Fueling The Conversation

Editor's Notes

• #18: All social media needs email to survive. The inbox is THE foundation of social media.
• #21: Papa John’s used Social Forward (ExactTarget’sShareThis integration) for its 2009 March Madness promotionIn the first 3 days, Papa John’s attracted 135,000 to its Facebook page added more than 45,000new email subscribers
• #22: Dreamfields uses SEO, PPC and Word of Mouth to attract consumers to www.trydreamfields.comConsumers are invited to register for Dreamfields’ email newsletter and receive a $1 coupon as a “Thank You”In less than three years, Dreamfields has built an opt-in database of 500,000+ consumer email subscribers and 20,000 healthcare professional email subscribersDreamfields uses ExactTarget to deliver offers, recipes, and coupons to subscribers; invites them to visit the Dreamfields page on Facebook where they can exchange their recipes and experiences with other consumersDreamfilelds is now using ExactTarget’s Social Forward capability to invite subscribers to forward Dreamfields email with friends in their social networks. This will have an enormous impact on subscriber database growth and product salesAs of August 20, 2009, Dreamfields sales are up 13% year to date while all other brands in the category are down or flat.For FY 2009, Dreamfields 8.3 million pounds of pasta, a 177% increase over FY 2005Dreamfields has reduced its advertising budget by 95% since converting to its digital marketing strategy
• #24: All social media needs email to survive. The inbox is THE foundation of social media.
• #25: Pier 1 Imports goes mobilePier 1 Imports is partnering with Barnes & Noble for an SMS sweepstakes as part of its efforts to reach a younger demographic.The retail giant has deployed in-store mobile calls-to-action -- signage next to the prize, a Papasan chair -- in 100 Barnes & Noble bookstores near college campuses. Consumers who text in receive a text message confirming their registration in the sweepstakes and asking them to opt-in to receive promotional emails from Pier 1 Imports.The Pier 1 Imports SMS sweepstakes campaign started July 15 and is running through Sept. 30.The campaign is keyword-specific -- with a unique keyword for each store -- so Pier 1 can identify from which store each consumer texts in.The call-to-action asks consumers to text a keyword with their email address to Pier 1's short code to enter to win the Papasan chair."The goal for the SMS initiative is integration with the email campaign, basically creating a trickle campaign on the back-end," Mr. Haddox said. "Rather than lumping these college students in with our main marketing campaign, we're segmenting them and treating them differently."We have to speak to a younger demographic in a different way," he said. "We're trying to engage them and getting them to come in-store, and there are various ways, including the SMS sweepstakes.“In April, Pier 1 will be using SMS to make it easy for store visitors to opt in to its email program. The test will run in all Pier 1 California stores. This is a cool campaign because Pier 1 is not only inviting subscribers to opt into its email program but is also asking them (via email) to provide a full set of personal data (including their Twitter handle) with the promise of $5 off their next purchase.
• #26: Scotts products – like Turf Builder – are used by many major league baseball park groundskeepers. Fenway Park in Boston is one MLB ballpark where Scotts products are used. And Scotts is also a major advertiser at Fenway.In 2009, Scotts began experimenting with “between innings” text campaigns as a tactic to attract new subscribers to Scotts’ Lawn Care Update e-newsletter. The campaign is a natural for Scotts because fans can see how effective Scotts products are for Fenway Park, and Scotts uses “direct response text” to make it easy for fans to get information on how they can also get the same results for their lawn using the right Scotts products at the right time.The campaign test has been so successful that Scotts will expand it to other MLB parks in 2010.
• #29: Talking Points:Best Buy Background:    Best Buy is a multi-national retailer of technology and entertainment products and services  Best Buy is one of ExactTarget’s most sophisticated senders Best Buy Problem:   Best Buy wanted a single platform in place to manage all marketing and transactional messaging sent across Best Buy store, BestBuy.com, Geek Squad, and Reward Zone to drive revenue Solution for Best Buy:   Best Buy uses the ExactTarget Enterprise Edition to power marketing and transactional messaging for Best Buy in-store, BestBuy.com, Geek Squad, and Reward Zone   Best Buy leverages ExactTarget Dynamic Content to create personalized, targeted messages, AMPScript for sophisticated Dynamic Content, and AMPScript to create dynamic emails Results for Best Buy:   Only ExactTarget proved that they could handle the sophistication through use of ExactTarget Enterprise edition, integrations and services   Example:  Thanksgiving 2009, Best Buy sent a single campaign more than 3.5 million unique iterations
• #30: The Home Depot uses analytics from Omniture and LIVE OFFERS from ExactTarget to deliver coupons driven by analytics, behavior or subscriber data:Live Offer Coupons are:Personalized based on subscriber profile and purchase historyRendered at time of open rather than time of sendEffective for driving store trafficEnables retailers to offer targeted product promotion.Dramatically improves email open and conversion rates
• #31: Gordmans ProfileGordmans is an Omaha-based retailer of ELP (Everyday Low Price) merchandise. The company has 65 stores and is considered a higher-end version of Marshalls. Email marketing is the backbone of Gordmans direct marketing strategy used in combination with limited direct mail to drive traffic to storesOne of Gordmans most successfulemail campaigns is its automated Birthday Email which is triggered by the customer’s birth date that is captured at email subscription.Results:70.5% Open Rate4.3% Conversion Rate (of delivered)6.0% Conversion Rate (of opened)“Happy Birthday” Offer Transaction is 33% higher than average!
• #33: Amway uses its Personalized Health email newsletter to teach consumers about the benefits of its multivitamindietary supplements that are “personalized” to the needs of individual consumers. The newsletter supports the product marketing and selling efforts of Amway’s Quixtar resellers in North America.Personalized Health has an open rate of 36% and a click-through rate (CTR) of 4%
• #35: Tactic: Use Email for Multi-channel MarketingWorking with Customer Portfolios, Johnston & Murphy has segmented their subscribers into different groups based on purchase behavior. Messaging is then tailored to the specific needs of each group based on this behavior & new purchases can move them into different categories.ChallengeHow to drive purchase through online store, catalog, and retail storesHow to accelerate re-purchaseSolutionInvite opt-in through website and storesExecute automated email campaigns that deliver personalized offers based on interest or purchase behaviorResults (in last 24 Months)New Customers: Up 29%Email Open Rate: Up 18%Email Response Rate: Up 44%Sales Generated from Email: Up 33%Integrated with Omniture to do predictive modeling and recommendation of best offer based on previous purchase
• #36: Motorcycle Superstore revs up sales with personalized e-mail marketingProving that customers can still be inspired to make purchases even in an uncertain economy, Motorcycle Superstore saw a 21.7% revenue increase in the first week after launching an e-mail campaign Sept. 21 that incorporated personalized product recommendations.  With what the company calls its one-to-one merchandising, Motorcycle Superstore uses behavioral data gathered with WebTrends Inc. technology combined with its e-mail marketing application from ExactTarget to send e-mail messages with personalized product picks. These items appear on the lower part of the messages and are based on customer visiting habits over the previous two weeks.
• #40: Combining email with web analytics for intelligent remarketing is all the rage these days. Yes, it’s been around for a while, but people are just now figuring it out, and when they do figure it out, they are seeing a huge uptick in the amount of sales driven from these emails – all from what would potentially be a lost customer. SkyMall is an example of a client that integrates their email campaign with data from Coremetrics. If you’ve ever flown on a plane you know who SkyMall is, but in addition to orders from catalogs, they do a large amount of business on the web as well as over the phone. SkyMall has spent a lot of time understanding buying patterns within their customer base and they constructed a truly intelligent remarketing campaign: Daily, Coremetrics provides a list of individuals who are registered to receive email and left the website with one or more products in their shopping cart.SkyMall waits 2-3 days before sending a remarketing email because what they’ve found is that many people browse online and then pick up the phone and call in their order. In the 2-3 days that they are waiting, they have automated the process of comparing the list from Coremetrics against their phone order data to remove anyone who has purchased. Finally, they send an email trying to reengage the potential buyer. They often change up the call to action to see what works best. Sometimes its just a reminder that they have items left in the cart, sometimes they do a discounted shipping offer, and sometimes they even offer up a phone number for the individual to call in and get assistance. No one approach works for any one company – you’ve got to get creative.
• #41: Cable Chopping Network’s email marketing strategy accounted for 8% of total online revenue 2007 and 17% of total online revenue 2008. One of the keys to success for this $40M marketer of collectibles company, is their automated system for remarketing emails. The automated system – which uses ExactTarget and Omniture – sends customized emails to online shoppers who have placed an item in their shopping cart, but have not completed the purchase. The emails ask the shopper if they encountered difficulties in the checkout process and offer a discount for completing the purchase. According Steve Harris, VP Marketing for Cable Chopping Network, CSN’s email remarketing strategy accounts for more than $250,000 in “recaptured” sales annually. This represents a 5X return on CSN’s annual ExactTarget software licensing investment.
• #43: In 2009, Volvo’s email marketing activities have led to 285 lead conversions representing sales of $51MM USD*
• #45: Volvo Construction Equipment sends its Remarketing Email each week to approximately  1,200 select customers / dealers / brokers and averages a 20% open rate.  Using ExactTarget’s content syndication, Volvo Construction Equipment captures the HTML from its online inventory Website and automatically populates its email marketing messages without having to manually enter inventory data or other information.  To further boost the performance of the campaign, the equipment maker integrates ExactTarget with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Omniture web analytics to track subscriber activity and refine future messages. “We’ve reduced overall build time of our remarketing emails by more than 50 percent with content syndication,” said John Johnston, eBusiness Marketing Manager.  “Using ExactTarget’s API, we automate the import of the HTML from our inventory site and never have to manually replicate information to build our marketing emails.  It’s a huge time saver.”
• #46: Hitachi Data Systems uses a array of email communications to: Nurture leads Support relationship management efforts of HDS field sales managers Keep customers connected to HDSHDS uses ExactTarget’s Enterprise Solutions platform to support email communications that are: Managed by 300 HDS Field Marketing Managers around the globe Support the selling and customer relationship management efforts of 1,200 HDS field sales managers Executed in 15 different languagesHDS selected the ExactTarget Enterprise Solution because it: Enables HDS to have central command and control over all email communications campaigns globally Provides HDS to ability to lock down branding and messaging to ensure continuity across all regions Integrates with other HDS selected technologies: CRM and Analytics to support automated triggered email communications Supports multiple languages Enables email content to be customized at the local level as needed
• #47: Genworth Financial uses ANNUITY OUTLOOK to:Keep independent Financial Planners, Brokers and Agents informed about Genworth Financial investment and retirement planning products.Promote Genworth Financial product resources for download.Details:ANNUITY OUTLOOK is sent weekly by corporate marketing on behalf of each Regional Vice PresidentList of recipients is pulled from Salesforce.com which is integrated with ExactTargetGenworth Financialuses ExactTarget’s dynamic content technology to personalize andtailor email content to the needs of individual subscribers. Two statistics validate that this strategy is delivering big results:Personalized (sent on behalf of the sales executive) produced a 7-10% higher open rate compared to non-personalized emailSales were 39% higher for Genworth customers who received personalized e-newsletters compared to those who did not
• #49: Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation is gaining global market share with an email marketing program that has helped boost traffic on the company’s Website by more than 30 percent in the past year. Designed and powered by global email marketing and digital marketing provider ExactTarget, Milwaukee Electric Tool’s Heavy Duty News emails feature new product information, how-to videos and special email-only offers.   “We continue to break site traffic records following every email campaign,” said Vickie Chiappetti, e-marketing project manager at Milwaukee Electric Tool. “Email provides us a vehicle to interact with customers online and has quickly become one of the company’s top priorities for user acquisition.” The company, which sells its power tools and accessories worldwide through full-line tool authorized distributors, home centers and hardware stores, relies on ExactTarget’s services team to design and optimize email content for its growing subscriber list which exceeds six figures. “ExactTarget’s design team provides us a seamless solution to produce top quality emails without having additional staff onsite,” Chiappetti said.  “They’ve become an extension of our team and are in part why we can point to the success we’ve had to date.”