You are here: Home / Archives for admin

What’s it worth? How do you figure Return on Investment for Internet and Social Marketing?

February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

ROI-of Interactive and Social Marketing

If the thought of starting an Internet marketing campaign brings dollar signs to mind, then think again!  Internet marketing, when done correctly and effectively, is low cost and affordable!  Read on, to see how you can have a reaching, engaging relationship with your customers, for less than the cost of a stamp (and none of the printing costs either!)

The most common question that comes from our clients are: “Is the Internet working for me?”, and “How do I know?”

Well, I think we have figured it out.  Internet, or interactive marketing is a direct marketing medium that only works if we directly engage our customers.  If we ask them to do something, do they do it?  What else do they do?

Each time your customers directly respond to any of your Internet-related promotions, website or social media pages, this counts as one customer engagement.  These actions by your customers are indications that they are interested in your business, and would like to do business with you.  But do you know how much these promotions, “likes” and visits actually cost you, per customer?

To calculate the cost per customer engagement, here’s what you do first:

  • Look up your monthly web traffic statistics (if you are not sure how to do that, send me an email)
    • An average FootSteps customer engages 750 customer visits per month
  • If you do participate in email promotions, look at your email results to see how many customers open your emails
    • An average FootSteps customer sends one email per month to approximately 3,000 customers, and has a 20% open rate, which means the email was opened 600 times.
  • Go to your Facebook page and check to see how many customers “engaged” in your site page.
    • An average FootSteps customer with a Facebook page engages approximately 100 customers per month.

Armed with this information, we can now determine the cost per customer engagement:

  • 750 web visits + 600 opens via email + 100 Facebook engagements = 1,450 monthly engagements by customers of your Internet based marketing promotions
  • Monthly cost of FootSteps Marketing services = $395
  • Cost per customer engagement = 395/1450 = $0.27

Some of our more aggressive customers have a cost per customer engagement as low as 4 cents!  Is a direct interaction with a customer who has sought you out, and is interested in doing business with you, worth between 4 and 27 cents?

Contact either Chris Bouchard, Director of Sales and Marketing, or Patrick Curry to have us review your cost per customer engagement, or to get you started generating more business!

Filed Under: Best Practices Case Studies, Industry Trends, Uncategorized

FootSteps Best Practices: The most successful email campaign ever!*

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The case study that was just posted to this website demonstrates the power of effective email marketing!  Colorado-based Alpine Ace (Aspen, Carbondale, Clifton and Redlands) launched an interactive “The 12 Days of Christmas” email campaign mid-December to their email subscribers at all 4 stores.  As you will see from the case study:  it worked!

Basically, Alpine entered the very busy seasonal marketing frenzy and managed to break through the clutter to get their message read and acted upon.  How?  Great deals, variety of products and discounts, and they got the tone and timing of their message just right.  They sent out 2 emails over 8 days and had an incredible open rate of over 30%.  That was matched with the customer looking at each of the coupons at a rate of over 10% each time.  The end product: 600 in-store redemptions. 

Follow this link to get all of the details of the Alpine 12 Days of Christmas Email Case Study.  These promotions take some planning and custom design.  If you are interested in creating one for your store, drop us a line and we can discuss the costs associated with them.  Contact chris@footstepsmarketing.com.

*In the history of FootSteps Marketing and Alpine Ace Hardware.

Filed Under: Best Practices Case Studies, Email Marketing, Winning Campaigns

Alpine Ace interactive email promotion results in 900 in-store redemptions!

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“The 12 Days of Christmas” email campaign sent by Alpine Ace Hardware of Aspen, Carbondale, Clifton and Redlands, CO was sent over 10,000 customers.  This was one of the most successful promotions in the history of their stores.  Take a look at the details below – you are not going to believe them!

Title of Promotion: 12 Days of Christmas
Promotion: 12 days of special deals exclusive to email subscribers
Type of Promotion: Click and print coupon/email marketing
Dates/Duration of Promotion: December 13-24, 2011 (12 days)

Alpine Ace Hardware of Colorado, located in Aspen, Carbondale, Clifton and Redlands, recently enjoyed great success with their Christmas-themed email campaign, “12 Days of Christmas” sent to their email subscribers at all four stores.
The premise of the email campaign was that one email was sent with directions to the customer to bookmark a webpage that would be updated on a daily basis during the campaign, with a new daily deal. This advent calendar of sorts, revealed a new offer each day of the campaign, and this daily offer was valid until the end of the promotion.  Therefore, deals that were offered earlier in the campaign had more opportunity for redemption.
The type of deals that Alpine Ace had available for their customers ranged from a discounted gift certificate, sale on Christmas items, to a cutlery pack, and had varying degrees of appeal.
From our email and website tracking, we can see that for all four stores:
  • this email was sent to 10,300 customers
  • the email was opened by 2,230 customers (22%)
  • the call-to-action page, “print coupon” was viewed  4,800 times
  • which resulted 2,675 visits to their websites
  • and the average number of pages per visit was 4 pages
  • and, less than 5 customers per email (one to each of the four stores) unsubscribed.

From Alpine Ace Hardware, we can see that the most popular items were:

  • Day 5: 50% off any one regular priced item under $30 – 586 coupons redeemed
  • Day 1: $100 gift certificate for $50/$50 gift certificate for $25 – 188 coupons redeemed
  • Day 2: Tool Sale – 75 coupons redeemed
  • Day 12: 75% off all Christmas Items – 28 coupons redeemed
  • Day 10: 10% off entire store and double reward points – 15 coupons redeemed

The least popular of the 12 days sale items were:

  • Day 9: Chicago Cutlery 3 Pack for $9.99 ($6 discount) – 1 coupon redeemed
  • Day 6: Grill Sale ($25 off any grill under $200, $50 off any between $200 and $400, $100 off any above $400) – 1 coupon redeemed

In all, 926 coupons were redeemed in the 12 day sale period.

What a fun and successful promotion for both Alpine Ace and the four stores involved.  Hopefully their customers managed to snag some last minute gifts for others, as well as themselves.

Filed Under: Best Practices Case Studies

What’s the buzz: Social Commerce – Flash Deals for Retailers!

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Can Flash Deals work for Independent Retailers?

The following post is about online selling of Keurig Coffee Makers, and that Flash Deals do work and are here to stay! 

Alpine Ace Hardware, with stores in Aspen, Carbondale, Clifton and Redlands, Colorado recently demonstrated that there is a new way for retailers to put their foot into direct selling on their websites.  The concept is called a flash deal and is a part of the growing concept called social commerce.

An example: Alpine Ace rolled out the sale of 5 coffee makers each for two of their stores, and sold all 10 in two hours! 

The offer was extremely aggressive but it did demonstrate that social commerce and flash deals do work, that they get the customers attention and they get customers into the store!  You can check out Alpine’s current deal that is being offered through a local marketing website, www.CommunityFootsteps.com.

Social commerce is selling products and/or services online, in a limited quantity or limited time basis, with aggressive pricing or discounts.  The items need to be promoted via all interactive marketing channels, email, web posting and especially, Facebook and Twitter.  The customer purchases the deal online through the social commerce site (e.g. Community Footsteps) and prints out a voucher, then comes to the store to redeem the voucher and hopefully, buys more products or services!

It’s kind of like owning your own Groupon service and keeping the margins!

You will be hearing more about this on a regular basis as I feel it is the most important new best practice for 2012!  If you are interested in talking about this, drop me a line at pat@footstepsmarketing.com.

Filed Under: Best Practices Case Studies, Industry News, Industry Trends

$60 Keurig Elite Single Cup Coffee and Tea Brewer – 49% Discount!

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Teaming with Community Footsteps, Aspen Ace Hardware, Aspen, CO has entered the social commerce market with a flash deal.  Helping to launch Community Footsteps this week, Aspen Ace and Carbondale Ace offered a limited number of Keurig Elite Single Cup Brewers for $60, a 49% discount.  This offer was published on the Community Footsteps website and also sent out in an email to Aspen and Carbondale’s email subscribers.  And not surprisingly, Alpine Ace sold out of all the Keurigs on offer in less than 8 hours!

This is a great deal, not only for generating sales, but a local non-profit also receives 8% of total purchase price.

Social commerce is a great way to generate new, and retain existing customers.

Filed Under: Community Footsteps, Email Marketing

Stewart Hardware’s new website connects North Carolina resort community

January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Stewart Hardware, Southport, NC – part of the Do it Best chain of hardware stores, has just launched their new, customized website.  Hoping to connect with their rural, resort community, this new website features special deals and promotes Stewart’s relationship with Stihl Power Equipment.  Stewart’s will also be engaging their customer base with email marketing campaigns, to be sure that their hardware business is top-of-mind to local contractors and homeowners.

Stewart Hardware also has a great service for customers that may not get to the store very often – the free Ship-to-Store service, where items can be special ordered online, for collection at the store.

 

Filed Under: Web Projects

$5 Off Your Next Purchase of $30 or more | 25% Off Schulte Closet Systems

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ace Barnes Hardware, Ann Arbor, MI is offering their email subscribers an exclusive “$5 off your next purchase of $30 or more” coupon, through January 16, 2011 – a fabulous incentive for increasing a store’s email database.

Also, Barnes has a great sale on all Schulte Closets Systems, with free closet design service, through January 30, 2011, in addition to other storage solutions on sale.

This email was sent to over 6,000 Barnes customers, with over 1,800 customers opening the email, and almost 600 customers clicking into the coupon link.  Of these 600 customers, about 500 took the step to print the coupon.

Also, web traffic to Barnes’ site increased from 61 visits on January 8 to 392 visits on January 9 – the day the email was sent.  Of the 392 visits, almost 70% were new visitors to the website, 30% being customers who had previously visited the website.  Visits to the website in the two days following the email were higher than average, with again, 70% being new visitors to the website.

Email marketing is an effective way to not only drive more footsteps into your store, but also to generate more web visits and interest in the store.

Filed Under: Email Marketing

Start The New Year More Organized with McLendons Hardware

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

From December 27, 2011 to January 8, 2012, start your new year off more organized with storage solutions from McLendon Hardware, Seattle, WA.  With great deals on all storage ideas from shelving, totes, racks and garbage bags, this sale is a great way to ensure success with one of your New Year’s Resolutions!

Filed Under: Email Marketing

Social Commerce : Social Good

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Footsteps Marketing will be launching the CommunityFootsteps.com next week on January 12th.  This community marketplace will be one of the first of its kind in the independent retailer community.  The goal of the marketplace is to link local businesses, restaurants and the retailers into one market area.  The market will encourage “Buy Local!”  In addition to the value to the customer and the increased market awareness of the business, up to 14% of the sales generated will be sent along to local non-profits.  Each month a local non-profit will be the primary beneficiary of the sales and will receive 8% of all sales. The month of January will be hosted by Lift-UP, a Roaring Fork Valley service organization providing humanitarian assistance to household in need.

Community Footsteps will also partner with all region Chambers of Commerce, community radio station,  KDNK to promote the site and all of the participating business.

This is just the beginning of moving our clients into the social commerce, “flash deals” arena.  We hope to utilize the system to help retailers use all Social Media channels to increase sales, increase “top of mind” awareness and bring both new and loyal customers into their businesses.  It is very exciting, and rewarding, to get an entire community behind an idea.  Stay tuned….

Patrick Curry

January 5th, 2012

 

Filed Under: Community Footsteps

Our Gift To You – $15 Off Your Next Purchase of $50 or more

December 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In an exclusive email to their subscribed customers, Rome Ace Hardware, Rome, NY wished happy holidays with a “$15 off your next purchase of $50 or more” click and print coupon.  Good until December 24, 2011, this was an excellent incentive for last-minute shoppers and a great way to encourage customers to sign up with their Ace Hardware stores, in order to gain access to exclusive savings and deals.

Filed Under: Email Marketing