Success Stories

Transcription

1 LOOK INSIDE! Sample the first few pages of the full report. Success Stories How 11 companies are pushing the (electronic) envelope CASE STUDY COLLECTION

2 Contents at a Glance INTRODUCTION 1 READY, SET, GO: 11 CASE STUDIES 2 BRANDING 3 COLORADO WINE COMPANY 3 EDITORIAL EMERGENCY 4 LEAD GENERATION 7 PAVILION TECHNOLOGIES 7 SALESFORCE 8 WORKFORCE SOFTWARE 10 SALES 12 BLOOMS TODAY 12 INTERMIX 13 MONMOUTH PLANTATION 15 CUSTOMER RETENTION 17 THE FRIST CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS 17 GARDEN FRESH RESTAURANT CORP. 18 ROYAL CANIN CANADA 19 ESSENTIAL RESOURCES 21 NOW WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! 23 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 24 ABOUT MARKETINGPROFS 24

3 INTRODUCTION The case for marketing is very simple: return on investment. According to Direct Marketing Association, every dollar spent in 2008 generated a whopping $ And despite slipping slightly from previous years, the ROI on will continue to outpace that of other marketing channels for years. But numbers like that don t just happen. To reach and surpass your company s goals, you must create campaigns that nurture relationships and present the right customer the right offer at the right time. In this case study collection, you ll learn about how businesses like yours have used innovative campaigns to accomplish different business objectives, from building their brands to making instant conversions. We will examine the following objectives in this report: Branding Use newsletters to build and reinforce a brand. Lead Generation Fill and manage the sales pipeline. Sales Boost sales with offers. Customer Retention Keep customers coming back for more. Whether you re a small-business owner who wears many hats or a dedicated marketing team member in a large corporation, you ll find plenty of inspiration in these success stories. 1

4 READY, SET, GO: 11 CASE STUDIES 2

5 BRANDING An newsletter is a fantastic tool for building your brand and reinforcing it. Colorado Wine Company Colorado Wine Company takes a refreshingly unpretentious view of wine and it wanted an e-newsletter that would enhance this attitude and the company s culture and brand. Company: This store/wine bar is where customers no matter their level of wine knowledge can receive personal service and recommendations, try a sip or two of the daily selections at the bar, and leave feeling educated about wine. Challenge: When John and Jennifer Nugent opened Colorado Wine Company in Pasadena, Calif., they wanted to create a relaxed environment in which wine was not treated with kid gloves. If you do any traveling, says John Nugent, there isn t that mystification of wine like there is the United States. In Ireland, in the pub, people drink wine, and no one s talking about the million flavors they taste. The couple didn t object to connoisseurship, but they did want customers to know that highbrow analysis was not de rigueur. Unfortunately, the company s e-newsletter, its main marketing tool, did not reflect this critical branding point. Rather, the e-newsletter read like one from a generic wine shop, only including wine lists, descriptions and prices. It was very informational and very boring. Solution: The Nugents began to have fun with the newsletter. For example, it invited subscribers to the company s annual White Trash tasting, where wine is paired with cheap convenience food. The Nugents also incorporate pop culture in their e-newsletter. You make a reference to an episode of Diff rent Strokes, and people can t believe it, says Nugent. They wind up at your shop. The looser we became, the more we realized you don t have to be rigid. People don t want to sit and read a sermon. The Nugents use the newsletter to reinforce the shop s informal culture by including photos from their dining table or proposing wine pairings for events, such as presidential debates. Because the newsletter honestly reflects its highly personal brand, it has fostered a sense of community. We re a smaller shop, but people like to visit because it s like a living room. We want the e-newsletter to feel the same way. Results: A short time after its launch in 2005, the Colorado Wine Company e-newsletter saw readership go from a few hundred to a few thousand. Its growth has continued exponentially, increasing by 50 percent in the last year. 3

6 BRANDING We re a smaller shop, but people like to visit because it s like a living room. We want the e-newsletter to feel the same way. John Nugent, co-owner, the Colorado Wine Company The positive results have manifested in a variety of ways. Most impressively, on one occasion, the e-newsletter was viewed by more than four times as many people as Colorado Wine Company had on its list. After a broadcast, we spend half the next day returning , Nugent says. Sometimes, the s are about the wine; sometimes, other stuff. People come into the shop with a printout in their hands. Someone at a tasting will bring up a story from the newsletter. I even hear customers talking about the newsletter when they don t know I can hear them. Another benefit comes from Google searches because the newsletters are archived on the company s website. Whenever we talk about one specific wine, nine times out of 10, the top return on Google will be our store s site. We re always happy and really impressed. After a week, it s still usually in the top five. The e-newsletter has also been used to explain store policies and changes, such as why a certain wine no longer sits on the shelf. Business Lessons Learned Use your company s e-newsletter to remind customers why they love your product or service. Employ search-engine optimization techniques to push your latest e-newsletter to the top of Google search results. We look at the newsletter as our lifeline and lifeblood. People tell us weekly it s the one thing they save to read through to the end. It s our best marketing tool. John Nugent Editorial Emergency As a small copywriting start-up, Editorial Emergency needed to define itself, show off its talents and attract customers who appreciated its unique and sophisticated perspective. The company decided an newsletter was the way to go. 4

7 ... and that s just the beginning of the story! Pro Members get all the juicy details. We hope you enjoyed this excerpt. The full report produced for our Pro Members includes 11 case studies about companies using using marketing in a variety of unique ways. MarketingProfs produces new Pro resources like this report on a monthly basis. Our website is a rich and trusted resource used by an online community of more than 350,000 marketers from organizations of all shapes and sizes. Our article library, online seminars, conferences, discussion forum and special reports deliver the tactics and templates you need to quickly tackle the toughest marketing challenges. Need help implementing a component of your marketing program? Don t struggle through on your own. Join MarketingProfs today we ll help you market the smart (and easy) way. Join the MarketingProfs community today! (866) support@marketingprofs.com

8 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christian Gulliksen is a former editor for Robb Report magazine and has contributed to such publications as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. He writes several editions of the Get to the Po!nt newsletter for MarketingProfs.com. ABOUT MARKETINGPROFS MarketingProfs is a rich and trusted resource that offers actionable know-how on marketing applications of Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media tools along with coverage of more traditional marketing topics like lead generation and marketing. The MarketingProfs team is committed to helping you market products and services smarter. Entrepreneurs, small-business owners and marketers in the world s largest corporations make up our more than 320,000 members. Our library of online seminars, conferences, discussion forum, special reports and more than 3,000 articles delivers the tools, templates, and tactics you need to quickly turn even the toughest marketing challenge into your own marketing success story. 24