All About ROI June 2010
Apparel and the City
We're not in Kansas anymore. Such could be the slogan for men's and women's apparel and accessories retailer Brooklyn Industries. Headquartered in its namesake New York City borough, the cross-channel merchant exudes a decidedly urban vibe. From the clothes it sells to the stores where those clothes are sold, Brooklyn Industries caters to the active lifestyles of its city-dweller, 25-year-old to 35-year-old demographic.
Capturing Attention
After your from line, the most compelling thing motivating recipients to open your email is its subject line. You know the drill: To stand out in a cluttered inbox, you have to work hard to capture attention. Subject lines must be carefully crafted to develop innovative ways to present your latest promotions and products.
Changing Channels
Whether you want to grow your business or maintain your database size as customers age out, prospecting is a challenge every successful cross-channel retailer needs to master. For some, buying lists and using paid search are the beginning and end of their prospecting efforts. But many eventually realize that to grow their businesses — and combat limited list universes
and increasingly competitive paid search pricing — they need to look at expanding further into multichannel prospecting.
Cloudy With a Chance of Coupon
Whether you think these people are nuts (I do) or not, the point is weather events drive consumers to stores. Couple this fact with one of the hottest trends in retail marketing — mobile — and you have the basis for Aisle411's latest marketing tool. The St. Louis-based mobile marketing technology company launched Helpful Hints, a text messaging service tied to weather activity, in December 2009.
Customer Service Tool has 
Inkjetsuperstore.com in the Black
PROBLEM: Inkjetsuperstore.com was unable to collect and respond to visitors' problems on its website. SOLUTION: Implemented an on-demand solution to collect, analyze and manage visitors' feedback. RESULTS: Calls to Inkjet Superstore's call center have been reduced by 12,000 annually (roughly 5 percent). As a result of the personal and immediate service it now provides visitors, the site's conversion rate is up 6 percent.
Going Local
A new trend seems to be popping up in the world of retail: a greater 
emphasis on local marketing by national retailers.
How to Be A Great Pick-Up Artist
Many online retailers today offer some type of site-to-store option, such as in-store pickup from store inventory, ship-to-store or a combination of the two. As a result, now is a great time to look at what site functionality and enhancements retailers should consider leveraging when it comes to site-to-store options. What strategy changes would better engage consumers, and why should you spend scarce dollars on these options?
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Shop Talk's Master Marketer: The Brief Statement That Breeds Success
A creative brief is an organizational tool that every project needs to stay on track. It’s based on a simple form that’s been refined through the years within each organization that uses it religiously -- and that's what makes it work.
Opt-Out Email Strategies
Q: "What's your opinion on using an affirmative opt-in email strategy versus an assumed opt-in strategy, when the subscriber groups include existing customers only (no prospects, leads, etc.) and email addresses have been pulled from a CRM system? These subscribers have not necessarily signed up to receive email on a website or through any other method."
Prospecting - Macy’s Caters to Tourists With New Website
Macy's, the iconic retail brand, has launched 
visitmacysusa.com, a website designed to target domestic and international travelers — and ultimately bring them into Macy's stores as their shopping destinations.
Prospecting - Sears, Edwin Watts Golf Team Up for Store-Within-a-Store Model
While golf is primarily an individual sport, that doesn't mean retailers that sell golf products can't partner up to drive more sales — and acquire new buyers at the same time.
Rapid-Fire E-Marketing
Almost 60 percent of online retailers don't send emails or do any type of follow-up marketing to shoppers who abandon carts, according to a recent survey. Abandoned cart emails are the most basic and lucrative of a class of emails called "triggered email." Merchants who ignore triggered email are missing out on some easy money — perhaps they had too much money to begin with?
SEM - Are You Winning?
To those on the fringes, paid search engine marketing (SEM) can appear to be black magic. There are so many variables to get right — keywords, ads, bids, landing pages, offers, etc. — and the competition can be brutal. Before you know it, you're spending more than you can afford just to stay in the game.
