June 2009
Powell’s Books, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, is boosting online sales with a new email campaign that delivers book recommendations based on customer’s favorite topics.
Launched in February, Powell’s Subject Newsletter has already returned open rates of more than 70 percent by delivering subscribers monthly book recommendations in up to 10 subject areas based on their identified subject interests.
“The Subject Newsletters are proof positive that the more focused the content, the more likely customers are to interact,” said Sam Whitmore, Powell’s Books’ online marketing developer.
“In our first four emails, we saw open rates and click throughs higher than any of our other emails.”
The company, which began its email marketing efforts in 1999, offers book aficionados a suite of seven email newsletters ranging from a book review a day to a listing of its recently arrived used books. Collectively, Powell’s sends more than 27 million emails every year to its growing subscriber list that now tops more than 500,000 book readers.
The move to personalize the content of its emails comes as Powell’s expands the reach of its emails and online marketing efforts with social media. Through its email newsletters and Website, the company encourages customers and site visitors to follow the company in online social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, for the latest book news and promotional offers from the Portland-based retailer.
One of its most recent social media efforts was aimed at driving subscriptions for its Specials email newsletter. The company posted a note on its Facebook page offering an exclusive offer for fans who signed up for the newsletter. In return, new subscribers received a $5 off coupon for their next online purchase.
The result, Whitmore said, was a “huge success”, adding more than 400 new email subscribers over the six-day promotion. Since the promotion, Powell’s Books has grown its Facebook fan page from 12,000 fans to more than 22,700.
“Allowing subscribers to choose what messages they wish to receive and providing them a forum to interact through social media has allowed Powell’s Books to extend the reach of the email marketing efforts and build stronger relationships with their customers,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer.
“Using ExactTarget’s sophisticated one-to-one communications platform, our clients have the ability to connect with customers via email, text messaging, voice messaging, social media and online landing pages.”
The bookseller’s successful email and social media strategy comes less than a month after ExactTarget released a joint study with Ball State University and the Email Marketer’s Club that found marketers plan to increase their use of social media and email in tandem by nearly 350 percent. The entire study is available online at www.exacttarget.com/listgrowth.
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