Last year about this time, Picture Business tackled the subject of e-mail marketing and reported the trends that were set and followed in both content and technology. One technical hurdle was getting e-mail messages past spam filters, while one of the great advantages was how cost effective e-mail marketing could be (no paper, no printing, no postage). In fact, the best reason to use e-mail marketing may be its immediate return on investment, noted Jeanne Jennings, e-mail marketing consultant. “If it’s done well and efficiently, it can be very cost effective and provide a tremendous return.”
Mike Ferranti, CEO, Endai WorldWide, agreed that e-mail marketing was one of the least expensive ways to reach consumers. “Start-up costs are so small,” Ferranti noted, “that any company, regardless of size, can integrate a smartly designed campaign into its marketing program in a short time. Using this marketing strategy won’t break the bank. In this day and age, with the ease of measuring your real-time ROI, you can’t afford not to.”
Importance of Content
Trends in e-mail marketing technology haven’t changed much in the past year, and neither have those in content, though that’s still a high priority when designing a campaign. “Content is so important,” states Bob Phibbs, of The Retail Doctor, who notes that many businesses have simply taken the content they were using for direct mail. “It doesn’t translate and it’s not looked upon well by most consumers. The best (e-mail campaigns) wrap their heads around the lifestyles people lead and how they interface with their brand.
“For example,” explains Phibbs, “for a photo store, the e-mail can provide photo tips for school graduations and weddings. It may include three tips and a link or examples that bring the customer back to their site, which would be ideal. The content should be interesting and meaningful and not take a lot of time and effort to read. Think of one simple thing you want to tell them,” suggests Phibbs, “then add a ‘sale’ message at the bottom, if need be (e.g. this month’s special is twenty prints for the price of ten). But you don’t want to lead with that. Also, stay away from words like “free” in the subject line as it will read as Spam.
“Open the customer’s window to new things,” says Phibbs, “such as putting your store’s info on sites like Flickr. Photo retailers should be on the site with info such as how to take the perfect picture, etc. You really have to embrace all the Internet is capable of,” Phibbs concludes, “because that’s where business is headed.”
The List Business
Compiling an e-mail database is just as important as having good content. “Probably 70% of Picture Business’ readers have customer addresses but not an e-mail database,” states Phibbs, who suggests using a direct mail postcard via your Web site with an incentive—such as 10% off their next purchase—to entice customers to hand over their e-mail address.
“These are people that know you,” he says. “Send it out to everyone on the old mailing list, then again two weeks later after removing names of those that brought it in. That improves responses by 50%. You’re in the list business,” reiterates Phibbs. “That’s what you have to wrap your head around. Make sure you ask anyone that walks into your store to be on your list because you send out tips once a month, etc. You can set up your e-mails for an entire year in a slow month or hire someone to do it. It’s better use of your money as opposed to print ads where you’re casting your net too wide in the world. And be regular about it, even if it’s only once a quarter.”
When it comes to e-mail marketing and technology, companies can build their e-mail campaigns using Flash and other fancy software. Phibbs believes plain text is still the way to go since consumers typically don’t have the latest equipment (approximately 95 percent of all commercial e-mail messages are sent in HTML). He also suggests you give your e-mail marketing its own e-mail address rather than using a personal e-mail or the store’s e-mail.
Case in Point
For PDN PhotoPlus Expo (the world’s largest end-user photography event, which showcases imaging solutions and provides photographic education/seminars, etc.), e-mail marketing is an inexpensive, effective way to communicate with customers. “Generally speaking,” states Jeff McQuilkin, Director of PDN PhotoPlus Expo, “we use e-mail marketing for a number of things, one of which is to communicate with our exhibitors/vendors and attendees. Those are the bigger e-mail blasts that we rely on more than any other kind.”
Thanks to the size of PDN PhotoPlus’ e-mail lists, which it adds to each year from show attendees, it reaches thousands of people. PDN PhotoPlus also trades for lists. “We’ll use lists from other photography trade shows and photo magazines and associations. But we’re not just looking for names,” adds McQuilkin, who targets specific groups.
The show has been around for 25 years and its e-mail campaigns for about 8 to 9 years. “It’s an interesting situation for us because it’s a visual medium and a visual show,” notes McQuilkin. “Because of the nature of the show, we still haven’t, by any means, divorced ourselves from sending out direct mail postcards and catalogs. We started effectively using [e-mail] 7 to 8 years ago and started picking it up in the last 3 or 4 years since I’ve been director.”
The show relies heavily on mailing postcards and catalogs of conference sessions, etc. Although last year, for the first time, a pop-up catalog was included as part of the e-mail. “We actually got pretty good results from that,” says McQuilkin. “People could literally click on and flip through it like a catalog. It’s not quite the same look and feel,” he notes, “but we were pretty pleased with the results we got and the money saved.”
McQuilkin admits they still cling to putting an image on paper and sending that out, due to the nature of the business. However, he also concedes that most people are used to having everything they need at their fingertips on their computer screen and don’t necessarily like having to wait for something to arrive in the mail.
Success Strategies
Strategies that work for PhotoPlus that could also work for retailers include personalization, such as addressing e-mails to individual names. “Usually, when we send out the e-mails there’s some kind of ‘call to action.’ In our case,” explains McQuilkin, “we say ‘click here’ to register for the show. If that person is on file, everything is filled out for them. We try to make it personal and easy. We also take a lot of care to emphasize our brand as much as possible without being ridiculous. There’s a lot of competition out there and I would imagine that’s the same for retailers.”
Tracking results is also important. “Most of our e-mails call [users] to register to attend the expo or a seminar,” says McQuilkin. “We give them a simple code to use when they do; that’s what we track. We don’t track the open rate because we’re interested in knowing if they’re taking action with the e-mail.
“The first two e-mails notifying people that registration is live are great successes—always. When we put our first e-mail out saying registration is live, boom, we get a huge bite. As we get closer to the show the returns start to diminish, so sometimes we wonder if we need to ‘pull the plug’ sooner than we do. We are concerned about diminishing returns from repeating the same message over and over as we get closer to the show.
“We try hard to be respectful of people on the other end. We try not to bombard them. We try to only send things that are new and relative. It absolutely is working,” says McQuilkin, “and it’s certainly cost effective though, again, it’s not our only form of marketing. We’re trying to find the balance between controlling the costs and getting the most bang for our buck.
“We’re not quite ready to abandon the tried and true (direct mail, phone calls, etc.), and we’re changing our mix as the years go by. We’re really trying to build a sense of community,” concludes McQuilkin, “which can be tough with e-mail. But I think it’s working.” yy
