Come One, Come All

March is Memories Month at Garden Fresh restaurants.

The chain has informed 500,000 customers through e-mail that a classic creamy tomato soup is being paired with a twist on a homey grilled cheese sandwich.

If their mouths weren’t watering by the time they finished reading the piece, a coupon added an extra incentive to stop by for a cup or a bowl.

“It’s just a reminder for them to say, ‘Hey, we’re serving these great menu items in the restaurant that you love, so come on in,’” says Jill Trecker, manager of guest loyalty for Garden Fresh.

In short, Garden Fresh has learned what many promotion marketers now know: that e-mail is an effective communications tool.

It can be used to deliver a wide variety of content and sales incentives to a mass audience or to very specific groups of people. It has low development and transmission costs. And it’s easy to measure.

The first task though, is to build a database of people who are truly interested in hearing from you. And that requires as much creativity as any other kind of promotional activity.

Take Roto-Rooter. It tricked out a high-end toilet with a flat screen TV, gaming system, DVD player and other electronic gadgets. Oh, and an iPod docking station equipped with a toilet paper dispenser. The seat is covered in lime green fuzz and a megaphone is nearby should the user need to call for a cold beer.

The company offers the luxury lavatory, valued at $5,000, as the grand prize in a sweeps its calls “Pimped Out John.”

The goal of the campaign? To drive a younger generation — particularly young homeowners and those who plan to buy within the next year — to its Web site. Once there, the company hopes visitors will sign up to receive its e-mail newsletter, The Pipeline.

“Our customer base has been aging and this is our effort to reach a younger generation of consumers who aren’t aware of our jingle the way their parents and grandparents are,” says Steve Pollyea, vice president of marketing for Roto-Rooter.

One month into the campaign, more than 100,000 people had entered, with about 20% of the unique signups opting in for the newsletter.

“We feel this is fabulous,” Pollyea says.

Roto-Rooter had a $140,000 campaign budget that it used in a number of ways. For one, it notified its 200,000 e-mail subscribers via a special mailing. And videos were placed on YouTube.com to reach that potential young customer. They drew hundreds of hits. And because of the outrageous nature of the prize, a PR effort has paid off, generating interest from national news broadcasts, as well as from as far away as China. The sweeps ends April 2.

Garden Fresh took a more traditional route.

It created in-store materials that it set up in a designated area of its restaurants to sign up customers to its loyalty program, Club Veg. Members receive monthly e-mails. Managers run contests for employees to see who can get the most customers to join.

“We just want to get the dialog open,” Trecker says.

Another food chain, Subway, ran an integrated campaign last year called Fresh Resolutions that played off people’s New Year’s declarations to lose weight.

TV spots, online ads, in-store materials and PR efforts all tied to one goal: getting consumers to a dedicated Web site to sign up to receive e-mails from Subway.

Then there’s Coca-Cola. It built an e-mail file of more than 2 million at last count by launching a loyalty program, My Coke Rewards. Consumers register on MyCokeRewards.com then collect codes from bottle caps and packaging across the entire Coke portfolio to bank online and later redeem for rewards that range from magazine subscriptions to cruises for two.

“It’s brilliant,” Bill Nussey, CEO of e-mail marketing services company Silverpop, says of Coke’s program.

And rival Pepsi has discovered that Web-based promotions are its best model for generating e-mail addresses, as well as engaging customers, says spokesperson Michelle Naughton.

“You can’t beat the fact that you are interacting with the consumers you are trying to reach instantly,” she says.

Last month, one promotion at the site encouraged visitors to sign up to play Pepsi Fantasy Racing.

A good permission-based subscriber list is one foundation of ROI. Without it, you can lose customers.

“The best practice is to have an explicit opt-in,” says David Fish, CEO of IMN, a Waltham, MA-based e-communications company. “That’s the thing that actually ensures that you’re getting a well-qualified readership.”

Putting e-mail to work

Brand marketers use e-mail to convey a wide range of messages and offers.

Garden Fresh sends out communications monthly to its entire database: 500,000 subscribers who dine at some of its 100 restaurants. Like the March Memories promotion, it features a different theme each month. February was all about cherries. Often, a coupon is included.

The average redemption is 11%. A “buy one, get one free” type offer, can have a redemption rate as high as 40%, Trecker says.

It also contacts loyalty members based on their relation to specific restaurants based on happenings in the area.

An e-mail last month went to 5,200 members living near its Sweet Tomatoes restaurant in Phoenix, AZ. It alerted members to a fine art and chocolate festival being held in the shopping center where the restaurant is located. The e-mail included a coupon for 15% off two adult meals.

Sending e-mails on a regular basis — typically a monthly to the full database — shows respect for customers’ time, Fish says.

“Marketers are making very effective use of regular recurring mailings as opposed to campaign centric mailings,” he says. “It can be personalized and establish the relationship. It respects the fact that people don’t want a flurry of six e-mails in the inbox in a single month.”

But how to get all that needs to be conveyed in less time?

One answer is to layer content and promotions, Fish says.

“You’ve gone through the hard work of opting in that person,” he says. “You want them to hang in there.”

This style of content features a three-step process. The initial presentation includes engaging and relevant editorial content along with product specific articles and a link for more information. The second layer offers detailed product information with a link (the third step) to a direct-response hard call to action, Fish says.

For example, an automotive dealer may talk up fun family road trips and the benefits of using a particular vehicle for the vacation with links to an offer for a test drive at a local dealer.

“In a single monthly newsletter you can accomplish a campaign by walking the person through the successive layers of content that represents progress toward a transaction,” Fish says.

Covering all bases

Procter & Gamble, about 18 months ago, made a major change in its e-mail marketing strategy. It shifted away from developing messaging based on individual products, a practice widely used by mega brands like P&G that manufacture hundreds of individual products. Instead, it now e-mails content on a wide range of products to augment overall brand development.

One e-mail last month featured information on Prilosec OTC, Fibersure, Crest Pro-Health, Aussie shampoo and many other products.

Several sweepstakes were promoted, including one with its Herbal Essences hair care line offering a $25,000 shopping spree in New York City.

Recipients could access coupons for Crest Whitestrips Premium Plus, ringtones from Pringles or could enter the Noxzema Beauty Bag Giveaway. Graphics supported each product and promotion.

The e-mail included several articles such as Five Steps to a Fabulous Outdoor Look and 10 Questions to Ask a Prospective Babysitter. Promotions for its P&G brandSaver coupon booklet were also included as were links to company information and investing.

“The e-mails are highly customized to promote P&G as an umbrella brand across all these brands that everyone already knows,” Silverpop’s Nussey says.

Kraft’s most comprehensive e-mail program is through its Kraft Kitchens customer relationship marketing efforts. Weekly mailings reach subscribers with recipes, food ideas and tips, covering a wide range of Kraft products, says spokesperson Lisa Gibbons.

“As we look at nontraditional ways of reaching consumers, e-mail can often be part of the marketing mix,” she says.

General Mills is on the cutting edge as well. It develops messaging in silos by brand.

For example, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker and Häagen-Dazs all have e-mail newsletters that cover content relative to a variety of brand components.

A holiday Häagen-Dazs e-mail introduced a new Bristo frozen espresso beverage. The mailing included a link to order Häagen-Dazs Cool Gift certificates, as well as a blurb about bringing back its limited edited Eggnog ice cream.

Oil of Olay uses e-mail to drive consumers to its Web site to order samples. Carnival Cruise markets “BIG” savings on certain trips to past guests.

And once Subway had in hand its growing list of e-mail addresses, it ramped up marketing.

Last spring, the company launched a dinner theater promotion with Jon Lovitz, a former star of Saturday Night Live. Two versions of a TV spot were sent to e-mail subscribers, who were asked to vote for their favorite. The winner aired nationally in April.

Then during the holidays, Subway rolled out its cash card and used e-mail to promote it.

Measuring Results

Another benefit of e-mail is its measurability.

Open and click-through rates offer a solid look at how the campaign is doing. Tests can be conducted in small doses so subject lines or content can be tweaked before a full-scale campaign mails.

Sophisticated marketers track messages to a completed sale, then add that information to the database to further improve targeting the next time around, Nussey says.

“The beauty of e-commerce based retailers is that they can take the behavior from the e-mail open and click rates and translate that into better targeting and increase the relevance the next time they communicate,” he says.

E-mail Pointers

1. Design the e-mail so that it retains its integrity, with or without images.
2. Highlight the most important news items to take advantage of preview panes.
3. Avoid form tags and other animated items.
4. Clearly state the privacy policy, and/or link to the longer version on the Web site.
5. Use deliverability tracking to forecast and test templates on a routine basis.
6. Survey or poll readers to help create content for future newsletters. Readers tend to stay more engaged if they can interact with your message.
7. Plan for the future of your e-newsletter program, not just for today.
8. Registration information is your key to future segmentation both online and off.
9. A relevant subject line will increase readership and encourages users to “spread the word”.
10. Get it right and subscribers will look for your e-mails.

Source: Jeanniey Mullen, Senior Partner, Senior Director, OgilvyOne Worldwide