WinM@il-WinBlogger

Creative Strategies - List Building

A good WinM@il customer who oversees the operations of a variety of dining establishments created a holiday email coupon for the subscribers of one restaurant's email program.  That right there is a good idea.

And going one step further, in an effort to share that good news, they sent a promotional email to a nearby property's subscribers encouraging them to sign up for the first restaurant's email program.

This kind of cross marketing works.  It makes more sense, costs less, and drives more business in the door than purchasing a random list of who-knows-who.

Other creative list building strategies include:

1-When speaking with a radio or television reporter, remember to ask listeners to go to your web site for more info and say the address.

2-At a trade show, put your web site address on every banner, hand-out and registration form. Acquire e-mail addresses of booth visitors.

3-Mention your web site and ask for e-mail addresses at every event you attend on behalf of your organization.

4-Partner with a like-minded organization and put an ad at their web site – link it to your web site, spell out your address.

Highlight of the Week - Younkers Gets It!

I don't know exactly when it happened, but the midwest regional retailer Younkers - owned by Saks Incorporated - has finally created an email that works! 

The shift to more effective design includes:

1. more links to choose from
2. more visual motivation to click those links
3. and greater access directly to parts of their web site that interest me.

Now, on the the next step: Personalization!  Perhaps they already have this in the works, but ideally Younkers would send me something more directed to my buying habits.  So many campaigns like this one are created with a one-size-fits-all mentality.  This is surprising - especially for the larger companies spending huge dollars on advertising - that marketing can't figure out the simple task of targeting via email.  This strategy is so available and so affordable that I am baffled it is not more often utilized.

This is not a new issue.  Back in 2005 JupiterResearch was writing about it - read their assessment here >>