Stepping Up Your Marketing

New Experts: John and Jake Fell of eMarketing Logic

Q: I own a better men’s specialty store and I want to improve my marketing. How should I be allocating my marketing dollars next year?

A: In 2014 more than 90 percent of consumers will continue to check their e-mail at least once a day and 77 percent of consumers will identify e-mail as their favorite way to receive messages from brands. Most retailers, both web and brick-and-mortar, will attribute more sales to e-mail than any other marketing channel. Therefore, independent retailers need to step up their e-mail game in 2014.

High-end department stores, flash sale discounters, and web merchants will be sending your customers high quality e-mails promoting the same brands you sell, often at a lower price. You will want to counter by emphasizing your personal relationship, quality of knowledge and unique brand. Use your e-mail marketing messages to point out the high-end specialty of your store. Be careful not to send customers e-mails that are beneath your brand. Given the vast opportunity of e-mail marketing your e-mails should be as special and high end as your store.

Here’s our checklist for good e-mail marketing:

• Strategy: Make your e-mail marketing a component of a multi-channel marketing plan vs. haphazard blasting of e-mail.
• Design: Design and brand e-mails that are superior to a serious large competitor.
• Deliverability: Understand and navigate the technical challenges of getting your e-mails into the inbox instead of being filtered as spam.
• Rendering: Design for image suppression and smartphones. (Many subscribers don’t see images in their e-mails and over 50 percent of e-mails will be opened on a mobile device in 2014).
• Data Integration: Use your customer profile data to segment lists and send targeted, relevant messages to the right people at the right time.

The inbox is a competitive place. Simply batching and blasting template based e-mails through do-it-yourself software programs may be easy to do but there’s no guarantee your e-mails are even getting delivered, let alone noticed.

Remember, for most retailers, e-mail is the most important marketing channel to drive sales and most of your customers identify e-mail as their favorite way to receive your messages. Seize this marketing opportunity. While you may not be able to compete with national retailers and flash sale sites on price, you can beat them through successful e-mail marketing campaigns.


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About John and Jake Fell

John Fell spent 25 years as a high-end apparel retailer and three as a retail consultant before founding eMarketing Logic (E-Mail Logic) in 2002. With his hands-on experience in retail, his knowledge of digital marketing and his passion for the menswear business, John has helped over 100 small retailers and vendors successfully transition from traditional marketing to new media.

John Fell
847-681-8502 x 101
jfell@emarketinglogic.com


Jake Fell is the Director of Business Development at eMarketing Logic and oversees their production team. He takes pride in working alongside dozens of the nation’s top menswear retailers, learning their opportunities and helping them achieve tremendous ROI and a modern online presence. Jake assists retailers in evolving their image and value proposition to be more appealing to younger customers. He understands independent retailers wear numerous hats and strives to simplify the marketing process for clients and make their lives easier.

Jake Fell
847-681-8502 x 105
jake@emarketinglogic.com

Ask John or Jake about marketing

eMarketing Logic, founded as E-Mail Logic in January 2002, has been helping the specialty apparel industry transition from expensive, ineffective, and outdated forms of marketing to cutting-edge, cost-effective solutions.

eMarketing Logic’s winning team blends modern, multi-channel marketing platforms with cutting edge technical skills, top-notch creativity, and experienced marketing savvy.

Note: MRketplace collects promotional fees from site experts.