Email Applied: A (Big) Piece of the Puzzle

Leverage Your Email Campaigns to Create Synergies With Other Channels

There are a myriad of opportunities here; you just need to be creative. Here are some ideas that you might apply to your business:

• Send an email pre-announcing a catalog or direct mailing to those names on your housefile scheduled to receive the drop. My favorite way to do this is to include a picture of the front cover or outer envelope in the email as well as some enticement for the recipient to look forward to. Consumers suffer from email inbox clutter, but the same holds true for physical mailbox clutter. This tactic will grab attention and mindshare. And don't forget social. If there's a special angle or new product line you're introducing, use all the channels at your disposal.
• Another way to support a direct mail campaign is to send a follow-up email to your housefile after the mailing was received in-home. Brooks Brothers did this and would also feature its most recent catalog front page prominently on its website and in emails timed for when the catalog was received. In addition, the retailer took the opportunity in its emails over the next two weeks to call out specific items featured on the interior pages of the catalog.
• If you have a mobile app, it's important to get the word out. I've received many emails from companies promoting their app and explaining its benefits. Best-in-class marketers are using responsive design and doing additional tracking. They know I have an Android phone and the email promotes their app tailored for my phone, with a link to the appropriate app store.
• The holidays are past, but you all have busy customers who may be averse to paying shipping-and-handling charges. Allow customers to buy online and pick up in-store. This works particularly well for Black Friday and other significant holiday shopping dates, but "order ahead and skip the line" is a compelling proposition for many at all times of the year.
• This is a unique promotion, but perhaps you can learn from it. RedBox, the video rental business, wanted to build its SMS mobile list. The company's challenge: it has a physical presence with its ubiquitous red kiosks, but it doesn't have staff at these locations. The promotion was called "Ten Days of Deals." There were stickers on each point-of-sale location, it was promoted on Facebook to RedBox's followers, it was tweeted, the company did in-app messaging for its mobile customers, and it sent an email to its millions and millions of opted-in subscribers. That's an integrated campaign! Oh, RedBox was pleased with the results.

Remember the days when all we had to worry about was one channel? Those days are long gone! Today, to succeed in our complex omnichannel world, you have to be in front of consumers at the right time, in the right place, with the right offer. Yes, it's a very complex world out there, but if you're up to the challenge it can pay great dividends.