The Video Wizard

I have been in Melbourne for the last few days and am sitting at the airport now, waiting to get on my plane back to Perth.

What can you learn from this store about email marketing?

I went to Borders yesterday and bought a book and as I checked out the girl at the counter asked me if I wanted to get offers from them on email for discounts for books etc.

I said yes and then asked her what would happen from here – would I get an email to confirm my subscription or am I simply added to their list? I then asked her what kind of response she gets from people when she asks that question. I also asked how many email addresses does she collect per day and we had a brief chat about it.

I know you’re wondering what she said, so I won’t keep you waiting any longer.

I was subscribed without a double opt-in, she said around 50% of people give their address freely and the number of subscriptions varies because she is not on the counter all day every day.

What is good about this?

Well, of course the obvious thing is that if you are in retail you should ask people for their email address. 50% is quite a high conversion rate and no matter how good your website is, a sales page even with the best copy, video and layout will be working extra hard to beat that.

What is bad about this?

They missed an opportunity to send me a welcome email immediately to send a personal message about my subscription and introduce me to other ways I could connect with them via social media. And of course – could you imagine how powerful it would be to get a video message from the CEO of Borders Australia? (had to mention video!)

I’ve got a lot more to add to this, but I have to run now and catch my flight.

If you’re in retail, do you ask people for their email address at the point of purchase?

This post is about email marketing,