Stores Magazine - December 2007 - (Page 62)

NUTS AND BOLTS / MARKETING Getting the Message Marketing server customizes e-mails and boosts delivery rates at Golfballs.com BY MICHAEL HARTNETT F rom its humble beginnings selling golf balls fished out of water hazards by divers, Golfballs.com has developed a broader, more upscale assortment of leading brand-name golf equipment and apparel. A key driver of the company’s growth is the creativity, efficiency and precision of its e-mail-based marketing programs. The company sends an average of 13.5 million e-mail messages each month. With a branded assortment, price points ranging from $5 to $1,000 and customized services (logoed balls, caps and shirts), Golfballs.com now presents its shoppers with manufacturers’ offers that are specific to each individual’s buying history and brand preferences. “A Titleist buyer gets specific Titleist offers,” says Steven Broussard, director of marketing and e-commerce for the Lafayette, La.-based company. “We try not to bombard our e-mail accounts 62 STORES / DECEMBER 2007 with offers that are not relevant.” Golfballs.com’s original, in-house system served the company well for many years, but “we realized we had issues,” Broussard says. “We were growing and we wanted to continue growing, but we had deliverability issues. We were doing everything in house, and we had trouble getting the messages out quickly and ef- “We try not to bombard our e-mail accounts with offers that are not relevant.” — Steven Broussard, Golfballs.com ficiently. We were missing revenue every time it didn’t work exactly like we wanted it to.” The company turned to StrongMail Systems, whose platform was able to “break out the ‘send’ part and integrate it with what we had,” he says. “That allowed us to move resources from the ‘send’ functions into other operations.” Dealing with the industry average (10 to 12 percent) of undeliverable outgoing e-mails was especially problematic for Golfballs.com because the company lacked the time and resources to determine why some messages weren’t arriving at their intended destinations. “Some of our messages were being blocked by ISPs, and we didn’t know why,” Broussard says. “But now, with StrongMail, we can deal with that problem. We can now watch every e-mail that goes out. We can watch who opens it, and whether it’s blocked, and we can try to fix those blocks quickly by getting on the phone with the ISP and correcting the problem.” Barriers between a merchant’s “send” function and a recipient’s inbox can run the gamut from spam filters and authentication codes to outdated e-mail lists. The centerpiece of StrongMail’s system is its e-mail marketing server, which WWW.STORES.ORG http://Golfballs.com http://Golfballs.com http://Golfballs.com http://Golfballs.com http://Golfballs.com http://Golfballs.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Stores Magazine - December 2007

STORES - December 2007 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Holiday Shopping Extravagance What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Niche Marketing Eight Predictions for 2008 Concept2Watch Merchandising Strategy Sourcing E-Commerce Supply Chain Warehouse Management Software Contactless Payments Marketing Marketing Online Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

Stores Magazine - December 2007

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