Take Control

Core Team: Rhoda Awinyo, Cait Brittain

To run a multichannel marketing campaign that’s tailored to your audience seems like it’s the bare minimum—but due to fragmented marketing teams, low appetite for risk, and competing schedules, LendingClub had never done it before.

Hypothesis

50% of borrowers have high credit balances and the other 50% have low balances. Segmenting and tailoring messaging to these segments can drive positive impact on borrower response rates.

Objective

Determine impact of cross-channel cohesive messaging/design and (high level) borrower segmentation on response and issuance.

Test

450k people, eligible for a 2nd loan
50% control, 50% test
1 DM & 2 email per week

Expected outcome: 5% incremental lift in response driving to issuance

Control

Over the course of the existing campaign, borrowers were receiving three different direct mail packages, each designed independently by different mail vendors without a consistent message or look-and-feel. They were also receiving emails in differing templates, and were directed to an unbranded landing page with a vanity URL that didn’t mention LendingClub.

Test

The concept of this campaign was very simple—emphasize the LendingClub brand, and use consistent messaging tailored to the audience (specifically, whether your profile showed a high- or low-debt balance. The imagery was chosen based on our top responder profile, and urgency was built up over the course of the campaign. Additionally, each touch was a different format to break up the monotony in the mailbox and hopefully increase opens. All emails and landing pages continued with the same messaging and imagery.

Results

The results from this campaign have proven invaluable in the effort of the marketing teams to advocate for cohesive, multichannel campaigns and the importance of brand and messaging. Particularly significant was the lift over time, as our DM and email campaigns tended to fatigue —this test widened the gap between the control as the weeks went on. These mail pieces became the new control against which other packages were measured for the next year.