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E-mail Marketing Steps Up Foot Traffic to Shoe Buffet By Dee Moustakas When Roy Weiner opened Shoe Buffet in 2001, (www.shoebuffet.com) he knew he had a winner a smorgasbord of women’s name-brand leather shoes priced at $21.99 a pair. The challenge was getting the word out. “We tried advertising in just about every medium radio, magazines, newspapers, direct mail,” says Mr. Weiner. “The downside was that half the people we reached men were not our target market. E-mail marketing, a relative newcomer at the time, was the ideal solution for Shoe Buffet. The main hurdle was lack of a database. “We did an e-mail blast to thousands of addresses to start building a customer list,” explains Mr. Weiner. “The results were less than stellar considering the cost. That’s when Myriam Cohen from Equilibrix called on me.” “My first suggestion was that Roy create a database by asking his customers to sign up to receive eflyers,” says Ms. Cohen. (Today, the Shoe Buffet database exceeds 10,000.) “I then explained how we would design ads based on his input and manage his database. I also emphasized the importance of an effective subject line and explained how we would help him develop ones that ensure recipients open their e-mails.” “In my opinion, e-mail marketing is the most cost-effective way to reach our customers,” continues Mr. Weiner. “In fact, other than the magazine Quoi Faire, it’s the only medium we use. We pay a flat monthly fee –– which averages less than 5 cents per contact –– and don’t have to worry about column inches, space costs or airtime. And the number of shoes we show is never an issue! Even if I weren’t on the e-mailing list, I would know when our eflyer hits, because we always experience a bump in sales.” Shoe Buffet customer, Barbara Riley, had this to say about the store’s e-mail advertising. “The ads serve a single purpose for me: They remind me Shoe Buffet is there. As it is, I drop in approximately every two weeks, usually on a Friday after work, but if I lose sight of them mentally for 4-6 weeks, an eflyer in my inbox reminds me I haven’t been there lately and that they may have something new.” While the primary benefit of e-mail marketing is reaching customers for pennies apiece, there are other advantages: contacting customers who ask to receive your eflyers assures a high “open” rate; forwarding your eflyer to friends and family is easy; and giving people the ability to unsubscribe puts them in control and saves you money if they opt out. |
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