will earn if they make a purchase based on their current loyalty status.

Results: 34.1% lift in conversion rate, 95% decrease in production time

Give Customers a Cosmetic Cue with Recently Browsed Triggers

Ulta Beauty understands that customers may require some additional motivation to finalize their purchase. Because of this, they implemented a recently browsed email sent to any shopper who engaged with a product on their website or app. However, Ulta Beauty's efforts go beyond just sending a basic trigger email.

This communication is meticulously customized and provides a tailored experience for each customer. It begins with a dynamic headline that showcases the number of available points, if applicable, and highlights their potential rewards. Additionally, the email incorporates various elements such as product ratings, relevant recommendations, a store locator, and the customer's loyalty dashboard.

By adopting this new and improved approach to encourage customers to make a purchase, Ulta Beauty has achieved magnificent lifts in click-through rates.

Results: 316.67% lift in click-through rate

Brush Up Your Campaigns with Poll Retargeting

This module, developed by the team at Ulta Beauty and powered by Movable Ink, was a poll featured at the bottom of their 2022 year-in-review campaign. As an incentive for reading the comprehensive recap, customers received 30 points in exchange for answering a question about their favorite trend.

Upon providing their answer, Ulta Beauty was automatically notified to send a targeted communication to the customer, informing them that their bonus points were being processed along with product recommendations related to their response.

Results: 20.8% lift in clicks

Build Flawless Email Campaigns with Fallback Experiences

Ulta Beauty incorporates an abandoned cart banner at the beginning of every customer email, displaying the number of items left behind. But what about those recipients who have an empty cart?

Ulta Beauty's astute marketers always plan ahead, anticipating the needs of their customers. To ensure a personalized experience for all recipients, they implemented a contingency plan. In such cases, a store locator feature is displayed instead of the abandoned cart banner, allowing customers to easily find their nearest Ulta Beauty store.

By employing this fallback logic, Ulta Beauty ensures that even though the customer may not have an active cart, they still receive valuable information that resonates with them in every email.

Conclusion

Ulta Beauty's marketing team is an industry leader, continuously generating inventive and cutting-edge concepts for their digital marketing initiatives.

We feel privileged to witness their outstanding achievements and unparalleled success in achieving personalized, one-on-one experiences.

Watch Ulta Beauty take the stage!

At Think Summit 2023, Ulta Beauty inspired marketers to apply the perfect blend of customer loyalty and acquisition using existing data and martech integrations. To give you a glimpse, take a peek at how they enhanced they’re most popular campaign - recently browsed triggers - with five APIs!