BOL.com: Growing B2B Customer Value

The ‘Out of Budget’ Campaign for Partners

The Client

BOL.com opened its doors on 30 March 1999. More than twenty years later, the shop has 13 million active customers in the Netherlands and Belgium, a product range of 38 million items, and 50,000 sales partners who sell their goods through the BOL platform (as of 31 March 2024).

The Business Needs

Having installed a high-performing Marketing Automation tool (Marigold), BOL.com aims to achieve a substantial return on digital investments. The strategic focus is on pushing partner value. As partners are at the supply side of the marketplace, BOL.com seeks to support sellers, retailers, and advertisers in maximizing value creation (i.e., revenue).

The Challenge

“Prevent Partners Going Out-of-Budget on Advertising”

BOL.com identified a key challenge in ensuring their partners manage their advertising budgets effectively. The goal was to prevent partners from exhausting their budgets, which would hinder their ability to advertise and, consequently, reduce overall sales volume on the platform.

Prepare & Plan

Purpose

• Target advertisers with out-of-budget campaigns.
• Address daily, campaign, and account budgets.

Types of Budgets

• Daily Budget
• Campaign Budget
• Account Budget (flag only)

Team & Organization

Dignify has an entire team of 8 people supporting BOL.com in building value. The team works on the architecture and the migration towards SMC (cloud), recurring projects (e.g., newsletters), and journey innovations (e.g., out-of-budget campaign).

The team at Dignify consists of a mix of business and technical skills, led by one team manager and supported by several program managers.

Team Structure

• Steering Team:
  • Technical lead
  • Business lead/PM
• Core Team:
  • Strategist
  • Technical Architect
  • Campaign developer
  • UI/UX designer
  • Front-end developer
  • Conversion rate experts (CRO)

Build: Personalized Email Journey

Components within the Email Journey

1. Initial Trigger:
   • Data is received when a budget exceeds 70%.
   • A video email is sent on the first instance.
2. Subsequent Triggers:
   • A notification email on the second day when “out-of-budget” status is reached.
   • A detailed budget overview and a call-to-action (CTA) for budget increase.

Dynamic Content

• Personalized FAQ or contact specialist links.
• If an advertiser fills out a contact form, the notification email is sent to the campaign specialist at BOL.com, allowing them to follow up on questions from the advertiser.

Build: Staging & Data Processing

Staging and Production

• Mimic production setup for testing.
• Separate environments for development and production.
• Best practices for future changes.

Data Processing Tasks

• Advertiser Level Details:
  • Import task ST_OOB_ADVERTISER_DETAILS.
  • File processed: STS_OOBCommunication_AdvertiserLevel*.csv.
  • Data mapping and table linkage.
• Campaign Level Details:
  • Import task ST_OOB_CAMPAIGNS.
  • File processed: STS_OOBCommunication_AdvertiserCampaignLevel*.csv.
  • Data mapping and article list usage.

Reporting

• Overview of campaign performance.
• Reporting on data processing tasks and email effectiveness.

The Result

The implementation of the ‘Out of Budget’ campaign strategy significantly improved the budget management capabilities of BOL.com’s partners. By providing timely notifications and insights into budget usage, partners could optimize their advertising spend and avoid overspending, which in turn helped maximize their ROI.

This proactive approach led to a more sustainable advertising strategy for partners, contributing to better financial outcomes and a stronger partnership ecosystem on the BOL.com platform. Furthermore, the integration of dynamic content and personalized communication strengthened the relationship between BOL.com and its partners, fostering a collaborative environment focused on mutual growth and success.