E-Mail Campaigns

[Julia]

In a different post, Rob Markoff requested that Kirstie start a thread offering her viewpoints on her e-mail marketing campaigns. May I humbly offer the following experience that we have had?

I learned of Constant Contact through MNSue (thank you), who had heard about it from Kirstie (thank you). We signed up for the trial period and first ran a survey, then have been sending out an e-mail every month (my competition sends one out every two weeks). We have found it to be cost effective (we purchase six months in advance at a reduced rate) and have an open rate on average of 33%.

I've included promotional offers: take $40.00 off a shadowbox for Mother's Day, a % off moulding (we received a deal from our vendor), a % off Artaissance. It's very interesting the response: the people who have come in after we've sent the e-mails have not taken advantage of the specific offer, but bring in different projects. One client, after our last e-mail, brought in four new projects. Our experience is that the campaigns are effective in keeping our name at the top of our clients minds.

I used to ask, would you like to be on our e-mail list? This was usually met with, no, I don't need any more junk e-mails. When I re-phrased the question to: would you like to be notified of our e-mail specials, it generates a more positive response.

Hope this is helpful.
Regards,
Julia

 

[j Paul]

Good suggestion Julia.

I have to admit that I have been remiss at collecting emails. However I have started to collect them easily from framing customers by telling them we will email them when there order is done, so we don't have to play phone tag.

I did recently send out a full-color ad to those I had on file, featuring a discount offer for Photo Restoration an had pretty good response, considering it was a free form of advertising.

 

[SusieQ]

For a whie I had my staff just ask customers for their email addresses. It didn't work too well. After a few people turn you down, it's just easier not to ask. I also have a design counter staff of about 7-8. Getting everyone on board with the asking was difficult. I finally sat a sign on the counter that says "save $5 on today's order by giving us your email address". It has all the fine print...it's just a one shot deal. Now my staff doesn't have to ask. I've collected over 1000 emails in about a year (my POS tracks it for me). We mark it off in their customer file, so that they can't get the deal twice.
I, too, use Constant Contact, but not on a regular basis like I should. Next plan is to sit down and plan out 12 months of email promotions, so I can stick to a schedule.
If I can get a regular schedule going, I'm certain my $5 off investment will be worth it.
My break-even on the first 500 collected went well. I just need to break even on the next 500.

My 2 cents...

 

[SusanG]

We have been using both ways to communicate. Some of my customers are older and don't use email. Don't say that they are losers, they all have credit card or checkbooks to pay! I respect them for having the lifestyle that they wish to lead. Many do read the emails and I get lots of comments back. I can attribute many sales from the newsletter but like Julia said, they don't neccesarily go for the offer advertised. We still use postcards as the price has come down. I target it more to specific groups instead of the whole list. Also printing a small run of postcards like 250 or 500 is next to nothing from VistaPrint and I don't have to leave the shop to drop off or pickup.

Susan MCPF

 

[Janet L]

The above suggestions are really good ones. We also send a quarterly newsletter and an email reminder the week of any special promotions listed in our quarterly letter. We've not had any problems getting our customers to give us their email addresses when we tell them how it'll be used.

One way that we've rec'd alot of new email addresses: we keep an original painting framed to give away each quarter. The only way to contact the customer is by email (if they win). Rarely do we have someone tell us they don't have a computer, but in that case, we ask them to put their phone number in the space. Each quarter, when our newletter goes out, we make a big deal out of the winner of the past quarter, and show a picture of the new piece being given away.

Janet Lowry