Direct Marketing Intelligence:
“Dry cleaning is largely a convenience business; you patronize a store because it’s on your way to somewhere,” Devaney says. “I’m interested in making my customers feel more like they’re family. Just the fact that I’m always visible, sending them something each week — that helps make me their dry cleaner.”Like most small businessmen, Devaney says he found he never had enough time to devote to promoting his services properly. “I was running around like a headless chicken, fixing machines and talking to customers,” he says. “I always was sitting down to design my coupon ad campaigns at the last minute, and paying a lot of money to do so.” So in 2001 Devaney saw no reason not to take an e-mail service provider up on a free trial offer. He put sign-up sheets on his store counters and offered $5 in free dry cleaning to customers who submitted their e-mail addresses.
Four years later, Dorothy’s house list grows by 25 to 30 names a week, using the sign-up sheets and other acquisition efforts. Coupons Devaney runs in local “marriage packs” include a request that visitors come to Dorothy’s Web site and sign up for “free coupons in your [e-]mailbox.” And his weekly e-mails never fail to include an active “refer a friend” link.
via Linda Riley.
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