SUBSCRIBERS RULE!

Attention Kmart Subscribers…

While I’m usually more of a Tarjay guy when it comes to big box shopping, I found myself dropping into my local Kmart this past week to pick up a few items and peruse their vast assortment of post-Halloween discount candies.  Normally, this experience wouldn’t be blog worthy; however, this visit was different.  THIS visit, upon reaching the cashier with my items, I was hit with the following wall of sound:

HelloandwelcometoKmartwouldyouliketoreceive$10incouponstodayallyou
havetodoissignuptoreceiveouremailupdatesmayIsignyouuprightnow?

Kmart's email opt-in C.T.A. at P.O.P., FYI.

Unable to decipher what I had just been asked (but clearly aware that it was a question), I stood dumbfounded for a moment until my eye caught the bright red sign next to me.  Ah-ha!  She was asking if I wanted to opt-in to their email program in exchange for $10 in coupons.

“No, thank you,” I replied, and the cashier immediately when to task two on her mental checklist — scanning my items for purchase.

Of course, a normal person would have gone on their merry way, forgetting all about this exchange.  Not me.  I’ve been mulling that transaction over and over again because it highlights one of the most critical components of any point-of-sale email acquisition program — YOUR PEOPLE.

You see, Kmart did most everything right here:

1. They posted a sign at check-out touting the benefits of email opt-in.
2. They included a strong incentive ($10 in coupons) for the opt-in.
3. They added the email opt-in call-to-action to the cashier’s checkout script.

Ultimately, what Kmart could not control was the delivery of that script.  Instead of a warm, engaging, “Wow, you really should sign up for this — it’s a great deal” conversation, I received a monotone, run-on question that left me struggling to understand what I was even being asked to do.  The net impression is that this question was clearly something that the cashier was required to ask but not something that she cared about or even remotely understood.

As previously discussed, had this been one of Gary Vaynerchuk’s employees, they would have likely found themselves on the unemployment line.  Each employee at Wine Library is trained not only on how to ask for the customer’s email address but also on WHY THAT EMAIL ADDRESS IS IMPORTANT TO THE COMPANY.  Forget to ask once or twice with the right enthusiasm, Gary may give you call — but that third time, you’ll be looking for a new gig.

Could Kmart do this?  Should they do this?  Feel free to share your thoughts.

One thing is for sure.  Kmart’s investment in point-of-sale signage and opt-in incentives indicates that they place at least a $10 value on each subscribers email address.  If my cashier generated fewer opt-ins because of her poor delivery, she could be costing the company hundreds of dollars each and every shift.

Yes, Kmart may have 1,500 stores while Wine Library has one.  That fact is exactly why it is even more imperative that Kmart and other big box retailers verify that their opt-in message is getting delivered effectively at point-of-sale — they stand to gain (or lose) far more due to the volume of their business.

Think of it this way, if Kmart would fire an employee for outright theft, shouldn’t they at least consider doing the same for an employee who consistently underperforms his or her peers at capturing opt-ins?

I’m just sayin’.

Gary Vaynerchuk Loves His Subscribers

Gary Vaynerchuk and yours truly throwin' some SR! love.

For those of you not familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, he is the spitfire, whirling dervish of marketing passion behind Wine Library, Wine Library TV, GaryVaynerchuck.com, and some of the best keynote presentations that I’ve seen on the digital marketing circuit in the past year.

Thanks to the good folks at MarketingProfs, Gary not only keynoted today’s Digital Marketing Mixer in Scottsdale, Arizona — he also participated in an excellent session entitled “Email & Social Media: True Love Always.”

For someone such as Gary, who has made his name in large part thanks to social media, his take on email’s place in the marketing ecosystem was truly refreshing.  His team at Wine Library doesn’t treat it as “cheap paper,” but rather a critical part of their customer service and communication efforts.

Here are just a few of the email marketing-related bits of wisdom Gary shared with attendees:

• Wine Library trains all sales associates to ask for email addresses at time of purchase.  Consistent failure to do so has resulted in the termination of several employees.
• If your content is rich and your audience is passionate, your emailing frequency can break all the rules.  In fact, Wine Library emails its subscribers 7 days a week while still maintaining a stellar sender reputation and deliverability rates.
• If someone unsubscribes from Wine Library’s email program, Gary or another staffer will personally call them to determine the reason and make sure that they are aware of their monthly and more segmented email subscription options.
• Gary still personally responds to all the email he receives — some 1,000 messages a day.  Why?  Because if they care enough to write, you should care enough to respond.

The bottom line is that Wine Library treats email as it should be treated — a two-way communication channel.  And perhaps more importantly, they don’t forget that the email relationship is just one of many a company should have with customers.  By supplementing their email interactions with face-to-face and telephonic follow-ups, Wine Library builds the kind of life-long loyalty that far bigger brands struggle to attain.