Case Study: Email Is Social Media

Integrate email and social media?  Nonsense.  Email is social media.  And once you realize this — and focus on traditional direct response tactics — you’ll be glad you didn’t pay the consultants for their social media blather.  You’ll be too busy counting sales.

Last week I discussed the concept of using ‘ethical bribes’ to acquire new customers via social media — all while suggesting that all digital media is social.  And that includes email.  Integration of the two is actually just folly because the two are in fact one.  I’m back with the case study on Dormeo, a home goods brand focused on sleep products and mattresses.

We left off with Rok Hrastnik being tired.  The International Web Director for Direct TV Goliath, Studio Moderna was exhausted — done watching his home goods-focused Web sales just puttering along.  His boss tasked him with generating incremental sales — not just leeching sales generated by all the TV ads the company was running.  To top it off, he was suffering through poor readership and sales from his email newsletters.  So Hrastnik got bold and decided to take a risk.

He became a full-fledged, content-focused email publisher to the masses.

Some in his office called him crazy — courting people who he knew would not be customers in near-term.  But his bet paid off.  Sure enough, his readers began to buy his mattresses, bedding and sleep-related home goods when he mixed direct calls-to-action into his content marketing fold.

The system revealed: email publishing

Hrastnik realized that he had two choices when building an email list that would generate sales.  It’s the same choice you probably have.  Either buy a targeted list of leads or an un-qualified list of prospects (people who have no interest in your product line).

Lists of qualified buyers cost more.  Unqualified cost much less.   So Hrastnik decided to buy unqualified leads based on the following hunch.

He could successfully use content to:

1. Establish meaningful relationships with men and women who, eventually, would buy.
2. Grow relationships exponentially by giving readers incentives to recruit others.
3. Offer unqualified customers an honest, durable value exchange (quality content that they actually wanted for their eventual purchase consideration).
4. Net sales — be there with a compelling call to action when time was right.
5. Prove a profit,  spend less on producing and distributing content than he’s netting in gross sales. In other words, preserve margin and hold the line on “cost per order” (CPO).

And that’s precisely what Hrastnik did.

First, Hrastnik acquired email addresses and mailed them a legitimate overseas vacation sweepstakes offer.  This built his opt-in list.  As part of this promotion subscribers agreed to receive newsletters.  Information on what they really, truly want and can use to improve their lives — immediately.

Segmented by gender, these included very topical content focused on successful courtship, beauty tips, weight loss tips, celebrity gossip that resonated with women. Men received well-written, boldly designed newsletters on grooming tips, gadget articles, automotive and sports content – the kind of stuff that men typically consume, and not only consume but appreciate and share.  And just to spur things on a bit Hrastnik kicked it up a notch.  He allowed the subscribers / sweeps participants to increase the chance of winning by making referrals.  If you referred friends your chances of winning a prize increased.

Here’s the rub:  most contest-applicants stayed on.  They liked the newsletters and agreed to receive occasional promotional messages from Hrastnik’s company.   Of course, they demonstrated a clear level of tolerance — unsubscribing like mad when receiving calls-to-action/promos more frequently than three times per month.

Oh, and sales increased…

Sales increased.  You remember sales right?  Sales that were directly attributed to this campaign began to roll in within a few months time.  A few days?  No.  A few weeks?  No.  But Hrastnik was patient.  He made serious investments in hiring writers, graphic designers, etc. to create his e-mail and Web publishing empire.  He made a wager.

Important to repeat:  the closest his content came to talking about bedding and mattresses (Hrastnik’s product) was with articles on dream interpretation… which were a big hit by the way.

What’s the secret sauce?  It’s direct response.  Database marketing.  But in a challenging, multichannel environment. For Hrastnik it was sink or swim.  And he did a few laps.

You already have the answers…

Like Hrastnik, you probably already have the answers.  No, not what you read on blogs from social media gurus.  I’m referring to what has always, traditionally worked for your company.  Was the story that I just presented cool?  Sure.  But was it from another planet?  Was Hrastnik’s idea completely foreign?  No, it was a sweepstakes used as bait to create a list that he mailed to.

Hmm… maybe that’s why he knew it would work.  Because it always has in the past.  It’s called direct response marketing and just needs to be applied on the Web.

I find it really interesting that a “long-form content” focused company (a direct TV seller) is essentially transferring its best practice to the Web.  But in a different way.  Long form, selling-based video — their specialty — doesn’t translate to the Web in practical ways.  Attention spans are too short.  Hrastnik played to that characteristic by creating short, valuable bits of relevant, useful content.  Then super-charged it with sweeps and calls to action.

Hrastnik and his crew are mastering the Web like no other direct TV company I’ve found here States-side.

Never give up

Worth noting, Hrastnik innovated.  He was faced with a daunting task and didn’t give up.  He dove into uncharted waters.  He took a risk.  But he, of course, held full accountability for his actions… and his risk was a calculated one.  He was a true intra-preneur.

This is just one example that I’ve been researching and I hope to bring others to ReveNews’  readers soon.  And email is not the only means to execute content marketing strategies.  But it sure is an accessible, familiar, cost-effective device to start with.  Good luck!