The Email Inbox: Your New Street Team

What I love most about e-mail is that you can test any idea and know whether it works within 24 hours.  Thinking about bringing Roger Sanchez to your venue?  Send a test email out announcing he will soon be spinning, see how many people respond.

 

As a club promoter and now online marketing pro, I’ve sat at endless meetings in the past where I’ve thrown out any number of good ideas only to have the venue say, “That will never fly.”

 

Now with e-mail, I can say, “Let’s test it.” And soon we find that the idea not only has wings, but also the legs to turn into a profitable venture.

 

Simple e-mail tests have uncovered new audience segments, developed new messaging, and forged new strategic directions.

 

2009 is a fresh new year for marketing strategies for you.

 

These are great questions to ask when analyzing your email strategy:

·         What is the best audience segment by overall gross income, average purchase, and response rate? What messages do these best customers respond to most, and how can we leverage this information to improve our other communications to them (direct mail, advertising, Web content, etc.)

·         What are the best seasons for e-mail communications? Miami hosts the Winter Music Conference every year at the end of March.  Many venues see that 50% percent of their online income comes in March during Winter Music Conference.  If this is the case, start your WMC planning way earlier in the year (October) to maximize it. And seeing that October is the next best season in Miami, immediate tactics to help take advantage of the upcoming profit opportunity.

·         Where are the best sources of new prospects and customers? Social Media brought in the most new people, but these new folks weren’t being welcomed or thanked enough. Leverage your group to sign up to email campaigns.

·         What are we doing to increase retention? This isn’t a time when anyone can afford to lose customers, so look at email retention strategies to keep good customers reading.

·         What have we tried in the last year that worked and is it worth expanding? A low-dollar campaign really generated high revenue, so we’re expanding and replicating it in several new ways.

·         What is our best event and how do we create “brand extensions” to bring in more revenue from known winners? One of my clients created loyalty promotions for their customers to get to know the customer and increase customer engagement and activity around the nights they know people care about most.  Attach an email program to this loyalty program and you have yourself an effective list.

·         How can we marry our online and offline efforts for maximum effect? Revenues increas when e-mails and street promotions g out at the same time on the same topic. Cross-reference online promotions with snail mail or Facebook Ads. For example, “Look for our April line-up of events coming to your home mailbox.”

·         Are we doing enough follow up? If an e-mail does well the first time, don’t stop there. Follow-ups often generate more revenue than the original e-mail. And “last chance” e-mails can add a lot of lift to the end of a campaign. Now you need to institutionalize that process.

·         What’s the competition doing that looks interesting? By doing an inbox review of competitive e-mails, you uncovered some fresh new approaches worth adapting to your own campaigns.

 

What’s interesting about this approach is that it’s a “bottom-up” strategy. Instead of working with lofty creative and marketing recommendations handed down by most owners, this approach offers a true reflection of what’s actually working on the ground. The key messages and sales techniques that test well with actual customers and prospects can then be filtered up and reflected in your bigger branding campaigns.

 

Not to mention, it’s the cheaper way to go — which might get the attention of the budget-conscious owner.

 

I look forward to your comments.

 

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