Using Your Data to Improve Marketing
Q: How can I use my point-of-sale system data to enhance my email marketing?
John Fell: Point-of-sale (POS) systems record sales and customer data with each transaction. Many specialty stores hire consultants who turn the sales data into information to generate sales plans and Open-To-Buys. Combining the sales data with the customer data may also provide marketing opportunities for specialty retailers.
For example, simply importing the date of each customer’s last purchase to your email marketing platform can generate targeted emails to the right customers at the right time in their buying cycle to maximize buying potential. These emails can be personalized to come from the actual salesperson or tailor who handled the transaction.
Triggered emails automatically generated by POS data could include:
- Welcome Emails to new members of the email list.
- Rewards certificates proportional to how much a customer spent over a period of time.
- Thank You emails with or without a survey to recent purchasers.
- Timely offers to customers who are due to return based on customer buying cycles.
- Re-engagement offers to customers who haven’t been in for a long time.
Implementing this strategy is easy: You simply export the information from your POS and import it into your email marketing platform. It can also be automatically transferred if your data can be accessed on the internet.
Note that many entry level email platforms lack the tools to automate marketing. However, trading up to a more robust solution is not expensive and the return of generating the right might message to your customers at optimum time in their buying cycle can generate a return many times its cost.
Click here for a detailed case study on our blog.
