The True Crime Network serves a passionate audience with darkly fascinating entertainment: free true crime stories.
In operation since January 2015 (previously titled the Justice Network), the True Crime Network is known for programs like Southern Fried Homicide and other engaging content, featuring interviews, recreations, and documentaries, both over the air and streaming within the app.
“The main way people watch our network is over the air. Rabbit ears, which was one of the first ways people watched television, are still one way people watch us now,” explains John Kiser, director of programming.
But it proved difficult to find out what viewers who were using antennas or other offline methods to tune in were looking for. This over-the-air broadcast demographic, who typically skews age 55+, makes up a significant portion of the True Crime Network’s viewership. The network needed a way to reach them.
The challenge: Keeping eyes on the crimes
The True Crime Network needs to know its audience's preferences and viewing habits. This data is crucial when making scheduling and programming decisions to help the network’s content align with viewer interests. Increasing viewership numbers means a more attractive network for advertisers.
First-party data typically comes from website visits, transactions, or other direct-from-consumer interactions. But when your audience is largely interacting with your programming using on-the-air, traditional broadcast TV, it’s often a one-way street.
The True Crime Network relies on audience surveys to collect their first-party data, but found engagement to be a challenge — QR codes shown on the air proved less effective than they needed. They quickly realized how much more effective email campaigns were for improving audience engagement.
“The True Crime Network is most active using email campaigns for reaching out to audiences, getting their feedback, and having a conversation with them,” says John. “We needed first-party data, like the raw data from our actual viewers. And Mailchimp has been a good way for us to effectively reach out to them and collect that.”
"We needed first-party data, like the raw data from our actual viewers. And Mailchimp has been a good way for us to effectively reach out to them and collect that."
The tools: Mailchimp email marketing campaigns to promote surveys
The True Crime Network team uses Mailchimp for email marketing campaigns to engage with viewers directly, gather feedback, and promote new content.
They created a welcome automation to greet the audience immediately, and set up the expectation of communication. This helps to develop a relationship with the audience, priming them to engage with surveys.
Through Mailchimp’s API, “whenever a new viewer signs up for our streaming service, they'll get a welcome email with information like the benefits they get, such as free programming and free television to watch,” says John. “And then they get email updates based on new shows.”
In the actual creation of emails, Mailchimp’s Content Optimizer helps the True Crime Network team to produce content that follows best practices, helping the campaigns to be as effective as possible.
“The Content Optimizer gives hints and tips that I wouldn't have been aware of, in terms of making this particular statement a little longer, or making this statement three words or less. That's the kind of thing that I might not have understood at first,” says Shera Collins, director of operations and production.
The Content Optimizer doesn’t replace anyone creatively, but rather, validates the team’s efforts.
“We're pretty creative people,” John tells us. “And we like to do our own thing without any help. But it is nice to see when you see the check marks on the side like, ‘Oh! You hit all the right marks!’”
The results: High survey completion rates and valuable audience insights
Using Mailchimp email and Survey Monkey, the True Crime Network achieved a 90%+ completion rate on viewer surveys, indicating strong viewer engagement and willingness to provide feedback.
The email campaigns the network executed through Mailchimp showed a significant increase in survey participation and viewer interaction.
“We ran a video promo on-air… We saw a handful of responses. Then we sent an email campaign at the end of the day, and then the next morning we had a 700% jump in responses. So even in a short span of time we saw a big jump with the email campaign [compared to the on-air promo],” says John.
The data collected from surveys helped True Crime Network to understand viewer preferences in real-time, allowing for agile programming adjustments and more targeted content creation.
What’s next for the True Crime Network?
The True Crime Network operates in a fragmented industry — there are endless ways for viewers to watch television. John says it’s up to viewers to decide what’s next and how they want to move forward, whether that’s staying with broadcast TV or moving toward streaming services.
As for right now, John’s focused on staying close to the viewer, and making it easy for them to communicate what they want. Encouraging viewer engagement with tools like Mailchimp has made these efforts that much more impactful.
“You just gotta make your message simple for the viewer. And Mailchimp has helped with that,” says John. “We don't want to over-complicate it and build barriers for them to make it hard for them to watch us. So that's why, if you look at our campaigns, they're just so simple.”
Want to learn more about your audience? Send them a survey.
The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent those of Intuit Mailchimp or any of its cornerstone brands or employees.
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