Retailers and Holiday Emails: How Much is Too Much?
Debbi BresslerThe economic pressures have certainly been evident in the retail sector this year, as is evidenced by the number and frequency of email offers flooding mailboxes this season. Without “outing” any individual retailers, you have to ask if your customers need daily (or more frequent!) emails from you.
In the last post, we talked about engaging your customers and how that creates loyalty…which creates sales. One way to engage your customers is through surveys or polls. Why not survey your list to find out their preferable delivery schedule and then test the results to see if what they say is what they mean!
If you are establishing an email marketing or newsletter campaign, a once-a-week delivery schedule is a great starting point. Your list may also be receptive to special pricing, limited deals, or “hot” news one other day during that week. The key is to get the click (and hopefully the sale) without alienating your reader by flooding them with too many emails.
Remember when we discussed how engaged customers are more loyal and generally buy more? KitchenAid has developed a Weekly Specials program that can be customized by their customers. To see this example, go to the page above and click on the image labeled “Weekly Specials”” (obviously that link changes weekly so I can’t use it!). Once there, click on “Product Alerts”.
KitchenAid runs a one-day special every Monday on a product in their outlet store. These are money-savings deals with a short window and significant savings (I recently purchased something for 67% off). The Product Alerts allow you to select the products in which you are interested to receive information about sales in that category. Notice that they are very clear in stating, “You can add or change categories at any time.”
In this way, KitchenAid can email its customers more frequently because they are providing the latest information, sales, and rebates for specific types of products that the customers have selected. Since email notifications go out by product line, customers can delete emails regarding blenders after they’ve purchased one, yet keep receiving emails about other products of interest.
By implementing a system such as this you could easily mail your customers twice weekly – and have them sitting by their inbox waiting for your mail!
How could you adapt this for your business? Please share with us…
Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse
Tags
advertising, email marketing, marketing
