In episode 238 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Gail Buffington, vice president of marketing and analytics at Soft Surroundings, a women's apparel, shoes and accessories retailer. Listen in as Buffington discusses Soft Surrounding's brand history as a cataloger, its expansion into brick-and-mortar retail, and her career at the company. She shares how Soft Surroundings develops its email marketing campaigns, and why and how the brand is expanding into marketing automation. Buffington details how automated email campaigns allow her team to focus more on creative promotional messaging, while garnering strong engagement from the audience.

In addition, Buffington shares Soft Surroundings' SMS strategy, the impressive engagement the channel has captured for the brand, and the company's work with Listrak on both SMS and email marketing automation. Buffington details the benefits Soft Surroundings has realized since partnering with Listrak, including double-digit growth in email revenue. Lastly, she shares Soft Surroundings' future plans to further expand and optimize its email and SMS marketing programs.

Gail Buffington is the vice president of marketing and analytics for Soft Surroundings. She has over 12 years of experience across the breadth of marketing. In her current role, Gail’s responsibilities include marketing operations and strategy, content and promotion creation, analytics, brand development, circulation/print marketing, mobile, and loyalty. She works with store operations to build a cohesive cross-channel experience for customers. Outside of Soft Surroundings, she also serves as a public affairs officer with the United States Army.