Letters to the Editor
(Re: Loose Cannon: Will DM Play on Main Street? DIRECT Newsline, Sept. 23)
Good comments. One aspect of the equation is missing. Finding a sales force willing to do this and make a living. The idea is good, but the execution, as described in your article, won’t work.
Check out our web site (http://www.group3marketing.com) and under TheClub@ you’ll find a way we have attacked the professional salon industry.
Bart Foreman
Group 3 Marketing
Wayzata, MN
(Re: Loose Cannon: Will DM Play on Main Street? DIRECT Newsline, Sept. 23)
Great questions on the article. Traditional DM is usually too expensive and unwieldy for most Main Street type businesses. The opportunity for these folks is in e-mail marketing. Our company has many of these companies who are using e-mail very successfully as a DM tool.
We also have a lot of folks like the vendor you mentioned who have licensed our software and are offering the service described with e-mail marketing as opposed to print & mail. The economics and the value proposition are a lot more compelling for everyone involved.
Your dry-cleaner is a great example. Dry cleaners have perhaps the greatest CRM system in business. (Pizza and flower shops too.) You give them your information willingly. Your behavior is very predictable: i.e. you follow a pattern. They even know what day you are going to come in again.
The problem with the cleaner, or the florist, or the pizza shop, antique store, coffee shop, independent bookstore…etc. They have historically had no way to leverage that data into a meaningful communication. You might spend $100 dollars a week with that dry cleaner, another customer might spend $20 per year. How does that cleaner build a better relationship with you? How can he differentiate his treatment of you, give you an outlet to complain when there is a problem or reward you for your specific loyalty?
E-mail is the great equalizer. With e-mail that cleaner can market to you like he is Amazon.com. Additionally, the small business has the added advantage of an already established relationship. You will give him permission to sign you up for his e-mail program because you want the coupons, or information, or just because you like supporting local business.
It works.
Chris Baggott
ExactTarget
Indianapolis, IN
