Much to my delight, the email explained that Urban Outfitters was promoting an exclusive partnership with The Impossible Project, a group dedicated to preserving the legacy of Polaroid film. Best of all, the email explained that the two entities’ interests would culminate in a series of limited in-store sales of the last remaining Polaroid cameras and film, rescued from the last Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. What a coup! Best of all, I learned that the somewhat secret sale was taking place the following day, just across the Charles River in nearby Cambridge.

And thus my fate had been decided: I would use the information gleaned from this informative in-store promotion email, venture towards Harvard Square during my lunch break, and return only after acquiring my very own special edition Polaroid camera and film.

But why describe a memorable experience in simple words when a set of photos could explain it even better? Let’s see how it all went down!

Approaching Harvard Square from JFK Street. Who knew Harvard had a proprietary mail carrier service? Their logo looks suspiciously like the old CheetahMail logo. I wonder if they do email too…hmmm….

What could possibly motivate someone to leave an air-conditioned room for the sweltering streets of Harvard Square on the most disgustingly humid day of the year? In-store promotional email, of course!

Aha! The store has been easily located thanks to the original email, which clearly listed the store locations, hours of sale, and exact addresses.

Getting closer…I can feel it. (If this event had taken place during the popular 1980′s computer game “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” at this point a man in a trenchcoat would have appeared, announced himself to be a V.I.L.E. Henchman, and told me that I was on the right track)

Jackpot! After a bit of searching, I discovered a stack of untouched Polaroid boxes behind the checkout in the home furnishings section. Amazingly, most of the customers ahead of me in line were families stocking up on dorm room decorations – not über-geeks like me searching for obscure film technology. Then, just before I got to the front of the line, a man two spots ahead of me bought ten packs of film right on the spot with a big grin on his face. Ten! I guess the secret is out! A few other photo enthusiasts in line were also clearly waiting to get their hands on one of their own, indicating to me that this experiment had clearly gone viral.

Home sweet home and mission accomplished! I now have my very own limited edition Polaroid camera. Long live analog technology! (And the digital technology that tells us where and when to buy it!)

Part III – Segment by acquisition channel

One of the most effective yet often overlooked methods is segmentation by acquisition channel. From my experience working with clients across various industries, I have found that customers acquired through different channels tend to have different behavioral characteristics. Here are some thoughts to consider:

• Email subscribers acquired through co-registration pages will usually respond or convert differently than organically acquired email subscribers.
• Subscribers who have been acquired in-store have already indicated that they are at least somewhat likely to purchase both at a local POS and online. Take the ZIP of the store into account and be sure to coordinate your multi-channel marketing efforts to maximize customer value.
• New email registrations acquired via mail-in forms and call centers may indicate that the customer is looking to shift from print to online shopping. You may consider a “go paperless” email offer to these customers that builds a positive, eco-friendly reputation for your brand – not to mention saving you print costs along the way.

With any segmentation program it is important to take a step back and realize that there is a real person on the other end of each email address. Every time you create an email, ask yourself whether your email content is addressing the specific needs of your audience. Email segmentation is not a one-size-fits-all discipline, but with a little tweaking here and there, you can find the right method for targeting your customer base.

Consider the process of checking your email inbox first thing in the morning – you scroll right by email after email, neglecting the very messages that you’ve specifically requested from your favorite businesses.

But is it really neglect? To the marketer focused solely on open rates and clickthroughs, sure it is. No clicks, no love, right? Think again. There’s a lot to be said for those emails – some opened, many not, a few previewed and then passed by – that sit stoically in our inboxes, relatively untouched. After all, these messages are accomplishing the one fundamental task that every marketer requires from their communications: reminding the customer that they’re there.

And therein lies an unsung power of email: the potential to supercharge the rest of your marketing channels through a simple reminder that stares customers in the face.

Take me, for example. I am a loyal customer of Saks Fifth Avenue with a history of purchases both in-store and online. I am happy to be a Saks email subscriber, and I receive their emails frequently. Do I open them all the time? Not really. Shocking, I know, but there’s a reason for that!

First of all, their emails look great in the preview pane – I don’t even need to open the message to get the gist of it. Secondly, like many other retail shoppers, I prefer to visit my local Saks retail location in-person to check the merchandise out before I decide to buy something.

For customers like me, that email from Saks first and foremost functions as a “reminder vehicle,” not as a direct sales channel.

So, while my value to Saks definitely increases with the number of emails I get, my direct performance in the email channel would probably be characterized as relatively poor. Nevertheless, the biggest mistake Saks’ email marketing team could make is to stop sending me emails (which they’ve proven to be smart enough not to). By measuring email campaign data in the context of the entire marketing mix, multi-channel marketers like Saks often learn that many of those “neglected” emails are anything but.

It’s this level of understanding of the cross-channel effects of email that often separates the savvy multichannel marketer from those who have yet to make the leap. But let’s face it, it’s difficult for any marketer to get their head around exactly how to understand, much less measure, how the channel on the left might affect the one on the right and vice-versa.

This challenge is obviously nothing new to email marketers, yet remains as daunting as ever. To that end, I’ll be contributing my ideas to an upcoming DMA webinar exploring strategies around the effects of email (and other digital media) on one’s entire marketing strategy. I welcome you to join the conversation with me both on the webinar and here on the blog.

To tune in to Tamara’s webinar with the DMA Catalog & Multichannel Marketing Council, you can follow the link below. We look forward to seeing and interacting with you online!

“Integrating Digital Media Into Your Customer Marketing Strategies”
March 18, 2009 – 1pm-2pm EST

http://www.the-dma.org/councilevents/cctexpmar09/

As marketers, we all know the importance of segmenting our customers based on their key demographics, behaviors, attitudes, and affinities. But exactly who are these anonymous people we bucket into groups of hundreds, thousands, or even millions?

To help shed some light on what your customers look like and how they act, we proudly present “Know Your Personas,” a regular feature highlighting key customer groups to consider in your marketing strategy. This data appears courtesy of our friends at Experian Consumer Research, the home of Simmons.

The Multi-Channel Shopper is defined as ‘someone who shops and buys in more than one retail channel – online, catalogs, in-store, mail, phone.’ For this episode of Know Your Personas, we’re exploring what makes up today’s multi-channel shopper – specifically who these important consumers are, where they shop, and their attitudes about shopping to help you reach them more effectively.

Simmons research indicates the Multi-Channel Shopper is likely to be an adult who is:

• 69% Female
• 36% Age 35-49
• 44% College Educated
• 70% Employed Full/Part Time
• 70% Married
• 59% Parent/Guardian
• 42% Have Household Incomes $100k+ 

In addition, Multi-Channel Shoppers tend to use the internet to do research before they go shopping in a store. They prefer stores that have knowledgeable employees too. Once they are in a store, they prefer to spend a long time browsing and reading labels, rather than just getting what they need and leaving. It is likely because of this lengthy process that they are less likely to want to shop with their significant other! Multi-Channel Shoppers visit a variety of stores and drive up to an hour to shop at factory stores. (Click on the graph below to enlarge)