Building Effective Marketing Campaigns with SAP Emarsys

The gap between “we have a marketing platform” and “we’re running campaigns that drive revenue” is where most implementations stall. The platform is configured, the data is connected, and then… nobody knows what to launch first.

Emarsys solves this differently than most marketing tools. Instead of giving you a blank canvas and saying “build something,” it ships 60+ pre-built tactical programmes designed for specific business outcomes. You customise them. You launch them. You measure the revenue impact.

TL;DR: Emarsys campaigns work across 6 channels (email, SMS, push, in-app, web, ads) driven by dynamic segments that update in real time. Email marketing delivers an average ROI of $36 per $1 spent (Litmus, 2023). Emarsys extends that ROI by adding pre-built tactics (abandoned cart, win-back, post-purchase), AI-optimised send times, and revenue attribution from actual transaction data.

How Does the Emarsys Campaign Workflow Work?

Litmus found that email marketing delivers an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent (Litmus, 2023). Emarsys is designed to make that ROI repeatable and scalable across multiple channels. Here’s how the campaign workflow breaks down.

Step 1: Build your audience segments

Everything starts with segmentation. In Emarsys, segments are dynamic — they recalculate automatically based on current data whenever a campaign launches.

You can build segments from:

• Contact properties — demographics, location, language, custom fields
• Email behaviour — opened, clicked, didn’t open, bounced
• Purchase history — bought product X, spent over €200, purchased in the last 30 days
• Web behaviour — browsed category Y, viewed product Z three times
• Loyalty data — current tier, points balance, days since last redemption
• Lifecycle stage — new lead, first-time buyer, active customer, at risk, churned

The real power is combining these. “Gold loyalty members who browsed winter coats at least twice but haven’t purchased in 30 days” is a single segment that updates automatically.

Step 2: Choose your campaign type

Emarsys supports several campaign types, each designed for different use cases:

Batch campaigns send a message to an entire segment at a scheduled time. Use these for product launches, seasonal promotions, and newsletter-style communications. They can be A/B tested with different subject lines, content, or send times.

Triggered campaigns fire automatically when a specific event occurs — a customer abandons a cart, makes a purchase, reaches a loyalty milestone, or hasn’t engaged for 60 days. These are the highest-performing campaigns because they arrive at exactly the right moment.

Transactional messages handle order confirmations, shipping notifications, password resets, and other operational communications. They’re separate from marketing campaigns but use the same personalisation engine.

Step 3: Create personalised content

Emarsys provides a Visual Content Editor for building emails without coding. But personalisation goes beyond inserting a first name.

With SAP data flowing into Emarsys, you can personalise based on:

• Points balance and next tier threshold from SAP Loyalty
• Recently viewed products from Commerce Cloud
• Order status from S/4HANA
• Support ticket history from Service Cloud
• Consent preferences from CDC

Conditional content blocks let you show different content to different segments within the same campaign. A Gold member sees premium product recommendations while a Bronze member sees an upgrade incentive — same email template, different experience.

Step 4: Set timing and channel

Emarsys’s AI-powered optimal send time determines when each contact is most likely to engage, based on their historical behaviour. Instead of sending to everyone at 10 AM, each recipient gets the message at their personal optimal time.

For omnichannel campaigns, you set channel priorities. If a customer doesn’t open the email within 24 hours, trigger an SMS. If they still don’t engage, try a push notification. The system handles the cascade automatically.

What Pre-Built Tactics Does Emarsys Offer?

McKinsey reports that 71% of consumers expect personalised interactions from brands, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t receive them (McKinsey, 2021). Pre-built tactics make that personalisation operational from day one.

Emarsys’s tactical programmes are organised by objective:

Acquisition tactics:

• Welcome series for new subscribers
• First-purchase incentive for leads who browse but don’t buy
• Referral programme activation

Retention tactics:

• Post-purchase follow-up with product care tips or cross-sell
• Birthday and anniversary campaigns
• Loyalty tier progression nudges (e.g., “You’re 200 points from Gold”)
• Re-engagement for customers inactive 30/60/90 days

Win-back tactics:

• Graduated discount offers for lapsed customers
• “We miss you” campaigns with personalised product recommendations
• Expiring points or benefits reminders

Revenue-driving tactics:

• Abandoned cart recovery (email + SMS cascade)
• Browse abandonment (viewed but didn’t add to cart)
• Replenishment reminders for consumable products
• Price drop alerts for wish-listed items

Each tactic includes recommended channel selection, timing, and personalisation logic. You adjust the messaging, branding, and discount levels for your business — not the underlying strategy.

How Do You Measure Campaign Success in Emarsys?

HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report found that 63% of marketers plan to increase their marketing automation investment (HubSpot, 2024). What drives that investment? Measurement. Emarsys provides several layers of campaign analytics.

Deliverability metrics: Delivered count, bounce categories (soft, hard, block), exclusions from blocklists or frequency caps. These tell you whether your messages are reaching inboxes.

Engagement metrics: Opens, clicks, social shares, unsubscribes. Trend analysis by time of day and day of week helps optimise future send times.

Revenue metrics: This is where Emarsys differs from most platforms. Revenue attribution ties actual purchase data — from SAP Commerce Cloud or S/4HANA — to specific campaigns and channels. You see exactly how much revenue each campaign generated, not estimated conversions.

Lifecycle impact: Track how campaigns affect customer lifecycle stage. Did the win-back campaign actually reactivate lapsed customers? Did the post-purchase series increase repeat purchase rate? These are the metrics that justify ongoing investment.

What Makes Email Campaigns Work in Emarsys?

Bain & Company found that increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25–95% (Bain, 2023). Email remains the most cost-effective channel for driving that retention — and Emarsys handles email with several specific capabilities.

IP warm-up: Before launching large-scale campaigns, Emarsys guides you through an IP warm-up programme to establish sender reputation. This is a critical step that many teams skip, leading to poor deliverability.

Dynamic content: Conditional blocks show different content to different segments within the same email. A loyal customer sees premium recommendations. A new subscriber sees a welcome offer. Same template, different experience.

A/B testing: Test subject lines, send times, content variations, and calls to action. Emarsys automatically routes to the winning variant based on your chosen metric (opens, clicks, or revenue).

Compliance: List-unsubscribe headers, frequency caps, and consent-aware sending ensure you stay compliant with GDPR and CAN-SPAM. When connected to SAP CDC, consent changes propagate automatically.

FAQ

What types of campaigns can I run in Emarsys?

Three main types: batch campaigns (scheduled sends to segments), triggered campaigns (automated responses to events like cart abandonment or tier changes), and transactional messages (order confirmations, shipping notifications). Triggered campaigns consistently deliver the highest engagement because they arrive at exactly the right moment with relevant content.

How does Emarsys personalisation go beyond inserting a name?

Emarsys pulls live data from SAP systems — loyalty points balance, recently viewed products, order history, service interactions — into personalisation tokens. Conditional content blocks show different content to different segments within the same campaign. AI optimises send time per individual contact. The result is genuinely contextual messages, not just “Hi [FirstName].”

Can I run campaigns without SAP Commerce Cloud?

Yes. Emarsys works with any e-commerce platform via API integration. However, the pre-built product catalogue sync, real-time order events, and ERP-linked revenue attribution only activate with native SAP connections. Non-SAP integrations require custom development for the same data flows.

How do the pre-built tactics work?

Each tactic is a complete campaign strategy — trigger conditions, channel selection, timing, personalisation rules, and recommended content structure. You customise the messaging, branding, and discount levels for your business. For example, the abandoned cart tactic includes a 1-hour email follow-up, a 24-hour SMS reminder, and a 48-hour push notification, with revenue tracked at each step.

What does revenue attribution look like in practice?

Emarsys matches campaign touchpoints to actual transactions in your commerce or ERP system. A dashboard shows: Campaign X was sent to 50,000 contacts, 12,000 opened, 3,200 clicked, 890 purchased, generating €142,000 in revenue within the attribution window. This is real transaction data, not estimated conversions or modelled attribution.