Motability Operations Achieves a 99.8% Inbox Placement Rate, 60% Uplift in Website Traffic with Validity Sender Certification.
The challenge:
Declining engagement metrics and limited visibility of the company’s true email deliverability.
A Motability Scheme customer typically leases their vehicle for three years. Within that time, their needs can vary widely—from picking up their shiny new vehicle, to needing to book a Ministry of Transport test or adding a named driver.
“Email is an essential communication channel for our customers,” said the Customer Marketing team at Motability Operations. “Every subscriber matters.”
Their email program encompasses their popular monthly Motability Scheme e-newsletter, alongside time-sensitive service emails designed to share key information at the right time, depending on the customer’s journey stage or recent interactions.
However, as is true of many businesses, email deliverability wasn’t always front-of-mind for the Motability team. As the Scheme’s digital offering grows, so has digital adoption—and ensuring the successful delivery of their emails has become more crucial.
In 2019, Motability brought in Jarrang as their email marketing agency. Jarrang quickly identified deliverability challenges: Key performance indicators like opens and clicks were declining significantly, making it apparent that a large segment of the organization’s emails weren’t reaching the intended recipients. Open rates at Microsoft in particular were less than one-third of Motability Operations’ overall benchmark. These deliverability challenges were only amplified by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led the team to significantly increase their email sends to Scheme customers in lieu of more traditional forms of communication.
Facing these mounting challenges, Jarrang suggested Motability Operations partner with Validity, the leading provider of email deliverability and data quality solutions.
“Even a well-designed, relevant email is useless if it doesn’t reach the inbox,” said the Customer Marketing team at Motability Operations. “That’s why we invested in ensuring every email hits the inbox through a partnership with Jarrang and Validity.”
The solution:
A comprehensive performance improvement plan, underpinned by Validity Everest and Sender Certification.
A partnership with Validity empowered Jarrang to provide top-tier service as Motability Operations’ email marketing agency.
With Validity in their toolbox, Jarrang devised a comprehensive plan to get Motability Operations’ email program on solid footing.
The first part of this improvement plan meant moving quickly to fix the company’s deliverability problems. Motability Operations successfully applied for Validity’s exclusive Sender Certification program, which effectively placed them on a global allow-list with mailbox providers and spam filtering organizations worldwide.
Next, Jarrang knew they needed to secure better visibility of Motability Operations’ email performance.
“Pre-Validity, there was no real-time feedback about deliverability performance,” said the team at Motability Operations. “We only got limited information from our email service provider.”
To achieve this, they implemented Everest, Validity’s email deliverability platform. Everest brought previously unreported metrics to light, like inbox placement, spam complaints, unknown users, and spam trap hits.
“This improved visibility means we can have real-time conversations with Motability Operations about any tweaks needed in their email program. This maximizes the return on their spend with Jarrang and Validity,” Jarrang explained.
“Even a well-designed, relevant email is useless if it doesn’t reach the inbox. That’s why we invested in ensuring every email hits the inbox through a partnership with Jarrang and Validity.”
Customer Marketing team, Motability Operations
The results:
Best-in-class email performance and a way to avoid expensive postage fees and call center interactions.
Motability Operations now enjoys world-class deliverability, with Sender Certified inbox placement rates of 99.8 percent. This average is a full ten percentage points higher than the benchmark for similar, non-Certified senders.
Additionally, the company is now generating clicks that are double the DMA benchmark and an almost 60 percent uplift in website visits.
The company’s compliance metrics (complaints, spam traps, and Microsoft SRD rates) are green across the board, indicating a healthy, high-performing email program.
Deliverability is now baked into the culture of the Motability Operations marketing team and is viewed as a key performance metric.
“We’ve always tried to make sure we’re maximizing the potential of our email channel. Now we want to do even more, and Validity provides us with the freedom to do this without worrying about the impact on our deliverability.”
Customer Marketing team, Motability Operations / Jarrang
Motability Operations also uses Validity’s infrastructure monitoring to ensure their authentication protocols operate as they should. Everest’s full DMARC reporting in particular means Motability Operations can proactively monitor and protect their customers from malicious emails.
With their deliverability on a firm footing, Motability Operations can ensure more customers receive content in a timely manner and avoid many of the unnecessary costs of alternative contact channels.
“We’ve always tried to make sure we’re maximizing the potential of our email channel,” said the team at Motability Operations and Jarrang. “Now we want to do even more, and Validity provides us with the freedom to do this without worrying about the impact on our deliverability.”
Motability Operations is the commercial organization that delivers the Motability Scheme to over 750,000 customers across the UK, helping them to access independent mobility. The Motability Scheme allows customers to use their higher-rate mobility allowance to lease a new vehicle, scooter, or powered wheelchair.
Since its inception 45 years ago, Motability Operations has become the largest leasing company in the UK, providing over five million customers with affordable mobility solutions.