This is a something that I wanted to share to show the power of effective, targeted, and timely marketing. I thought it was the perfect example of customer targeting using the internet, that any business could model from and use in their customer marketing. Now, we all know or at least are aware of the power of email marketing. Check this out!
About two weeks ago, I was on my way home for Sydney and it was getting late. So I thought, by the time I get home, I am not going to want to cook dinner. So I decided to order take away Pizza. Now, not wanting to drive and try order pizza, I rang my wife who was staying with her sister for the night and asked her to hop online and please order me a pizza. Timing would also be great, because she could order it online and that way I would get the pizza around the time that I got home – perfect.
Now, I don’t normally get big brand pizzas, mainly because I prefer wood fired pizzas. But just to demonstrate a powerful system of email marketing. My wife placed the order with Dominos.com.au online. Perfect transaction, however one really smary thing that they did was ask for my email address, obviously not only to email out the receipt for my order but to be added to their database. Fair enough right – many businesses capture your email address.
But here is the cool part. Check out the exact email that I received around 4:30pm on Friday afternoon, literrally a week after I ordered my first online pizza. Now I obviously work in online marketing, so I get a kick out of seeing effective online / email marketing actually in use, but let us think about this?
This email came out at the exact time I may be finishing up for the day and possibly heading out of the office. I may be thinking to myself, … “ah, I don’t really feel like cooking dinner tonight! Might get a pizza.” And, hey, in pops this email from Dominos, giving me some special offers to entice me to order through them again. So, guess who is top of mind when it comes to making a purchasing decision. You guessed it. Perfect – well timed, targeted message, that proably goes out
Now, I know Dominos is not everyone’s best pizza – in fact, as I say, I am not a huge fan. But here is the thing. They are a traditional business, that has put in a place an awesome system to do the following:
a) Capture names and emails, plus possibly even more details on what type of pizzas I like based on order history
b) Set up an automated system for generating emails at a set a time, that will target me as a customer meeting my needs and hitting me at the exact time I would be thinking about making a buying decision.
Are you doing this in your business or on your website? You don’t have to have a big budget or even be technically minded. It just takes the setup of an existing system, some basic implementation from your web designer / developer, and you can have an automated system for growing your sales and revenues, but making sure your business or website is top of mind when your customer is about to make a buying decision.
I think it is awesome – and the leverage that you get from minimal investment is huge. Try it out and see what results you get. At worst, you should be building a database of customers and potential customers.
Looking for a solution for your business or website that will help you stand out in a crowded market place? Check out these two powerful email marketing systems that you can leverage almost immediately, to start see results in email marketing and automated systems on your website or in your business.
World Internet Office – Take a 30 Day Trial and see how this could literally automate many components of your current website.
Aweber – Customer Communications, autoresponders and so much more. The perfect tool for getting your website and business on the path to effective email marketing.
Until next time, Tim Thompson
