Carbondale Ace-  Subject: Get In. Get Help. Get Saving.

Carbondale Ace’s regional advertising team (RMAS)  had created a bag stuffer as a guerilla marketing tactic (meaning they wanted to get these coupons out to the customers inexpensively) There were 4 coupons- one for the customer and one to give to a friend. There were 2 offers, 20% off one weekend and then $5 off $20 or $15 off $30. There were 2 of each coupon- one for the customer and one for a friend. The email was simple: the front of the bag stuffer and the coupons into the email and it was a home run. Click here to view the email.

Delta Ace Hardware’s -Benjamin Moore Paint Sale.

Delta did some very clever things with this campaign. They lowered the price of  their premium Benjamin Moore paint and the customer opens the email sees the price and  and thinks “That guest bedroom could use a makeover, what color would I do?” Second, they were moving this paint to make room for Benjamin Moore’s new line of paint, getting rid of some dead inventory and putting a little money in the bank! Brilliant!  Also, this might transform a customer who’s never tried Ben Moore paint into a  loyal customer. Click here to see Delta’s Ben Moore email.

Barnes Ace Hardware- 25% off Schulte Closet Systems

Barnes used this campaign to target  people in the New Year with their many of resolutions. One of the most common ones being “get organized”. They lowered the price of their beautiful closet systems at the perfect time!  Way to go Barnes Ace! Click here to see Barnes’ email.

Winning Email Campaign: Sold over 200 products!

We are now in the process of turning this blog into a valuable resource for our clients and the independent retailer.  Footsteps is now working with over 80 store owners nationwide and beginning to gather some of the industry most useful library of email promotions, web content promotions and search marketing approaches.

Traffic on the Footsteps clients sites this Holiday season saw and overall increase of 300% over previous year.  75 individual email promotions were sent to over 375,000 customers.  Across all promotions the Footsteps customers opened emails at an average rate of 23%, with the highest topping 35%!  Customers taking action on the coupons, offers and event invites also increased to an all time high of 6.5%.  These numbers are extraordinary and indicate a number of things:

• Ace Hardware customer like getting emails from their local stores
• Customers will open and look at Ace emails even when the mailbox is overflowing with consumer emails.
• Customers WILL take action if the promotions are engaging, fun and of value!

Here is an example of one of the winning campaigns (click here to see full size email promotion):

This article discussed what retailers have learned in 2010 and what new ideas they have for 2011. Retailers from all over the country shared what worked for them or what they might change for 2011.

Kevin Capps said “We discovered the power of web and e-mail captures. Our use of these formats led to a record Ladies’ Night Out for us with more than 1,500 ladies in attendance.

FootSteps Marketing is thrilled to see that Cinco Ace’s website and email campaign is working so well for them.

Did anyone else have a record breaking event that you promoted with the web and email?

Here’s a link to the article:  http://www.nrha.org/v2/Hardware_Retailing/Article.aspx?slug=lessons-our-retailers-learned-in-2010

The best part of the campaign was asking each customer to come back to the site on a daily basis to find a new offer.  That interactive resulted in over 1000 customers “bookmarking” the store site.

Take a look at the outbound email campaign:  The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Footsteps will be implementing campaigns like these on a seasonal basis on behalf of their 40 retailer customers.

Patty, working with Footsteps will begin to gather customer email addresses both by way of the site and other promotions. Using the store customer email list she will begin to communicate directly to her customers in the region.

Fosters launches new web site with Footsteps Marketing

• Direct contact to Ace customers households
• Opportunity to design your own Product Space on the Website
• Opportunity to provide customized coupon and rebate programs directly on the Web site
• Select regional promotions, targeting seasonality to specific markets
• Marketing analysis, return on investment calculations, success benchmarks

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 Rule. If it’s true that 80% of sales come from 20% of customers, then the most important thing any business can do is to keep those VIP clients engaged. There simply is no better customer relationship management tool than a consistent opt-in email program to deliver timely, relevant messages at the right time to the right audience.

Please provide us your feedback, comments, suggestions and, of course, we love your appreciation!

Thank you!

The Staff at FootSteps Marketing