Marketing Profs

Email can be a great call to action for multichannel customers, particularly in retail but also in B2B marketing.

We all know that email can play a powerful role in turning Web researchers and site browsers into buyers. In fact, more and more of our retailer clients are building a specific segment of in-store buyers—and getting results that blow away store managers.

Lessons learned in these B2C experiences can also be applied to B2B, especially with the advance of more strategic account management approaches that cross business and geographic boundaries.

First lesson: turning your email program into a multichannel messaging program adds new complexity for tracking and measuring subscriber behavior. Be sure to involve both IT and store management in a cross-department effort.

And, the key in retail is that everyone, in every department, has to have a shared goal, or it will never work. Store managers, email program managers and ecommerce have to work together to server customers.

Frankly, ignoring the customer experience in all this makes the whole effort pointless anyway. From a subscriber standpoint, the email and the Web site and the store are all the same brand. Same is true for B2B—no one wants more than one sales rep or account manager just to accommodate internal divisional lines.

Be sure that your promotion, merchandizing, and product up-selling reflect a cohesion and symmetry that makes sense to customers—regardless of your internal structure.

Consider these ideas when trying to strike the right balance between your sales goals and your marketing message:

Be specific. Send product-specific email offers to Web site visitors who have requested product information or added items to the shopping cart. Track clicks from your emails and trigger offer-specific messaging to make future emails more relevant. Create a distinct look and feel for in-store messages and help store buyers feel special.

Make it easy for email subscribers to find your stores. Don't assume that subscribers will dig around your Web site for the store locator. Make sure they know you are there to serve them.